The best Twitter Feed!

This is really what twitter should be used for. http://twitter.com/towerbridge

Ok so it just a nice little thing. I just thought it was fun.

I find twitter a very useful tool to for finding out what's going on in the world of the internet. There are loads of very useful people to follow. 

Here are my top few:

Mike Chambers : http://twitter.com/mesh

Aral Balkan : http://twitter.com/aral

Lee Brimlow : http://twitter.com/leebrimelow

That really is just the surface though. Check it out for yourself at www.twitter.com

Blogger and Google Analytics

Wanna know how you can use your Google Analytics account to track your blogger blog? 

Well this little article saved me lots of trouble and messing around. Found it on infektia, just skip to the bit "Or if you are familiar with coding:" as it is actually much easier then the "for dummies".

Here's what you do :

1. Set up a Google Analytics account is you don't have one

2. Set up your blog as a new account in your Google Analytics account

3. When you get to the bit where they give you the JavaScript to include, copy it

4. In your blogger account go to layout > edit html

5. Paste googles javascript just above the </body>

6. Save template

7. And Bob's your uncle!

Point 7 may not be true, but you get my point.

It's so simple ... Duh!

How to work out the rough filesize of a .flv

update: I have actually got my backside into gear an produced the little web based app for you. 

Ok, so this one always stumps me. A PM or a Producer says, "I have this video which the client wants to put on their site, how big is the file size going to be?". My answer used to be, "How long is a piece of string?" or pull some random figure out of my backside! 

We have been working with a video production company recently and one of the production people there (cheers Matt), gave me this very handy little formula and it seems to work pretty well.

Formula:

flvMB =(((video_bitrate+audio_bitrate X duration_seconds) / 1024) / 8)

So for example: 

10 minute video at 400kbps video and 48kbps audio

400kbps + 48kbps = 448kbps

10minutes X 60 = 600seconds.

448kbps X 600seconds = 268800Kb

268800Kb / 1024 = 262.5Mb

262.5Mb / 8 = 32.81MB

32.81MB in file size

Obviously this isn't going to be the exact filesize of your video, however, it's a pretty good guide!

I'm gonna build a little app which you can use to do all of this for you. Anybody, please feel free to beat me to it. I'll update when I have.