UPDATE: Since posting this, I have added Twitter support to my own application Stuffr. You can find out more at Get Stuffr!

As you know, I have been using Twitter for several weeks now.

Since I live about 12 feet beyond the signal of most every cell phone signal known to man, I spend most of my Twitter time using the computer.

I started using the web page, but then I graduated to Twitteroo which is a handy Windows application. It’s not that I don’t like Twitteroo, but compared to the web site, it really doesn’t offer much and I lost interest very quickly.

I am a creature of habit and convenience. But who isn’t? If you had a choice between software that “did the job” and software that made using the service 1000 times easier, which would you choose?

Last week, the Tweetbar plugin for Firefox came out, and of course, I grabbed it. Tweetbar makes it possible to surf and tweet at the same time, in the same window. It’s very convenient. I have it installed right now, and it’s awesome. I wish the links would open in a new background tab, but that’s not enough to keep me from using it.

I do, however, have another requirement where Twitter is concerned. I have been known to sit at the computer without the browser open. I know, it’s sick, and it doesn’t happen often, but there are times when I am too busy, or just not interested, and the browser is nowhere to be found. So, how in the heck am I supposed to keep my eye on Twitter if my browser is closed?

It would be nice to have an app I can keep open on the second monitor, to keep one eye on Twitter. Not just any app either, but one that had keyboard shortcuts and did all sorts of tricks and would kick sand in all the other Twitter app’s faces.

This morning, while I was drinking my morning coffee and peeling my eyelids open for the upteenth time, I found it. Well, rather, it found me. The name of the best Windows app for Twitter was staring me in the face thanks to a tweet from Chris Pirillo, who was talking about it (and the fact that Twitter was down so I was seeing messages from several hours prior to sitting down).

TwitBox, created by Steven Hodson is my new Twitter drug of choice. It’s written for Vista, but runs just fine under XP.

It’s easy, it’s convenient, and it has all sorts of nifty little keyboard shortcuts.

It’s awesome.

I was going through some old cd’s today and realized I had not run the SloboCam for a very long time. Well, it’s back and this time, I have it focused on ‘Oreo The Cat’.

When our family first met Oreo, she was stranded in a tree in our backyard and our dogs were making her think they were going to eat her. Little did she know, all she had to do is hiss once and they all would have ran away.

After several hours, I rescued her from the tree, and she never left. She adopted our front porch as her home. After several weeks we decided since she was doing such a good job mousing (we didn’t see a mouse all winter), that we would make her more comfortable. On very cold evenings she comes in and sleeps in our master bathroom, and every day she is greeted with a bowl of fresh water and a nice meal.

She never goes in the kennel, but sleeps just to the left of it, just off camera. I couldn’t get a good location for the SloboCam, so you’ll just have to live with that.

I don’t know how long I will run the “OreoCam”, but for now, you can watch by clicking on the image in the right sidebar. The image updates every minute or so, and will run 24 / 7 until I decide it’s just too much.

Watch carefully, because you may get a glimpse of her or one of her many friends that show up throughout the day and try to eat her food.

The recall of contaminated pet foods expanded Saturday to include a new brand, even as investigators puzzled over how a chemical called melamine would kill dogs and cats.

Nestlé Purina PetCare Co. said it was recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes.

Purina said a limited amount of the food contained a contaminated wheat gluten from China. (Read details of Purina recallexternal link)

The same U.S. supplier also provided wheat gluten, a protein source, to a Canadian company, Menu Foods, which this month recalled 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food it produces for sale under nearly 100 brand labels.

Menu Foods and the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the pet food industry, have refused to identify the company that supplied the contaminated wheat gluten.

Hill’s Pet Nutrition said late Friday that its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food included the tainted wheat gluten. The FDA said the source was the same unidentified company.

Hill’s, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co., is so far the only company to recall any dry pet food. (Hill’s recall informationexternal link)

There seems to be a new development or new products added to this recall on a daily basis. Keep your eyes open people.

When I started up Firefox today, I noticed that the ScribeFire (formerly Performancing) plugin had updated, although when checking their site, it says it was released on March 19th. Hmmf. I hate being the last one to know.

On the outside I don’t see that much has changed, and reading the reviews, I can’t help but wonder if it was released early? I cannot find any release notes, as of this posting. If I find some, I will update this post.

This post was created with ScribeFire, as a test to see how it works. :)

UPDATE: The post didn’t post from ScribeFire, for some reason, the category did not “stick” and it saved as a draft, even though I unchecked that box. More testing to come… Oh, and I like the configuration options in my TechnoratiTagger better than just the vanilla entry that it did.

UPDATE #2: This page actually shows the release date as March 28th, which means I wasn’t out of the loop as long as I thought I was. It also appears that the only real “difference” with this version is:

Adds Spanish (es-ES) locale; fixes bug that didn’t support special characters in Blogspot passwords.

Which means that the post failure and category issue might have been a fluke. I will try another post later tonight.

In accordance with its over-riding commitment to pet health and well-being, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. is voluntarily recalling Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food from the market. Hill’s is taking this precautionary action because during a two-month period in early 2007, wheat gluten for this product was provided by a company that also supplied wheat gluten to Menu Foods. U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests of wheat gluten samples from this period show the presence of a small amount of melamine. Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry represents less than one half of one percent of all Hill’s products.

This is the only product Hill’s currently sells in the United States that contains wheat gluten from any supplier. No other Hill’s Prescription Diet® or Science Diet® products are affected by this voluntary recall. Hill’s Science Diet Savory Cuts Feline canned cat foods, manufactured by Menu Foods, were previously withdrawn from the market as a precaution. Together with this earlier withdrawal, less than 1% of all Hill’s products have been affected.

The voluntary recall of Hill’s Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food involves discontinuation of all retail sales and product retrieval from sellers. This recall does not include Prescription Diet m/d Feline canned food which contains no wheat gluten.

Consumers should stop using this product and return it for a refund. All Hill’s products carry a 100 percent guarantee, and consumers can receive a refund for recalled product.

[Source: FDA]

Chase J. Nielsen, who spent 40 months as a prisoner of war after participating in the daring Doolittle raid that gave a much-needed lift to American morale only four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 90.

Nielsen, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, died March 23 of age-related causes at his home in Brigham City, Utah, said his wife, Phyllis.

On the morning of April 18, 1942, 80 volunteer airmen on 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet more than 600 miles from Japan. They took off earlier and about 200 miles farther out than they had planned. They were forced to move up the operation after the U.S. task force was spotted by Japanese patrol boats.

Nielsen, then a 25-year-old lieutenant, was the navigator for Crew No. 6.

Led by Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, the 16 planes successfully bombed targets in Tokyo and several other cities.

…

In addition to his wife, Nielsen is survived by three children with his late first wife, Terry, Gregory and Sherrie Wendel; two sisters, Coy Scharp and Colleen Checketts; eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Rest In Peace, Chase.

First aminopterin and now melamine?

Government testing found a chemical used to make plastics in recalled pet food linked to the deaths of dogs and cats, officials said Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient. Cornell University scientists also have found the chemical, also used as a fertilizer, in the urine and kidney of a sick cat.

Question… What wasn’t in the pet foods?

Yesterday, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, made a statement that I just could not ignore.

You can hear what was on my mind at the time in the latest episode of Test Pattern. You can subscribe at ISPN Media, or you can click the ODEO player link below.

Yesterday, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, made a statement that I just could not ignore.

In a phone interview with U.S. News and World Report, in reference to Fred Thompson and his possible bid for President in 2008, Dr. Dobson said,

“Everyone knows he’s conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for, but I don’t think he’s a Christian; at least that’s my impression.”

Dobson added that such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination.

After a spokeman for Thompson verified that he was indeed a Christian, a spokesman for Focus on the Family said that Dobson didn’t believe Thompson was a member of a non-Christian faith, but that he had never known Thompson to be a committed Christian, or someone who talks openly about his faith.

In short, Dr. Dobson said that Fred Thompson was not Christian enough to be President.

The theme music for Test Pattern is “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 K211 (Rondeau_ Allegro)” by Shlomo Mintz from the album, “CD1 Mozart – The Violin Concertos“. As usual, all of our music is courtesy of Magnatune.

Download the podcast: Test Pattern – Episode #29

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