Ricky Says

I'm hooked on Twitter.

It's grown into much more than even it's original charter ever dreamed, which was (quoted directly from their sign-in page):

"Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

Twitter has evolved into a place where people post (tweet) not only what they're doing, but what they think about any topic under the sun, resources they've found interesting, photos they've snapped from their mobile device, and even a marketplace where business connections are planted, cultivated, and harvested on a minute-by-minute basis.

How to link to a specific Tweet:

With all those tweets floating around the Twitterverse, there's bound to be one you'd like to link directly to. Maybe you want to send it to a friend or coworker, or bookmark it for future reference.

You can link to any tweet on http://www.twitter.com just by clicking the date-time below each tweet (go ahead and click the image below to try it).

That'll take you to a page showing just that tweet, which you can bookmark in your browser or share with your favorite online community.

If the tweet is a reply to another tweet, you can also view the original tweet (which sometimes is necessary to figure out the context behind what might otherwise seem like an odd comment).

Videos are one of the most powerful ways to communicate with viewers, and many times the best way to explain something on your computer is to show it in action.

You can make your videos incredibly effective by adding zoom, pan, and tilt features that focus viewer's attention to specific parts of the video.

I've even taken a single powerpoint slide covering the technical architecture of a complex software application, and used zoom and tilt techniques to keep viewers engaged and attentive for the duration of a 5 minute video of that single slide.

Here's how you can add zoom, pan, and tilt to your videos:

You'll need a copy of Camtasia Studio 6.0 or later, and they have a 30-day trial you can download that's fully-featured.

Open Camtasia and click the option to Record the Screen in the Welcome screen. Open your favorite software program and walk through a feature you'd like to demonstrate.

Save the video and then advance to the section in the video where you'd like to add a zoom or tilt effect. I find that any section that I'm verbally describing for more than 5 to 10 seconds makes a good candidate for a zoom and tilt effect.

Click "Zoom-n-Pan" from the Edit menu and shrink the green viewing rectangle to a smaller area of the preview screen. This will create a zoom and pan effect and you can preview it before saving your changes.

Question: My auto-play stopped working. When I plug in my iphone to my computer now, it only opens itunes, not the auto-play anymore.

How do i fix that please?

Answer: Autoplay is configured in your Windows Control Panel, which you can access by clicking the Start button, and clicking "Control Panel" on the right side of the applications menu.

In Vista, you'll see an Autoplay icon, which will open the settings for how your computer should handle things like mobile devices connecting to your computer, or CDs getting inserted into your CD drive.

In the Autoplay settings screen, scroll all the way down to the bottom where you'll see options for how to handle iPhones.

Choose the option to "Ask me every time", save your changes, and then try plugging your iPhone in again.

This time you should get the autoplay screen, asking you if you want to import pictures, etc.

Remember several years ago when CRM applications starting popping up left and right?

They let companies keep track of their customer interactions much more effectively - ever wonder how your dentist always seems to remember exactly what you told him on your last visit, or how those birthday cards automatically show up from your insurance agents each year?

That's all driven by customer relationship management software - a market category that's recognized across all industries.

This year there's a new market category that was just announced last week by Jive Software. It's called Social Business Software (SBS), and it's going to have even more profound of an impact on the world than CRM.

You're probably already using social networking software like Facebook and LinkedIn to re-connect with old friends and stay in touch with your current friends, but those sites aren't designed for business purposes.

What if you could take those social collaboration features and convert them into tangible business value for your company? You'd be a hero, wouldn't you?

That's what SBS does.

A few days ago my wife complained to me that her Facebook page looked different and she didn't like it at all. She asked me if I could figure out how to get the old one back.

I assumed she had probably accidentally clicked something to agree to let Facebook use her as a guinea pig, but I couldn't figure out how to get her old Facebook back. Mine was still the old one too.

Well, that all changed this morning, when I logged into Facebook like millions of other users and discovered that I've been switched over to the new Facebook too.

I'm not sure if I like it yet or not. All I see so far are rounded corners on user avatars, and have read lots of complaints about bugs and scripting errors. There are even Facebook groups that are being created by users who think the new look just plain sucks.

Oh, and the question has changed to "What's on your mind?", and "What are your thoughts?" (I've seen both today, so I think they're testing each one to see what users feel about it).

Is that what this has turned into? What we're thinking about?

I like the good ole' "What are you doing?" much better. It feels a lot less touchy-feely. And to me it's a better subject to learn what my friends have been up to, which keeps me connected. I learn their thoughts along the way, while they describe what they're doing, and that feels like a better starting point to me then jumping right into how we're feeling about things.

Many people just want things back to the way it was, which was awesome. Facebook membership has been growing extremely fast lately, and it's a great way to connect with old friends and stay connected with existing friends.

What do you think?

Do you want the old Facebook back, or do you like the new look and feel? What do you like about it?