The script BWTU (Bash-Wget-Twitter-Updater) provides a convenient way to update Twitter from a command line (such as in Cygwin or Linux). Feel free to use the code below for your own applications/utilities. To put more content in the Twitter updates, you can omit the CURRENT_DATE and UTC_DATE entries which are tagged onto every update by default in this blog post listing. Enjoy!
#!/bin/bash
# BWTU (Bash-Wget-Twitter-Updater)
# Copyright (c) 2009 Mike Quentel
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
# obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
# files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
# restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
# copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
# conditions:
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
# included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
# EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
# OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
# NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
# HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
# FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
# OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
# DATE AND TIME.
CURRENT_DATE=$(date "+%A %Y%m%d %H:%M:%S")
UTC_DATE=$(date -u "+%A %Y%m%d %H:%M:%S")
# CD TO /var/tmp
cd /var/tmp
# READ IN LOGIN INFO.
echo -n "username: "
read -e USER
echo -n "password: "
stty -echo
read -e PASSWD
stty echo
echo
# WHILE LOOP -- CTRL+C TO BREAK.
echo "Enter ctrl+c to exit..."
while true; do
# READ IN STATUS COMMENT.
echo
echo -n "Enter status update to Twitter: "
read -e STATUS
# DO wget OF STATUS UPDATE TO TWITTER.
wget -O /dev/null -o /dev/null --http-user=$USER \
--http-password=$PASSWD --post-data "status=$STATUS \
-- $UTC_DATE UTC / $CURRENT_DATE LOCAL" \
http://twitter.com:80/statuses/update.xml
done
