New Year Resolutions for 2012

January 1, 2012 By 1 Comment
New Year Resolutions for 2012

Last year was a wild ride. My mom was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis (with 18-24 months to live if she doesn’t get a lung transplant), our youngest needed major surgery (he’s healing up just fine), work was crazy, life was crazy, and I felt bleh for most of the year. Sometime in August or September I was fed up feeling frustrated about things I couldn’t change, I decided to make positive changes in my own life, and so far I’ve been pretty happy with the results.

So, for the first time in I don’t even know how long, I’ve decided to start 2012 off with a set of New Year resolutions for myself. I’m not generally one to do these since most people don’t follow through, but I’m pretty committed to make more positive changes in my life. Here, in no particular order, are my New Year Resolutions for 2012:

  • Write more (blogging, fiction, etc.)

    I keep saying this in my head, but I should really do it, and for many reasons. I don’t just mean here, either. I’ll be looking for guest blogging opportunities across the web on topics such as app development and marketing, SEO issues for small businesses, PPC strategy and tactics, and topics related to fatherhood. I’d love to get enough ideas to actually pitch for a speaking at SMX or another conference.

  • Continue to get healthy

    Not that I’m terribly unhealthy, but in 2011 I actually started working on losing weight, eating better, and getting my body under control in earnest. So far I’ve lose close to 18 pounds, and I’d like to lost another 18-ish before my birthday before March.

  • Spend more time with my family

    I’ve got so much going on that I forget to take the time to stop and spend real quality time with the whole family. Our kids are growing so fast, and I don’t want to be one of those guys who regrets not spending as much time as possible with any of them.

  • Build a business

    I’ve got so many ideas in my head, but in December of 2011 I really gravitated toward something that could be done on weekends that will help bring in some extra cash as well as satisfy my desire to be entrepreneurial. I’ve also got some projects that friends and I have talked about that are really interesting and I need to find the time to flesh those out with them. I’m happy to say I know a lot of smart, motivated people who not only like me, but see my dev & marketing experience as an asset.

  • Get two more programming languages under my belt

    I’m not looking for guru-like status here in 2012, but I need to honestly spend more time with a few language that have piqued my interest for a while: Python and Objective-C. The former I’ll dive into with backend work for some projects I have in mind, and the latter will be toward my ultimate goal of doing mobile app development.

Lofty goals, all, but I’ve been pretty motivated the last few months, and I’m going to ride this feeling out. Here’s hoping that 2012 is a lot better for our clan than 2011 was!

Image courtesy of shandilee
Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With:

Stop those hotlinking SOBs with .htaccess.

March 18, 2010 By 8 Comments
Stop those hotlinking SOBs with .htaccess.

Is your bandwidth meter spinning like a top, but your page views just aren’t where you think they should be for all that “traffic”? It’s possible that you, my friend, are a victim of bandwidth theft due to hotlinking. Hotlinkers are dirty SOBs who steal your bandwidth by streaming your graphics, videos and/or music files onto their web site(s) directly from yours. Luckily daddy has a relatively simple solution to fix all the badness for you.

While there are a few options you have when you want to deal with hotlinkers, I’m going to demonstrate the easiest and often best suited solution: displaying an alternate graphic instead of the one that the hotlinkers are stealing from your web site. If you’d like more options or want to do something different feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll answer as best as I can.

Now for the fun stuff. In the root of your blog’s web space, find and download (or create, if necessary) the .htaccess file. After you have a local version, copy and paste the following (and we’ll get into why some of the text is in bold in a moment) into the very beginning of the file:

.htaccess file 

#   HOTLINK STOPPER
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?example\.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?bloglines\.com/ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif)$ http://yourothersite.com/hotlink.jpg [R,NC,L]

If you don’t copy+paste the text above into the beginning of your .htaccess file you may run into problems if you break something that already exists, so please use caution. Also, don’t let all the mumbo-jumbo scare you off. It’s pretty simple stuff. In fact, there are only six lines, and I’ll walk you through what each one does.

  1. # HOTLINK STOPPER

    This line is just a comment (delineated by the # at the beginning of the line) to let you know what this section of your .htaccess file is for. You can comment out any line by prepending it with a # symbol.

  2. RewriteEngine On

    Turns on the rewrite engine in Apache. Without this, none of the rest of the changes are necessary. Or possible.

  3. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$

    Sets a condition for the rewrite engine to ignore anyone with a blank referer. Don’t worry about the !^$, it’s a regular expression, or “regex”, and it works when looking for a blank referer. And yes, that’s spelled correctly… for Internet purposes, anyhow. If you’re interested in the details, read up on how a referrer came to be a referer.

  4. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?example\.com/ [NC]

    Sets a condition for the rewrite engine to ignore anyone that doesn’t have the domain example\.com in their referer. Replace the example portion with your blog’s domain name, but make sure that if you’ve got a .org blog that you keep the backslash in from of the period, otherwise the regex will break.

  5. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?bloglines\.com/ [NC]

    Sets a condition for the rewrite engine to ignore bloglines.com. This line is optional, but I kept it in this example since Bloglines is a pretty popular RSS reader, and you’re probably going to want your readers who use it to see the pictures on your server.

  6. RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif)$ http://yourothersite.com/hotlink.jpg [R,NC,L]

    Here’s where the fun begins. This line sets up a rule that will server any graphic (in this case a .jpg or .gif file) that is not ruled out from the conditions above to the file http://yourothersite.com/hotlink.jpg, thereby circumventing those damned, dirty apes hotlinkers. To add more file types, just add a pipe (“|”) character after gif and the extension (like a png) and you’re good to go.

    A word of caution: do not use a graphic that is on the domain that you are trying to dissuade hotlinkers from using as you’ll cause an infinite loop and in some cases may actually take down your own web server. I’ve seen it happen, and it ain’t pretty. I suggest you set up a free blog account somewhere, such as wordpress.com, and add your hotlink graphic there.

That’s pretty much it. All you have to do now is upload your new hotlink.jpg graphic and your .htaccess file and you’re good to go. If you’ve done everything right then the days of your bandwidth being stolen by hotlinkers should be coming to a close.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronin691/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
Filed Under: Development Tagged With: , , ,

A 6-Pack of Mac OS X Terminal Tricks.

March 4, 2010 By 1 Comment
A 6-Pack of Mac OS X Terminal Tricks.

I’ve been a proud Apple Switcher since 2006, but it took me a while to take all of my (not so) secret Windows knowledge and learn all new tips and tricks on the Mac. Being able to become as efficient in the world of Apple as I was with Windows didn’t take as long as I thought, but it did have its bumpy parts.

Because of that, and my natural tendency to share knowledge, I’ve compiled a list of fun tips and tricks in Terminal (i.e. command-line stuff) that I’ve learned over the last few years. By no means did I discover these on my own… they are a compilation of OSX tips that I’ve found online or from friends with much more Mac knowledge that I.

  1. Show all files, even system files, in Finder:

    1. Open Terminal and type “defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES“.

    2. Hold down the Option key and click on the Finder icon in the Dock and press Relaunch. You may have to wait a second or two for the relaunch option to display.

    This one is a life saver for me. I hate not being able to see all files, so this is a must in my Mac machines.

  2. Show full file paths in Finder:

    Open Terminal and type “defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES“.

    Another must-have! There are so many useful reasons to see the full file path in Finder, I don’t get why it’s not on by default.

  3. Change the default (PNG) file format for screenshots:

    Open Terminal and type “defaults write com.apple.screencapture type EXTENSION“, where EXTENSION can be any of the following: BMP, GIF, JPEG-2000, JPEG, PDF, PICT, PNG, PSD, SGI, TGA, or TIFF.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love PNGs, but sometimes you want a JPG and don’t want to crack open Photoshop or some other graphics tool to do it.

  4. Securely delete files from a drive:

    Open Terminal and type “diskutil secureErase freespace 3 /Volumes/DRIVE” where DRIVE is the drive you want to securely delete.

    If you’re not comfortable using the command line, perhaps you should skip this one… it can be a dangerous tool in the wrong hands.

  5. Create your own audio book with your Mac’s default voice synth:

    Open Terminal and type “say -o AUDIOBOOK.aiff -f FILE.txt“, where FILE.txt is the path to a text file you want read.

    My kids love this one because they think there’s a robot inside my MacBook Pro that is reading to them. :)

  6. Force Apple Mail to show plaintext vs. HTML email:

    Open Terminal and type “defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool TRUE“.

    I love HTML, but HTML email is, more often than not, a huge annoyance. I turn it off whenever possible.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these Mac OSX tips and tricks. If you have any that you feel are a must-have, or if you know of another way of doing any of the above, please let me know in the comments for this post.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90949166@N00/ / CC BY 2.0
Filed Under: Development Tagged With: , ,

What is it: #FridayFollow or #FollowFriday?

February 26, 2010 By 1 Comment
What is it: #FridayFollow or #FollowFriday?

No matter if you call it Friday Follow or Follow Friday, at the end of each work week you’ll find thousands (if not millions) of people using hashtags to give digital shout outs to their friends and fans on Twitter.

The Friday Follow tradition is great for finding new and interesting tweeters. And since the #FridayFollow hashtags are posted by other tweeps who know them, they’re usually great introductions. If you like one person on Twitter, you’ll often like someone they follow. But you don’t have to limit yourself to only checking out the #FridayFollow recommendations from people you follow, you can do a Twitter search for the common #FridayFollow hashtags to see everyone’s #FF.

A #FridayFollow can come in many different forms, but they generally look like this (an example of recommending yours truly):

#FridayFollow example 

#FridayFollow @halfbrown

If you crack open the Twitter search site and do a search, or if you click on one of the links I’ve provided below, you’ll see a lot of love being shared with other folks on Twitter. (Especially on a Friday) Oh, and keep in mind that as with most Twitter-related searches, none of the search terms below are case sensitive.

Some people do one #FF per tweet and say something specific about the person they’re recommending, some post one tweet with a #FF and link to a bunch of people, and some people (like me) mix it up. Once you get through your first few Friday’s on Twitter you’ll get the hang of it. :)

You can follow me on Twitter at @halfbrown and check out all of my #FridayFollow tweeps.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/42106306@N00/ / CC BY 2.0
Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: , ,

10 Twitter Tools to Take Your Tweets to the Top.

February 12, 2010 By 4 Comments
10 Twitter Tools to Take Your Tweets to the Top.

Are you frustrated that your Twitter profile is getting overrun with spam accounts instead of real (and interesting) followers? Do you want to make connections with actual people instead of getting the same teeth-whitening spam tweets in your Twitter stream? If so, you’re going to need the right combination of Twitter tools to get rid of spammers and find followers with similar interests.

Even though Twitter has between 75-85 million accounts, only about 20% of them are considered active Twitter users, which means there are 12-15 million active people using Twitter. Further more, close to 80% of all Twitter accounts have less than 10 tweets and less than 10 followers under their belts. No wonder it’s so difficult to find an actual person on Twitter!

The good news is that those of us who are active on Twitter (you can follow me at @halfbrown) are not only friendly and helpful (for the most part), but we want to meet more people like you! In this blog post I’m going to show you some of the Twitter tools I’ve used to find not only real people who tweet, but who also share the same interests as me. I’m also going to show you how to use these Twitter tools.

Each of the sites below have helped me get over 800 followers, the majority of which are real people who actually tweet, share links, and engage in conversations with each other. Any fool can get 20,000 followers that are mostly spam or inactive accounts, but growing a list of real followers is another story. The Twitter tools I point out below will help you get there.

  1. monitter.com:

    One of the hardest part about starting out on Twitter is finding people you share common interests with. One of the best Twitter tools I’ve found to search for kindred spirits is monitter.com. Monitter allows you to search for up to 3 keywords (or phrases) at a time and with geo-location matching, to boot. A lot of the great Seattle-area people I’ve followed or met online came from searching on monitter.com. FYI: I get the best results by using a variety of keywords and hashtags and sticking within 30 miles of the closest major city near me, Seattle.

    To do your own search, go to monitter.com, go to the upper-left area of the site and choose a distance. Then go to the 3 columns in the center of the page, and in the dark gray box replace the default search term with your own and click the “Enter” key on your keyboard. Repeat for the last 2 columns if you want to search more. Word of caution: the search is essentially in real-time, so if you use a really common search term, expect that you’ll see a lot of scrolling!

  2. tweetcloud.com:

    A big part of deciding whether or not I want to follow a person comes from what they tweet about. Their bio can say anything they want it to, but the real litmus test for what a person is all about comes from their tweet cloud. A tweet cloud is a representation of words or phrases that they use most often when tweeting, and tweetcloud.com is one of the easiest and simplest Twitter tools that shows this info to you. If they have a lot of user names in their tweet cloud then I know they’re an active conversationalist. If all their tweet cloud contains are spammy references or non-interesting keywords then I know I’m not going to want to follow them.

    To see someone’s tweet cloud, just go to tweetcloud.com, click on the “user” tab near the top left-hand section of the page, enter their Twitter user name, and click the “search” button.

  3. friendorfollow.com:

    Friendorfollow.com is one of the better Twitter tools you can use to sort through your list of followers and separate the wheat from the chaff. I’ve found that if I follow someone and engage in conversations with them online, the majority of the time they will follow you back, especially if they actively participate in the conversations. Some people, however, just aren’t very social (strange, considering the very nature of social networking), and if I follow them and we never connect then I don’t usually keep following them. I figure if I make an effort to try to get to know them and they aren’t interested then why should I bother?

    To start things off go to friendorfollow.com, enter your user name, and press the “submit” button. Once the page comes up with your information you’ll have 3 tabs to choose from: “following” (people you follow but don’t follow you back), “fans” (people who follow you but you don’t follow back), and “friends” (people who follow you and you follow them back). If you’re looking for someone specific keep in mind that the people listed on the page are in alpha-numeric order.

  4. mrtweet.com:

    For a simple way of finding people to follow you can use mrtweet.com to do some of the leg work for you. Like other Twitter tools it recommends users to you, but it also lists tweeps that it thinks are your influential followers and suggests some of their users to you as well. Added bonus: You can even have friends and followers recommend your profile to others.

    Open up mrtweet.com in your browser and click on the “Sign in with Twitter” button. Like a lot of other Twitter tools, MrTweet uses the OAuth method of connecting to you account, so if you’re already logged in you won’t have to enter your user name or password, which is always a plus from a security standpoint. You will have to authorize MrTweet to have access, but I’ve never had any problems so you’ll be safe. Once you’re signed in you’ll want to follow the numbered steps to make use of this Twitter tool. Keep in mind that if you’re a new user or need an update that it could take some time before MrTweet will be able to show you any useful information.

  5. @Twitter_Tips:

    If you only follow one Twitter-related account, this is the one. @Twitter_Tips tweets all kinds of great information about Twitter. Topics include things like hash tags, retweeting, recommendations on Twitter tools, apps for tweeting, and anything else relating to the Twitterverse. Do yourself a favor… go to @Twitter_Tips and follow them today.

  6. twitip.com:

    As a blog on all things Twitter-related, TwiTip.com is a great resource outside of the Twitter.com domain itself. TwiTip not only has posts about using Twitter for yourself, but also has articles on using Twitter as a tool for businesses, reviews of Twitter apps, and more. It also has advanced Twitter topics like how to follow Twitter lists in an RSS reader and how to schedule your tweets.

  7. twitter.grader.com:

    As far as basic statistics go, the Twitter Grader is one of the better tools you can use to rank yourself against other tweeps. Based on the Twitter Grader algorithm. With it’s simple interface and narrow focus on a few pieces of information, it’s a great place for beginners to start tracking their ranking.

    Head over to http://twitter.grader.com/, enter your user name and click on “Grade”. You’ll see a grade between 0 and 100 in a box on the right-hand side. Anything less than a 90 usually indicates a new or not very active user.

  8. twittercounter.com:

    With a nice graph showing a few different stats so you can see where the peaks and valleys are as well as the ability to compare yourself against 2 others at the same time, Twitter Counter is a great next-step up from basic stats. This tool has 3 different tabs: “Followers”, “Following”, and “Tweets”. Clicking on each of these tabs will bring up a new graph that’ll let you gauge how each of those stats is changing over time.

    Point your browser to twittercounter.com and click on the “Add yourself” button. Like other Twitter tools it uses OAuth to connect. Once it does you can set up a profile so you can start looking at your stats whenever you like.

  9. twitalyzer.com:

    In my opinion TwitAlyzer is one of the better advanced Twitter statistics websites out there today. With a clean interface using infographics, numeric indicators, and even up/down arrows to quickly see how your numbers are changing for the many data points they calculate for your profile, TwitAlyzer makes sorting through data a breeeze. To me, this Twitter tool is an indispensable resource for anyone who really wants to get into the nuts and bolts of tweaking your profile for peak performance. One thing to remember, however, is that if it’s your first time using TwitAlyzer or if it’s been a while since you’ve updated it could take a little time for them to gather all of the necessary information to show you your stats. Believe me… it’s well worth the wait.

    Using TwitAlyzer is a breeze. Go to twitalyzer.com, enter your user name, and click on the “Twitalyze!” button. You’ll be able to see some basic data, but if you sign in using their OAuth connection you’ll get 9 more reports to sift through.

  10. twittervalue.com:

    Finishing out the list is one of those Twitter tools that’s just for fun. It evaluates your account and puts a dollar value on it. Don’t expect anyone to actually pay you this money for your account, but do have fun with it by checking out your value and then your friends, followers, and celebrities who are on Twitter.

That’s it, 10 Twitter tools to help you manage your tweets and tweeps. These are just the tip of the iceberg, too, but they should help you find great followers, get rid of the inactive or non-participating ones, and get you up-and-running quickly and easily.

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: , ,
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