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How To Get New Facebook (2010)

Gray — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:32:24 +0000

This post will be relatively short:

Starting February 2010, everyone will start getting the new Facebook design.

While some people may have got it instantly, others may have take up to a full month for it to change for them.

Simply logging in and out will not upgrade your Facebook and people are saying that the new design is confusing and not simple at all.

I have done some research and there is nothing anybody can do to get the new Facebook design other than wait.

YouTube Allows Public to Vote/Submit Feature Ideas

Gray — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:20:56 +0000

Not much to say here, see it yourself and submit yourself.

Click here to check out their Product Ideas page.

YouTube Gets Redone

Gray — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:55:54 +0000

Never would I think that YouTube would finally change it’s boring old 2008 player.

The graphics were bad, the buttons were tacky, and I shutter honestly just thinking about it.

YouTube has redone their video page as of Thursday, January 21, 2010.

In this post, I will be covering the key changes to their new video page.

New Next-Up Video List

Now when you search up something on YouTube and click on one of the results, the other search results from your previous search will be displayed in the next-up box. How convenient. This includes if the video is in playlists, recommendations, etc.

Access Your Stats Quicker

Now when you click the More Info button it will expand both the description, tags, and stats. Rather than you having to click on multiple ‘More Info’ links. This means it will take up less space too.

Actions Bar + Clean = Happy

YouTube has also worked hard on cleaning up their actions bar on the page which includes in it: share, rate, etc. “We thought a lot about practicality here, choosing to expose only the most commonly used actions and language for you. And, “Playlists” can now be built via the “Save to” pulldown menu.”.

A New Rating System!?!?

I did say a major redesign didn’t I. No? Well now I have. YouTube was noticing that mostly the 1 and 5 were used and not the other 3 stars. Liking the video will is like giving it 5 stars and place it in your favorites, while disliking can rate a poorer score.

New HD Buttons

Rather than the bulky HD button that used to be there where you had no choice but to watch the highest quality when clicked, YouTube now has 4 possible selections from you to choose from:

360p

480p

720p

1080p

YouTube Talks More About The Video Page

Subscriptions are important to many of you, so we’ve made it more noticeable by moving the “Subscribe” button to the top of the video right near the title. This also gives anyone the ability to quickly peek at more videos from the creator’s channel. (Just click on the arrow next to the number of uploads on the person’s channel to see more videos from that user.) You’ve told us that making you hunt for this information on the page is confusing and many of you wanted this data in one place. This should make it easier to discover more content from videographers you like.

So those are just a few things you’ll find in this new video page experience. As with all things on the Web (and in life?), change is hard and can take some time to get used to. That’s why we did a lot of research, talked with so many of you and incorporated your thoughts into this latest back-to-basics playback page.

Opt In and See It Live!

Just click here to opt in.

Solving The Red Light Headphone Jack Problem on a Macbook

Gray — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:59:54 +0000

State the Problem

Is your Macbook’s headphone jack lighten up red?

Does your Macbook’s sound not work unless you have headphones in?

Experiment

Your not alone. Nearly 100s or more of people have experienced this problem and it is not the end of the world either.
What has happened is that a piece of lint or dirt has gotten into your Macbook headphone jack and has gotten over the microsensor which detects if headphones are plugged in or not.

How do you solve this?

Simply use a plastic toothpick/non-cotton end of a cotton swab/wooden end of a match and delicately try to clean out the headphone jack.

If the light remains red, remain calm. Try plugging in your headphones and pulling them out around 5-10 times but not to harshly.

If the light remains red, try plugging in your headphones and slowly twisting the pin inside of the headphone jack and see if the light finally turns off.

If that doesn’t work, try blowing (not to hard) air with your mouth only (no vacuum) into the jack and see if that works.

If it still fails, I suggest you try reading some of these forum topics rather than wasting money:

New Design, More Content

Gray — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:04:48 +0000

Gray’s Blog has never really had enough ‘oomph’-if you will-to keep the visitors on the site for an extended amount of time. You come, you read, you don’t subscribe, and your gone. Enough of that. Gray’s Blog has taken it up a notch (or two) and did a huge makeover.

So you changed the design?

Here are just a few highlights of the new design:

Main titles are always smooth (built-in text smoother)

Hit counter is now displayed on the right

Thumbnails are now displayed on nearly every page

Popular posts and recent comments are displayed on the top right

Search results take up less space individually

Post links stand out more

Categories are listed that the top (now with child categories)

On the subject of new:

There are also a few new features such as: the Artist Spotlight where my favorite artist of the month is displayed along with 8 of their photos, FeedBurner email subscription which requires no registration, commenting on most posts, and anti-spam measures (CAPTCHA).

What to expect in the near future

Slight tweaks in the design

Faster load speed

More ways to bring the community together

Glances at the new design.

Goodbye for now!

I will be back with a new post shortly, but for now browse the new and improved Gray’s Blog.

Best Free WordPress Themes of 2010

Gray — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:54:56 +0000

This post is constantly updated to keep up with what people are wanting most.
This post was last updated: January 11, 2010.

Theme Count: 15
It would be nice if you commented! It took me some time to put this all together.

Demo & Download

Demo & Download (at bottom of page)

Demo & Download

Download

Demo & Download

Best Social Bookmaking Plugin for WordPress

Gray — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:50:46 +0000

SexyBookmarks, a fairly new and unique WordPress sharing plugin introduces the idea of sharing in a new way.

Our sole aim was to stray away from the “in the box” thinking behind most social bookmarking plugins, and add a little flair that would entice your readers, rather than deterring them with microscopic icons that get lost in pages heavy laden with content.

SexyBookmarks uses catchy phrases that pop-out and make the reader look twice. Not only do these phrases increase the appearance of your website, but they increase your chance of being shared on a social networking website.

Catchy phrases aren’t the only attraction for the reader, simply placing your mouse of the icons expands the list showing all of the different places you can share.

SexyBookmarks allows you to disable the phrases and reorganize the order of the sharing icons.

With over 170,000+ downloads, SexyBookmarks is one of the most used social bookmarking plugins for WordPress and all of the cool blogs are using it.
SexyBookmarks is compatible with WordPress 2.9+

Click here to download SexyBookmarks straight from WordPress.org.
For a live example, look at the SexyBookmarks below this post!

Get Hulu On Xbox 360/PS3/Nintendo Wii

Gray — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:48:08 +0000

Many people want to know how to get free TV/Hulu or YouTube on their Xbox 360/PS3/Nintendo Wii. Today, you will learn how.

Using a helpful and easy-to-use tool called Playon Media Server, you will be able to share media to your gaming system (only supports Xbox 360, PS3, Wii). This ‘media’ includes: Hulu, YouTube, Amazon VOD, Netflix, and I’m sure there will be more.

Download it here, install, and continue reading.

Once you have downloaded and installed Playon Media Server, simply run it. To open up the settings for Playon, look in your system tray, right click on the blue ball with the orange icon inside and click Playon Settings. There you can add parental blocks, setup your Hulu/Amazon/YouTube usernames/Netflix account, playback settings, quality, and more.

To run it, simply right click on the blue ball with the orange icon inside in the system tray and click Run.

Once setup:
- It can be found on your Xbox 360 under the My Xbox section and in the Video Library
- I am not sure where to find it on the PS3 and Wii, but it does work on the PS3 and Wii compatibility is in beta testing

Livestream.com

Gray — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:02:23 +0000

Livestream gives you the option to broadcast live and offline footage without the need of an application.

Once you create your account, you will be taken to the Studio page which will guide you through the setup of your account. Once you have filled out your description, tags, title, etc. you will be off on your way to creating your online tv channel.

What makes Livestream so unique is that it gives you the ability to go live from multiple cameras and the ability to cue in a different camera at any time for maybe a quick side angle before reverting back to the front angle again. While you can go live, you can also add up to 40 YouTube videos to your media library so you can broadcast them to your channel.

Also, with the Autopilot feature, if you are going offline and you don’t want users to have to look at an Offline sign for the next few days/hours, simply drag media into the Autopilot library and turn it on. From the very second you turn it on, it will begin streaming the media in the Autopilot library over and over again until Autopilot is turned off.

Sidefeatures

Ability to show a custom banner at the bottom of TV stream
Ability to show a ticker at the bottom of TV stream
Ability to have an onDemand library for quick access to selective clips
Ability to have links
Ability to have upcoming events
Ability to have HTML in profile
Ability to use chatrooms
Ability to embed stream
Ability to have a custom banner, logo, TV branding (logo placed in top right corner advertising tv channel), and Promo picture

Check it out now at:
http://www.livestream.com/

What The Like Button Does on Facebook

Gray — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:20:09 +0000

I know, I know! So many posts about Facebook recently–well, it seems to be a point of interest, as it did increate my views about 2 times what they regularly are.

Facebook installed the Like button February 2009. Since then, it has been a shortcut to basically say ‘I like this’ on an item without the need of writing it out and commenting on it.

If Facebook were to take a survery on ‘What does the Like button do?’, about 75% of their customers would probably say: it just means you like it. However, the Highlights column on the right of your Facebook homepage tracks the most popular posts currently out. Things such as relationship updates will be added–most of the time–automatically the the Highlights if it is approved by the other person in the relationship.

In short terms, the more an object is liked, the higher chances there will be of it getting on the Highlights column.

Things to know about the Highlights column:

Automatically adds recent relationship updates once the two people approve it
Does not add status updates