Tweetlog for August 27 through August 28, 2008

Pawlenty is hot on Twitter now. Some are predicting him, many are dreading him.

FEMA official: Tropical Storm Gustav is potentially the largest hurricane to make landfall since Hurricane Katrina. North gulf is bracing.

Very cool new tool: Twitter Grader. Type your Twitter name into the input field and get your Twitter grade http://twitter.grader.com/

Are you going to PAX? It appears many on Twitter are or wish they were.

Zoom Airlines suspends all operations due to unpaid gas bills. http://tinyurl.com/57a5kv

Twitter Nation is actively trying to guess McCain's Veep choice: Romney? Pawlenty? Lieberman? Meg Whitman? Hillary???

BBEdit 9.0 - a Web authoring tool and powerful text editor for the Mac launches with the tag line: "it doesn't suck"

Android - Google's open handset alliance project - now offering "Android Market" as an open content distribution system http://is.gd/20Wj

Tropical Story Hanna forming northeast of Puerto Rico heading northwest and passing north of the Bahamas. Max winds at 40mph

From the wing and a prayer dept comes a new Jesus sighting. This time the image is on a moth. http://is.gd/1lW

Cambodians hit hard by inflation. The price of rat meat has quadruled putting meat out of reach for the nation's poor. http://is.gd/1Xjh

John McCain has made his choice for Vice President and will announce his decision tomorrow in Ohio.

Tweeters banding together to topple Internet Explorer 6. Putting IE6 on notice, it has 6 months to live. http://iedeathmarch.org/

Twitterville software developers emphathizing with this beautifully done and very Dilbert-esque video http://is.gd/20tj

Denver Police arrested an ABC News producer yesterday for taking pics of VIP Dems leaving the Brown Palace hotel http://tinyurl.com/5p8fg9

To paraphrase Mark Twain: "the rumors of Steve Jobs' death have been greatly exaggerated" due to accidental obit printing by Bloomberg

Twitterland reactions to Madeline Albright's speech last night - loved her! Network coverage of her? fail.

For many, the Labor Day weekend in the US will begin this afternoon as workers are already checking out

Tropical Storm Gustav now over Jamaica with winds up to 70 mph. It's path is aiming for New Orleans

Tweets lighting up for a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Vancouver Island

What we're not talking about: Twitterville has been surprisingly quiet about Obama's kiss on Jill Biden's lips - it's a non event here

FBI arrests blogger for streaming 9 un-released Guns N' Roses songs from the album "Chinese Democracy" (over 10 years in the making)

Tweetlog for Tuesday, August 26, 2008 http://is.gd/1Ztt

Twitterland reactions to Bill Clinton - the man knows how to deliver a great speech

True story: my daughter just told me to stop "twidderlicking"

New Twitter-like service called BackType launched today backed by seed fund Y Combinator. Enables find/follow/share of blog comments.

Michael Phelps lights up buzz meter again: he signs a $1.6M book deal and will host the SNL season opener. hmmm hawking the book already ;)

Twitterdom is wondering who the Democrats will nominate at #DNC08 ... some speculating it will be Obama

Microsoft makes Internet Explorer 8 available in beta. Twitterville is busy installing and checking it out: http://is.gd/1YO2

Penny Arcade Expo or PAX 2008 in Seattle begins in 45 hours (per their site). Twittonians gearing up for the trip. http://is.gd/1YMd

AMC relents, lets its "Mad Men" fans continue their Twitter-based adoration of the cable TV show and restore character name Twitter accounts

Atlanta Braves trade outfielder Mark Kotsay to the Bostor Red Sox

Twitterville excited by today's release of "Castle Crashers" for Xbox 360

Gold Medal Olympic Cyclist Kristin Armstrong used Google Earth to plot similar training routes in Boise, ID http://is.gd/1Yga

Apple iPhone bans comic "Murderdrome" created by InfuriousComics for being too violent. Judge for yourself at http://is.gd/1Yfv

Canon responds to Nikon D90 by announcing the EOS 50D SLR camera today http://is.gd/1VKZ

Sunderland signs defender Anton Ferdinand from West Ham United http://is.gd/1Y2M

Teaser from Microsoft Hardware: "Say Goodbye to Laser" on 9.9.08 -- a reference to laser mice http://is.gd/1Y23

Newcastle winger James Milner requests transfer

Astronauts on board the International Space Station witnessed a beautiful display of noctilucent (night-shining) clouds at the edge of space

@warrenellis gives name to his 7001 followers. As of today, they are the Meatbag Armada. Members grappling with what that means to them.

Gustav downgraded to Tropical Storm as it stalled over Haiti with torrential rain. May reach hurricane strength when it pushes out to sea.

Epson releases MovieMate 55 projector with built-in DVD player

Hillary Clinton sound bite of the evening: "no way, no how, no McCain"

Hillary Clinton: closes book on her election run, says "campaign is not about me," tries to unite dems, proclaims Obama is her candidate.

Twitter all a dither over newly released Nikon 090 with ability to shoot HD video

Rewarding good Twitter behaviors

Yesterday, Paul Glazowski posted It’s Time to Give the Best of Twitter Some Pulitzers on mashable. The basic premise of his message is that amongst all of the millions of tweets are some real gems and they should be rewarded for their literary merits, their ability to entertain or their ability to inform. Absolutely agree! The benefit of any award program is that it encourages good behavior. In a world (a nod to Don LaFontaine) where people can write whatever they want so long as it is less than 140 characters, it becomes very difficult for the really good stuff to be heard above the noise.

It is the mission of Twitalytics to help pan the Twitter river for the gold nuggets that lie there if you just know where to look for them, or how. But once found, there really isn't an effective way to promote those who add genuine value to the overall experience. Paul mentions a site that is also attempting to reward good tweeting - Twitties.com and a commenter also notes Twitterbash.com. These sites have the right idea but not the visibility or traction it's going to take for the simple reason that they are disconnected from where the real action is taking place.

If a user is going to cast a vote for a tweet on any measure of value, they will want to do it immediately next to the tweet they just read. They should haven't to make a side trip to comment or rate a tweet ... it has to happen right there and in that instant. A no-brainer feature that I'm sure would catch on like wildfire is a link that lets you forward the tweet (retweet) to your followers. Like the Tweet? Just click the "retweet to your followers" button and boom it's done. You're followers got something you recommended. Perhaps an option can be offered to follow the tweeter that was passed to you with another click.

Tweeters whose posts are continually getting forwarded should get credibility points or "twitterbucks." These points could earn you special privileges such as more visible tweets, more interactive avatars or 20 extra characters per tweet? Options are endless.

Perhaps you can do a search of Tweets posted on a particular subject where the author has earned a certain number twitterbucks. This helps give some special recognition to those tweets viewed by the community as noteworthy.

And now for a shameless plug: in the category of most consistently helpful Twittering across the largest spectrum of subject areas, our nomination goes to none other than us Twitalytics.com, e hope you've been enjoying these tweets but as always want them to be more useful to our small but growing community.

25 ways we spent Labor Day - September 1, 2008

1. annapatterson: Home from Labor Day sales. Couldn't find the bedspread I'd like so bought my default item - a new pair of jeans. Seems successful that way. · View Tweet

2. msorensen: Spending my Labor Day working in the yard · View Tweet

3. rhjr: Spending Labor Day doing things I don't really want to do. And yes, they do involve labor. · View Tweet

4. jgderuvo: US turns over Anbar to Iraq. And nobody notices. · View Tweet

5. stevegrossman: is spending a half-productive, half-restful Labor Day. · View Tweet

6. formerglory: Spending Labor day laboring to put up shutters. Damn you Hannah. · View Tweet

7. starrynight256: Spending Labor Day watching Netflix movies, listening to NPR and playing poker. :) · View Tweet

8. tomhoobyar: Spending Labor Day in a Santa Cruz California coffee shop with my wife and my laptop, writing. · View Tweet

9. rebeccaburch: Is it ironic that I'm spending Labor Day frantically running around, trying to get stuff done that I don't have time to when I'm working? · View Tweet

10. Armano: Spending the remainder of labor day at beach and BBQ. As it should be. · View Tweet

11. foolishgames: i can't believe i'm spending my labor day cleaning house. : · View Tweet

12. LesleyRealtor: Spending Labor Day on Cape Cod. Beautiful day, hope you enjoy yours! · View Tweet

13. annabethblue: I'm going to spend my Labor Day spending all the money I've labored to get....on bills. :-\ · View Tweet

14. the_mighty_emem: spending labor day watching the monk marathon on usa. whoo hoo! no, seriously! · View Tweet

15. treesaregreen: kicking off labor day sans labor as it should be. · View Tweet

16. SamKnoll: While the rest of NC is spending Labor Day at the pool... we are going ice skating. Keeping cool either way! · View Tweet

17. garrettandjoy: Garrett is golfing with dad and two brothers (rarely happens), spending Labor day with Nudd families with picnic food, yum! Watching Gustav! · View Tweet

18. donhornsby: I am looking forward to spending time with extended family - and driving in the local Labor Day parade... · View Tweet

19. cherbert: Spending Labor Day here in London by going to work but hopefully some barbeque & beers later tonight. · View Tweet

20. s5: looks like I'll be spending Labor Day laboring. workers of the world, unite! · View Tweet

21. jasoncdukes: is watching the NASCAR race with Caleb. His friend Caleb is watching it with us & spending the night too. Happy Labor Day to all. · View Tweet

22. ToThink: Spending Labor Day weekend looking for labor. Updating resume, linkedin, etc. · View Tweet

23. jdcoffman: Want to know what's fun on Labor Day? Renaming your blog tags and adjusting the taxonomy on your blog. :-) · View Tweet

24. bluedepth: The Zoo was a wonderful way to spend Labor Day. Fueling up and Soda'ing up. No burns, hooray! · View Tweet

25. dougblackjr: is noticing no one really twitters on Labor day! · View Tweet
(editor's note: see above)

Search for more tweets on how we spent Labor Day on search.twitter.com