So with all that new information out there, companies are struggling to keep up. Poor marketing agencies across the world are inundated with too much data to cope with, and their servers are smoking with every 150,000 new users every day. My heart goes out to them.

So I’ll make it easier, with a year of Facebook in summary…

• 127 foolish people have decided or agreed to call me their friend. 59 recognised as people from or at my current company, 9 from university, and 14 fellow college alcoholics.
• Added 116 photos across 8 albums, 8 of which include me. A further 22 pictures of me have been added by other people.
• I’ve developed two applications both for my own use on my own profile, one of which remarkably still maintains 58 users, 1 fan, and a total install count of 129. I can only imagine it’s even remotely usable by about 10.
• Received 88 private messages.
• Written 64 notes (imported and otherwise… This will make it 65).
• Joined 18 different groups, including “that punch the slow walkers” one.
• Updated my status 15 times in the past 3 months.
• A total count of 27 events, 3 created by me including one that unknowingly spawned into 320 mostly unknown invitees.
• I’ve played 20 games of scrabble on-line, completed 14 and won 11, with a top score of ‘utopias’ for 65.

So if you’re on Facebook – all that information and a whole more will be out there too (as well as all the specifics). Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Now, where’s that tin hat?

* You have invited Alison to start viewing webcam. Please wait for a response or Cancel (Alt+Q) the pending invitation.
Alison says (22:21):
you doing something kinky?

I’m not sure where I got this undeserved reputation from, personally. But anyway, if you’d like to try this yourself, it’s compatible with all kinds of Symbian S60 phones, so head over to motvik’s web site and download wwigo. It’s free, and it’s cool – what else could you ask for?

Whether you’re excited about gifts, food, alcohol, friends, family or Doctor Who – I hope that your Christmas hero of choice; Santa Clause, Jesus, Scrooge or Doctor Who ensures that you all have the Christmas that you’re hoping for!

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2086909.ece

Basically some geezer who went to Harvard with the Facebook bloke is claiming he had a bunch of source code stolen. Alarmists everywhere are pretty sure the site will be shut down any day now and encourage you to backup your friends before you forget who they all are. Again. Still, it’s sure to return as a paid-for-20-quid-an-hour subscription site run by the evil new owners. Who also originally come from Mars, so I hear.

Oh please.

Why?

I have thousands of photos on Blakepics, and Facebook comes along and wants me to upload them all over again. Well, sure, I can do that – or, it makes a lot more sense to combine the power of the two systems.

What?

Wanting to keep this initial trial run extremely simple – I’ve gone for just adding a link below my profile picture. That way I can keep very clear of the Gallery API for the time being effectively reducing my problems by half

How?

1. User adds the Blakepics application on Facebook
2. Setting the Callback URL on Facebook, a request is made to Blakepics.com
3. Blakepics.com makes use of the Facebook API to check the currently logged in user
   // the facebook client library
include_once('../modules/facebooktaggedalbums/api/client/facebook.php');
include_once('../modules/facebooktaggedalbums/api/client/facebookapi_php5_restlib.php');
// some basic library functions
include_once('../modules/facebooktaggedalbums/api/lib.php');
// this defines some of your basic setup
include_once('../modules/facebooktaggedalbums/api/config.php');
$facebook = new Facebook($api_key, $secret);
$facebook->require_frame();
$user = $facebook->require_login();

4. Using this user ID, Blakepics requests the first and last name of that user from Facebook
   $user_info = $facebook->api_client->users_getInfo ($user, 'first_name,last_name');

5. Generate a URL that links to the tagged album, e.g. http://www.blakepics.com/key/kevin+blake. Using the rather cool FBML (FaceBook Markup Language), the link can be sent to Facebook with the instruction that this should be applied as a profile action (fb:profile-action).
   $fbml="<fb:profile-action url=\"http://www.blakepics.com/key/" . $user_info[0]['first_name'] . "+".$user_info[0]['last_name']."\">View more Photos of me at Blakepics</fb:profile-action>";
$facebook->api_client->profile_setFBML($fbml, $user);

6. And display a message back to the user, to let them know what’s happened
   print "Blakepics profile link has been added";


And that’s it really. Obviously there’s a lot more that can be done, but the simple application works and is on its way to approval from the Facebook team. All being well, you should be able to add your own links to tagged albums very shortly.

“Can I help you sir?”, asked the friendly Toy’R'Us employee.
“Nah, I’m just looking. Thanks”, I politely replied.
“Ah, okay. It’s just that you have that bemused look of someone who’s totally fed up with Christmas shopping”, said the smug, overly happy customer assistance toys and present expert.
“Haha, yeah, that’s about right”, I laughed back, wanting to smack the smug bastard in the face.
Yep, so I might have jumped the gun a little when I proudly announced that I had already bought presents even though it was only Dec 9th. Buying two presents before Christmas weekend doesn’t necessarily mean a whole helluva of a lot if you don’t do the rest until Christmas weekend. It really comes down to the fact that you will still be running around at the last minute trying to think of ideas for presents.

“Well not next year.” I told myself, as I walked up and down the high street. ‘Sorry, no cash available’ each of the cash machines gloated. “No, next year I’ll order it all on-line and think about it in advance”. Yeah right.

The Christmas tree has huge piles of wrapped present goodness under it. The lights sparkle around the flat. Work clothes are stuffed firmly in the wardrobe under four days worth of clothes that will go nowhere near the office. The fridge is groaning under the weight of a huge Christmas dinner, and a large turkey is defrosting slowly on the side. Bottles of wine lie scattered about the flat with many more en route, and the town centre is full of crazed chickens running from store to store, and swarming around the sprouts at Tesco’s.

Speaking of, I need to stay away from Tesco’s as every trip that goes near food now involves thoughts like “oh, we don’t have any sausage rolls, I’d better get some before Christmas Day.” Whilst it’s true we don’t have any sausage rolls, we also don’t have any spring rolls, or halibut. I’m sure we have ample food to serve all six of us this coming Christmas – so I should just leave well alone.

So, nauseating Christmas part. I want to wish everyone a very happy Christmas. I hope that Santa brings all the presents that you were hoping for, and that you all get to spend the holidays with the people you care most about.

It’s that time of the year again. Today is the 343rd day of the year, and also Anna’s day, the time of the year the Scandinavians celebrate everyone named Anna – as well as start the preparations of the lutefisk consumed by households all across Scandinavia on Christmas Eve. Well, that must mean Christmas is on the way. Sure enough, Santa Clause has been nailed to the front of The Harlequin in Watford as is traditional for this time of year. Rather untraditionally this year he’s been taken down again due to high winds. It’s also not even Christmas Eve, and already I have bought Christmas presents – strange forces are at work indeed.

It’s also time to break out the Christmas decorations and take the annual trip down to Homebase where we ask the nice people to sell us something, anything that will fill Ali’s car with pine needles, and leave a treat for her feet for months to come. And that we did. Standing with tradition, I have been denied the 40ft Christmas Tree, but we do have the most amazing tree to date. It’s not fat, it’s not too small, it’s not yellow. It hasn’t been shamed into standing in the hall facing the wall with its head hung low. Our tree of 2006 isn’t bending over with the weight of the star, even.
Now all we need is the turkey, a mountain of stuffing and large quantities of chocolate … sorry … Yuletide fruits … and we’re done.

Happy holidays everyone!