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Upload Photos to Twitter via Flickr Email

How do you share photographs with friends on Twitter?
You probably upload them to an online photo sharing site (like Flickr or Picasa Web Gallery) first and then copy-paste the web address of the uploaded image into your Twitter client. Or you prefer to use Twitter specific services like Twitpic that automatically send a “tweet” on your behalf as soon as the image is uploaded.

If that’s your workflow, consider this. You can now integrate your Flickr account with Twitter such that the combination works just like TwitPic. You upload a picture to your Flickr photo gallery and it will instantly show up in your Twitter stream as in this example.

How to Connect Twitter & Flickr
It’s a simple process. Open this link on Flickr.com and click “Head over to Twitter now” for giving permission to Flickr to post messages on to your Twitter stream. It uses OAuth so you don’t have to share your Twitter password anywhere.

Once your Twitter account is linked with Flickr, you’ll get a slightly complex email address. Now if you like to Twitter a photograph (or a screenshot image), simply compose a new message in your email client, attach the relevant image and send this email to the address provided by Flickr.

The subject line of your email message becomes the title of the photograph on Flickr while the email body becomes the description.

This method of posting images is actually very handy for mobile phone users. Just capture a picture with the built-in camera, send it to Flickr via email and it shows up in your Twitter network as well.

Can I uses Facebook or my own Blog with Flickr
In the above scenario, we used Flickr as the main storage point. However, if you are more active on Facebook or feel like using your own blog to host images, you can do that easily via the awesome Posterous service.

Just associate Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or even your blog with Posterous and now you can publish the same image across any of these sites via a simple email.
For instance, if you need to upload an image to Facebook, send an email to facebook@posterous.com. If you like to upload the same image to Facebook as well as Twitter, address the message to facebook+twitter@posterous.com. It’s that easy.

Flickr or Posterous?
Both Posterous and Flickr are excellent options for uploading images on the web via email but with Posterous, you don’t have to remember any complex email addresses. The other advantage is that Posterous can be integrated with multiple social sites while Flickr works only with Twitter and blogs for the moment.

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Blog Linux SMS Twitter Windows

Send Notes to your Evernote Notebook from Twitter

You can now take notes in Evernote directly from Twitter. Here’s how you set up the link.
First follow @myen on Twitter and this bot will send you a link in a direct message. Click that link to associate your Evernote account with your Twitter username.

To capture a new note into Evernote, simply send a DM to the @myen bot. Alternatively, you can put @myen in any of your tweets and the message (or retweet) will be archived forever into your Evernote Notebooks.

Save Evernote Clips via SMS
If you no big fan of Twitter, you may still want to connect Evernote with Twitter as this associate will help you send notes in Evernote through SMS text messages. You can compose a note on your mobile phone and send it to Twitter using your country specific short code (40404 in US, 5566511 in India)and the note will be saved in Evernote.

The Evernote Blog says that it may take less than a minute for text notes sent via Twitter to show up in your Evernote account. You can also view what people are saving into Evernote through a simple search.

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Linux Twitter Windows

Who Should You Follow on Twitter?

Are you new to the world of Twitter and have no clue about people whom you should follow on Twitter ? Or are you an old Twitter inhabitant but looking to expand your network of Twitter friends?

If the answer to any of the above is yes, what you really need is Mr Tweet – it’s an intelligent service that scans you existing network and recommends a list people who you should be following.

To get started, simple add the @mrtweet bot to your Twitter list and it will send a direct message with a link to your Twitter report – here’s an example using my own twitter account.
You also get to know about interesting people who are following you on Twitter but you don’t seem to be reciprocating.

Credit goes to Dwight Silverman for introducing me to this new service through, you got that right, Twitter. And do check this twitter guide to learn about some new stuff that you can do on Twitter.

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Linux Twitter Windows

The Most Popular Twitter Acronyms

Twitter, on account of the 140 character limit, encourages extensive use of shorthand typing. Most of these acronyms might be familiar to regular Internet users but some are very specific to Twitter.

Here is a list of top Twitter acronyms that we know so far.
RT = Retweet.
PRT = Partial Retweet / Please Retweet.
OH = Overheard.
DM = Direct Message.
@ : Reply to [username].
BTW : By The Way
FTW = For The Win.
FTL = For The Loss.
IRL = In Real Life.
FTF = Face to Face.
IMHO = In My Honest Opinion.
YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary.
BR = Best Regards.
b/c = because.
JV = Joint Venture.
LMK = Let Me Know.

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Blog Google Linux Twitter Windows

Most Useful Twitter Services That Can Help Your Business Grow

The concept of Twitter may seem weird at first but there’s lot of value in connecting with people though Twitter.

Businesses now use the Twitter ecosystem to pre-announce new products, get feedback, share upcoming deals or for tracking buzz around their products and services.

For instance, the Dell Outlet uses Twitter to announce deals and discounts on refurbished Dell computers. JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines use Twitter to let customers know about new routes and fare discounts. News sites like BBC and The New York Times publish breaking new stories on Twitter thus replacing the traditional email alerts.

If you also own a product or a service, here are some essential tools to help you harness the full power of Twitter without making any dent in your existing marketing budget because these tools are completely free:

1. Twitter Feed – This service fetches new content from your blog (or any site that supports RSS feeds ) and publishes a link in your twitter account. It will help your existing customers stay updated about news related to products they already own.

2. Tweet Scan – This is like Google for Twitter. It will solve two problems:

a) Tweet Scan is great for monitoring feedback about your product from conversations happening in the Twitter universe. And they provide RSS feeds so you’ll automatically know when people tweet about products.

b) With Tweet Scan, you can find existing customers who are already on Twitter and follow them so they come to know about your existence. Or you may search for the name of your competing products and track potential customers.

3. Twitter PollDaddy – This service lets you use Twitter for getting opinions or for asking questions through polls. Type your question with a list of potential answers and post it to your Twitter account.

So if you are nearing a product release and only one of the two features can make it to the final product, use Twitter PollDaddy service to learn from customers which of the two features they think is more important to them.

4. Twitter Response – TwitResponse lets you schedule delivery of your tweets just like the way you send emails in future.

Say if you are announcing a new product at 10 AM EST tomorrow, write a message through TwitResponse and it will automatically get published to your Twitter status exactly at the time you want. You need not be texting at the time of actual launch.

5. Quotably – This is another quintessential twitter service that makes it easy for you to follow conversations happening around your tweets. It arranges replies to all your tweets in a threaded form much like the way you see discussions on usenet groups.

6. TwitterReply – With Twitter, your customers get an alternate way to get in touch with you through public tweets or even direct messages. They may want to know the contact number of your support team or they could be looking for a manual which can they can’t locate on your website.

TwitterReply sends you an instant email whenever there’s a new tweet for you in the Twitter universe. You need it because customers contacting you through Twitter may be looking for instant answers.

Twitter hack: Post to Twitter Using Email

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Blog Blogger.com Google Linux Twitter Windows

Twitter Guide: How To Do Interesting Things With Twitter

Twitter Guide: Learn some interesting tips and tricks for Twitter.

Q: I am a blogger and want to cross-post articles from my blog into Twitter?
A: Go to FeedBlitz, type the address of the feed in the Subscribe box and choose Twitter from the subscription options. The other option is Twitter Feed but that requires you to have an OpenID.

Q: I know that TwitPic allows me to post pictures on Twitter but I want to use my existing Flick account with Twitter.
A: Go to TwitterGram and associate your Flickr name with your Twitter account. Now assign a special tag (say Twitter) and any picture that you post on Flickr with that Tag will automatically get posted in your Twitter account as well.

Q: I just ordered a laptop on eBay and the owner shipped it via UPS. I want to track this package on Twitter.
A: Follow TrackThis on Twitter and send this bot a Direct Message with your Airway Bill Number. You’ll be notified each time your package changes location. Works with FedEx, UPS, DHL and USPS.

Q. I want to add events in my Google Calendar using Twitter?
A: Go to Twittercal, add gCal as your virtual friend on Twitter and add events by simply sending direct messages to your new Twitter friend.

Q: I am a blogger. How can I add “tweet this” links to all my blog post?
A: See detailed instructions on how to add ‘Tweet This’ to Blogger or WordPress blogs. The permalinks are shortened automatically in the tweet.

Q: Oh! I just saw a spam profile on Twitter that is using my picture and tweets. I want to report impersonation on Twitter.
A: Send a message to Twitter spam watch team at @spam with the suspicious user name.

Q: My Twitter friend just sent me a tweet in French. I want to translate his message into English.
A: Follow twanslate and send a direct message with the text you want to get translated along with the language code of the target language (en for English, fr from French, etc.).

Q: I want to use Twitter as a Gmail Notifier.
A: Create a new Twitter account and set the status of updates as “Protected” so that the updates don’t appear in a public timeline. Now subscribe to your Gmail RSS feed using FeedBlitz and become mutual friends.

Q: I want to use Twitter as an alarm clock to remind me that I have to pick my daughter from school in 30 minutes.
A: Follow timer – send a direct message with the reminder time and it will ping you at that time. For instance “d timer 30 pick daughter”.

Q: I want to use Twitter for ego surfing.
A: Go to tweetbeep and set up alerts for certain keywords and web URLs. You’ll get an email notification as soon as someone mentions you or your brand or your blog posts in their tweets.

Q: While I like the default Twitter search engine, I want to know about other alternatives.
A: Try Tweet Scan and Monitter. Unlike Summize, you don’t have to refresh the Monitter page each time there’s a new result matching your search query. And it support multi-column search so may track multiple keywords on the same screen.

Q: I want to conduct a quick and simple poll on Twitter. Is it possible?
A: Go to StrawPoll and create a poll. Your Twitter contacts can participate in the poll by simply sending an @reply message.

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Google Linux Remote Management SMS SSL Twitter Windows

How to Remote Control your Windows PC with Email, SMS or Even Twitter

It’s a long weekend and you’re happy because you’ll get to spend the next three days with your family. You left the office in an excited mood but as the cab was approaching home, you suddenly realized that you forgot to shut down the Office PC. Oops!

It’s a sinking feeling because there’re so many confidential documents on the computer and since most of your trusted colleagues have also left for the day, there’s no point calling them for help.
So what do you do? Drive back to Office? Well that’s not required – just take out your cell phone or switch on the laptop at home, send an email (or an SMS or a tweet) and that will instantly lock your Office workstation. And if you share the same computer with multiple people, you can use another email command to remotely log off or even shut down the computer from anywhere in the world.

There’s no magic here, it’s the power of TweetMyPC utility that lets you remote control your computer from a mobile phone or any other Internet connected computer.

It works like this. You first install the free TweetMyPC utility on any Windows PC and associate your Twitter account. The app will silently monitor your Twitter stream every minute for any desktop commands and if it finds one, will act upon it immediately. The initial version of TweetMyPC was limited to basic shutdown and restart commands, however the current v2 has a far more robust set of commands, enabling a far more useful way of getting your PC to carry out certain tasks especially when you’re AFK (Away From Keyboard).

Before we get started, it may be a good thing if you can set up a new twitter account for remote controlling your desktop and also protect the status updates of this account to ensure better security.

Protecting the account means that you prevent other users from reading your tweets which in this case are email commands that you sending to the computer. To protect your Twitter profile, log in to Twitter with the credentials you want to use, click Settings and check the box next to “Protect my Updates”.

Let’s get started. Install the TweetMyPC utility of your computer and associate your Twitter and Gmail account with the application. It will use Twitter to receive remote commands (like shutdown, log-off, lock workstation, etc) from while the email account will be used for send your information (e.g., what process are currently running on your computer).

How to Send Commands to the Remote Computer
Now that your basic configuration is done, it’s time to set up a posting method. You can use email, SMS, IM, web or any of the Twitter clients to send commands to the remote computer.
By Email: Associate you Twitter account with Posterous (auto-post) and all email messages sent to twitter@posterous.com will therefore become commands for the remote computer. (Also see: Post to Twitter via Email)

By SMS: If you live in US, UK, Canada, India, Germany, Sweden or New Zeleand, you can send associate Twitter with your mobile phone (see list of numbers) and then control your remote computer via SMS Text Messages.

By IM: Add the Twitter bot – twitter@twitter.com – to your list of Google Talk buddies and you can then send commands via instant message.

By Web:If you are on vacation but have access to an internet connected laptop, just log into the Twitter website and issue commands (e.g., shutdown or logoff) just as another tweet.
Download Files, Capture Remote Screenshots & more..

While the TweetMyPC is pretty good for shutting down a remote computer, it lets you do some more awesome stuff as well.

For instance, you need to download an unfinished presentation from the office computer so that you can work on it at home. Or you want to download a trial copy of Windows 7 on the Office computer while you are at home.

Here’s a partial list of commands that you can use to remote control the PC – they’re case-insensitive and, as discussed above, you can send them to Twitter via email, SMS, IM or the web.

Screenshot : This is one of the most useful command I’ve come across after the shutdown command. Want to know what’s happening within the confines of your PC when you’re not around? Just tweet screenshot and TweetMyPC will take a screenshot of your desktop and post it to the web (see example).

ShutDown, LogOff, Reboot, Lock : The function of these useful commands is pretty obvious from their names.

Standby, Hibernate : Don’t want to shutdown the remote PC? Save power by entering standby mode with this command. Or hibernate your PC with a tweet, thereby saving even more power.
Download : You can download any file from the Internet on to the remote computer using the download command. For instance, a command like download http://bit.ly/tCJ9Y will download the CIA Handbook so you have the document ready when you resume work the next day.

GetFile : The Download command was for downloading files from the Internet onto the remote computer. However, if you like to transfer a file from the remote computer to your current computer, use the GetFile command. It takes the full page of the file that you want to download and will send that you as an email attachment. If you don’t know the file page, use the command GetFileList to get a list of file folders on that drive.
GetProcessList : This is like a remote task manager. You’ll get a list of programs that are currently running on the remote computer along with their process IDs. Send another command kill to terminate any program that you think is suspicious or not required.

Conclusion
TweetMyPC is a must-have utility and you never know when you may need it. And if you have been trying to stay away from Twitter all this time, the app gives you a big reason to at least create one protected account on Twitter.

That said, there’s scope for improvement. For instance, the app will wait for a minute to check for new messages in your Twitter stream so it’s not “instant”. The developers can actually increase that limit because the Twitter API now allows upto 100 checks per hour.
And since the app is dependent on Twitter and Gmail, it will not work during those rare fail-whale moments.