Web sites are rubbish. Social media rules. The conversation is where it’s at. Welcome to 2010. Whether you’re a freelancer or working for a large multi-national, if you’re working anywhere in the online space you should be considering the social aspect of everything you do. With that in mind, I thought I’d gather together the notes I’ve been making on creating a social media strategy. This is a work in progress, feel free to contribute via the comments.
December! Christmas! Parties! Hangovers 
For a few years now, I’ve been searching for the ultimate hangover cure. I’ve heard the weird, the wonderful, the utter bullshit, and I’ve tried it all. Everything from milk thistle, to sex in the morning – and what I don’t know about acetaldehyde, ain’t worth knowing. So, because I love a drink and I know you do too, I’ve condensed everything I know on the subject into 4 easy parts for you to follow – (More …)
(Click to enlarge)
Top left: that’s DateLine, a handy visual indicator of the month and any events that are coming up. Underneath is the Adium contact list showing who’s online to chat.
Bottom left: I wrote a script which pulls the most popular 15 torrents from ThePirateBay.org. GeekTool puts the info right on my desktop and updates it every 15 minutes.
Menu bar (left to right): Adium (multi-IM client), Skype, smcFanControl (to control the fans on my laptop when it gets a little hot), DropBox (for sharing files and remote backup), LittleSnitch (stops apps calling home), Growl (displays app notifications in a unified way) using the “iPhone popup/Noir” style, the usual gubbins…
Dock: the theme is Dark Glass (sorry, don’t remember where I found it). In order: Finder, Dash, Settings, Firefox, Skype, Adium, Transmission (torrent client), Interarchy (FTP client), iPhoto, Aperture, Spotify, iTunes, MixMeister Fusion (for creating mixes), Quicktime Player, VLC, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Color Picker Pro, VMWare Fusion, Microsoft Entourage, Microsoft Word, Things (to-do list), TeamViewer, Tweetie (twitter client), TextMate (text editor), Terminal, Activity Monitor.
On the right of the separator I like to have Applications (Grid view), Downloads (Fan view, order by Date Created) and Home (Grid view).
Wallpaper: download it here.
So the time has come for you to get started with jQuery. If you’re reading this, I doubt you need an introduction. Here’s what you need to get on the fast-track to jQuery happiness…
<script type="text/javascript" src="/scripts/jquery-1.3.2.js"></script>
When I’m at home in the evenings, I’m rarely sat looking at my MacBook Pro. Usually it’s idle on the dining room table – playing music through iTunes, or streaming a movie to the TV in the lounge. I thought it would be handy if when a new email arrives, it could read out the sender’s name and the subject of the email, so I could decide whether to go and look at it – instead of just hearing the new email notification sound.
Luckily, I found an AppleScript that did much of the hard work for me, I just customized it slightly. This is my first foray into the world of AppleScript – so coders go easy on me! There’s a couple of interesting features -
Being a script, you can change the settings as you please, and modifying it to use Apple Mail instead of Microsoft Entourage should be a doddle.
Speak new email.zip (16KB)
Once downloaded, all you need to do is create a rule to run the script when a new email arrives in Entourage…
If you’ve not seen BgInfo before, here’s the description from the Sysinternals site -
How many times have you walked up to a system in your office and needed to click through several diagnostic windows to remind yourself of important aspects of its configuration, such as its name, IP address, or operating system version If you manage multiple computers you probably need BGInfo. It automatically displays relevant information about a Windows computer on the desktop’s background, such as the computer name, IP address, service pack version, and more. You can edit any field as well as the font and background colors, and can place it in your startup folder so that it runs every boot, or even configure it to display as the background for the logon screen.
I’ve cut back the config to show just the info I need, and also added a script to output the installed .NET frameworks. It’s designed with our Windows 2003 and 2008 web servers in mind. Here’s my config…
bginfo.zip (384KB)
Just extract the zip to C:\Program Files\BgInfo. Update.bat can be added to the All Users start-up group so every time a user logs in, BgInfo will update the desktop.
Several friends and colleagues have recently been asking how to get started with Twitter. Twitter is one of those apps that’s best learned by using it. The most important thing you can do is get started. You really can’t make that many mistakes. Just remember to have fun and enjoy the people you meet online.
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
Tweeting requires very little time. For starters, you can only enter 140 characters at a time. This means that you must post very short, direct-to-the-point messages. In practice, this means that, as a tweeter, you update several times a day, but it takes almost no time at all. (You don’t have to visit Twitter.com to post your tweets, there’s a variety of ways to post via your iPhone, Blackberry or straight from your desktop – see below).
@jamesward I thought that website you posted was great!
Everyone who is following me will see the message, but I am specifically directing it to James Ward.
You can also use the Reply function to refer to someone by name. For example:
Meeting @NTCeline and @jamesward for a pint in the Fenton. Anyone else coming?
The thing about replies is that they are clickable links. If someone who is following me, clicks on one of the names, they will automatically go to that person’s Twitter page. This will give them the opportunity to follow that person, too.
Direct Messages
Continuing with the metaphor of a conversation with a room full of people, you can also use the “direct message” function. This is like whispering in one person’s ear. They can hear you, but no one else can. You are directing the message to them and only them. For example:
d jamesward shall we sneak off for a pint now?
Hashtags (#example)
Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr or YouTube, and were developed as a means to create ”groupings” on Twitter, without having to change the basic service. They’re not really necessary while you’re getting it started, and only really mentioned here for completeness. If you’d like to know more about Hashtags, there’s plenty of info here.
You can find answers to almost every other Twitter question on the FAQ page.
No one probably wants to hear the blow-by-blow of your life. However, some color commentary is good. However, this is definitely art not science, so there are no hard, fast rules. But you should consider every Twitter update as a branding impression. You are developing a reputation with your online friends, so make sure you are adding something to the conversation.
This is really no different than a face-to-face conversation. You want to say something that is interesting, helpful, or just plain entertaining. I don’t think you should over-think it, but I don’t think you should just text the first thing that pops in your mind.
You should consider reading this How to really use Twitter (and not annoy your followers) guide.
Twitter for Facebook application. This application automatically syncs all your Twitter updates with Facebook. Once you set this up, you won’t ever have to make another Facebook update. (If you have trouble, you can find a brief tutorial here.)
Twhirl (free). My favorite Twitter client for Windows.
TweetDeck (free). Another great Windows client. Often described as “Twitter on steroids” so perhaps overkill for your average new user, but definitely one for power users. Available for both Windows and Mac.
TwitterFon (free). Arguably the best iPhone (and iPod Touch) Twitter client (and I’ve tried quite a few!)
Now you’re all set, you can find me at @Davenicoll 
Need professional help or have a team who need to get up to speed with social media? James Ward is your man! He’s a professional digital coach, very friendly, and what he doesn’t know about social media isn’t worth knowing.
As I’ve mentioned before, I keep my music on a server – not my MacBook Pro. Occasionally iTunes has a hissy fit and declares some of my music missing. But it’s not – it’s just I’m not connected to my home network. One day Apple will fix this issue (which has been around for years), but until that happens there’s an easy way to cure this… just hold down Ctrl (aka “Option”) while starting iTunes (tested on a Mac).
If you’ve landed here looking for a solution to remove real missing tracks, you can’t go wrong with Doug’s “Super Remove Dead Tracks” script.
Disclaimer: I don’t download copyrighted material, unless I already own the movie/album/application.
Frequently, the things I download most from The Pirate Bay appear on the Total Top 100 page. There’s no RSS feed, but with a handy shell script and GeekTool for the Mac, I can slap the latest updates straight onto my desktop – where I can keep an eye on it…
Here’s how…
First up, download and install GeekTool.
Next, download and unzip this script to your /Users/YOURNAME/Library/Scripts folder.
TPB Top Items.sh.zip (1KB)
Open GeekTool in the System Preferences and create a Shell entry. The command should look like…
sh "/Users/YOURNAME/Library/Scripts/TPB Top Items.sh" -12
If you want to show more items from the list, just change the “-12″ part to the number of items you want. And if you want to scrape a different page on TPB site, open up the script and change the URL. For example, to grab a list of the latest Mac applications submitted, you would use this URL: https://thepiratebay.org/browse/302/0/3
IMPORTANT! You should change the GeekTool refresh value to over 600 (I’d recommend 1200 – 20 minutes), otherwise TPB may ban you for constantly hitting the website, and you’ll probably get me into hot water too.
Here’s a quick tip on how to remove the ads from Facebook. If you’ve not installed Adblock yet, you’re in for a treat. It’s a fantastic little plugin for Firefox (get it here) or Safari (get it here) which removes ads from websites (not just Facebook).
Once you’ve installed it and restarted your browser, open Adblock’s preferences and look at the filters. If you’ve just installed Adblock, you may want to choose a filter subscription (free) – I use the EasyList (USA) filter.
Add a new filter, and enter:
facebook.com#div(class*=sponsor)
Once applied, the Facebook ads should be gone and you can let out an evil cackle!
I store all my music on an external hard disk which is connected to Windows Server 2003 in a cupboard hidden away. This means my music doesn’t clutter up the hard disk on my MBP and it can be shared to other devices like my Xbox, without having my laptop on. Accessing the server from Windows XP or Vista was fairly straightforward – I’d just map a drive and iTunes was happy. Unfortunately, persistent mapped drives on Mac OS X 10.5.6 (or earlier) isn’t really a feature, so I’d just plug the external hard disk into my Mac via USB.
I needed a way to get my Windows iTunes database onto my Mac, and a way of mounting a persistent network share for iTunes, and a convenient way to add new music to the networked folder and iTunes. (Oh, and I kinda like things being in the right place – you know, documents in the Documents folder, music in the Music folder – so we’ll be creating a symbolic link to make our music appear as though it’s in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. Clever, eh?) So, without further ado, here’s what we’ll be doing -
When I execute the above, I had the problem of the iTunes Music folder already existing. I moved that folder out so it no longer exists but now I get this error:
mount: realpath /Users/dave/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music: No such file or directory
I can’t win. Am I really the only one with this problem?
This is great, and makes life a lot easier.
is it possible to create a script that runs when I open iTunes?
Thanks
Paul
When I attempt to execute, I too receive this error. What causes this and how to correct? Happens no matter what I try
mount: realpath /Users/Jason/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music: No such file or directory
The latest version of iTunes has changed the folder structure. I’ll have a look at a fix over the weekend…
Dave, I’ve attempted a few variations of the command without success. Seems like it may be more a function of the command itself being incorrect than any change in the iTunes directory structure. Just a hunch.
Hi. I’ve recreated the error you’ve got and it seems to be that you don’t have an “iTunes Music” folder in /Users/Jason/Music/iTunes/
You just need to create an empty folder called “iTunes Music” there, and it should work. I remember thinking that was weird when I first did this, but that’s just the way mount and symlinks work.
I’ve updated the post above, please let me know if you have any more problems.
Thanks,
Dave.
Dave, I appreciate the prompt response. However seems that even with the presence of this path:
/users/jason/music/itunes/itunes music
I now get this:
mount_smbfs: mount error /users/jason/music/itunes/itunes music: file exists
Surely getting closer, but still a bit odd. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.
No probs, only too happy to help. Could you post your full mount command, and tell me what the folder and file structure is on both your Mac and server/NAS please?
The start of your error “mount_smbfs: mount error” seems to indicate a problem at the server/NAS side as it’s mounted locally, but having problems remotely (smbfs). Could you also check you can access your remote share via Finder and smb://yourserverip/share ?
D.
I’ve just had a look around for a script to do that, but drawn a blank.
The easiest and quickest solution I can think of is to add a line at the end of the script to launch iTunes. You could replace the icon of the script with the iTunes icon, rename it “iTunes Plus” or something, and put that in your dock. :-/
Ditto. I had this problem originally, wouldn’t work regardless if I have an iTunes Music folder or not. I figured it was just me. I haven’t tried this in awhile, I’m running Windows 7 on the “media server” machine that I’m trying to share to my Mac now, not sure if that matters.
Unless you follow the instructions to the letter, the symlink part won’t work because it’s quite finicky. Trying to connect to Windows 7 may add a second complication because its file sharing is considerably different to previous versions. However, if you can access a Windows 7 share from your Mac via Finder there shouldn’t be any reason why this technique wouldn’t work.
Yup, can still connect fine through Windows 7. I’ve never been able to get the command to work. If I don’t have an “iTunes Music” folder, I get:
mount: realpath /Users/dave/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music: No such file or directory
If I do have the “iTunes Music” folder, I get:
mount_smbfs: mount error: /Users/dave/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music: File exists
Could you help me pin down what’s happening here. I know at least 4 friends who are using this technique without a hitch so I’m keen to track down the problem.
What is the folder and file structure is on both your Mac and server/NAS?
What edition of Windows 7 is it?
Can you access the Windows share from Finder on your Mac? (Go menu, Connect to Server…, smb://yourserver/share)
What version of OS X are you using?
If you’re happy to let a complete stranger (albeit a trustworthy one) remote control your Mac, I might be able to diagnose and fix the problem a lot quicker. Up-to you…
Make sure you don’t already have a share with the same name already mounted. I kept getting the file exists error – it was because the Music folder was already mounted on the desktop. If you already have a Music icon just right-click and choose Eject. Then try the command again…
Guys, unfortunately I haven’t had much time to troubleshoot this issue lately, however I think this might be an easier, solution. Editing your .XML file to include the file:// path convention. Seems to have worked great when I tested it in a virtual machine.
http://www.mactimes.info/2009/06/migrating-your-itunes-library-from.html
Here’s my info:
- iTunes sees the folder as /Volumes/music, the SMB path is smb://DAVESPC/music
- I’m using Windows 7 Professional
- I can access the share via the Finder
- I’m using OS 10.6.2
For a few weeks now, my home wireless has been unbearably slow on my Mac, while my Vista PC [ironically] has been fine. I remembered updating to Mac OS X 10.5.5 about the time the problem started, and a look around the net revealed quite a few other people with similar symptoms. Earlier this evening I tried pinging my wireless router and was getting between 100ms-1000ms response times on the Mac – it should be around 2-8ms, so something was definitely wrong. Fortunately I found a simple solution…
Reboot holding down the SHIFT key to boot in Safe Mode. It may take a while to boot (this is normal), log in as yourself, and then restart your Mac. Once you’ve restarted and logged back in, you should hopefully find your wifi connection working properly again. I guess the safe mode boot clears out some old caches or kick starts something back to life. Who knows, but it worked!
Thank you!
This worked perfectly. My mini is 10 feet from my time capsule and it not working well was driving me crazy.
More recent SSLLOOWW response with a latest and greatest BELKIN N wifi router(up to 300MBPS – 150 is the best I’ve experienced- better than wired though @100 MBPS) and a MAC with OS X 10.5.8. Wired or WIlreless the BELKIN took up to minutes to respond with pages. Switched out to an old CISCOLinksys POC WGT54GS and great turnaround… Any ideas??? jfredley@hotmail
P.S I tried the “SAFE boot” to no avail….
Thank you so much for posting this info. My girlfriend has been complaining since I put her on the wireless router about her connection. I tried changing the channel the wireless was on and a few other things, but couldn’t figure this out. I tried this and it worked like a charm.
Hi, glad it helped
Just out of interest, what version of OS X are you on? This post gets a lot of views despite originally being for 10.5.5 – so if it worked for later versions, I’d like everyone to know.
Thanks
I’ve just had O2 Broadband installed at home, and the first thing I noticed is that port 25 (SMTP) is blocked to prevent spam and other malicious emails being sent through their network. This is fairly common place these days (although slightly pointless), and o2 force you to use their email server to send through -
Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)
Host Name: smtp.o2.co.uk
User Name: youro2username@o2.co.uk
Password: youro2password
Outgoing Settings
Use SSL: Off
Authentication: Password
Server Port: 25
If like me you don’t want to use the o2 mail server (probably because you have your own setup or want to use your work email) you may be able to use authenticated SMTP. By providing a username and password, and using port 587 (the authenticated SMTP port) instead of port 25, you should be able to connect. You can change this setting in Outlook/Entourage where your account details live, or on your iPhone in the settings.
If your email provider doesn’t allow authenticated SMTP access on port 587, you can try…
There’s some more information here if you need it.
hi there
blocking port 25 is VERY valid especially if the ISP provides a relay !
If you are submitting mail to a server outside the network (in this case outside O2) then you SHOULD use PORT 587 its the mail submission port !
if your administrator does not understand you should only allow authenticated (preferably encrypted via TLS ) on 587 that way they know all traffic is from local users while port 25 is from users/servers delivering mail originating outside the organization
make sense ?
regards
John Jones
http://www.johnjones.me.uk
Hi John
Thanks for your comment.
Agreed, mail via port 587 should be authenticated (it is on our mail server), but the comment I made about blocking mail on port 25 being pointless was more about the technical ability of spammers and virus creators and how blocking port 25 won’t make much difference to them. Lets face it, if they want to send an email, they’ll do it some other way
hey there
YAY you get it !
(you would be surprised how many people dont understand 587 and having more and more people submit mail on 587 is a great thing…)
regarding the pointless blocking of port 25 its actually cuts spam traffic on a network by about 37% which is HUGE and makes tracking of infected machines much much easier !(simply look in logs and you can automate shutdown/suspension of account etc )
scary but true
regards
John Jones
http://www.johnjones.me.uk
If you’re interested, Unified eMail provides SMTP relay services for personal and business use over alternate port 2525. Check out: [link removed]
link removed because you don’t offer a free personal account, and therefore it’s blatant comment spam.
For those of you who don’t know what TechCrunch is, it’s an editorial website that reports on new technology (primarily Internet startups, and computer-related geekery) over in the U.S. In the past, it’s got a lot of attention and has built a good name for itself by reporting honestly and being fairly successful with their predictions.
So, TechCrunch50 has just been and gone. 52 startups got up on stage and pitched their ideas for $50k, and there were some great ideas – but two things struck me. Firstly, the amount of crap being developed and being pitched as innovative (as a senior developer, I’ve been around the block a few times, and this stuff is NOT innovative), and secondly the need for these startups – their products have such small niches or fill a void only temporarily until a bigger player comes along and wipes them off the face of the net. Ok, ok, so that may be a bit harsh but I’m being realistic!
As for Yammer winning the $50k, I’m stunned. Nothing new, nothing revolutionary (lots “borrowed” from twitter and facebook) and not even that difficult to knock up from a tech perspective.
What do you think? Watch the presentations here: http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/conference/
Thanks a lot. I was looking for this all day. And all i could find were solutions for removing “really missing” tracks.