San Diego

I’m heading out to San Diego for some fun in the sun and just wondering what cool things there were to do?

I know the San Diego Zoo is nice. There is also Sea World and the ocean, but what about the smaller, not as well known things?

So What’s There To Do In San Diego? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I think we need to do everyone a favor and share the source.

Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of big sites out there that collect and re-post great information. Sites like TechCrunch, CrunchGear, TUAW, LifeHacker, Gizmodo and so many more do a good job of giving the smaller sites added exposure, but they are also stealing it away.

Next time you’re at one of these sites, and decide to share a story, click-through to the source website and re-tweet or like that URL; not the TechCrunch one.

Not only will you be giving the content publishers additional exposure, you’ll also be giving your users a direct link to the content you’re promoting.

I think that’s called win win.

Do Everyone A Favor And Share The Source originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lily and her Mighty Mouse.

It all started with the Mighty Mouse. She wanted something to play with and I had a mouse that was in need of new life. It was broken so I cleaned out the insides, removed the cord, washed it down, and gave it to Lily. It’s her very first Apple product.

Lily and a classic one button mouse.

Lily has also played with the classic one button Apple mouse. However, she’s not as big of a fan. Mainly because Dad hadn’t cleaned that one up specifically for her and it got taken away right after this picture.

Lily on the iPod Touch

The iPod touch is another one of her favorites. She gets to play with it from time to time and never wants to let it go. Her favorite app is Awesome Ball, however she has a tendency to touch everything and interrupt the game. That and she likes to eat it.

Lily on the iPad

And then there is the fancy iPad! It’s big, bright and so much fun to play with. Lily likes to bang her hand on the screen and usually only get a few seconds with the iPad when she does get her hands on it. However, we’re both looking forward to the day when she can play the games I’ve already downloaded for her.

It didn’t take Lily long to become an Apple fan girl, but that’s mainly because I’m an Apple fan boy.

I’m Turning Lily Into An Apple Fan Girl originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The biggest Twitter app was Tweetie, which then turned into Twitter and has a ton of fans. However, it’s still absent on the iPad.

While we await Twitter, Twitterrific is quickly raking in the money as its by far the best Twitter app on the iPad. Its price tag of $4.99 may be a bit much for some, but it beats waiting for Twitter to release their version.

Then there is Facebook. Isn’t Facebook the biggest social network? And yet they don’t have an iPad app either. Granted, the web version works just fine, but the push notifications, optimized layout and an all around better designed iPad app would be much nicer.

What about FourSquare? Everyone is on FourSquare and it’s growing quite fast. And yet, there is no iPad app. I guess, it takes only seconds to make a check-in, so using the iPhone version isn’t terrible, but an iPad version would be ideal.

Possibly the biggest iPhone game ever has yet to be updated too. Doodle Jump took the iPhone by storm and sold millions of copies. So why hasn’t that been updated to take advantage of the additional screen real estate? Heck, for 99 cents, I’d buy the exact same game if it were just optimized for the iPad.

Maybe not one of the biggest apps, but one of my favorites is I Can Haz Cheezeburger and I’d love to see updated so I could see the LOLs in higher quality.

Granted, all the apps above do work on the iPad, they just aren’t optimized for the iPad. And, unless you like pixley, fuzzy or small images, you’re probably eagerly awaiting updates too.

There are lots of great iPad apps out there, but it does surprise me that, after 5 months, some of the most successful iPhone apps have yet to create iPad versions.

What’s the hold up?

Where are the iPad Apps? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The game play second is very similar to the first which means we knew what we were doing right away. However, there are lots of new additions like you can now play as rock Mario or cloud Mario. You can enlist the help of Yoshi too. Who doesn’t love Yoshi?!

Like the original, Super Mario Galaxy 2 has support for two players, however player 2 is just there to support player one. In the new version, player 2 can do more than picking up star pieces and holding off bad guys, they can pick up coins, one-ups and even kill bad guys. It almost feels like cheating.

So far, the worlds seem to have started out harder, however we are working our way though the game. Even better, some stars come with no bad guys defending them so, in some senses, it’s easier.

If you’ve got a Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a great game and worth buying!

Video: 9 Awesome New Game Additions

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Kinda Rocks originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I’ve done some major re-working of things on the back-end and I’m hoping I didn’t break anything. If I did, please tell me!

The bulk of my changes are to help with my site speed addiction. Ever since Google announced tools to help webmasters find ways of speeding up their sites, I’ve been hooked. I check the graph in Google Webmaster Central all the time in hopes of seeing sharp declines.

Google's Site Performance Analysis

So far, my homepage seems to be extremely slow, where as the main blog page is not to bad. Not sure how that is possible as the homepage has less on it than the blog page.

I’m beginning to think that either Google’s lying to me about my site speed, or it takes weeks for Google to update their reports. All this work couldn’t have got me nothing.

As for YSlow, I’m pretty sure that’s just not working right. YSlow will give me an F(0) for GZip and Google Page Speed will give me an D(62). A D(62) isn’t great, but it’s way better than that F(0).

Either way, my site should be faster than it was and it’ll only get better. However, chances are I’ll break something a long the way. When I do, please let me know so I can fix it.

Me & WordPress vs Google Page Speed & YSlow originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I did a lot of Googling and a lot of testing and came up with one solution; iRip.

iRip is a Mac and Windows application that can transfer music, movies and playlists from your iPod to iTunes. Now backing up music and movies isn’t all that special, but the fact that it can backup playlists was the one feature I couldn’t find anywhere else.

The way it works is that it imports all the songs on any given playlist into iTunes and keeps the playlist intact. The good news is that it doesn’t duplicate all your music in iTunes either. It only copies over what isn’t already in iTunes and links the songs that already exist in iTunes to the playlist being backed up.

The only downside I found was that it was very particular about exact matches between the iPod and iTunes files. It did import some duplicates, however, out of nearly 14,000 songs and 10 playlists, there were not that many duplicates that I had to clean up.

iRip does come with a price tag of $20, but it’s not a bad price seeing as it’s the only application I could find to backup my iPod playlists, and not screw up my iTunes library.

How To Backup iPod Playlists originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Good news, you can get an iPad Nano.

Exclusive iPad Nano Picture

iPad Nano, now available everywhere.

Also know as the iPhone or iPod Touch.

iPad Nanos Now Available originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

On the login screen, if you enter your username or password incorrectly, it shakes the screen at you in a disapproving manor. “No no no, that’s just not right” is what WordPress is telling you.

I wonder how many other small, but fun, little updates were made.

WordPress 3 Login Error Animation – No No No originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Here are 10 great apps I’ve found for the iPad so far that are worth checking out.

Simplenote
Forget Apple’s Notes application, Simplenote is a note pad that will sync your iPad to the web, to your computer and to your iPhone. It is simple, free and syncs. What more can you ask for?

AccuWeather
With big beautiful images, AccuWeather is one of those apps you just have to show your friends. The weather never looked so good.

WeatherBug
AccuWeather may look better, but WeatherBug makes it easy to see what’s happening outside. It’s focus is mainly on the radar but also includes the current conditions and forecast.

Yahoo Entertainment
Yahoo has a pretty nice application for checking out what’s on TV, entertainment news and watching the latest headlines. Plus it’s very well designed.

Netflix
Netflix makes it easy to manage your queue right from the couch with the Netflix app. You can even watch movies and TV shows instantly! Now I just have to figure out how to get the picture on my TV.

FeeddlerRSS
Google Reader isn’t exactly optimized for the iPad, but FeedlerRSS is. It’s the best free feed reader that I know of and syncs directly with your Google Reader account.

Doodle Buddy
Let your creativity come out and play with Doodle Buddy. You get a blank screen where you can draw, paint, glitter, smudge, and stamp whatever you want. You can also import pictures from your picture library and doctor them up. Once finished, save or email your masterpieces to friends.

Toy Story
Disney has made a few interactive books for the iPad, but Toy Story is the only free one. You can read along, have it read to you, record audio, paint, listen to music, and play games. It’s really nice and your kids will love it.

PCalc Lite
Not sure why the iPad doesn’t come with a calculator, but PCalc Lite is a good alternative with big buttons and plenty of calculator functions.

ABC Player
Why aren’t other networks jumping on the iPad bandwagon? ABC is and they are doing a great job. You can watch all your favorite ABC shows anywhere you’re connected to the internet. Now, about getting that to my TV…

Betty Crocker Cookbook
It’s a cookbook that has beautiful, and yummy, pictures. It’s organized by type of meal or ingredient or you can click the “surprise me” button and see what it suggests. Put your iPad on a stand in the kitchen and you’re all set!

Those are some of the best free iPad applications I’ve found so far.

These applications are free for now, but I can’t guarantee they’ll be free forever so go download them now if you want them.

What have you found? What should I be downloading?

11 Free iPad Apps – You Should Check These Out originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Just a quick note to say that the Is Google Analytics Installed? Firefox extension recently has been updated to work with Google’s new asynchronous tracking code.

It should now work for all versions of Google’s code.

And, if Google doesn’t drastically change the analytics tracking in the future, it should continue to work well for future updates.

(fingers crossed)

Google Analytics Extension Upgraded originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Echofon is a really nice Twitter application for the Mac. Like Tweetie 1 and Twitterrific, its kind of free as long as you don’t might a nagging window on startup and the occasional ad; which isn’t that bad. Or you can shell out a few dollars and own it outright.

The nice thing about Echofon is it has list support built-in. You can view your lists, add and remove people from lists and create new ones if you need to. This is big for me as I’m a huge fan of lists. They help me filter though my followers so I can keep up to date on my ‘real’ friends or segment people by topic.

Echofon also does a great job at showing the conversation of a set of tweets so you don’t miss out on anything. It even has a feature where it’ll highlight tweets with particular keywords so you can quickly scan a lot of tweets for certain subjects. I have mine setup to highlight anything with iPad, Mac or Minnesota so I don’t miss out on something I may be interested in.

Another thing I really like about Echofon is that to shorten a URL it’s Apple+S. That’s so easy to remember and use. Of course it also has the ability to auto shorten URLs, so the shortcut isn’t even needed.

Echofon also supports multiple accounts, image uploading, ties to your bit.ly account, has Growl notifications, the ability to view profile information, follow un-follow block or mark someone as spam, and pretty much everything Tweetie does plus more.

I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to give Echofon a try for one week and I haven’t looked back. It’s an excellent Mac application and well worth checking out while we all await Tweetie 2 Mac, or Twitter 2 Mac, or whatever they are going to call it.

While Waiting For Tweetie 2 Mac, Check Out Echofon originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The first thing I tried was setting her up with her own profile. Facebook does say “anyone can join” but that’s not true. It turns out that you have to be at least 13 years old.

Then I created her a page. I thought this was perfect as it was just like a profile but I didn’t have to specify age. Plus I could post as Lily and I could manage it all in my profile. Then I found out that the page is either completely public or no one can see anything. There’s no privacy or no access, no in-between option.

Then I created a group. It had the privacy I wanted, but I can’t post as Lily so it kind of defeats the purpose.

Then I checked out apps like Babybook which is ok, but shows a lot of ads, and My Babybook which seems nice but doesn’t completely feel like Facebook. Both are a decent solution.

Then I thought I’d just lie and get her own profile by telling Facebook she was born in the 70s or 80s. Shh no one needs to know. The downside here is that I have to manage two profiles.

So far the best option I’ve found is pages, but the lack of privacy settings is a huge disappointment.

I’m not quite sure what I’ll do yet, but what I wish would happen is that Facebook would create a family & pets area where parents could set their kids, and cats, up with Facebook profiles and oversee their activities. Until then, we have to work the system to find a way to get our babies Facebook profiles.

Any suggestions on better solutions to getting Lily on Facebook?

How Do You Create a Facebook Profile Page For Babies? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

When the iPad first came out, a lot of people said it was just a big iPod Touch. Sure, it’s similar, but it’s so much more. The screen size alone makes a huge difference. You have no idea how small an iPhone or iPod Touch really is until you play with an iPad. It makes me look at my iPod Touch and think ‘how can I even use this?’

iPad Size vs iPod Touch

Another great thing about the screen size is that everything look so good. Upon firing up AccuWeather, the icons are beautiful and the presentation is fantastic. Apps can become so much more than they are on the iPhone as more screen real estate makes a big difference.

AccuWeather

The iPad also makes me feel as if I’m Tom Cruise from the Minority Report. You know, when he’s swiping screens left and right and clicking on things all in the air. I walk by my desk, swipe the screen and click on an app and it makes me feel like I’m from the future.

There are some downsides, as with any gadget. The virtual keyboard is great, but you’ll still type with your thumbs. If you want to write a paper, or long blog post, I’d suggest getting a bluetooth keyboard or the USB adapter.

Strangely enough, the F and J keys on the iPad keyboard have the little lines on them just like regular keyboards so your fingers know where to be, except you can’t feel them. Odd.

Also iPhone apps run, but run in iPhone size. So Tweetie Twitter works, but you don’t get to take advantage of the whole iPad screen. Sure, you can enlarge the app to 2x the size, but the quality is less as it just stretches the app bigger. More companies need to create iPad versions of their apps as the iPhone versions just don’t do the iPad justice.

2x Scale Up Sample (click to see detail)

Then there is charging. I’m not sure how new your Mac has to be, but I haven’t found one yet that will charge my iPad when plugged into USB. Instead, it must be plugged into the wall.

Overall I love the iPad. It’s fast, does pretty much everything I want, and works great as a little laptop. Especially when my iPod Touch was a first generation so just having sound built into the device is a huge feature for me. It’d be even better if it had a camera, but I think it’d feel awkward taking pictures with the iPad.

I think the iPad will only get better and more and more apps get created for it. There are lots of iPad apps out there, but there are also a lot of publishers that haven’t updated their iPhone apps to take full advantage of the iPad screen.

To me, the iPad is an entertainment system. I can play games, watch movies, go online and stay connected with everyone and I just love it.

My iPad Review – It’s Fast, Fun & So Pretty originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Turns out, you can get a 10.2 inch netbook sleeve that fits the iPad pretty well. It’s a tad bit big, but sometimes the added space is nice as it’s easy to get the iPad in and out. The one I got was $19 which wasn’t to bad. There might have been cheaper ones, but I really liked the basic black neoprene one.

Netbook / iPad Case

I also picked up a $3.99 photo easel. It’s small, black, wooden and fits the iPad extremely well in landscape or portrait mode. Plus there is no chance of it slipping out. It works well when the iPad is plugged in and it folds up nicely so I can take it with me. Actually it’ll fit in my iPad sleeve quite nicely. I’m very happy with that little purchase.

Photo Easel / iPad Stand

Photo Easel Empty / iPad Stand

Now I know that an official iPad case or stand could be even better, but for $23 I got myself a case and stand that work very nicely.

I Got an iPad Case & Stand for $23 at Target originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lily On My Credit Card

The process is pretty easy, however you may need some graphic skills if you want to get creative. If you just want to upload an image, you shouldn’t have any issues.

To create your own custom Wells Fargo check card, login to WellsFargo.com go to Account Services then Access Card Design Studio, select an account, select Customize Your Background and then get creative.

It’s pretty easy and fun. Plus, how cool is my card!?

Customize Your Wells Fargo Check Card Any Way You Want originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

To be honest, it’s hard to know if the series finale was satisfying or not. It was in some aspects, but left a lot of unanswered questions. Then again, how could they have answered them all?

I was very satisfied with how they ended the show and I kind of get it. I guess I’ve always kind of got it this season, but for some reason, I want more answers. I want it all spelled out for me.

Here is my take on it all.

The Island was purgatory. That place where some go when they die that is in-between heaven and hell. They then had to figure out themselves before they could move on. Plus, the candidates could only move on as a group. They needed each other, and the love they found on the island, before they could truly be happy and enter the light.

If I knew the bible more, I could probably tell you more. It was a religious story, even if we didn’t realize it. Good vs Bad. God vs Devil. Heaven vs Hell.

It’s not clear when who dies or if anyone survived Oceanic flight 815 but they would have had to. I think that the survivors were the Oceanic 6, but I’m not sure.

I also still don’t know why the island moved in time, what Charles Widmore had to do with it, why Desmond was so special, if purgatory still exists or what happened to it, who Richard Alpert was, what the numbers meant, what the dog had to do with it, and so many other questions.

It’s things like that don’t make sense. There are hundreds of unanswered questions, but yet seeing Hurley & Libby, Sawyer & Juliet, Charlie & Clair and so many more re-united at the end made for a very good ending.

I think that as the days go on, and I read other peoples takes on LOST, that more pieces will start to fall into place.

And, chances are, we may just re-watch the whole series some day.

What’s your take on LOST?

My Thoughts On The Series Finale of LOST originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Click To Enlarge

yExplore for Google Chrome is now available!

It adds quick access to search engine, and social media, information about the page, or domain, you are viewing.

yExplore is helpful for finding out information on your own site or doing competitive research on someone else’s.

yExplore includes shortcuts to:

• Google
  • Backlinks
  • InIndex
  • Cache
• Yahoo
  • Backlinks
  • InIndex
• Bing
  • InIndex
• Delicious Saves
• StumbleUpon Stumbles
• Compete Information
• BackType Social Information
• PostRank Social Information
• Archive.org Flashbacks
• Robots.txt Quick Access
• Text Only View
• Whois Info

If you liked it on Firefox, you’ll love it on Chrome.

Also, the Firefox version of yExplore has been updated with new services too.

Download yExplore for Google Chrome

Please report any issues, or services you’d like added, in the comments below.

yExplore Comes To Google Chrome originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Google Chrome however has a good work around as you can use private browsing to login to multiple accounts without ever having to log out of your current account.

Basically, when you start a new incognito (private) window in Google Chrome, you get a fresh start. You’re not logged into anything which is very handy. You can then log into a different Google, Twitter, Facebook or whatever account you want to.

This also works in Opera the same as it does in Chrome. Firefox can do it too, however it hides your main window until you are done with your private session which isn’t as nice. Safari on the other hand is unable to do this as it continues to use all your cookies from non-private session.

If you are on a Mac, Stainless allows for multiple single session tabs and does it much nicer than the other browsers. However, the Stainless browser is still in development and a little rough around the edges.

Single session windows are a very handy feature and can be quite a time saver as compared to logging out and into multiple accounts.

What are you waiting for? Give it a try.

Use Google Chrome’s Private Browsing To Login To Multiple Accounts originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

You see, I now have all these Twitter followers; like 700, and I try to impress them all. Some are friends, some are co-workers, some are industry professionals, some are celebrities, some are random other people and I worry about what I tweet.

What if someone doesn’t like it? What if I offend someone? Chances are, no one would even notice. They’ll see my tweet and, if they don’t care, they’ll skim right buy it and get on with their overly busy day.

I know that’s what I do. Like when all those #redwing tweets come in that I don’t care about, I just scroll on by.

(No offense #redwings fans. Your team is cool. Hope they win the Winston Cup. )

And then there are blog posts. Remember when we first stared out writing, no one was listening, we had no idea what we were doing and we wrote about anything and everything? Then, next thing you know, boom, 800 subscribers and again, worried about every little thing we post.

Why? Why do we have to be perfect?

Ohh yea, because we are over sensitive and think that everything needs to get better with time. Because that’s what everyone tells us.  We need to be more polished, more professional, more original, better, Better, BETTER.

I think it’s time we all took a social media chill pill and remember that people opted to follow us for who we are. No one will like us all the time, or agree with everything we say, and they are free to leave whenever they want.

(Wait, scratch that, don’t stop following or I’ll get depressed that no one likes me anymore.)

I’m just saying, we all need to relax a little and enjoy blogging, twittering or doing other social stuff more. The good ideas and good connections come from just being ourselves, not when we’re trying to be something we’re not.

It’s Time To Take A Social Media Chill Pill originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com