Category: Summer Fun

What if I don't want someone to follow me? People can start following you by clicking on a button, but sometimes we don't want certain folks reading about the minutiae of our daily lives. So, if, for some reason, you really don't want someone to follow you, you can block them by visiting their Twitter page and clicking on the the "Block (username)" link on the right-hand side. << ...

How do I get someone to follow me? Getting people to follow you is the trickiest part of being a Twitter success. We've posted suggestions from Digg's Kevin Rose, and Julia Angwin of the Wall Street Journal, but building a base of followers is as simple (or difficult) as providing interesting content. Whether it's being funny or creative, or just posting lots of links that people find ...

How come all the links in tweets say TinyURL? What is a TinyURL? TinyURL is a URL-shortening service that takes a lengthy, character-hogging Web link like this: http://www.switched.com/2009/03/17/twitter-growing-at-1-382-rate-but-do-we-all-know-how-to-use-it/ and compresses it to a much more manageable size like this: http://tinyurl.com/cvc4q5 The new TinyURL forwards you to ...

What should I put in my tweets? Anything you want! As a general guideline, though, tweets should be informative and pithy, and should reveal something about yourself – whether that's a link that reveals something that interest you, or a mere, "It's been a tough week." Still, they shouldn't be too direct and matter-of-fact. Make sure to inject your personality. Here are a couple of ...

Is my Twitter profile as important as my Facebook or MySpace profile? While Facebook and MySpace are filled with various ways to post information, pictures, and annoying applications, Twitter is a more controlled environment -- just a name, location, Web site link, 160-character bio, and a picture. Therefore, it's all about what you say in that 160-character space, especially since people ...

What should my first steps be? The first thing to do is sign up. Choose a username -- something uniquely you, but not embarrassing. If it's available, try to get your real name. The next step is to start following friends and family that you can find using Twitter's contact importer, which searches your contacts on Gmail, Yahoo!, or other Web mail services for people on Twitter. If you ...

How do I get on Twitter? Today, there are more ways to access Twitter than there are characters in the average tweet. Most obviously, the site can be accessed via the Twitter.com Web site, which has a place for you to easily add your updates in a field at the top of a page, as well as a central feed of all the tweets by your friends and followees. There's also a place for you to see who ...

What is Twitter? Twitter is what is known as a microblogging service, an online place where you can 'post' short messages, or 'tweets' of 140 characters (including spaces). These 'tweets' can be read by anyone who is 'following' you (essentially, subscribing to your tweets). Similarly, you can follow (subscribe) to the tweets of anyone you want, from friends and family to favorite ...

This product may be a bit over the top for some of you, but somewhere out there is a germ-a-phobe who's been waiting his whole life for this gadget. The Cole Cleaner, designed by Leon Peng, is a one-stop bacteria-killing shop for anyone who loves a can of cola but hates the bacteria that may or may not be residing on its aluminum shell. The Cole Cleaner, which only treats one can at a time, ...

There are some things that technology hasn't been able to fix, and the wetness of water is certainly one of them. But now, there seems to be a solution: a new waterproof material developed by Swiss chemists is 100% water-repellent. So much so that after leaving it soaking in a bucket of water for two months, it emerges completely dry to the touch. The trick is a layer of silicone nanofilaments ...

At long last, Internet access is finally becoming consistently available on flights around the country (and the world). While most technophiles like us are completely jazzed at the prospect of surfing while jet-setting, other folks aren't so sure. As you can see from the above video, many parents and other porn-averse folks are concerned that mile-high-Wi-Fi will just open the door to some shady ...

So, Nikon finally fessed up to its new D90 prosumer DSLR, which means all that's left for us is to do is to pick through the spec sheets, drool on the product shots and imagine ourselves taking the film industry by storm with that D90-shot indie flick we're plotting. INT. SUBURBAN HOME - DAY BLOGGER sits at his computer typing. He looks inspired, witty, unkempt. The camera's short depth of field ...

We're sure that at least some of you have dreams of swimming like a fish, kicking a giant fin, hitting inhuman top speeds, and breaching the surface of the water only to dive back in like a dolphin. And now, for the absurd price of $1,250 (at a minimum), you can. The Lunocet is a fin-like hydrofoil that attaches to your feet and flexes as you kick your legs (in unison), generating lift and ...

If dragging your laptop out of your bag at the airport and throwing it on the conveyor makes you a bit nervous, or waiting for the guy in front of you to fumble around and do the same makes you a bit impatient, then you now have reason to rejoice. You see, all that stress ends tomorrow when the TSA's new laptop scanning policies go into effect. The new rules are fairly simple: Whatever bag your ...

After buying new iPhones and paying extra for the plan upgrade, it's no wonder people are pretty ticked that their shiny new toy consistently drops calls and occasionally won't access the faster 3G network. Business Week reports that Apple will finally release a software fix that should remedy the problem sometime in September. Apparently, the issue stems from the coding on an Infineon chip ...