That’s the word from Gawker, who obtained a memo that Terry Schwadron of News Technology sent to Newsroom Twitter users.
We are seeing a growing number of complaints from people with computer performance problems that have been traced to TweetDeck, an application that some have installed on Times workstations and laptops to follow Twitter messages. Though still in beta and not officially released, TweetDeck is indeed a handy tool for high-power Twitter users to keep track of multiple threads simultaneously.
Backhanded compliment much? The memo goes on to explain that the “handy tool” — which it should be noted, is an air app — takes a “serious bite” out of the performance of some computers, particularly geriatric ones. I’ve had TweetDeck v0.25b installed on my iMac for the past month or so, and I’m a huge fan — particularly of the creepy computer bird noise it makes when updating.
TweetDeck supposedly addressed these memory leak issues back in April (after they were brought up in February) when Seesmic Desktop started threatening its turf. The company line: “We’re delighted to be able to tell you that the memory leak has been plugged and now the latest version of TweetDeck will peak at a certain level and won’t go any higher. So you can leave your TweetDeck running all day, all night, or forever if you really want to.”
Maybe the people having problems at the Times are still using the older version? Regardless, don’t you find it funny that reporters at one of the largest mainstream media outlets in the world, with arguably the most significant online presence, have to deal with crappy old computers? Apple is a regular advertiser on the site; maybe they should look into doing a barter. Seriously.
Side note: Several Gawker commenters suggest DestroyTwitter as a better client than TweetDeck. Have any of you tried it?