How to Use Twitter During Office Hours

Some organizations have this policy that social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc. are a waste of time and therefore ban their staff from using such sites during office hours.

Then you also have companies that have no such rules in place and allow unrestricted access to the web as long as the employees are able to deliver what's expected.

A. When Twitter is Not Allowed in Office

If you are working for a company that falls in the first category (no social media please), its better that you install a Twitter mobile app on your cell phone and not use the office computer at all for tweeting. After all, your boss will get a web usage report at the month-end and he will easily figure out which sites have you been visiting secretly during office hours.

If you don't have a data-plan on your phone and cannot resist that urge to tweet ever 10 minutes, you may use tools like Posterous or Nutshell that allow anyone to send and receive tweets through regular office email.

There's another option that will come handy if the twitter.com website itself has been blocked by your office firewall. You can use Twitter indirectly through third-party sites like Brizzly or Dabr.

These sites offer a fresh interface to your Twitter account with all the regular features (retweets, @replies, etc.) but the more interesting part is that they will work even if Twitter domain is inaccessible from your office computer. You can track up to 5 accounts with Brizzly.

Your Twitter friends' timeline feed is protected by a password but you may still subscribe to it with a simple hack involving FeedBurner.

You can then follow tweets from your friends using Outlook or any other newsreader. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the friend's feed directly with FeedDemon provided that access to Twitter is open in your office.

If you are allowed to use IM clients in Office, you can add twitter@twitter.com as a buddy in Google Talk and send tweets through IM. TweetSwitch is another free service that lets you send and receive tweets through popular instant messaging clients including AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype and GTalk.

B. Use Twitter Without Letting Anyone Know

Now let's look at the second category – you are very much allowed to use Twitter at work but you still don't want to give your boss an impression that you are a Twitter addict.

In that case, here's what you can do to possibly hide your Twitter addiction from boss and colleagues.

You can probably find a gazillion desktop apps for Twitter but if you are looking for something that doesn't scream to the world that its a Twitter client, try Quitter.

Quitter is a simple twitter client that runs through the command prompt or the DOS window. With Quitter, you can read and reply to tweets, follow /unfollow people or even manage your direct messages. All you need is a Windows computer and no one in the office will ever have a clue that you are engrossed in Twitter.

If you are a Microsoft Office user, Spreadtweet is another interesting option for you. This is a proper Twitter client but in the guise of a spreadsheet so your boss will think that you're working on an Excel sheet while you are up there tweeting your heart out!

With SpreadTweet, you can send and receive updates, @replies and direct messages all inside an application that looks like a clone of Excel 2007.

The other great option for Microsoft Office users in TwInbox – you probably have Outlook open on your screen all the time and this free Outlook add-in will simply turn your Outlook into a powerful Twitter client.

You can handle tweets just the way you manage your Inbox and the add-in will even let you tweet email messages with a click. The service is integrated with TwitPic so you can tweet pictures by simply dragging them into Outlook.

There's more – all standard Outlook features like search, mail archiving, categories, etc. will also become available to your Tweets. This screencast explains TwInbox in detail.

Related: Do Interesting Things With Twitter

Masterchef culinary american idol

Culinary "American idol" is the new name for Masterchef from fox.

"A huge reality format that works great in other countries plus Gordon Ramsay guarantees success," Fox president of alternative Mike Darnell said. "Gordon is like our 'CSI.' "

The "MasterChef" format has aired in several incarnations in the U.K., with the earliest dating to 1990. The Australian edition premiered this year and has been a ratings powerhouse, its finale ranking as one of the country's most-watched programs in a decade.

"This is a huge, nationwide search for the best amateur chef in America," said executive producer Howard T. Owens of Reveille. "It's about people who are lawyers, construction workers and stay-at-home moms but whose real passion is to make great food. This is their shot to prove they have what it takes."

The details for Fox's "MasterChef" are being worked out, but the show will most closely resemble the Australian edition. In each season, contestants from around the country audition by creating a dish for a panel of three judges to earn spots as semi-finalists. The remaining contestants compete each week via team-based and individual cooking challenges until only one remains.

"'Hell's Kitchen' is about finding a head chef that can work in a restaurant," Darnell said. "This is about creating the perfect dish, and the contestants can be plucked from anywhere."

Since Fox is ordering relatively few episodes (between 12 and 15) compared to the Australia edition, which was stripped six nights a week, the format is expected to evolve over the coming weeks.

Scheduling has yet to be determined. One possible scenario is Fox will air a late spring edition of "Hell's Kitchen" that will bleed into the summer and then, out of "Kitchen," unveil "MasterChef."

"Hell's Kitchen" is the network's second-most-popular reality series after "American Idol," yet it's more versatile than the singing competition -- Fox has aired "Hell's" all over its schedule and at different times of the year, and the show always performs competitively. Fox's "Kitchen Nightmares" has been a more modest performer and is expected to return sometime next year. Fox also has a live cooking special coming up with Ramsay called "Cook Along."

"Because we've had such success with cooking reality, we're the best place to make this into a big show," Darnell said.

Shine International will handle international distribution for the format, which was originally produced by Shine TV. Owens, Mark Koops and Elisabeth Murdoch will exec produce for Shine Reveille. Ramsay, Ben Adler and Pat Llewellyn are exec producers for Ramsay's One Potato Two Potato.