Ajax Twitter Search

Yesterday, I started grabbing the public_timeline xml file from twitter every 2 minutes and sticking it into a database. Then I hooked up my favorite ajax search script and set it up at http://www.davidsterry.com/tsearch.

What you do is just type in a word or a couple of words and in a second you'll see some recent twitter posts that match. I've always found it frustrating to read the public_timeline to find interesting people to "follow" but this I think is a better way.

I like to search for uses of "code" or "ajax" or "php". My goal being that I'd like to know what the coders of the world are up to. If you find a bug or have a suggestion, feel free to put it in the comments.

Changing my window manager

I recently installed Ubuntu on a laptop that's resource challenged. While that could mean a lot of things, let's just say it has 128 MB of RAM and a mobile P3. It's not so bad because it's a small and cute laptop but anyway, I had to do a PXE boot(since it has no CD drive) and Ubuntu is what I happened to install.

After using it for a bit, I realized it'd probably be a good idea to switch it to Xubuntu, the member of the Ubuntu family of GNU/Linux that's made for underpowered machines. I didn't know how to do this so I searched the web a bit and finally went to the #Ubuntu channel on freenode irc.

They said, "sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop" and I said, ok! So I did it. After 196 MB of downloads and some automatic configuration I guessed that Xubuntu was now installed though I couldn't really tell.

I rebooted but I still didn't see the Xubuntu desktop since the window manager wasn't changed automatically. After another visit to #ubuntu, I had the solution.

At the login screen, all that's needed is to select Xfce from the Sessions menu. No configuration files. No command line. Just a couple clicks and this little laptop is running software that suits it quite nicely. If you're in the same boat, maybe this can help you too.

Beryl restarting

There's this nagging problem I have on my laptop and maybe you, my trusty readers, have a solution. I'm running Beryl in Edgy and every time I boot up, everything is fine until about 1 minute after everything loads.

Right then, Beryl restarts. I don't know why or how but it happens like clockwork and it's not too cool. It makes some of my windows resize just a smidge bigger than the desktop and the title bar of the random window moves up under the panel at the top.

Has this happened to you? Did you have a fix? If so, please post it in the comments.

Website procrastination

That's it. I've had it. I've been surfing too much on the web and have nothing to show for it except an absurdly intimate knowledge of web 2.0 and the social procrasto-sphere. Twitter. Kyte. Pownce. Please.

So I've decided to enhance my copy of Firefox with what may be the most productivity-enhancing extension I'll ever know. It's called Meetimer and it's keeping track of my websurfing time as it's procrastinated away.

If you'd like a way to track and even curb your web surfing you should check it out. I'm going to keep it running for at least a week so I can find out if it's going to work for me. You can check it out too if you have the same problem(judging by the fact that you're here, you probably do).

Link: http://getmeetimer.com/

Kyte.tv: Video 2.0

I'm extremely excited about a new company and what they're enabling people to do in terms of using audio, video and text to communicate in a brand new way. Kyte.tv allows anyone with a recording device to create a channel and produce shows on that channel. Each channel has its own url and producing a show is as easy as recording from your webcam, emailing pictures from your phone, or simply putting a link on top of a picture.

Now, YouTube has channels too but those are really quite boring compared to what Kyte.tv has put together. They've used Flash to liven up features such as comments and actual show production. When you go to a Kyte.tv channel, you can check out the latest show on the channel, enter LiveChat where you can chat about it with other channel viewers, and even post your own audio and video chat comments. Some channels even let you produce shows for them.

What's so cool about this is that it reminds me of watching Cops 2.0 on G4. There you can watch and chat with others at the same time. You can make comments about the show or just get into tangent conversations as so often happens in chat and in life.

On kyte.tv/scobleizer for instance, Robert Scoble has been posting all kinds of interviews and content including audio from the recent Apple press event. It was as close to being at that event as many of us will ever be. In Robert's LiveChat, we were listening to Steve Jobs demo delayed something like a minute or two. Robert could also follow the chat on his phone and chime in if viewers had questions.

The power of this site comes when you've got a phone that can take video and run the Kyte.tv app. Currently, the best choice for this appears to be the Nokia N95 and I'm seriously thinking of switching providers to get this phone. My Treo 650 is starting to show its 18 months of age. To get familiar and maybe to help a person or two, I've setup my own channel at kyte.tv/computerissues. There, I'll try to answer viewer computer questions as they come in to computerissues (at) sterryit.com.