I was completely wrong, and want to take this time to introduce you to Entrecard “Your Business Card 2.0” and explain why I think it is an absolute amazing service for fellow bloggers.

Entrecard is a business card for your blog. It is an image widget that you place on your site, and other people come by and click the yellow button underneath it that says “Drop.” If you are not signed in, or not yet a member, instead of “Drop,” you will see, “Get one.” Let’s pretend you already have an account, and you’re facing that Drop button. When you click it, it will change to say Thank You, or some other similar message letting you know, you have successfully Dropped your card. What you have done, is handed the owner of that website, your blog’s business card. Then next time they login to Entrecard, they will see in their inbox, an image that you provided of YOUR website. Tada! You’ve just exchanged blog business cards!

My Entrecard Inbox

When you Drop your card by clicking the Drop button, you earn yourself 1EC (1 Entrecard point), and, you also earn that person’s site 1EC. As you gain more and more EC currency, you can then spend it on advertising your site. There is a great eBook that Entrecard provides to new members, so I’ll keep this brief and let them explain the details. But basically, you search for a blog that you think would be a great place to advertise your blog. You may want to aim for readers of a similar or corresponding niche, or, simply one where you can afford the advertising. When you first join, your blog will be very inexpensive to advertise on, so you may get pitches right away. The rates are set by popularity, so your EC cost will go up as others advertise on your site. In case I haven’t been clear, there is no money changing hands here, and everything is 100% free in real world dollars. You can choose to buy EC currency with dollars if you like, but it’s not required, and really not needed. You can set how you will approve advertising (i.e. manually, or automatic) and you can be as picky or free as you like with what appears on your site. When you approve an ad, it will display automatically for a set amount of time and you do not have to do any actual work to make this happen.

An amazingly fun and interesting thing to do, is Drop surf. You can start in the Entrecard dashboard and go to “Campaign” (a button at the top). You choose a category, click an image, and then you will be looking at someone’s profile. From there, you go to their site (be sure to click the Drop button), and then, click the image inside the drop button. You will then be taken on an Entrecard journey and can continue to Drop/Surf your way through some very interesting finds. It’s like StumbleUpon, only better! As you go, you are notifying people of your blog (by leaving them your card), and finding more and more cool blogs to read. If you’d rather stick to your niche, you can do that by way of searching within your Dashboard, but this is a fun way to go blog surfing.

Now, why did I think this was a waste of time? When I first read about Entrecard, I heard about the 300EC daily limit and all the ways people go about to gain as many drops in a day as possible (to increase their “advertising funds”). I didn’t realize this was a Social Networking for Blogs, and just like any other Social Networking club, there are different ways for people to use the service, depending on what they want to accomplish. At a real life social networking event, you will hand your business card to people who will glace at the card, shake your hand, and never look back. You will also find after shaking the hands of twenty people, that you meet some wonderful people you would never have met otherwise! It makes the whole hand shaking, food nibbling event worth every moment. THAT is what Entrecard is about.

As a word of caution, your blog traffic will soar! And your bounce rate will too. My traffic doubled on Dealafina, and the time spent on my site more than cut in half. That’s okay, I understand that most droppers will come to my site to Drop and run. Just keep this in mind – you aren’t doing anything wrong, your content doesn’t suck, you’re just handing out more business cards than you did previously.

If you would like to see my Entrecard in action, you can see it working on my Deal site.

If you use Entrecard, I’d love to hear what you think. If you don’t, do think this sounds interesting to you?

Techafina is going through a transition, and I owe you an explanation. There have been many times over the last year I wanted to blog about something but didn’t feel it would fit the Techafina mold I had created. So, I didn’t blog. And, as more time has gone on, I realized I was even less likely to update WordPress (I want to write, not deal with database backups) so updates came and went and Techafina sat without being touched. In fact, as I write this, I see a big warning at the top of my screen that I need to update WordPress or bad things will happen.

And so, I’m going with the unpopular decision of moving back to Blogger. I know, I know, many of you hate Blogger. Well, I hate WordPress. It’s not that I’m not technical enough, or geeky enough, I just simply think it’s better suited for my blogging needs.

While preparing for the move I went through all the posts on Techafina and decided that most of them are no longer relevant and not really worth “moving.”

So, what’s next? Well, if you read Techafina because you like reading about Blogging (i.e. how to configure Blogger, how to improve your writing, etc.) you will want to continue reading over at Blogging Matters [.Net]. If you read Techafina to keep up with me personally, or enjoy reading geeky tidbits now and then, you’ll want to pick up reading over at SRDN. The best posts that are still relevant will be moved, and labeled with “Best of” so you will definitely be able to find your favorites easily, such as the ever popular “How to Properly Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day.” As I move posts away from Techafina they will be removed, so Google doesn’t decide to slap the new sites as spam. And in a few weeks, Techafina will be set to automatically forward to SRDN. If you aren’t sure which site you want to read, by all means, subscribe to both!

All the best,
Sharon

What’s the verdict? Well I can tell you this, nothing annoys me more than reading reviews of products that have only been used for a day or two. Personally, I’d love to see a website that carries product reviews of items that have been used for at least 31 days. I mean really, what do you know of stability or usability when you’re still in the new-gadget-honeymoon phase? You are all too likely to be blinded by the joys of a new toy than see product limitations. It can take time to notice what is NOT in a product.

So, what am I writing about then? Well for starters, aside from my limited user experience, this device is just simply impressive! I have been reading for months that many websites are more pleasant to read on the iPhone than on the PC and I figured those people were simply insane. A small screen versus a PC (or Mac) with a full keyboard, and people prefer that? By the way, no offense if you are one of those people – I probably admire you and am jealous of your iPhone.

This morning though, I began to understand. I had a morning like Corvida described in one of her recent blog updates, and was almost beside myself. In just a few minutes I caught up on my Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, checked the weather, and read the headline news on USA Today – all from my iPod Touch. And, all before I climbed out of bed. Browsing on the Touch (or iPhone) is actually pleasant! Do I access those items on my Curve? Hell No! Facebook, sure, sometimes, but it’s barely functional. Twitter is decent on TinyTwitter but there is simply no comparison. This REALLY makes me want an all-in-one device and hunger for the iPhone, but, will I switch?

The BlackBerry still rules the road when it comes to productivity, and typing, let’s not forget typing! Have you TRIED to type on an iPhone? I keep reaching for a stylus since my fingers seem way too fat for the tiny keyboard, yet I have no trouble at all with tactile keys half their size on the Curve. What about Copy and Paste? I use that all the time on my Curve and it is not natively available in the iPhone. In order to get Copy and Paste I will have to Jailbreak the Touch (there are 3rd party applications available to make this “kind of” work) and I can’t even do that yet since there was a recent firmware update the other day and there is not yet a new hack for the updated firmware.

Bottom line? The iPod Touch has an amazing interface, and it is a beautiful browsing device (and of course music too, it is an iPod after all) but I’m on the fence as to what my next cell phone will be. Then again, it appears though a new iPhone will be out soon, so maybe some of these issues will be better in the next version?

Maybe I’ll ditch the BlackBerry, AND the iPhone and just go for the Palm Pre…

http://twitter.com/BarackObama – yes, Mr. President himself
http://twitter.com/thewhitehouse 
http://twitter.com/USSupremeCourt 
http://twitter.com/HouseFloor
http://twitter.com/NationalDebt – this is depressing, but if you want it – it’s here
http://twitter.com/boblatta – Congressman for Ohio’s 5th District
http://twitter.com/danburton – US Representative, Indiana’s 5th District
http://twitter.com/ThadMcCotter – Congressman for Michigan’s 11th District
http://twitter.com/RobWittman – First Congressional District of Virginia
http://twitter.com/RobertBluey – Director of Online Strategy @Heritage.
http://twitter.com/Heritage – Heritage Foundation
http://twitter.com/timryan – Congressman for Ohio’s 17th District
http://twitter.com/johnculberson – TX Congressman
http://twitter.com/GOPLeader

Happy Tweeting folks!

If you have been following me on Twitter, you may have picked up on the notion that I am writing a book. The entire purpose of this blog is for me to have an ongoing area where I can practice, and improve upon, my writing. Of course, the last few months my blog hasn’t received any traffic from me, therefore, my overall web traffic has begun to die. Blogs have a natural ebb and flow and unfortunately, lately, Techafina has been in the ebb phase. As I work on my book I hope to continue to write here as well because, I like my blog. Of course, I hope you do too. So if you are dismayed in the lack of posts lately, please don’t give up. I’m not going anywhere.

But, back to the topic at hand. Book titles…

As I have tried to figure out the “rules” in book naming, I have come across some excellent advice, and noticed some really bad patterns. A well named book will grab a reader’s attention – in 5 words or less. This is a tall order to achieve, and apparently, Daniel Defoe was not aware of this rule when he published Robinson Crusoe (the full title consists of more than 60 words). Keeping this in mind, why are there so many books named “How to learn x in y days” or “The Joy of z”?

Books that call out for me to pick them up have unique, creative names. I will pick up a book called Blink, or The Tipping Point, long before I will pick up a book with a “How to…” name. I don’t know, call me crazy, but I DO judge a book by it’s cover.

Men have no idea what it’s like trying to figure out what size each item is (which varies by store, as well as season, not to mention what is “in”), they have the pleasure of just dealing with measurements. I know I wear a variety of sizes between not only the number size, but then the style, and let’s not forget height. The definition of Petite by clothing manufactures is shorter than 5’3.” That’s just great for me because I am 5’3” which means a good part of the time Petite clothing is too short for me and “regular” sizes are too long. Next there is the option between Misses, Women’s, and Juniors. So you see, the variables expand at an exponential rate, and all I want to do is get what I need and move on, not try on six different versions of one item.

Is this just a normal rant? NO! You may have noticed before that I tag some blog entries with “Feature Requests” and that’s what this is semi-rant is about. I would love to see the following…

I would like to go into a local store and have myself scanned. Think of it as an x-ray, or perhaps something along the lines of a Motion Capture suit, like what Andy Serkis wore during the filming of The Lord of the Rings. Next, I’d like to be able to shop for my clothes online with any retailer I wish, and at the start of the session be able to click on my linked 3D-self (which of course my retailer would support) and move along with my shopping. This 3D image would then give me an option to “try on” a variety of clothing and styles, all virtually, from the comfort of my desk chair and the ease of a few clicks. Even better, my options would automatically be limited to only show me what would fit me, based on my 3D-Me. I could then order the items that fit and reduce the chance of having to return 80% of my order. This would actually make shopping much easier, faster, and, maybe even encourage me to “try on” more than I came to the store to purchase since I wouldn’t be worn out from trying on twenty different pairs of jeans.

Every year I would go back to my local 3D-Me store for a rescan to update my virtual self. Of course, I realize there are some software challenges to resolve, but can you imagine? Yes, 3D-Me please! Image by Cayusa

When do we discuss aging? If we don’t discuss it in the early years along with proactive, preventative measures, what can we possibly discuss in our elder years other than reactive? I remember my grandfather put up an enormous fight over giving up his car keys, and later was seen driving his motor scooter down the street with a flash light tied the front… But again, I digress.

Is anything being done to improve “quality of life” of the elder community BEFORE they get to a stage where “matters need to be discussed?”

I came across some news this past week about a program that is being piloted to allow older drivers reduced car insurance. Allstate has a plan in the works that would offer clients aged 50-75, discounts in exchange for GAMING! Gaming often receives a bad rap for being a waste of time, instigating violent behaviors, or just whatever-negative-reasoning-someone-can-create. The truth is that gaming increases cognitive behavior and response time and is an excellent way to rejuvenate the mind.

The news of Allstate’s program is what I hope to be the first of many such ingenious ways to discuss aging matters, improve quality of life of those currently in the “Baby Boomer phase” and simply bring attention to an aspect of life that usually receives a “shhh” response.

Now, what does this have to do with “Geeks & Gamers?” It’s simple… how many assisted living homes have Themes? None that I’ve come across. There are the standard services offered along with nursing care and different levels of assistance and monitoring. What about activities? How many assisted living homes provide the option for those to live with other people who have common interests? I picture assisted living homes like college dorms, but they are nothing like that at all. Why not?

Forget arts & crafts, shuffle board, and Mahjong. I want to see assisted living homes have themes, and most importantly, when it’s time – I want to live with the geeks and gamers. I’d like to spend my evenings in the common room playing D&D, Magic the Gathering, or whatever MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) is popular in 40 years so I can play alongside my friends in other parts of the country.

What about you? What do you want to see change?

Take a chance. Be brave. Be evil. Apply to the Evil League of Evil and don’t tell your co-workers! This is your chance to take a stand against the oppression of Heroes and everything they represent.

Need to refresh your memory (or catch up on what all this Evil speak is about)? You can view Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog for free on Hulu.

Once you apply, you are welcome to add a link to your video application in the comments of this post. Techafina will be proud to help promote your application!

Remember… “make the Bad Horse gleeful, or he’ll make you his mare!”

Today, I’m going to set the record straight regarding the REAL kickoff to the Holiday Season, as well as make sure YOU are ready to celebrate like true pirates!

To begin with the beginning, a history lesson is in order. If you have never heard of Talk Like a Pirate Day, the quick back story is this: two dudes slipped into pirate lingo one day and decided there was a need for worldwide holiday to enjoy such endeavors. Thus, a new holiday was born (all with a little a help from Dave Barry). If you’d the more detailed version, feel free to take a moment and learn how it all began. Of course, come back here to learn how to properly celebrate this auspicious holiday!

Now, how to celebrate! Be sure you are up to speed on all your pirate lingo. At the very least throw around an Arr or Avast and absolutely an Amatey! And don’t forget about Heave Ho, Jolly Roger (the pirate’s flag) and  Shiver me timbers! If you want to see the Pirate Guys (Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket) show you an example, just head on over to YouTube.  Another great resource is the wikiHow article “How to Talk Like a Pirate,” complete with vocabulary usage and video (that eerily reminds me of a 1960’s Driver’s Ed video – but I think that’s the point).  And, last but not least, know what NOT to say on Talk Like a Pirate Day…

I think that about covers it! Hopefully now you can be well prepared to properly celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day in all it’s glory this Friday, September 19th, 2008!

P.S. By doing your part to increase pirate activity, you are helping to decrease global warming! To learn more about this matter, check out The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster from Amazon.

P.P.S. Techafina takes no stance in the Pirates vs. Ninjas conflict and will give equal press time to Stalk Like a Ninja Day on December 5th.

Photo credit: http://www.talklikeapirate.com

Regardless of WHY you blog, one very important underlying goal that you may not be aware of, is to continue to improve as a blogger. That need is there every time you check your traffic statistics, ask for feedback to a particular post, or consider changing the elements that are present on your blog. In the back of your mind you are wondering if change is good, will it help bring readers, anger loyal readers, deter people from staying long enough to read, or worse yet – will it prevent comments.

It’s important to stay in touch with the vibe of the blogging community, know what people are looking for in a blog, and, how to deliver it.

To stay in the blogging loop, I subscribe to more sites than I can possibly keep up with, but that works to remind me that my goal is never-ending. So instead of a Weekly Review of on goings around the ‘Net from this past week, here are some of the tools from my blogging toolbox.

1. Daily Blog Tips – http://www.dailyblogtips.com/
2. Copyblogger – http://www.copyblogger.com/
3. Personal Branding Blog – http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/
4. ProBlogger – http://www.problogger.net
5. Smashing Magazine – http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
6. ConverStations – http://www.converstations.com/
7. the Blog Herald – http://www.blogherald.com/
8. LifeHacker – http://lifehacker.com/
9. stock.xchng – http://www.sxc.hu/ (free stock photography – just remember to attribute the photographer)
10. Flickr – http://flickr.com/search/advanced/ use the Advanced Search to find pictures with the Creative Commons license so you can use them for free (with attribution to the photographer)

And don’t forget your Blogger Punch List! Just like you need to change your light bulbs, replace batteries, and check your air filters – don’t forget your Blog needs routine maintenance too!

Do you subscribe to your own RSS feed so you see what your feed readers see? Does the “Subscribe Now!” link work? Better yet, pretend to view your site for the very first time – what do you see? Does anything need to change? Can you leave a comment on your latest article? Can a reader contact you?

Create your own punch list and make sure you go through the list on a regular basis.

Image Credits: Pencil Cup by JakeTse and To Do List by Stompy

Here at last, is the final installment in our 3 part discussion of OpenID. In Part 1 we answered the question, “What is OpenID?” In Part 2 we looked at the benefits and risks that come with using OpenID. Today in Part 3, we’re going to finish our discussion of OpenID by taking a closer look at one of it’s greatest vulnerabilities. Phishing.

Before we delve into how Phishing applies to OpenID, let’s first take a look at a traditional Phishing example:

You check your email and find a (phony) email saying, “Your credit card will be closed unless you log in now to verify our records!!!! Click here to log in and verify your account now!” The phony email very helpfully presents a hyperlink to take you (supposedly) to your Credit Card Company’s website. In actuality, the link takes you a phony site which LOOKS just like your normal Credit Card login page but with one minor difference: the URL bar has the wrong address. If you fail to notice this one difference, then upon entering your username and password, the phisher will now have full access to your Credit Card account.

There are a few key hurdles the phisher has to overcome in order for this attack to be successful:

1. The email has to be convincing enough to get your attention, but not so over-the-top as to appear phony.
2. You have to actually click the link provided in the email.
3. The phishers have to guess which Credit Card Company login page to mimic (American Express looks different than Visa, etc).
4. The URL must be good enough to fool you. It must either be similar to the real thing, hidden, or obscured.

If, at any one of these steps, you get suspicious enough to not enter your username and password, then the phisher loses.

OpenID makes this process far easier, for the phisher, by completely eliminating the first 3 of these obstacles. How can this be? Take a look at the following OpenID phishing example:

While researching woodworking, you find a nice set of plans for a workbench at www.EvilWoodWorkers.com. The plans are free to download once you create a login for the site. Luckily, they accept OpenID logins, so you won’t have to waste a bunch of time filling stuff in. You click login and then follow the instructions to enter your OpenID URL. Unbeknown to you, instead of redirecting you to your OpenID login page, EvilWoodWorkers.com simply follows the URL, and copies your login page, on the fly, to their own phishing server, which happens to have a long, unpronounceable URL. This server logs everything you type to a handy, searchable Database (based on EvilSQL 2.0). You, however, simply find yourself staring at an exact replica of your normal login page that you’ve seen a thousand times, aside from the URL. And instead of looking at that long and unpronounceable URL, your eyes gravitate to the slowly blinking cursor which is waiting patiently for you type in your username and password. The muscle memory in your fingers takes care of typing out the login details. You hit enter. You download your Work Bench Plans for free. A week later, you log back in and leave a comment thanking EvilWoodWorkers.com for the nicely done PDF.

Alas, the fly in the sauce here, is that the Phisher’s Database now contains your OpenID URL, your OpenID Username, and your OpenID password. They have obtained, with elegance and style, the keys to your castle.

Everything that you use OpenID for now belongs to the Phisher.

How can this be? Why? The key point of failure in the above OpenID example is the redirection process. Normally (without OpenID), when you log in to a website, say Visa.com, you enter your username and password on a page hosted somewhere on that company’s domain. If you went to log in to Visa.com, and it redirected to you to some other website, with a totally different design, a different URL, and a different name, then you would be pretty darn suspicious that something phishy was going on. However, with OpenID, being redirected like that is simply business as usual. OpenID trusts the 3rd party site (Visa.com in this case) to redirect you to your OpenID provider’s log in page. That trust is the key flaw which upon which phishers will prey. The fact that you have to trust a criminal with part of the log in process is what causes this to be such a catastrophic vulnerability in OpenID.

Obviously, not every site is run by thieves. The real downside here is how do you know which is which? Since OpenID uses the same log in info everywhere, if the 99th site you log in to hits you with a successful phishing attack, then every previous (and future) site is now compromised as well.

OpenID is not without benefits, though. As we discussed previously, OpenID can potentially streamline and simplify the log in and sign up processes at supported websites. The potential conveniences it offers are definitely attractive.

Would I use OpenID? Sure. Given a couple caveats:

1. I only intended to use OpenID at low value sites
2. I only use https OpenID URL’s in order to minimize the risk of phishing
3. I only use OpenID at sites with which I already have a trust relationship

OpenID stands to improve considerably as it progresses. Perhaps the best part about OpenID is that it’s Open Source. It’s development is shaped and directed by the community which uses it.

The bottom line:
If you’re an early adopter who like to play with new toys and you have a good eye for security issues (or a extremely high risk tolerance), then OpenID is a great playground.

If you are just looking to make your online life easier and more streamlined, then stay away from OpenID for now. It’s not ready for prime time yet, and even though it seems like we’ve talked about some nasty looking flaws, there are likely even more problems yet to be uncovered.

During that awful time, a group of very creative guys (the Whedon brothers) wrote a comical  musical for Internet distribution only. The idea was to entertain, provide something of worth for those of us starving for new content, and simply crack a joke or two. This musical was available for free to watch streaming from the web site for several weeks and is now available on iTunes for a mere $1.99 per episode or $4.99 for the season pass to all three.

What am I talking about? Why, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog of course! I know, I know, this isn’t “new” – but did YOU already know about it? If not, you’ve got to do yourself a favor and take 43 minutes to enjoy this wonderful creation. You’ll find yourself humming the tunes, and later, reaching to watch it again and again. Catchy, it is. And hey, if you’ve already seen it, isn’t it time to watch it again?

2. There are 16 preset templates to choose from, including some that have multiple variations bringing the template choice up to 38! This includes only what Blogger provides, but you can find plenty of other templates in a variety of locations. Plus, you can change anything you want with the template, and use a pre-existing one as a skeleton from which to build. Let me explain…

3. Want to change the color scheme of your template without messing with the code? You can point and click your way through a color makeover, and preview your changes as you make them without making any commitments. Easy changes without knowing a lick of HTML!

4. If hands-on code is what you want, you can do that too!  Change how much or how little you like, even change from two columns to three! Click Preview to load the page in a new tab or window so you can see exactly what things will look before saving. Don’t like the changes? No problem – nothing will change until you hit “Save Template.”

The HTML and CSS are together in the same file, so all the code you need to make a fantastic looking site is all there, in one place. If you’re under the impression that you can’t make a great look site with Blogger, take a look at The Blog of Doug Cloud. Doug’s site is a wonderful example of just how much you can customize your Blogger Blog. Go ahead, drool on his site a bit, he won’t mind.

5. Now let’s say you want to add some interactive features to your site. MyBlogLog is a great example.

You can hop on over to MyBlogLog, create an account, and gather the appropriate code to copy/paste into Blogger. Once you have the code copied, head back to your Blogger Dashboard and go to Layout, then Page Elements and click Add a Gadget. Simply choose the HTML/JavaScript gadget and paste the code from MyBlogLog into the Content box and Save. That’s it! No scripts, downloads, or plugins required.

6. Want to add other elements to your Blog? Take a look through the Add a Gadget options as there are plenty from which to choose. You can add Link Lists, Blogrolls, Pictures, RSS feeds, Adsense, HTML/JavaScript (for MyBlogLog, Google Reader, and others), etc. The options are practically endless. Once the item is on your Dashboard you can reposition it with ease, as all the elements on your Dashboard move by way of “Click and Drag.” Below is an example what my Dashboard looks like on a test site (click to see a larger version of the image). The entire page layout is there for you to re-arrange at ease, and allow you to keep the overall site structure in mind.

7. Now that you have your Blog up and running with all the gadgets you could possibly want, you may find yourself bored with your current layout. After all, change can be fun. One quick and easy way to spice up your site is to change your template. One of my favorite resources for Blogger templates is http://www.ourblogtemplates.com/. Their templates look good and work as expected. You can also take a look at http://btemplates.com/ or http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/ or simply search on Google for more Blogger Templates. There are hundreds of free designs to choose from, you just need to go out and find them. You can upload the template directly to your site or create a test blog hidden from everyone but you so you can play around with templates and changes without worries until you know exactly which design you want to use.

8. You can of course do all of your writing directly in Blogger, but you can also use software that may make the job a little easier. Windows Live Writer is what I prefer, and it’s such a fantastic tool, I can’t believe it’s free. The best feature of this software is being able to edit images (add borders, drop shadows, etc.) as you go – no need to switch to a different software application. Windows Live Writer will also upload the pictures along with the post, so all in all, it’s a very handy tool.

9. Automatic Software Updates! This could be a negative depending on your philosophy, but I see it as a positive. Blogger makes updates seamless so you don’t have worry about staying on top of patches and updates.

10. The Blogger community. There are MANY Blogger sites out there, but there are two that stand above the rest. Blogger Buster and Tips for New Bloggers will keep you busy tweaking your site as you continue to learn all the cool and wonderful things you can do with Blogger. These sites are definite “must bookmark/subscribe”. I wish I could highlight all the wonderful things these two sites provide, but there is just too much there and not enough time.

So there you have it. 10 Things You May Not Know About Blogger – in a nutshell.

In addition to the site redesign, I have now added a Contact Form page so I can be reached easily without sharing my email address with spammers. As a side-note, the workaround with Blogger to have extra “pages” on your blog is to simply create a new post, and link to that post. I used that method to create the contact form “page”, but back dated it to the end of July so it wouldn’t appear as a recent post. Unfortunately, FeedBurner still published it as a feed as though it were a new post (so that should help clear up any confusion you may have about receiving that odd feed)! Also, it’s a Blogger tip for you if you just happen to be wondering how to do that, now you know how!

The portion above is now slightly irrelevant, as I switched from Blogger to WordPress. Why? I’ll explain that in another post… (8/31/08)

Now, without further ado, here are some great things moving and shaking around the ‘Net this week…

1. Cool Blog Find! TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home, is a site focused on ebooks of course, in all it’s related context. If you read anything in digital format you’ll want to check out this site.

2.  As I admitted earlier this week, I am a proud owner of a new Kindle. With that in mind, I had to throw in a link for fellow Kindle owners! Check it out: Kindlerama, complete with Kindle Tips & Tricks, accessory reviews, and “how to” information.

3. Like random cool geeky blogs? Pixel Bits is definitely an “interesting” find. I may add this to my Blog Roll (if I ever set one up).

4. Haven’t had enough Twitter yet? Want to find more interesting folks to follow near you, or with similar interests? TwitterPacks is a Wiki just for that purpose. I found several cool people to add to my Twitter Network and even added myself to the Dallas section. Wiki’s can be quite handy…

5. This week my focus seems to have been on Security, so in keeping with that theme, here is a Beginner’s Guide to OpenID Phishing. Like the site owners, I do not in ANY WAY condone phishing in any form, but it is important to know that this exists and be informed.

6. And, You’re No One if You’re Not on Twitter, because

“…if you haven’t been bookmarked, retweeted and blogged, you might as well not have existed…”  This is a seriously catchy tune by Ben Walker.

That takes care of this week, I hope you all have had a wonderful Holiday weekend!

Last week we defined OpenID. This week we’re going to talk about why you might choose (or not choose) to use OpenID.

As promised, let’s discuss the Benefits…

Simplified Login
Single Username and Password for multiple sites. You only have to authenticate to OpenID one time per session. Once you are logged into your OpenID account, OpenID can automatically log you in to the other websites that you visit.

Unique Web Identity
No more wondering if the post by “CowboysFan” on one website is by the same person as “CowboysFan” on another website. OpenID’s are unique everywhere.

Information Management
OpenID servers have features such as “information profiles”, that let you control how much personal information each particular site has access to. Some sites might only get your name and email address, while you may allow others to automatically get your full contact information.

Decentralized
Anyone can run their own OpenID server. You’re not tied down to any particular company or bound to a proprietary system.

Security
The websites which accept OpenID never get your log in information. That information is only shared with your OpenID server. There is also the benefit of user customizable security level. You can define your own login method (or methods) for OpenID:

• Username and Password – just like normal
• Getting an SMS message that requires you to reply
• Choosing a sequence of pictures
• Receiving a phone call on your cell and pressing a button to allow the authentication
• Finger print scanner, USB Key, RSA tokens, etc…

As you can see, OpenID can make your online experience smoother and easier. It also provides social benefits, such as a unique identifier. Your online identity already spans multiple websites but it no longer has to span multiple names. You can be “you” everywhere. The security benefits of OpenID are nice, too. One of main reasons I use multiple passwords is that I don’t want to use the same password for my Online Bank that I use for posting comments on a blog. If the blog was setup incorrectly, then my password could be stolen and used maliciously. With OpenID, neither the blog nor the bank would ever see my password to begin with.

Speaking of security, that brings us to the Risks:

All Your Eggs in One Basket?
If your OpenID account is compromised, you can say “Bye, bye Humpty Dumpty” because everything tied to it is now gone.

Unique Web Identity
Overheard in the breakroom, “Hey look! I just found Bob’s OpenID posted on a personal ad at www.TranssexualNaziEskimos.com!”

Decentralized
Multiple points of failure: If your OpenID server has an outage, you can no longer log in to all the sites that use it.

Security
Phishing attacks now are a primary threat.

This list might be small, but the items on it are big. Some of the obvious solutions to the issues here break the features presented above. Don’t like having all of your eggs in one basket? Just create multiple OpenID accounts. It’s not the end of the world, but it does start to erode on a major selling point, the convenience factor. The most negative point here is Security. OpenID is a ripe target for phishers. “Phishing” is the process of attempting to trick users into just over their usernames and passwords, or other sensitive information. How? Come back next week for final segment of OpenID Explained, discussing the phishing risk in greater detail.

If you are not familiar with the Kindle, it is an electronic reading device, but it has a special e-ink screen that make your eyes feel like they are reading from paper, not a lit screen. My BlackBerry makes a decent reading platform, but not a GREAT one. I enjoy reading in short spurts on it (as mentioned previously, I am seriously addicted to Viigo) – but the backlit screen is just not comfortable for extended periods of reading.

Moving toward a digital library is becoming easier as time goes by, as every day more and more books are being released in the digital format. Most Classics are free, and there is a large selection of ebooks available in a variety of formats. Although Kindle Books (purchased through Amazon) are tied to a single Amazon account, more than one device can be managed by an account to allow content sharing. This isn’t a perfect situation, as sharing only applies to books, not subscriptions such as blogs, magazines, or newspapers – and “Amazon Recommendations” will no longer be geared toward YOUR reading preferences. The slight problems aside, I am absolutely adoring my new Kindle, and I can say in earnest it really is as cool as everyone says it is. Reading on the Kindle feels equivalent to reading newsprint but ink smudges are a thing of the past.
If you are looking to add ebooks to your digital collection, here are a few links to get you started:

• http://www.freekindlebooks.org/
• http://manybooks.net/ or http://mnybks.net
• http://www.feedbooks.com/

Happy Reading!
Image credits: Kindle by John Pastor, Books by Manu M

If you have signed up for a new service recently, you may have noticed an option to use something called OpenID. You may have noticed that it is an option when you log in to Plaxo, LiveJournal, or WordPress. You may have heard that AOL and Yahoo are now OpenID providers. Many OpenID sites extol the virtues and benefits that come with it… “Only password to remember!” “Decentralized!” “Open Source!” “Establish your identity anywhere and everywhere!” But they all tend to explain only the benefits of OpenID rather than what it actually IS. Today we’re going to answer the question, What is OpenID?

First a quick digression: What is authentication? Normally, to login to your account at a website, you first identify yourself with a username, and then you prove that you own it by providing a password. This process is “Authentication.” It doesn’t have anything to with your Plaxo contacts, your Blogger profile, or your Flickr pictures. Authentication is claiming that an identity is yours (username) and proving it (password).

There are many of ways to authenticate to a system besides usernames and passwords, you use some of them already. Need an example? Think about getting money from an ATM. First you claim who you are by providing your ATM Card. Next you prove it by entering the PIN (a 4-digit password).

There also methods of authentication that don’t directly require passwords at all. In fact this occurs almost every time you sign up for a new account online. Say you’re signing up for an account at Plaxo.com… At some point you claim that an email address (an identity) is yours, by entering it into the sign up form, and then you have to prove that it is indeed yours. How do you do that? By going to your email, logging in and receiving an email with a secret code to enter or a secret link to click. You have now authenticated your email identity without ever having to hand over your Gmail password to Plaxo. NOTE: Your email username and password were still required indirectly. You had to enter them to check your email, but your email password was never entered at Plaxo.com.

Now back to the real question: What is OpenID?
OpenID is just another method of authenticating yourself – one that is similar to the email registration example above, but more automated. With OpenID your identity is a Website rather than an Email address or a Username. You first claim that you own a website (an identity), and then you have to prove it. But, just like in the email registration example, you never directly hand over the username and password to your OpenID website. So how do you prove you own it? Same method as in the email example, you go to your OpenID and log in. But in this more automated version, the service you to want to use (Plaxo.com for example), automatically redirects you to your OpenID website. Then, instead of having to click a secret link or type in a secret code to prove you logged in, the OpenID website itself simply tells the requesting service (Plaxo) whether you passed or failed authentication.

Need a concrete example? Here is a simplified version of what happens when I want to log in to my Plaxo.com account:

1. I go to Plaxo.com and choose the option to Sign in with OpenID
2. I type in “https://dnszero.myopenid.com” and hit enter
3. Plaxo sends me to my OpenId site (www.myopenid.com) to login
4. I login at myOpenID.com
5. myOpenID.com send me back to Plaxo.com, and tells Plaxo.com whether I passed or failed authentication

Still wondering what the benefit is here? It’s two-fold: First, I can use dnszero.myopenid.com to log in everywhere that OpenID is accepted. No more having to remember 8 usernames and 6 passwords. Second, these websites that I log into never touch or even see my password. I don’t have to worry that a flaw in one website’s security will compromise my password (the same password I use to log in everywhere, in this case).
Pure bliss, right? Maybe, maybe not. Come back next week and we’ll touch on some of the benefits and some of the major flaws.

Image Credit: Photo by Konrad Mostert

The Replies tab was useful to clue you in on the other half of the conversation, if you were curious enough to take a look. Earlier today, I came across @Pistachio and noticed that she is using a GREAT work-around for Twitter’s missing feature! In her Bio, she has added a link to her replies on http://search.twitter.com. That’s fantastic! I immediately copied her methods and did the same for myself, and at the same time noticed a new search feature in action. The ability to use a “threaded view” was added to Twitter Search a few weeks ago but I didn’t pay too much attention to it at the time.

To see the beauty of the threaded views, take a look at this example. I do not know @danhounshell, and do not receive his Tweets. Therefore, I didn’t know what @JamesShaw was specifically replying to (aside from the fact that his Tweet makes sense, but let’s pretend it didn’t for the moment). Out of five Tweets, the only one I saw was the one that had my name (@SharnAtlanta) in it. Take a look at the screenshot below.

Now, when we click the “Show Conversation” link below the Tweet, we see the entire threaded conversation! I can now see:

And voila! You can now see BOTH sides of the conversation! I hope this features becomes a regular part of Twitter.com! In the meantime, be sure to bookmark Twitter Search for future reference and insight to those one-sided conversations.

I was notified of a fantastic rendition of Social Media – as Spoken Word by Rasheen Porter. Rasheen, let me just say, you blew me away with this video.

For anyone not in loop with regard to Social Media, here are all the items Rasheen mentions (within ONE minute!) with the respective links.

SocialMedian: http://www.socialmedian.com/
Michael Arrington (of Tech Crunch): http://www.techcrunch.com/about-michael-arrington/
LouisGray: http://www.louisgray.com/
Google Reader: http://www.google.com/reader/
StumbleUpon: http://www.stumbleupon.com/
Corvida: http://shegeeks.net/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/
FeedBurner: http://feedburner.com/
ReadBurner: http://www.readburner.com/
12 Seconds: http://12seconds.tv/
seesmic: http://seesmic.com/
Lijit: http://www.lijit.com/

What, you haven’t seen this video yet? Take a look: http://tinyurl.com/socialpoetry