Update: If you are running the new Nambu 1.2 and are fed up with all the bugs, the SQL commands you need are slightly different. I’ll list them at the end. We now return to our regularly scheduled program…

A while ago I switched from TweetDeck to Nambu (via a few other stops in between). At fist I loved it, then I got used to it’s quirks, and now I’d like to move to something that actually works most of the time… Why is it so hard to write a good Twitter client?!?

Sorry, that rant wasn’t planned, it just happened… Let’s get back on track: As you may remember, a few days ago I posted instructions about how to extract group information from TweetDeck. Now that I’m considering ditching Nambu, I need a way to do the same with that application.

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[ Due to a huge amount of comment spam, comments on this post are now disabled ]

Have you ever needed a PDF version of a document, but you either did not have the correct source application (e.g. MS Word, PowerPoint, …), or you didn’t have access to a PDF converter (even though the free PrimoPDF is just a mouse click away). Or, did somebody email you a PowerPoint presentation, but you don’t have access to PowerPoint? But you do have access to a PDF viewer (either the free Adobe Reader, or Preview.app on the Mac). How would you convert a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document to PDF?

Google Docs to the rescue! Did you know that Google Docs can import a number of standard file formats into it’s word processor, spread sheet and presentation applications? Once you have imported your document, you just select to print… That’s it. Oh, I probably should explain that Google converts your document to PDF for printing purposes and then downloads that PDF to your computer. So just open that PDF file, and there is your document, now converted to a portable, easy to open file.

Have you heard about Radaroo.com? It’s a dating service on Twitter. They’ve been on Twitter for almost two months now, so it’s time to check how successful they are. Unfortunately they don’t offer any statistics about how many first dates/relationships/breakups/marriages they’ve “caused”, but at least we know that currently 144 singles are signed up – that’s world wide.

I guess the chances that you will find a compatible date on Twitter are pretty slim, at least if you are using Radaroo.

The idea is pretty straight forward: You post a short description of yourself, including what you are looking for and ideas for the first date. Remember, we are on Twitter, so this all has to happen within 140 characters. What a relief for people who struggle to fill out a Match.com profile. And then you wait… Or, you look for singles in your geographic area. Again, we have 144 singles world wide, so if you don’t live in a large city, your odds of finding somebody are pretty low – and we are not even talking about finding somebody who’s ideas of a first date are compatible with yours.

But what if you already have somebody in mind, and you need to find out if that person is single? You no longer have to hide in the trees in front of your target’s living room to find out if they are in a relationship, Radaroo can help there too: You can ask Radaroo to send an anonymous inquiry to the Twitter account in question. They use @kevinrose as an example on their “stalk this user” page. I wonder how many of these requests Kevin receives on an average day…

Amazingly, people actually reply to these requests, as shown in this screenshot:

So, we still don’t know if it works… I guess I have to put my investigative journalism hat on and post:

I’ll keep you updated…

Update:

Please visit the same post on my business site. The comments are closed here, so if you want to comment, you have to head over to http://khkonsulting.com/2009/05/more-interactive-dynamic-stamps-in-seven-easy-steps/

A while ago I tried to create an interactive dynamic stamp in Acrobat. These are dynamic stamps (like for example a stamp that automatically puts the current date into a field that is part of the stamp), but with a UI component that pops up and queries the user for some information that also gets embedded as part of the stamp (e.g. a phone number or a name).

I was not very successful. I could not figure out how to make sure that the UI only gets triggered when the stamp gets applied, and not when the stamp file gets loaded by Acrobat.

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[ Due to a huge amount of comment spam, comments on this post are now disabled ]

No, I don’t want to get groups removed from TweetDeck, I want to extract the group information so that I can use it otherwise. By extracting group information, I mean to create a list of groups and users belonging to those groups.

You may want to do that just so that you have a backup outside of TweetDeck, or to configure another Twitter client with the same groups, or just because you can 🙂

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Would you feel comfortable to encourage your potential next employer to google you?

They will do that anyways before they invite you to an interview, and chances are that at that point you don’t have much control over what they find. That process has to start much earlier. And yes, do do have some control over these results. Try to google my name (just like on the cards above, search for Karl Heinz Kremer). What you will find is the result of many years of work. Last time I checked, on the first three pages of search results there was only one link that was not about me.

Of course, some of the information about me is not available or easily accessed by just searching for my name, but when you either search for a user name that I use on most social media sites (e.g. Flickr, Twitter, …), or my email address, you’ll find the other “stuff”. You would find these items also by searching for my name, but they would show up a lot further down in the search results.

Having that many “good” links at the top makes sure that anything you find undesirable will show up way down, and people may not have the patience to go that far down in Google’s search results (and no, there is nothing online about me that I would not be proud to share with a potential future employer).

To find out what Google knows about you, google yourself. Don’t just do that once, but setup a Google Alert so that you’ll receive an email whenever new information about you shows up. Also, setup a Google profile for yourself. That will always show up on the first page of search results when somebody searches for you name.

So, how do you get your name up to the top of the Google search results?

• Get involved in online projects (I spent quite some time working on several open source projects)
• Comment on blog posts written by others
• Make sure that you use your full name whenever you engage in anything online (e.g. on Twitter, or when writing comments on blogs)
• Link from the pages you control to other pages about yourself (e.g. from your Twitter or LinkedIn profile page)
• Consider starting to blog yourself

I have to admit that I have it fairly easy: My name is not that common, and somebody with a more common name will have a harder time getting their own information to the top of a Google search result – especially when a celebrity shares that name.

So again, would you feel comfortable when your future boss googles you? If not, do something about it and change how you get your name out…

Who would have thought that a recipe from a yogurt lid could actually be that delicious…

Stonyfield Farm is running a campaign to convince people to replace (unhealthy) ingredients with low fat yogurt. To illustrate that, they include a recipe for “Strawberry Muffins that Melt in Your Mouth”. Sounds good. I had some extra strawberries that were in desperate need for a recipe.

They look and taste delicious.

I usually freeze most of a batch and then have muffins for a few weeks (more like days).

You can find the recipe on their web site too – no need to buy some yogurt (just in case you are making your own), even though their yogurt is the best I’ve found this side of the Atlantic.

Technorati Tags:
baking, cooking, muffin, yogurt, healthy, strawberry

OK, easy enough… Just looking at your profile… Oh, wait a minute… What the heck… No!

Do you want to spare me that experience again? Then please read the following:

Let me explain my “rules” to follow somebody back.

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Have you heard? The Small Show is coming to the High Falls Art Gallery (in Rochester, NY). Here is a link to the flyer (PDF).

If you don’t want to download the flyer, here is the information about the shows:

Art Supply Invitational and a rather large exhibit called Small

High Falls Art Gallery Rochester
60 Browns Race, Rochester NY 14614

Reception Sunday May 24, 3-6pm
Continuing through July 11, 2009

I submitted three pictures, and I’ve been told that because of the large number of submissions, only one image per artist is guaranteed to be in the show. If not all of my pictures will make it into the exhibit, I’ll post the rejected ones here. So stay tuned. And, I hope to see you at the reception.

I’ve been on Twitter for a while now, and over time I used a lot of different tools to make working with the twitterverse a bit easier. This post is not about the tools I’ve written, but the tools I use.

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