Camtica is touted for anything you would use a desktop capture tool for, plus it touts the ability to capture Skype calls.

It’s lightweight and easy to use, and so far, delivers what it promises.

So far, 2012 Political Info has already made the first page of Google results, and I’ll have updates on Mail Merge and Word here soon.

Twitter is somewhat similar to Facebook, but not quite the same. Twitter limits you to “tweeting” messages limited to 140 characters – including spaces.

You “follow” people on Twitter and then you can see their “tweets”. People that follow you can see your tweets. You can send direct, private messages that do not appear to your followers.

I currently follow about 100 people – a lot of them are the press like Mike Dennison and Chuck Johnson along with Marnee Banks and Emile Ritter. I also follow the Twitter Feeds of the major newspapers like the Helena IR, The Bozeman Chronicle, the Ravalli Republic, the Billings Gazette, etc.  I follow @MontanaGOP and @DennyRehberg. You can follow lots of members of Congress. Twitter will suggest people for you to follow based on the people you do follow. I’ve followed a few of the suggestions and ignore most of them.

I know what is happening around the State generally before the rest of the public knows it. For example, I was able to let Wayne Stahl know that a roof had collapsed on a stadium in his district within about 10 minutes of it happening. He was able to check on it and of course appeared to be in touch with the folks at home even though he was in Helena.

Twitter supports what is called a “hashtag”. The is just the # with whatever you want to put behind it – all tweets with a similar hash tag will appear on a single page.

Currently, the hash tag #MTLeg is for news about the Montana Legislature.  A lot of people like the Liberals and the Press use it a lot –conservatives and Republicans are NOT well represented.

To illustrate the power of Twitter – Representative Franke Wilmer’s challenge for Denny’s seat was announced on Twitter. A high percentage of the press across the State saw that and she said within 5 minutes, the Bozeman Chronicle was on the phone to her.

What a GREAT way to get out a press release!

I do not have a “smart phone” (Blackberry, iPhone or Android phones) and I use Twitter exclusively from my laptop. I use a program called TweetDeck that greatly simplifies and enhances features not available through the standard Twitter interface including managing multiple searches and scheduling tweets. I know there are programs for the smart phones and programs that let you tie your Facebook and Twitter together – I do not use any of those.

To sign up, just go to www.twitter.com and click the button sign up. I use MikeMillerHD84 for my account ID and I use the State Legislative picture as my “icon”. Keep in mind, that like on Facebook, anything you say is public.

Representative Mike Miller is a self-employed computer consultant from Helmville, Montana and currently serves in the Montana State Legislature.

I give you: Bubble Sheet MS Word Template and Bubble font and Barcode font (ZIP file)

Unzip the file, install the 2 font files and then open the Word Document.  You’ll have to do some mail merge wizard-ing, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to set it up.

Are you a Republican?  Need help exporting your call list from Voter Vault?  Check out the Voter Vault manual I put together (page 9 for exporting mail merge compatible lists).

Net neutrality has taken up a lot of headline space over the last two weeks. There was the Goggle and Verizon thing, and then something happened with the FCC and some Congress members, and the French may have been involved somehow… Admit it, your eyes are glazing over aren’t they? Yes, it’s true, net neutrality sometimes isn’t the easiest thing to wrap your head around. But the artistic folks at Online MBA Programs are here to help with 15 facts you may not have known about what neutrality on the Internet actually means.

Mail Chimp

If you decide to send out campaign emails, using a web app like MailChimp or Contant Contact is a MUST.  It provides settings for your “Paid for by” disclaimer and accepting donations.  Frankly, it makes email look good.

I prefer MailChimp because you can send up to 5000 emails per month and maintain a list of 300 for FREE.  If you need more, their rates are quite reasonable.

Facebook

Just be sure not to fall in to the facebook games trap.  No one wants to look like they have too much time on their campaign.

GCal, GMail, and GDocs

I highly recommend the Google Apps “suite” to every candidate I talk to (and everyone else, for that matter).  All Google products are linked, documents and calendars are easily created and shared and the storage is basically limitless.

ToodleDo/Remember the Milk

Both are great applications, both have great merits.  It’s truly a decision of aesthetics.  If your campaign can afford it, I recommend the paid upgrade.  Both are GTD compatible and sync with iCal/GCal.

Those are my favorites…

…what are yours?

The base of the recipe is Krusteaz pancake mix (I know it sounds like cheating, but why reinvent the wheel?).

Following the standard Krusteaz instructions, use milk instead of water, add an egg, and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Preferred cooking utensil is a stainless steel pan.

Serves 4

2 boxes Stoufer’s Pork Stuffing
4 green Granny Smith apples, peeled
Minced garlic
Sliced Swiss Cheese
4 pork chops

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 11 Pyrex casserole dish. Prepare stuffing as directed on box, except don’t cook it. Dice the fourth apple and mix it in to the stuffing. Cover the botton of the pyrex with the stuffing.

Place the 4 pork chops on top of the stuffing. Shred the 3 apples evenly over the pork chops. Place a tablespoon of minced garlic in the middle of each pork chop.

Cover each pork chop with slices of Swiss cheese (use enough so that each pork chop is completely covered).

Bake at 350 for approximately 70 minutes.