Paternity leave!

As of this moment I have started two months of paternity leave. I am really looking forward to spending time with my boys. I will probably already on Monday experience how much my wife do at home – but until then I’ll just enjoy the idea of not having to go to work every day for some months! More from me later! Happy weekend everybody!

What do you need installed on your laptop?

I run Windows 7, and have just reinstalled the OS; and I always start with the folder of applications I used the last time. In this folder I keep the latest version of the applications I install. But the list increases; so I try not to install everything when I reinstall the OS. What is your minimum application list? Mine is as follows:

• Antivirus/firewall: Symantec (currently running: SEP 11.0)
• VPN: Lotus Mobile Connect (currently running 6.1)
• Microsoft Office 2010 Beta (including Visio, Project and Sharepoint)
• Lotus Notes (with Symphony) (Currently version 8.5.M2)
• Lotus Sametime 8.5 (internal chat client for IBM, AOL/gchat and VoIP)
• SwiftFile (a nice add-on to lotus notes to manage my email)
• Microsoft Live Messenger (latest version)
• Java, Flash, Adobe, CutePDF-printer, itunes and Nero Express.

This is my list. There are several tools I will install when I need it, like DVD backup tools, WinDVD or whatever tool I need for a specific project. But the basic list is what I will include in a ghost copy of my drive. What is on your list?

Windows 7 Activation Error: 0x8007232B

I have used Windows 7 Ultimate for some months, but as the license delivered with the computer is a Windows 7 Professional - I had to downgrade. You could say that going from x86 to 64 bit is an upgrade  - and the additional functions in Ultimate will not be missed.I tried to activate my newly installed Windows 7 64bit edition today. and got the following message:

Code: 0×8007232B
Description: DNS name does not exist. 

This is a strange error. But as always a search in Google gave me the solution:

0x8007232B +"windows 7"

 It basically told me to open command prompt and enter the following commandes (the computer will return a confirmation after each):

slmgr.vbs -ipk [your product key]

slmgr.vbs -ato

After these to command my Windows 7 configuration is up running. Now I only have to install all applications and copy over the documents. Maybe I this time should make a disk image of the setup :-) I really recommend having a virtual disk with the key applications you need installed. I have that running providing me with access to VPN, mail, intranet etc. This way I stay available even if my setup is not ready.

Transfer to fastname.no 100% successful

I decided a week ago that I would change registrar for the domain on my blog - nicolai.no. This was because one.com asked me to re-send a fax to confirm ownership. I didn’t like that they suddenly required something that other registrars in Norway requested. It didn’t like it. Fastname.no has a great offer for transfer these days: Free web hotel and domain cost for one year. You have to agree for a two year contract – but the prices is competitive in the first place. And they didn't require any fax to confirm ownership. They sent a mail to the admin contact registered on the domain - where they asked me to confirm the transfer. This is the way to do it in 2010!!

The really nice feature with the transfer was that they offered to check my current DNS settings, and use the same settings for host (A, CNAME) and mail records (MX). This ensured that there was no downtime on my blog/domain. This is just great service!

#Mysteryfollower – part 4: not updated since

Today I started to work on a view that will give me some more useful statics on my followers. I will present some of the content (last 3-5 posts) and when these posts where made. By providing some context on new followers – I’ll easier decide if I should follow back. I will even make some basic rules for followers I will not even check

#Mysteryfollower – part 3: suspended and blocked

I see more changes to the follower statistics than I expected after I created my #mysteryfollower script on my twitter account. I see accounts being removed from the XML resultat because they are blocked or suspended. These accounts are still listed on the web. I guess that is because the website probably isn’t updated as frequently as the API. I will implement a check in my script when I lose a follower – to see if the account was blocked or suspended. And if that is why the account is removed, I’ll hide it in my report – because I don’t need to know that spammers and bots have been removed.

The fine-tuned SQLs work as they should now, so the next step is to do some minor changes to the database design to enable the script to work for more than one account – I’ll start by adding my Norwegian twitter account: @nicolairygh. I guess more than one account will make more tuning necessary.

#Mysteryfollower - part 2: loosing a follower

The script has work well over the last days. The first bug was problems with the script if it was runned twice at the same time - that gave timestamp issues in the base. So now the script can only run from the ip that auto starts the script ever hour.

Checking the log to see new followers feels good. Seeing lost followers is something else. I spent some time thinking about my first lost follower after I started this project. It will be nice to see changes in followers up against content. Maybe special tags or how many tweets is the factor - why do you unfollow somebody?

#Mysteryfollower - part 1: version beta 1

My script that checks for returning followers on twitter is almost ready. Instead of getting the emails from twitter when I get a new follower, I have scheduled that I will get emails once a day with statistics on my followers. It will include follower information:

• New
• left me
• returned

And I’ll see if I can include the key stats about the users too. Follower/following ratio, last message posted (and when) and the photo. What other information is relevant when you consider following back somebody who follows you?

I see my follower number is going up and down over time. Sometimes twitter removes spammers and boots making follower counts drop. But it will be interesting to get some more statistics. After having the script running for 8 hours (running every 60minutes) I see that I need to fine tune the SQLs in the database – as the log is filling up with new entries. If you want the geeky details, here is the setup:

I have decided to use asp 3.0 (the programming language I prefer) and a simple access database. I could have chosen a more robust database, but as long as I am the only user the database will only get connections from my script, and the number of entries will as many as the number of followers. If the follower number goes into the thousands – I will probably have more problems with the twitter API than the database anyway. I made a pre-beta version of the script some time ago, and when I picked up this project now twitter had changed their api. The biggest change is that they have included version in the URL, but also on pulling follower information have they changed from requesting pages to requesting with something they call cursor. The cursor is a database reference, and you’ll get the next 100 from a specific point in the database, and not 100 entries after your last 100 entries. This is a smart change, but I had to change the script a bit.

The twitter API returns about 100 followers per page, so I post the following URL starting with cursor equals -1.

api.twitter.com/1/statuses/followers/rygh.xml?cursor=-1

I include my credentials in the request to ensure I get also users who have protected profiles. This gives me the first entries, and it also returns the cursor value for the next 100 followers. The next URL will be the same, just replacing -1 with the new value. The last page will return the cursor value zero, and then I know there aren’t any more followers to be found. I merge the queries together and make it available as one XML-page. I parse stored XML file I get with the following asp code:

Sub atom(URL)
Set objXML = Server.CreateObject("msxml2.DOMDocument.3.0")
objXML.async = false
objXML.setProperty "ServerHTTPRequest", True
objXML.validateOnParse = true
objXML.preserveWhiteSpace = false

If Not objXML.Load(URL) Then
Response.write "ERROR"
Else
Set objNodeList = objXML.getElementsByTagName("user")
For Each objNode In objNodeList
For Each objNode2 In objNode.childNodes
Select Case objNode2.nodeName
Case "id"
id= objNode2.text
Case "screen_name"
name= objNode2.text
End Select
Next
'// HERE I include the followerscheck.asp-file
Next
End If
End sub

The included file (followercheck.asp) is where I add new followers to my database; those listed in the database that isn’t present in the XML will be marked in the database as “left me”. Whenever a new entry is posted, or updated with a different status a log file is created for the user. Here is why I will find the mystery followers that constantly follows and unfollows. The code I showed you only includes the fields ID and NAME; I can from the XML also pull the last status message, the photo, location etc. Everything you see on the web about a user is present in the entry in the XML.

The question is how frequently this script needs to be executed. I currently fine tune, so it runs on demand and every hour. But the question is if it is needed to be executed more than once a day. If somebody drops me to instantly follow me again, I will probably be without that follower for seconds – and making this script run so frequently is too time consuming. I actually see some performance issues with my current setup; so I will tune some more before I post the updated followercheck.asp script.

Being constantly unfollowed and followed?

First edition of my “who follows me” is ready. I have seen over the last months on twitter that some accounts with a lot of followers are unfollowing me, and then following me again if I haven't followed them. I guess this is because they see that sometimes people will follow-back when they are followed. I don't want to spend time following people who only follows me to get one follower back. I follow because of content, so as of today I will not get the email from twitter when somebody new starts to follow me - I will use my script to verify that the new follower is still there the next day. And then I will see if this person is somebody I would like to follow.

I will test some more before I open the solution up for others. This web-based application will when it runs take a dump of all the IDs following a specific twitter user. Each follower will be listed in the database, and then the next time the script is executed it will compare if the follower is there or not. If it has “unfollowed” it will be marked as unfollowed in the database, but still have a record. This way I can see if somebody starts to follow me. The question is how frequently this script needs to be executed to “pick-up” those “unfollow/follow”-people. Stay tuned!

Post in the comments if you want to try this when it is ready!

Spending less time on Facebook – I think?

I use the delicious toolbar in Firefox with “most visited” bookmarks. Almost all the sites I visit only are present in the top 25-27 sites listed in that view. I use short names or even just one letter as these sites normally have an icon with the sites logo. The changes to the top sites changes a bit over time as I use the net differently when I am in different modes. I am currently in a heavy work mode – using my laptop more or less only for work – the computer time I spend outside work is more writing blog-posts or reading up on specific topics.

Mashable wrote two days ago about "Facebook becoming the web’s ultimate timesink" where an average US Internet user spends on Facebook than on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Microsoft, Wikipedia and Amazon combined. As the article on Mashable says:

“Think about that for a moment”.

For me the number of time I visitt Facebook per week is falling as I can see the bookmark for Facebook is dropping in my “most visited” view. I share more content, so twitter.com, j.mp and blogger.com is moving up. Facebook is down on 10th place. This is from my computer. I do visit Facebook with my mobile. In between meetings, and sometimes when I am “idle”. And I guess that is where Facebook gets more and more visits. Not from the time we spend at our computer, but from our handheld devices.

And I guess this trend is why an average US internet user spends more and more time on Facebook – the content is in a specific Meta frame. It is like talking with your friends and family. Facebook has tricked as all into their net. But the last changes to their site have made me feel like less is happening. It is more boring. I don’t think it is my friends being less interesting. I think it is because Facebook has changed the algorithm they use to serve me content. If somebody comments on something – it feels like that story “stays-around” longer than it used too. And I want new content – not just new comments on old content!