The Twitter Critter Strikes Back!

 I know I have already sung songs of high praise about twitter in an earlier post. But many of my friends, who are quite active on other social networks (facebook, orkut), don't seem to be very accepting of the latest entrant in the soc-net scene. So I decided to break the ice, so to speak, between these skeptics and twitter by spreading some 'gyaan' through my blog.

This post is the first of a three part series detailing (in a manner of speaking) various aspects of the Twitter Universe (or as we tweeps call it, the twitverse!). This post will talk about the basics of twitter and how to use it. The next post in the series will talk about third party applications that help you enrich your twitter presence and the final post in the series will discuss various twitter clients to help make your twitter experience simple yet effective.




So What is this twitter thingie?

Conventional Blogs tend to be lengthy and are usually topic/theme specific, periodic and well let's face it sometimes downright boring (qualities that this particular blog hopes never to live up to!). It's almost impossible to leverage your blog to stay in touch with your friends, family and colleagues, well not on a personal basis at least.

Enter the micro-blog. Same concept as a blog but with a size limit. You pen your thoughts, but since the length of your "post" is limited (with 140 characters, that's an understatement!) your thoughts are pretty short. This lets you get creative with your posts and lets you  update people about what's happening with you or as the tag line on your twitter page says it - What Are You Doing? Users 'tweet' their thoughts, rantings, comments, jokes and absolutely anything that can be put into words. Well within 140 characters to be more precise.

If you're familiar with facebook, twitter is essentially the 'What's on your mind' section of your facebook page. At the core, Twitter is all about letting the world know what you are upto, plain and simple! To start off, simply go to the twitter website, register yourself and you are ready to be part of the twiterrati!


What do I tweet about?
Most newbie tweeters get intimidated by this thought (I know I was!). Well it's simple. Tweet about what ever catches your fancy. What are you doing, or going to do, or have already done! Start with a simple "Hello World" (programmers you can dig this one right!), talk about the weather, the news, latest movies, music, food, pets or even  the color of your boss's secretary's eyes! Yes tweeting is all about being who you really are and what goes on in that head of yours!

But you can only hold up a conversation with yourself for so long. Being on twitter (or any other soc-net site) is about building your network. So start following other tweeters. Start by finding your personal friends who are already on twitter. Invite a few from your mail address book if they aren't already users. You can even use twitter's own Recommended Users list. But don't go overboard and follow every tweep you see. Gradually build up your twitter network. Then start tweeting with them, about them, or just at them!

Follow The Leader

In twitter lingo, following someone is equivalent to adding that person to your twitter network. Following someone automatically lets you see their tweets. Conversely if someone follows you, they get to see all your tweets. Following someone results in their tweets being displayed on your twitter page. The list of tweets you see is commonly known as a time-line.

And don't be surprised if you find random tweeple (twitter people a.k.a peeps) following you. If you don't like that kind of thing, don't sweat it. you can keep your tweets private and allow only people whom you authorize to follow you and in effect your tweets.

Apart from your own network and other random people, there are many celebrity tweeters out there who are worth following, start with them. Since following anyone on a twitter is fairly unrestricted, you can follow your favorite celeb tweeters and stay in the loop about the latest gossip and happenings in their lives.

Do keep in mind, just because you are following them doesn't mean they are following you as well. With twitter, the follow could be one-way. But don't worry,if your tweets are interesting, they'll soon turn around and start following you!

Give And Ye Shall Receive

Want to mention your fellow tweeter in your tweet? Simply send out a tweet by prefixing his/her user name with a @. You'll see that the peep's name is now a link redirecting to their profile. Neat nah? This is a great way for you to mention your friends on twitter and encourage others to mingle with them.

Another way to mention your fellow peeps is by retweeting. Retweeting is similar to the concept of forwarding messages or emails. Retweets are prefixed with a RT followed by the fellow tweeter whose tweet you are retweeting. Its a fun way of spreading jokes, news articles or any interesting material across the twitverse. Retweeting is equivalent to flattery in the Twitter World (hmmm shouldn't that be Tworld?)

Like something a fellow peep tweeted? You can save it for quick reference by simply making it a favorite. Keep in mind that your favorites, like your tweets, are public.

Talk Back

Want to answer a question someone tweeted? Have some advise for another tweeter? Then reply to their tweets. Replies are similar to mentions. The difference is that a reply begins with the user-name mention and continues with your message.

A reply only appears to those for whom it is meant. However if someone were to visit you profile page, these replies along with the intended recipients are visible to them. So a more secure way of communicating with a fellow tweeter is using the Direct Message (DM) feature. Simply start your tweet with a D followed by the reply message.

Keep It Relevant

A feature of twitter which I find personally very useful is the hash tag. Prefix any word with a # and it becomes a keyword with a hyperlink which can be easily searched. Any and all tweets in the twitverse that contain that particular word can be found by simply clicking on that word in any tweet. This feature is particularly helpful when you are tweeting (either randomly or to fellow tweeters) about a particular topic and want to review all past tweets containing that word.

The hash tag is also used to start trending topics which can be followed and continued by other fellow tweeters. This is very useful when you want to track what people are talking about and keeps you updated on the latest news and trends across the globe.




Voila, it's as simple as that! Hope this hs been helpful in understanding the way twitter works and has cleared most of the queries that you have about the soc-net site.

So go ahead and create your twitter profiles. Start following interesting tweeps. By the way, my twitter profile name is Aaragorn1984, in case you were considering to follow me!

The next post in the series (may not be the very next post!) will shed some light on the different third party applications that will enrich your twitter experience via media sharing.

Happy Tweeting!

Next in this series - Attack Of the Apps

Ajab Movie Ka Ghazab Review

What was touted as the romantic comedy of the year turned out to be yet another average flick. Raj Kumar Santoshi's Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani disappoints cinema-goers with a lackluster plot and very predictable story.

Boy meets girl. Boy loves Girl. Boy becomes Girl's best friend. Girl in love with Someone else. Boy willing to sacrifice love for Girl's Happiness. Someone else not perfect match for Girl. Girl Realizes that Boy is true love. Boy and Girl confess heir love to each other and live happily ever after. That is APKGK in a nutshell. Okay maybe I'm being a little harsh. But the story is pretty ordinary with nothing terribly fresh to offer.

The movie is essentially a romantic comedy focusing on Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) and his love interest, Jenny (Katrina Kaif). The first half focuses on the attempts by Prem to express his love for Jenny. Barring a few scenes, this portion of the movie is a bore and makes you wonder where is it all heading? Post interval the pace picks up and so does the humor, but marginally. The movie does have its moments where the audience will crack up. My personal favorites were the dialogues between characters of Ranbir and that of his father (Darshan Zariwala).

The USP of the movie, apart from the director, is of course the lead pair. Both Ranbir and Katrina are part of the new generation of actors and are youth icons in their own right. Their appeal to the respective sexes (or whatever sex!) will definitely bring in the initial crowds. But alas eye-candy is not enough to fill the theater seats.

The young Kapoor is as dashing and as suave as can be, even when he plays a small town dreamy-eyed lad. Katrina, well her appeal lies on multiple levels, unfortunately none of them are related to "Good Acting". This is yet another movie where the sexy lass fails to emote beyond a few scenes. However her performance seems Oscar worthy when compared with that of Upen Patel. Dude, seriously you were doing so good as a model!

If there is someone who manages to keep you from walking out of the theater, it is Ranbir Kapoor. The New Kapoor on the block proves his mettle with this movie as he manages to carry the rom-com almost single handed all the way through till the end.

Some may argue that the disappointment arises due to the inevitable comparison between APKGK and Santoshi's comic masterpiece Andaz Apna Apna. True as that maybe, it doesn't overshadow the fact that APKGK isn't a very GREAT movie to begin with. One can't even say that the story had great potential, since it isn't a very original script. Santoshi has attempted to pull off a Jab We Met mixed with a little Namastey London garnished with a dash of his own Andaz Apna Apna. The result is one not very memorable romantic comedy.

One of the few things, that I liked, was the song and dance sequences. Most of the songs (well at least the ones that are doing the rounds of the radio chart toppers), have been beautifully shot. They have a very music video feel to them. I especially liked the number 'Tera Hone Laga Hoo'. Although I still don't understand why Santoshi insists on filming his naach-gaana outside India?

Surprisingly many newspaper critics have given rave reviews for the movie. I guess that just goes to show that everything is up for sale these days! Frankly, I'd say don't waste your money to catch this movie with an overly priced multiplex ticket. Instead watch it as a matinee in a few weeks. Or better yet, wait for a month or two and some desperate satellite channel is bound to showcase this as their "Super hit" of the month.

TED - Ideas Worth Spreading

Recently I came across a Website that really changed the way I look at my profession. For that matter, it really transformed my perception about the nature of different professions and how they are in fact related to one another, no matter how diverse. But before I go into the details of the website, a little background about what the web-site is promoting.

TED or technology Entertainment Design started as a conference, held in Long Beach, California way back in 1984, which brought together people from the fields of, well you guessed it, technology entertainment and design. At the face of it this combination seems odd. But this odd mix of people sharing their own stories about their work and their experiences snowballed and today the conference, which is an annual affair is sold out a year in advance, has speakers from many other backgrounds and has inspired millions.

The premise for the conference is simple. Innovators, leaders, experts from each field share their ideas. These 'stories' are aimed at not any specific audience or a privileged few, but at all of us, you, me, and everybody. At the core of TED is the belief that an idea can come anywhere at any time and from anyone. Also that idea can spread at the speed of light and has the potential to move mountains. The TED conference is a medium for those who wish to share their ideas with the world in an effort to improve society as a whole.

The TED philosophy -

• An idea can be created out of nothing except an inspired imagination.
• An idea weighs nothing.
• It can be transferred across the world at the speed of light for virtually zero cost.
• And yet an idea, when received by a prepared mind, can have extraordinary impact.
• It can reshape that mind's view of the world.
• It can dramatically alter the behavior of the mind's owner.
• It can cause the mind to pass on the idea to others.

Many of the ideas are in the form of stories or anecdotes. Speakers come from different walks of life. To give you an idea of the range of topics, here is a list of recent speakers at the TED conferences held in the last few years:

• Eve Ensler -Creator of the Vagina Monologues
• Peter Diamandis - Runs the X-Prize foundation
• Abhay Deol - Bollywood Actor/Producer
• Bill Clinton - Former US President
• Jane Goodall - Renowned anthropologist
• Nandan Nilekani - Founding member, Infosys
• Al Gore - Former US Vice President, Nobel Laurette
  
• Bono - Singer, Activist
• JJ Abrams - Hollywood Producer/Director
  

It is quite apparent that the spectrum of speakers at the TED conferences is pretty colossal. But these are just a few of the speakers that have contributed in the last two and a half decades of TED.And each speaker brings to the floor his or her unique story.

The beauty of TED lies in its simple format. Over a course of 4 days, 50 Speakers get a fixed time slot of 18 minutes each to share their stories. The stories range from the hilarious to the inspirational. But each story is enriching in its own way.

TED is now a global phenomenon, not restricted to the conferences at Long Beach, California. In fact, the latest TED conference is being held right here in India at the Mysore Campus of Infosys and is playing host to many national and international personalities.

This brings me to the website that I mentioned earlier. In an effort to ensure that the stories/ideas of the many speakers don't get lost in the annals of time, TED launched TED.com, a 'clearinghouse' of knowledge, where ordinary people like you and I can view the inspirational videos of the speakers from past TED conferences.

I am sure that most of you watch some of the many many inane (albeit funny) viral videos that are ubiquitous on the net. Every other day someone is posting a link to some funny or ''Awesome' video file on YouTube or the likes. While these videos are a great stress-buster, they're more likely to be forgotten or have little value-addition to our lives or to the society as a whole.

On the other hand watching a video of any of the speakers from past TED conferences on TED.com is an enriching experience. Not only does it introduce us to new stories of people from across the globe and across industries, but also provides a new perspective on many global and local issues. Do yourself a favor, watch at least one TED video in a day (it takes not more than 20 minutes). I guarantee, within a week, you will start looking at the world in a new light.

You can go to the TED website and start viewing these videos instantly. Or you could fill out a simple registration form and become part of the TED community. Advantages of being part of the Community include being able to interact with other TED community members, mark you favorite TED videos and themes, share your idea with others and much more.

To get a taste of what TED is all about, view the video below:



But why? Why go into all this trouble of getting people from disparate backgrounds to come and speak about random topics and experiences?
Well each experience, each story, each idea is random in isolation. But when you rise above the boundaries of individual backgrounds, these ideas are connected. Every idea is the result of someone's imagination. That someone may be limited in his or her thought process and may not see the impact or the reach of his/her idea. But when you throw your idea out their in the open, it starts taking a life of its own, it starts breathing, it grows and it germinates many more ideas. No matter how different our professional and personal backgrounds may be, we are still connected as a human race and hence so are our problems and as a consequence the solutions to those problems. The TED conference, in my view, is a wonderful testament to that notion and thus is great legacy that we can leave for future generations to carry on.

For further information on TED visit the following links
http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/5
http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/42