More on Facebook RSS Slurpage
After spending a little bit of time connecting varous blogs back to Facebook via RSS Graffiti, I found that no notes were being imported. Even tried post-dating an entry to see if it would be picked up, but no bits moved. This is where RSS Graffiti shines as much as Facebook’s own RSS parser removes [...]
Facebook Notes: So Long, and Good Riddance
I’ve been using the Facebook “Notes” application for about a year and a half to import notes from my various blogs into my Facebook profile and pages. As Facebook has grown in popularity, I’ve found more people reading my ramblings through that channel than those who end up clicking through a Google search or (gasp) [...]
Passing The Hot Potato To Facebook
Aside from all of the unsettled feelings created by the Facebook Places privacy un-settings, there was other news coming out of the little “f” today: Facebook acquired Hot Potato. I’ve been a fan since Justin Shaffer first described the idea to me in the Times Square Hard Rock Cafe. Anything that sounds good over heavy [...]
Installing a Micro Cell
About four years ago, I put a low-powered cell repeater into our basement. We live in a stucco house, which is an effective Faraday cage; I mostly work in the basement under a tile floor with very little direct outside exposure (yes, this explains oh so much). The cell repeater did its job as long [...]
Stop Searching and Read A Book
Disclaimers: I’ve written three technical books. Background: Tim O’Reilly, via David Farber’s IP mailing list, pointed at Danny Sullivan’s posting that shed some much-needed light on the the arguments for regulating search. Sullivan’s object of satire was an op-ed piece suggesting that Google’s search algorithms be subject to scrutiny and therefore regulation. Marissa Mayer’s piece [...]
Parsing Strange
I’m busy working on my tutorial for WordCamp Chicago that’s now tentatively titled “Parsing Strange” – as in “parsing strange on the way to HTML content”. I’m basically picking apart the way WordPress takes a URL and turns it into an SQL query for the underlying MySQL database, getting into how and where taxonomies turn [...]
In Memorium: Arthur Lo
This morning I found out that my senior thesis advisor, Arthur Lo, passed away nearly two months ago. This came on the heels of a Facebook chat with a good friend who similarly found out her favorite professor and advisor died recently. Perhaps it’s a sign that we’re in that sandwich phase of adulthood, tending [...]
Facebook Isn’t Going To Start Charging Users
Seems like at least once a week one of my (numerous) Facebook friends joins a group “protesting” that Facebook will start charging some nominal fee per month. Facebook isn’t going to start charging users a monthly fee. They are (for now) advertising supported, and user fees would radically reduce the user population, which further reduces [...]
WordCamp Chicago: WordPress in the Second City
Along with co-authors Brad Williams and David Damstra, I’m making the trip to the Second City. Brad is presenting WordPress Security bright and early on Saturday, June 5, and I get the hangover slot (9:00am Sunday morning) to talk about how WordPress takes a URL and decides what content to display. My talk, “URL to [...]
Accidental Geography on Facebook
I’ll admit to a certain vanity with Facebook: I’ve been trying to build an audience for my blog, using a Facebook page to import blog entries and inviting just about everyone who’s a friend to follow the page. Facebook very nicely provides “insights” (analytics) on interactions with the page – number of comments, ratings, and [...]