Tag Archives: Facebook

It Seems I’ve Become Addicted to GetGlue

GetGlue StickerAs many have figured out by now, I’ve managed to get myself playing around with GetGlue. As the About page states: GetGlue is a leading social network for entertainment. Users check-in and share what they are watching, listening to and reading with friends; get fresh recommendations, exclusive stickers, discounts and other rewards from GetGlue partners.

I’ve been using it for awhile now and my profile is http://getglue.com/mrheadrick. It’s kind of cheesy but it’s fun and addictive (surprise.. I get addicted to things easily). You’ll also notice to the right (if you’re looking at my blog’s main page and it’s still there) a GetGlue widget that shows my latest check-ins. As you check into, like, or review items you unlock stickers. Some stickers are always available, such as the Ice Cream Superfan while others are only available for a limited time such as a TV special or while a movie is in the theaters. To date I have earned 220 stickers. At the moment, after every 20 stickers you’ve earned, they will mail physical copies to you. So far I have received 4 batches of GetGlue stickers. They are about 1.5 inches in diameter.

So far I’ve been pretty much on the up-and-up and only check into items that I am actually watching, listening to, eating (yes, you can check into food and drinks), or doing.ย  There seem to be some that just check into things to get the stickers as there’s not enough hours in the day to watch all those shows LOL.

As of this moment, it has the ability to send updates to your Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts and you can check which, if any, to update with each check-in. There is a GetGlue API that I’ll hopefully be able to figure out at some point to allow my Winamp now-playing script to automatically check into artists with song title and album information. Doing it manually is somewhat of a chore LOL.

Anyway, check it out and you might get addicted to it like I have. I think the fact that it’s unique and not trying to be another Facebook, like Google+, helps. ๐Ÿ™‚

My FriendFeed Account Is Going the Way of the Dodo

Dodo BirdAfter some thought, I’ve decided to get rid of my FriendFeed account. There are a few reasons why:

I mainly used FriendFeed as a bridge between my Twitter and Facebook accounts and the various RSS feeds from my blog, gallery, and shared Google Reader posts. However, some of this functionality has been lost. FriendFeed used to be able to have its own tab in my Facebook profile which allowed those who did not use Twitter to see my Twitter updates if they wished without leaving Facebook. (Yes, I am aware of the many tools to have Twitter updates show on Facebook and I use Selective Tweets for this purpose when I want a tweet to show there.)

It has also been very problematic in grabbing Facebook items and forwarding them to my Twitter account and did not seem to be consistently getting new items from my RSS feeds and sending those to Twitter. I have since started to use Twitterfeed (site removed) and RSS Grafitti (not active it seems) to send RSS feed updates to my Twitter and Facebook accounts and have disabled this part of my FriendFeed account as a result.

It also seems like 90-95% of the content in my FriendFeed stream is being generated by people’s Twitter updates, most of whom I am already following on Twitter anyway LOL. As such, I hardly even look at the FriendFeed site anymore.

So, yeah, it’s time for my FriendFeed account to go the way of the Dodo Bird. ๐Ÿ™‚ For those that follow me on FriendFeed, feel free to follow me @mrheadrick and/or on Facebook if you’re not already.

Configured Winamp v5.57 and website to use new Now Playing plug-in.

After upgrading Winamp to its latest version (5.57), the Now Playing v2.1.2 plug-in I was using would cause Winamp to crash every time I closed Winamp which caused none of its settings to be saved. After some googling around I came across Brandon Fuller’s Now Playing: A Winamp Plugin (site gone) which seemed to do what I needed. It would allow me to FTP a XML file containing information about the last X number of songs I played and would also let me send a HTTP post request to run a PHP script with the current song’s information contained within the $_POST variable. It calls this HTTP request a “ping”.

When this “ping” is sent, my PHP script parses the newly uploaded XML file to create the now playing images and song history (as seen on my Entertainment page), as well as a prepared Twitter message in a separate file should I choose to send a tweet out.

You can also send Twitter and Facebook updates using this plug-in. I’ve only tested it with Twitter and it seems to work; however, I use a separate PHP script to manually Tweet the song I’m currently listening to so I don’t fill my Twitter stream with song spam.

This plug-in does lack a couple things that the older one would do:

  1. Send an album cover image along with the rest of the song’s information in a $_POST variable such as a folder.jpg located in the same directory as the song; however, it will send a link to an Amazon album image if the information matches (sometimes it doesn’t match correctly or just can’t find one). I am working on a mechanism to get around some of these pitfalls by uploading album images and having my script check for the existence of the local album image first.
  2. Work with Shoutcast streams to extract out song information.

Even so, I will continue to use this plug-in for its compatibility and continuing support by the developer. It also seems to be a bit more reliable and stable than what I was using. Yes, I did purchase a license key. ๐Ÿ™‚

Using the Selective Twitter Facebook application to update Facebook

This is just a short note to mention that I have come across the Selective Twitter Facebook Application which allows me to update my Facebook status with any Twitter client by simply putting #fb at the end of a tweet. I think this is the best approach to using Twitter to update both when I see fit but keep the rest of my Twitter spam from going to Facebook. If my friends really want to follow my twittering, then they can just follow me on Twitter as well. I think that’s for the best. ๐Ÿ™‚

My new Facebook page and integration with Twitter and Blog

Well, I’ve finally decided to create a Facebook page and have been in the process of learning what I can and can’t do with it.ย  I think I’ve found most of my friends already so they already know I have it.

Initially I had installed the Twitter Facebook application to let Twitter update my Facebook status at the same time; however, I soon realized that I might annoy friends on Facebook with the amount of tweets I make, especially during the NASCAR races.ย  However, the latest beta version of TweetDeck integrates with Facebook itself and gives you a choice where to send your updates: Twitter, Facebook, or both. (Update: Using the Selective Twitter Facebook application to update Facebook)

Using Facebook’s blog import feature of its Notes application, I was able to import my blog here.ย  This way, any posts I make here automatically show-up on Facebook allowing my friends to comment on them easier.ย  I wonder if there’s some way of adding their comments on Facebook to here as well? I’ll have to check into that but I’m not sure that’s possible. In any event, just being able to import my blog here makes it better than what’s possible with MySpace.

I like the Links feature of Facebook. I think I may use that to add links to new photos that I add to my gallery. According to this article, Facebook is redesigning its recent redesign so I’ll reserve final judgement until after this takes place.