From a content producers point of view, I find it sometimes tiring having to watch my words so that kids won’t get bad influences. It’s good to know, that these products exist, and that it’s really up to the parent to utilise them and not just complain about the smut around the web. (I do enjoy my smut as in content not suitable for kids, so I like to have that option open. I also sometimes send out inappropriate content, like swearing, and whilst it might not be a lady like thing to do, I still consider it my right – and your right is to filter it out if you like.)

In addition to web browsers, there are filters that can filter the content on normal browsers. However, if I was a parent, I would get the browser, as many are brightly coloured fun looking things, that will probably be the preferred option for a kid if he or she has one available, so even if you forgot to turn your filter on after a long night at the computer… The kid would still choose to go with his own special browser.

So there’s the tip, see what’s available.

As for you who are producing adult content on your websites, have a look at this website, which will help you to self label your site to be suitable for adult audience only. Amongst other things, the filters and kids browsers look for these tags, and having one on your site will make their task easier.

Don't let the evil crim use your innocent face as his cover

Most of us have  a Facebook account, and the more popular Facebook gets, the more attractive it is for hackers, who want to use your squeaky clean profile as their cover when doing something you would never do. Hacking these days is not too difficult. I’ve tried it once, (with a test account) and without any experience got through CAPTCHA image verification using nothing but an automated program, which some people still think is impossible for a computer to do. It’s not – it will take a computer more time and more attempts than it does for a human, but it can do it through it on trial and error basis. Back to Facebook then.

Picking a strong password

Facebook hacking is done simply by finding out someone’s login (your email) and then testing out a series of letter combinations, actual words  to start with, then continuing randomly, until the correct one is found. If your password is a clear English word, it’ll be amongst the first ones to be cracked. What you want to do is pick a word you can remember, then add some numbers (in the middle) and capitalisations to it. Something like “R4nD0M612″. Pick numbers that are special to you, but not special enough for anyone to pick, such as (not) your birth date so you can remember it, then type it up a few times so you will remember it with your fingers as well, so you won’t have to keep copying because you can’t remember it.

Hide your email address like it was your passport

For sites that are very popular, and the most likely to get hacked, such as Facebook, use a separate email address that you will not be using for any other purpose than this. If you are a domain owner, this should be an easy task for you as you can just add an email address that will forward stuff to your real account if needed, but if not, try something like http://sneakemail.com/to create an additional email addresses for this use. This way it will be harder for a hacker to find out your email address you used to sign up, and makes it that much harder for him to get to your profile – and with so many easier options out there will probably leave your account alone – unless he takes it as a challenge, which I doubt, with so many more tempting targets out there…

When you change an email address to your profile, remember to remove the email address you previously had in use, as all emails stored with your account can be  used as logins. Facebook will nag to you about adding an additional email, so do the same with another email – have two complete oddity emails (such as 82ldh03@yourdomain.com.) Also, then remember to hide it from others, including your friends, because you don’t want to get email to that account anyway. You might be tempted to add another “spam account” type of email to show to your friends, but don’t, since this will function as a login to your account and you don’t want a spam-account as your login email if you want to keep your profile safe.

Then you simply have to remember which email you used to sign up and log in. You can make your computer to remember your login information, unless you use a public computer, in which case you definitely should not.

Why would anyone want to hack my Facebook account?

In addition to identity theft, which might actually be in the minority of reasons to hack someone’s account, there are other reasons for it, for example an annoyed or jealous ex… If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a couple of crazy ones in your past. School bullies use this sort of tactic a lot, and if you’re a parent, I wouldn’t rule out possible bullies using your account to torture your kid. (Imagine the horrible things they could make you say to your kid if they could use your account!) Some people enjoy simply creating a mayhem amongst people so having the login information of someone… ANYONE with a bunch of friends, could be a fantastic source of entertainment – at your expense.

Applications

Applications on Facebook are a security risk, as every time you add one, you grant an access to all your data. What is worse, a lot of the applications can access your data if your FRIEND has added an application and you haven’t told Facebook not to allow access to third party applications. I learned this the hard way: Someone of my friends added themselves to a mailing list of some product specials, and apparently gave access to my information as well. Now I get spammed continuously about products I don’t want in a country I don’t live in. (Hiding your email will also hide it from applications.)

To make sure you’re allowing your friends to give out as little information as possible, go to this address to tweak your third party application privacy settings on Facebook.

Last of all, keep the number of installed applications as low as possible, using only those that are of absolute importance to you, or applications you trust. Use applications from well known developers, and avoid things like gift apps and personality tests and all those dodgy things. While most of these are harmless, it only takes that one…

I hope you will find some peace of mind knowing you’ve done your best to close the doors on your Facebook account.

If you know some more good tips about keeping your account safe, please add into the comments!

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The reasons I post a comment:

1) I read a blog post that is a fairly good one, but could be better. I have something to add or point out.

2) What the blogger said was so god damned idiotic, that I just have to tell them how things REALLY are.

Then there’s two reasons for not commenting:

1) The post was so pointless that it would be waste of my time to say anything.

2) The post was SO GOOD, that it would be pointless to say anything, because the only thing to add would be: “Hey, great post” and that reeks of someone after your Google Juice.

Now, the thing for you to do is to decide whether your posts are god damned pointless or simply amazing, and figure out which is the more likely reason for the lack of comments.

In some browsers you don’t even have to look for the subscription icon from obscure places on the blog website. If you are using Firefox, you can see the subscription icon in the address bar if it is available for the site. You just click that, pick your reader (I use Google) and you’re subscribed. The hardest thing is to get into the habit of actually reading your reader. I’m still learning that myself, but remember to check it couple of times a week.

One cool thing you might like is that you can feed your reader stuff ahead to some curious audience, like say, your blog readers who might be interested to know who you read.

If you would like to subscribe to me, my feed is here.

Quite frankly, I personally think all of the above is more or less crap.

The thing is, that today most “civilised” countries have a reasonable Internet connection base, and the people who have a slow connection probably know that they have to wait a bit more than 3 seconds for a website to load up. I know I can wait patiently for a website to load if I think there’s anything worth seeing – and if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t have clicked the link anyway. However, if I find after the loading, that I was lured to an ugly website, I’m out of there. In fact, if I’m lured to an ugly (plain & simple) website that loaded in 0,001 seconds, I’m out of there.

Some web designers even think about the psychological effect of colours on a website. Red is apparently a bad colour to use, because it makes people be WARNED that your site is DANGEROUS. That’s the biggest load of bull I’ve ever heard. In fact, one the websites I have used the most was mainly bright red and white in design. (I don’t go there anymore that often, but for other reasons than the colour of it, I think 3 years of daily usage would prove that the colour had nothing to do with it.) In fact I tend to be drawn to deep red sites. Not surprisingly I selected such theme for this blog as the first option – which I gave up because I needed more columns. It’s still in use with my gallery. But I still think my preference for pink or red is my personal preference and should not be used as a guide for your design necessarily.

Colour blindness is a good thing to take into consideration, but it is too much to design a website that will look the same to all normal people as well as those with a range of different colour blindness. Not to mention the all together blind, who browse with a device that reads out texts, links and image alt-texts for them. While it is a good idea to put the alt-labels on the images, it is too much to ask to make the colours look the same to a colour blind person. The main thing is, that they will be able to see what you wrote – unless you really want to service them especially. The way I see colours, there’s no point making every visitor of yours suffer from colour blindness that they don’t have.

I say designers who think their website success is dependent on these things are thinking waaaay too hard. Content is the king, but if the king lives in an environment like a hut in a jungle, then a modern person probably won’t take his teachings too seriously, no matter how wise the man was but leave asap out of fear of ending up being the main course at the cannibals weekly festival.

Instead, what I urge for you to do when considering the design, is to check where is the world going. You don’t want to fall too far behind of the latest trends, because that will make you look like… Well, someone who has fallen behind of the latest trends. People will want to find some level of familiarity on your website, where the navigation is found, the widgets used on the side bar, just to get their head around the place. At the same time, you have to make the design yours. Even if you use one of the templates on Blogger.com, you should find a way to at least post your avatar on the site to state that this is YOUR blog. I don’t really care for sites using default templates or one of the picks from the template gallery, but I sure encourage that rather than writing your own code without knowing full well what you are doing.

A good way of getting a great layout without having to pay a load of it, is to browse through free blog templates or website templates (depending on what you’re doing) and go with them. It really doesn’t matter if there’s someone using the same template as you are, after all, you’re probably wearing the same shirt & jeans as someone else is right now, and nobody even notices. That is, as long as you don’t want your templates and clothes match your company colours, which is a whole other matter. For a casual blogger the free templates will do nicely.

It is more important that you like your blog design than to attempt to please everyone out there. You will NEVER EVER be able to design a web site or a blog that everyone will like, not in a million years so you just get that right out of your head. Instead, design something that you will like and something that you think reflects you as a person or a company or what ever you’re trying to promote. You will be on that site more than anyone else, and you will be the one writing the King Content on it. You have to like what you see in the end, to enjoy your project, or it will not amuse you for long enough to make it a success no matter what your design looks like.

There. I said it. My unorthodox view on web design. I finally came out of the closet. :p

In the stumbling world, the word goes, that it takes over your life almost. “One more stumble” can keep you up late at nights and drag you out of bed early to do a couple more before going to work. Okay, addiction should not be used as a recommendation, but it just tells you how cool it is. And people who don’t have addictive nature, will handle it fine, don’t worry.

StumbleUpon brought back my belief in the Internet some months ago when I started using it. I was quite bored and thought that nothing happened around the Internet anymore. I installed Stumbe, and realised there was a lot of cool things going on!

For bloggers and site owners I would like to say though, that take Stumble as it is. Don’t tell people not to give you thumbs down for your post, because that’ll be a sure fire way to make them do so. Also don’t tell them to stuble you, as they most certainly won’t if you tell them to. Just add the “stumble this” button and leave it at that – not that you need to, any site can be added to Stumble, but it makes it a tad more easier at times, and also remind your readers who stumble to stumble… Not that they would need to be reminded most of the time…

Just one more thing. Do you know what is the first thing I do when I get homy on a new computer? (I have had to change computers a lot lately, long story.) I install the SU toolbar. I feel naked without it. Get yours!

Unfortunately fighting for visibility online is hard work – even if you deserved the visibility. Oh well, I keep trying anyway, as that’s what I do…