I have moved over to my own URL shortening service which uses YOURLS software to run the back end.  This gives me security that my links won’t disappear and I get to use a domain name of my choosing.  YOURLS also has a great WordPress plugin that automatically posts these short URLs to Twitter whenever I publish a new blog post.

We’re still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team.

That was a response to questions about the future of the friendfeed.com.  My guess is the service will eventually be rolled into Facebook and the standalone site will be no more.  Facebook would not have acquired the company without a goal in mind, and the fact that FriendFeed won’t disclose it sends a pretty clear message.  I doubt the Facebook executives have the buy know think later mentality that we sometimes see with Google.

Related posts:

1. Books Deleted Directly Off Kindle Devices

Two steps back.

This paragraph from David Pogue’s blog really sums it up.

As one of my readers noted, it’s like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we’ve been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table.

Amazon says that this was a rare case, but I don’t think it should have even been considered.

UPDATE 7/18/09: According to Ars Technica, the books were deleted because they were illegal copies distributed without the publishers permission. This sheds a little more light on the situation, but it remains unsettling that Amazon can delete books off my Kindle without my permission.

(via Smarterware)

Related posts:

1. Stealthy Starbucks

Broadcast your status, opinions, jokes, and news.
Connect with friends, family, celebrities, authors, and politicians.
Follow live updates of current events and trends.

The power of Twitter is derived from its simplicity. It is a bare bones framework where you choose how to extract value. It is a tool to send text from point A to point B and that is as complicated as it gets. Unlike a blog or website, you don’t need to know code or worry about design. There is no initial cost (monetary or time), you just pick up and go.

The value is built on top of this foundation. Like all services, the value comes from the information that you extract. This information and value comes from the three points above.

I constantly get asked about Twitter. It is hard to give a concrete answer because it can be molded however you want. I doubt my friend would be interested in following nerdy figures like John Gruber (from Daring Fireball) or Bre Pettis (his blog). However, they might want regular new updates from the New York Times sent to their phone.

Everyone should take the time to experiment with Twitter Search. It will blow your mind if you have never looked at the current trends or followed a search term. Twitter Search taps into the power created by thousands of individuals posting updates. It is a real time feed of news, thoughts, opinions, and emotion. Sometimes it is easier to get product reviews from Twitter Search then stumbling around the web.

Twitter is a great way to stay connected with friends and family, if you can persuade them to join. It has become one of the main ways that my brothers and I have stayed connected since we left for college. My Mom is slowly working on getting her own account, the current plan is to sign up by spring break.

One of Twitter’s co-founders, Evan Williams, gave a talk at this year’s TED conference. What better way to grasp Twitter than to hear it from the horses mouth.

You can follow me on Twitter and even get A Bit Eclectic updates.

Related posts:

1. Follow This Blog on Twitter
2. Too Little, Too Late

The Big Picture is by far one of my favorite photo blogs. It has great pictures that often make my jaw drop. Sometimes the most effective way to get news is through pictures. Look at the pictures from the bush fires in Australia for example.

I suggest taking a look at the comic that introduces Google Chrome.

Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser.

Related posts:

1. Google ASCII Art
2. Facebook Acquires FriendFeed

Please update your links, bookmarks, and feeds. As far as I know this will be the last change to the URL. All of the old URLs should work for the forseeable future but I recommend moving to http://abiteclectic.net.

Related posts:

1. Too Little, Too Late

Popurls has some great features that help you digest news quickly. You can organize the site so that the topics that interest you most are at top while the rest remain near the bottom. You can also sort the page by either website, category, or even chronological order.

Another feature is a pop up news bubble. When you hover over a headline, a little bubble appears giving you a summary of the article. You can then choose to click and read the entire article. This helps save time so you can quickly find more information and more interesting articles.

What about RSS? Why use Popurls when you can get your news through a feed reader?

Popurls and RSS feeds both offer ways to read news but are not mutually exclusive. RSS readers are great for keeping a stockpile of articles and provides you with in depth reading from your favorite sites. RSS is akin to sitting down with a newspaper and reading the news for the day. Popurls, on the other hand, provide you a way to keep up on breaking news. Similar to turning on the TV to catch up on the day’s breaking news.

If you are interested in catching the breaking news head over to popurls.com. For an introduction to RSS, check out this post.

Related posts:

1. How to Discover New and Interesting Music Online

I completely disagree with this comparison. He is comparing the use of tools to sources of information. I fully support the professors who ban the use of Wikipedia and Google as sources for college research papers.

Wikipedia is a great place to get some quick, general, and shallow knowledge about a topic that has no bearing on their professional career. For example, one could look up the history of Nintendo for their own personal interest but should not use Wikipedia when writing a paper on Nintendo’s affect on the US television market.

The problem occurs when you are writing a research paper for college. Wikipedia does not give you enough depth of information or have any authority behind it. You have no idea who edited it or their bias. Wikipedia does have a decent amount of the facts cited, but then a student should read that website/book/article and cite accordingly. This would provide them with a broader and deeper view of the topic, and the professor would not know that they used Wikipedia. The problem is that they are getting the article in Wikipedia and then the research stops there. That does not give them an extensive enough view on the topic. If they do use Wikipedia, they should take the extra steps and follow the citation links at the bottom of the articles. Some of the time, this will lead them to more credible sources with more information. It is their duty as the researcher to determine if these articles are coming from a credible source.

Additionally, many colleges and universities offer a wide array of databases to their students*. Many college students pay for the use of these databases, yet choose Wikipedia. They should instead go to their library and ask for some assistance with these databases and in finding and determining credible sources.

I was actually shocked that Robert said that Google was a good source for research. Recently, he posted some videos describing that Google is doomed because it is spammed by SEO or Search Engine Optimization. SEO creates the same theoretical problem when a student searches for credible sources through Google. The first three results may be very relevant but not unbiased. They will be able to obtain good articles and research, they just have to wade through most of the optimized sites and those that have a financial investment in the topic. Many college students don’t understand this and believe that the top three results are the most credible. They will then use articles from WebsiteX.com instead of a professors article on Profsite.edu. If they do choose to do an internet search, they might want to try Google scholar and search scholarly articles that have been published and reviewed. While they are at it, they should just use the many databases that are offered by their library*.

Overall, I believe that students are using Wikipedia and Google as a crutch when doing research papers. Those are both places to easily obtain information, but by themselves are by no means sufficient. By banning the use of these websites for research papers, professors are helping their students to research credible sources.

[Original Article and Scoble's Post]

* I do know that some students may be at a disadvantage because their University does not offer these sources.

Related posts:

1. Getting Things Done Explained for Students – Lifehacker
2. Google ASCII Art