I joined Twitter for the first time in October 2007. My journey using the tool hasn’t always been smooth, as I’ve documented here, here and here. But over time, Twitter has become increasingly useful to me in my business and personal life. Last week, I started using TweetDeck, thanks to a recommendation from @jmeserve, and it has changed my Twitter life.

TweetDeck provides a clean and easy-to-use interface that allows me to read the stream of posts from my followers, as well as to monitor my @replies and direct messages all in one pane. More importantly, TweetDeck also allows me to create sub-groups of followers that I want to monitor differently (or more closely). This was a problem that I originally tried to solve by creating a second Twitter account, but I like TweetDeck’s solution so much better. Perhaps the coolest feature of TweetDeck is the TwitScoop interface, which shows me “what’s buzzing right now” using a tag cloud that highlights the topics that are getting the most buzz on Twitter at any given moment. Today I found out about the Chicago Tribune filing for bankruptcy, the fighter jet crash in San Diego, and the new Blackbird browser all from using this feature.

The best thing about TweetDeck, however, is how quickly it has made me more effective at using Twitter. Just today, I spotted a post from @garyvee in real-time, responded quickly, and got a fantastic plug back that resulted in 100 new followers in about 10 minutes. (See the string of messages, along with a screenshot of the interface below.)

Moral of the story? TweetDeck is a powerful business tool, and I highly recommend it. If you’re not using Twitter yet, get started today here and follow me at @mchang16.

And here’s the screen of TweetDeck - it’s a bit hard to see because the screenshot shrunk when it was posted, but the first column is the full feed of all the people I follow, the second column is my “must reads,” the third column is the TwitScoop and off to the right is my @replies.

Yesterday, I accidentally washed Chris’ iPod. I went into the washing machine to pull out the clean clothes and something clanked. You know that sound you hear when you know that something was left in the pocket of a pair of pants, and you fear what it might be? You hope it was just a penny, but worry it could be a lipstick…you just aren’t sure which way it will go until you find the culprit.

Here is the iPod post-wash. (Notice how it looks perfect.)

I was hopeful that the iPod would survived the wash when I saw how great it looked.

No such luck.

Moral of the story: Don’t wash your iPod.

Update: Jason Meserve just sent me a link to this podcast: I washed my iPhone, now what? Apparently this is more common than I thought!

My friend Denise Dubie, who is a senior editor at Network World, has started doing high-tech movie reviews - and if you like going to the movies and are interested in technology, I highly recommend that you start listening.

Her co-host is Jason Meserve, and the tagline of the “Network Downtime” podcast is “Movies for techies, where we review movies that put technology in the spotlight, but sometimes get it wrong.”

If you’ve ever seen a movie and been turned off by the way that technology is depicted completely unrealistically, you’ll love this show. Denise and Jason are both skeptics, but fun and open-minded ones, and their take on this movie was totally entertaining and informative. My favorite part of the show is the chemistry that the two have.

Denise: Basically, I’m tired of seeing movies that misuse technology in their plots.

Jason: And I just want to go to the movies on Network World’s dime. 

Denise and Jason are both smart, interesting and funny - a good combination for a podcast. The first movie that they review is Untraceable, a new release starring Diane Lane, where she’s an FBI agent trying to track down a serial killer who is streaming live video of his victims. Check out their podcast. And let me know what you think.