In a very interesting way ZDNet posts that Facebook passwords are not case-sensitive and actually allow its users to use three different versions of the same password. The trick allows users to login to their Facebook accounts using three different variants of the same password.

Let’s say your password was aBcdefG now there are also two different variants of the same password that will allow you to login, for a total of three unique passwords.

1. AbCDEFg  (all the strings reversed case ~ capital to small and small to capital)
2. Abcdefg  (original password with the first letter only capitalized)
   This is only for mobile devices, which sometimes capitalize the first character of a word.

On the matter Facebook said :

“Our passwords are not case-sensitive. We accept three forms of the user’s password to help overcome the most common reasons that authentic logins are rejected. In addition to the original password, we also accept the password if a user inadvertently has caps lock enabled or their mobile device automatically capitalizes the first character of the password. We feel this does not significantly impact the security of the user’s password or their account. Additionally, we do not store our passwords in plain text we use several encryption technologies and techniques to maintain the security of our information.”

Try it to login to your Facebook account and let us know if it worked for you in the comments!

 So unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve probabbly already heard about Godaddy supporting SOPA. I won’t reiterate what ignorance statements bob has made in regards to supporting sopa, or why companies who deal in tangible goods are backing it up. (Like who’s going to pirate make-up and pharmaceuticals electronically?)

The Exodus from Godaddy: seeking an alternative

This has lead up to a mass exodus from Godaddy to be executed on Dec. 29th. I’ve done some research(googling) on who we should be looking at transferring to and it was a close call cause there’s a couple of good ones out there, but the best well rounded one I could find, with the longest history of good service, dependability, price, and secure (in terms of size, customer base, low domain hijacking rate, etc) Is Moniker.

Moniker: the quality alternative

I’ve provided an affiliate link (and non-affiliate link) if you want to say thanks to me for looking into them for you. It won’t cost you extra, and it doesn’t pay me very much. I’m just hope 1 or 2 people will follow through to help me with my transfer fees.  With over 1 million domains under management, Moniker is a top ten domain registrar.

Another Alternative to Godaddy for the cheapskate

Another top registrar to consider is namecheap. I’m extremely tempted to go with name cheap because of their insanely low rates, and top notch recommendations from, oh about everyone. However with rates that “Cheap” and no widespread brand recognition, I worry about things like their ability to support a really tough problem, should one arise. I also don’t like my clients knowing that their business is registered with a company with “cheap” in their name. It’s only a few dollars more for moniker, and they are trusted by some very large firms. There are a few (not too many) reports of namecheap.com also providing poor customer service, as in not responding to customer e-mails. As with anything milage may very. I’m sure the opposite must be true about moniker, but there’s much less “Buzz” on the internet about it. So while if you bottom line is just the best deal, and you run just a few sites, but really need to save a few bucks, than maybe namecheap is for you. But I’m going to “play it safe” and stick with a reliable partner.

TL;DR

Use Moniker for highest quality/ customer satisfaction ratio (and their prices are not bad) (Non aff-link)
Or NameCheap for cheapest, while still pretty good usability (Non aff link)

Source:

A few hours of Googling

Wordpress 3.0 + Nginx

I upgraded nginx on my server and all was well, or so I thought…. (TL;DR at the bottom)

Feeling good about my self I patted my back and went to bed. The next day I was writing a new post when after uploading a photo to WordPress it did not load in the editor. So after a little struggling I figured out why non of the images from the /files/ directory in wordpress were working, but not until after I gave up trying to find the answer in Google.

I tried Googling all this to no avail: (Hopefully this will help some other Googler out there)

• Ngnix not rewriting ms-files.php properly
• my nginx default conf for wordpress was faulty
• no errors in php for ms-files.php WPMU
• ms-files.php corrupting images WPMU
• ms-files.php white (blank) screen of death

79	79	}
80	80
81	81	// If we made it this far, just serve the file
	82	ob_clean();
	83	flush();
82	84	readfile( $file );
	85	flush();
83	86	?>

Check out the new version of youTube before anyone else! It’s super easy, while in Google Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+J and paste in this code (Cookie)

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU";

And bam! Refresh youtube.com and see all that the new version has to offer!

I think it’s really cool, check out the screen shot below…

Btw, in case you want to go back, just clear your cookies!

Google has a secret laboratory, unknown even to most of the company’s employees, called the X Lab where it develops projects that sound like something from the x-files, according to the New York Times.

At the lab, located somewhere in the Bay Area, Google’s brightest engineers are working on hundreds projects, including smart refrigerators and dinner plates, servant robots  and space elevators.

A leak from a Google engineer says that the lab is run mysteriously, in two different office buildings — one for logistics and the other for robotics projects.

The scientists working in the lab include hires from Microsoft, Nokia, Stanford, M.I.T., Carnegie Mellon and New York University. Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin is reportedly “deeply involved” with the project, and he and co-founder Larry Page have come up with a list of ideas for the lab.

It is reportedly headed by robotics and artificial intelligence expert Sebastian Thrun from Stanford, best known for his work on the world’s first self driving car. Andrew Ng, a Stanford professor and an esteemed A.I. expert, also works at the lab.

A Google spokeswoman would not confirm the existence of the lab, but she did say that Google likes to invest in speculative projects. Google’s 20% rule, which lets engineers spend one-fifth of their work time on personal projects, is one example of that, but a secret lab takes this idea a step further and makes you wonder which of these technologies will graduate to be full-fledged Google projects.

While many (most everyone) has heard, for the few that haven’t, Steve Jobs has passed away today. He had recently resigned as CEO of Apple for health reasons, and many people saw this was coming. So I have to ask, with the many apple fans out there, what do you think this will mean for apple? Many have stated that he was the corner stone of the company, making all the big decisions and going against popular opinion quite often. Will the current, colorful CEO Tim Cook be able to keep the ship steady in the wave of the passing of a giant?

I DO lean more towards the Android product line of phones, if you couldn’t tell, but I do have a rich respect for the man who actually opened the way for Android to even exist. In a market that was dominated by RIM (Blackberry) and Windows Smart phones, he took them head on and showed the world what a “Smart” phone really was. Opening the eyes of competition like Google to bring in Android, and almost crush the big M and flip RIM on their head.

For the advances in technology he’s brought us, I salute him. But my question still stands.
Can Tim Cook man the Oars?

In the midst of the loss of tech giant Steve Jobs, Facebook rolling out some changes on their Facebook Pages. You were able to import your blog’s RSS feed into the notes to automate the syncing of your blog posts to facebook. What I wonder is if this change will effect the third party apps like networked blogs, from posting on your wall. I guess if you really want to keep syndicating to your wall you could run your feed through a desktop app like seesmic or tweetdeck… As long as they supported RSS feeds….

This is the ultimate add on for any webmaster who wants to see where their website (or their clients) website stands in goolge’s search results pages easily. The only think I can really say is give it a try, you will really love it!!! Just add a campaign to track, and then a list of urls you want to know positions for, and then try some different keywords against the list and save them one at a time.  This way every time you click on that keyword in the future, it updates the list of positions! Great stuff…

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ehbgolklgacemnfnmkkpgekngaaggjjl?hc=search&hcp=main

Have you ever wondered when you are posting a status update, tweet or sharing a link on Google+, how many people you are reaching out to?
Well so were the guys that made Klout, a service that lets you measure your audience, their feedback, and creates a “Klout” score, from 1 to 100.

But it doesn’t end at just measuring your reach. There is also benefits such as “Perks” which are exclusive products or experiences that you earn based on your influence. Like for example, I can get a Subway Oven Crisp Chicken Sub since my Klout score is above 40, but alas, they are all out at the moment. I suddenly don’t feel so impressed by my “41″ Klout score. But then again, Keven Rose only has an 81, and he’s a celebrity.

But Perks aside, I think the best part about Klout is the self aware factor. Once you realize how to focus what you’re talking about, and see what topics trend better, you could really use this as a tool to hone in your online social skills. And that would translate to growing a larger audience, so while I personally am not in it for the “Perks” I’m watching my Klout score on a daily basis. I haven’t figured out how frequently it updates, but I can see that over the next few months it will have a positive impact on my blogging as my social consumption should increase. Speaking of which all this is making me hungry for a meatball and pepperoni sub…

Why not check me out on Klout http://klout.com/#/LarcenIII and follow me on twitter. http://twitter.com/LarcenIII or Google Plus http://➸.ws/~fc5L1

P.S. I’m also a stumbler!

I was reading one of my favorite comics the other day (Xkcd) and it really hit home with me.

(They usually do, it’s odd, the creator and I must be kindred spirits or somthing)

It’s about password strength, and really underlines the power of, well powers.

This really underlines the point, that when possible, it’s by FAR safer to have a longer, password, regardless of how many special characters are used. In the end, the power of length trumps all the complication of case sensitivity and substitutions. I don’t even need to explain much further into detail, because xkcd has illustrated that point so well. For years I’ve been trying to explain just this thing to people, and it was summed up into a nice little 6 panel piece.

So I’m blasting it out to those who care about security, and a way they could “Salt” this method to services that support longer passwords. Salting passwords is a way to make each password for every service you use different. With a method like the one above, you could “salt” your password using either the service name, or type, or a word you could remember that is associated to that service.

Like for yahoo, your password could be correcthorseyahoostaple and Hotmail could be corecthorsehotmailstaple . This way if one password is compromised via logging or other keystroke capturing methods (Spy Cam Video?) Your other passwords would be relativity safe, so hopefully you could change them before the attacker compromised all the services you use. Even better, would be to change up the word order, or use association. Like correcthorsejunkmailstaple  or yahoocorrecthorsestaple…

Really just food for thought… too bad that many services out there, especially the really important ones it seems, likes to limit you to a maximum of around 12 chars.