For those of you trying to create groups in Twitter on the Tweetie Mac app, I found a solution.

It’s almost a little too simple, and isn’t the cleanest thing around, but it gets the job done.

So the solution?  Use the search.  Here’s how.

In the search bar, type in “from:username” of the person you want to see tweets from.  A search will pop up with anything they’ve tweeted.  Cool.  If you’d like multiple users, type in “from:username OR from:othername OR …” until you’ve got all that you need.  Make sure you favorite the search to come back to it.  Then, you have a TweetDeck or Seesmic style group you can come back to.

One problem with this method is in getting more than 4 or 5 users in a group.  You’d be typing forever, and if you wanted to change it, you’d have to type in all over again.  For a small group of tweeters, this works slick.

This does work in Seesmic, and I assume it works in TweetDeck (though I haven’t tried), and I’m sure it works in any client that uses Twitter search.  In Seesmic, I’m using it to keep track of my family because I miss about 70% of their tweets.  This way I can still catch theirs.

Hope you find it useful.  Any other group ideas for Tweetie?

I have been thinking about this lately. Is Twitter replacing RSS? I mean, I seem to find my articles via Twitter, not my Google Reader.

Ok, here’s my line of thinking.  Twitter is the real-time communication tool of the moment.  The idea of RSS is that you don’t have to run to each site every 20 minutes to see if there’s something new.  Well, Twitter and FriendFeed and the rest all make that insanely easy.  You follow your favorite news sources, magazines, and blogs, and their new articles get sent to you in real time.

But there’s one problem.  If you follow more than 75 people on Twitter, then you don’t get every tweet you follow.  If you follow over 500, you pretty much only get like 5 minutes of history.  So what happens when you’re at work and you can’t check Twitter?  Well, you miss that great post.

Ok, so Twitter won’t be replacing RSS feeds and Google Reader quite yet.  But it could happen.

Do you find yourself neglecting GooReader for Twitter?  Do you think Twitter can replace feeds?

This has become a big question for web technology.  Opening up your source or API to the public can reap huge dividends.  Just look at Twitter and all the news and apps and traffic it has.  (It also has great content, but let’s have that as a given.)  Closing your source or API can have quality control benefits and keeps your tech where you want it.  Think Apple and their secrecy.  Great innovations.  Pros and cons on both sides.

For me, I’m more on the open side.  Here’s my take.

Using my Twitter example, its growth has shot up in recent months.  Personally, I think it is because of its openness.  You could use any number of apps to use Twitter.  You can control your experience.  If you like the web version, use that.  If you like an app, use that.  Switch as you feel led.

Now, I’m not sure being totally open all of the time is the way to go.  Apple obviously is doing okay, and they keep a tight lid on their advancements.  The iPhone, the iPod, iTunes, and (oh yeah) their great computers.  They do open their code up so people can create programs to use on their hardware (the App Store, Objective-C, Cocoa, etc).

So, what do you think?  Open or Closed?  Or Both?  Or some better way?

I’ve taken a little break from tweeting and blogging for the last week.  Part was for vacation.  Dusty and I went to Pigeon Forge, TN for a few days.  We had a great time!  No computers, no Twitter, just us.  Wonderful.

But it did cause me to think about producing and consuming.

Lately I have been producing a lot.  I’ve been blogging, WordPressing, and Tweeting so much, I drained myself.  I’ve blogged before on the value of silence before.  I think I relearned that this week.

So, to keep it short: sometimes you need to just sit back and consume life.  By that, I mean to enjoy time with family and friends, to go out and relax in the woods, to experience at art as opposed to creating art.  When we overproduce, we empty ourselves.  And when we are empty, nothing overflows.  Our art, our work, our passions come from that overflow.  Remember this next time you push yourself too hard.  Take an hour, a day, a week to refill yourself.  It’ll do you good.

So, what recharges you?  What drains you?  When do you need a break most?