425-390-8105 Is Probably the ANTI Do Not Call Database

I received a call at work from a Renton WA number, and immediatly after got a spam text message. When I called the Renton number back, it was a voicemail saying “Welcome to the Do Not Call database. If you would like to be added to the database, enter your 10-digit phone number.”

Note, no “Federal,” no mention of a US governmental entity. So I assume that it was actually an opt-in database for phone spammers, based on a bit of Googling around as seen below. One commenter remarked that it’s probably “out of country” spammers using some kind of bundling service based in Washington state.

Link: 425-390-8105 / 4253908105 1/5

Not so Simple: Simple Facebook Connect « WordPress Plugins

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I finally got Simple Facebook Connect working between the St Nick’s webpage and the Facebook page, mostly.

It was both simple and not simple: Facebook had changed the look of their Apps page, and there is more than one Apps page. So one “how to install this app” tutorial I tried to follow was visually outdated, but a text update had been added at the bottom.

The plugin developer had not bothered to remove screenshots on an old blog post on his site, but added a terse update noting that the instructions in the plugin readme.txt file and on the options page are correct, and that the link to the correct Apps page was correct. Also, to link to a Page (business page, fan page), where the Option page says “Enter the ID of your page,” he means the number contained in your Facebook fan or business page, not the entire URL.

Once I finally got that, and deleted the duplicate app I created with the wrong domain name, and recopied and pasted the correct app ID and Secret key, and saved, and authorized additional permissions for SFC and saved AGAIN, I was good to go.

It now automatically reposts from blog post to Facebook page, and I can manually publish both posts and pages.

I followed instructions at the developer’s website to get the enhanced comments working. Code details in the extended post.

I’m using a different plugin, Tweet Like Share +1, to add more share boxes. They don’t seem to conflict now, after enabling SFC first, then enabling TLS+1. Testing to follow, the SFC developer has +1 on his blog but doesn’t include it as an option.

Otto is rather… blunt about not using other Facebook plugins, so proceed carefully and follow directions to the letter. Your own assumptions, and selective blindness, are your biggest stumbling blocks when installing Simple Facebook Connect. Also, older posts and comments on his support sites can be helpful, but may be outdated.

Screenshots and the steps that eventually worked to follow.

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Kevin Fox Makes Offer To Google They Shouldn’t Refuse

They really should take him up on this.

Also, I have surrendered; I don’t welcome our Google Plus overlords, but I’ll let them in the house on a hot day and listen politely. And I like the clean “if you like this, please share” icons in Kevin’s post, so will implement that here and at Holy Moly.

And so I put my resources where my mouth is. As the former lead designer for Google Reader, I offer my services to Google, rejoining for a three month contract in order to restore and enhance the utility of Google Reader, while keeping it in line with Google’s new visual standards requirements. I will put my current projects on hold to ensure that Google Reader keeps its place as the premier news reader, and raises the bar of what a social newsreader can be.

Link: My offer to Google Reader « fox @ fury

Hivemind: #Sharebros, Assemble! Build Us A Big Damn RSS Reader #OccupyGoogleReader

Yes, I had to throw in the Despicable Me! and Firefly references. It’s late, and I’m in GReader withdrawal.

RIP: Google Reader No Can Share

I used to scroll GReader constantly. I probably shared too much (there is no overshare in Google Reader, but if there is, I did it). I missed the chance to meet 2 (TWO) of my sharebros in Colorado and now I’ve lost connection with a very small number of interesting people, including several Muslim gentlemen who shared all kinds of interesting tech gadget stories, plus incredible food articles and recipe sites during Ramadan.

I’ll miss those guys, though I didn’t interact much with anyone other than with ***Dave, Les, and Stan. They’re all acquaintances of ***Dave’s via his blog, which I used to read in Bloglines – BLOGLINES, FOR CHRISSAKE – before plain, yet beguiling Google Reader (GReader) came along.

And sooo, I signed up for Bloglines. Can’t share, but it’s the principle. Grrr.

I hadn’t bothered to actively seek out people to follow and be followed by; GReader allowed me to be as social, or asocial, as I wished to be. When I tried to sign in to Google Plus after the “share” button was replaced by the G+, I got bored, frustrated, and irritated, so I stopped trying and watched TV.

A lot of TV.

I think I’ve watched every episode of “Storage Wars” that was queued up on TiVo.

Dammit!! I want my GReader!

However, if this story has it right, I might soon have something to read with.

AND SHARE, DAMMIT TO HELL AND A FLYING PASS AT SANTY CLAUS.

One code-savvy, soon-to-be-former Google Reader user would rather create a new site for the RSS-feeds than switch to Google+. Last Friday, Google announced that it was getting rid of Reader’s social features — the ability to follow other people, to share content within Reader and so forth — in order to encourage more people to use Google+ for those kinds of activities within a week. The backlash online was immediate and visceral, and a small group of protesters even picketed outside the company’s DC offices, calling for an Occupy Google Reader movement. We tried contacting Google a number of times over the past week about how they were responding to the complaints and when the changes would go into place but never received a reply.

Hearing radio silence from Google, self-identified Google Reader fanatic (also known as a Sharebro) Francis Cleary decided to take things into his own hands. Cleary tried using Google+ a bit but says it didn’t feel right. So over the past ten days, Cleary has been devoting every minute of his free time to building his own social RSS site that will keep Reader’s dying features alive. For now, he’s calling it HiveMined.

The service is built to work just like Google Reader but better. On the HiveMined blog, Cleary describes the idea quite simply: “A replacement for Google Reader. Basically an RSS reader with a bit of social thrown in.” Cleary explained the idea further to The Atlantic Wire. “The way to think about it is that the people on the hive are going to mine out the best content on the internet,” said the 26-year-old Pennsylvania native, who settled on the name with the help of 40 other Sharebros.

via The Sharebros Are Building a Google Reader Replacement – Technology – The Atlantic Wire

Fixed my “Press This Reloaded” Plugin Myself, Thank You

For some time now, I’ve been unable to blog easily from my iPhone because the “Press This” plug in stopped working well – I suspected it was because of all the extra crap Google Reader adds with the “$UTM” tracking codes to the URL. I’d also noticed that the “Press This Reloaded” plugin worked okay, except that the link it added was only “complete” (including the title of the page linked, the a href HTML tags) if I happened to select some text to quote.

It turns out that’s the way Scribu, the plugin developer wrote it. He was assuming everyone would let WordPress add the HTML automatically if the URL was on a line of its own, but only reluctantly added the “via (HTML tag link)” code that the original Press This added when people requested it at his support site.

Well, I went in and looked at the actual plugin, and realized that all I needed to do was tweak it so that even if there was no selected text to be quoted, I could have it add a “Link:” preface and the nicely formatted link and page title. It’s under the self::$content section; I just copied the line that adds the link with a “via ” preface and added it to the “else” statement. Decided to change the preface to “Link: ” because a link with no text selection or explanation made more sense than one prefaced by “Via .”

I’ll have to update this on my other blogs, eventually, and on the iPhone and iPad. But it’s working for me and that’s all I ask.

Love the “press this reloaded” plugin, it’s beautiful and was a long time needed! I’ve noticed though that the “via” link is missing from the bottom of the reposted materials. Having to put that in manually is icky.

via WordPress › Support » [Plugin: Press This Reloaded] Press this reloaded no “via” link.

Which Came First: Running Chicken Nebula Or Fried Egg Yellow Hypergiant Star?

First came the “Running Chicken” nebula, and now comes a cosmic “Fried Egg.” A European telescope has captured the best image yet of one of the rarest classes of stars in our universe, and astronomers playfully point out that the cosmic scene resembles an egg white around a yolky center.

via Fried egg nebula: European telescope captures image of monster star [VIDEO] – CSMonitor.com.

The Attack of … Space Squirrel!

Lots to blog in small, short bursts… we’re back from vacation and it’s been several days already, and the blog-kage is starting to give.

David is out of town on business, and was a little bummed that he had to leave on Monday after we only arrived home on Sunday evening. He hasn’t even seen Rileycat yet; we boarded the cat at the vet for the trip and I couldn’t pick him up until after work on Monday, several hours after David left again from O’Hare.

If you don’t have a headset, microphone or speakers, you can still use Skype to send and receive instant messages. However, to make and receive calls with Skype, you need either a headset, or a microphone and speakers.

Skype requires a computer headset, not a telephone headset. A computer headset has two separate connectors – one for the microphone and one for the speaker. Some newer headsets connect via USB.

Ensure that the headset has a microphone. Alternatively, you can also buy a handset, as long as it has two connectors so that it can be plugged into your computer.

via Help for Skype: How do I use a headset, microphone or speakers with Skype?

We’ve spent the last couple of days trying to get Skype working on either my cell phone or my desktop computer; tonight we finally SUCCEEDED after I went through some troubleshooting yesterday. I think the problem was that I had my headset mic enabled, but had the built-in speakers on the monitor enabled instead of the headset speakers. Thus, I could only hear myself (test echo) and not David the other day.

My fancy headset just paid for itself in LOLs; just now while talking to David I flipped the little voice-mod switch to morph into Space Squirrel. This cracked David up, so in revenge (REVENGE!) he activated the speaker on his cell phone, so everyone he works with that’s on this trip could hear me squeakily laughing and joking.

General hilarity ensued for a short time. A VERY short time. And then it was time to put Space Squirrel back into stasis.

This is the mixer panel for my headset – I have the ability to morph my voice using various preset mods, but Space Squirrel is the likely choice if I ever decide to do voice on Second Life while logged in as my male alt (who is a Victorian Steampunk version of my dad, really). To voice-morph, all I have to do is hit the third “gaming” switch on the left hand side of my headset, it’s set up to invoke WinAmp (for internet radio and music) and switch streams on the other two buttons.

That’s about enough blogging for the moment, I was on a roll cleaning up the kitchen and doing laundry when David called and we messed around getting Skype to finally work.