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andrewleahey.org


my corridor of disturbance

Filed under: geek

Batch Scripting Tickler File

Heres a bit of batch script for creating a text file named the current date and/or for opening it if it already exists. Works great for keeping a journal or just for general note-taking for anyone who is perpetually in notepad. 

@echo off

set YYMMDD=%date:~12,4%-%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%

if exist .\%YYMMDD%.txt goto exists

:exists

start NOTEPAD .\%YYMMDD%.txt

:end

Open notepad, paste it in, save the file as TICKLER.bat and give it a whirl. Make sure you place it in the directory you want the text files kept. Integrate this with Windows Live Mesh if you're on Windows, or Evernote, or even Dropbox for cross-platform synchronization. 

Do this!

Windows 7 on the Dell Mini 9

Having tested Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my Mini 9, I decided it was worthwhile giving Microsoft's latest Windows incarnation a go. I had previously run XP on the machine, and it ran reasonably well. However, Windows 7 takes up considerably more space on the 8 gig SSD, and thus I had to undertake some install-slimming measures to get it down to a reasonable footprint. 

I utilized Rick's thorough howto guide for installing and using vLite, as well as the Microsoft WAIK (Windows Automated Install Kit). This cut out a significant chunk of uselessness: language support, Windows Help, etc.

I have a usable amount of space remaining of my 8 gigs, with Windows 7 installed, and all the (my) necessary applications. 

Ss1

As far as performance goes, I'd rank the machine's speed with Aero enabled and most of 7's bells and whistles turned on as well above XP. It boots up quickly, applications are snappy, and is generally exactly what Vista should have been. 

Archiving All of Your Twitter Followers Tweets via OPML, Google Reader, and Friendfeed

The other day Dave Winer posted a new tool he created to make OPML (essentially, blog roll files, or friends lists) files of one's Twitter followers. Great tool. He described its usefulness as:

You could use this format to import your subscription list into another app, if one existed. As far as I know none does exist. However, this is an essential step in a bootstrap to create new ways of consuming Twitter data.

I took it one step further. I wanted an easy way to archive all of my Twitter-followers tweets, whether they are directed to me or not. I'm already an active user on Friendfeed, so integrating this whole bootstrap solution in to that service was only natural. Here's how I did it.

  1. Generate the OPML file, follow Winer's instructions to get it syndicating on Google Reader.
  2. In Google Reader, under Settings > Folders and Tags, click the small RSS syndication-looking icon next to "Private" for the Folder that contains your Twitter followers (probably named "Twitter-username subscriptions")
  3. Click "view public page"
  4. On the public page for the folder, you should see an "Atom feed" link on the far right, get the URL for that feed. (mine looks like "http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user%2F02004925579012804412%2Flabel%2FTwitter-leahey%20subscriptions")
  5. Now on Friendfeed, you're going to want to create a group (http://www.friendfeed.com/groups), name it whatever you like, but I suggest you make it private. 
  6. Once created, add the Custom RSS/Atom feed from above, and voila. All of your Twitter-followers tweets are archived and (!) very searchable.
It's relatively straight forward. Currently, the RSS feeds for Twitter are more than a little bit behind, so this is by no means a client replacement. However, for archiving and searching older tweets, its an excellent solution. Additionally, it offers a whole host of backup possibilities. You can have the entire thing emailed to you in real time (I definitely suggest a secondary Gmail account for this one). Let me know what else you find!

Update: See my (now public) group here: http://friendfeed.com/ff-leaheytwitter
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