Facebook Chat using Pidgin

Posted by & filed under Social Networking.

 

Pidgin is an excellent cross-platform instant messaging client that allows you to connect to pretty much all of the mainstream instant messaging protocols.

To connect to Facebook chat/messaging using Pidgin, you’ll need to set it up as an XMPP connection using these steps:

1. Create a new connection under Accounts -> Manage Accounts -> Add
2. The username is your Facebook username.

a. To find your Facebook username, simply navigate to your Facebook Profile page (not your News Feed/Home).  Your username is in the address bar.  It’s the part AFTER the http://facebook.com/ part.  So, for example, http://facebook.com/USERNAME

3. The domain is chat.facebook.com
4. Password is your standard Facebook password that you use to login to Facebook.com

5. On the Advanced tab, make sure the Connection Security dropdown menu is set to Require Encryption and the Connect Port is set to 5222.

6. Click Save - and you’re all set!

 

 

Scrobble Turntable.FM to your Last.FM recently listened tracks

Posted by & filed under Music, Social Networking.

 

I’ve been loving Turntable.FM since I created my account a few weeks ago.  It seems great for discovering new music, or just using it as a set-and-forget music streaming service.

The primary reason I don’t use it more frequently is because it lacks the ability to Scrobble my recently-listened tracks to my Last.FM profile.  There are several reasons I love Scrobbling, namely for tracking my trends, and as a central location to make note of artists I stumble across that I like.

Fear not, it looks like this Gabek character has devised a Google Chrome extension to Scrobble your Turntable.FM tracks to Last.FM.

Requires: Google Chrome + TurntableScrobbler

To get it setup:

1. Install the TurntableScrobbler in Google Chrome
2. Click Continue
3. Launch http://turntable.fm
4. In the new Last.FM authorization tab that pops up – click Allow
5. Refresh your Turntable.FM tab

Unable to save to mapped drive or network locations in IE9

Posted by & filed under Tech Support.

I recently deployed a new workstation to a user who was no longer able to save Excel files to a mapped drive. IE would simply flash the download dialogue twice and the file would never appear in the selected location.

Studying the issue further shows that IE9 is trying to use permissions in the remote location that are generally not allowed for standard users of a share. Most users can write/modify but don’t have full control. Some users reporting this to Microsoft have stated that a patch will be released on Patch Tuesday in August.

In the mean time, the work around is to simply open the document and re-save it from within the application, or save it locally and move it to the network location. Or grant the user full control in NTFS permissions on the share.

Disable instant upload of photos in Google+

Posted by & filed under Mobile Technology, Social Networking.

 

When I installed the Google Plus app on my HTC Incredible, the Instant Upload option was automatically turned on. I can definitely see how this would be useful to not worry about the hassle of uploading all your photos to Google+ or using it to back up your photos from your phone. All of the photos that are uploaded to Google+ are private until you go into the Instant Upload album on your profile and share them.

To disable the instant upload behavior, Launch the Google + application on your phone. Go to Menu > Settings. Check or uncheck the “Instant Upload” box.

Turn off backlight on home/menu/back/search capacitive buttons on Android phones

Posted by & filed under Mobile Technology.

 

It seems that there would be some way to turn these backlights off or at least toggle the brightness in the settings menu. They are blindingly bright in a dark room.

Luckily for us, the LEDs Hack app will allow you to turn these off. This app can be found in the market.

Note: Your phone MUST be rooted.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, every time your phone reboots, these boxes will all be unchecked, so you’ll have to do it again to turn them back off.  Hopefully there will be a native way to change these settings in the future.

Allow button does not appear when trying to connect Spotify to Facebook

Posted by & filed under Music, Social Networking.

 

I spent several days trying this over and over in frustration, but it turns out, the fix is very simple.

Make sure the Facebook window is closed first. Minimize the Spotify window. Click the “Connect to Facebook” button. Drag ONLY the bottom of the Spotify window down until you see the “Allow” button appear.

Setup Room Mailbox to Accept Available Recurring Meeting Times – Exchange 2007

Posted by & filed under Tech Support.

 

To setup a recurring meeting on a conference room and have the rooms accept all those available timeslots and deny those that have a conflict (instead of denying all times);

Run both of these PowerShell commands for each room you want to modify:

Set-MailboxCalendarSettings -ID “RoomName” -ConflictPercentageAllowed 99
Set-MailboxCalendarSettings -ID “RoomName” -MaximumConflictInstances 20

You can change the percentage and allowed instances based on your own preference.

 

Can’t find Google+ app in App Store search

Posted by & filed under Mobile Technology, Social Networking.

 

If you’re having trouble finding the brand new Google Plus app on your iPhone in the Apple App Store… app, you can open the URL in Safari from your phone, and it will locate Google+ in the App Store for you.

Click this link from your phone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google/id447119634?mt=8

 

 

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Get an early invite to Spotify if you have enough Klout!

Posted by & filed under Music, Social Networking.

 

It appears that social influence ranking site Klout has partnered with Spotify to offer early invitations to recently-release-in-the-U.S.-music-service Spotify.

If you have a high enough Klout score, you’ll automatically be given a promotional code which will let you into Spotify Free earlier than inputting your email address into their auto-invite list.

Hit the link to see if you’re eligible!

Klout

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