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Disinfect Your Keyboard

Keyboards, particularly those shared by multiple people, harbor huge quantities of bacteria. If you want to reduce the chances of picking up your co-worker's cold, you can disinfect your keyboard with disinfecting wipes. To avoid damage to the keyboard, be sure to:

  • Unplug the keyboard before disinfecting it.
  • Squeeze out any excess liquids from the cloth to avoid liquid dripping into the keyboard.
  • Don't let any liquid from the wipe sit for long periods of time on the keyboard.
  • Don't scrub the keyboard, just lightly wipe down. Rubbing too hard leaves behind more lint.
  • Avoid cleansing cloths that contain bleach.

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Networking | 24 Oct 2007 | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article

TwitterWhere Illuminates California Fires

by Adam C. Engst Send Email to Author

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Twitter is becoming increasingly useful for lightweight updates on what's happening in the outside world (see "Confessions of a Twitter Convert," 2007-10-09, for my full discussion of Twitter). News of the Southern California fires has been trickling in as people in affected areas comment about nearby fires or the omnipresent smoke. And those elsewhere are tweeting about relatives in those spots or sharing news reports. But don't get the impression that I'm spending my day focused on these comments, or even Twitter in general, thanks to the way Growl displays new tweets acquired by Twitterrific. (My main complaint right now is that due to overloading of the Twitter site, Twitterrific's updates tend to come in batches, rather than as they're posted.)

Should you be interested in following tweets about the fires, you might try a new Twitter-related service I learned about via a tweet from my programmer/farmer friend Mo Barger. TwitterWhere searches Twitter's public timeline for tweets from people whose location is near an area you specify. Since I have a friend in Poway, CA, near San Diego, I asked TwitterWhere to show me tweets from that vicinity, and it generated an RSS feed of all matching tweets that I was able to scan quickly in Safari's RSS readers. Had I been interested in ongoing details, I could have followed the two most relevant posters, KPBS News and a guy named Nate Ritter.

Personal blogs played a huge role in conveying the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, and the ease of posting 140-character updates to Twitter via computer or cell phone will make it and similar services a key aspect of tracking events in particular places.

 

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