controller.js

var Twitter = Backbone.Controller.extend({
  REFRESH_INTERVAL: 10000,
  el: $('#left'),
  routes: {
    "twitter": "twitter",
  },
  
  initialize: function() {
    _.bindAll(this, 'addOne', 'addAll', 'fetchLatest');
    Tweets.bind('refresh',  this.addAll);
    Tweets.bind('add',      this.addOne);
    Tweets.fetch();
    this.fetchLatest();
  },
  
  addOne: function(tweet) {
    //console.log('add one');
    var view = new TweetView({model: tweet, 'id': tweet.attributes._id, 'className': 'tweet'});
    //console.log(view);
    $('#posts').prepend(view.render().el);
  },
  
  addAll: function() {
    console.log('add all');
    Tweets.each(function(tweet) {
      var view = new TweetView({model: tweet, 'id': tweet.attributes._id, 'className': 'tweet'});
      $('#posts').append(view.render().el);
    });
  },
  
  fetchLatest: function() {
    setInterval(function() {
      Tweets.fetchLatest();
    }, this.REFRESH_INTERVAL);
  }
  
});

model.js

Twitter = Backbone.Model;
  
TweetList = Backbone.Collection.extend({
  model: Twitter,
  url: '/social/twitter/status',
  QUEUE_INTERVAL: 30000,
  
  initialize: function() {
    _.bindAll(this, 'sendQueue', 'fetchLatest');
    this.sendQueue();
  },
  
  comparator: function(tweet) {
    console.log('comparator');
    return tweet.get('created_at');
  },
  
  /* Send a job request off to the server. */
  sendQueue: function() {
    console.log('Sending job queue request.');
    setInterval(function() {
      $.getJSON('/social/twitter/status/queue', function(response) {
        // Do nothing right now. But could bind this and have a trigger.
        // Then unbind if we want to pause, same with the refresh model.
      });
    }, this.QUEUE_INTERVAL);
  },
  
  /* refresh the data from the server */
  fetchLatest: function() {
    collection = this;
    last_id = this.first().attributes._id;
    $.getJSON('/social/twitter/status/since/' + last_id, function(response) {
      console.log('Found ' + response.length + ' results..');
      collection.add(response);
    });
  }
  
});

Tweets = new TweetList;

view.js

TweetView = Backbone.View.extend({
  template: JST.test,
  
  initialize: function() {
    _.bindAll(this, 'render');
    //this.model.view = this;
    console.log('Called TweetView');
  },
  
  render: function() {
    $(this.el).html(this.template(this.model.toJSON())).hide().slideToggle('slow');
    return this;
  }
  
});