re-Enable Facebook chat in the Facebook app for Android
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Image by Kārlis Dambrāns used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Facebook forced its users to install the Facebook Messenger app (IOS and Android) to continue receiving Messages on Facebook. IOS users are stuck but a crafty Android user has found a work around.
It seems Facebook has left the chat functionality in its original app and a little app called Facebook Chat Re-Enabler will bring it back to life. The process is very simple. You sideload the APK, tun it and voila. Going forward you will be able to chat within the main Facebook app.
“Make sure you delete the Facebook Messenger app before installing the Facebook Chat Re-Enabler”
No one know if or when Facebook will remove the chat functionality from its main client (which would force you back to it's 30MB, clunky Facebook Messenger app.
Source : 1
Court stops Bitcasa from deleting your cloud storage files
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Image by Emil Indricău used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Bitcasa was a digital fairy tale story. when most cloud providers were charging $10 a month for 100 GB of storage, Bitcasa shook up the model by offering unlimited online cloud storage for on $99 a year (early subscribers were offered a $79 deal).
They explained that this "magic" was possible because of their deep-deduplication technology which worked even though they claim all data is encrypted before being uploaded.
Fast forward to 2014 and the company made enemies when it announced the end of its unlimited storage plans forcing customers to move to a more expensive (less storage) solution or lose their files. This was doubly troubling since their initial pitch was to use their service to offload files from your computer to free up space. This means many users likely don't have local backup copies of their data.
Some very angry customers have filed a class action lawsuit against Bitcasa for alleged brief of contract. The court hearing the case has granted a temporary restraining order forcing the double crossing cloud provider to save all customer files at least until November 20.
Funny enough, on November 15th, I received this email from Bitcasa
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Facebook to clean your news feed
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Image by Robert Scoble used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Sure some Facebook black belts have master trimming and caring for their news feed but most of us get some useful info mixed with spam like posts. Paid posts aren't the items Facebook is looking to curb, it is the non-paid posts that are verging on free self-promotion. This starts with posts claim things like that 1 like = $1 of donation or 1 like = supporting world peace, etc.
<img src="uploads/2025/0d490ebf23.jpg" alt="">
Types of content the social giant will try to control in 2015 is:
- Like Baiting - trying to get "friends" to like something so it is shown to more people and moved higher on everyone's news feed
- Frequently circulated content - That religious picture that you see over and over. Or a post like the one above. Facebook says it's users rate these as less valuable and it will work to curb them
- Spam Links - Links that are designed specifically to mislead readers to take them to spam or ad sites. (We don't know the exact details yet but many of the most popular internet sites that show the same pictures over and over with ads may see a huge hit).
Hopefully this cleans Facebook up a bit and makes it more readable.
Source: 1
Amazon giving away $80 worth of Android apps for free
Amazon is once again gifting free apps to its customers. Some good some bad but all free.
My favorite ones in this pile are:
- Fleksy Keyboard
- PrintHand Mobile Print Premium
- Camera Zoom FX
- Tiny Scan Pro
- Office Calculator Pro
- Business Card reader pro
Link to promo site
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Quote about education
“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”
4 lifehacks for easier,cheaper and more enjoyable airline travel
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Image by Lars Plougmann used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Travelling is a great way to travel to far flung locations making the world a much smaller place. It isn't always fun or convenient though. I've spent thousands of hours trapped inside a trans-atlantic or trans-pacific flight wishing for it to finally be over.
There are some tips that will help make you flight just a little and more enjoyable.
1 - Fly early and sit on the wing
I am not prone to motion sickness but I know plenty of colleagues who are. As the sun rises and heats the ground, the ground radiates that heat back into the sky potentially causing more turbulence. Flying earlier in the day means the ground may be less hot and you may experience less turbulence.
In line with the theme of motion sickness, try to reserve a seat on the wing. These are the seats with the least amount of tilting when the plane turns.
2 - Use carry-on only
Talking to frequent travellers, one of the most common complaints is related to checked luggage. Complaints are caused either long line-ups to drop it off at check-in, luggage being delayed due to routing issues, luggage being damaged during transit, luggage contents being stolen or having to wait over an hour to pick up your luggage at the destination airport.
If you can, fly carry-on only.
3 - Bring extra power
When travelling with electronics (Kindle, iPad, Nexus, iPhone) you want to make sure these device are able to entertain you during the entire trip. Make sure you travel with your own external battery pack (Link).
4 - Buy cheaper tickets
Read older blog posts and you will likely see advice recommending that you purchase your airline tickets on Tuesday. This advice no longer holds as more recent analysis shows that Sundays offer the best deals (Link).
Airlines Reporting Corp (a ticket processor transacting about half of all tickets sold) conducted a 19 month (130 million ticket analysis) and showed that Sundays offered the lowest prices. The second cheapest day was Saturday (with a rate of about $10 more per ticket). Tuesday was found to be almost $60 more expensive.
Historical data has shows Tuesdays having the most price drops so it may still be worth keeping an eye out for deals on that day. Yapta, a site that alerts corporate travel managers to price drops, confirmed that it saw 21% of its ticket price drops on Tuesday followed by 19% on Wednesday.
7 tips to make email more acceptable
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Image by Rene Schwietzke used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
The only thing that saps productivity out of an organization more than meetings (Link) is email. Has email ever helped you become more productive? Email has outlived its usefulness and has become the ugly drunk uncle no one wants to acknowledge or deal with.
Assuming you have to live with email in the workplace, here are 7 tips to help make it a little more bearable:
- Start with the end in mind - Before writing your email, ask yourself what it is you want as an outcome to this email and decide if email is the right mechanism. If it is, make sure you write the desired outcome right at the start (e.g. Please approve, Please comment, etc).
- KISS - My modified definition of Kiss here is Keep it short stupid. I don't have time to read your 12 page essay masquerading as an email. Keep all emails shorter than 10 lines. Anything more and your recipient will likely file it under "Never Read".
- Never Reply All - Unless there is a very specific reason why everyone in an email thread should receive your words of wisdom, be judicious about who you reply to. Most people do a Reply All to protect their own ass. That's a horrible reason stop it now.
- One Channel for each message - If you decided that email is an appropriate channel for your message in step 1 then please don't use other channels to pass the same message at the same time (printing a copy and sending it to me, talking to me about it in the hallway, etc). You chose it as a channel now stick with it.
- Email doesn't convey tone - Remember that email doesn't convey the tone of a message. Ask yourself if the message could be misconstrued without the appropriate tone. If it can be misinterpreted then ditch email and use the telephone, videoconference or a good old fashion face to face. Countless issued have been created (tempest in a teapot) because the recipient over-reacted because he/she could infer the real tone of a message.
- Time is your enemy - In my world, email is a nice to have and I read incoming messages about twice per day.. .and I am at least a week late with my emails. This means that anything that is urgent or time sensitive shouldn't be sent via email. Email is asynchronous.
- Archive IT - Set a time after which all email get's archived (even if you haven't read it). I use a 1 - 1.5 week period then bam, everything get's archived.
My core message is that I hate email. It is an ugly creation that punishes me every day. Remember that next time you punish your coworkers with it.
Microsoft offers a 4 service bundle for 50% off (xbox, office, skype, music)
Christmas has come early for Microsoft customers as the Redmond giant has just unveiled a hugely discounted subscription bundle for 4 Microsoft services :Microsoft Office 365 Home, Skype Unlimited World, Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Music. Bought seperately, these would cost you more than $US400 but Microsoft has created the Work & Play bundle and is offering everything for the low price of $US199.
For anyone living the full Microsoft life, this is an incredible deal. This special price is valid until January 4 2015 so get it while the getting is good.
Source: Microsoft's Work & Play bundle page (Link)
OnePlus One pre-orders opening up for 1 hour on Nov 17
OnePlus one has managed to become a highly prized name in the tech world almost overnight with its low price "flagship killer". Their first attempt to open up pre-orders (without an invitation) failed miserably with crashing servers.
Now the OnePlus team is giving it another go by opening up the pre-order floodgates on November 17 for 1 hour at 1100 ET.
The team acknowledge the ordering issue
“In the end, we experienced some server issues from the surge visitors to our site. Things could have gone better”
and now promises a smoother experience. A nice "gift" for this round is
“To celebrate our improved pre-order system, a selection of OnePlus accessories can be bundled with the OnePlus One pre-orders at steeply discounted prices, as a thank you to our fans.”
The OnePlus One is the highest value Android phone in the market today. It offers an amazing feature set with Cyanogenmod running as the OS. This is fantastic deal for anyone looking to buy an Android phone.
Source: OnePlus Blog (link)
5 secrets for more efficient meetings
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Image by Nguyen Hung Vu used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Everyone loves meetings... Right? Of course you do. Nothing is more enjoyable than meeting 6 other people to go through a 120 slide powerpoint presentation in a far flung conference room. Fun ... Fun ... Fun ...
Joking aside, meetings are a necessary evil in the business world so productivity junkies are always testing new strategies to make them more effective. After 20+ years of searching, the core tenets for efficient meetings can be boiled down to a measly 5 bullets and have the main title of "Be Prepared".
Without further ado, I present the 5 magical tenets of efficient meetings:
-
Book in advance - Unless you have an urgent issue which magically pops up, try to book all of your meetings a couple of days in advance. During my friday weekly review (Link), I make sure all of my meeting invitations are sent out for the following week.
- Create an agenda - Every meeting should have a clearly defined agenda with clear expectations from each participant
- Make material available - Make sure any material you will use during the meeting is distributed ahead of time and that participants understand how to process it before the meeting.
- Define the expected outcome - The agenda should include the expected outcome from the meeting. This goal should be repeated at the start of the meeting to ensure everyone is working towards the same goal.
- Book a meeting room - This may sound very basic as a rule but you wouldn't believe the number of times a meeting room isn't booked or you show up to the room and someone else is using it or the meeting room is too small or ill equipped for meeting.
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
Eagle Creek Travel Gear Pack-It Specter On Board Packing Cube Review
I started travelling the world almost 20 years ago and haven't stopped since. I have been to all 4 corners of the world and over the years have refined my travel "recipe". In this case, my recipe is how to pack the most while still being able to travel (in most cases) carry-on only using the one bag approach.
The competition
Before looking at the Eagle Creek Travel Gear Pack-It Specter On Board, I want to take a second to talk about cheaper products.
The cheapest of the bunch are Chinese made knock-offs you can buy from Aliexpress, DHGate, DealExtreme or eBay. I bought a handful of these to test, ranging from the very cheap ones at $4,99 all the way up to their top of the line one listed at $36.05.
First you wait between 4-8 weeks to receive the Chinese products. Once you start testing them you realize all the issues wrong with them:
- cheap zippers that don't open/close smoothly
- cheap inconsistent stitching
- cheap plastic material that either cant contain a small leak or that rips after a couple of uses
- illogical compartment design
Unfortunately most travel stores in malls resell these cheap Chinese products with their store name on it (relabelled) usually at a premium price.
Why I love Eagle Creek
Over the next few weeks, I will write reviews about various Eagle Creek travel tools that I recommend. The Specter line from Eagle Creek is designed with the frequent and light traveller in mind. They are extremely light weight, durable, easy to maintain and will simplify anyone's travel.
Pack-It Specter On Board Packing Cube
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- It has 2 smaller zip pockets on the top flap and 7 organizer slip pockets.
- The central compartment is large enough to accommodate a medium blow dryer, medium hair straightener or it can even carry a small travel cube with shoe polish, shoe brushes or whatever else you want to carry in there.
- Eagle Creek has used a thin yet durable "silnylon" ripstop material which is lightweight, easy to maintain and allows you to see through it ( making content identification easy).
- It is water resistant and stain resistant.
I purposely let a tube of toothpaste "leak" and the material contained it perfectly within the toiletry bag. I tried the same experiment with a face cream and once again the material contained it which meant nothing else got dirty or stained. Now I do recommend sealing creams and liquids in a ziplock style freezer bag during travel (freezer bags are typically more sturdy) but this will protect your luggage even if you don't.
Those that have been reading my blog for a while know that I love and only travel with RedOxx luggage. RedOxx makes light, durable and flexible luggage but the thing I love most about their products is the lifetime warranty, Well Eagle Creek offers a lifetime warranty on their products as well:
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Travelling is extremely demanding on gear and the one time I tried to use an Eagle Creek product warranty, they replaced the item no questions asked (and without any hassles).
Important considerations
I love reading internet comments related to products I am reviewing. I read a bunch of complaints from people that obviously don't travel much. Here are some elements I want you to keep in mind.
My main Redoxx luggage is the AirBoss and it has a soft flexible outer shell. This makes it incredibly light and expandable yet it also means I have to fully stuff it if I want it to be stiff and solid (which I don't of course). Same thing here.
The Eagle Creek Pack-It Specter On Board Packing Cube is made from a flexible material which means it won't stand easily on its own. But this is something you want. You want a light and flexible material not something heavy and rigid like leather or pleather.
The Eagle Creek Pack-It Specter On Board Packing Cube is washable but if you want to keep it working for a long time, don't throw it into the washing machine. To clean this product (or most other travel cubes or flexible luggages):
- first make sure it is completely dry and dry wipe any spots stains or dirt
- You can use a soft dry plastic bristle brush to gently clean the cracks and crevices. The important words here are soft plastic bristles and very very gentle strokes.
- Using an air compressor, I then blow any dust or debris away
- Using a mild soap (like Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-in-One Soap) hand wash the Pack-It Specter On Board Packing Cube in lukewarm water. Gently stirring the item in a tub of water or a large sink.
- Then I rinse it off with fresh lukewarm running water and let it air dry. Never dry it in the automatic dryer or under the sun.
Because it is flexible, you will need to 2 hands to open and close the zipper. The zippers are equipped with pull ties making opening and closing easier.
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The downside
Overall I think this is a fantastic addition to anyones travel kit and I know you will get years of satisfaction from it. The only 2 issues I had with it are:
- I wish the price was a little lower ($45 on Amazon.com LINK). Don't get me wrong, I would gladly pay $45 for this product because I know all of the careful thought that went into the design of this uber useful toiletry kit but casual travellers may find it a bit too pricey.
- As a single man that shaves his head, I travel with a very limited number of toiletry items. I found that product was often 50-60% empty for me but remember it is light and flexible so it doesn't take any extra space. It curls and compresses around the items it is protecting.
Verdict
If you travel moderately (or more) and are looking for the most convenient toiletry bag than this is it. You should go buy it. You will love it.
If you travel once a year for a beach vacation, I would still say buy it because I hate cheap travel gear that breaks, but you could be forgiven for buying something a little cheaper.
Amazon (link)
Lollipop early build on Samsung Galaxy S4
Samsung is the undisputed king of releasing smartphones. They seem to release something every other week and have a product in every imaginable screen size. We have heard rumours that Samsung will be releasing Google's lollipop update for its top rank smartphones and now the folks over at SamMobile are showing off an early build of it running on the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Keep in mind this is a very early build and the final version will be much smoother, more feature rich and less buggy.
OnePlus One gets updated - Fixes touchscreen and black bar issue
There is a software update being pushed to OnePlus One owners (by CyanogenMod) that addresses dome security flaws, a touchscreen problem and the occasional black bar issue that sometimes randomly appeared.
It's a small 87.4MB Over the Air (OTA) update that is being slowly rolled out. If you haven't already received it, it will be available shortly.
Here’s a comprehensive list of changes you’ll find in this update:
- Fixed issues with memory causing screen artifacts
- Fixed issues with random reboots and instability
- Fixed issues with WiFi and modem crashes
- Fixed issues with Filesystem
- Fixed issues with “black bar”
- Fixed issues with persist partition corruption
- Fixed issues with AT&T VoLTE
Source: OnePlus Forum (link)
Canadian Wireless Code applies to corporate wireless service plans (sometimes)
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Image by Perry McKenna used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Telus asked the CRTC for clarifications about the applicability of the CRTC Wireless Code to corporate business customers and plans. The CRTC released its decision in October 2014 and the gist of it is that it :
“applies to retail mobile wireless voice and data services provided to individuals and small businesses. This means that it applies to all wireless plans for such services where the contract is between (a) an individual and a service provider, or (b) a small business and a service provider.”
If an individual is responsible for part or all of the mobile invoice then the wireless code applies (even for employee purchase plan deals). If the plan is owned and paid by a large corporation then the code does not apply and a 3 year agreement can be entered into.
You can read the CRTC decision here (Link).
Telus to bring streaming TV to its customers
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Image by schmilblick used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Bell Media announced (Link) a new streaming service called "Project Latte" where they will deliver "the best content on television". The offering will offer both past and current shows (including HBO's library). The Bell offering will be delivered via the web, wireless and TV. Before you jump for joy thinking this is finally the next evolution of TV
““Project Latte” will therefore be made available to all TV subscribers in the country”
Fast forward to today and Telus has signed a distribution deal for "Project Latte" (Link). Remeber that quote I just talked about? This service will initially be available to customers of Telus Optik TV, Bell Fibe TV, Bell Aliant FireOp TV and Bell Satellite TV (ExpressVU).
This could have been a fantastic offering if it did not require a cable subscription. Like our American brothers and sisters, Canadians are dumping landline phones and traditional cable television (Link) and companies will have to modernize to stay relevant.
Videotron adds 38000 subscribers and increases ARPU
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Image by thskyt used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Quebec's Videotron has become a very fierce competitor in the Quebec wireless services market. The end of September ended another great quarter with more subscribers and higher ARPU (Average Revenue per subscriber),
38000 new subscribers call Videotron wireless home (bringing the annual total to more than 111000). ARPU increased 6.5% year over year.
“the success of our new value-added plans, featuring higher data caps at impressive speeds, as well as our optimal selection of mobile devices. ”
Videotron's newly deployed LTE network (touches 90% of Quebecers) has been a huge success and is delivering speeds of up to 150Mbps. The analyst call also referred to discussions with Wind Mobile. I think a purchase of Wind by Videotron would be a fantastic move for the company and for consumers.
Videotron won spectrum in the 700Mhz auction in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and BC. Let's see if growth ambitions push Videotron to compete ocean to ocean.
Videotron report (Link)
Apple Messages most secure messaging platform
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Image by Daniel Dudek-Corrigan used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released an interesting comparison chart showing how well the most common instant messaging platforms compete on security.
The EFF analysis looked at these criteria:
- Encrypted in transit
- Encrypted so the provider can't read it
- Can you verify contacts identity
- Are past communication protected if keys are stolen
- Is the code open to independent review
- Is security design properly documented
- Has the code been audited
Are
The highest rated tools (scoring 7 out of 7) were:
- ChatSecure
- CryptoCat
- Signal/Redphone
- Silent Phone
- Silent Text
- TextSecure
Not surprisingly, Apple's Facetime & iMessage (Messages) were ranked as the most secure mass market messaging tools.
“although neither currently provides complete protection against sophisticated, targeted forms of surveillance”
Google second most valuable brand in the world (afterApple)
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Image by Duncan Hull under Creative Commons License [/caption]
Google is the world's second most valuable brand (2nd year in a row). The king of branding is still the one, the only, Apple. This according to the Interbrands Best Global Brands report. (link)
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The report assigns Apple a brand value of $B118 whereas Google is a close second at $117. Evaluating global brands is a long and painful process but Interbrands boils it down to 3 main criteria:
- Financial performance of the brand
- The role the brand plays in influencing customer choice
- Does the brand add a premium to products or services sold?
See how that webpage looked years ago
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Geocities website December 20 1996 [/caption]
The Internet Archive (link) was started in 1996 to catalog and preserve the web. Today it has saved 435 billion webpages and makes this massive historical collection easily searchable. the site is constantly updated with new snapshots and every couple of years the sites platform is upgraded to keep is modern and working.
For those of us that have been on the web from very early on, there is something heartwarming and nostalgic seeing the early versions of Geocities, AOL, Compuserve and even Facebook.
There is also a business use to this site and it has to do with research and brand protection. Research because academics can use it to analyze historical changes to the web. The brand protection aspect comes in because you can check what the domain name was used for before you bought it (porn site, medication sales, SPAM site, etc).
If you bought a site that Google considered questionable and was therefore blocked by the search giant, you can use their reconsideration form (link).
So go and enjoy the web as it was and think of what the next generation will think of our current sites.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1673"]<img src="uploads/2025/f71c5ae1bd.jpg" alt=" Kiledjian.com Feb 13 2003 "> Kiledjian.com Feb 13 2003 [/caption]