The lifestream and micro-blogging trend continues with another entry into the fray. This one with the strangest name yet. “Plurk”

It’s not often that I catch one of those viral things on the web that goes massive in a short period of time. This time, however I’ve been sort of watching it happen. I registered an account and added some friends to find out if all the talk was warranted. I’m not ready to jump off the SS Twitter but I’m curious to see where this alternative platform goes and what it has to offer.

So the questions on my mind are these:

• What on earth is a Plurk? -
  The Plurk blog has posted more about the name. If anyone can tell me what they are talking about I’ll give you a gold star.

• What’s up with that unfortunate beheaded dog/dinosaur/whatisthatanyway image?

I really don’t even know what to say..

It turns out that you are not limited to the disturbing image, here is another one that a newbie can choose(other image options become available if you keep talking, see explanation of Karma below.) I wonder why the default image needs to be so unappealing.

• Does the world really need yet another micro-blogging platform?
  I’m Inclined to say NO, it does not.

• What makes Plurk different from Twitter?
  The reading experience is extremely different and there are a few very unique aspects.
  1. You are shown your messages in a timeline instead of a list
  2. replies are threaded and attached to posts, this is the one thing that Plurk has over Twitter.
  3. The web interface is slick.
  4. Some incentive to keep talking. I don’t know how much it will really matter to most people but you are given “Karma” points based on a variety of factors including uploading an image, using IM, posting, and replying. The reward for high Karma rating is the ability to choose a different screen image(remember the beheaded dog?) and also to access more emoticons.
  5. The character limit is the same however, you don’t use up valuable characters by entering @username and you can begin a post with a selection from a list of action words that don’t count in the 140 character limit
• Would anyone have paid attention to Plurk if Twitter had not experienced so many serious issues over the past few weeks?
  Twitter has certainly had it’s share of problems, especially in the last couple of weeks. I asked around and it seems that Plurk started back in January(correct me if that is bad information) I first heard of it maybe a week ago. In the past 24-48 hours there has been an massive increase in talk about this service. In fact, according to my searches at Summize and TweetScan the term Plurk is the most highly searched term at the moment. Earlier today I did a search at Summize and found that it took only 15 hours to fill 100 pages of posts with that term in them. At 15 posts per page for a total of that’s a lot of tweets about a competing product. I’m guessing that the search misses many tweets that have just a “I’m trying this new site” posts that don’t mention it by name and have a shortened URL.

The Timeline View

Modifying the look of your timeline

Other thought on the site:

• The site apparently feels that they have some obligation to suggest how to use the site with a List of “rules”
• I don’t know if it would be feasible to follow a large number of people in Plurk, it continually reminds you of how many postings you have missed. Twitter makes it easier to be selective in what you pay attention to by scanning rather than being deeply involved in every thread of discussion.
• You must interact with the screen to see what people are saying. The timeline let’s you know whne you have new entries in your timeline but you must click to refresh and then click into the posts to see more than a teaser of the original post, the number of replies are displayed but you must click into a message to view them. This is setup, no doubt to limit the amount of clutter.
• Plurk has a very slick web interface. I don’t know how extensible it will be. It will be interesting to see if an API will be released and what might be accomplished from there via 3rd party applications and services. Plurk definitely has more of a stand alone feel to it.
• I don’t see Plurk having the same networking appeal as Twitter.

8 comments

I’m not always the most observant person when I’m out running errands. Today, though, I happened to notice something that really caught my attention. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a blue Geo Metro hatch-back (an early one from the look of the body style) driven by a guy in his forties. The thing that struck me was that there was a Dealer sticker in the back window that boldy announced that this car was meant to get 50 miles per gallon. This seemed, to me, a statement bolder and more pointed than any witty bumper sticker could ever make.

I’ve lived in places where driving an older car is nothing out of the ordinary. Around here, in this bedroom community for New York City, the SUV is king. The larger and more expensive the vehicle the better. Or at least that is how it used to be. To see this car, driven by a professional looking individual would have been a rare sight just a short time ago.

It’s no secret that people are beginning to make decisions in their lives based on the ever rising cost of gasoline. Fuel economy is clearly a hot topic at the moment. My own family is now making an effort to plan our trips around town to be more efficient. We have even restructured our work schedules to telecommute more and to reduce the number of commuting days.

So, back to the Geo Metro. The guy that displayed his original dealer sticker so proudly in his window was obviously making a point. This got me to thinking. What’s a used Geo Metro selling for on eBay these days? I did a quick search and was surprised to find the following:

• There are 37 Geo Metros currently listed for sale on eBay.
• The Highest bid for a Geo Metro is $4000 for a 1993 Convertible it has 38 bids with nearly 2 days left in the auction
• 85% of the listings have at least 1 bid

A search of recently ended auctions for the Geo Metro yielded these results:

• 83 total ended listings in the past 30 days
• 65 of these listings ended in a sale
• 14 listings were ended early by the seller
• 1 was re-listed and successfully sold the second time
• 3 did not sell
• 10% of the total listings sold for over $5000
• Highest selling car - a 1991 2 door hatchback for $6776
• Keley blue book value - $1200
• Original MSRP in 1991 - $6795

Back in my teenage years I wanted one of these cars desperately maybe I should have tried harder to get one. I’d say that’s a pretty good return on investment for an 18 year old car that, at least in my neighborhood, was referred to as a “disposable car.”

How much is the promise of 50 mpg worth to you?

photo credit: kylemac

5 comments

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Twitter and how it can be used as a business building tool. I’ve also heard of some pretty awesome ways that twitter has been a help to individuals on a personal level. I think this is a topic worth exploring. To do this, though, I need your help! Please use the form below to submit real examples of how Twitter has helped you professionally and personally. I will compile these testimonies and put together a post, or possibly some other type of presentation in a few weeks.

Help spread the word by retweeting this post, to make it easy here’s a tweet you can copy and paste:

Spread the Word! @DaisyOlsen is looking for testimonies. How has Twitter helped you personally and professionally? http://twurl.nl/nsilgr

Or click here to fill in the tweet box on twitter automatically

Complete the form below with your testimony. Be creative, but honest. Provide supporting information if possible. If you would like to provide an audio, video, or other creative testimony complete the form and let me know, I’ll get back in touch with you to collect the information. If you have written a blog post about the experience provide a link to the post in the form.

I’m excited to hear about your experiences!

0 comments

Getting the right code to add a Digg Badge that automatically populates the submission information onto my WordPress blog was a challenge, but I managed it! Here’s how I accomplished the task.

It should have been simple thing, I wanted to add a Digg button to my blog to make it easier for my visitors to Digg my posts. I was alarmed to find that none of the code snippets that I could find, including those on the Digg Website seemed to work. After hunting around for awhile I found that the single quotes in the sample code available from Digg was the first piece that need to be corrected. Eventually, through trial and error, I was able to find WordPress template tags that gave me the results that I was looking for.

The code for the Digg badge can be copied from here directly into your WordPress theme templates. Usually in the index.php, single.php, and archive.php. For my own theme I chose to put the code in right after the call for “the_title” You should also note that this code is written specifically to be placed within “the_loop” The code for placing a Digg badge in a sidebar, header or footer, would be different.

The basic code:

<script type="text/javascript">
digg_url = "<?php the_permalink(); ?>";
digg_title = "<?php the_title(); ?>";
digg_bodytext = "<?php echo trim(preg_replace('/\s/', ' ', get_the_excerpt())); ?>";</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</div>

What the code does:

• This code uses the post’s permalink as the url that is being submitted to Digg.
• The post’s title and the first 40 words of the post will be pre-filled on the Digg submission screen
• Optionally, the Digg topic, badge background color, badge type(skin), link target can be set (see below)

On the my front page I wanted a Compact Digg badge. I didn’t like having so many large badges on the front page but I also didn’t want to completely eliminate the badge. All of the preset information can be modified prior to submission by the individual doing the first Digg. I set the code within it’s own div with a class of “diggbadge” so that I can modify the way the badge displays using CSS.

The code for a compact badge with the Digg topic of “software” preselected with a link that opens a new window:

<script type="text/javascript">
digg_skin = "compact";
digg_topic = "software";
digg_window = "new";
digg_url = "<?php the_permalink(); ?>";
digg_title = "<?php the_title(); ?>";
digg_bodytext = "<?php echo trim(preg_replace('/\s/', ' ', get_the_excerpt())); ?>";</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</div>

The code for a full size badge with the Digg topic of “software” preselected with a link that opens a new window:

<script type="text/javascript">
digg_topic = "software";
digg_window = "new";
digg_url = "<?php the_permalink(); ?>";
digg_title = "<?php the_title(); ?>";
digg_bodytext = "<?php echo trim(preg_replace('/\s/', ' ', get_the_excerpt())); ?>";</script>
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</div>

There are other options that can be added in the code as well:

digg_bgcolor = "#ff9900";
digg_skin = "compact";
digg_window = "new";
digg_topic = "software";

digg_bgcolor sets the background color of the Digg badge. This value will change the background color around the outer edge of the button. If omitted, the default color is white. Any valid CSS color can be entered here.

digg_skin defaults to the full size badge, by setting the value to compact you can have a smaller badge displayed on your site. I like this for pages with multiple posts such as the front page or an archive page. the value of “icon” can also be set which will display a 16X16 icon instead of a badge.

digg_window sets the target of the link. A value of “new” will open a new window when the badge is clicked.

digg_topic sets the topic that the post will be filed under on the Digg site. If you have a consistent topic that your posts fit within this is an additional help for those that might want to Digg your site. The value can be changed from the submission screen by the person Digging your post. The value set here must be one of the topics in the following list:

• 2008_us_elections
• apple
• arts_culture
• autos
• baseball
• basketball
• business_finance
• celebrity
• comedy
• comics_animation
• design
• educational
• environment
• extreme_sports
• food_drink
• football
• gadgets
• gaming_news
• general_sciences
• golf
• hardware
• health
• hockey
• linux_unix
• microsoft
• mods
• motorsport
• movies
• music
• nintendo
• odd_stuff
• other_sports
• pc_games
• people
• pets_animals
• playable_web_games
• playstation
• political_opinion
• politics
• programming
• security
• soccer
• software
• space
• tech_news
• television
• tennis
• travel_places
• world_news
• xbox

I hope that this demonstration will be useful! Don’t forget to use the Digg badge up at the top of the post! I’ve done all I can to make it easy for you! For my loyal readers using a feed reader, come on over to the site to see the badges in action. Report any problems with the code snippets back to me!

4 comments

I should have seen this coming.  A few days back, I commented on my twitter stream that I had never been tagged for a meme.  I sort of figured that someone would hear and tag me back. It took 2 days and the tag came from an unexpected source, someone that isn’t on Twitter.

So thanks Jill, and here are my answers!

What was I doing ten years ago?

Well, in 1998 I was working for a Small private college as a Financial Aid officer.  I didn’t have kids yet, no hobbies to speak of, truthfully I don’t really remember how I filled my time back then.  I think I just worked a lot of 12 hour days and spent more time with my husband.

Five things on my to-do list for today:

1. Retype the Literature review for my senior project for my BS degree
2. Organize the rest of the pieces I need to finish so I can actually get my BS degree
3. Clean my desk off
4. Find a place to put all the stuff that’s been living in the guest room before my Nephew gets here to spend a month with us.
5. Make tomorrow’s to-do list (they never really end)

Snacks I enjoy:

I go through phases with snacks.  Generally speaking I’d have to say Oreos, and Crunchy Cheetos would make the top 10 at any given time.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I don’t even know where to begin on this question.  I’d definitely give a lot to my family, my church, and other causes that I feel strongly about. Truthfully the thought of that amount of money being at my disposal is scary and overwhelming.  What I want is a comfortable living that would give me the freedom to pursue things that interest me and to forget about the things that don’t

Places I have lived:

I grew up in and around Denver Colorado. Mostly in the Northglenn and Westminster areas. At 19 I moved to Rockland County NY and have been there ever since (14 years this July)

Tagging….

SugarSprouts and Karla

I know I’m probably supposed to tag more than that but that’s all I’m gonna do

3 comments