Category: www

FB Log In

Ok, I think ( I THINK ) I got the damn log in for Facebook to work now. If you are on FB, please click the log-in link in the sidebar on the right, under “universal log-ins”, and attempt to sign into my blog with your FB credentials. Don’t worry, I’m not culling any data. Its strictly to allow FB’ers to log in. I’m not sure if it will post back to your FB page or not. I’m tinkering with code that is beyond my understanding.

Please post your success rate along with any error messages you might encounter in the comments.

Thanks!


**Update – I found an error in some of the code I was using and have changed it. anyone who hasn’t already tried or tried and failed, please try again. **

**Update II – After tons of hours tinkering and no support from the site provider, I’m removing the FB option for universal sign-ins. It only works randomly and with no explanation of why it fails. If you wish to use universal log-ins, you’ll have to use one of the others provided. **

Deleted II

I deleted over 100 user accounts from my blog today. Most were sp*mmers. On the odd chance I deleted a legitimate account in error, you can just re-register. I only block IP’s for known baddies. This is becoming a chore so if things continue on this vein, I’ll have to remove the 3rd-party log-in plugin. I had to adjust the security controls in wordpress for it work properly and now I’m getting a weekly hit of fake accounts.

I’m also taking suggestions/recommendations for a new sp*m blocker plug-in. My beloved SK2 is no longer supported. Its held up for over a year of newer and newer versions of WP with no problems but lately, cracks are showing. The WP code is changing so much I think its time to move on. I have akismet loaded but no running.  I’ve read good reviews but I’d love to find another plug-in as good or better than SK2. Suggestions?

FB Fail

If you’ve tried to log-in to my blog via Facebook recently you’ve probably noticed it ain’t working. Apparently, they changed the api for that shit and I don’t have the time or patience to go back and figure it all out again.

All of the other log-ins work though. Amazing how simple of the others were to setup but Facebook’s is a nightmare of BS. Why am I not suprised?

Rant

Considering more and more people are consuming their news, blogs, etc on the go these days, I am irritated at the lack of sites that still haven’t upgraded their sites to include a mobile version.

And considering most platforms already include free templates, not switching is just laziness.

Upgrade your damn sites already!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. . .

/rant

Direction

I’ve been weaning myself off Facebook and twitter as of late. Its just too time-consuming. And frankly, the energy invested is almost never returned. lol   If it wasn’t for my moto group, I think I would abandon FB all together. Filtering, while still possible, is way more complicated than it used to be and trying to sort thru the lists of people just gets old after awhile.

Access to social aspects is great but the onslaught of “friends” is often too much and/or eventually waters down the entire experience. I’m leaning toward leaving parts of my profile, normally restricted, open and just weeding down my friend list to people I actually interact with on a regular basis. This way people who are just dying to know what I’m up to can. Ok seriously though, I’m not a celebrity or social icon. One really doesn’t need thousands of friends that never interact w/you but feel slighted the moment you remove them. Seriously. It all becomes very high school-ish after awhile. Apple guy de-activated his account completely the other day.

Even my blogging has suffered. I still have plenty to say but my free time is limited and I have to pick and choose where I waste it. heehee  As often happens, by the time I actually get time to sit down and blog, I’ve already moved on to other topic or forgotten the topic I wanted to blather on about.

Shifting my priorities away from FB and twitter will give me more time to ramble incessantly on my blog anyway. This way I can feel validated and still get my online time in. [1]Yes, I’m being sarcastic here. duh!

References

References
↑1 Yes, I’m being sarcastic here. duh!

Deleted

I made a booboo and deleted my RSS feeds today. I was cleaning out some directories and got click happy. Naturally, I cleaned the recycle folder before I realized what I’d done.  ooops!

Oh well, I’d been thinking of starting over anyway. I guess it was a sign to start sooner than later. lol  Many of my old favorites have gone by the wayside anway. I guess with Facebook, twitter, etc it was bound to happen. This just gives me a good impetus to start fresh. But, this time it I’m sticking to blogs I actually read on a consistent basis. I got far too click-happy previously and added way too many over the years. This also gives me a good excuse to go blog hopping [1]randomly clicking from blogroll to blogroll, finding blogs you like again. Something I haven’t done in a very long time. hehehe

*

Speaking of, I still use twitter more than Facebook but both are loosing their appeal to me. Its fine when you have a few friends but after a few hundred, it becomes cumbersome and a pain in the butt. I don’t know how people with thousands of “friends” do it. [2]Well, I do but that’s another story. lol  Seriously, there is no way you can interact on a consistent basis with that many people. Hell, I don’t even interact w/half my list as it is.

References

References
↑1 randomly clicking from blogroll to blogroll, finding blogs you like
↑2 Well, I do but that’s another story. lol

Picture Perfect

I have decided to abandon flickr for picasa. While flickr does offer quite a bit more in the way of editing, I already do most of that myself. The biggest selling point for me was Goog’le’s picasa gives you a full gig of storage for free vs Flirckr’s 200 megs. On top of that, flickr charges $24.95 for their ‘pro’ account. Google offers a whopping 20 gigs a year for only $5.00. Oh hell yeah! lol

The one thing I will miss the most is the ability to do subfolders within albums. [1]flickr refers to it as collections and sets.  For the cost savings, I’m willing to forgo the previous perks. Now comes the arduous task of physically moving the files. Sadly, I couldn’t find a direct transfer method. I did, however, find a nifty free program that downloads everything from flickr and allows to re-upload it to picasa. Actually, you can pick and choose from a whole list of different sites. Anyway, I opted to manually re-upload myself as the download process dumped everything into one big folder. It also gives me a chance to filter out duplicates, or so I’m hoping. That didn’t sound so bad until I realized how many pics I really have. lol I easy have almost 2 gigs worth of photos. Who knew?

Anyway, I’m still in the process of moving stuff around. Once I’m done, I plan on ditching flickr all together.

References

References
↑1 flickr refers to it as collections and sets.

Click, Click

I got a mild complaint the other day. Someone asked why I no longer have a blogroll listed on my blog. I guess they felt slighted because they link to my blog and I don’t reciprocate. [1]A link they have since deleted. Uh…bitter much?  Well, the answer is simple. It got to be too much to handle/manage. I still follow almost 200 blogs. Tie that in with Facebook and twitter its a lot to manage on a daily basis.

And for the record, I still have a blogroll. I just follow it via RSS feeds. Its easier and faster than trying to click thru from my blog. I know that defeats the purpose of all the bells and whistles you see on most blogs (including mine), but I just don’t have the time these days. I surf purely out of personal enjoyment on my free time. I also don’t comment on many blogs as much anymore as I do most of my surfing on my phone. Since only a handful have updated their blog for mobile devices, its either impossible or complicated to try and leave a comment.

I may or may not bring my own blogroll back in the future. As universal log-ins take hold and the integration of social media continues, I’m sure new easier methods of link management will arise. Hell, it may become moot as everything becomes much more interconnected. twitter, Google, and Facebook are fighting tooth and nail to capture users via universal log-ins. I’m sure eventually you’ll have just one large integrated feed that gets auto-updated continuously so all you have to do is log-in and view it.

References

References
↑1 A link they have since deleted. Uh…bitter much?

Mobile

One of my biggest frustrations with the blogging world as of late is the lack of compatibility for mobile devices. More and more, people are accessing the web and online content via mobile devices like the nexus one, droid, iphone, ipod, blackberry, palm, etc.

Many mobile gadgets due a decent job of parsing/displaying data for reading. Newer gadgets will even render complete HTML content as well. Hell, the new breed of pda/phones have chip speeds equal to computers of only 5 years ago. Clearly, processing power isn’t the problem.

The big problem is trying to squeeze webpages meant to run on a computer screen onto a device a fraction of the size. To their credit, most mobile device makers have ingenious rendering or zooming techniques. That said, its still extremely annoying, especially if you are surfing a lot.  Even worse, most professional sites often incorporate scripts/plugins/flash that won’t run on most mobile devices. And again, the problem is not from processing speed. No, as usual it boils down to petty proprietary rules, squabbles over licensing, poorly written software, and last but not least, greed. All of which are sad, pathetic, and stupid. For the corporate aspect, companies need to get their act in gear or perish. The need for mobile access is far from stale and is only going to increase. Not to mention, in today’s economy, companies need to encourage access any way they can.

For a medium wholly dependant on exposure, I’m really surprised more folks haven’t updated their sites/blogs to accommodate mobile exposure. Hell, my blog isn’t even that popular and I’ve had a mobile version for several years. [1]To be fair, I upgraded my mobile app months ago and just realized tonight I hadn’t activated the change. While the old app did the job, the new one is sooooo much nicer. Feel free to give me … Continue reading  There is already a niche industry to handle the demand. More people/companies just need to realize and take advantage of it. 

For myself, I consume most of my online content via my phone now. Its just easier with my schedule and time constraints. Sadly, for the blog world, commenting or interacting is still painfully awkward or even impossible at times. Not to mention, extremely frustrating.

The point of my little ramble? All you companies and dedicated bloggers out there, upgrade your sites for mobile consumption already! Sheez, bulky computers are so 90’s. :p

/rant

References

References
↑1 To be fair, I upgraded my mobile app months ago and just realized tonight I hadn’t activated the change. While the old app did the job, the new one is sooooo much nicer. Feel free to give me feedback on it.

Social Fail

I was blogrolling (finally) and catching up on the list when I was reminded by Jimbo of something I’d been meaning to rant about.

Jimbo was ranting on the do’s/don’ts of when to use grindr in social situations. This sort of got me on the general mistakes most folks make when joining/using social sites in general. Whether it be the hatchet-job of HTML and over-embedding on mySpace, [1]which has become the trailer park of the web the constant barrage of friend/game requests on Facebook, and/or the minutia of irrelevant updates on twitter, it can quickly become unmanageable if you don’t start out with some ground rules.

Being someone who has been online since before the existence of AOL, let me take a moment to edify you on my hard-earned skills. lol With a few simple guidelines you can keep your online social interactions under control, enjoyable, and even useful.

When joining social sites like FB, MS, twitter, etc, you should first decide on your purpose. [2]Yes, this even applies to the more adult-oriented sites as well.  Are you joining to reconnect with friends/family, make new friends, be a social butterfly, and/or just ‘connect’ in general.

DO:

  • Take the time to fill out your profile. You don’t have to necessarily reveal personal/private information but if your goal is to meet people then it makes sense to provide goals, interests, hobbies, etc. If you are gonna create multiple profiles, instead of constantly retyping everything, just create a master word or text file that you can copy and paste from. You also don’t have to list every minutia of your interests. Stick to things you are really passionate or interested in. You can always add more later.
  • Be sincere and honest. People often sniff out a fake PDQ. Sure your responses might be less but they will be legit. And lets face it, if your goal is to actually meet people, they’ll eventually find out you lied.
  • Use an up-to-date picture of yourself. It’s the freakin’ millennium already. There is absolutely no excuse for anyone not to have an up-to-date pic in this day when practically everything has a camera attached to it. I don’t care what you looked like 10 years ago or when you were 12.  Its ok to have those type of pics but not as your main profile pic. Its misleading and you’ll end up alienating people. And if you are so discreet, you can’t have a face shot, then maybe you shouldn’t be online? [3]Anytime I see this, I just assume you are a liar or cheating on someone
  • Actually take the time to reply or interact. Again, if the goal is to be social, it won’t happen all by itself. Depending on the site, you don’t necessarily have to reply to everyone but the point here is to make an effort to interact.

Don’t

  • Add any/every one who sends you a friend/follow request. If you do, you’ll soon find your profile becomes bloated and pointless. And there is nothing that says once you add someone you can’t remove them later.
  • For adding media/links, don’t over do it. Less is definitely more in this instance. If you constantly fill your stream with drivel, people will get bored or overwhelmed and move on. Its ok to post things you really like but I don’t wanna know about every single song/movie/clip/article that you purchase/download/find from the web. And for the love of toast, for profiles like myspace, make sure the “auto-play” feature for your embedded content is turned off!
  • Hide all of your data/info and then wonder why no one friends/follows you. This is a biggie folks. Especially on sites like twitter and FB, if I can’t see anything about you not only will I not add you, I’ll probably go one step further and block you. Demanding a lot and offering nothing in return rarely works. FB allows you a fine control of what is viewable or not. twitter is a bit trickier as it only allows full view or nothing. The trick is to accept the request but then review the person’s feed/stream. If you don’t like it or it doesn’t interest you, simply unfollow and/or block. You’re done.
  • Add mean, disparaging, hateful, or otherwise negative statements. No one likes a whining negative-Nancy. Nothing turns me off to a person’s profile faster than negative comments.
  • Log on and never log-off. That might work for chat services where you can set yourself to away or available but for most profiles, its just annoying trying to interact with someone who turns out not to be there but logged on.

See, that wasn’t so hard was it? lol Here are just a few more tips that might save you some grief.

Don’t join every site just because you can. Pick and choose the sites you really like and dump the rest.

If you are worried about privacy or work-related issues, don’t use your real name online. I’ve always used my nickname and to this day, I can’t find a single reference to my real name online. This is especially important if you are using profiles for work and ‘play’.

With the latter in mind, keep your work/play profiles separate. You can create multiple accounts for each and/or filter your contacts based on interest.

Ok, that’s it. Now go forth and be social!

References

References
↑1 which has become the trailer park of the web
↑2 Yes, this even applies to the more adult-oriented sites as well.
↑3 Anytime I see this, I just assume you are a liar or cheating on someone