How to send Twitter direct messages from PowerShell

This function sends a direct message (DM) from your Twitter account to another Twitter user, notice that you can only send a direct message to a person who follows you.

function Send-DirectTweet($Recipient,$Message,$UserName,$Password){
   $url="http://twitter.com/direct_messages/new.xml?user=$Recipient&text=$Message"
   $request = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create($url)
   $request.credentials= New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential($UserName,$Password)
   $request.method= "POST"
   $request.contentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
   $request.GetResponse().statusCode # return the status code of the request
}

# sample usage
Send-DirectTweet -Recipient twitterUser -Message Hi -UserName yourUserName -Password yourPassword