Adding a Facebook "Like" Button

Want to dip your toes into the social media scene, and increase traffic to your website at the same time? You can add a Facebook "Like" button to your webpages, so that when the end-user clicks the "Like" button on your site, a story appears in the user's News Feed with a link back to your website. You don't even need a Facebook account! The "Like" button uses the end-user's account.

Here's how: go to the Facebook Developers page at http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like. Choose the layout, the font, whether you want to use the verb "like" or "recommend." A preview appears to the right of the dialogue box (see illustration below). When you have it tweaked to your liking. click the "Get Code" button, and cut and paste the code onto your webpages. If you like this feature, add the code to the template page you use to create new pages. Then, by default, ALL your pages will have a "Like" button on them.

The Demise of Drop.io

Back in 2009 I posted about drop.io, a free file drop and file sharing service that allowed access via email, conference calls, etc. I used it almost daily as a way to work on projects from multiple computers.

Alas, drop.io is no more. Facebook has bought the service, and as of December 15 all files hosted there will be deleted. No new accounts can be created, but if you already have a drop.io account you may continue to use it until mid-December.

So, if you have important documents stored on drop.io, I suggest you download them and store them somewhere else. Other options for file storage include Google Docs, Box.net, MediaFire, and Windows Live Skydrive. All are free, though the Windows requires a Windows Live account to use.

eXtension National Conference 2010: Social Media

The 2010 eXtension National Conference: Symposium On Workjng Differently was held October 18-21. Video recordings of the presentations are now available at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/broadcasts/nevc/.

The overwhelming majority of these presentations concern the use of social media and networking sites to engage communities, and are being moderated by Extension professionals who are successfully using these tools for outreach.

If you are interested in using social media for the dissemination of Extension programming, I highly recommend these recordings.

Among the many topics discussed:

• Becoming Visible in the New Media Ecology
• Educating Others about Social Networking
• Engaging Learners Through Social Media Outreach: Working Smarter, Not Harder
• Assessing Impact of eXtension or Social Media Programming
• Using a Blog to Reach Master Gardeners
• 3D Immersive Educational Opportunities in Second Life

PortableApps.com

Their tagline is "Your computer, without the computer."

PortableApps (http://portableapps.com/) is a free open source platform that allows you to carry multiple applications around on a flash drive. The basic Portable Apps suite comes loaded with a web browser (Firefox), email client (Thunderbird), and office suite (Open Office), as well as calendar/scheduler, antivirus, audio player and more, all preconfigured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you're ready to go.

A large number of optional applications are available as well - ALL free and open source - from digital Bibles to Audacity audio editing software and the GIMP Image editing program.

It allows you to carry around the files and documents you are working with too, so that, for instance, images you are editing using GIMP, or music you are listening to using Coolplayer, are stored on the same Flash drive as the PortableApps platform.

PortableApps takes mere minutes to set up, loads quickly, and is easy to use and personalize. A full list of apps it supports is available at: http://portableapps.com/apps.

Flash Drive Viruses

The recent Stuxnet virus, which infiltrated large industrial control systems in China, India, Pakistan, and India, likely found its way into government computer via a Flash drive. Similarly, last year's Conficker worm got into the computers of the French navy and the city of Manchester, England, through infected USB disks.

Flash drives are becoming the latest gateway computer viruses and worms are using to infect computers. A recent Trend Micro survey found that 53.7 percent of newly detected computer viruses are being programmed to spread via USB devices.

Fortunately, there are several precautions to prevent your Flash drive from infection.

1. Keep work and personal Flash drives separate.

2. Always scan a Flash drive before retrieving files from it. Your anti-virus software should have the ability to scan a specific drive for viruses. Simply plug in your flash drive, set up a custom scan, and scan that drive. In Symantec, choose Scan for Threats, then Create a New Scan (see screenshot below), and checkmark the removable drive that represents your Flash drive.



3. Just like email, don't ever open a file with unknown origins, unless you are sure it is safe. Be particularly careful with Flash drives that are not your own.

4. Don’t allow the USB Drive to Auto Play after plug in. Choose cancel it (see screenshot below). Then browse to the Flash drive to retrieve the files yourself.

jZip

WinZip is, frankly, annoying. It costs $29.95, and the free trial ends after 45 days. The interface is clumsy, the wizard is confusing.

jZip is a Winzip alternative that I've been using for the last year. It's free - no free trail period, simply free. It's small, fast, easy to use, and can create and open Winzip .zip files. It can also open and extract (but not create) .rar, .tar and .iso files.

The only downside is that it will install the dreaded Yahoo toolbar if you don't specifically uncheck the Yahoo toolbar option. Otherwise, it has performed flawlessly for me.

You can download jZip at http://www.jzip.com/.

Gmail Priority Inbox

Google is rolling out a new feature in its Gmail accounts this week: Priority Inbox. If you choose the option (available in the upper right corner of the screen; see the screenshot at upper left), Gmail will create a "Priority Inbox" for you that will pull out what it sees as your most important email messages, based on keywords, who the email is from, and whether it is sent directly to you or to a group. Think of it as the opposite of a spam filter. This feature attempts to figure out what emails are most important to you.

Your other emails aren't disposed of, simply placed into two other folders: "Starred" and "Everything Else." In addition, you can train the Inbox to regard a specific email sender or subject as important or unimportant by clicking plus or minus buttons at the top of the inbox (below). Or go to Settings>Filters>Create a Filter to give Gmail specific rules (e.g. an email has an attachment) to decide whether an email gets priority.



To give it a try, click the Priority Inbox link in the upper right of the Gmail dashboard to get started. To see a short video explaining the feature, view Google's short video tutorial at http://mail.google.com/mail/help/priority-inbox.html