I have always wondered why Twitter uses the alias (the Twitter user name) instead of a person's real name when one post a tweet.

The Twitter settings page gives the following explanation for the text field "Name".

Name - Enter your real name, so people you know can recognize you.
Username - Your URL: http://twitter.com/USERNAME

OK Twitter, I accept that people I know, need my real name to recognize me. Just one question. Why the hell are you not using the Name field that I entered, anywhere else? As you yourself have said, I tend to identify people easily by a name like Thomas Anderson rather than something like tander08foru, which always leaves me scratching my head wondering who this guy was.

So, untill someone from Twitter sees this post and make us all happy, here is a little hack to get things going for the while.

Twitter uses the real name of a person as the "alt" field in his profile picture. What it essentially means, is that if you block the images, you will see the real name of the person in text.

In Firefox, go to Tools -> Options -> Content. Uncheck the "Load Images Automatically" checkbox. I have tried adding an exception to block amazonaws.com (from where twitter serves the profile pics) alone. But somehow this prevents the alt tag to appear all together. If someone knows a better way, please do tell.

In Internet Explorer, go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced. Check the Accessibility -> "Always expand ALT text for images" field and uncheck the Multimedia -> Show pictures field.

That's it. Now go to twitter.com/home and see the difference.

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If you have been an internet user for quite some time, you probably have heard about Twitter. "Twitter is another name for micro blogging". We had earlier helped you how to explain Twitter to your mom. Remember?

Twitter is too simple. You sign up, you tell what you are currently doing (known as tweeting), and you follow other interesting people's tweets.

And if you have been an internet user for quite some time, you probably have heard about Pidgin also.

Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr.
Pidgin runs on a number of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and other UNIX operating systems.

So, instead of running gTalk, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger separately, you can have everything-in-one using Pidgin.

Now let's come to the main area of this post. Pidgin, like all IM clients allow you to set a status message - something like "I am currently busy" or "Checking out great tips from DailyGyan". Hey! wait. That's exactly what Twitter is for, right? Wouldn't it be cool if I can update my twitter status alone and then Pidgin retrieves and sets my tweet as the IM status automatically? Yes, it would be very cool and that's what we are going to do today.

1. Install Pidgin from here.
2. You need to have Perl installed for this to work. Most Linux distros come with Perl preinstalled. Windows users, download and install Perl from here.
3. Take a Command Prompt/Terminal and enter: perl -MCPAN -e shell (Linux users, add a sudo before this). In the CPAN prompt that you got now, enter install XML::XPath and hit enter. This will download and install the Xpath module from Internet.
   
4. If all goes well, launch Pidgin. Go to Help -> About and scroll to the bottom of the page. You should see a line : Perl: Enabled.
5. Download twitter.pl from http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-twitterstatus/downloads/list and put it into your Pidgin plugins folder. Usually the plugins folder is C:\Program Files\pidgin\plugins for Windows users and ~/.purple/plugins for Linux users.
6. Once you have put the file in place, restart Pidgin and go to Tools -> Plugins. There will be a new plugin named "Twitter Status Feed". Enable it and click on Configure Plugin. Enter your twitter user name in the dialog box that pops up.
7. Done. Soon you will find that your Pidgin status bar reads the same as your last Twitted message.

What other tips have you found about Twitter and Pidgin. Share it in the comments.

Happy Twittering.

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I really love the Common Craft's "In Plain English" videos. This one explains about Twitter in ... 'Plain English'.



Related: My twitter page.

Happy twittering.

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