If you look at how it started, Mark Zuckerberg was originally fascinated w/ this idea that there’s a sliding scale of attractiveness that can be calculated exactly by scoring “faces” with computer software–he originally used the “HotOrNot” algorithm, which is an interactive survey, a rating system: “X face is slightly more appealing than Y face.” I think he wanted to know where he fit at Harvard in terms of attractiveness. (Somewhere near the ugly end? Hah.) These top students are trained to measure themselves by SAT scores and GPA scores, why not a “face” score too?

1. Because of Google’s MX records on my domain, as far as I know, spam never touches my server–increasing the performance of my website. I was using Postfix to bounce everything to a SpamAssassin-filtered account at Media Temple–now with Google Apps I can disable Postfix and save my server some work.

2. Besides G-Y-M (Google Yahoo MSN) nobody else (besides maybe the US government?) has realtime access to the volume to spam needed to run a proper spam-filtering operation. I have no research available here but my own observations and what I read in various articles–sounds like spammers have increased their efforts and the volume of spam is increasing exponentially. In the past maybe certain innovative features would get my attention first–but now the killer app is really high-quality spam filtering.

3. I think Google Apps is more user-friendly than when I last tried it. The instructions and menu options are intuitive. My only complaint is they don’t have enough options for creating users for specific domains. For example, I need to create three different Google Apps accounts for three domains because some of the users/domains are not aliases. So lots more passwords than necessary, in my opinion. In other words, it would be nice if I could assign specific users to specific domains, and have the option to not “alias” some users but split one name on two domains into multiple POP accounts–example: to keep personal email apart from work email while keeping the same username. If you’re a Google engineer and want a more specific example, let me know. I have the Standard account–maybe this is a feature of the Premier account?

The transition gets complicated. First create the MX records, then update DNS with the registrar, then verify ownership of the domain w/ Google Apps, verify the MX records are changed, create the users (Can I do this before the domain is verified–or will emails bounce if the users are not created yet?) then activate SSL via Google Apps, then call all the clients and get Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. using the new POP server settings, then wait a day or two and go back and check the old accounts via webmail to see if anything was lost in the transition. OK more than complicated–almost a nightmare. Last time I made a similar switch I had to actually get in my car and drive around and help people configure their laptops–for example one guy had an email port set that wasn’t working w/ the new POP server–additionally you have Outlook calendars using email to communicate, etc.

Still haven’t looked at the 100s of wedding photos.  Haven’t finished the Thank-You cards either.  I found a rare moment here to write something while the puppy is resting–wore her out this afternoon walking about 2 miles in the Texas sun.  (I have this road bike water pouch now–gift from my mom–that’s perfect for keeping us both hydrated–also holds poop bags, treats, cell phone, keys–basically a sexy man-purse.)

—

Media Temple support is clueless today about the recent hack of their databases:

First off, I’d like to inform you that we only changed the database passwords once, and that was to improve the security of our systems at the time.

I could probably find more of these, but I after the first automated password-change I stopped counting.  And by the way, their auto-MySQL-password-changer script broke my site–more time wasted.  However, this wasn’t why I moved my blog network to Linode–it was actually a performance issue.

Here’s one from May:

Dear Site Owner,

This notification is meant to inform you that we will be initiating an automated database user password change on (gs) Grid-Service Cluster.02 on 05/29/10.

And another from March:

Dear Site Owner,

We will be updating the password for your default database user in approximately 24 hours from now (8:00 pm, 03-09-10).

Fast forward to Monday, here’s their excuse:

Our apologies for that, I see that you were part of the original database password change (only a small number of customers were), and then you were of course part of our (gs)-wide password change. I assume Julian didn’t realize you were also part of the small ”pilot” group as well.

Classic!  OK whatever, I’m done with Media Temple.  Now time to rant about Clearwire customer support.  They’re charging me $45/month for a $40/month plan, and didn’t bother to tell me the rate changed. How nice. This comedy is even more hilarious–I highlighted the best part:

PJ:  Can you lower me to the $40 plan?
Rachael Johnson:  PJ, I am very sorry for any inconvenience. My system is currently updating at this time and I am unable to review your account at this time.
Rachael Johnson:  I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but I am unable to assist you with your request at this time. My System is updating so I am unable to access your account information. Please contact us back in two hours either here in chat or over the phone at 888-888-3113 from 9am to 10pm.
PJ:  OK I’ll report this to my blog.
PJ:  Thanks InstantService.com
Rachael Johnson:  PJ, I believe it may be working at this time.
Rachael Johnson:  One moment please while I verify this.
PJ:  And Twitter.
Rachael Johnson:  I am able to view your account at this time.

Wow, amazing how a two-hour “system update” is fixed instantly after I mention this is going in my blog.  Let me tell you, this lousy customer service was provided by ATG.com and they type extremely slow.  I’m not always negative either–yesterday I used Namcheap’s “instant chat” customer support to ask some questions about email hosting and they were quick to respond and very helpful–maybe find out who they’re using to provide that service.

If I was more of a gambler, I’d say this is a signal to short ATGF. That is, if you believe the old story about the stock trader who makes a fortune shorting a bank’s stock after he notices the letterhead is wastefully expensive. Likewise, ATG won’t last long if their employees lie to customers to save a few seconds–which is how long it would take to answer my question honestly.

ARTG: 3.28 -0.01 (-0.30%) – Art Technology Group, Inc.

On January 8, 2010, the Company acquired InstantService.com, Inc.

So I called Clearwire (on Sunday) and got someone named “Candy” who informed me “account services” is not open till Monday. This is contrary to what ATG told me, but I’m going to give Clearwire a call now and see if I can get my $5 adjustment–preferably a retroactive adjustment!

With a mostly-default install of Fedora 13, this is what I came up with to get Shell.FM working:

—

yum install git

(Change to the directory where you want to install it?)

git clone git://github.com/jkramer/shell-fm.git shell-fm

yum install libmad-devel
yum install libao-devel
yum install glibc-devel (is this one necessary?)
yum install gcc

(Now run “make” in your new shell-fm directory. If it doesn’t work, then I probably missed something!)

make

(I think this creates the “man” page for shell-fm?)

make install

(If the code compiles without any errors, this should run shell-fm.)

shell-fm

(If you follow the prompts, you might actually hear something! Instead of entering your user/pass every time, config shell-fm to do this for you.)

mkdir /home/your_fedora_username/.shell-fm
mkdir /home/your_fedora_username/.shell-fm/cache

(Then create a file called shell-fm.rc in the “.shell-fm” directory with whatever text editor.)

Example shell-fm.rc:

—snip—

username = pjbrunet
password = (shhhh!)
default-radio = lastfm://user/pjbrunet/loved
np-file = /home/your_fedora_username/.shell-fm/nowplaying
np-file-format = %t by %a
title-format = Now playing %t from %l by %a (%T)
screen-format = %t by %a
term-format = %t by %a
delay-change = true
extern=tee “/home/your_fedora_username/Music/%a-%t.mp3″ > /dev/null
# Track title
t-color = 1;31
# Album name
l-color = 1;32
# Artist name
a-color = 1;34
# Track page

—snip—

The “extern” line is optional–it allows you to save the MP3 files. (%a is the album name, %t is the track name, etc.) Here “tee” saves the MP3s and pipes the output to nowhere. (I’m sure there’s better ways to do this.) So you won’t hear anything after starting shell-fm. But you will see “Now playing…” and if you open your “Music” directory you should see MP3 files.

If you see a problem, something I missed, something I can improve, please let me know.

This move by Twitter to kill basic authorization is a WARNING shot to all developers.  Twitter can erase your hard work at any moment they feel like.  Do you think this is the last time?  Now your Twitter business plan is seriously in danger.

Twitter API Wiki / Authentication

come August 2010, we’ll be turning off Basic Auth from the API.

Also, let’s be honest, this is really about giving Twitter more control.  Now Twitter wants us to request a 7-digit pin number to continue using our applications?  What?  Where does this insanity stop?

I spend a week writing functions that use basic authorization to work without curl (no examples available on the web to do this, it was like pulling teeth from the Internet) then I find out about this OAuth garbage that’s totally irrelevant to what I do.  Now all that code I wrote is useless.  And no, I’m not rewriting all my code and requesting a 7-digit PIN number!

Look at this insanity:

The traditional OAuth flow for desktop clients can be cumbersome. We’ve created a PIN-based experience for destkop clients that use the following flow:

1. The application uses oauth/request_token to obtain a request token from twitter.com.
2. The application directs the user to oauth/authorize on twitter.com.
3. After obtaining approval from the user, a prompt on twitter.com will display a 7 digit PIN.
4. The user is instructed to copy this PIN and return to the appliction.
5. The application will prompt the user to enter the PIN from step 4.
6. The application uses the PIN as the value for the oauth_verifier parameter in a call to oauth/access_token which will verify the PIN and exchange a request_token for an access_token.
7. Twitter will return an access_token for the application to generate subsequent OAuth signatures.

First of all, I was not collecting usernames/passwords to use the API with basic authorization!  If you want tons of freeloading, fly-by-night, lookie loo users–Yes–maybe OAuth makes sense.  Maybe you enjoy jumping through hoops for people who don’t think you’re worth 2 cents.  But sounds like abuse to me–seriously.

Programmers love to complain they’re not respected and not paid enough.  You’re not respected because you roll over like dogs whenever the latest fad API asks you to.

Because I’m the webmaster, I’m the only one with a password!  There’s no pressing security issue here.  Do you really think anyone wants to man-in-the-middle attack your Twitter account?  Come on, is this imaginary hacker going to hijack your domain registration too?!

Twitter, you already have my password (which is a security risk enough already.  Twitter *was* hacked, my site was not!) and now you’re asking me to REQUEST a pin number too, when I already have a username AND a password?!  Seriously!?

Thousands of people visit my sites every day, but they don’t need any kind of password OR even a username to access/interact with any of my content.  OAuth is the least of their cares–and I could care less about it too!

If I ever decided to sell my app, the password would be hashed on the buyer’s server, if he or she wanted to use Twitter at all!  (But I’m removing that option now, because of this OAuth nonsense, because I’m done with Twitter.  At least I haven’t wasted my time/money on training videos yet!)

Until Twitter submits a public apology and admits their stupidity (I doubt it) I’m done with Twitter–because you know this will happen again.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

(In case you didn’t know, this change is coming next month!!!  No I wasn’t notified, I only discovered this accidentally searching through Google.  Why wasn’t I notified, Twitter?  You have my email address–why don’t you use it?  Don’t you think a huge sweeping change like this is important?  This is just the beginning of the outrage.  Wait until all these other programmers discover their app no longer works.)

Not even my bank wants a 7-digit pin number to use online banking.  The Internet is virtually anonymous anyway, OAuth or no OAuth.  Unless you can actually watch a video of me entering my password, holding up today’s newspaper, there’s no way to know for sure I am who I say I am.  Seriously!

Forcing us to request a 7-digit pin number is simply an inconvenience and dare I say this is obviously a move to pull more pageviews to Twitter.  If you make using TweetDeck or whatever client too inconvenient, a percentage of people will go back to using Twitter.com–that’s what this is really about!

So I say forget Twitter API.  There are better ways to spend your time.  Think about it–this is a WARNING.

Here’s a report from one of my blogs, sorted by the number of comments on each post. (As you can see, Myspace users like to leave comments.)  I think this is a good example of what a “long tail” really looks like.

Saw this on LinkedIn:

My blog serves over 100,000 pages a month and it’s sometimes slow. Can anyone recommend a good host for Wordpress? Thanks.

100k pages per month, depending on how heavy your graphics/plugins are, you’re going to have trouble with most (if not all) shared hosting accounts.

If you depend on SE traffic you should be especially concerned about usability. Google says they aim internally for 2 seconds per page.

I’d say it’s about time to invest in a good VPS at 100k/month. At this stage you don’t need a dedicated server yet, but you’re going to experience slowness on a shared account, especially when it comes to MySQL.

MySQL is the real bottleneck. The PHP executes really fast by comparison. With a VPS you get your own MySQL server and you can see exactly what’s going on in minute detail, if that’s what you want. With a VPS I can watch the requests come in one by one. And you can see how long it takes to process the PHP code vs. the MySQL.

Media Temple will charge you $20 extra per month for a GridContainer. This is a fancy way of saying you get priority on whatever MySQL server they set up for you. But personally I didn’t think the performance was that great.

If you get a VPS, find out how many other people are on your box. Also find out where the server is located geographically. If you’re on the East coast and you spend a lot of time on your site, you probably don’t want a West coast VPS.

If you’re interested in trying a VPS at some point, let me know.

I’m thinking about upgrading 9 blogs and a couple of plugins I wrote. They all depend on $table_prefix, which you all know is in wp-config.php since before Matt was Ma.tt.

Yes, I know WP 3.0 is multi-site. I’ve been using the recommended $table_prefix for several years now. Yes, it’s time to upgrade. Which is why I’m here. So what is the recommended way now to get all my data working with WP 3.0? I have millions of records stored in MySQL using $table_prefix.

Instead of using 9 wp-config files (doh!) I came up with this really simple way of using the same wp-config.php for all of my blogs:

$table_prefix = substr(str_replace(“-”, ”, $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']), 0, 4) . ‘_’;

The dash deal was added later for my “wp-fun.co.uk”

In plain English, this code simply uses the first four letters of the domain name for the $table_prefix. So for example, Knowingart.com would be “know_” instead of “wp_”. I use this same technique for all my plugins.

So a Knowingart.com plugin would use “know_myplugin” to store information, etc.

What do you think? Can I safely upgrade to WP 3.0?

Steve Ballmer Is Right: The PC Market Is Getting Bigger | Forrester Blogs

There is not a single computer Apple makes or has ever made that is a PC.

I used Apple PCs through the 80s and 90s and let me tell you, Apple made plenty of PCs. The only real difference was the mouse. Hence the song, “I’m a right clicka, I’m an iBook flippa.”

Old Apple Ad: “What Kind of Man Owns His Own Computer?” — Global Nerdy

Rather revolutionary, the whole idea of owning your own computer? Not if you’re a diplomat, printer, scientist, inventor…or a kite designer, too. Today there’s Apple Computer. It’s designed to be a personal computer. To uncomplicate your life. And make you more effective.

Back then Apple was known for making PCs for graphics professionals–that was the only reason to buy an Apple. But that reason didn’t last long. All of Apple’s graphics apps were ported to Windows.

In the 90s people stopped calling them “IBM PC compatible clones” and instead called them “Wintel” machines. Windows+Intel. Now nearly everything is some variation of Linux in the cloud, so neither the OS or the CPU distinctions really matter.

So why call your computer a PC? I think it’s a matter of convenience. Even though computers are not really personal anymore. You can run a server on your desktop or phone or tablet, share the same app with millions of people, use multiple logins, etc.

As far as the iPad, tablet computers have been around since the 90s. The only difference now is touch-screens are more affordable and CPUs are fast enough now to make the touch interface responsive. Apple is not responsible for either advancement. Their size and shape are not new or original either.

From a software perspective, the iPhone and iPad are Linux clients in the cloud. Without the Internet (served by Linux) these devices are useless.

(Response to Microsites. A Bad Idea Most of the Time.)

Most people are not one-dimensional. Limiting yourself to one domain is really short-sighted, in my opinion. I’ll give you a real-life example.

I’m an abstract painter. I have a BFA. Back in 2004 I came up with two website ideas, two domains. One about collecting art and another about art viewing and art reviewing. One was a wiki, the other was a blog.

One thing artists know, it’s process of elimination. If you have only one domain, you boxed yourself in. You’re trapped. The best artists make 20 compositions or 20 models very quickly and choose the best one. There’s a reason why designers and artists do this–it works! I might show 10 drawings to 1000 people and find out the orange drawing sells the best–it’s the same with domains. Anyway, the art collecting site didn’t pull any traffic. But the other site did something I wasn’t expecting, it morphed into yet another idea with yet another domain.

I’m also a programmer for over 20 years. So I wasn’t just blogging about art. I was also blogging about web tracking, advertising, click fraud, all kinds of subjects. So I realized I needed more domains to cover my different interests.

Especially because Google assumes domains are one-dimensional. If Google decides your website is about ice cream, that’s it–you’re stuck with ice cream searches. It’s either-or with Google. If you write about quantum physics (and you’re the expert on quantum physics) it doesn’t matter, you’re stuck with ice cream searches from that point forward. I learned (painful lesson) it was futile to try to change Google’s mind. It’s much easier to make a new domain, rather than fight Google’s classification algorithm.

If you get searches for lemons, go make some lemonade, but don’t let Google make you a lemon head for life. You are more than a lemon head! You are a multi-faceted, knowledgeable, interesting person! So go register some more domains.

As far as maintaining multiple domains, there are several ways to do it. That’s another comment for another day. But check out ScribeFire. If I press F8 right now I can post to any of 9 blogs. If I have an idea about art I can post to my art blog. If I have an idea about freelancing I can post to my freelancer blog, etc.

Obviously I’m going to post something about WordPress to my WordPress blog, not to my freelancing blog. Two different ideas, two different domains. In fact, WordPress now has this functionality included in version 3.0.

I keep a journal of domains I want to register. I could be watching a video, or talking to a friend, in the tub, at the pool, and I get ideas. Those ideas deserve unique domain names. I have 100-200 domain ideas on various pieces of paper. Now and then I go through that list and pick out a domain I want to register. It’s $10, no big deal. If that website makes at least $1 per month then I come out ahead.

Now I have a step by step process to get these domains up and running without much trouble. Over the years I have this down to about 10 steps.

30 years from now that one idea at the pool could be worth $1000 per month. God willing, I’m still blogging and/or making websites that far into the future. By then I have lots more content, even if I’m only posting once per month, that’s 360 posts over 30 years. Not only that, I just improved my odds of finding a winning idea. And if one idea fails, if the trend changes, now I have more options.