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Archive for January, 2010

GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle

January 23, 2010 by Fabrizio
GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle

A few days ago, @MelissaAmbrose_ suggested that I made a blog post about GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle.com! Now when I first looked at the site, I was not impressed at all and was just going to make a quick blog about it to appease @MelissaAmbrose_ and make her happy :)  However, what first looked like a simple site set up with 4 frames that just simply load Google up in each, was a bit more complex than I anticipated. After a short while of playing with the site I found that it actually had a lot more thought gone into it than just 4 iFrames.

Semi-Dynamic Sizing

I am starting this review on the negatives. My first assumption was that the site was either designed to fit nicely on a 1280×800 display (which would have been awfully designed) or that the frames would dynamically resizes as the size of the window changed (which would have been the best thing). Unfortunately, I soon discovered when resizing the window I discovered that the size of the content stayed the same. This then made me question if it was statically set to look good at a size of 1280×800 or whether there was actually some cleaver JS running in the background. To my relief there was some JS running that would detect the size of the window on the page load and then resize. My main question to the makers of the site would be “Why can you not make an event listener that resizes the iFrames dynamically?”

Loading Sites in Frames

The site is adaptive, it isn’t just limited to having Google. At the top of each frame there are some special controls which you can see in the screen shot on the right.

The purpose of the first 2 icons should be fairly recognisable and obvious as the favicon of Google and Wikipedia. By clicking on these icons it will wither load the Google homepage or the Wikipedia homepage within the frame bellow. The last icon shown is the green arrow! By clicking this icon it will make a dialogue box pop-up requesting a URL to navigate to and this will allow you to go to any site of your choice!

Here is an example of the site with Google, Wikipedia, this blog, and a Google Search for my name loaded in the 4 frames.

Customisability

Another way that the site adapts in though the customisability of the layout! The main control of this is through the Cross that is shown on the screen shot of the frame controls. Clicking this will get rid of that frame and stretch an adjacent frame to fill the space. To see what this might look like and the look of a customised workspace, look at the images below:

Pretty Design

Last but obvious not least is design. Although it is not amazing the coloured border around each iFrame is a nice touch and goes well with the Google them of the website :P

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would say that this is a cleaver idea and I can see some uses for it but I will stick to the normal Google site and multiple tabs :P

By the way there are a few more features and if you want to find them, go and have a play at GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle.com

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Facebook News Feed getting an update?

January 17, 2010 by Fabrizio
Facebook News Feed getting an update?

The Facebook NewsFeed is giving me bugs, and I was just wondering if it happening to anyone else? This is the problem that I have:

I am theorising that the cause of this bug may be an update to Facebook, but we will have to wait and see :)

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Twitter penalise dedicated Twitter users

January 9, 2010 by Fabrizio
Twitter penalise dedicated Twitter users

I was happily tweeting away yesterday when all of a sudden, TweetDeck started giving me a “Recipient not following you” error which is what TweetDeck’s last resort error is; if it does not recognise the error that has been returned it will return that error! Strangely TweetDeck have’t got an error message simply saying “An unknown error occurred” but this blog is not about the issues with TweetDeck (which I love dearly but being in Beta, obviously has bugs). At the time, I was ReTweeting and one of the common errors that I get that TweetDeck (once again strangely does not recognise), is the error that the Tweet I am trying to ReTweet has already been Tweeted by me!

At first I took this as the case and tried to ReTweet something else. I got the same error again! I knew for a fact that I had not already Tweeted this and then attempted to send a normal Tweet. I cannot remember if I got the “Recipient not following you” or another undescriptive error (however I am pretty sure it was that same old “Recipient not following you” error) but at that point I presumed TweetDeck had stopped working (as it had done the week before). To check that it was TweetDeck and not that twitter was having issues (which I doubted as I was still receiving Tweets on TweetDeck, which was what happened with the problem I had with TweetDeck the week before) I went on to Twitter and successfully send a Tweet.

From this I presumed it was the same problem as before and thought I would have to close TweetDeck and open it to rectify the problem (as I did last time) but before I could do that, I had to RT anything that had been loaded up in to TweetDeck already and reply to any tweets that were loaded and required a reply so I opened all those tweets on the web in multiple tabs, doing 5 at a time (so that my computer would not get filled with open tabs and end up confusing me) and I then clicked ReTweet on each and then confirmed it quickly changing between tabs in an attempt to get though it all quickly. When I returned to the first tweet that I ReTweeted to confirm that it had been ReTweeted, I could not see any sign that it had been successfully ReTweeted so clicked ReTweet again, and went to then next tab which had the same problem but by the time I reached the third one I realised something was up so clicked ReTweet then remained on that tab until I received an error message. After a few seconds of attempting to ReTweet, low and behold a message pops up at the top saying “whoops! Something went wrong, please refresh the page and try again”

Initially I did not associate this problem with the problem I was having on TweetDeck so refreshed all the open tabs and had a look if it had made any difference. It had not so I then tried again getting the same message each time! Since I was able to Tweet, I presumed there was a problem with the Twitter ReTweet function , but when I went to make a tweet asking about this, I was greeted with the following error:

I was shocked by this and it resulted in me having to stop tweeting for over an hour! I totally understand why Rate Limits are in place but I find that is penalising the dedicate users of twitter. If you look at my recent TweetStats you will notice that I tweet over 2000 times a month and in my opinion this show true dedication to the service. In my opinion, Twitter need to improve their data centres to accommodate larger rate limits. If twitter require more funding to provide this to their users I would be more than willing to pay an additional fee to have raised API limits! Just to clarify, I do not think twitter should charge for their service but I think that those who want higher rate limits should be able to pay and receive this!

Twitter do currently offer Whitelisting which raises API calls to up to 20,000 a day but this is only for developers and applications in production and will only affect the API calls and not the Update Limit.

The one thing that has really got me confused on this situation is the actual guidelines on the limits. The Update and API Limits state that you are limited to “1,000 total updates per day, on any and all devices (web, mobile web, phone, API, etc. )” However, if you look at my statistics for yesterday, you will see I was no where near this limit!

Admittedly, I was tweeting (well ReTweeting) at a rapid rate but if there is an additional limit which is on a per hour basis that would affect that, it should stated in the Update and API Limits.

I am still very confused about this but I have to live with this! Have any of you ever got that error? Please leave your comments :)

Popularity: 37% [?]

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My self harming habits…

January 9, 2010 by Fabrizio
My self harming habits…

The following Tweets are tweets describing how I made lunch on the 12th of December 2009 and about the events that occurred at this time. I apologise for the delay in making this blog post, the reason was because it took me a long time to compile the tweets and format them :) Please read and enjoy

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Like is just as bad as Dislike

January 9, 2010 by Fabrizio
Like is just as bad as Dislike

There is this big thing on Facebook about the lack of a dislike button. A countless number of groups have been set up protesting for the button to be introduced but Facebook has not yet taken note of this. Presumably the reason behind this is because they fear that the button my be used inappropriately in an offensive way and promote bullying, however there are also many situations where the like button can be used for this same purpose! In certain circumstances, a dislike button is the button that should be clicked. Look at this example that I mocked up:

If people want to be offensive and abusive to other people, they don’t need a Dislike button to do it! They will just write it in the comments so if this is the reason that a Dislike button does not exist then it is stupid!

Dislike buttons are also used widely on other websites but in a slightly different way; many forums will have a Karma system where you can like or dislike comments giving the comment an overall karma rating. An obvious example of somewhere that something like this is used is on YouTube:

I totally agree that the Dislike button should be introduced and believe it would be good for Facebook. If Facebook is not introducing the dislike button for another reason or you don’t agree with what I have said, please inform me in the comments!

Popularity: 8% [?]

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My Guide to Getting more followers on Twitter

January 8, 2010 by Fabrizio

The most common question I get asked by friends who are slowly coming round to using the micro-blogging service, Twitter, is “How do I get more followers?” When asked last week by @CiaraJudge I realised it was a lot of effort explaining my tips to everyone so then decided to create this blog post as  something I can just link to and send to those who ask me in the future and as a guide for those of you who might stumble upon it. :)

Here are the basic ways to get more follower with detailed descriptions explaing how each of them will help you gain twitter followers:

  • Sign up for Twitter
    This may seem very obvious and that is because it is, but if you dont have a twitter accont you cant get followers! If you are reading this I would presume you have twitter but if you dont this is my moment to inspire you to get twitter and here are my words of inspiration: “I use Twitter :P lol”
    Another reason I have mentioned signing up for twitter is because as soon as you sign up for twitter bots will find you and start adding you. Although these bots are not real people and will not interact with you, the do bump up your follower count and there is no complaining about that! However, a word of warning about these bots, you will get followed by a lot of spam accounts that follow you in the hop you will notice and look on their profiles, these profiles then link to pornography and other material you may not want to see!
  • Do not Protect your Tweets
    Although making your twitter account private will put you at a lower risk of receiving spam messages and keeps your info private, you wont gain any followers by doing that. By making your profile private it limits some of the methods that are listed below for gaining followers and will not help if you aspire to have a huge following.
  • Tweet
    This has got to be the most simple and easy way of gaining followers. It is as simple as just tweeting. However, most people will not understand how tweeting could increase your following. There are a lot of people (as well as bots) on twitter that will spend their time in the search, looking for other users who tweet about their interests. The more you tweet the more chance you have of a person or bot following you. Another thing about your tweets is that you should be broad and not just tweet about one topic; by tweeting about many topics it makes your twitter account available to a wider audience! It really is that simple. In my time on twitter I have notice an approximate, 1:20 follower:updates ratio, however this will not be precise, and will vary!
    This is one of the steps that wont make any difference if you have a private account; if you account is private, people cannot find your tweets in the public time line when searching!
  • Find/Follow Friends
    If you find people you know in real life on twitter, it is very likely they will follow you back. That is a fairly quick and simple way of getting followers. There are many ways to find people you know on twitter:

    • Search for User’s by name on the Find on Twitter page
    • Search for User’s who you have in your email on the Find on other networks page
    • Find users who have lists of users who you know (i.e. A list that has been made for your school or place of work – if such exists, ensure that you are on the list as this will increase your publicity to other twitterers)
    • Try asking people you have already found on twitter, which other mutual friends have twitter
  • Find/Follow twitterers of interest to you
    Using the the Find on Twitter page, find people/companies which you know and use and would be interested in the tweets of. A lot of twitter accounts have forms of auto-follow which will automatically follow those who start following it. When you follow those accounts your following will obviously rise. It will also make you more exposed to twitter bots who might crawl the follower of popular people to find more people to follow themselves thus increasing your following. Following more people may also help with some of the other steps that I recommend.
  • Invite Friends
    Inviting friends to twitter is a great way of helping the twitter community grow and it will also gain you more followers! If you invite someone to twitter they should follow you back and this will increase your following.
  • Reply to those you follow
    By replying to people you follow, they may see your tweet and start a conversation with you. From this point you should try and find common interest so that the person you are talking to think it would be a good idea to follow you.
    Doing this will also increase your tweet count and help in the same way that Tweeting helps. It will also allow people searching for people who send messages to that user to find you.
  • ReTweet those you follow
    ReTweeting is not the most effective way of getting follower but it can help and depending on which type of RT you use, will affect how it will help you:

    • New Style RTing: This is when you use the ReTweet button on twitter and it displays you ReTweet to your followers as if they were following the original poster.
      By using this style of RTing, other users will be able to find and follow your account if they click to see who has been ReTweeting a certain post. It is rare that another user will do this (hence why this may not be the most effective way of getting followers) however if a user wanted to find other tweeters who liked (and ReTweeted) the same post as them they may click this and follow you.
    • Classic RTing: This is when you copy the tweet and appending the suffix “RT @username:” replacing @username with the original poster.
      For the purpose of gaining followers this method would be more effect as it will be counted as a tweet on your account and will make it available in search allowing users to find you in the same way discussed in tip 4.
  • Search on Twitter
    In the same way that I said people will search for tweet matching their intrest, you can do the same. By searching a particular term that interests you, you can find other people to start conversations with and to follow. This will often result in the other user following you back. A good example of something to search for would be musical artists that you may like.
  • Use Hashtags & Trending Topics
    Be using Trending Topics or popular hashtags you can increase the chance of your tweet being found when other user search. Trending topics and popular hashtags will be searched more often than just general terms. If you use of the hashtag or trending topic catches the attention of one of the people searching it, then they may reply, opening the opportunity to gain a new follower.
    UPDATE: If you are wondering what a Popular hashtag might include, it would include hashtags like #FollowFriday, #MusicMonday, #iwish, #nowplaying, # and #fail. You might also be able to find inspiration from What the Hashtag?!

    • I may elaborate on this in the future as I did rush this post towards the end but for now, those are a few quick steps to getting more followers :)

    Popularity: 27% [?]

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    3 New Domains and Short URLS

    January 8, 2010 by Fabrizio
    3 New Domains and Short URLS

    Today has been an extremely productive day here on my blog! I should be in school but thanks to the snow, I have not been in school after the first day that I returned on Tuesday. Earlier today, I was thinking about my blog and trying to think of ways to make my URL shorter so that when my tweets are ReTweeted on twitter and shared that the URL links do not take up as many characters. While pondering over this I tried to come up with some clever short URLS but everything I could think of was taken or too expensive due to an expensive TLD.

    I then realised that the short URL that I should have is so simple, and has been quite obvious for quite a while. On most social networking sites,  I use the username flungo which is short, simple and appropriate to me (the ‘f’ is for Fabrizio and the ‘lungo’ is from Lungo, which when put together makes Fabrizio Lungo which is my name :P ) so I purchased the domains flungo.me, flungo.co.uk and flungo.info (the .info one was simply because the domain was cheap) .

    I have now set those domains up so that they all redirect to fabrizio.me.uk (which you are presumably reading this blog on) as I have already built up a lot of SEO with the current domain and do not want to loose that by having multiple domains all hosting the same blog, or by changing the default domain. I have also set up flungo.me (the shortest of the 3 domains) as my URL shortening base! All tweets that are posted on my twitter account from this blog will be using that shortened URL from now on! I will also be working to integrate this into other parts of the site including with the tweetmemeTweetmeme plugin that is used on the site. I hope to also make short permalink available so that readers can share the blog posts with the respective short URL!

    This is the first post that should be tweeted using the URL Shortener so this is actually a test post; hopefully it works :)

    UPDATE: It appeared to tweet correctly however I have now modified the format of the tweet that is posted to make it clearer!

    Popularity: 9% [?]

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