30 June » Will two flus mix in Indonesia? Experts worry
Reuters – USA
H5N1 bird flu has been circulating in Asia for years and has hit Indonesia harder than any other country. Although it only rarely infects people, …

29 June » Critics say ‘mild’ a misleading term for H1N1
CTV.ca – Canada
But instead of the 60-plus per cent death rate of H5N1 avian flu — seen for years as the pandemic frontrunner — the wire was tripped by a seemingly wimpy …

28 June » It is Official Now: Swine flu is a Pandemic
Political Affairs Magazine – New York,NY,USA
After the bird flu and SARS that struck the world in 2003, the global preparations had been for a deadly bird flu variant (H5N1) originating from Southeast …

27 June » Swine flu doubters urged to rethink
Gold Coast Mail – Tweed Heads South,NSW,Australia
An avian strain named H5N1 raised the concern of a new influenza pandemic when it emerged in Asia in the 1990s, but it has not evolved to a form that …

26 June » Expert warns of dangerous mutations as H1N1 tally rises to 56
Thanh Nien Daily – Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam
Hoang Van Nam, deputy head of the Animal Health Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said bird flu has recurred among fowl in …

25 June » Cambodia confirms first case of new flu
Reuters – USA
The minister also said she was concerned that if H1N1 got a foothold in Indonesia there was a risk it could combine with the much deadlier H5N1 bird flu …

24 June » Experts divided on treatment for birdflu patients
Reuters – USA
HONG KONG, June 23 (Reuters) – Experts on the H5N1 bird flu virus are divided on how to treat patients infected by the virus, which kills 60 percent of its …

23 June » Bird Flu Virus Could Be Controlled By Cell-Signaling Protein …
MedIndia – Chennai,India
The cell-signaling protein, interferon type 1, has the potential to reduce H5N1 influenza virus’ (bird flu virus) replication in mice, and can thus offer …

22 June » Second wave may be more severe
Chandigarh Tribune – India
Pandemics are unpredictable largely due to the highly adaptable nature of viral isolates like in the case of lethal avian flu (H5N1) and now the H1N1. …

21 June » Flu Chief Says Indonesia Not Immune From Pandemics
Jakarta Globe – Jakarta,Indonesia
“I can’t imagine what would happen if H1N1 united with H5N1 [the bird flu strain], which has higher case fatality rate,” he said. Therefore, he said, it was …

20 June » Swine Flu Economics
American Institute for Economic Research – Great Barrington,MA,USA
By way of comparison, the bird flu (H5N1) virus, to date has about a 60 percent mortality rate for the confirmed global cases. Fortunately, that virus has …

19 June » Egypt confirms new bird flu case
The FINANCIAL – Tbilisi,Georgia
The FINANCIAL — CAIRO, An 18-month-old boy has been diagnosed with bird flu in Egypt, marking the country’s 81st confirmed human avian influenza case, …

18 June » Australia raises H1N1 flu alert level
Channel News Asia – Singapore
… Senanayake said the fatality rate from H1N1 flu had been about one percent globally, much lower than the 61 percent rate from the A(H5N1) bird flu. …

17 June » Swine Flu Disease : Companies Invoved in Devloping Treatments for …
Seeking Alpha – New York,NY,USA
Depending upon the combination of the types of H and N protein, there are various subtypes of the Type A influenza virus, like H1N1 (swine flu), H5N1 (avian …

16 June » Carcasses Of Buried Birds Continue To Host Bird Flu Virus For 2 Years
MedIndia – Chennai,India
Bird flu is an H5N1 form of the influenza virus that mainly infects birds, including chicken, ducks and turkeys. Whenever any bird gets infected with the …

15 June » Experts call for close monitoring of H1N1 changes
Reuters India – Mumbai,India
… Spanish flu of 1918-1919, Asian flu of 1957 and Hong Kong flu of 1968 — as well as skirmishes against the H5N1 bird flu virus in the past 10 years. …

14 June » Egypt swine flu cases rise to 18
AFP
The country is already battling the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed 27 people since it was first reported in 2006.

13 June » Majority won’t have access to antivirals in pandemic but generic …
EurekAlert (press release) – Washington,DC,USA
“At a scientific meeting in 2008 we heard that all of the people who developed bird flu in Indonesia, and did not receive antiviral treatment, died. …

12 June » WHO Raises Alert Level as Flu Spreads to 74 Countries
New York Times – United States
The WHO’s pandemic alert has been at Level 3 virtually since it was created in 2005, because a different novel virus — the H5N1 bird flu, first described in …

11 June » Op-Ed Contributor
New York Times – United States
An appropriate designation for the H5N1 avian flu: Phase pre-1, Category 5. Governments should only set up action and threat assessment systems that are …

10 June » Bird flu still present in a harmless form
Swissinfo – Switzerland
Harmless variations of bird flu are present in the Lake Constance region but deadly cases of the H5N1 strain have not been detected since 2006, …

09 June » Getting ready for flu
Irish Times – Dublin,Ireland
Ireland has a multi-level national pandemic plan, drawn up when avian flu H5N1 threatened a pandemic. Bird flu didn’t take off then, but the plan still …

08 June » Egypt quarantines university dorm over H1N1 cases
Reuters – USA
Egypt, already hard hit by the much more deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, detected its first H1N1 case last week in a 12-year-old American girl who arrived for a …

07 June » Getting tested for H1N1 flu in Singapore
ZDNet Asia – Singapore
It was the focal point for response to SARS, H5N1 “bird flu” and now H1N1 “swine flu“. Five TTSH health care workers died of SARS in 2003 as a result of …

06 June » Ten Lessons Learned from the H1N1 (Swine) Flu Outbreak
Huffington Post – New York,NY,USA
… in the fall — either in its current form or as a more virulent strain, or a different version of the flu, like the H5N1 bird flu could emerge. …

05 June » Fears of Avian Flu Said to Help US Prepare for Swine Flu
New York Times – United States
After the H5N1 avian flu emerged widely in Asia in 2003, killing about 60 percent of those infected by it, many countries took steps to head off the crisis …

04 June » WHO donates A/H1N1 influenza drugs to Nigeria
Xinhua – China
Eriki said for over five years, the WHO had been tackling the outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza in poultry and sporadic frequently fatal …

03 June » A/H1N1 virus invades all US states
Xinhua – China
Experts believe that the world’s medical community had based much of their pandemic planning on the 2004 H5N1 “bird flu” outbreak in Southeast Asia, …

02 June » Japan Flocks to Ostrich Masks to Help Fight Swine Flu Paranoia
Bloomberg – USA
In one study, a batch of chicks with H5N1 avian flu was injected with an antibody obtained from ostriches, while a second group of infected birds wasn’t. …

01 June » New Virus Spurs Experts to Rethink Definition of Pandemic
Washington Post – United States
They also assumed that, like the H5N1 bird flu virus, which is lethal in 60 percent of people who catch it, the new strain would be recognized immediately …

Dr. Margaret Chan of the World Heath Organization (WHO) has officially raised the status of H1N1 Swine Flu to six, the highest level.

Dr. Chan said there are two main concerns now:

a) a second wave of the flu is to be expected, probably within the next 6 to 9 months, and

b) in developing countries who have not yet come into their influenza season, that they may not be able to cope well with H1N1 when it arrives.

The virus which is currently called Swine Flu is still a somewhat mild version, meaning it is more severe than normal flu but not yet killing too many people.

Influenza viruses are notorious for quickly changing their behaviour and because of that the concern is that it could mutate into something much more severe.

The last Pandemic was in 1968 when Hong Kong Flu killed some 50,000 people.

Almost 30,000 have been infected by the H1N1 virus in some 74 countries according to the WHO.

Much more news on Twitter.

Updated July 3, 2009:

(Scroll down for the actual article, right now I need to address some problems I had / am having with 2.8)

1) I am noticing some inconsistencies. These include

a) WWSG (What Would Seth Godin Do) plugin strangely comes up with “header already sent” errors. The Plugin worked fine for the first week … and when I deleted the error.log file, it hasn’t come back yet …

b) Although everything worked great for the first days, suddenly I had a “Redirect Loop” error with FireFox. Although one culprit turned out to be a plugin called “Redirect”, I occasionally get these errors. Today, one of my most viewed posts disappeared to a totally unique URL. (Meaning, the link became something I never created nor heard of before, it was just a weird URL that has nothing to do with my site!)

[The actual problem, just to explain, not to try to push the site, was: http://www.30-days.net/islam/basics/ramadan/ suddenly became http://www.30-days.net/ministry/ramadan/. (Link not activated since it generates errors on my site.) I have a category called "ministry", but it belongs in a totally different location!]

c) After some days, I noticed the site was getting slower. When I checked my Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets I found that old, experimental widgets were suddenly showing up in the “Inactive Widgets” at the bottom of the page.

I physically copied and pasted all my active Widgets into a text file, then activated Justin Tadlocks great “Widget Reset” plugin. After that, my widgets worked properly and the site runs faster. [NOTE: Widget Reset is in the WordPress Plugin Repository, just search for it, you don't have to go to Justin's site to download it. AND YES, it does work with WP 2.8. I just used it!]

I highly recommend you use Justin’s plugin if you have a cluttered “Inactive Widgets” section. BUT DO MAKE A BACKUP SOMEHOW OF YOUR OLD STUFF, Widget Reset totally deletes your widgets!! as it is supposed to.

d) There are a few other issues, but they don’t effect my site, they are just annoying. These include Dashboard > Appearance > Editor > click a file to Edit and find yourself at the bottom of the file. It is too easy to start typing before noticing you are in the wrong place:

MORE annoying, try clicking Dashboard > Posts > Edit > Filter (a category) > (do your edit and then click > Update Post … in WP 2.7 you had the option to “Return” which brought you back to the category you were editing. In 2.8 this has disappeared, at least on my host, so I have to click … > Edit and then apply the Filter again! I hope someone at WordPress noticed this “little” hitch, it wastes a lot of time, at least for me.

HERE IS THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE, plus tips at the end I updated later regarding Widgets and .htaccess problems…

WordPress 2.8 (named Baker after Jazz artist Chet Baker) has many new features and clever ideas built right into it. I’ll list some of the links at the bottom of this post.

When upgrading to WP 2.8, remember to do the following:

1) Make a backup of your database:
either via your control panel or use a plugin like WP-DBManager

2) Make sure all your plugins are up-to-date. Usually this just means clicking the automatic update feature, otherwise, download the new version and follow the instructions.

3) If you have customized anything within your WordPress installation, make sure you have a backup!
For example, if you changed the automatic post revisions feature, remember to backup the custom php files. And of course backup your customized Themes, wp-config.php file, .htaccess and any other files you may have changed. Just check for newer dates via your FTP software if you have forgotten which files you changed. (Tip: I wait a day or so before changing any core WP files so I can see which files are newer.)

4) If you have custom sidebars and have been using widgets such as widget_logic, you should copy the custom code into a text file and save it. WP 2.8 has added some widget logic of its own which may conflict with how your prior widgets were done.

5) Deactivate your plugins just as you start the upgrade process. If your theme is old and you were on a WP pre-2.5 version, it is a good idea to use the default theme for the few moments it will take upgrade.

NOTES: When you have successfully upgraded, check the links to posts from the home page work. If they do not, login to WP, click Settings >> Permalinks >> Save Settings (even if you have not made changes here, which in fact you shouldn’t have in the upgrade process).

NOTES 2: If you suddenly find you can’t login to WP after the upgrade (as happened right here), check the Codex Forums but what worked for me was to move the root directory .htaccess into my WP directory. That worked!

Here are links to detailed steps:

About WordPress 2.8:

What’s new in WordPress 2.8?

Upgrading WordPress:

Installing WordPress from the beginning:

New WordPress Installation Checklists:

WordPress Plugin Compatibility Checker:

Follow us on Twitter:

These were the headline news from May 2009 about influenza whether Bird Flu (H5N1) or Swine Flu (H1N1).

31 May » Vietnam has first case of H1N1 flu: doctor
Reuters – USA
Vietnam — which has grappled with the more deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in recent years — requires any suspected H1N1 cases to be isolated for seven days. …

30 May » Gov’t spends more to prevent A/H1N1 flu
SGGP – Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam
In related news, when asked about the purchase of 32 specialized trucks that would be used to spray chemicals to prevent the H5N1 bird flu, …

29 May » Scientists develop new basis for H5N1 vaccine: WHO
Reuters – USA
Pharmaceutical companies including Novartis are already working on vaccines against H5N1 bird flu, which has killed or forced the culling of more than 300 …

28 May » Swine flu: genetics of the novel virus
Agoravox – Paris,France
… to be of importance for pathogenicity, virulence and transmissibility in humans on the basis of the reconstructed 1918 virus or H5N1 (”bird flu“). …

27 May » Egypt announces 27th bird flu fatality
The Associated Press
… succumbed to the H5N1 virus in Egypt are women and children, tasked with caring for domestic poultry. Egypt is the country worst hit by bird flu outside …

26 May » Health care workers being trained to detect, manage pandemic flu
Stabroek News – Georgetown,Guyana
He said since the emergence of the H5N1 bird flu in 2003, Guyana established a national committee to follow up on outbreaks of the virus. …

25 May » WHO to Rewrite Its Pandemic Rules
New York Times – United States
The six-point system was created in 2005 when the threat was H5N1 avian flu, which has a fatality rate of about 60 percent. But the system does not take …

24 May » Anti-bird, swine flu measures affecting livelihoods in Egypt
Middle East Online – London,UK
CAIRO – The death of a four-year-old girl on 18 May after she contracted the H5N1 avian flu virus brings the total number of bird flu deaths in Egypt to 27 …

23 May » Team hopes to start testing H1N1 vaccine within weeks
The Exponent – West Lafayette,IN,USA
“We are trying to use a similar approach as we did with the H5N1 bird flu virus,” Mittal said. “The technology we are using is the same as the bird flu; …

22 May » The history of the synthetic H1N1 flu virus and a not-so-rosy future
Online Journal – Silver Springs,FL,USA
NPR and Alaska Public Radio was reporting what was extracted from the 1918 flu victim’s corpse was the H5N1 avian flu virus, but that was erroneous. …

21 May » Two Egyptian boys contract bird flu – agency
Reuters – USA
CAIRO, May 20 (Reuters) – Two Egyptian boys have contracted the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing the total number of cases in the most …

20 May » Value of vaccination
Malaysia Star – Malaysia
In recent years, the world faced new threats in the forms of the 1997 H5N1 bird flu and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and now, the influenza A …

19 May » H1N1 Flu Now Seen In 39 Countries – Danger Level Decreasing
NewsBlaze – Folsom,CA,USA
This actually is the situation with the H5N1 “bird flu” which still shows up occasionally and which has an extremely high mortality rate among normally …

18 May » A Lethal Mixture: Swine and Bird Flu. Can We Trust Baxter, GSK and …
Age of Autism – Trumbull,USA
“The biggest worry would be if a person or a pig became infected with both swine flu and H5N1 avian flu at the same time. …

17 May » The Human Nose As Noose For Bird Flu
The Statesman – Kolkata,India
PTI LONDON, May 15: The human nose is too cold for Bird Flu, says a new study. An international team, led by Imperial College London, has found that avian …

16 May » WHO: Countries must share swine flu virus samples
PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) – Wien,Austria
Chan said no one knows what change might occur in the H5N1 bird flu virus should the swine flu outbreak develop into a pandemic. Chan says swine flu, …

15 May » Egyptian boy, 4, contracts bird flu virus
Reuters – USA
CAIRO, May 14 (Reuters) – A four-year-old Egyptian boy has contracted the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing to 70 the number of human avian …

14 May » Is Tamiflu ‘better’ than Relenza?
ZDNet Asia – Singapore
Sales of antiviral drugs got a shot in the arm, if you will, in 2006, when the avian influenza–”bird flu“–epidemic broke out in Asia. …

13 May » New virus “very unstable”, more changes seen-expert
Reuters – USA
“Both H1N1 and H5N1 are unstable so the chances of them exchanging genetic material are higher, whereas a stable (seasonal flu) virus is less likely to take …

12 May » Swine Flu Outbreak From Mexico to New Zealand: Timeline
Bloomberg – USA
American scientists said the pathogen lacks the lethal genetic traits of the virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic or the H5N1 bird flu virus that’s …

11 May » Egyptian girl contracts bird flu, 69th case
Reuters – USA
The case brings to 69 the number of people confirmed to have contracted the H5N1 avian influenza virus in Egypt, which has been hit harder than any another …

10 May » Pandemic’s impact on trade gauged
Washington Times – Washington,DC,USA
… Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the threat of an Avian (H5N1) human bird flu pandemic of 2005-07 as benchmarks to estimate scenarios of the possible impact …

09 May » Top flu expert warns of a swine flu-bird flu mix
The Associated Press
While people can catch bird flu from birds, the bird flu virus — H5N1 — does not easily jump from person to person. It has killed at least 258 people …

08 May » Keeping swine and bird flus apart top priority
AsiaOne – Singapore
PARIS, May 7, 2009 (AFP) – Preventing the swine flu that is spreading across the globe from infecting patients sick with the deadly H5N1 avian flu should be …

07 May » Is H5N1 the One?
American Enterprise Institute – Washington,DC,USA
Other strains of avian influenza that have caused disease in humans include H7N7 (which caused communicable human illness in the Netherlands and one death …

06. May  » Egypt pig farmers clash with police over cull
AFP
Egypt has been battling an outbreak of bird flu for three years. Twenty-six people have died in Egypt from the H5N1 strain of bird flu since it was first …

05. May  » Swine Flu Source Traced to Birds and People; Don’t Blame Pigs
Bloomberg – USA
While the H5N1 bird flu that spread across Asia the past six years, killing millions of fowl and several hundred people, never gained genes to spread easily …

Quick news available on Twitter

A friend of mine new to Twitter was feeling stuck and asked how to get followers / following and started. So I thought I would post it here as well hoping it will help you.

Here are some tips or at least the way I started out on Twitter.

Tell the world:

• a) I added links from all my websites. (Probably where most of my followers come from)
• b) Tell everyone on your email list you are on Twitter. Ask some questions, people love to respond.
• c) Add yourself to Twitter directories such as Wefollow.com and Twellow.com etc.

Decide some strategy:

• a) Whatever category you add yourself too, click around on others in your category. People will follow you if they see a common interest (at least at first).
• b) You should check to see if they are still using Twitter by clicking directly to their Twitter profile. According to reports, many leave Twitter after a few months. If they haven’t updated recently, perhaps they aren’t coming back. And of course if they are not following many, you have to decide if they will follow you back. I generally only click those who are following over a few hundred folk. Many with small numbers are using Twitter for family and friends.
• c) 2001 / 1000 gap: If folk are following 2001 but are followed by 1500 or less, they can’t follow you back. If there is a gap of 1000 between following and followers they also can’t follow you back. And if they never updated (posted) or only posted a few times, I doubt they’ll add much value to you.
• d) You can send those you are following DM’s (Direct Messages) either by hand or even automatically. It is a great tool to welcome folk and perhaps offer a link to your site. I joined Twitter specifically to help our network find prayer resources, so adding the web link was key for me. Tweetlater.com works great for me as far as auto DM’ing folk.
• e) Speaking of Tweetlater.com, they offer you a way to automatically follow back. Most recommend against using it. I personally am quite picky about who is on my list, so I don’t auto follow. However, it is time consuming to check each person and of course I would have many more followers if I weren’t so picky : -)

Tools (and Tricks):

There are some tricks. I stay away from them, but judging from the numbers of those pushing them, some do work. Still, for most of us who just want to meet new friends and collages, I don’t think the tricks are worth it.
There are also (many) tools. Again, I don’t use them, but then again the Twitter world hasn’t found me yet! Some tools include sites or bots (Robots) which recommend followers based on keywords, geographical status and other combinations. (I still prefer to click through Directories where I know at least someone put in some effort to add themselves.)
Sites which list tools include http://twitter.pbworks.com/ and http://www.squidoo.com/twitterapps.

PS. Here is a quick video about Twitter which still makes me laugh: http://mashable.tumblr.com/post/88576009

Trust that helps! Ron

PPS. Follow me on www.twitter.com/30dp and feel free to add comments to this post.

PPPS. More on the subject of Twitters Direct Messages (DM’s) and much more is here >> A Helpful Guide to Twitter.

Cases of Swine Flu have surged since the weekend in Japan forcing authorities to close schools and kindergardens as a precaution for the teenager-hit crowd.

Meanwhile the WHO (World Health Organization) says that making swine flu vaccine is harder than thought and will not be available until mid-July.

The WHO says 40 countries are now infected with H1N1 and have officially reported 8480 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

Bird Flu also keeps in headline news as Reuters reports a 4-year-old Egyptian girl has died after contracting the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus, Egypt’s state news agency MENA said on Monday. Fears continue that the two could mix creating a potent virus deadly to humans. While it is expected that the flu virus will die down until later in the year, it is still an unknown as to what exactly will happen.

Currently the USA leads in cases of Swine flu (4714) followed by Mexico (3103), Canada (496), Japan (176), Spain (103) and the UK (101).

I had no great desire to join Twitter, in fact I resisted for quite some time. I was expecting the usual social-type network trying to pair me with people I possibly attended school with in grade 6. I happen to have been in school in different countries so that really doesn’t help me anyway.

To make a long story short, I finally joined Twitter and am now delighted I did! Although Twitter doesn’t have too steep a learning curve, there are somethings I wish I had known when I joined. So here is my list of Twitter Tips which I think will help you along your Twitter flight. Add your own tips to the comments below. Enjoy!

Some things I have observed about Twitter (and turn into Tips for you):

Short names are easier for others. With only 140 characters, the less room the name takes up, the better. This becomes noticeable later when people “retweet” (see below) your messages or recommend you on Fridays.

Real names and a personal photo (icon) are much more social or friendly and easier to remember.

Since I am looking for people within my area(s) of interest, I check each profile. If there is no profile, I am obviously less interested in following them. If the background colors make it difficult (sometimes impossible) to read the profile, I will often skip them. And if the profile is a list of abbreviations I don’t understand, I will also tend not to follow them. After a while, it has become easier to guess whether the person is really here for social networking based on the profile. Some profiles just do not sound honest at all. But if the profile seems to be an honest attempt to explain what they are doing, interested in or selling, I will tend to click “follow”.

When I want to follow people, there are several items I watch for:

1) I am trying to follow people in my own area of interest. In my case, I am interested to find Christians on Twitter. However, I certainly don’t mind following people who know how to communicate or have expertise or interesting products to sell. I am not interested in folk telling me how to get 16000 Twitter followers (especially since they usually have only a few hundred followers). Just glancing at the top five or so messages gives me an idea if they are real or just trying to get high numbers and/ or spam me.

2) I check the statistics quickly: Did they post a message recently? Did they post enough messages? If they only have five or fewer messages, I generally will not follow them. Are the other statistics on an even balance? Most “celebrities” may have 320,000 followers but follow only 10 or so back. Obviously I am not likely to become the 11th person they follow. However, if people follow 2500 and have 2300 following them, this indicates to me they are likely to be interested in following me back. But again, if they have only posted five or ten messages but have quite high following/er numbers, they are probably not much interested in looking at my profile nor reading any messages at all. (Note: if they are following 2001 but have significantly fewer followers, they can’t follow back anyway. 2000 is one of a few anti-spam threashold built into Twitter.)

3) And lastly, I tend to shy away from people who too many messages. Having said that, I have made a few good friends here on Twitter who post a lot. However, they are usually writing to friends and they are not filling up my message stream with junk.

What people post is equally important:

Most of you have read the following many times, so I’ll just make a very brief summary again:

I am looking for people who post a balance of:

• @replies (replies to other people)
• RT (retweets) since this shows they are reading messages in their stream (the updates look like this: “RT @originator_of_message cool message I want my followers to see”).
• Links to articles or blogs or whatever since the link is of interest to us all.
• #hashtags since that gives me ideas of what is going on plus shows me their interests.
• Some personal messages (10% at the most). I certainly don’t mind the “I’m tired now, off to bed” nor the “Good morning, where’s the coffee?” type messages. However, when I first started on Twitter there was one guy who only wrote about how tired or terrible he felt. I wondered if I could help and replied several times but I never got a response. After a few days I unfollowed him. I also followed a ministry I know well. However, they had added an automatic application which posted every Google search they made. There were hundreds per day. I unfollowed my dear friends quickly as well.
• Tips or insights: (which usually generate the most RT’s) are always helpful, but again, everything in moderation.
• Photos, video and document links: you can use applications to upload a variety of documents, not just text. See the links at the bottom of this article for details.

More details about the sidebar:

a) On your sidebar (on the right-hand side) you will see your photo (icon), name, and the statistics I mentioned above. Clicking Following and Followers will show you slightly different options, check them out. Clicking Updates can be very helpful at times when you are keeping up a conversation with several people and forget what you wrote to whom. Note that with all three of these options you need to click Home to get back to your default screen.

b) Your next sidebar area is a Twitter message which tells you about helpful or new applications.

c and d) Next comes the Home link and just underneath it @your_name. Click @your_name to find out who has replied to you or mentioned you in a message. NOTE: just because they have @replied or mentioned you does not guarantee you are following them. Click their name to check.

e) Next comes the Direct Messages or DM’s. There are many opinions on whether this is useful or not. DM’s are simply messages you send to someone which do not appear in the stream (the messages on the left of the sidebar). I would probably use DM’s more if there were some way to tag them or organize them better. I do have them emailed to me (an option under Settings) where I can sort them into 1) messages to me personally, 2) automatic messages which are useful to me 3) messages with links which I do click periodically and 4) the rest – an archive of those who bothered to DM me.

I have made several very useful contacts thanks to DM’s, but I admit, again since I can’t filter them nor tag them, sometimes they are just overwhelming. (There are bots or robots which work with DM, I give you a link near the bottom.)

Auto DM’s: Many people do not like automatic direct messages which come automatically when we follow someone, but when I started with Twitter I received a few auto DM’s like, “New here? check this article >> link.htm”. I will be forever thankful for those DM’s. They saved me so much time by linking me to some great tips and articles about Twitter. So I personally have nothing against automatic DM’s, in fact, I use them myself. I am using a free service called Tweetlater.com which works great for me. TweetLater even allows me to purge my DM folder whenever I want which saves a lot of time. And since I still receive a copy of all activity via email, I don’t need to keep the DM’s in my Twitter account.

f) Moving on down our sidebar, we see the Favorites link. I confess I often forget about this, however, if you hover over a message in your Stream, a star will appear (on the right) which you can click. Now, click the sidebar Favorites link and you will see you just added a favorite message. I sure wish this was true of DM’s as well… .

g) Next of course is Search where you can search for people, trends, #hashtags and so on using wildcards. If you are not satisfied with the results, you can also try search.twitter.com (at the very bottom of the Twitter screen).

h) Then we have Trending Topics. This is constantly updated to show you what topics are hot right now. Try it, click something that either interests you or something you don’t understand. Note the # sign before a word indicates a ‘hashtag’ which is just a special tag to make searching faster and easier. You can close or re-open Trending Topics by clicking the appropriate arrow on the right of the TT title.

i) Next comes Following, again which you can open or close. This gives you a mini-icon representation of 36 of your recent friends (and differs slightly from the icons when you first login). It used to be showing (open) by default but obviously the icons slow down your browser and thus Twitter. If you are still on an older Twitter server, it may be you still see the icons by default but that will eventually disappear.

j) And lastly is the RSS feed. You can add anyone’s feed to see updates in your browser – it all works the same as any website, blog, forum RSS feed (in case there is anyone left in the world who still uses RSS).

Just before I move on, don’t forget that at the bottom of the page are some internal Twitter links including search and their blog / status etc which often posts important information or updates or changes Twitter has implemented.

Software applications:

Look at your Stream and under each message you will see the time, date and from … message. The from might read, Web, TweetDeck, Twirl, txt, Tweetberry or whatever. This tells you how people are posting their messages. There are lot’s of applications out there; for your phone, for your PC and so on. I personally use TweetDeck when I want to converse with people. It allows me to put my friends into groups so I can find them easier. However, I am told most of the PC applications are more or less the same, so the choice is going to be yours. My guess is all those using Adobe Air are going to be quite similar, but I haven’t tried the others, so I’ll leave it up to you.

Helpful Twitter Tools:

This is what you have been waiting for right? These are some very helpful links to get you started. They are not in any order of importance.

Twellow.com >> A large directory of people using Twitter. You can add yourself to several categories which best describe your interests and area of expertise. I strongly recommend you add yourself not too long after you join Twitter, but probably not right away. TIP: Login to view the nice graphics of who you already follow and if they follow you.

WeFollow.com >> A user-powered Twitter directory, not so detailed as Twellow, but good nonetheless.

Twitter Fan Wiki >> Here you will find an excellent list of practically everything relating to Twitter. For example, you will find a listing of applications (Apps for short) for your PC [ie TweetDeck] or iPhone, or an explanation about what #Hashtags are or interesting “Bots” (robots) you can run via DM (direct messaging) to make your DM experience fun, fascinating and useful.

The Twitter Fan Wiki isn’t the only list of its type on the Internet, but it is a great place to get you started.

Some of my personal favorite Twitter helpers:

FriendorFollow.com >> This allows you to clean up your following vs followers lists, but more importantly, you can download the CSV files to your computer giving you a backup of your followers. It is usually very fast.

http://twitter.polldaddy.com/ >> Want to create Polls on Twitter? I personally like Polldaddy.

bit.ly or tinyurl.com >> “Shorten, share and track your links”. You only have 140 characters to explain what you are doing, so adding a link like http://my_great_link.com/_insights_into_what_i_am_doing_right_now/exactly_this_second_on_twitter.html won’t work!. Use a link shortner such as http://bit.ly or http://tinyurl.com (already built into some applications such as TweetDeck by the way).

Analysis >> self analysis of how you are using twitter may surprise you. There are lots of applications out there, I found twitter analyzer.com to be helpful, but there are many. Basically these will help you see if you are keeping a good balance of your tweets (messages) between replies, RT’s, info, links etc. The more interesting you can make yourself on Twitter will eventually determine who and yes, how many people are interested in following you.

Twitpic.com >> A hassel-free way to put photos into your Twitter Stream.

(Please search “add video on twitter” for appropriate applications. I know http://www.bubbletweet.com/ works but haven’t used it personally so I don’t want to push it nor link to something I haven’t tried …)

In Summary

In summary, the most helpful tip I read about using Twitter was, “Enjoy!” I am indeed enjoying using Twitter, it’s the most fun I have had on the Internet for some time now.
* And the truth is, it is also helpful to me. I have added quite a bit of traffic to my websites just by writing informative tweets about certain links.
* And since I don’t delete my original tweets (updates) I know they are also being indexed on Google! Quite cool.
* Plus I have been able to work with teams easier and faster using Twitter than via e-mail.
* And most importantly, I have met a great bunch of people who have added so much to my life thanks to Twitter.

Enjoy it, use it, but please don’t abuse it.

See you on twitter. http://twitter.com/30dp

PS. Please add your own experiences, links or desires below. Sp@m-type comments will be deleted of course.

PPS. Here is my “What I learned about Twitter” article, many tweet me it was helpful. Enjoy.

The curious angel asked, “Whatcha doin’, God, working a puzzle?” “No,” God answered, smiling, “I’m making a family.” The idea was interesting, and the curious angel began asking questions, “A family… sure are a lot of parts. What are the big pieces?” “Those are the fathers.” “Aren’t they too large?”

“No, they have to be strong. They work hard and bear a lot of burdens. They’re the image of the Heavenly Father and the security for their families,” said God.

“And the pretty pieces,” the angel asked, “what are they?” “They are the mothers,” God answered. “They sure are pretty, but fragile, too, huh God?” God replied, “Don’t let their looks deceive. They are small and pretty, but most of them are stronger than men. You see, mothers need to look pretty, but they are strong inside. Their greatest strength is their love and their tenderness. They love ugly men and runny-nose babies.”

“What are the little pieces?” “They’re the children,” God answered. “They make the families complete. Fathers and mothers conceive the little children, but I give them a soul.”

“I hope it works,” the angel sighed. “It has to,” God said. “Mothers hold the family together.”

I pray that every mother will feel loved, honored and appreciated as we celebrate “Mothers Day.” Here’s 7 things every mother must know.

• 1. Embrace the purpose of your existence. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” Remember, you are not God’s adult; you’re His child. God knows your Maker and He is absolutely crazy about you. He’s called you to be a helper. You’re chosen to raise royal men and women of God.
• 2. You’re beautiful; inside out. Surrounded with dirty laundry, messy house and runny noses it is hard to feel beautiful. God put true beauty inside of you. You don’t have to perform; you ARE beautiful. Everything God makes is first class!
• 3. You can forgive and forget. I’ve known many women who are caught in the past. You may have been bruised, betrayed and wronged but do yourself a favor – forgive! Until you let go of the past, God cannot open the great future ahead of you. Focus on what’s right rather than what’s wrong.
• 4. Your strength comes from God. Isaiah tells us, “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.” Do you feel weak, lonely and discouraged today? Well you’re the best candidate to receive God’s strength. The Scriptures says, “My strength is made perfect in (your) weakness.”
• 5. See the big picture. Don’t get caught up in the disappointments of life. Ask yourself; is it a 5 minute, 5 hour or 5 year problem? Spend least of your time in the first two and most of your time in the long term. As one country song goes, “Live like you’re dying.” If you’re six months to live, what would be your perspective in life? Will you get so easily upset? Will you hold on hurt, bitterness and anger?
• 6. Invest in yourself. What brings you joy and pleasure? Enjoy them! Learn to put God’s value in your life. Mothers are so focused on taking care of others that they often forget to take care of themselves; but you need to. Accept the fact that not many will take care of you so you must care for yourself; without guilt!
• 7. Enjoy this moment. Too many people are either stuck on yesterday or living in the future. Like children, God wants us to live in the present. Enjoy the little footsteps you hear running towards you. Take in the complements your children give to you. Enjoy the chores you have to do around the house.
  Remember, the season you’re in will not last forever. What you choose to do this moment will determine what kind of memories you’ll have to look back to.

Happy Mother’s Day!
See more of these on Build International

* 90 people get the Swine Flu and everybody wants to wear a mask. A million people have AIDS and no one wants to wear a condom.

* Anybody got their swine flu leaflet yet? Miine just came through the letterbox, and I am now completely reassured. ATCHOO!

* Is the swine flu fading away or getting worse, the news can’t make up their mind.

* Yo This Swine Flu Is Crazy. Its not the first in the US but they keep pushing it though the news. I wonder what’s really going on!!!!!!!!!

* Should’ve gone for the Swine Flu soup, that lunch was most disappointing.

* Terrible headache today. I wonder if it has something to do with the wine I drank yesterday or if it’s the swine flu?

* Could Swine Flu be the boy who cried wolf that mutated and bit him on the arse?

* It was once said that a black man would be president when pigs flew. Well behold 100 days into his presidency and swine flu!

* Word on the street is that Scurvy and Leprosy are upset over how much media attention the Swine Flu is getting. They have now fired their PR rep …

* So good Swine Flu peak didn’t coincide with StarTrek launchmania.

* You gotta kiss a lot of pigs to find Swine Flu.

* Swine flu; the beginning of the Aporkalypse.

* At least Swine flu has give spam people something new to do.

* Ask AP: Swine flu and food, reality show pay – The Associated Press http://cli.gs/hJBb6S

* Feeling better this morning. Swine Flu has been conquered by my superior jeans – they fit really well.

* Wondering if I called in sick for 5 days if anyone would notice or if they would think i have the swine flu lol

* I had the swine flu last week but my doctor gave me some oinkment for it.

* It’s Climate Swine Flu Moneygeddon. If we don’t cut carbon dioxide being loaned to pigs building houses, then it’s doomsday.

* Shattered to hear that Kermit has died from swine flu…..

* Swine flu: School pupil’s ‘Ode to Tamiflu’ becomes YouTube hit http://tinyurl.com/pa4fzo

The more serious stuff:

* Israel, PA And Jordan Cooperate As Flu Threat Grows http://cli.gs/WzydqG

* Emerging Infectious Diseases Tracked By Online Surveillance Tool http://cli.gs/nvGBUZ

* Swine Flu 2,371 Officially Confirmed Cases In 24 Countries, Including 42 Deaths In Mexico And 2 Deaths In The USA http://cli.gs/nzRgvY

* UK swine flu genetics unravelled – BBC News http://cli.gs/XZySrh

* Two billion people may get swine flu: WHO http://tr.im/kPeC

* Swine Flu Ancestors May Protect Elderly, Experts Say (Update1) (Bloomberg) http://cli.gs/LeRLDM

* Tourists trade Mexico for Seattle due to swine flu – Seattle Post Intelligencer http://cli.gs/DXBSB6

* Officials limit testing for swine flu – Atlanta Journal Constitution http://cli.gs/Es7hWP

* Saskatchewan has first 2 confirmed cases of H1N1 http://cli.gs/8zEzvE

* Top flu expert warns of a swine flu-bird flu mix http://bit.ly/10C0ua (via @AP_M.. http://tinyurl.com/qgszqe

* Fantastic photos of Swine Flu Outbreak, http://bit.ly/S0Px7

* New Pew/Google/etc data about how people are srching for info on swine flu http://twurl.nl/xu4r80 (extrapolate beyond h1n1)

* NOTE: this Spring is the tame version of the Swine flu. the concern is over the mutated strain we’ll likely see this Fall.

——

That’s the round-up for today.

See you on twitter. http://twitter.com/30dp

PS. Please add your own experiences, links or desires below. Sp@m-type comments will be deleted of course.

Pig owners outraged over Egypt’s decision to slaughter all beasts
The Australian – Sydney,Australia
Mr Gabali said Egypt – where 26 people died from the H5N1 virus, making it one of the countries most affected by the bird flu strain – was taking the threat …

Novartis says adjuvant promising in flu vaccine
Reuters – USA
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG will use data from a study on its pre-pandemic bird flu vaccine Aflunov and adjuvant MF59 to help develop a …

Assessing the Danger of New Flu
New York Times – United States
In contrast, the lethal avian flu that has kept world health authorities anxious for years is caused by H5N1 influenza virus. It has killed 257 of the 421 …

World better equipped to face swine flu thanks to H5N1 scare
Times of Malta – Valletta,Malta
“H5N1 (avian influenza) could have been a blessing in disguise,” he said. Had the world not taken the threat of H5N1 bird flu seriously, it would not have …

IVW: Don’t Forget About Bird Flu
MedPage Today – Little Falls,NJ,USA
“The [H5N1 avian flu] is the virus most likely to cause a big pandemic, a world shattering affair,” he said, “whereas I don’t think this swine is going to …

Swine flu outbreak tracked with Twitter
msnbc.com – USA
“But that was too slow for the amount of information we’ve been accumulating, so we had to switch to a Twitter feed instead.” The new swine flu Twitter …

Swine flu – ‘Vaccines are not the answer’
Nursing Times – UK
A strain of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that may unleash the next global flu pandemic is showing resistance to Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that countries …

Jember exposed to bird flu
Jakarta Post – Jakarta,Indonesia
The Jember regency administration announced Tuesday the H5N1 bird flu virus had spread to 17 of the regency’s 31 districts after lab tests showed 5449 …

Global swine flu pandemic ‘very likely’: Hong Kong expert
AsiaOne – Singapore
‘At least at this stage, the mortality does not seem to be as high as expected for the avian flu H5N1. That’s the relatively reassuring point. …

Russian scientist predicted swine flu pandemic in 2004
MOSNEWS – Russia
But pigs were ideal “incubators” to breed a new stem of the virus, far deadlier than H5N1 or H3N2. “Swine are easy prey for both human and avian flu. …

Glaxo, Roche Meet Swine-Flu Drug Needs? Vaccine Is Months Away
Bloomberg – USA
While the H5N1 bird flu that has killed more than 250 people hasn’t gained genes to spread easily among humans, the Mexican swine flu already may have done …