It seems that Twitter’s growth rate is positively correlated with Twitter’s downtime. As the site continues to gather users, I am left staring at a “connection timed out” page more and more often. This leads me to ask myself, “What is a Twitter addict to do during the constant Twitter downtime?”

Pownce - Usually, my first instinct is to head to Pownce.com and try to rekindle the feeling of connectedness that Twitter provides. However, even Kevin Rose admits that that is not what Pownce was designed for. I don’t have near as many friends on Pownce as I do on Twitter anyway. At least I can get exposed to some new media files…

Facebook - I know I could always go to Facebook to look at all my friends’ status updates, but it just isn’t “realtime” enough for me. Joe added a few more pictures to his profile, and Jennifer sent me another application invite, but I want to know what my friends are doing NOW.

Catch up on RSS Feeds - It’s funny how impatient I’ve become since I started using Twitter. If I can’t read an entire item in 140 characters then I simply don’t have the time. Plus, all the important news is announced on Twitter anyway.

Write a blog post - Hey, there’s an idea. But what will I write about? Man, I wish Twitter was back up…

Go Outside - I know this one seems a little drastic, but when I can’t keep in touch with my followers, I feel very cutoff from society. It’s good to go out and make sure that the world is still moving at times like these. If you think Twitter downtime is bad, imagine if reality had the same connection problems…

It has been a while since I have started a new site. So, to take advantage of this relative down time I’m experiencing I’d thought I’d introduce my new blog: 7ypo.com. This new site, pronounced ty-po-dot-com, started as a joke. I remember playing a game as a kid where we took turns giving names to random, useless phrases. Somehow, this game got lodged in my subconscious and I’ve unwillingly been playing it ever since. Whenever I come across something that is odd enough to attract my attention I spend countless seconds trying to think up a name for it. Well now it’s time to pass this mind virus on to the rest of the world.

At 7ypo.com there will be a random definition of a word that isn’t yet created (but should be) posted everyday. All you have to do is give it a name. Do this by signing up for our comment system and leaving your suggested name as a comment to each post. You can then vote on other peoples’ terms with handy little arrows beside each comment. The term with the most votes automagically floats to the top. After a week’s time, the term with the most votes is declared the winner. The thread is then closed and a new word is born. Sound simple enough? Then check out the site. You just may like it.

link - 7ypo.com

I have fallen in love with Twitter, the latest social networking craze. I use it practically all day to keep in touch with my contacts and meet new and interesting people. I also enjoy using it as a micro-blogging platform to say things that would feel out of place to say here on Zerosign. So, in an attempt to bridge my two biggest online profiles, I have added a Twitter badge to Zerosign. Some of you may have noticed the seemingly random thoughts that appear on the very top of this page now. That is my latest Twitter post being displayed for a more encompassing social experience. However my Twitter badge has been tweaked, ever so slightly, to make the use of it a little more seamless.

The functionality of the standard Twitter badge is to display all of your most recent Twitter updates. However, most of my updates are @replies meant to be seen by only a few people at most. Others would have no idea what

“@Utch I see what you did there”

means, nor would they care unless you happened to be @Utch or knew him. So in an attempt to remove all @replies from the Twitter feed shown on Zerosign, I tweaked the Twitter badge JS code and created my own. So, if you would also like to display your latest tweets on your site but, like me, don’t want your @replies to be shown feel free to follow the instructions below.

1) Copy and paste the following code wherever you want to display your Twitter badge:

<br /> <div id="twitter_div"> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/USERNAME" class="twitter-title">Twitter Updates:</a></p> <ul id="twitter_update_list"></ul> </div> <p><script type="text/javascript" src="http://zerosign.net/twitter.js"></script><br /> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/USERNAME.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=10"></script>

2) Replace “USERNAME” in the code above with your own Twitter user name.

3) Follow @leadingzero on Twitter. (Not essential, but highly recommended)

Disclaimer: Install this code at your own risk. This code is not guaranteed in any way shape or form and I hold no personal responsibility for any effects it has on your site, desired or otherwise. blah, blah, blah…