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Better Beta FriendFeed Greasemonkey Script Release

FriendFeed made the beta site available, but in doing so they broke all my Greasemonkey scripts. Better FriendFeed no longer works, Cleaner FriendFeed is broke, and a few others I was using. The only solution I could come up with to make sure I could still add custom tabs was to update my Better FriendFeed script.

Features in this release:

  • Add/Remove custom tabs (access any site inside of FriendFeed so you don’t have to leave it)
  • Cleaner FriendFeed support allows clearer color indicators for your comments and your friends’ comments, as well as making the text easier to read overall
  • Change the word “Like” to another word of your choosing so that you don’t feel bad about Liking bad stuff in your feed

Whenever this actually goes live, I’ll need to make a simple update to the script because it will only work on http://beta.friendfeed.com for now.

Download Better Beta FriendFeed

Update: My main man Andrew Trinh reminded me that you have to disable the Better FriendFeed script or it will clash with the Better Beta FriendFeed script  (thanks Andrew!)

FriendFeed Beta Around the Blogosphere

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I Guess Video Embeds DO Work in WordPress

I originally got a video camera so that I could post videos of me singing on YouTube. Yeah, I know, lame.

Anyway, I more recently began using Seesmic for recording a workout journal because I find it extremely boring to write down or type what I have done. This information is imperative in making sure I’m progressing, though.

One day, I decided I was going to record myself reciting a verse to one of my songs spoken-word style. A lot of people seemed to enjoy this across the blogosphere. This got me interested in doing more video, so I started my 12 Seconds To A Better Life series on 12seconds.tv.

Until now, I had not embedded any videos here because I remembered running into issues before, but I can’t for the life of me remember now what had happened then because, as you can see below, Seesmic embeds just fine. It seems YouTube, Google Video and a few others need a plugin like Viper’s Video Quicktags.

The moral of the story is to always track what you do. Finding a solution to a problem is like solving a maze. If you don’t keep track of where you’ve been, you will keep hitting the same dead ends. I guess that applies to life in general, too.

Look forward to seeing more of me. The type of content here probably won’t change much, but video definitely allows for more diversity in how it will be presented.

Just for fun, here is me reciting something else on Seesmic.

Follow me at 12seconds.tv, Seesmic, or YouTube

Need an invite for 12seconds? Be one of the first 8 people to leave a comment and ask me for one.

Also, feel free to comment via Seesmic right on my blog 🙂

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15 People Who Rock On Rejaw

I signed up for Rejaw a while ago and I was actually taken with it’s interface. Even with all the Web 2.0 stuff out there and everybody jumping on the AJAX bandwagon, there are still only a few sites I’ve come across that actually use these technologies to provide a rich and interactive user experience.

Recently, a bonafide internet celebrity joined the ranks of satisfied Rejaw users and brought with him an army of followers (658, last I checked). There is definitely a community feeling on Rejaw that I don’t see on many other services and, combined with it’s features, I find it a lot of fun there.

I know, Robert. It’s freaking ridiculous. Also, you forgot to mention Kwippy. I am going to guess that people are always looking for something new, especially tech people like us. I’m also guessing that developers can’t help but try and do it better than Twitter did. If these two things were not true, I think we would all be just fine talking on IRC and ICQ, but I digress.

Rejaw allows you to embed your music, movies, and images right into your updates and allows for threaded conversation around those updates. Here are just a few people that I find to be catalysts for conversation on Rejaw. Be sure to check them out if you decide to join us.

Mona – “So, I have a question. There are A LOT of people on Social Networking sites, who complain about Social Networking sites, yet they still participate. Why do they do that?” (Yes, THE Mona)

diozaliciouz18 – “whoa! so princess is back and no one minds my presence?! omg! where’s my hero and my heroine [s] ?!”

Kelly – “A big WELCOME to all the new people that just got here! I would stay and get to know you all, but I have to get back to sleep.”

Chachafance – “It’s funny how people are just now catching on to Rejaw, getting excited & joining. Don’t they realize they’ve been missing out for awhile now? lol”

Wayne Sutton – “Hello everyone, so Leo started a Rejaw Rush? we’ve been here for 2 weeks shouting and whispering. So how do you like Rejaw so far?”

Gwen Sutton – “Side effect of Rejaw, you find nice people.”

Avatar X – “Leo Laporte is here. get ready for the flow of new users.”

Ciro – “My public apologies to my followers…for having to endure my thread replies…me and AvatarX just beat a new Rejaw record…I believe…”

The Rejaw Team (yup, they participate)

Rejaw
Danny Burkes
Chris Boone
Satoshi Nakagawa
Kenn Ejima

Oh, and this guy is supposed to be kind of a big deal: Leo Laporte

You can Shout at me here: http://rejaw.com/rahsheen

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Get On The Move and Walk For a Cause

I just recently came across the opportunity to blog about the Alzheimer’s Memory Walk. Some of you who have been around for a while are already aware that I only write about things I find interesting or beneficial to my readers. This is definitely something I think can help a lot of people.

Many of you are already walking or running because you care about your health. Walking has to be one of the easiest ways to get healthy and stay that way. You don’t need any special equiptment, you don’t have to already be in the best of shape to do it, and you can involve the whole family.

That being said, I would like to offer you the opportunity to walk for a cause. By putting together a Memory Walk team in your community, you can help everyone do something good for themselves while supporting the millions affected by Alzheimer’s.

All you do is visit the site, choose a walk near you, and you will get your very own fund-raising website. All ages are welcome, so get your friends and family together or maybe get your company involved. Together, we can move closer to a world without Alzheimer’s.

Sponsored by Alzheimer's Walk

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There is No Road to Success

Do you believe that there is a road to success?

Some hidden pathway that will take you directly to your lifetime goals?

I have heard this term used all the time. I believe I have even used it on this very blog. But, now that I think about it, it just can’t be true. A simple road implies that:

  • Someone has already paved or at least cleared it
  • It has been traveled before
  • There are probably no obstacles

Now, I don’t know about you, but life is not simple and easy. Life requires hard work if you plan to get anything you desire. I have never known of anyone who found this road to success. So what gives?

You have to go through some stuff, to get to some stuff

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

  • Did you go through High School to get to College?
  • Maybe through Med school to become a Doctor
  • Went through a few bad relationships before you found someone who actually treated you right?
  • Did you suffer through years of turmoil before you could actually escape your parents?
  • Maybe you even went through countless jobs before figuring out your true calling

Didn’t you click a link or go through an RSS reader to get to this post?

The point is, you have to pave your own way. No one else can do it for you because no one else is you and no one else shares the same destination as you. Your individuality means that, not only is your destination different, but your path diverges as well.

So how can your road to success already exist?

The struggles you are going through now are like the vines and overgrowth of the jungle. Keep pressing on, cutting through and clearing your path. Huge unseen beasts growl in the distance and sometimes you feel like you just want to sit down and close your eyes. Maybe it will all just go away.

Many people stop and even turn back. You probably know some of them. They are getting nowhere fast and are quite unhappy about it. They are lost.

Smash through any obstacles you meet and eviscerate any low beast that comes near. Be persistent and don’t lose your determination. You have been given everything you need to succeed and, eventually, you break through into the Sunlight.

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Are You Financially Fit? Find Out Your Bills IQ

Debt is a serious problem in America. With gas prices sky high and the mortgage crisis going on, it’s getting a lot worse. You can’t simply rely on a new president’s financial plan to turn your situation around.

Whether you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck while your bills stack up behind you, or you’re dipping into your savings to put food on the table, there is help for you.

The best thing you can do to achieve any goal is to have a plan to get there and Bills.com can help you put a financial plan into effect. They offer Debt relief.  Debt consolidation, and Debt help that is tailored to your specific needs.

All you do is take the simple Bills IQ Quiz. This will give you a number and letter grade that helps you identify your situation. Once you have taken the quiz, Bills.com will actually give you the solutions you need to get a perfect score.

You will receive expert advice and be connected to specific resources to help you with Credit card debt, Bankruptcy, Consolidating debt, and more.

The best part about it is that this is all free. I took the quiz myself and I was kinda surprised at what I found out, but it’s a lot less shocking when the solutions are provided for you. You can always go back to Bills.com periodically to check your progress and make sure your score is increasing.

Go check it out. It’s free. Tell me what you think about it.

Sponsored by Bills.com

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How I Keep Up With Identi.ca, FriendFeed, Twitter, Kwippy, and Rejaw

This is quick video showing how I keep track of multiple micro-blogging services using Pidgin, Launchy, and Ping.fm. I basically send everything via Ping.fm and recieve everything via IM.

One thing I forgot to mention here is that I can also “post” to Twitter from TwitterSpy (which I mentioned in a previous post).

How I Keep Up With the Micro-Blogosphere–>

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Cross-Posting Etiquette: A Few Ways To Stay Connected

Everywhere At Once

Welcome, StumbleUpon users! Don’t forget to subscribe.

Ok, now that we understand the evils of posting across multiple services, let’s talk about the basic ways we can go about keeping track of these services.

The main issue with cross-posting using services like Ping.fm and Hellotxt is that you’re not actually engaging with people, you’re just using their time-line as your own personal billboard. I’m pretty sure this is detrimental to your personal brand.

If you don’t care about your personal brand, let’s just say it makes you look like a total noob.

There are 3 simple ways that you can interact with a micro-blogging service short of visiting the website. There may be other ways, but I choose these because I actually use most of them on a daily basis.

Instant Messaging

Identi.ca has full IM support

You can send and receive all your updates via IM. Simply login to http://identi.ca and go to Settings->IM, then follow the directions.

Kwippy provides alerts via IM

Kwippy will IM you when you recieve new comments, private message and various other things you might want to know. To set it up, login to Kwippy and visit your dashboard. The first thing you see should be the instructions for activating IM support.

TwitterSpy pretty much replaces Twitter’s IM functionality

Twitter is currently working feverishly to restore IM functionality. They also plan to implement a monetization strategy, completely fix the spam problem, and bring about peace in the middle east. Until their work is complete, you can use TwitterSpy.

Simply add ‘twitterspy@jabber.org’ to your GTalk buddy list. Typing “help” will give you a list of commands. Don’t worry about all that right now:

  • track @<username> (this will make sure you get your @replies)
  • twlogin <username> <password> (this logs you into twitter)
  • post <message> (now you can post to Twitter via IM….again)

For those who miss the “track” feature on Twitter: “help track”. (more info on TwitterSpy).

Email

Most services allow you to receive basic notices via email. Identi.ca does allow posting via email, but I don’t see a method to receive updates on any of the micro-blogging services I’m actually using.

That is not to say this isn’t possible. There are various hacks and services you could use such as TwitterMail and this one.  Those work (I guess) for Twitter. I’m pretty sure you could do something similar with Identi.ca. As for the others, I’m not sure.

SMS

Identi.ca supports SMS via Email

This means that you can receive your updates if your carrier has an Email<->SMS gateway. Most do. Just check the settings to see if your carrier is listed.

Twitter has full SMS support

I know this may come as a shock, but Twitter actually has SMS support. I believe it works pretty good. You should check it out.

Conclusions

Earlier, I read an account of one user’s Ping.fm usage and he brought an important point to light. I think the majority of issues come from mobile users.

It’s easy as hell to “Ping” from your phone. Ping.fm provides an interface for mobile phones and a specialized interface for iPhones.

Why is this a problem? Well, the cards are stacked against us! Ping.fm can already post to just about any service you can think of, then they support new services almost as soon as they’re released.

These micro-blogging services haven’t even had a chance to provide mobile users with a way to access their updates. So, we have a bunch of people running around Ping.fm’ing the crap out of us with no way to monitor our replies without actually visiting 4 or 5 different websites from their phone.

Bottom line is, it’s still your responsibility to be aware of your actions. Just because you’re holding a hammer, doesn’t mean everything is a nail. You know you’re not very active on certain services, so stop broadcasting to them.

If you are hell bent on trying to talk to everyone at once, you need to be just as passionate about being able to listen to everyone at once.

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Cross-Posting Etiquette: The Evils of Ping.fm and HelloTxt

Welcome, StumbleUpon users! Don’t forget to subscribe.

A little while ago, I did a post on using Ping.fm without spamming FriendFeed. This was followed up with a post by Andy DeSoto, where he talks about whether this Ping.fm cross-posting is saving time at the expense of others. Now, I know there are a lot of people in the social media community who are against etiquette and I totally understand where they are coming from. The problem is there are some things that you can do that make you look like a very bad and inconsiderate person.

There are people that I am really interested in following. I want to be aware of things going on with them. That’s why I follow them. I hate to see these people tarnish their image by abusing community technology tools. Social media is about being social. You have to listen as well as talk. Services like Ping.fm and HelloTxt are very powerful and can cause a lot of damage to this interaction in the wrong hands.

Using an ‘@’ symbol in Ping.fm

Are you serious? As Andy pointed out in his post, the ‘@’ is pretty specific to Twitter replies and doesn’t really translate to other services. Even in the rare case where you might be talking to a person who actually exists on two or more different services, why would you ‘@’ them on all of them? I don’t need to see your Twitter ‘@’ replies on Identi.ca. The person you’re talking to don’t live here and nobody can piece together what you’re talking about.

Your follower count is 0, Zero, Zilch

Are you broadcasting to a service where you are following 0? Nobody? Nadie? Why would you do this? I know I’m new here and all, but having a large number of followers and a low (nonexistant?) number of people you’re following is the mark of a spammer. I understand that you may not be active on every service, but come on. You didn’t even try. People may be interested in what you broadcast and then totally reversed once they see you are not listening.

You Never Check Your Updates

Have you ever received a call from an automated message? Annoying, isn’t it? If you are not available to speak to me live, why the hell did you call? I figure that most of us use Social Media to connect with others, but how are you doing this effectively if you don’t even respond when people try to engage with you? When you broadcast to a service, people expect that you are actually there. You are available for discourse. When you don’t respond, that leaves people with a bad impression.

Step Your Game Up

We can’t all be on every service all the time. It’s just not possible unless you’re a robot or you have some slick software yet to be released (I can haz beta key, please?). You have to set realistic goals for interacting with the community. It’s fine if you want to jump on every new service that comes out. Go ahead, play around with it. That’s what we do, right? Here are some basic guidelines to help you out:

  • Do not plug every service you have an account with into Ping.fm or HelloTxt just because
  • Do not make Ping.fm your primary method for using Twitter or any other specific service
  • Do not ever use Ping.fm to send an @reply. Period.
  • If you are not going to check a specific site at least once or twice a day, don’t broadcast there

Think about a person you would just love to have a discussion with. You have followed there blog or maybe heard them speak on a podcast. You would really like to get into this person’s head and here they are right in front of you! The problem is, no matter what you do to get their attention, they ignore you. They have a megaphone in hand and they are shouting at someone you can’t even see. Other people nearby are looking at this person like they’re crazy. Now, turn things around. Are you the nut job with the megaphone?

Stay Tuned

This post is not aimed at anyone in particular. I just felt compelled to share because I really hate running into situations where very interesting and intelligent people are misusing these services and probably don’t even know it. I took Plurk out of Ping.fm because I never go there. I dislike it immensely, so it would be wrong to continuously post there. Be considerate of others. This is a community, after all.

Far be it from me to call someone ashy without being able to provide a little lotion. There are many ways that you can make your life easier in keeping track of all these different micro-blogging services. I plan to share them with you at a later date, but this post has become entirely too long and I got updates to check.

Get the next installment here: Being Everywhere At Once

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My Brother Can’t Stick With an MMORPG

Me and my little brother play Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG’s). I try to be a good big bro whenever possible, so this is one of the ways we bond. We may be physically in two different places at times, even within the same house, but at least we can threaten to murder eachother almost face-to-face in the game.

Today I noticed a trend. We have gone through about 4 of these games within the past year and a half. My character in the game always ends up more powerful and well-rounded than his, even if he has had a head-start.

If you are into these types of games, you know that it takes a lot of time and effort in front of that computer to develop your character (unless you are willing to dump money into it). I’m not just “better” at the games than he is. I don’t even read the strategy guides and FAQ’s. I don’t spend any more time on the game than him.

So what makes the difference? Why do I come out ahead?

Are You Too Caught Up in the Doing?

I realized that he will develop a character just so far before deciding he doesn’t like how it’s going to turn out. He should have been a Knight instead of a Sorcerer or he chose the wrong class once he leveled up, or he doesn’t like the haircut he picked. Whatever the case, he starts all over from scratch, or switches games entirely!

Now, keep in mind, we are talking about an online game, here. He’s obviously not hurting anything by flitting from game to game and constantly trying to play them from all different angles. But, how many of us do this in everyday life?

The issue here is, he is starting the game with no particular goals in mind. He is focusing on the things you do in the game. You kill stuff, you sell stuff, you buy stuff, you level up and get powerful. He isn’t thinking about what it’s all for. He is admiring the flora and fauna, not really thinking about the forest as a whole.

This is an awesome mindset to have if you are just playing a game for fun or if you actually happen to be meandering through a beautiful forest, but not when you are supposed to be accomplishing things in your life.

If You Never Set Goals, You Will Never Achieve Them

That looks ridiculous actually written down, doesn’t it? But this is how people go through life. They have vague ideas of what you’re supposed to do to be a “success,” but no clue as to what success really is for them.

It’s usually not a good idea to jump in the car and start driving before you’ve decided where you want to go, especially given the price of gas these days, but we do it with our lives all the time. Just like my brother does in his games: we grind and grind and take baby steps toward becoming slightly better than before, but to what end? You may be able to make enough money to cover wasted gas, but there is no replacing wasted time.

Do You Look At Your Feet When You Walk?

Well? Do You? Do you look at your feet to make sure they are going one in front of the other or do you look in front of you to see where you are going? If you watch your feet, you may want to check with your doctor to make sure you don’t have an inner-ear thing. For the rest of us, it will be to your benefit to pick a destination. Find out what your goals really are. Write them down.

Once you have figured out where you really want to go, you may find yourself drawn there almost automatically. Things begin to work themselves out with a lot less effort on your part. Kind of like when you decide to walk across a room or…through a forest.

How do you stay focused on your destination?

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Make FriendFeed Slightly More Productive: Script Updates

Everyone knows how awesome Duncan’s FriendFeed tabs are. After reading Smaller Tabs, More Choices , I created a couple more tabs to help increase my productivity while using FriendFeed. I agree with Duncan, though: “Ideally these will one day become one script and user definable.” So I decided to go ahead and make that happen.

This new script will allow you to enable/disable tabs right from the configuration GUI. You can also create new tabs by specifying a name and a website. The script will try to automatically figure out where the favicon is if you don’t specify it. You can also toggle Cleaner FriendFeed from the config GUI. If you are running any of the tab scripts or Cleaner FriendFeed, you should disable them as I don’t think they will play nice with this script.

I created a quick screencast to demonstrating some of the features.

You can download the script from here.