I’ve been using the “Google+Blog” WordPress plug-in for a few years now, to pull in posts I do on Google+ to this WordPress blog. The developer, Daniel Treadwell, has a major revamp to the extension, and has asked me to be one of the beta testers …
… so if things look or act a little wonky around here (a) that’s part of the growing process, and (b) let me know, since I may not have spotted it.
I've also taken to manually mirroring WIST on Google Plus at +WIST – Wish I'd Said That, in case that's easier for some to keep track of. It doesn't have the corpus of existing quotes that the blog version has, but for those with no time to read anything other than their G+ stream, it's another way of doing it.
WIST – Wish I’d Said That!
A personal collection of quotations I find meaningful, moving, amusing (intended or not), well-phrased, and/or to which I just say I “Wish I’d Said That.”
I think a lot of people consider password security about being:
1. Something they can easily remember.
2. Protection against their colleagues guessing their password, or an ex, or maybe some kid down the street.
3. Protection against someone who's logging into a site and trying to log in, one ID/password at a time.
The problem is, that's just insufficient, because that's not what that's protecting against isn't really what's going on. And the risk is that someone will be able to get into parts of your life, into accounts you have money associated with, etc., and Do Stuff with them. Not stuff you would like.
This article is interesting because it notes ways that folks actually break into the encrypted files that have passwords. It's not just about brute force attacks (though those are a first part of it), but about patterns (capital letters at the beginning; numbers at the end; substituting "@" for "a", etc., as well as pattern on a given site). The obscurity of the password as related to your life isn't as key (for these sorts of attacks) as not showing any particular pattern that can be figured out.
It's not your "enemy" that's likely to be hacking into your account this way. It's not anyone who even knows you, or wants to know you, and they're going to be selling the information to people who don't know you, either, but who do want your money (or access to what you have access to). And while they would prefer that you were a billionaire, they'll take whatever they get.
The bottom line (again) is:
1. Randomized / generated passwords. Which implies using a password generator / manager.
2. Different passwords at each site. Which implies using a password generator / manager.
3. Oh, yeah, using a password generator / manager. With a really long (but, in this case, easy to remember) password.
4. Two-factor authentication where possible.
I am not as diligent about any of the above as I would like, but I keep trying to be better.
Reshared post from +Les Jenkins
An illuminating look at how even the hardest to crack passwords aren't all that hard to crack. Bonus: A future article will be looking at password managers to see which ones offer the best passwords.
Anatomy of a hack: How crackers ransack passwords like “qeadzcwrsfxv1331”
For Ars, three crackers have at 16,000+ hashed passcodes—with 90 percent success.
Google projecting commute time? Cool. Google notifying me when I need to leave to get to ANY addressed event in current traffic? VERY cool.
They grow up so fast. Setting up a Google account for the daughter. #ritesofpassage
Reshared post from +Andrew Eva
I don't care, I'm still going to use the hard G.
“GIF” Inventor Steve Wilhite: It’s Pronounced “JIF” Not “GIF”
The GIF’s inventor clears up the word’s actual pronunciation.
One side effect of the update of Google+ today is a breaking of the image transfer across via the Google+Blog WordPress extension. A number of posts are coming across without pictures (though some still are). So some posts that should have pictures attached … don’t.
Thanks to Mary for pointing that out. I’ve reported the error, and hopefully it will be fixed soon.
Reshared post from +Daniel Treadwell
Google+Blog for WordPress 1.3.1 [Bugfix Release]
Google+Blog for WordPress is a plugin that allows you to import your Google+ Public posts (and their comments) as blog posts into your WordPress setup. There is a free version and a paid version ($10), both of which can be found at http://gpb.minimali.se/google+blog/
Paid users, please update by going to http://gpb.minimali.se/google+blog/YourTransactionId/ to download. Where 'YourTransactionId' is the number emailed to you.
Update Details
– Removed flagging of current running import as it was causing problems with long running tasks
– Images should now be rotated correctly
– Issues with photo albums not being displayed correctly have been fixed
– Specified a revision threshold of 3 to prevent WordPress eating every single post update. Hat tip +Amanda BlainTo update please deactivate and delete the existing plugin prior to installing this one.
Feedback
Keep your suggestions coming as they are what guides the development of this plugin. Also be sure to log any bugs you have found with me. Updates will start to slow down a little now as the plugin becomes more stable but be sure to check my posts for the latest news regarding the plugin.
Guides
There is an explanation of each of the settings for the plugin in a prior post that can be found here: https://plus.google.com/103697821787469756035/posts/UvHumFMNbai
If you think you need a little more help with the plugin +Nancy Messieh of TheNextWeb wrote up a great post detailing the steps to go through to get things up and running. Check it out here: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/10/11/crosspost-your-google-posts-to-your-wordpress-blog-with-this-plugin/
Problems
If you are experiencing problems with the plugin not working at all, there can be conflicts with other plugins and themes, especially in relation to comments. Message me privately with these issues including the settings you are using as well as any errors you may be receiving and I will do my best to help you get it all up and running.
Thanks for the continued support.
Your reshares are appreciated.
The Google+ musings of Daniel Treadwell
Google+ Blog Concept – Daniel Treadwell. View your Google+ Posts in the form of a clean and simple blog. Also home of the Google+Blog WordPress plugin.
Actually, life is going fine, thank you. But my blog is having little niggling technical issues like unto driving me mad, MAD, IT TELL YOU!
Trying to fix those problems let me to upgrade WordPress to 3.5.1, and later my theme, Thesis, to 1.8.5. Both of which broke more things.
I’m pondering moving to another theme, though I really like Thesis and its easy flexibility (despite it becoming more and more complex over time) and doing so would break a whole bunch of other stuff.
Anyway, none of this is earthshattering or tragic or anything other than a #firstworldproblem kind of a thing (and a #firstworldgeekproblem at that). But it’s still aggravating and distracting, neither of which I particularly need right this moment.
My Twitter Tools daily archives on this page have been broken since early February, and I’m unable to get them working again at this point. Twitter Tools — the Twitter/WP plug-in I use — for some reason isn’t generating the daily (or weekly) digests it is supposed to. It will do single post for each tweet, and it shows things in the sidebar correctly, but it won’t do the digests.
Here, that is. On other Twitter Tool installs, it is continuing to work as far as I can tell. I’d harass the Twitter Tools vendor, but (a) I’m running an old version, because (b) the newer version drops the digests altogether. And there really isn’t anything else out there which will pull tweets into blog posts (esp. now that Twitter no longer produces RSS feeds, dagnabbit).
I hate that, because I use Twitter for easy microblogging, but I seriously want to retain/archive that information, and, as it stands, it’s all just blowing out into the ether.
So I’ve turned on the functionality in Twitter Tools to make a post here every time I tweet something. Which is kind of wasteful of real estate, but so it goes. I’ve figured out how to modify the formatting of tweets posted here (they’ll be in a blue box, without a title, but with a little Twitter logo) so that they’ll stand out from other posts. I apologize for those who read the blog directly for the low-content-per-post that sort of thing will produce, but from an archival standpoint it will at least capture the tweets until I can figure out (if I can figure out) how to get the digests back.
Hmmm. Just realized that the Twitter Tools feed into my blog isn’t firing off / writing, either. Crikey. That points to a more systemic problem on my end. Just no idea what and where.
No, I haven’t died, nor quit blogging. But my GooglePlus-to-Blog thing isn’t working properly (and hasn’t since the 5th), so the content showing up here has been constrained. I’m working on it, but need some help from the plugin author.
It’s not necessarily a plugin thing, but the drug interactions between plugins, cron jobs, things that seem to be hanging, and where to appropriately apply a steel-shod toe are beyond my meager technical abilities. In short, the plugin thinks its in the middle of running, the scheduled runs from cron don’t seem to be making it happen (or throwing an error), manually triggering the hook in wp-corn it doesn’t seem to be making it happen (or ending it from happening, or throwing an error).
Puzzling and annoying. If you are so inclined or desperate, you can find my Google+ content over on Google+ for the nonce, until I get this fixed.
I’ve turned on the “Mobile” theme in the JetPack plug-in for my blog, which should provide a faster, cleaner view of DDtB for folks accessing it from mobile devices. I’ve tested it from my own smartphone and it appears to work just fine, and there’s an option to view the “real” page at the bottom, if that’s what one prefers.
If anyone tries it out and sees something wonky, please let me know. Thanks!
So I have this wildly complex and intricate informational ecology going on, including (for example) my Google Plus posts feeding into my blog.
In fact, I consider my blog (https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/) the Site of Record for All Things Me.
Beyond G+, I also have the Twitter Tools plug-in in my WordPress blog as a way to pull my Tweets into my blog as a daily digest, and thus permanent record. It also means I can use Twitter as a micro-blogging tool, and I can have my Tweets show up in the blog side-bar. And, yes, there are people who look there still.
Except Twitter keeps changing its API rules. And that whole link-up went south a few days (to a week) ago.
What's a blogger to do?
Well, I did a bit of research …
1. Twitter Tools, of which I use the 2.4 version, has an update to 3.0 — which uses a different underlying code and relies on another plug-in … and no longer supports daily digests. Argh.
2. This post (http://wordpress.org/support/topic/twitter-tools-api-compatibility?replies=9#post-3247279) has updates to the 2.4 code (edit the main Twitter Tools PHP file) to make the new Twitter API changes work (and they do, both sidebar tweets and evening daily digests).
3. Twitter has further API changes that go live in March that will break everything all over again (largely by no longer publishing RSS / XML / Atom feeds). So how this all will work then is somewhat up in the air as of then.
Having a vast, interlocking, media empire is, apparently, never a dull moment.
Embedded Link
peteashton.com/images/lolcat-245-710-20080228-041656.jpg
Google+: View post on Google+
Guess I was microblogging a lot yesterday.
Serious Stuff
Fun stuff
The server my blog is hosted on came under attack yesterday, in the early hours of the morning. The good folks at Hosting Matters tried to bring it under control, but in the process turned off some of the processes on this blog that hit the database hard (most recent comments, etc.). I’m going to be turning those back on, as opportunity presents, but in the meantime there may be some odd things occuring or expected bits and bobs not present.
(Final resolution of the problem was to shift all the content to a new, better server, which ended up taking most of the day.)
I'd just gotten used to Tumblrb becoming the New Big Thing when suddenly Pinterest became the New Big Thing. #ddtb
She really disliked the Google drop-down menu (for justifiable reasons).
For whatever reason, it never appeared on my account, nor has the newer-improveder black bar menu. #ddtb
Reshared post from +Alex Grossman
Courtesy of +Lifehacker
Embedded Link
Google Revamps its Navigation Bar Again, Gets Rid of Annoying Dropdown Menu
Google recently changed its navigation bar to a drop-down menu that, frankly, was a huge pain to use. Responding to user feedback, Google has returned to a more old-school navigation bar with a set of…
I’m getting my work laptop upgrade to Windows 7 this Friday, so I’m taking a look at what I’m going to need to re-install after the deed is done (since it will be a reimage). This is the list I’ll work from.
The PC Techs will get Office, Visio, and Project installed, as well as the VPN client.
I’ll also have to be sure I get the stuff for WebEx and GoToMeeting pre-downloaded before my first sessions with those.
It’s not clear if the Google Account tie-in to Chrome will take care of all of this for me. If not, then:
Any other thoughts on something obvious I “should” be using, esp. once I move into the Win7 realm? I’m already running Win7 at home, so it’s not terra incognita, but it’s always nice to get suggestions.
Awwwwww… #ddtb
Reshared post from +Breaking News
Go Daddy says it has observed spike in transfers in wake of previous support for SOPA
+GoDaddy.com’s new CEO +Warren Adelman has released a statement admitting that Go Daddy has observed a spike in transfers in wake of its previous support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), +Drew Olanoff of +The Next Web reports.
"Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities," Adelman said in a statement. "Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time."
Read more:
+The Next Web – http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/12/29/go-daddy-ceo-admits-spike-in-domain-name-transfers-over-sopa/
List of supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act [pdf] – http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rogue%20Websites/List%20of%20SOPA%20Supporters.pdf
Embedded Link
Go Daddy CEO admits ‘spike in domain name transfers’ over SOPA
