I woke up this morning to a very upsetting email that my favorite music service in the cloud, lala, is closing its doors on May 31st. Â As a member since the tail end of 2008 and an avid user of the service, I of course wish it weren’t so; but since Apple bought it earlier this year, it does raise some interesting questions.
Over the last couple of days, a Facebook virus has been going around, cropping up in user’s notifications that someone has, “commented on a photo of you” or “posted a photo of you.” Upon clicking the link, however, you’re taken to a blank 3rd party app page that is automatically installed on your profile.
From what I’ve gathered so far, there are 2 types of links (but could be more). The link includes “beta-dislike” or “photo-comments” in the URL. Simply mousing over the link in the notification will show the URL in the bottom left corner of your browser. If you see either one of those, DON”T CLICK ON IT. Photo links on Facebook are in this format: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=<ID>&subj=<ID>&id=<ID>. There could also be more info after the ?, but no other slashes in the URL. If you see any other slashes, err on the side of caution.
Don’t fret. So far, I haven’t seen any password stealing, profile changing, or other malicious actions. However, I have read that some of the code found in the app may be storing information and sending it to a 3rd party website. This leads me to believe the writer of the app is probably storing the information to sell it to spammers. Here’s how you can fix it.
First, uninstall the application. Go to Applications->Edit Applications in the bottom left  of the chat bar. Make sure “Show: Recently Used” is selected in the drop down box in the top right on the Edit Applications page. Check those apps, look for an app called “Tagged?,” and uninstall it. If you don’t see “Tagged?,” check for other apps that you did not install and get rid of them. Next, it would be worthwhile to change your Facebook password for good measure.
Finally, report the link. In your Notifications, right click the link and copy it from  the notification in question. Go to this page, fill out the form, and submit.  If you have any more information on this little Facebook pandemic, make sure to leave them in the comments! I will post updates here as well (so if you’re reading this on Facebook, you might want to click through to my blog).
I’m not a Hot Stove blogger by any stretch, but today’s baseball news is too much to pass up!
A couple of weeks ago, when I officially launched the redesign, I mentioned the forthcoming release of a plugin I wrote for the redesign. Random Code Generator is that plugin. I needed a plugin that generated a random promotional code and stored it in a database. I’m currently using it on Manifest Development to manage various promotions and ‘prizes’ I have going on, to make sure people can get a code, but cannot use it twice. Here is the official description:
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here or on Freelancing the Net. In my defense I’ve been extremely busy, but that is all coming to a head on Wednesday. This semester, my final collegiate semester, has been by far the most challenging. All 9 of my credits have challenged me; my thesis by far the biggest challenge. I will come up with a post on that as well as post my final presentation, which explains what I did. However, I’ve done/am still doing significant things in my other two classes, and may post on them too.
Then there is the business plan competition. A couple of friends and I entered this contest in hopes of winning funding to start a business and we took 3rd place. We are incredibly excited and have already begun work on setting up the business, our new office space, and are courting clients. There’s a good chance this blog will change speeds after I graduate to talk about what I am going through in relation to that.
So there is a quick update. Keep your eyes open for a post on my thesis, coming hopefully soon.
It was in October of last year that I went to a couple of my friends and mentioned to them that I wanted to start a t-shirt company. I felt I had a couple of good ideas and enough business know-how to do it. They were the creative ones that could be the personality of the company.
Then nothing happened for a while. We kept track of ideas, but nothing more than that. Finally in February, we put out our first product for Scranton’s widely celebrated Parade Day. We did pretty well, especially considering the competition. But then we all got busy and put pursuing anything further off. Until now.
We decided to finally launch a site with some flagship designs, which you can find here. The site has been what I’m calling ‘soft launched,’ which I guess you can equate to a beta. But everything, as far as I know, is working. You can order shirts! Now it’s time to promote and generate enough cash to pursue some other designs we’ve come up with.
If you’d like to help out, you can find all kinds of stuff on our Promote page. And as always, any feedback is welcomed. Since this is probably the most involved site I’ve done, I’ll be doing a write up of the design/programming in a later post. For now, let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best!
On a final note, we also want our company to be the middleman between people who want shirts and people who print shirts. So if you want to have shirts done, please fill out this form. We will do the artwork, and take care of ordering. We can also work something out for distributing if you’d like. Just let us know!
Update:
Special thanks to Bring Back the Stache! and Consumer Whore for the links. Much Appreciated.
A lot has happened since my last post about the Yankees, and the news has been mostly good. Jorge and Rivera both came back, renewing their contracts; news I was very happy with. Of course, these two items are overshadowed by the big ticket announcements.
First, Joe Torre has left to manage the Dodgers, and brought Don Mattingly with him. What the Yankees offered Torre was a slap in the face for what Joe has brought to the franchise. He revitalized a team that didn’t see playoff glory in 18 years, and took them to the world stage 5 out of the 12 years he managed. I can’t blame him for leaving. Next, they didn’t choose Mattingly has manager. I like Joe Girardi, but Donnie Baseball bled pinstripes. It will be disappointing to see him in a different uniform.
And now, on to A-Rod. He opted out. He and his agent were asking for $350 Million. But now he’s back. And here is why. A-Rod wanted to stay on the Yankees. His agent is an ass. A-Rod took a healthy $275 Million over 10 years to remain the Yankee’s 3rd baseman. I was saying all along it was his agent who was the one asking too much and A-Rod just went along with it. I’m glad to see he came to his senses and decided to stay.
It’s shaping up to be quite an interesting season. I for one can’t wait until April.
Last week, popular web development website A List Apart (ALA) released the results of it’s 2007 Web Design Survey. I’ve spent the last few days reading over the 82 page document and found a good amount of the results interesting.
What was most surprising to me was how big the gap between male and female respondents is. I knew the computing field is male dominated, but I didn’t think it was that one sided. This survey also gave me a pretty good idea of what I can expect as a salary once I get out of Grad School. You can download and review the results here, and if you are a web professional, I strongly recommend it. It’s extremely informative.
With the Yankees’ 2007 Season coming to a close a couple of days ago with their loss against the Indians, there has been a lot of buzz over who will stay and who will go. There has been a lot of buzz about “The end of a dynasty.” There has just been a lot of buzz. The biggest concern for most people is whether Joe Torre will stay or go. The answers to the other questions will follow.
At almost 22 years old, I grew up with Joe Torre as the Yankee manager. Being a baseball fan all my life and making the decision to be a Yankee fan in 1995, I became a die hard. Don Mattingly was my favorite player. I was crushed when they lost against the Mariners in the ALDS. Then Joe Torre was named manager. Derek Jeter became the regular Shortstop. 1996 was a great year for the Yankees. Even after dropping 0-2 against the Braves, I didn’t lose faith- I knew we would win. I was 10 and painfully optimistic. Then again, so was Torre, who told Steinbrenner the same thing. They won their first World Series since 1978, and under the management of Torre, would go on to win in 98, 99 and 2000 as well. They’ve made it to the playoffs every year he’s managed them. Torre is the most successful post season manager in history.
So what’s my point? As I said before, if Torre goes, the other questions will be answered. Mo and Posada have already threatened to leave. They are two staples of the team. A-Rod is up in the air as to if he will opt out of his contract or not, but I bet a Torre firing will make the decision easier. Will it be the end of the Yankee dynasty? Maybe for a while. And as a kid who grew up on a successful Yankee team, I sure as hell don’t want to wait another 18 years for a World Series title. This was a great year for the Yankees. Every player had sometime to offer. They picked up a few great rookies who will only get better with experience. 2008 is shaping up to be great…if Torre stays. If not, the team will fall apart and things won’t look so great anymore.
This team has been through a lot together. Torre is like a father figure to a lot of the team and a hero in New York. I think out of respect, for his skill and insight as well as for his character, George should keep him on until he is ready to leave. Firing Torre will make things much worse. Not better.
[If China started] making, say, toys without lead in them or food that isn’t poisonous, their costs of production will go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the US will go up too.
Erin Burnett of CNBC
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