I recently became a twitter user, and I immediately got addicted. I really have the sensation that twitter is extremely powerful, even if I still don’t exactly know how. So, while I think a little more about what can I do with it (as tool/platform for my job, I mean), here some fun things you can do with the 140 chars of a tweet:

• Sell stuff (the service is free!) in a auction-based or fixed price way. Who needs eBay anymore?
• Serve an injunction.
• Control your lights or even fully automate your home. Amazing.
• Remotely monitor a server: here and here.
• Control a Mac.
• Get a taxi? Why not…
• Play chess (even against the whole community, cool!)
• Notify the entire planet that the view is beautiful from the space.
• Publish a newspaper, now we know it’s possible.
• Hold a worldwide press conference.

140 chars…. not too bad eh?

Next month I will (would?) be in Thailand, where less than one hour ago coup attempt took place.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, in New York at a United Nations summit, declared a state of emergency in Bangkok, ordered troops not to “move illegally”, and told armed forces chiefs to report to acting Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya.

The Thai armed forces and national police chiefs have set up a commission to decide on political reforms after troops and tanks took over government headquarters. At least 20 soldiers entered the Government House building, according to reporters inside.

Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told CNN that Thailand’s leadership expects everything to return to normal soon. We hope!

Update, 19:05: seems that news channels have been cutted in Thai so CNN and BBC cannot be seen.

In this unhappy day for my country something happened that made me get a little bit better.Tonight at the TV I saw an interview to Tiziano Terzani* that impressed me much.Even if the interview was taken only 2 months before his death, he was still able to comunicate his great energy, spirital power and happyness. I never heard someone speak about facing such an hard desease with his tranquillity. He is watching you in the eyes, involving you in an intimate talking in which you can’t not to feel passionate.Here an extract: “…A cancer? I have numerous, here and there. And the amusing thing is that we are living together since seven years. Futher more, I and them are a single thing and I would be a stupid thiniking: they kill me, I kill them. We will leave together because we grew together: and for this I think the cancer has been a blessing for me, in fact I was fallen into the life routine and this cancer saved me …“ * Tiziano Terzani was an Italian journalist and writer.For 30 years was correspondent for Der Spiegel and collaborated with Il Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica. He is author of many books like: A Fortune-Teller Told Me, Behind The Forbidden Door: Travels in Unknown China and Letters against the War.		In questo giorno triste per il mio paese, è successo qualcosa che mi risolleva un pochino il morale.In TV è passata un’intervista a Tiziano Terzani* che mi ha molto impressionato.Anche se l’intervista risale ad appena due mesi prima della sua morte, Tiziano è ancora in grado di comunicare la sua energia, la forza del suo spirito, la sua felicità. Non ho mai sentito nessuno parlare di una così difficile malattia con così grande tranquillità. Lui ti guarda negli occhi, ti coninvole in una conversazioni intima a cui non ti puoi non appassionare.Ecco un estratto: “…Un tumore? Ne ho vari, un po’ di qua, un po’ di là. Ma la cosa divertente è che ci convivo da sette anni. E poi, io e quelli siamo una cosa sola e sarebbe stupido pensare: loro ammazzano me, io ammazzo loro. Ce ne andremo insieme perché siamo cresciuti insieme: e con questo trovo che per me il cancro è stato una benedizione, perché ero ricaduto nella routine delle vita e questo cancro mi ha salvato….“ * Tiziano Terzani è stato giornalista e scrittore. Per trent’anni è stato corrispondente di Der Spiegel e collaboratore de Il Corriere della Sera e La Repubblica. E’ autore di numerosi libri, tra cui: Un indovino mi disse, La porta proibita e Lettere contro la guerra.
Photo: Vicenzo Cottinelli. Florence, May 24th, 2004.

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OK guys, we got it! Now we have a browser that always come with us, and with all our bookmarks, history, saved password, etc.
You only have to mix up two of the coolest stuffs the Internet is offering these days: Portable Firefox (by Portable Apps) and Google Browser Sync.

Portable Firefox is a great version of the popular browser that you can use without installation: you simply have to put it in a folder and it runs. A typical use is on a usb pen. Every where you can carry your pen you can use you Firefox.

Google Browser Sync is an extension I desired so much that I was about to develop it by my self. Fortunately the guys from Google (thank you so much for being) came first and now we all have it (obviously for free…). This extension use your Google account to store many of the settings of your browser: bookmarks, history, cookies, last opened tabs and even your stored password if you want. When you run it the first time, it connects to Google, downloads the settings and apply changes if any. Then periodically, or when you close the browser, store your configuration in your Google account.
This is simply great. Not only because my two PCs, at work and at home, (and now my Portable version too…) share my bookmarks and all the other settings. But also because when I rebuilt my machine (I do it often on the notebook I use for work) I got my Firefox set up in seconds.

Does anyone is still using IE?

By visiting the blog of one of mine commenters (many thanks Jorriss!), I found a link to a great serie of articles by Chris Sells about project management. For those of you how lives on the moon, Chris is Program Manager in the Distributed Systems Group at Microsoft (the division that owns Indigo, InfoCard, Windows Workflow, Active Directory and BizTalk) and wrote tons of great books.

Anyway, here the links:

PM Skill #0: Know Your Job

PM Skill #1: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

PM Skill #2: Building Consensus

PM Skill #3: Getting Things Done

PM Skill #4: Exhibiting the Behavior You Want

PM Skill #5: Unblock Others First

PM Skill #6: Be The Team Mom

PM Skill #7: Use That Meeting Time!

PM Skill #8: Give Credit Freely

PM Skill #9: Learn From The Masters

What we’re saying is that in six months’ time we’ll be more relevant in the U.S. market place than Google.

Neil Holloway – March 1, 2006.
(Microsoft president for Europe, Middle East and Africa)

Source: Microsoft says future search will beat Google.

U.S. Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia.

The tragic and devastating power of 2004’s post holiday tsunami was plastered across the cover of practically every newspaper around the world for the better part of a month. As the death toll rose by the thousands every day, countries struggled to keep pace with the rapidly increasing need for aid across the Indian Ocean Basin.
>At the same time that U.S. aid was widely publicized domestically, our coinciding military motives were virtually ignored by the press. While supplying our aid (which when compared proportionately to that of other, less wealthy countries, was an insulting pittance), we simultaneously bolstered military alliances with regional powers in, and began expanding our bases throughout, the Indian Ocean region…

Sources:
Jane’s Foreign Report (Jane’s Defence), February 15, 2005
Title: “U.S. Turns Tsunami into Military Strategy”
The Irish Times, February 8, 2005
Title: “U.S. Has Used Tsunami to Boost Aims in Stricken Area”
Author: Rahul Bedi
Inter Press Service, January, 18 2005
Title: “Bush Uses Tsunami Aid to Regain Foothold in Indonesia”
Author: Jim Lobe

Do you trust your Office Assistant too?

I found a really interesting project: a .Net IDE hosted in a web application.
No, I’m not joking, it’s true!! The project is in beta phase and at the moment you can work only on console applications, but what a nice idea!!

You can try it here.

You should ask the question the right way…

Here a genial tip by KC Lemson.