I’ve been working on a new design for the site for awhile.  I thought it was at a point where I could upload and see it in action.  I’m not done with it yet as there are some things I still want to add to it.  I think it looks pretty sharp (what does that mean) and looks usable, I need to change some things, but it looks decent.

I also implemented [http://noumenon.roderickrussell.com/wordpress-to-myspace-auto-crossposting] and I’m going to see how that works, so my blog updates to my MySpace account, what a cool idea.

That’s all I have right now.

Facebook vs Myspace

The battle rages

Oh yes, social networking at its best or at its most popular. The two kings of the mountain right now are Facebook and Myspace. Facebook which started as a college thing has, as of recently, pushed to become king of the social networking with the development of its Facebook Development Platform. I’ve been quite impressed with the Facebook Development Platform with the ability to add 3rd party tools; it’s really cool. What I’m currently digging right now is:

Movies by Flixster – Rate and Reviews movies and see what all your friends say! I really like this one.

Favorite Peeps! by Dennis Rakhamimov – Show your favorite people that you care!

Del.icio.us, Digg, Twitter, last.fm to name some other popular applications. I cannot wait to delve deeper into them.

Actually, about a year ago, one of the Facebook developers, Dave, came to Penn State to talk to us about Facebook and what he does. He spoke of the Facebook Development Platform and how cool it was going to be; and yes it is. I think the best part of the FDP (Facebook Developer Platform) is the integration into the UI (user interface) and that it works. Seamless integration with all aspects of Facebook is just such a huge selling point to me as a user. I can honestly say, Facebook you have stolen my heart.

Facebook has been slowly adding the ability for its users to customize their pages while still staying true to their design. Also I haven’t had any SPAM or porn-bots try to contact me on Facebook. Facebook keep up the great work, I’m glad you didn’t sell out to Yahoo.

Myspace, I only use you to talk to people that don’t have Facebook. I’m sorry it’s you, not me. Actually, I think the blogging tools for Myspace are better than anything Facebook has, so one point to Myspace. Myspace has RSS feeds, you can add blogs and can be notified when they are updated. I’m quite interested in integrating Myspace with WordPress using WordPress Myspace Auto-Crossing via [http://noumenon.roderickrussell.com/wordpress-to-myspace-auto-crossposting] because it’s easy to read blogs with Myspace. I think a lot of my friends just write things off the top of their heads, which is fun to read most of the time; unless they are bitching. Other than music, which is decent, on Myspace everything else usually has problems and downtime, which as a user I really hate. 

Okay so maybe it isn’t a battle between Facebook and Myspace they can both co-exist and seem to have two very different goals. I will continue to use both, but something else will eventually come along. What’s this I heard about bebo? ew maybe not.

Diary of a Tech… continued…

When working with computers, which is always expanding to all forms of work, you can’t be afraid of the technology.  Oh yes, the end-user, the ever afraid, the mmm okay don’t break anything user, must tries things from time to time.   The biggest tip I can give anyone, technology minded or non-technology minded, just try something.  IF something is not working, what are you going to do make it not work more???  Maybe.  50/50 chance.  Just don’t do anything stupid.  Okay here is an example…

// BEGIN SCENARIO

User:  Our fan is not working!

Tech:  The front or rear fan?

User:  No, the one on our desk, it takes too long to turn on.

Tech:   Okay, so your computer is working fine?

User: Yes.

// END SCENARIO

I mean, okay, I get it, if something has power running to it, it is automatically declared a technology problem.  So my respond would be, “Is it plugged in?”, something I hate to ask, but when troubleshooting start with the simplest answer and work from there.  So how are computers related to fans?  Simple, they both require inquisitive people.  A lot of times I don’t know what’s wrong with a computer without actually seeing what the problem is first hand.  I’ve never worked on a fan before, so I go to look at the first, I turn it off and turn it on, all is well.  Plus appliances today you can’t really look inside most of them, when they break you throw them away; kind of funny ironic sad because it seems computers are going that way too.

Today is a sad day.    I sent my DS to Nintendo to be repaired.  It seemed that the built-in speakers in the DS stopped working, though, the headphone jack still worked.  I guess it isn’t too sad since they are repairing it for free; the DS has a whopping one year warranty on it.  I was a bit surprised that it has a warranty of one year.  It is really a top notch piece of gaming equipment and Nintendo stands behind it, which is awesome and rare for companies today.

Hopefully my DS will come back to me all better because In Nintendo I trust.  I don’t know if I am a fanboy of Nintendo or whatever.  I’m not sure.  This is from Google:

Fanboy or Fanboi is a term used to describe someone who is utterly devoted to a single subject or hobby, often to the point where it is considered an obsession. The term originated in comic book circles, to describe someone who was socially insecure and used comics as a shield from interaction, hence the disparaging connotations. Fanboys are often experts on minor details regarding their hobbies, and they take these details extremely seriously. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanboy

I have every Nintendo Gaming Console and most of the hand helds, minus the virtual boy, yikes.  I think that will be for another time though.