Recently I reviewed a lot of custom Facebook pages for my PC World article, 14 Creative Ways to Use Facebook Pages. I found a couple of problems with a number of pages that need to be addressed or hopefully the page owners pan to resolve.

These issues relate to the deprecation of Static FBML and the SSL requirement that was implemented October 2011.

The Issues

Static FBML

Facebook ended support for Static FMBL on January 1, 2012 and Static FBML apps will stop working completely June 2012. There is four months until Static FBML stops working so there is time to make the transition but I was surprised by how many custom pages are still using Static FBML and haven’t yet transitioned to iFrames or a 3rd party page application. I hope that the page owners have a plan for the transition. One concern is that Facebook doesn’t have a great method of sharing information about these changes and that the page owners might not be aware that these changes need to be made. Personally, I contacted everyone I’ve done Facebook work with, told them about the changes to Static FBML and helped them make the transition. If you need assistance with this, please contact me.

SSL Requirement

In October 2011, Facebook started requiring an SSL certificate for all Facebook apps. This included custom pages made with iFrames as they are setup like a Facebook application. I discussed how a free SSL certificate could be set up with Social Server and with the web host Hostgator.

I encountered a lot of iFrame page applications that were not following the SSL requirement and instead of seeing the custom page I saw an error message. Honestly, it looks unprofessional and it’s better to remove the custom page then have one that can’t be viewed due an error message.

If you are not logged into Facebook securely, you may see the page that isn’t using SSL but you should be logged in securely and all pages should be following this requirement. And I didn’t just see these errors on small pages – huge companies had these errors too.

If you are not logging into Facebook securely, here are instructions on how to do that.

If you are still using Static FBML and not using SSL for your custom page, please make the changes. If you are going to have a custom Facebook page, it’s best if it is as professional as possible.

If you need assistance with your Facebook page, please contact me.

photo credit: rsdio

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Problems with Many Custom Facebook Pages

I’ve been hearing more and more about Pinterest so I decided to take spend some time with it over the last couple of days. It’s very addictive and it seems to be a social commerce site. And the commerce part seems to be working because one of the first images I clicked on was an item for sale on Etsy that was a perfect Valentine gift for my daughter, which I purchased. This intrigues me because I am not a shopper – I tend to think I have what I need, don’t want new clothes, don’t feel the need to upgrade my gadgets, etc. The only thing I willingly shop for is books. Anyway…

I decided to see what WordPress resources were available for Pinterest. Here’s what I found.

The Plugins

1. Pinterest Plugin for WordPress – This plugin will add a Pin It button to your WordPress site. In the Admin Settings, you can set where the button should appear. The plugin also provides a short code, if you only want to use Pin It with specific posts. This plugin works like Pinterest’s bookmarklet.
2. Pinterest RSS Widget – This adds a widget where the feed of a specific Pinterest user can be added to your sidebar. It includes the images and the size can be set. There is also a shortcode if you want to display the feed in a post or page. I wish it would also limit by board because most users have multiple boards and some would apply to the site more than others. If the images don’t display, check the FAQ on the plugin page.
3. Ultimate Photo Widget – This plugin will add a widget that you can add to your sidebar that will pull photos from Twitter, Flickr or Pinterest. Their are different layouts or the images can appear in a slideshow.
4. Pinterest Pinboard Widget – This plugin adds a widget to your sidebar of your recent pins on Pinterest that looks very similar to the Pinterest layout. It uses the thumbnails from Pinterest, which are cached every 15 minutes to help with the performance of your site. I would like for this to also have a shortcode so it could be added to a post or page instead of only the sidebar.
5. Pin It on Pinterest – This adds a Pin It button the the bottom of your posts and will show the number of times that the post has been pinned. The FAQ says that Pinterest has a bit of a lag time so it may take 15 minutes for the Post to appear on Pinterest. The plugin page includes a video tutorial.
6. Slick Social Share Buttons – This set of share buttons includes Pinterest in addition to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and more.
7. Pretty Pinterest Pins – This plugin will add a sidebar widget that displays thumbnails and captions from your pins. Any Pinterest username can be added in the settings so you can also display the pins of another user.
   
8. Social Discussions – This adds 10 sharing buttons to your posts, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. It also includes the ability to auto-post your content to 30 social networks. The buttons can be added automatically or through template code for manual placement. The buttons can be used with and without counters.
9. Subscribe / Connect / Follow Widget – This widget creates a series of Follow Me icons in your sidebar for social networks that you participate in. Pinterest as well as Facebook, Twitter, and a number of other services are included.

Do you use Pinterest? What do you think of it? Have you added any Pinterest plugins to your site?

photo credit: ohmeaghan

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

9 Pinterest Plugins for WordPress

Here’s the Valentine Cards my daughter has been working on this year and they are super easy to make.

Any round/tube candy can be used or if you don’t want to use candy (or if your school doesn’t allow it) you can use a decorated toilet paper roll.

Her original idea was to use lifesavers but I couldn’t find a big bag of them at any of the local stores (maybe I should have bought them at Halloween) so she decided to use Smarties instead.

All you need to do is cut out two hearts for each butterfly, tape them to the candy, and decorate with messages, stickers, glitter, etc … They don’t take much more time to make then putting together the store bought boxes of Valentine cards. And, because these are so most kids can make them on their own and might only need help cutting out the hearts.

Happy Upcoming Valentine’s Day!

photo credit: philliecasablanca

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Simple Valentine Butterfly Craft for Kids with Smarties

My yearly reading goal is 52 books or a book a week. I surpassed this in 2011 and read 95 books. Many of these were series that weren’t that challenging, such as the Sue Grafton and Jim Butcher books. I also became obsessed with Laura Lippman and ready everything she has written.

I’ve decided to challenge myself a bit more in 2012 and one of the first books I’ve read is The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. I’m also planning on reading 1Q84 by Murakami, Infinte Jest by David Foster Wallace and to read the Neal Stephenson’s that have been next to my bed for years. I’m also going to try to read more non-fiction.

Here are the books I read the 2nd half of 2011

1. What the Dead Know – Laura Lippman – A woman claims to be a missing girl who disappeared 30 years earlier in this stand-alone thriller.
2. Baltimore Blues – Laura Lippman – The first in the Tess Monaghan series. I usually read series in order but I deviated from this with Lippman – I read them in the order I was able to get them from the library.
3. Sugar House – Laura Lippman – Another Tess Monaghan mystery.
4. Smokin’ Seventeen – Janet Evanovich – I keep saying I’m going to stop reading this series because for a while now Evanovich has been writing the same story over and over. The books used to be hilarious and now they are just dull. Maybe I’ll stop – I haven’t bothered reading the newest one yet.
5. Gone Tomorrow – Lee Child – The 13th Jack Reacher thriller, which takes place in New York City. Most of the books I’ve read by him have rural settings and this was a refreshing change.
6. The Gunslinger – Stephen King – This is the first installment of Steven King’s fantasy series, The Dark Tower, which follows the story of the Gunslinger Roland, the equivalent of an Arthurian knight in the world King has created, and his quest to reach the Dark Tower in order to make the world right again.
7. Running Blind – Lee Child – The 4th Jack Reacher thriller. Women are being murdered, there is no physical evidence and the only thing they have in common is that they know Jack Reacher.
8. Charm City – Laura Lippman – Another Tess Monaghan mystery, which all take place in Baltimore.
9. Butchers Hill – Laura Lippman – The 3rd in the Tess Monaghan series.
10. By A Spider’s Thread – Laura Lippman – In the 8th Tess Monaghan mystery, Tess helps a man locate his missing wife. She usually refuses to take missing spouse cases but make an exception and ends up with a surprising result.
11. I’d Know You Anywhere – Laura Lippman – A woman received a letter from a man on death row who kidnapped her over 20 years earlier.
12. One Shot – Lee Child – A sniper kills 5 people and Jack Reacher investigates.
13. Another Thing to Fall – Laura Lippman – In the 10th in the Tess Monaghan series, Tess is hired to guard the female lead of a production filming in Baltimore.
14. Life Sentences – Laura Lippman – Based on a true story about a woman who was held in prison for seven years for contempt because she refused to answer questions about the disappearance of the son.
15. The Talisman – Stephen King & Peter Straub – I thought I would love this one but I didn’t – I thought a lot of it was dull. Maybe I don’t care for co-authored novels. Young Jack makes a journey across America and into another realm to help save his dying mother.
16. Deadline – Mira Grant – The 2nd book in the Newsflesh trilogy, which is about zombies and bloggers.
17. Ghost Story – Jim Butcher – After the events in the last Dresden novel, Harry has returned as a ghost. I didn’t love this one or maybe I’m just tired of the series.
18. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Random Riggs – A fantasy about an abandoned orphanage, a mysterious island, and vintage photographs.
19. The Most Dangerous Thing – Laura Lippman – Circumstances force 5 people, who were friends as children, to relive the lie they have all shared.
20. A is for Alibi – Sue Grafton – I thought I would give this series a try and quickly became obsessed. I like the main character, Kinsey Millhone, and the stories. The author started this series in the 80′s and the lack of technology is interesting especially when Kinsey is in danger and is trying to find a pay phone.
21. B is for Burgler – Sue Grafton – The 2nd in the alphabet series.
22. In Big Trouble – Laura Lippman – Another Tess Monaghan mystery. Yeah, I’m getting tired of them too.
23. C is for Corpse – Sue Grafton – Kinsey tried to assist a victim of attempted murder who suffers from memory loss.
24. D is for Deadbeat – Sue Grafton – Kinsey is hired to deliver a check. She thinks it seems fishy but needs the money for rent. She quickly learns that if your instinct says to turn down a job that you probably should.
25. E is for Evidence – Sue Grafton – In addition to a great mystery we also learn more about Kinsey’s past.
26. F is for Fugitive – Sue Grafton – Kinsey travels to Florida to attempt to solve a 17 year old murder.
27. The Informationist – Taylor Stevens – Vanessa deals in gathering information about developing countries for corporations. She takes on a client who wants her to find his missing daughter in Africa. I thought I would love this book but I didn’t.
28. G is for Gumshoe – Sue Grafton – Kinsey is hired to locate a woman’s mother who has been missing for 7 months.
29. H is for Homicide – Sue Grafton – Kinsey’s friend and colleague is murdered and she tries to discover what happened.
30. I is for Innocent – Sue Grafton – Yet another in the Kinsey Millhone alphabet series
31. J is for Judgement – Sue Grafton – Kinsey is hired to find a man who may have faked his own death and collected the insurance money.
32. *Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker – Kevin Mitnick – A former hacker who was once on the FBI’s most wanted online criminals tells his story about how he infiltrated companies by using technology and social engineering. He is now a security consultant. I loved this book.
33. My Korean Deli – Ben Ryder Howe – A New Yorker buys a deli for his Korean in-laws. I liked the idea of this book but I wanted it to be funny and thought it was whiny and boring.
34. *Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground – Kevin Poulsen – Written by a former hacker who spent 5 years in prison, this book reads like a thriller and is about another hacker how took over a online criminal network that was stealing tons of money from the U.S. economy.
35. Zone One – Colson Whitehead – This novel is about the clean-up of New York City following a zombie apocalypse. While I enjoyed it I think it was too literary for the zombie crowd and too gruesome for those wanting literature. It did make me want to read more by this author although I haven’t yet.
36. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination – Margaret Atwood – A series of essays that explores Atwood’s relationship with the science fiction genre.
37. Green River Killer: A True Detective Story – Jeff Jensen – The author’s father spent most of his career investigation the Seattle serial killer and Jensen present the story as a graphic novel.
38. The Affair – Lee Child – The newest in the Jack Reacher series.
39. *Ready Player One – Ernest Cline – My favorite book of 2011. In this dystopian future most of the action takes place inside of a virtual world where a number of players are trying to solve a contest that would make them the heir of one of the richest men in the world. Full of references to the 1980′s, this may appeal more to people of my generation but you don’t need to like video games or the 80′s to enjoy this book.
40. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins – While I appreciated the idea between this dytopian tale, this book didn’t work for me. I didn’t care about the characters – they could have all died and I wouldn’t have felt anything. If I was a YA, I may have enjoyed this more.
41. Fuzzy Nation – John Scalzi – A powerful corporation is allowed to strip planets of all resources if no sentient life is found. Little creatures that look like cats live on the planet in this novel and the main character becomes their protector. I really enjoyed this quick read and decided to read more by this author.
42. No Good Deeds – Laura Lippman – Tess Monaghan’s boyfriend invites a homeless teenage to stay with them and a lot of things start to go wrong.
43. To The Power of Three – Laura Lippman – Three girls have been best friends since they were children. One shoots herself at school and the community tries to discover what really happened.
44. The Girl in the Green Raincoat – Laura Lippman – Tess Monaghan tried to solve a case while on forced bed rest. I didn’t care for this one and I may have overdid it with the Laura Lippman.
45. Reamde – Neal Stephenson – A techno-thriller that is probably one of Stephenson’s most accessible works. I missed the challenge.
46. And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut – Charles J Shields – A very interesting biography of Vonnegut. Unfortunately, it made me like him less – sometimes knowing more about an author you admire is not a good thing.
47. Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded – John Scalzi – A collection of Scalzi’s essays from his blog. At first I really enjoyed them and then I get tired of being lectured at. They are probably better in smaller doses. It’s a great book title though.
48. The Family Fang – Kevin Wilson – Performance artists use their children as part of the act. How do these two children turn out? This book got pretty great reviews but I couldn’t get into it.
49. K is for Killer – Sue Grafton – Kinsey looks into the death of a woman’s daughter that remains unsolved after 10 months.
50. L is for Lawless – Sue Grafton – The 12th in the Kinsey Millhone alphabet series and I need a break.
51. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? – Mindy Kaling – I’m glad this was a quick read because I didn’t like it. I thought it would be funny because the author is on and is one of the writers for The Office but it wasn’t. She likes shopping – who cares?
52. The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt – Great title! A quirky Western about two brothers who basically earn their living by killing people.
53. 11/22/63 – Stephen King – What if you could go back in time and keep Kennedy from being assassinated? What if you fell in love in this other time period? Overall, I liked this book but 300 pages could have easily been cut (King may need more editing) and it was saved by the ending.

How about you? Did you read many books last year? Do you have any favorites? If interested, you can connect with me on Goodreads.

photo credit: jm3

This post contains affiliate links.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

What to Read Next: Books Read the 2nd Half of 2011

My 3rd article for PC World, 14 Creative Ways to User Facebook Business Pages, was published earlier this week.

This article is a slideshow presentation of Facebook pages that are doing something a little different with their Facebook pages, such as using staff book reviews for a library page or using videos for customer testimonials.

I thought preparing images and captions for a slideshow would be easier than writing a super long article but it really wasn’t. I went through a lot of pages to locate these 14 examples. I even sent out pleas for examples but didn’t really get a response. ;-)

I hope the slideshow gives you ideas for your own business page and that you find it useful.

Earlier articles:

• How to Promote and Maintain Your Facebook Business Page
• How to Make a Facebook Page for Your Small Business

photo credit: llowrain

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Creative Ways to Use Facebook Business Pages – PC World Article

Last November I asked if you backed up your important data. I was having trouble with Windows and did a clean reinstall – I didn’t have too much down time because I have a backup plan for my important files and it was basically a matter of copying them over.

I also backup my websites and client sites. As I was reviewing my client files, I discovered that not only is it important to back up files regularly but that I should also review the data and get rid of files that I no longer need.

If I did work from someone one time three years ago and have never heard from that person again, I think I’m safe to delete the files. I suppose it’s possible, but I’ve never been asked for three year old backup. ;-)

I also had monthly backups for regular clients going back years. I would say a year is probably plenty for backups.

I also have cover letters I wrote for job applications from 1998! I’m pretty sure I don’t need that anymore either ;-)

It’s odd that I’m a bit of packrat with my computer files because I’m not like that in real life. If I haven’t used something in a year, I figure I don’t need it and I give if it away.

Does anyone else remember having a hard drive with 1GB-3GB of space? I had to be more careful with files then because one of the first issues I would run into with my computer was running out of disk space. Now, with such huge hard drives it’s possible to store so much and not have to worry about the amount of space it’s taking.

I’ve decided, however, to review and remove old files on a yearly basis. It becomes unnecessary to hold on to so many files that are never going to be needed.

How about you? Do you weed out old files on your computer? Or do you ignore them the way that I was until recently?

photo credit: garryknight

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Cleaning Up Old Backups (and other files)

On January 24th, the US Senate is voting on SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. While the bill may sound like a good thing – who likes piracy? But, this bill is really an Internet Censorship Bill that will negatively impact any of us who have websites. According to Boing Boing, if I wanted to link to a site I would have to make sure that there was no copyright infringement ANYWHERE on that site – not just the page I wanted to link to. I would potentially have to check thousands if not millions of pages to verify that I could link to that site. And, if I didn’t take this precaution my ad revenue could be shut down, my domain confiscated and my IP address added to a blacklist.

Does this sound like a good way to handle piracy and copyright infringement? Piracy is wrong but this will punish everyone and could potentially impact the way that we communicate and organize.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

In protest of SOPA, sites, including Boing Boing, Reddit and many many more, will be blacking out their sites tomorrow, January 18th between 8am and 8pm.

So, you would like to get involved but are wondering how you go about blacking out your site. Well, fortunately, for self-hosted WordPress users some plugins have already been created to make it super easy to participate. I was asked if there was a solution for WordPress.com sites but I haven’t come across one. If you would like to participate, I would post about SOPA on January 18th. Videos and other useful materials are available on the American Censorship site.

The Plugins

1. Censor Me – When this plugin is activated your site will be blacked out and will simply include a link that says Stop Censorship and links to the Stop American Censorship website. To stop the blackout, deactivate the plugin.
2. SOPA Blackout Plugin – You get set SOPA blackout dates with this plugin, configure who sees the message and the plugin says it is SEO friendly. This plugin will also allow you to customize the blackout message that is displayed and choose whether you would like to include a video with additional information about SOPA.
3. Simple Stop SOPA – this plugin will blackout your site between 8am – 8pm on January 18th. There are no admin settings – you activate it and that’s it.
4. SOPA Blackout – This plugin will add a 503 status and a customizable blackout page with a number of options to allow your site to participate in blackout day.

The good news is that is doesn’t look like the White House will support this bill – at least in it’s current form. I do think, however, that is important to express how we feel about this issue. Curbing the freedom of speech for all and internet innovation is not the right way to deal with piracy problems.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

4 WordPress Plugins to Assist in Blacking Out Your Site to Protest SOPA on January 18th

I’m looking for your help.

I’m working on an article that will feature custom Facebook pages that are being used in creative or unique ways.

Please leave your links in the comments. If for any reason you don’t want to leave a link in the comments, you can send it to me via my contact form.

And, it is very possible that your link / Facebook page would be featured in a major publication (not that this site isn’t major but WAY bigger ;-)

Thanks in advance for your help!

photo credit: moonrat

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Looking for Examples of Unique and Creative Custom Facebook Pages

We all have the kind of days where nothing goes right. Everything you try to work on takes twice as long as usual, the computer crashes before you have saved what you were writing, your Internet quits while you are updating files, etc…

Recently I spent over an hour working on a theme I was creating and got nowhere. By the end of the hour, I replaced everything I had done with the original files and it felt like a wasted hour. When I went back to that project a day or two later, everything was fine and I finished the work quickly.

I’ve gotten better at walking away and coming back to a task with a clear head and then completing but it can still be really hard to do. Here are the reasons for this:

1. My schedule may be really tight and it might not be possible to work on the project at another time.
2. I told the client that it would be completed today.
3. I might wake up super sick tomorrow. Unlikely but I do find when I put something off until later, that something unexpected like food poisoning gets in the way.
4. I am a little (a lot) obsessed with schedules. If I plan to work on something between 2pm – 3pm then I get flustered and lost focus if this doesn’t happen and find it difficult to move on to something else.

As I’ve aged, I’ve found that things out of control happen all of the time and that I am not always 100% focused when it’s necessary. So, it’s important to be more flexible. I might feel like I’m not accomplishing anything if I walk away from something that isn’t working properly but by doing so it gets resolved quickly later on and I ultimately end up saving time. In the past I would have kept working and working to find a solution and usually only ended up feeling frustrated and that wasn’t very good at my chosen profession.

It’s important to take a break, think about something else for awhile and then come back to what you were trying to accomplish. The solution almost always comes immediately when I do this.

How about you? Do you find this works? Are you able to walk away? Or are you doggedly persistent? I used to be and found that I only ended up feeling frustrated and wasting time.

photo credit: markgoodwin

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Sometimes You Have to Walk Away and Come Back Later

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Happy Holidays 2011