Twitter is rolling out a new feature to some lucky users which will allow you to retweet much easier.  Retweeting has been around since the beginning but not everyone knew about it or how to use retweets effectively.  Enter “Project Retweet” which is being released to developers and Twitter API users.  The project was recently in phase 1 and the official word from twitter was: “Phase one of project retweet is to show the developer community how it will work from an API perspective as well as a user perspective”.

See a screenshot of the new Retweet feature after the jump:

For those of you who have not heard, Google Wave is in the preview phase and the only way you can get an account is to be invited or sign up on the mailing list at Google, which takes forever.

The good news is:  I have Google Wave invites and will send them out to anyone who registers at brandonbeasley.com and leaves a comment on this post.  The comments should contain a compelling reason as to how you could benefit from using Google Wave.  I will send out invites for comments until they run out.

Read more about Google Wave after the jump:

I have been using Twitter for quite a while now and have come up with a list of do’s and don’ts for keeping the true spirit of Twitter alive:

1. Do be polite- If you don’t have anything valuable to add to a conversation, then don’t tweet anything at all.  Nobody likes a “peanut gallery” and you do not have to follow anyone on twitter that you do not want to.
2. Do follow people – Following people on twitter is what the spirit of tweeting is all about.  The more people you follow, the more interesting conversations you will be involved in.  Although you will find there are limits to how many followers you can manage at any given time.  But there are various apps for that (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, UberTwitter, Echofon)
3. Do engage your followers – To get the most out of Twitter, you will need to engage your followers and join in their conversations with relevant information.  For example, a follower just tweeted “Is anyone having problems with direct messaging?”.  I retweeted this out to all my followers and the issue was identified as a regional issue and passed onto @twitter for resolution.
4. Do thank people who retweet – Anytime you receive a retweet (RT), be sure to thank those followers who are helping you get the message out.  This is one way your tweets can become viral by a few people picking up on something and retweeting it out to the masses.
5. Do report spammers – Be on the lookout for spam followers.  Some dead giveaways  to spammers are a high number of follows and low number of followers,  automated tweets directing you to sales pages, and the notorious Britney spammers (they don’t even try to disguise themselves).

1. My virus scanner does “real-time”  file scanning so I don’t have to perform manual scans of the disk that take forever. FALSE – Setting up regularly scheduled manual scans of your hard disks is a very important factor in keeping your computer free of viruses.  A manual scan will take longer than “quick scans” and “smart scans” but the level of scanning is much more thorough.
2. I have Antivirus installed on my computer so I am protected from any virus or spyware. FALSE – The fact that you have Antivirus software installed is a good first step toward keeping your computer free of viruses.  That being said, if your Antivirus software is not updated on regular basis your computer is NOT fully protected.  New viruses are released to the world everyday and regular updates help to ensure your computer is aware of these threats.  Most Antivirus products perform updates automatically as long as you have a current subscription.
3. I have a free version of Antivirus software so I am protected. FALSE -Most free Antivirus software applications do not scan in real time.  Thus your computer is only being protected as long as you are running a virus scan manually at regular intervals.
4. My computer is not connected to the Internet therefore I can’t get a virus.
   FALSE – If you use flash drives, floppy discs, or re-writable CDs you are still open to a virus infection. Many viruses now look for these types of media to infect.  The conficker virus is a good example as it injects code into the Autorun.INF file on removable devices.  Once the media has been infected, every machine it touches that is not protected will most likely contract the virus.

5. I dont go to porn or music sharing sites so I’m not exposed to viruses and malware.
   FALSE – Just because you do not frequent the “darker” side of the Internet does not mean you will be safe from viruses.  Email and sharing devices are the cause of about 30% of all viruses leaving the remaining 70% to come from questionable sites and services.

I get asked all the time, “How do I keep viruses off of my computer?”.  Here is my official list of the five things you can do to keep your computer virus free:

1. Keep your computer up to date with the latest updates from Microsoft.  Since a large number of users own PC’s,  Microsoft products are the most targeted by hackers, phishers,  and malware producers.

2. Make sure you have the latest version of the virus signature database provided by your anti-virus software manufacturer. All anti-virus manufacturers provide frequent updates to their products to ensure your computer is protected from the most recent threats.

3. Use a firewall to block ports commonly used by viruses to spread and execute. Hardware firewalls are the best at stopping threats to your network before any malicious data can be passed on to a vulnerable PC.   Software firewalls are able to block certain types of threats but they are not as reliable due to the fact your PC may already be compromised or vulnerable.

4. Stay away from questionable websites. Don’t download music free from file-sharing networks and stay off the porn sites and you will eliminate about 70% of your risk associated with viruses.

5. Buy a Mac. Its simple… Macs are not targeted nearly as much as Windows based computers.