Take that Bieber.
Category: Internet
I think I am going to add a couple of these to my reading queue.
Categories
Christmas Gift Guides
It’s the time of year when websites start putting out their Christmas gift guides. Here are some of the better ones I have found:
* [National Review](http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/333906/what-they-want-christmas-nro-symposium)
* [The Needle and the Mouse](http://feeds.theneedleandthemouse.com/~r/theneedleandthemouse/~3/2jd8gR1AhVE/36431546450)
* [Jorge Quintero’s Photography Gift Guide](http://jorgeq.com/jorgeqfolio/2012/11/23/obligatory-2012-holiday-gift-guide-for-photographers?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jorgequinterosphotoblog+%28Jorge+Quinteros+Photoblog%29)
* [The Comics Reporter](http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/the_comics_reporters_black_friday_holiday_shopping_guide_2012actualpublish/)
* [The Verge](http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/22/3679722/the-verge-holiday-gift-guide-2012) (this is actually a series of different guides for things from headphones, TVs, etc…)
* [Ben Brooks](http://brooksreview.net/2012/11/affiliate-gift-guide/) (featuring disaster readiness, tech items, and last minute gifts)
* [Dan Frommer](http://www.splatf.com/2012/11/2012-gift-guide/)
* Dave Caolo’s guides for [parents](http://52tiger.net/2012-holiday-gift-guide-parents/) and [the home worker](http://52tiger.net/2012-holiday-gift-guide-the-home-worker/). Also, one for [books](http://52tiger.net/2012-holiday-gift-guide-books/)
Here’s [mine](http://instagram.com/kivus).
Federico Viticci explains [Huffduffer](http://huffduffer.com), a great service that I’ve been using for, what seems like, years. Essentially, you create your own podcast feed with audio files you find online. I use it to pull single episodes from podcasts that I do not always listen to. I just put the podcast feed in [Reeder](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Freeder%252Fid439845554%253Fmt%253D12%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30) and when I see an episode that looks particularly interesting, I add that to Huffduffer[^fn1].
[^fn1]: I, of course, have my Huffduffer feed loaded into [Instacast](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Finstacast%252Fid420368235%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30)
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Tweebot for Mac Has Arrived
This is probably the last Twitter client that most people will ever buy and it’s [now available in the Mac App Store](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Ftweetbot-for-twitter%252Fid557168941%253Fmt%253D12%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30)[^f5557].
[^f5557]: Affiliate Link (as is the post link itself.)
Categories
Myke Hurley’s Homescreen
Best wallpaper I have ever seen in this feature.
Also, congratulations to Myke on [70 Decibel’s 1st birthday](http://www.70decibels.com/blog/2012/10/12/our-first-birthday.html).
Categories
Pagination in Long Articles is Evil
Hopefully more and more sites will move away from this model, and turn out to be more successful because of it[^fn1].
[^fn1]: It is great that the article itself is actually split across two pages.
Roku allows for native viewing[^fn1].
[^fn1]: On an interesting note, their recommendation that you use an iPhone or iPad with Airplay to view it on your AppleTV makes me think that they will have a non-Flash streaming option for iOS devices.
Categories
Cori Ashley on the End of Blogging
> But now Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are slowly siphoning off the interactions we used to get on our blogs. Not that it’s a bad thing — it’s just a different form of interaction. It’s a lot easier to like my Facebook blog post than it is to take the time to leave a comment. I say this while admitting that I’m just as guilty as the next gal of lazy internet relationships. I LOVE Instagram, like Twitter quite a bit, and it’s complicated with Facebook. Like Matt said above, sometimes I use the social networks as a filter, to figure out what I really want to read. I have to make a concerted effort to comment on the posts flying through my RSS feed.
Interesting perspective from Ms. Ashley. I think part of the reason she is noticing these changes is her involvement with a “blogging community.” She writes her blog to interact with other people, and Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer people that ability with less overhead. As someone who writes a blog to keep track of my personal interests and history, I do not see much overlap between my blogging and the various social networks.
Categories
Blocking Tynt
As I am doing more and more link blogging, the whole *Tynt* thing was starting to really bug me. That problem has now been corrected.
A candidate for the Maine senate is being attacked because she plays World of Warcraft. Good to see they are still having fun in my home state.
*Tapbots* has released a version of their *Tweetbot* Client for [App.net](http://alpha.app.net), aptly named:*Netbot*. It comes in both [iPhone](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fnetbot-for-iphone-app.net%252Fid563595132%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30)[^f5409] and [iPad](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fnetbot-for-ipad-app.net-client%252Fid563596528%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30) versions. Though I have really been enjoying [Felix](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Ffelix-for-app.net%252Fid562447652%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30) as an iPhone App.net client, I think I am going switch over to Netbot.
[^f5409]: Affiliate Link (as are all app links in this post.)
*Macworld:*
> First, you can click the link, wait for your web browser to start loading the file, click in the location bar, hold down the Option key, and then press Return. The file will download.
> Alternatively you can append ?dl=1 to the end of the link, so http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1234567/test.mov?dl=1. This will force your browser to download rather than preview the file.
Good tips to file away.
Currently hot in my [Fever](http://feedafever.com) instance – **App.net Price Decrease**
I am pleasantly surprised this has received so much buzz. I hope it results in an increase in the number of users joining the service.
Links related to this:
* [App.net’s Blog](http://blog.app.net/blog/2012/10/01/app-net-pricing-changes/)
* [TechHive](http://www.techhive.com/article/2010935/paid-social-network-app-net-updates-pricing-structure-adds-monthly-plan.html)
* [TechCrunch](http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/01/app-net-now-has-20000-users-drops-its-price-from-50-to-36-per-year-introduces-a-5-per-month-plan/)
* [The Next Web](http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/10/01/app-net-introduces-5-per-month-plan-drops-member-price-50-36-per-year/)
> Facebook today began rolling out a new feature that lets you see a history of everything you’ve searched for on the social network. A list of search queries now appears intermingled with all the Likes, comments, and wall posts that appear inside the Activity Log — a private section of your profile that only you can view. Only searches from now on get included in the Activity Log, so you can’t go back and revisit who you’ve been repeatedly stalking all these years. It works just like search and URL history inside your web browser.
Every time Facebook rolls out a feature like this I feel more and more like I should just close my Facebook account. This just feels creepy.
> According to documents posted on infodocket earlier this week, the average price of backlisted books (those from 2010 or earlier) is set to jump by 220 percent in October. Hachette has responded, saying that the new prices “fairly reflect the value to the library customer” since ebooks will not need to be replaced at the same rate as physical books.
What a bunch of garbage. Publishers cannot be cut from the “author-to-reader” delivery chain soon enough.
Currently hot in my [Fever](http://feedafever.com) instance – **Google chairman confirms no new iOS Maps app is waiting in the wings**
Links related to this:
* [TUAW](http://feeds.tuaw.com/click.phdo?i=1d74017797f63cde33ef841e8da94835)
* [Ars Technica](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/google-says-no-plans-for-ios-6-mapping-app-yet/)
* [The Loop](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/25/us-google-iphone-idUSBRE88O07U20120925)
* [The Next Web](http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/09/25/google-hasnt-submitted-maps-app-app-store-yet/)
Categories
Feed Update
I have recently updated my feed to use [Feedblitz](http://feedblitz.com) instead of Google’s slowly dying *Feedburner* service. Depending on how you originally subscribed, you may have to update your feed subscription to [johnkiv.us/feed](https://johnkiv.us/feed) to get your RSS reader to recognize the update.
My apologies for the inconvenience, but there are rumblings that *Feedburner* will be going away soon and I wanted to get ahead of it.
Categories
I Will Believe It When I See It
They say Twitter will have tweet archiving by the end of the year. I will not be holding my breath.