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I like twitter, but I found this graphic this morning that sums it up:

And, for the adults in the audience, here is a further illustration.

This one was introduced to me by Josh. Now, I know that most of you aren’t that heavily into instant messaging, but I feel that I need to give back to the creators of Pidgin. It is for IMing what Brief is for feeds; it gathers and centralizes (don’t forget: a productive programmer is one who works very hard to achieve effective laziness).

Here’s why I’m a big fan of Pidgin: I am a child of the computer age. In high school, I started using AIM; everyone used AIM, so I used AIM. Then, I made a bunch of friends in Romania. These friends had never heard of AOL, but they were very familiar with Yahoo Messenger (or “Mess,” as it’s more affectionately referred to there). So I got a Yahoo ID in order to keep contact with them. Then, it turns out, Google (those devious monkeys) integrated an instant messenger into its email system! Brilliant! This, however, opened up a whole new vista of acquaintances exclusive to one IM medium.

What was a telephonophobe to do?! I’d already forgotten my Yahoo ID and, let’s face it, didn’t really enjoy the GChat interface (although, it does have automatic logging… and “<3" href="http://www.humanized.com/enso_demo.php">cool computer-related “discoveries,” the toutelage of Josh). It integrates all of my accounts (and, more! Now if I could only remember my old ICQ and IRC info…) into one program. That’s what I’m all about: efficient time-wasting (thanks to a completely different jedi master).

“But wait,” you ask. “What if I have friends that are on 2 or, heaven help me, more of those accounts?” Fear not, fair citizen; Pidgin gives you control over your interface, letting you combine redundant accounts into one Friend. It even checks your email for you! And it comes with all the bells and whistles (logging, alerts, you name it). And… it’s [ad] free! Can’t get enough of that open-source!

Screen shots:

So, I’m redacting my post on FastDial (ok, not redacting, but upgrading; we still like FastDial). But, for my habits, I’ve realized that this Firefox plug-in is much more perfecter.

All it is is an RSS feed gatherer and reader. You just add the Live Bookmark (or whatever) of the site that you want, and Brief will check those feeds as often as you tell it to. Translation? You can know when someone’s updated a site (a blag, webcomic, what have you) without ever checking (and experiencing that let-down feeling when nothing’s changed since last time)!

For example:`
J-Dizzle likes to stay on top of her webcomics (LFG, OOTS, xkcd, Goblins), her funny blags (PesuP, Perez Hilton, FAIL), and her family’s blags. All together, she has about 20 sites that she regularly checks at least every other day, usually in the morning before work and after dinner (but sometimes she sneaks in a read during lunch).
She gets Brief and adds her sites’ RSS feeds. Because of her surfing schedule, J-Dizzle sets Brief to update every 6 hours. Now, whenever she wants to know what’s the latest, she just opens Firefox, clicks on her Brief window, and has all of her updates in one place! Eeeeexcellent.

(A little involved for an explanation of a simple RSS reader, but a fun narrative, no?)

I’m not even going to bother with screenshots, because the simplicity and elegance wouldn’t translate well.

I know what you’re thinking. “I surf the web to waste time. Isn’t doing it faster a little counter-productive?”
As the great SOTM would say, “It’s not enough to waste time; you have to waste time efficiently“