Writtten by Whitson Gordon Photo by kopp0041

Since Twitter’s inception, it’s been looked down upon as a place for self-centered technophiles to share the mundane details of their lives. We at Lifehacker know better than that, though—here are our favorite ways to turn Twitter into a useful tool, without becoming one yourself.

We’ve shared some of our non-breakfast related Twitter uses before, but over the past few years Twitter has evolved, grown more popular, and we’ve just discovered more clever and productive uses for it. Some of these you may recognize, but even the ones we’ve discussed before may have been updated, so be sure to check them all out if you’re looking to upgrade your Twitter usage.

10. Quickly Access Productivity Tools

We’ve mentioned before how easy it is to add tasks to Remember the Milk or send memos to Evernote using Twitter, which makes using our favorite productivity tools super quick and easy—almost like a productivity command line. Since then, we’ve discovered even faster ways to use this to our advantage, likeperforming those tasks straight from the address bar, or using Google Voice actions to just speak it to our phone. Twitter allows you far more than just one more access channel to your favorite productivity webapps. Since Twitter is everywhere these days, it opens up a ton of different options for super-quick access, so you can add a task to your to-do list and get on with your day.

9. Get Search Results for Timely News

As hard as news sites and blogs try to be up-to-the-second sources for news, the fact of the matter is that Twitter is just the best place to find out what just happened. Whether you want to keep up with this year’s Oscar winners without sitting through the show, find out who got voted off American Idol, or finding out that Comcast’s DNS went down (and how to get around it), all you need to do is hit upsearch.twitter.com. Within seconds you’ll have all the information you need, even if it isn’t up yet anywhere else on the internet.

8. Find a Job

Full size

We already know the internet is a great tool for the unemployed (or just unhappy at their current job), but you can actually find a good number of listings on Twitter. We’ve talked about how to do this with free serviceTweetMyJobs, which lets you pick the field your interested in and get real-time Twitter updates of job listings you might be interested in. Furthermore, reader AlphaGeek notes that you can just search Twitter for the hashtag #jobs, and perhaps a hashtag for your industry or city. You’d be surprised at what you can find. Again, it certainly won’t be your only resource, but its another good one to add to your arsenal. Photo remixed from an original by Janet McKnight

7. Get Up to the Minute Updates on Your Favorite Software

One of my favorite Twitter uses is following my favorite software developers and finding out immediately when they update. Whether it’s big programs like Firefox and XBMC or smaller ventures like Adium for the Mac, I’ve never gotten a faster notification than on Twitter. Not only will you find out as soon as a new update is ready, but you’ll find out about the cool stuff coming up in future versions, nightly builds, and sometimes even handy tips you didn’t know about.

6. Use it as a Quick-Access Cloud Notebook

If you aren’t using something like Evernote, that doesn’t mean you can’t still use Twitter’s quick-post nature as a notebook—reader Epellsays its a great place to jot down ideas as soon as you think of them. Just protect your tweets, disallow discovery of your account by email address, and use it as your own personal notebook. If you’re the more introspective type, you can use it as a short-post journal, too—whether public or private.

5. Discover News and Articles You Otherwise Wouldn’t Have

Using Twitter for news is hardly a new idea—following accounts like @cnnbrk are Twitter 101 (plus, if any news starts breaking, the other folks you follow will probably be quick to talk about it). What I find especially cool about Twitter is that I find news and articles I otherwise wouldn’t have discovered. Since you can follow anyone with just a click, you probably end up following more people (and a more diverse group of people) than you would on, say, Google Reader. As they tweet out interesting links (or retweet others you don’t follow), you might find articles or blog posts that weren’t hugely popular, but still useful or interesting. Sure, at a certain point this can get more "noisy" than helpful, but this is why you should routinely unfollow people to keep your feeds clutter-free.

4. Get Alerts and Inspiration on Pretty Much Anything

Aren’t sure what you want to make for dinner tonight? @cookbook can give you a bit of inspiration with her 140-character recipes. Not sure what’s good on TV tonight?@TVGuide can give you some ideas. There are a ton of Twitter accounts out there that send out useful alerts or inspiration for things in your daily life. Other examples includepreviously mentioned @queuenoodle, which alerts you to expiring movies on Netflix Instant, or @amazonmp3, which keeps you alerted to the best deals (and all the free tracks of the day) on Amazon MP3. Your local businesses might also have some cool accounts, too—a few of the local bars where I’m from will tweet out special drafts that aren’t publicized anywhere else, so only their followers know to come in and ask for it specifically.

3. Control DIY Home Automation Projects

Whether you need to send a quick command or get alerts for something happening at home, Twitter has become a very popular tool for home automation projects. You can do something simple like control your PC from afar with TweetMyPC, or do a more complicated project like tell your coffee pot to start brewing, water your plants, or evendispense Halloween candy. With the Twitter API and an Arduino, there are pretty much no limits to what you can control.

2. Get Instant Customer Support

Lots of companies have taken to providing support on Twitter, and it’s more than just a way to get in on the fad. @JetBlue and@ComcastCares are two accounts that have made the format popular, and with good reason—some people are getting faster responses via Twitter than they are the customer service phone line. Other companies using Twitter this way include Microsoft for the Xbox, Time Warner Cable, and Dell, though with a bit of searching you’ll find a ton more.

1. Get Specific Answers and Advice from a Knowledgeable Pool

Those that follow us on Twitter know that one of our favorite uses is asking questions from you guys, and getting specific advice. Whether you’re looking for the best app for a particular job, the best coffee in New York, or just advice on a good new band to listen to, the Twitterverse has opinions and they aren’t afraid to share them. The more followers you have, the more answers you’ll get, obviously—but if you can get a few more popular followers, you can often get your question retweeted and get a lot of good advice back.

These are some of our favorite clever uses we’ve discovered over the years, but there’s bound to be more out there. So if you have a clever way of using Twitter (productive or not), be sure to share it with us in the comments below.

Bonus: Batcrab?

Written Tom Chivers

Quora, the ‘online knowledge market’, has been running for nearly a year. We pick 10 of our favourite questions from the site.

Plato (left) and Aristotle. Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Photo: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

For those of you who don’t know, the idea behind Quora is that users ask questions, those questions are answered by other users, and, finally, those answers are assessed by other users. Its creators envisage it as a storing-house for all the world’s information and a generator and exchanging-point of knowledge.

And perhaps it is. But it is also a repository for odd questions. Here are our favourites:

1. How many different methods are there for tying your shoelaces?

Some people might think that one method would be enough. These people would not only be wrong, they would be catastrophically wrong. They would also show a serious lack of ambition. As user Hema Manickavasagam would tell them, there are at the very least 18 methods: “Ian Knot”, Ian’s Secure Knot, Standard Knot, Two Loop Knot, Two Stage Knot, Surgeon’s Knot, Turq. Turtle Knot, “Better Bow” Knot, “Freedom Knot”, Loop the Loop Knot, Double Knot, Double “Ian Knot”, Crossed “Ian Knot”, Mega “Ian Knot”, Halloween Knot, One Handed Knot, Reef Knot and the Better Bow Knot. Hema herself prefers the Better Bow Knot. Who the prolific knot-inventor Ian is remains unclear.

2. A seagull pooped on my face. What should I do?

“Catch the seagull. Punch it in the crotch. It’s the only way it will learn.” This is the new wave of human knowledge-sharing, right here. Interestingly it is a follow-up question to “I stepped in dog poop. What should I do?” and related to “Is there scientific basis for the position that a dog’s poop should be firm?” Clearly, “poop” is among the hottest of hot topics.

3. Who would win in a fight between Aristotle and Plato?

The author of this article did philosophy at university, and is appalled to realise that at no stage was this question ever addressed, let alone satisfactorily answered. Educational standards really have slipped. We’d pick Plato – all that stuff about military service and philosopher-soldiers makes him sound pretty hard. One killjoy user says “Neither. They’re both long dead.”

4. How many ping pong balls can fit into a 747?

This is genuinely interesting. Apparently, it’s a job interview question at places like Google. The question is fairly satisfactorily answered: “The 747-400 has a passenger volume of 876 cubic meters, plus a cargo volume of 159 cubic meters, for a total of 1035; the balls have a diameter of 40mm; this gives about 22,870,000 ping pong balls.” The answerer notes that the weight of this many balls would prevent the aeroplane from taking off.

However, the really interesting answer is not, in a sense, an answer at all. It comes from a fund manager who claims to have asked the question in interviews, and he says it’s not so much to demonstrate the ability to estimate the size of a 747 and divide it by the size of a ping-pong ball, but instead the ability to think laterally: “Candidates who would ask things like, “What about the space in the galleys – can I use the ovens?” or, “What about the fuel cells in the wings?” were the ones who were distinguished in my mind.”

Interestingly one of the related questions is “How can I order 10,000 ping pong balls direct from the manufacturer?“, suggesting that at least one person is going to attempt to put it into practice.

5. How many cans of beer can fit in an upside-down regulation frisbee, taking surface tension into account?

Five and a half. You’ve always wondered, now you know.

6. If aliens from outer space landed in San Francisco, what should be the first thing I do?

Why San Francisco? No idea. “Put down the bong”, one wag suggests unhelpfully. But someone has put some serious thought into it, and produced this majestic breakdown of what to do if you are humanity’s first contact with aliens. “Most historians and scientists agree this would be the most important moment in human history”, it says. “So, you’re going to be the most important person in history. Think bigger than Jesus.” On the downside, “You’ll probably be killed”.

7. What have been the most absolutely mortifying, horrendously awkward social moments for Quora users?

It’s your classic “tell us your embarrassing stories” angle, but it’s pretty funny. We particularly like the high-school boy who didn’t know why the girls in his class sat out swimming lessons for one week a month, the misunderstanding over the phrase “man beats off bear”, and the following: “On a conference call, using a wireless phone with headset. Head to the loo and urinate, forgetting to put the phone on mute. 100+ people on the call.”

8. Where is God?

Sure, lots of classic “God is everywhere and nowhere” stuff. But also, some good ones. “God is the tea in Russell’s teapot, the sauce in theFlying Spaghetti Monster” says one guy, who we think may be an atheist. And “I saw him having coffee at the Starbucks just 10 minutes ago. He was having a discussion with the Devil about the fate of humanity. He ordered his coffee black.”

10. • Am I an elitist to think that most people are stupid? Or am I just too smart?

Well, we’ve all thought that from time to time, haven’t we? Because, seriously, people are idiots. It’s somewhat frowned upon to say it out loud, though.

11. • What will happen if I ask a nonsense question on Quora?

Quora goes meta. It’d be nice if the answers were “A universe-ending paradox” or “you unlock Secret Quora and receive tribute from all users”, but actually someone just says “A Quora user will either attempt to salvage the question by editing it, ask you to edit it directly in a comment, or, if the question is entirely unsalvageable, delete the question.” Hey ho.

Bonus: Batman needs to toughen up

Written by Marta Kagan

It’s no secret that the marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years as social and mobile technologies have “jumped the shark” from the early-adopter crowd to the mainstream.

Still, there are plenty of traditional marketing stalwarts out there who aren’t buying all of the social media hype or can’t convince their boss or marketing team to experiment in the brave new world of inbound marketing.

So we’ve rounded up a dozen powerful stats that are sure to be eye-openers, if not total mind-changers.

1. 78% of Internet users conduct product research online.

That means your website stands a good chance of being a prospect’s “first impression.” That also means your new business card isn’t a business card—it’s Google.

2. In the past year, Web-based email usage dropped a staggering 59% among 12-17 year olds, who prefer to communicate via text, instant messaging, and social networks.

If 12-17 year olds aren’t your primary customers, you may think, “So what? They’re just kids.” But web-based email usage has been on the decline among ALL Internet users under the age of 55. And by the way, today’s kids are tomorrow’s customers—and they’re probably not going to be reading your email.

3. 78% of business people use their mobile device to check email.

So that means pretty much everybody that can check email on a mobile device, does. Is your email newsletter optimized for mobile devices?

4. 40% of US smartphone owners compare prices on their mobile device while in-store, shopping for an item.

Is your business website optimized for mobile devices? If not, you may be missing out on hundreds of sales opportunities.

5. 200 Million Americans have registered on the FTC’s “Do Not Call” list.

That’s 2/3 of the country’s citizens. The other 1/3, I’m guessing, probably don’t have a home phone anymore.

6. 91% of email users have unsubscribed from a company email they previously opted-in to.

We’re getting savvier with technology and less patient with unwanted solicitations. And it’s just so easy to hit ‘delete’.

7. 84% of 25-34 year-olds have left a favorite website because of intrusive or irrelevant advertising.

Frankly, I’m surprised this stat doesn’t read “100%” and apply to a much wider age range.

8. 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog.

Finally, some good news! Blogging is good. Intrusive adds are bad. See how simple it is?

9. 67% of B2B companies and 41% of B2C companies have acquired a customer through Facebook.

If this stat doesn’t poke a hole in the “Facebook is not useful for B2B companies” myth, I don’t know what will.

10. The number of marketers who say Facebook is “critical” or “important” to their business has increased 83% in just 2 years.

That’s right—critical or important. When a channel generates not only leads, but real revenue, you can’t call it “experimental” any longer.

11. Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic.

The more you blog, the more pages Google has to index, and the more inbound links you’re likely to have. The more pages and inbound links you have, the higher you rank on search engines like Google—thus the greater amount of traffic to your website. Which is why we repeat: Blogging is good.

12. Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing.

That’s right—62% less. The average outbound lead costs $373. The average inbound lead costs $143. And as we love to say around here, “if it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.” Outbound marketing just don’t make sense anymore.

Bonus: I must go

Written by Wise Bread

Chances are if you are lucky enough to have a job, the thought of quitting sounds ridiculous. With the unemployment rate at an all time high, most people are thanking their lucky stars to be employed.

But even in a bad economy some jobs are just not worth it. Are there any telltale signs you should be looking for when trying to decide if you throw in the towel? Here are ten signs to look for to determine if it’s time to find a new job:

1. You Aren’t Learning Anything New

Yes, you want to know how to do most of your job. But there are also things you want to be learning; otherwise you are not growing professionally. If you have stopped learning at work, it’s time to find a job where you will learn new skills and grow professionally.

2. You Never Have a Day When You Wake Up Excited To Go To Work

If you wake up every morning Monday through Friday and never feel excited to go to work, that is a problem. It means you aren’t enjoying your job and it is diminishing your quality of life. If you wake up every day and dread going to work, it’s time to consider quitting your job.

3. You Spend More Time Surfing the Web Than Doing Your Job

When you are at work, you are supposed to be productive. Otherwise, it’s a waste of your time and the company’s money. If you are bored and surfing the web most of your work day, you may want to think about looking into job options where you’ll get more stimulation and responsibilities.

4. You Don’t Like Most of Your Coworkers

There are always one or two coworkers in the office that most people can’t stand. But if you don’t like most of your coworkers, chances are your days aren’t very enjoyable because you have to work with them day in and day out. If you can’t stand most of your coworkers, it’s time to think about finding a company whose employees you mesh with better.

5. You Aren’t Making Enough Money to Pay Your Bills

If you are working your butt off and not getting paid enough to pay your bills, you might be overqualified and underpaid for your position. Go find a job that pays what you deserve.

6. You Spend Time Looking For Other Jobs

If you are spending time looking for other jobs while you are on the clock, it’s obvious you want to leave your job. So keep looking for new jobs and as soon as you find a good one, take it and run.

7. You Haven’t Gotten a Raise in the Last Two Years

If you work hard and benefit the company you work for, you deserve to be rewarded for that. If your boss hasn’t given you a raise in the last two years, ask for one. If he or she says no, get out now.

8. Your Boss Sucks

Sometimes bosses suck. But if your boss sucks all the time and takes advantage of your time, it’s time to find a new job.

9. The Company Isn’t Doing Well

This sign varies from company to company. You must keep in mind that we are in a recession and if sales are down but the company isn’t in jeopardy, this sign may not apply to you. However, if business is down to the point where it looks like the company is going to go under, start looking for a new job NOW!

10. You are Stressed All the Time

You are supposed to enjoy life, not be stressed out all the time. If you spend most of your days stressed about everything that going on at work, you are not at the right job.

Know any other signs that you should quit your job that weren’t listed above? Share them with us in the comments section!

Ashley Jacobs is the college correspondent for personal finance blog Wise Bread . Follow her latest tweets on @CollegeCents.

Bonus:Long Day…

source

Bonus:Time Sure Flies

Written by notalwaysright

(I work engineering support late in the evening.)

Me: “Pennsylvania Support Center. How may I help you?”

Caller: “The cleaning crew just came through my office, and now my mouse doesn’t work. The cursor just jumps all over the screen randomly when I move it. They broke my mouse. I need a new one.”

Me: “You have a SPARCstation with an optical mouse, correct?”

Caller: “Yes, with the cool glass mouse-pad.”

(Old-school optical mice used to require special reflective mouse-pads with grids etched into their surfaces. To increase tracking resolution, the vertical and horizontal grids had slightly different spacing.)

Me: “Did the cleaning crew wipe down your desk?”

Caller: “Yes.”

Me: “Did they move your mouse-pad?”

Caller: “What does that have to do with anything?”

Me: “Did your mouse-pad get rotated? Is the long edge of the mouse-pad now parallel to the edge of your desk?”

Caller: “I really don’t see why that’s relevant. I just want a new mouse!”

Me: “The orientation of the mouse-pad matters. The–”

(The caller cuts me off and starts to yell. I realize that I can actually hear his voice coming from down the hall.)

Caller: “Listen! Just open a ticket and have someone bring me a new mouse. I don’t have time for this. I design chips, so I know what I’m talking about. I probably designed the chip in the phone you’re stuck answering all day!”

(I take off my headset, walk down the hall, and walk into his office up to his desk.)

Caller: “…so don’t try to bulls*** me with, oh. Hold on, someone is in my office.”

(I reach down, and rotate his mouse-pad 90 degrees. I move the mouse, and the cursor happily moves around the screen as expected. I walk out of his office, back down the hall, sit down at my desk, and put my headset back on.)

Caller: *silence*

Me: “Thank you for calling Pennsylvania Support Center. I trust I have resolved your case.”

Caller: *silence*

Me: “You will be receiving your ticket number via email. Thank you.”

Caller: *click*

Bonus?Tech support…LIKE A BOSS