AliThinks

Love-Hate

Every damn day I hate Facebook for one reason or another.

But then I look at the good stuff about it, and I relax. I still hate it. I will always hate Facebook to some degree, but that kid knew what he was doing. So I commend him for that, and I continue to use his service, which changed my life here in Lexington. (See? I can't hate it that much. It really helped me in a social way.)

I heard about Facebook when you still needed a .edu email to join, so I got an alum email address from my alma mater. I was an early adult adopter, and some of my earliest friends on Facebook were my blogging friends. And I don't mean that in a hipster way, like Facebook is so uncool now that they let everyone in.

(Although I'm sure that folks who were in college five years ago feel that way. To that I say I GET YOU.)

The changes Facebook has made annoy me. To be sure, rare is the FB application that I will allow. And I clamp down on my privacy settings as soon as I hear about a change. For this bullshit, I hate Facebook. But for all the rest, I love it.

And I hate that I love it.

I Was Going To Write About...

...how much I hate bikram yoga at the beginning of class, and how much I love it at the end of class, and not just because it's over.

However, I just updated my iPod software and installed a new app, which when I tried to associate it with a couple of other social networking accounts, wouldn't let me log into said accounts. This made my blood pressure rise and gave me the urge to throw the iPod against the wall.

Sometimes computer stuff makes my blood boil when I can't get it to work.

Then I remembered I'd changed passwords on both accounts, but hadn't used them on the iPod since I'd changed them.

Yeah. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Just A Few Thoughts

Lately I've been thinking about social media, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to say about it without sounding like a jackass. I've been using social media for years, and it's interesting to see patterns of adoption.

When I knew I was moving to Lexington, I contacted a food preparation company Allan had told me about, to propose my services to expand their Internet presence, because I read they were hoping to eventually franchise their business. I never heard back; perhaps I went about it the wrong way, or perhaps they didn't think it was important. Whatever, it doesn't matter.

My point is that I did this long before Twitter existed, or Facebook was opened to the general public. My point is that I'm an early adopter. I'm not an über-early adopter, mind you. I joined Flickr a little more than a year after its start, and I thought Twitter was stupid when I first heard about it, so I didn't join that until January of 2008. But, relatively speaking, I'm on it. (Foursquare? Dude, Brightkite has been doing the location-based thing for years, but without all the stupid Mayor crap.)

So it was interesting for me to see how political candidates used social media last year. It's interesting to see how businesses decide to use social media.

And inversely, it's interesting to be reminded that not everyone is like me in this regard. I read about this next thing I'm going to talk about (notice I said "talk," not "write," heh) last week, and thought I might blog about it, but I put it out of my head until I saw this tweet from @dvs earlier today. The link in his tweet goes here, but I read about it somewhere else (and for the life of me I can't remember where). Whatever, again, it doesn't matter. What matters is the gist of it: This post on Read Write Web rose to near the top of Google rankings for the search "facebook login." (But it never got to #1, as far as I know.) Some people who went to RWW were confused and thought it was a new Facebook. And they left disgruntled comments on the blog entry saying as much! 

So what, right? But this means that people don't use the address bar of their browser to go to websites (or bookmark them). They go to the Google and search for it. And this kind of shocked me, Alison, who has ten different website tabs set as her Firefox "home" page.

It makes me want to tilt my head in that way that Kyle (or Stan) does on South Park and say "Reallllyyyy?" 

Now, some of you are longtime readers of this blog, and many of you are bloggers yourselves. A lot of you are like me, and I know this, because we are contacts (and some of you are friends) on other social media sites. Perhaps you already know all about the RWW/Facebook login and are mocking me because I'm posting about it nearly a week after it happened.

And in the defense of those who use the Google, I will admit to Googling when I'm not sure of a website's URL. (Like the website of the food company I mentioned above. I just looked it up a few minutes ago.) But for a website I go to on a regular basis? If it's not in my home tabs or bookmarked, Firefox remembers it and the URL auto-fills in my address bar. 

RWW had an interesting follow-up post about the FB login entry. It gave me something more to think about. 

What about you? How do you get to your most-visited websites?

Twitch, Twitch

Lately my Internet time has been spent on Twitter. In the past couple of weeks, it's mushroomed as a place for local (or hyperlocal, even) happenings, news, and community.

This morning I got locked out of my Twitter account after trying to access it, then changing my password. Twitter wants me to "chillax" (no, really, it's right there on the screen) and I'm trying. I'm really trying. Trouble is, I'm afraid I'll miss something. Ten days ago I missed an amazing community outpouring that occurred during a city council session because I was at work.

*****

Speaking of work, I'm here now. Or there now. Whatever. I'm at my place of unemployment. HA! I'm totally leaving that lapsus, because this really doesn't feel like a JOB. And that? Is awesome. 

In any case, I won't get the Twitter DTs, because my workplace now has an account (which I set up, but it wasn't for my own benefit, honest) and I can get my local fix. And hey, if I remain locked out of Twitter at home, maybe I'll write in this blog more often. Maybe I'll write about how Twitter and Facebook help build communities.

Too Cool!

I am using my iPod Touch to post this blog entry! I <3 technology.

New Year, New Banner

I said I was going to do it. I asked for suggestions. My friend Le Mille Pattes back in France pulled a Horshack* and his enthusiasm was such that I asked him to make me a new banner.

And that was that. I didn't give him any ideas. He didn't ask.

One month later...

Mr. Millipede is on vacation right now, and over the weekend he and I volleyed e-mails about the banner. This is the final design. I think it's great, as in I totally *heart* it. What do you think? (If you can't see it, do a hard refresh or clear your cache.)

*Mille Pattes: Arnold Horshack est un personnage (connu pour son enthousiasme devant son prof) d'une série télé des années 70. Je ne sais pas si elle a été diffusée en France.

Cameraphone

When I moved here, Allan got me a cell phone and put me on his plan. I decided that since I had a really nice camera, I didn't need a cell phone with one.

Almost a year later, during a trip to France, I got a new cell phone. I've kept my SFR subscription up, you see. And since I've had it for nearly eight years, they like me. I got a really cool phone for a nominal fee. This time I wanted a camera, so my shiny hot pink Sony Ericsson phone has a 2 megapixel job.

This thing is great for snapping photos of bumper stickers and other things I happen to see when I'm out without my D50. Last night I dumped a bunch of photos from the cell phone to my hard drive, and uploaded the better ones to Flickr. This isn't the first time I've done this, of course, but it's the first time all the cameraphone pictures are in one place: my cameraphone set.

After the jump, you can see one of the photos, if you don't want to click through to Flickr.

New Banner

So I've been thinking about changing my banner for a couple of months now. I'd been using the same template and banner on my blog for more than a year, so it was time for a change. And since I had some time to kill these last couple of days, I cooked up this new look. I may tweak it once I get home; it's not quite right yet.

But then I'm one of those annoying perfectionists.

Anyway, greetings from a hotel at Charles de Gaulle airport. I'm on my way back home.

We Exchanged Christmas Gifts Last Night

pod! Pink, originally uploaded by Alison.

I'm now fully assimilated into The Borg.

Thanks, Allan.

It's Been A Long Time Coming

For weeks now I've been trying to wrap my brain around a way to keep my feed reader and my blogroll on the same wavelength. I'd subscribe to a feed, thinking I would add it to the blogroll, but then I'd forget because I never read from my blogroll anymore. There was a pretty big discrepancy between my roll and what I was actually reading.

Then Neil came to the rescue by eliminating his blogroll and making his Bloglines feed public. And that, my friends, is what I have just done. If you check the side bar, you'll see a section called "Things I Read Online." That's where my "blogroll" is now.

And here's the part where I announce the creation of a site called Indie Bloggers, which I have joined. I quote:

Indie Bloggers is about giving exposure to bloggers who need to be read. Indie Bloggers is a showcase of written talent - stories, almost - that you may not see otherwise. Anyone can submit. Everyone may not be published right away or at all, but there are few restrictions (i.e., I don’t want to hear about your sex life). Please don’t be intimidated. We want your best!

So far I have submitted one post, Ancient History. But I have read a number of other interesting posts from great bloggers whom I might not have discovered otherwise. The link to Indie Bloggers is also in the sidebar now. Consider it another link resource, a complement to my Bloglines subscriptions.

Bitacle: Aggregator or Thief?

The other day I got a trackback notification from Typepad; it was for a site called Bitacle. I clicked the link in the notification, and got taken to a page that had my exact blog post, complete with a place to comment and everything. I looked around the page, and there were my archives! 

I asked Chris if he knew anything about it, and he said he'd received a similar trackback. He asked me to let him know if I found anything out.

An e-mail to Bitacle got no response.

At the bottom of the Bitacle homepage there's this sentence: "Bitacle is reader feeds by web." Yeah, okay. Whatever. So why do they reproduce my whole post? And leave space for comments? Granted, there's a link to my blog in their post, but why would anyone reading there bother to click through to AliThinks? There's no need! Everything is there; everything is archived! The page is (apparently) loaded with ads, but Adblock is doing its job; I can't see them.

There has been some discussion on other blogs about whether Bitacle is simply an aggregator or a splog, and whether the language barrier plays into the perception of it. (Bitacle is Spanish). My gut is telling me there's something fishy about it. I don't care if there's a disclaimer at the bottom of every blog post ("Articles are copyright their respective autors [sic]"). Or that their FAQ states:

What type of blogs are   inlcuded in the search?

All blogs that has a feed. This it can be RSS or Atom.

What happens if I don’t wish to appear in the list?

If you doesn’t publish feed, it won’t be   included in the blog’s search. Nevertheless, if you previously has   published feed of the site that was indexed, the old entrances will remain in   the index, although the new ones aren’t added.

Sorry, but Bloglines and Technorati and whatnot are not republishing my entire content!

Stop Bitacle.org is a blog dedicated to creating "negative momentum" against Bitacle.  The folks behind it are outraged, and I am, too.

UPDATE: Allan Jenkins has a spot-on synopsis of what's going on.

Testing

Typepad now lets you easily add Technorati tags to your posts. When I first saw these on other blogs a number of months ago, I thought they looked unwieldy. I'm still not sure I like the way they look, especially with my choice of links-in-bold.

What do you think?

By the way, I'm still working on the FAQ. You people came up with some killer questions!
 

Tweaking

After Allan and I went out for Korean food (je yuk bok eum, mmmmm!), we spent the evening doing a little blog rearranging.

I cleaned up my "Other Stuff" list in the sidebar, and then decided that my blogroll was WAY too long. So I've put it on a separate page (created by me! Almost all by myself!); you can access my blogroll(s) by clicking on the link called "Ali's Reads" over there in the sidebar.

I also opened a help ticket to see if someone at Typepad can decipher the IE viewing problem. We'll see what the solutions are. In the meantime, I've made it easier to track how my blog does look in IE by installing this Firefox extension. Right-click, view in IE, and presto! It's a neat tool, so if you have Firefox, why not give it a try?

In the meantime, feedback is welcome. I'm not done with the tweaking yet.

Curious

I asked you which browser you used and how my blog looked. You delivered. Thank you. It seems as if IE is the culprit, but it also seems to be a recent thing. Heimo had a good suggestion: that I check my sidebar content to see if something I added changed the balance in the matrix. That's something I meant to do today, and then...didn't. The most recent thing I've put in my sidebar is the Ad-Free Blog button. I'll have to mess around in Typepad, and possibly call in a Help Ticket. As I've said to some commenters, I only have the Plus version of Typepad, which means I have no access to the CSS. Sorry. I still maintain that my readers who use IE (at home, not at work) should install Firefox, just on general principles. (Can you see me sticking my tongue out? Good.)

Okay, so. I have another question for you. I want to know what you prefer when you click on a link. Do you want the link to open in a new window (as is practice here at AliThinks), or do you want the link to open in the same window?  Please keep in mind that no matter what your answers, this is one thing I will not alter on my blog (there's that tongue again).

I'm curious, because in my post for Basic Juice, I followed Beau's protocol for links. It was weird to not add the target="_blank" bit of code that I add to every link here.

Maybe I'm alone in pondering this stuff. What do you prefer, a link that takes over the page you're looking at, or a link that opens a new window? Alison wants to know.

Edit: CJ told me that on her blog, she has links open in a new window. If you do it, too, I want to know.

Take Back The Web

A week or so ago, a fellow blogger brought to my attention that my sidebar content is down at the bottom of the page. She asked if I was playing with my template, and I said no. Then I did a little test: I viewed my blog in Microsoft Internet Explorer, hereinto referred to as IE. (This is also convenient, because you can make up phrases like Inherent Evil and Incompetent Exploring to go with the abbreviation).

I told my buddy that it was an IE thing, and suggested she use Firefox.

Then the other day I saw a different blogger write about her site looking all wonky, and that she didn't want to post anything when her blog looked such a mess. I left a comment explaining that it looked perfect in Firefox. Then I explained that Microsoft has added extensions to the HTML used in pages created by their software, FrontPage. These extensions do NOT meet the accepted world wide web standard. The result is that perfectly fine pages not created with FrontPage look all whacked in IE. I thank Allan for explaining that to me, and I hope I got it right here.

This morning I was thinking about this, and checked my stats to see what browsers people are using. I use the free version of StatCounter, and I can see details for the last 100 pageloads.

Of my last 100 visitors, 69 are using some version of IE. 26 people visited using some version of Firefox. Four Mac users out there stopped by with Safari 1.2. One lonely Netscape user came to my blog via a search for Black Eyed Peace.

Now, here's a question for you, dear readers: which browser are you using? How does my blog look to you? A screenshot of what it should look like appears below the fold. (I have IE 6.0, and will not upgrade to 7.0. However, 15 of those 69 IE users have 7.0 -- I wonder if it makes a difference?)

And here's another question: If you're using IE, why? Please give Firefox a try. You'll be glad you did.

Edit: This may also be a Typepad and Blogger issue. But really, get Firefox.

The Missing Five Weeks

Five weeks' worth of archives are missing from this blog, because I've never imported them from AOHell.  If you've been with me from the beginning of my blog adventure ("late but in earnest" is my clan's motto), you know I started blogging in earnest after I finished writing a paper for my teaching certification.  And at the time I used AOL, and since I was paying them €35 a month for the privilege of DSL, I decided that I'd try their blog service.