Today's a good day for a free gem. Fluid takes web apps to the desktop and then some. Enter the URL of a website and Fluid will compile it into either a native desktop application or menu item. It's extremely handy for web apps that are frequently visited or kept open such as Gmail. I use Fluid for Gmail, Google Reader (using Helvetireader of course), and Springpad. It let's you customize the application's icon, which prevents it from standing out on the dock like a OS 9 Classic app. Check it out!

It looks like DestroyFlickr got a solid bump from DestroyTwitter as it leaped over the 8,000 mark this weekend and now stands at 8,176. I'm not sure when I'll be able to work on it next, but thanks to everyone for checking it out. Whereas Flickr provides an extremely convenient API key analysis to track downloads and usage, Twitter isn't as generous. Because of this, I took matters into my own hands and built my own analysis system to track the install count for DestroyTwitter. It increments the count in my database the first time you use that particular version and doesn't call again until you upgrade. I'll be adding an analysis section to DestroyTwitter's page where I'll be trying out Google's Charts API. As of writing this, DestroyTwitter has been installed 752 times.

After releasing DestroyTwitter to the public on Friday, I was really anxious to see what everyone thought of it so far. The response has been tremendous and I want to thank everyone for trying it out. I wish I would've prefaced the release a bit more by explaining that this is the first beta release and there will be many more releases to come. In this first version, I wanted to cover the core features of basic Twitter usage. Now that I've completed it, I can focus on the more unique features I have planned—things not seen in any other Twitter client. You can keep track of the progress on the DestroyTwitter page or follow me for instant updates. Thanks again for the feedback and keep it coming!

ps—James Whittaker of RefreshingApps.com wrote a very generous review of DestroyTwitter. Take a look.

This is a big day. After exactly ten days of design and development, I'm both proud and excited to release the first beta version of DestroyTwitter. It's pretty self-explanatory, but I'll go over what's included nonetheless.

DestroyTwitter opens with a login. Enter your information and you're all set to tweet away. Unlike DestroyFlickr, you're not required to go through an authentication process. Twitter's API uses a token header for each call as its form of authentication while Flickr uses a frob/token technique. DestroyTwitter remembers your information for the next time you login and has a preference to skip the login screen altogether.

After logging in, you'll be met with the Home canvas. The Home canvas contains all the tweets that would appear on your Twitter home page and refreshes once every minute. Just like DestroyFlickr, DestroyTwitter uses workspaces and canvases, providing a familiar navigation. The canvases on the top navigation bar consist of either tweets or direct messages and follow a similar look. Each one lists the 20 most recent tweets/messages of its kind and has actions at the top right to page through older content. Each tweet consists of the user's thumbnail, message, username and date of posting. Mousing over a tweet will show its actions depending on which canvas the tweet is in and if it your post or not. Tweets by others can be saved, replied to, or a direct message can be sent to the author. If a tweet is in reply to another, a double chevron will appear to the right of post's date. Clicking that will open the Dialogue panel showing the both tweets.

The Dialogue panel shows both tweets, but uses an API call each time a dialogue is viewed, so be frugal. Twitter's API has a limit of 100 calls per user. I developed DestroyTwitter so it will refresh each panel often, but with enough calls left over so the average user can use it comfortably. The number of calls left can be found at the bottom of the Account canvas along with the reset time. If the limit is exceeded, an alert will appear at the top of the window to notify.

At any time, either clicking the speech bubble at the bottom right or pressing command T in OSX will prompt the Tweet panel. It includes a simple interface to write a new post and allows for quick and easy URL shortening through TinyURL. After submitting a tweet, the panel will close and switch to the Home canvas where the tweet will appear immediately.

Next to the Home canvas is the Replies canvas. Any tweet that contains your username or in reply to one of your tweets will appear here. Clicking on a tweet's reply action will prompt the Reply Tweet dialogue. For easy reference, this dialogue displays the tweet to reply to. Since that tweet is specifically being replied to, the username isn't required in the post if more characters are needed.

Next is the Saved canvas. Twitter refers to these as "favorites." At any time, a tweet's save action can be clicked to move that tweet to this canvas. It can also be unsaved and the tweet will be removed from this canvas and updated on any others.

The Search canvas returns a list of tweets from the given keyword(s). It will refresh every five minutes and the keyword will be remembered if you close DestroyTwitter.

A user's tweets can be listed by searching for "from:" and the username. Tweets to a specific user can seen using "to:" and the username.

DestroyTwitter fully supports direct messages, included the abilities to receive, send, and see the messages that have been sent. Messages can also be deleted.

The Message dialogue can be prompted by clicking the message action in any tweet or in the People canvas containing a user's profile. It includes the user's thumbnail, username, and real name if available.

The Account canvas allows profile information to be edited. API information is also shown at the bottom of the canvas.

In the People canvas, a user's profile can be seen by clicking on his/her icon or username in a tweet or message. This also uses one API call. The profile includes basic information as well as the user's number of friends, followers, and tweets. Also included is the date in which that user opened his/her Twitter account and the most recent tweet. At the top right, actions to follow, unfollow, or message will appear. However, these actions might be inaccurate. Twitter's API tends to say the opposite at times—I've contacted them regarding the issue and it's being looked into. At the bottom of the canvas, "See more tweets" can be clicked to switch to the Search canvas and display the user's tweets.

Lastly, any time a new tweet or message appears, a notification will appear at the top right detailing the incoming content. Clicking the notification will bring DestroyTwitter to the front and close the notification.

Unlike DestroyFlickr, which existed as a prolonged series of releases adding features with each version, I felt determined to release a very solid and robust DestroyTwitter the first time out. It consists of a lot of useful features, some of which run silently in the background. One to note is an image caching system, so any user icon that is loaded once will be recycled and appear instantly the next time it is used. This saves both memory and loading delay.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with this release—especially considering how much time in such a short span I spent on it. If you come across any bugs or would like to request a feature, please do so. Also, the app includes a built-in updater when a newer version is released, but following my Twitter never hurts. I use Twitter to both announce new things and ask for opinions, so don't hesitate to jump aboard.

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Looking back, 2008 was filled with almost too much to handle. Let's hope 2009 is just as good. Be sure you have your resolution in order and try to stick to it. Jen and I wish everyone the best.

For anyone following me on Twitter, this isn't really news, but I figured I'd at least mention something before I release it. I'm working on another Adobe AIR app intended for integration with Twitter, appropriately named DestroyTwitter. I've been at it nonstop and expect to have something to share within the next few days. Until then, I couldn't wait to show a screenshot. I'll continue to tweet about its progression and if you follow me, you'll be the first to know when it's out.

Now, I don't mean for everything I make to be "Destroy" this "Destroy" that, but I feel there isn't any other name to describe another API-based app of mine. Since DestroyFlickr is "DestroyFlickr," I sort of dug myself into a trench. However, if I do come up with something better, I'll go with it, and suggestions are always welcome.

Merry Christmas! I've been working away at DestroyTwitter for the past couple days. Unfortunately, when I had anything to share I posted on my Twitter rather than here. I'll try to keep it balanced from now on. You can certainly follow me just in case. My family headed to Pottstown to visit my grandfather, which gave me a chance to take a shot of this calendar he has. It's actually what inspired my calendar screensaver and I thought it'd be neat to show. Sometimes, the really good ideas come from ordinary places—in this case, a really folksy gift he got a few Christmases ago.

It feels good to be home—it always does. Despite the 3 degree temperature, I felt compelled to take a panorama of my backyard with the snow we got. I was surprised with how much there was considering all we had in Baltimore was rain rain rain. I'm really looking forward to this week away from everything. Take a closer look of the panorama and you might see the dogs hanging out on the porch.

I have this bad habit of launching my personal websites a bit prematurely so I can at least have something up. This website is a prime example. I only have a content management system for news and the lab, and it's been that way for over a year now. I have most of v2 finished and it's definitely ready to post, but the CMS is not. I've been working on it when I can, focusing mainly on news, but the rest shouldn't be as tough. I've been really excited to show something regarding the progress I've been making.

I'm trying something new in terms of form UI. There won't be any input boxes, only textfields. Each textfield for inputting information is enabled and disabled using a label to the left of it. When the label is blue, it can be clicked to edit that field. As soon as content is filled in, it changes to a dark grey and the field itself can then be selected. For boolean elements such as image frames, clicking the label switches between true and false. The standard variables for each post are at the top (title, date, tags) and the rest is left up to either text blocks, images, or SWFs. The date can be specific as shown or phrases such as "now," "yesterday," "last saturday" can be used and understood.

To the left of the labels are actions for closing and moving elements. Clicking the move button highlights the element, allowing it to be moved with the arrow keys. The post is previewed in real-time on the right side of the window, displaying it exactly as it would be seen on the website. I use my own markup language for all the content seen on v2. It's a refined xHTML that's more specific to my needs. Images use the "<img />" tag, but SWFs follow the same look and use "<swf />." The backend handles the conversions so it can be inputted once, but appear in the formats of both the current site and v2.

I have plans for fine tuning the CMS a lot more so it does things like highlighting links and tags in edit mode, but they aren't necessarily priority. My aim is to have a fully-workable version finished before launching v2. With my final critique tomorrow morning, I'm certain I can hope to have it launched before the New Year. Keep an eye out.

I realized it's been a while since I posted about the free gems I find useful. I've known about this little diddy for a while, but never thought I'd find it useful—what a fool I was! Quicksilver has allowed me to reduce my dock down to the finder and the trash. In short, it's a hotkey application launcher, but so much more—it can quickly open files as well. I used to live by the dock's stacks feature to keep my apps organized, but I soon found myself having more stacks than apps! Now, all I do is hit option space, type the first few letters of the app I want and there I go. It's especially handy for those apps that are useful, but not everyday useful. I haven't dug into Quicksilver too much other than it's primary purpose, but I know it offers a whole lot more.