My Blog

As you may know, I am a huge Twitter fan. And because the Twitter XMPP bot has been offline for a very long time, and the fact that I dislike using the website (not because of it's design, it's just out of my way).

This brought me to a crossroads, find an application that reads/posts to Twitter, or stop using Twitter. As the latter of the two isn't feasible, I began my hunt for the perfect Twitter app. I'm very picky when it comes to software, if it doesn't do exactly what I want it to do, I won't use it. With this being said, I knew it wouldn't be easy to find what I was looking for.

My search began with an application called Spaz. In my opinion, Spaz was really poorly written. My evidence (not that this happens to everyone) is the broken UI upon startup (which wouldn't fix itself until I clicked on several things), and the fact that it's very poorly designed.

The next item on my list was Twhirl. I can't understand why so many people like this app, I really can't. The giant swirl in the top right is horrid looking and takes up too much space, API limit always exceeded itself within 3 minutes of use, and the fact that it's only single column.

After trying these two popular Twitter apps, I went around with a couple others, which were even worse.
Then one day I see that @JakeMarsh is using something called TweetDeck, which sounded interesting, so I checked it out. Looking at the screenshots, I wasn't too impressed, but not pushed away either. So I installed it and gave it a go.

The first time I ran it, I took notice to the clean design to it. Some people see it as being too big, but in my opinion, it's perfect. I see it this way because I can see more than one thing at a time with it, which if you try using Twhirl or such, you'll understand exactly what I mean. It's still in heavy public beta, and every version is a huge improvement on the previous one. Some of the things I found cool with it are groups, optional multi-column view, and the color scheme.

Quick breakdown of my overall thoughts on it..


Pros:

• Very well laid out interface
  
• The option to use single column or multi-column view
  
• Good looking color scheme
  
• Ability to have Groups, which you can follow certain people in a certain column
  
• Built in URL shortener
  
• Built in TwitPic integration (will be in the next version)
  
• Fast (which, for a AIR app, is a not common)
  

Cons:

• Only one color scheme (Who wouldn't want a hot pink TweetDeck?)
  
• Lack of options
  

One last thing that I absolutely love about TweetDeck is the community. They have a special area where you can request new features to be added to the app. In my opinion, this is the perfect way to make an app that the people want, use their ideas!


http://tweetdeck.com

So I downloaded Paint.NET and have been giving it a run for its money. I've got to say it's really nice. It doesn't have as many features as the almighty Photoshop, but it does have enough to get by. Unless you're a huge Photoshop junkie (a real junkie, no OMG YOURSPACE fags), you wouldn't even notice.

As far as I've gone with it, it feels easier to use and work in. And as for features, it is a major upgrade from MSPaint/The GIMP. I don't want to try to sell anyone the product, but seeing as it's free, go give it a try if you want.

http://www.getpaint.net/

I've recently been using GlobalSCAPE's CuteFTP Professional (trial) and would like to share my thoughts about it with you. If you don't happen to know what CuteFTP, or an FTP client is, it is simply an application used to access an FTP server. You may be thinking "Well, Internet Explorer/Konqueror/Safari does that, doesn't it?" The answer to that is yes, they do. However, an FTP client has far more functionality than a web browser does (at least, most do).

When I did the initial configuration of CuteFTP, one feature that really stood out was the "Site Manager" feature. This feature lets you have a "one click connect" per say to an FTP site. While other clients do have the dropdown quick connect box (as does CuteFTP), just clicking a button that is right there instead of choosing from the dropdown box is simply easier (and quicker) to do. A couple other features I noticed were tabbed sessions (so I could connect to multiple server simultaneously), quick connect (so I don't have to save an FTP site just to connect to it), and the click and drag interface (which several other FTP clients I've used did have multiple panes, but no drag and drop).

As for the stability of the application, all I can say is that it is excellent. I've had several problems with SmartFTP and IglooFTP not fully transferring a file and randomly disconnecting. I have not had CuteFTP crash a single time within the trial, which is more than I can say for most software. And if you happen to be a very picky preferences person, you will have a field day with CuteFTP's preferences. If you are a just a casual FTP user, or new to it, you'll be glad to know that you won't have to touch the preferences menu if you don't want to. One thing I found that put people on the fence about buying the software was the price tag. While $59 may seem like a lot, if you are going to get heavy into FTP, or looking for a permanent replacement for your current client, the price tag is worth it.

If you are looking for a quick pro/con list, here it is.

Positive:

• Stable
  
• Maintains a good connection
  
• File transfers maintain their integrity
  
• Support for both Windows and Mac OS X
  
• Highly flexible settings
  
• Site Manager for keeping tabs on your favorite FTP servers
  
• Drag and Drop file transfers
  
• Security (SSL, SSH, etc)
  
• Folder Synchronization
  

Negative:

• No official support for *nix
  
• Intimidating preferences menu