Fun with Twitter

If there is one thing I like more than Twitter, it is finding useless things to do with Twitter. Here's a great one from Damon Cortesi: TweetStats. Just insert your Twitter user name and presto! You have your very own personalized report based on your usage habits. Very cool.

Here's a challenge: I would love for somebody to develop a script that will analyze all your updates and output a personality profile of sorts... Are you a optimist or pessimist? Is your outlook on life more positive or negative? Do you ask more questions or provide more answers? Do you have good grammar? How strong are your language skills? I can't imagine it would be overly difficult to set up the proper algorithms to determine such things but I'm not geeky enough to figure it out for myself. I've seen very similar things done using your blog posts. Any takers?

Here's what TweetStats had to say about me:

M.I.A.

If you're reading this (who starts a sentence with "if you're reading this? You obviously are...), I bet you are thinking one of three things:

1) Who the hell is Jason Verwey?
2) Why does Jason Verwey have a blog and why should I care? What a geek.
3) I love Jason Verwey and miss reading about his views on life, culture, advertising and everything in between. Where has he been for the last three months?

If you answered questions 1 or 2, keep coming back and you will find out. I can't guarantee if you will like me or have any interest in what I have to say but I guarantee it will be honest and possibly even entertaining. If your answer was number 3, I thought it would be easiest just to show you:



















Although I've been very busy this summer working, playing, partying, and exploring, I mostly blame my absence on Facebook and Twitter. It was through battling these addictions, that I discovered the strengths and limitations of each and finally figured out how to best use each platform in combination with this blog (for the time anyway). That being said, I hope you will continue to stop by One Five Place once and while and encourage you to take part in the conversation.

Desktop Voyeurism

Bored of webcams, Facebook, and MySpace? Here are some great new ways to satisfy your voyeuristic spirit from the comfort of your own desktop. What better way to kick off a dreary Thursday morning?

















via Found Magazine













via Overheard Everywhere













via Group Hug



















via Twitter Confession



















via What's in Your Bag Flickr feed



















via Post Secret

Wicked Widgets

I'm completely obsessed with widgets right now. Not only are they super cool but they can help shave hours from your day if used appropriately. Here's a short list of my favs:

Google Toolbar for Firefox
Link to download
Best Features:
- Spell Check
- Quick links to all your favourite Google apps
- Highly customizable

LinkedIn Companion for Firefox
Link to download
Best Features:
- Integration into bookmarks toolbar
- Automatically searches LinkedIn for sender's profile in gmail and other web-based e-mail applications
- Option to include in Firefox search box

Facebook Toolbar for Firefox
Link to download
Best Features:
- Quick search and links embedded in toolbar
- Quick link to "share" web content with facebook friends
- Sidebar for friend's status updates
- Notification of friend/event/group requests
- Fairly customizable

Google Blog Comments for Firefox
Link to download
Best Features:
- Searches blogs for comments/posts related to any site you visit
- Unobtrusive alerts appear in bottom left corner of browser window (with option to turn off)
- Comment/Blog without having to leave the website

Twitteroo
Link to download
Best Features:
- Send twitter updates from your desktop
- Quick links to user profiles
- Stay up-to-date without having to go to website

Google Reader
Link to download
Best Features:
- This one is fairly obvious. Google is my personal favourite but there are lots of good RSS readers out there. Save yourself from visiting hundreds of different websites/blogs/etc.. by aggregating updates into one simple feed

There are hundreds of other widgets, toolbars, addons, and hacks out there. Please share your favourites in the comments section. Sorry Mac users, this is a PC-centric list.