If you are using Google Voice or Pinger you won’t be able to verify your account though as those services don’t support short code texting; which is what Facebook uses to verify.

However, you can verify via a phone call.

Basically what you need to do is be patient. The first day Facebook will require you to verify via text. No matter how many times you try, they’ll block you from your account until you verify.

Try back every day and eventually Facebook will allow you to verify via phone. It took about 3 days last time I checked, but you will get the option.

The downside to verifying via phone is that Facebook phone servers are often busy. So you may get a message to try back later.

Unfortunately it’s not always quick and easy, but you can verify your Facebook account without texting. This allows Google Voice, Pinger and land lines to actually verify Facebook accounts.

Verify your Facebook account with Google Voice or Pinger without texting. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Using AdWords to get free Dropbox space has been around for a while, but I never tried it until now and it works perfectly! Check out Lifehacker for a step by step guide. It’s a bit out of date, but still works well.

All you need to do is set up a campaign in AdWords and use your referral URL as the destination URL. Your ads will target online storage, online backup, dropbox, backup data and other keywords like that. Then let it run.

In less than 24 hours I had 41 sign ups and maxed out my free referral space! And I did all of this without spending a dollar.

Since AdWords wants people to use their system they give out coupons. They could come via email, mail, or as part of your hosting package. Mine was a $100 coupon which was more than plenty for this test.

Even if you don’t have one of the AdWords coupons, it’s still cheap. Out of the $100 credit I had, I still have $91 dollars left.

The only thing you need to watch out for is turning off your AdWords campaign. By default it goes until you run out of money. Then they might start charging your credit card. If you pay attention, you can just shut it off when you max out your referrals.

If you’re a fan of Dropbox, then I’d highly suggest using AdWords to get yourself some free space.  It’s free, easy and the additional space is nice.

Using AdWords to get 16 gigs of Dropbox space for free works perfectly! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Since Facebook, Twitter and WordPress are a key part of my day, I think it’s Internet FTW! What would I do without you guys?

Then again, they do suck up a lot of my time. It’s pretty hard to keep up with all those tweets. And every few weeks or so Facebook comes out with some change that makes you wonder what the hell they are doing. Then there is all that time it takes to create good blog posts and stay on top of comments.

Some days WordPress, Twitter and Facebook are just too much and I wonder WTF I’m doing wasting my time on all these sites when it’s so nice outside.

I guess it depends on the day, or the hour. Either way, I’m still here and the internet is not going anywhere. So I guess I’ll stick with FTW!

Is it: Internet FTW or WTF? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

My Droid Incredible only has 412 MBs of memory with about 80 free MBs. I really don’t understand where it’s all going. Most of it goes to the system, I think, and when I open up the task manager, Facebook is often using up more than 40 MBs and that just wasn’t worth it.

It turns out however that both Facebook and Twitter have great mobile websites. For Twitter, visiting Twitter.com on your phone brings up the mobile site and it looks identical to the phone app. Facebook on the other hand looks like hell if you bring it up on your phone, but changing it to touch.facebook.com brings up the nice mobile app with only a few minor oddities.

So instead of apps I now have bookmarks. They work great and the only thing I really lose out on is push notifications.

Now it’s not like I don’t have Twitter and Facebook apps on my phone, I just don’t have the official apps. I’ve chosen to go with Friendcaster and TweetCaster as they seem to be more feature rich and memory friendly.

Actually I’m quite impressed with the mobile sites for Twitter and Facebook. I hope other apps can follow in their footsteps and create mobile sites that are much more than just an ugly striped down version of the main site.

I’ve removed Facebook and Twitter from my phone. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The more I think about it, the more I don’t quite get it. First off, it’s not even a full size picture, it’s cropped to be square. Then you put a filter on that screws with the color or the quality.  What you’re left with is something that’s kind of cool and I’m not sure why.

Being an Android user, I just got in on this. But the more I use it, the more I realize that what I like about Instagram is the community & integration, not necessarily the pictures I get from the app.

When people put pictures on Instagram it’s of something interesting. It’s not like 100 photos of their kid’s birthday party. The one-off pictures make every picture that much more intriguing.

Instagram also does a good job of integrating into Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and other social sites. Not to mention that sites like Twitter are also integrating Instagram into their apps as well.

I think Instagram has done a great job at building their own social network on top of a relatively simple idea. They are a perfect example of taking an idea, keeping it simple and doing it well. So well that Facebook is willing to shell out a billion dollars for a two-year old company.

I still go back and forth on Instagram. It’s cool, I like it, but I think it’s only because everyone else likes it.

Do people like Instragram for the photos or for the social network? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

You can see the rest on YouTube.

Lily wants to say Hi, show you her date outfit and how she does the rope course. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The Overnight Website Challenge was a week ago and I still feel like I’m catching up on sleep. It was a long day, but short at the same time. A ton of work was completed and we built a sweet site for a great non-profit.

It all kicked off at 9am as that’s when we got our non profits name and started the planning. What you often don’t realize is how much work needs to be done on a site before you start coding it. Brainstorming, planning, wire framing and designs takes time. There are a lot of details that needed to get worked out before a development plan can be put into place and the coding started.

By the time you get things planned out, breaking out those tasks so that everyone knows what they’re doing and are being productive is kind of hard in this environment. There is so much to do that there can be quite a bit of confusion as well. It’s like an ever-changing puzzle and you know what your goal is, but how to get there is challenging.

Our team worked really well together and knocked out a really nice site. It’s not ready to go live just yet, but it’s impressive what we all accomplished in 24 hours. I think we could have done even more if we could have gotten a better plan upfront, but then again, hindsight is 20/20.

My day ended up being 30 hours if you count in travel time and setup/takedown time. It was a fun experience, but I’m not quite ready to do it again. I’m really looking forward to a relaxing weekend with the family this weekend.

It’s hard to tell someone who has never done this how to prepare or what to expect. Organization & communicate is huge. I think our team did a great job and I’m glad I got to be a part of The Overnight Website Challenge. It’s a fun experience and gives deserving non-profits an awesome new site.

I’m thinking volunteer for next year though. We’ll see.

Overnight Website Challenge Recap originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

This is my first time doing the Overnight Website Challenge and I’m a bit nervous. I’m not exactly sure what I’ve gotten myself into. First off, I’m going to be up for like 28 hours. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a short nap or two, but that’s not a sure thing. I’m also not sure how my body will react come Sunday when I want to sleep or Monday when I have to go to work. That’ll be interesting.

The Challenge itself should be kind of fun. I’m on a 10 person team and I know my teammates rock. We’ve got a great group of people with tons of talent. The only real downside for us is that this is the first Challenge for 80% of our team.

No matter what happens, the non-profit that picks us will get a great website and we’ll have a great experience. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, expect some oddball status updates Saturday night and Sunday morning as my brain turns to mush due to lack of sleep.

Wish me luck!

The Overnight Website Challenge is On! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I’ve been using iTunes Mach for about a week now and it is well worth the $25 dollars. Here’s why.

iCloud Storage
All your music gets added to iCloud. Unlike other services, you don’t have to upload it all. iTunes only uploads what it can’t find a match for on their servers. This significantly cut down on the time it would have taken for all my music to upload. I think it was more like days with Google or Amazon’s cloud sites and only hours for iTunes Match.

iCloud Streaming
All your music streams to other installs of iTunes or iOS 5 devices. You don’t have to download anything, you just authorize iTunes and it adds all your music in seconds. Click play on a song in iCloud and it streams in seconds.

Download Your Music
If you don’t want to stream a song, you don’t have to. Click the download button and it’ll save a copy on your computer.

Source doesn’t matter.
If you purchased your music in iTunes, iTunes Match will match it. Same goes if you bought your music via the Amazon Mp3 store or Google Play. It’ll also match songs you ripped from CDs or may have obtained other ways. It’s completely forgiving.

Unprotect Your Music
Back in the early days of the iTunes Music Store, when you downloaded a song, it was protected. These protected songs only worked in iTunes or on the iPod. They are not eligible for playing through any other device or streaming service. However, with iTunes Match, if the songs are matched, just delete the protected version from your computer and download a new version from the iCloud. Protection gone.

Quality Control
If you buy your music from different sources, or have stuff that you ripped on your own, chances are they’re not all the same quality. With iTunes Match, just remove the lower quality songs from your iTunes and download the better one from iCloud. Easy as pie.

Keep it all with you when you go.
After one year, if you choose not to re-subscribe to iTunes Match, you don’t lose any music that is on your computer. Everything is yours to keep. The unprotected files and higher quality songs are yours. Apple isn’t going to ask for them back.

Seven Reasons why iTunes Match is worth the $25. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

What I’m going to show you here is the very basics. I’m not going to go into APIs or anything like that.

This is also how you go about converting your FBML tabs to Facebook iFames. Since Facebook is killing off FBML tabs soon, you’ll want to get these converted ASAP.

You can use this tutorial as a starting point for something bigger or as a way of adding some basic HTML to a tab on your Facebook page; like a ‘Like us on Facebook’ page for example.

Prerequisites

There are some things you must have before you can create a Facebook application.

1. A Facebook account.
2. You have to be a verified Facebook developer. This is easy to do with a cell phone or a credit card. More information here: https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=167551763306531
3. You need to be an administrator of the Facebook page you want to add the app to.
4. You have to have your own hosting for files and images. Nothing will be stored on Facebook.
5. Your host must have SSL up and running on your server. Ask you host if you have any questions on this one.

Build out a web page.

Facebook tabs are 810px wide and as tall as you’d like them to be. So go ahead build a page and put it on your server. 810px is the size for the new timeline pages, old tabs were 510px wide and you can still use that if you want.

There are no limitations on coding. Use CSS, HTML, jQuery, PHP, ASP, or whatever you want. You’re free to build anything. Just keep it to 810px wide and you’ll be all set.

Done? Good. If not, you can always tweak it later. For the purposes of this tutorial, you can just write “Hello World” on your page and call it good enough.

Setup an App

1. Go to developers.facebook.com
2. Click ‘Apps’ at the top.
   
3. Click ‘+ Create New App’
   
4. Name your app, namespace and agree. Your name and namesace can be almost anything as long as it doesn’t contain ‘book.’
   
5. Add the icons for the tab.
   
6. Add yourDomain.com to the app domain box.
   
7. Click the ‘Website’ check mark towards the bottom and enter the URL where you built your page. Make sure to start it with https://.
   
8. Click the ‘Page Tab’ check mark.
   
9. Enter in the ‘Page Tab Name.’
10. Enter in the ‘Page Tab URL.’ This is the http:// URL to the page you created.
11. Enter in the ‘Secure Page Tab URL.’ This is the https:// URL to the page you created.
12. Skip the ‘Page Tab Edit URL’ box.
13. Hit Save Changes and you’re almost there.
14. To add your new app to a page you administer, use this handy tool I created.

That’s it, you’re done!

Feel free to edit your HTML at any time. You can also change app settings if you want but you’re on your own if something breaks.

There is a lot more you can do from a coding standpoint if you want to dig into the world of Facebook via the APIs. Or you can just stick with what you know and build out your page with the skills you already have.

There you have it, the ground work for creating your own Facebook application that can be added to a page.

One thing to note however is that Facebook changes things quite often. If things don’t work right, I apologize. It worked when I posted this.

How to create a Facebook application or convert your old FBML Facebook pages. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Magic Trackpad

I’m all for the latest Apple gadget and I’ve been eyeing up the Magic Trackpad for some time now. I finally got one earlier this year and have been testing it out for a while now. Sadly, I’m not overjoyed with it; yet.

The first day was the worse. The cursor was extremely jumpy and the trackpad lost connection a lot. Figured out that a restart solved the connection issue. The mouse is still jumpy at times, but from what I read, this is an issue with Apple’s OS and external monitors. So I’ve come to accept that one. It’s not a huge issue though.

Really, there are two main issues for me that I need to work out.

1. Precision
With a mouse, I feel I can be much more precise with my clicking and selecting. When in Photoshop, this is key. For some reason, with the Magic Trackpad, I don’t feel that I have that. I find myself trying two or three times before getting that selection just right.

2. Clicking
To click you just press. To right-click, you press with two fingers. Sounds easy right? Then why am I getting a right-click when I want to single click? I can’t seem to keep my fingers far enough away from the sensors or I’m going to fast and it’s registering the click before I’m ready. I think the real issue is that I click with my pointer finger and right-click with my thumb and pointer finger. I think I need to learn the proper techniques.

Overall, my issues should all get taken care of over time as I use it more. I just need to remember to use it more. Since I’m not a laptop user, the trackpad is not something my fingers are used to. I’m sure that with a little more practice, I’ll get everything worked out.

Missing the magic in the Magic Trackpad originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

John sings about how he works hard, enjoys the simple things and lives his life with pride. Nickelback on the other hand wants fortune & fame and will give up anything to get it.

Which life do you want to live?

Well, life on the farm is kinda laid back
Ain’t much an old country boy like me can’t hack
It’s early to rise, early in the sack
Thank God, I’m A Country Boy

I’m through with standin’ in lines to clubs I’ll never get in
It’s like the bottom of the ninth and I’m never gonna win
This life hasn’t turned out
Quite the way I want it to be
(Tell me what you want)

Well a simple kinda life never did me no harm
A raisin’ me a family and workin’ on a farm
My days are all filled with an easy country charm
Thank God I’m a country boy

I want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs
And a bathroom I can play baseball in
And a king size tub
Big enough for ten plus me
(Yeah, so what you need?)

When the work’s all done and the sun’s settin’ low
I pull out my fiddle and I rosin’ up the bow
The kids are asleep so I keep it kinda low
Thank God I’m a country boy

I need a a credit card that’s got no limit
And a big black jet with a bedroom in it
Gonna join the mile high club
At thirty-seven thousand feet
(Been there, done that)

I’d play “Sally Goodin’” all day if I could
But the Lord and my wife wouldn’t take it very good
So I fiddle when I can, work when I should
Thank God, I’m a country boy

I want a new tour bus full of old guitars
My own star on Hollywood Boulevard
Somewhere between Cher
And James Dean is fine for me
(So how you gonna do it?)

Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me old fiddle
When the sun’s comin’ up I got cakes on the griddle
Life ain’t nothin’ but a funny, funny riddle
Thank God I’m A country boy

I’m gonna trade this life
For fortune and fame
I’d even cut my hair
And change my name

Well I wouldn’t trade my life for diamonds or jewels
I never was one of them money hungry fools
I’d rather have my fiddle and my farmin’ tools
Thank God I’m a country boy

‘Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars
And live in hilltop houses, drivin’ fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We’ll all stay skinny ’cause we just won’t eat

Yeah, city folk drivin’ in a black limousine
A lotta sad people thinkin’ that’s a mighty keen
Son, let me tell ya now exactly what I mean
I thank God I’m a country boy

I wanna be great like Elvis without the tassels
Hire eight body guards that love to beat up assholes
Sign a couple autographs
So I can eat my meals for free
(I’ll have the quesadilla, ha, ha)

Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me old fiddle
When the sun’s comin’ up I got cakes on the griddle
Life ain’t nothin’ but a funny, funny riddle
Thank God I’m a country boy

I’m gonna dress my ass with the latest fashion
Get a front door key to the Playboy mansion
Gonna date a centerfold that loves
To blow my money for me
(So how you gonna do it?)

Well, my fiddle was my daddy’s til the day he died
And he took me by the hand and held me close to his side
He said…’Live a good life and play my fiddle with pride
And thank God you’re a country boy”

I’m gonna sing those songs that offend the censors
Gonna pop my pills from a Pez dispenser
Get washed-up singers writin’ all my songs
Lipsynk ‘em every night so I don’t get ‘em wrong

My daddy taught me young how to hunt and how to whittle
He taught me how to work and play a tune on the fiddle
Taught me how to love and how to give just a little
Thank God I’m a country boy

And we’ll hide out in the private rooms
With the latest dictionary of today’s who’s who
They’ll get you anything with that evil smile
Everybody’s got a drug dealer on speed dial

Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me old fiddle
When the sun’s comin’ up I got cakes on the griddle
Life ain’t nothing but a funny, funny riddle
Thank God I’m a country boy

Well, hey, hey, I wanna be a rockstar

John Denver vs Nickelback – Which life do you want? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Turns out I have a lot of stuff on my desk. I keep organizing it and I keep messing it up. This time will be different…. or not.

Desk organization step one: clean off desk. Check. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

When I was a kid Saturday morning cartoons were awesome. It was four hours of nothing but cartoons on NBC, ABC and CBS. And they were all good too! Remember these?

Duck Tales… wooooo wooooo!!

Darkwing Duck

Talespin

Gummi Bears

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Garfield and Friends

Muppet Babies

Smurfs

Super Mario bros Super Show!

Goof Troop

Bonkers

Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers

Bobby’s World

Rocko’s Modern Life

Snorkels

He-Man & the Masters of the Universe

Fraggle Rock

Higher quality: http://youtu.be/BMu7WvM_zik

The Wuzzles

Reading Rainbow

Jetsons

Scooby Doo

Flintstones

Bugs Bunny

Rocky and Bullwinkle

Woody Woodpecker

School House Rock

Man I wish Saturday mornings were this cool now.

Saturday morning cartoons where the best when I was a kid! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

What use to be a simple click is now, create a new HTML page with specific code and then format your URL a specific way replacing the variables with your pages’ information. Yea, a little bit more complicated.

So, I created a tool that will do all the hard work for you. All you need to do is provide the application ID and the URL to your servers where you’re hosting the page.

The Add A Facebook App Tab to a Facebook Page generator will create that specific URL and do all the heavy lifting for you. Simple, as it should be.

Tool for adding Facebook app tabs to your page. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

And who has cataloged the contents of their house for insurances purposes? Probably not many.

Turns out, that you can do both right now.

DropBox is beta testing a new version of their Android app that auto syncs photos and videos you take to DropBox. For every 500MB of photos and videos automatically uploaded, you’ll receive another 500MB space, up to 5GB total. So all you need to do is install the beta app and start uploading.

After uploading all the images and videos on my phone, I got an additional 500MB. That left me wanting more. So I was thinking about what takes up the most space and I realized that was videos. Then I decided it was time for a home tour!

God forbid my home burnt down tonight, they’d ask me what was in it. I can list off some stuff, but I’ll never remember everything. Chances are I won’t remember most of it. So I recorded it instead.

I took my phone, fired up the video app and started a tour. I walked through each room, opened drawers, cupboards, closets and looked inside things. I pointed out a lot of what we own but even what I didn’t point out is at least on video.

This took me about 40 minutes. 40 minutes of video on my phone is a pretty large file size. Now it’s automatically uploading to DropBox and I’ll get more free space!

Really though, the free space is nice, but it won’t help in a disaster. If a tornado, fire or something else takes out my house, that video is going to be invaluable. Putting our lives back together on just our memories is hard, video and photo proof should help a ton.

So take some time, record all the belongings in your home and get some free DropBox space as a nice benefit.

Get more DropBox space AND be better prepared for a disaster. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

There are a lot of things I like about Waze but the biggest two are that it’s free and that it’s social.

The social integration part is what makes Waze stand out amongst others. This means that other Waze users can report traffic levels, accidents or even cops so that the rest of us know what’s going on in our area.

All the other good GPS features are there too like driving directions based on traffic levels, road conditions, day/night mode and turn by turn voice commands.

Another nice thing about Waze is that you can turn off the features you don’t want. Don’t like seeing other Wazers on the map? Turn them off. Don’t like the idea of goodies or road candy? Turn them off. Waze doesn’t force their stuff upon you.

Waze is a great app and the best GPS app I’ve found on Android. And for the price of $0, there is no reason not to try it out.

Oh, and if you’re on the iPhone, Waze is available for you too.

Waze, social GPS, turns 3 on Android and grows up beautifully. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

While listing open jobs, I noticed that they are even hiring a unicorn slayer. Now I think that may be illegal, with them being endangered and all, but you don’t find that job to many places.

I think I’m going to stay at my current nerdy job for now, but if I ever want to fly with the blue birds, Twitter sounds like fun.

Twitter has a job opening for a unicorn slayer. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lists are a way of organizing your friends into groups; or circles if anyone uses Google+. You can then select that list and see only updates from those friends.

You can also post updates only to a list. That way you can say “Man I totally got wasted last night” and not share it with your boss or mom.

To create a list, look in the left sidebar of Facebook for lists. Chances are that Facebook has already created some, so click the ‘more’ link that appears when you hover over lists. From there you can create new lists.

Once a new list is created, look at the top of the right column for the box to add friends to this list.

So how do you post to a list? That’s easy. If you’re on the list page, just write in the status update box. If you’re on any other Facebook page, there is a drop down menu to the left of the post button. Here you can choose the list you want to post to.

The upside is you now have a list that allows you to send updates only to certain people. The downside is that you need to remember to only post to this list and you need to maintain the list.

No one knows they are on a list either. The only way they’d know something is up is if you told them, or if someone showed your mom the update from their Facebook account.

There you have it. Re-claim your Facebook by writing the updates you want while still keeping some secrets from those that don’t really need to know.

How to update your Facebook status so only some of your friends see it. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

When I started I was a little nervous. It was my first time starting a new job in 6 years. I was excited though as it brought me back to web development. Did I know SVN? Nope. jQuery? Nope. But I knew how to code HTML and CSS along with some PHP & JavaScript.

Over the past year I’ve learned a lot about jQuery and that has been one of the best things for me. jQuery is powerful and really makes a web developers job easier; if done right. I also now know how to use SVN. I use a GUI for some of it, but I can do most of it via command line too, like a real Nerd.

Facebook application development is another area that I’ve moved into. I really didn’t know a lot about it a year ago, but, as of this posting, I’ve launched two Facebook apps and worked on many others. I’m quickly becoming a Facebook Nerd.

I’ve dipped my fingers into a lot of other projects as well. HTML5, mobile, Grails, Zend, and Expression Engine just to name a few. I love all the things I’m begin exposed too and the people who help me learn along the way.

Not only am I learning code, but I’m also learning how to lead projects. That includes managing the work and the developers. This is something that I’ve wanted to do for years, but haven’t been given the chance. So far it’s going good. I worry about every little piece of the project, but I’m sure I’ll become a little more comfortable as I go.

The Nerdery has been a great place for me over the past year and I’m still excited to come to work every day. It’s the people, the projects and the company that make The Nerdery a great place to work.

I’ve been an official Nerd for a year now. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com