Back before graphical user interfaces on PCs and the rise of Web 2.0 and the Rich Internet Application you could tell a power user by their mastery of the command line.

It may have been typing ls in a Unix shell or dir at a DOS prompt but these guys knew how to get things done in the leanest, most efficient way. No redundant mouse clicks, no waiting for the translucency animation to rotate your menu options into view. Bang! and move on to the next thing.

Part of the beauty of Twitter is that it goes back to those days of terse interaction and great power.

When it started it was just a simple way to display your status and post messages to your friends (publicly with @ and privately with "d {username}") but it's started to become a lot more.

My first discovery was that I could pipe things to twitter - so I didn't have to do anything to publicize a new blog post but automatically pull from the sites RSS feed to twitter. I use twitterfeed for that.

Then I discovered there were other robots out there that I could send messages to and have things happen. Sandy (sadly now closed down) was an ever helpful personal assistant, gtFtr tracks my exercise stats, Kvetch lets me vent and my most recent discovery is TrackThis which lets me get updates on any FedEx, UPS, USPS or DHL package I have in transit just by sending them a message with the tracking number.

Twitter is also reducing the amount of time I spend in email, IMing and blogging. Rather than clutter up my inbox with one line emails I can use Twitter. I can use Twitter when I don't want to be distracted by the constant ping of Messenger. Rather than try and turn a 2 line blog post into something interesting I can tweet it. if I can't express myself in 140 characters then maybe I need to think more about the post.

In the same way that the command prompt made you more productive if you were willing to learn a few tricks (such as idiosyncratic syntax) Twitter is filling that space in the interconnected internet world... and it's allowing me to do it from everywhere - at my desk, on any web enabled PC or via my phone - it's bringing consistency of experience and incremental benefit to learning those tricks.

So how do you use Twitter as the command prompt for Web 2.0?

As a blogger who just happens to work at Microsoft I sometimes refer to an official team blog when I want to link to more information on a topic. The problem is sometimes finding the right official blog for a definitive answer – while a personal blog might sometimes have the information it’s usually better to go to the source!

The biggest problem has often been tracking down the right blog for the right topic, but thanks to the Windows Experience Blog I now have a handy list of official blogs at my fingertips.

Just because there’s official blogs for particular teams that doesn’t mean that MSDN or TechNet or any of the personal “off network” Microsoftee blogs (or for that matter ones written by MVPs, enthusiasts or simply folks who have found a great solution to a  problem) are any less relevant.

So, if you don’t find the answer here in my ramblings… there’s always the official list :)

Over the last 20 years I’ve worked on several systems that rely on pushing data around to the right place at the right time in order to be effective. Hotel reservations systems need real-time availability information, LPG distribution needs to know what state various tanks are in, streaming video to cellphones needs to get over the air to the user and live video needs to get over the network to the broadcast center.

40 years ago much of this wouldn’t have been possible as the lines of real-time communication didn’t exist or were prohibitively expensive (compare the cost of a telegram message in 1900 to a text message today, or a transmission from the Hubble Telescope.

In 20 years will networks exist as we know them today – patchy, unreliable and certainly not ubiquitous enough to rely on consistently? Or will the promise of an always on connected affordable  cloud become real.

Imagine film of a normal street right now, a relatively busy crossroads at 9AM taken from a vantage point high above the street, looking down at an angle as if from a CCTV camera. We can see several buildings, a dozen cars, and quite a few people, pavements dotted with street furniture.

Freeze the frame, and scrub the film backwards and forwards a little, observing the physical activity on the street. But what can’t we see?

One of the biggest problems with using the Internet for crucial day-to-day applications is when you can’t get connected. On a plane, at a WiFi hotspot you don’t really trust, or even in a building with poor data network reception for your phone.

For most desktop applications the answer is simple… your data lives locally and you work with it there not rely on connectivity, and then sync what you need to. At MIX this year for instance we demonstrated a prototype of a Cirque du Soleil application that demonstrated exactly that.

For web applications it’s a little harder as they run inside the browser sandbox, and for mobile web applications… well, logic dictates that should be even harder.

Well… turns out it’s not that hard for developers to build an off-line version of their site that’s able to cache data locally and the really interesting thing for me was discovering how well it works on Windows Mobile. That solution is Google Gears.

I use Buxfer to try and make sense of my personal finances (a pretty major challenge). The reason I’m leaning more to this solution rather than, say, Mint (an otherwise excellent solution) is that they let me take my data offline and access it on my Windows Mobile phone.

Now they could have developed a native Windows Mobile application to do this, which would have given them a rich UI and dynamic synchronization and probably a whole load of other goodness, but they reasoned that they’re web developers, they don’t really “get” mobile app development and there’s probably a dozen different platforms they’ll want to support so… why not let someone else do the heavy lifting (and that someone is Google with their Gears API and javascript extensions) – all they have to do is develop the application using the Gears API and they get, for very little additional development overhead, a portable offline solution that runs anywhere Gears does (Windows Mobile, OSX, Windows XP/Vista and various flavors of Linux)

I think it’s pretty impressive that Windows Mobile is the first supported phone platform and a testament to how popular it is as a data access device.

Gears is only a 0.2 release so there’s probably lots of things that will be added over time. My wishlist for those additions is pretty simple:

• Ability to synchronize changes back to the web (MS SQL Sync Framework supports this
• Ability to auto synchronize – as a user I have to manually choose to go “offline”… if I don’t do that before disconnecting then I don’t have the latest copy of the data. It would be great if a Gears enabled app could detect it was running on an authorized device and in the background update me and then if I try to return to the site in (say) Flight mode it automatically switches to offline mode.

Native apps will always have a richer interface and more powerful capabilities because they operate outside the browser sandbox, they have access to the hardware (eg camera) and features like the network stack directly so they are ideal for more sophisticated users. But for simple look-up applications like mobile versions of Buxfer or Zoho this is a great solution

As a Windows Mobile user I’ve sometimes felt left out of the whole “livecasting from the phone” revolution by those cool kids using Qik so I was really happy to discover PocketCaster from ComVu.

It’s a really simple app that you download and install to your Windows Mobile device, give it the username and password you set up on the website and then you’re good to go – livecasting or recording pieces to review later.

If you have a GPS equipped device (built-in or a bluetooth connected one like the Freedom GPS I use) then the livecast or clip can be automatically geotagged.

Just like Qik you can advertise to the world when you’re broadcasting via services like Twitter and automatically post videos to your blog.

PocketCaster works on both mobile phones and PDAs, but what’s cool is the same capabilities and functions are available in the PodcasterPro app for UMPCs, PCs and OSX.

Everything changes and the service now has a new name and a new logo – check them out at LiveCast. The new name defines what they do just as well as the old…

… but I’m still not very photogenic ;) Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t want a career as an internet livecasting superstar… but if you want a way to broadcast sights and sounds from your life then give it a go.

From a mobile device check out their Mobile optimized site – you can download the client and get started straight away.

Like Frank I upgraded from an old school telephone to a Communicator solution (okay, not like Frank… I’m 11 months behind him on the upgrade!) but I went a slightly different path. No desktop handset for me, I now use Communicator exclusively for my phonecalls with the same headset I listen to music from my Zune Desktop client or Pandora.

While there are some hiccups with it (my music doesn’t pause automatically, and I keep looking where the phone used to be for the clock!) it’s pretty neat… and even funnier is when I’m at home the experience is totally seamless for callers.

I will be rigging up a USB speakerphone next week (just need a hub!) and then taping over the annoying blue light on the headset (what is it with blue lights)!

At home we’ve also gone VoIP. Initially we used Skype – which I still think is great value for overseas calls – but issues with quality drove us to find a better solution. Despite their *really* annoying website (turn off your speakers!) we’re fans of MagicJack but you might want to check out the Unofficial forums before jumping in (thought at the price it’s not that big a risk) – we have it plugged into the Windows Home Server and a normal DECT phone to make calls. I miss not having the integrated phonebook that Skype offered with the Belkin handset but reliable service makes up for it.

The cool thing is that while offering “free” US calls (one fixed payment a year), incoming calls to a number in an area code you choose and international calls at very good rates… you can also send one to a friend overseas and they don’t have to pay international rates to call you!

Now we just need ubiquitous WiFi or WiMax and I can go VoIP mobile as well ;)

Mike Butcher thinks that Twitter is moving away from a status update tool and becoming more of a conversation starter.

I think I agree with him at the moment, but I'm not sure how I'm going to end up using Twitter longer term.

When I first started with it I did use it as a status update thing (once I got over the "why bother" hump). I tweeted when I was waiting for a bus or cleaning my teeth. I used it in the same way I treat the status box in Windows Live Messenger - to share some information about what I'm doing now (usually what song I'm listening to) with my contacts.

Then I started to discover the value as a conversational tool - less immediate (but often more pervasive) than IM but at the same time more robust, especially when you didn't need the relative overkill of email for a one-liner.

I've also noticed that the one line venting has reduced the number of blog posts I have written - there's something about the 140 character vent that often takes away the need for a full blown post.

Tweets are not like ephemeral IMs or status updates in WLM - they have a timeline and permanence which changes the nature somewhat.

I don't think Twitter is 100% there yet though. For my needs Direct Messages are not handled elegantly enough - I'd like a "Whisper" mode where I can send a private tweet to one (or more) people that appears in their timeline if they're viewing it (authenticated) but not in public view (perhaps ~offbeatmammal to whisper, like we have @offbeatmammal for a public reply or # for hashtags to collate tweets on a subject).

I think Twitter has changed the way a lot of people communicate - mostly for the better. There are some who are a lot of noise to signal but you get that in any communications channel. Some I like having the conversation with (and watching their conversations unfold), others I value the status updates.

I wonder what's next for communications...

In many countries old school telcos are under fire from new competitors. For instance AT&T in the US is fighting threats from VOIP services provided by both large scale (almost as monolithic) providers such as Comcast but also the likes of Skype, Vonage and MagicJack. Although there are some issues (what happens when there's no power, 911 calls and quality) providers such as Skype offer as wide a range of services for a fraction of the cost (I've spent less in a year on my Skype account than even Comcast wanted per month for a landline)

Even the cash cow for many Telcos - Mobile - is under threat. Unlimited data plans and fairly ubiquitous hotspots in Starbucks, Borders, McDonalds or FON coupled with mobile versions of Skype and other VOIP clients has the potential to threaten voice revenues (and of course embedded messenger solutions eat into Texting revenues).

Although I still can't quite get over the US habit of charging me to receive a mobile call (as well as charging the caller) I'm not too disappointed with the quality or cost of the service - though T-Mobile really does need a 3G data network soon as GPRS/EDGE isn't that spectacular (coming from Australia I really miss my Three 3G data plan).

The thing that kills me with mobile though is roaming and international calling. Back in the last century before planet wide partnerships and telco empires (eg Vodafone/Verizon or T-Mobile in the US, UK, Germany etc) you could see reasons for the telcos to charge like a wounded bull but in these days of cheap and ubiquitous alternatives making the experience of roaming painfully expensive (and difficult) is just stupid.

I'm traveling in the UK at the moment with a T-Mobile phone. It's taken me a week to get a SIM unlock code (ironically for 10 quid I could have walked into one of a dozen shops and had my phone unlocked in minutes) so I was left with the option of either using their roaming rates or finding an alternative. Although the phone claimed to recognize and log me in to T-Mobile Hotspots I wasn't even able to use my "unlimited" data plan here. I ended up borrowing an unlocked phone and a pre-paid SIM with data at one pound a day (not from T-Mobile so they lost out there - just because I was annoyed with them!) and I used Skype for most calls.

The day that a telco realizes the value of not being seen to gouge a customer who wants to show loyalty and use their service in countries where their logo is commonplace... I'll switch. Especially if they can come up with a solution that allows me fairly seamless communications without needing to resort to Skype or similar to get a better deal eg a local number that people can enter my US number as an extension and get redirected so neither they nor I get penalized for making calls in country and international calls are shipped over their backbone so I don't get penalized for phoning home.

Looking at what these companies claim the cost of acquiring a customer is trying to recover that from my in a week when I'm overseas is silly. After this trip I have lost any loyalty towards T-Mobile and when my contract expires (or is economically viable to break) I've no real reason to remain a customer.... an unintended consequence of short sightedness.