…and all I wanted was a pepsi.

(pardons to suicidal tendancies…)

So, I posted a couple of workarounds/fixes I discovered about blogger to the blogger google groups. I guess someone didn’t like them, because they magically disappeared. No email, no post back (hey, that’s a stupid idea, or that’s been posted a million times before [even if I couldn't find it in searching], no you posted too many times in a day), no nothing. Just magically disappeared with broken links under my profile. The first time it happened, I just reposted my post. I read the TOS and the only thing I saw that might be remotely relevant was about spam… and I didn’t consider it to be spam, but a workaround to something that’s not working very well in blogger. One part of a different post, I did later find a similar reference, but I didn’t find it in searching the first time. So, I thought I did something wrong. So, I reposted.
Apparently, my posts were meant to eh… not be there.

So, then I thought, maybe I should just move this blog on over to wordpress. In a worst case scenario, the user forum there will yell at you if do something stupid, but generally they seem pretty nice. However, moving a blog is such a pain and I kind of like blogger, but then I found out about the nifty little import tool. Seems to work pretty well.. if I can just get my categories sorted out.

So, then I started googling for info about how to do some other things, and I received a message, accusing me of being spyware. yep, me.

Of course, I am running a virus scan, just in case, but I find it kind of wildly funny that this came up right after I tried to unsubscribe from a google groups.

So, eh, if my blogger magically disappears, too, I guess we’ll all know why. Thank goodness WordPress seems like a viable option. I’m very excited to collapse all of my school blogs into one blog. Let me know what you think, okay?

google video

Creativity just amazes me. You may remember the google collaborative video effort? Basically anyone could submit a video but it had a few requirements (obviously the passing of the red envelope…) I considered participating but my video camera is not that good, plus I didn’t think my cat would enjoy having a red envelope stuck to her (just kidding!). I did wonder how it would turn out. You can also see all of the individual clips and find out where they came from here.

google sky…

This looks so coool. Kind of like google earth but for the sky. very very cool. ;-D

article on google sky

google sky website

google search cheatsheet

A nifty little printable cheatsheet of advanced searching tips in google is here

migrating to a new user name in blogger.

I started blogging at blogger long before google purchased it. Once google purchased it, users were given the option of continuing to blog the old way, or move on over to the google way. To entice people to move on over to the g way, google offered enhanced blogger with lots more functionality (widgets!!!!!!!! love widgets. thank you ajax. another topic)

When I finally moved to the google way, unfortunately, my user name at blogger migrated as a new gmail/google account. So, although I had a gmail account, I now had a second gmail account just for my blog. Sigh! Initially, everything I read online said there was no way to merge the accounts… never the two shall meet. However, I am a person who if it is related to technology and seems possible… well, I’ll find a way. Just about the time I decided that maybe I would just copy & paste all my entries into a new blog and back date as needed (bleech, been there, done that, for a different blog), I discovered the easier way to migrate a user name. Okay, it’s still kind of a pain in the ……

Anyhow, I’ve migrated all of my old blog to here, contentdivergent.

..and here is how I did it in case that it is remotely helpful. You must do the steps in order and you might also want to test to make sure it does work (just create a new blog…)

• You’ll need 2 gmail/google accounts (You already have one with blogger — we’ll call this one blogger-id for clarity; and then you’ll either need your alternate gmail account or you need to create a new one. The alternate account is where you are going to migrate your blog. We’ll call this one alter-ego for clarity).
• Login to your blogger account using your blogger-id (gmail) account
  • • Go to your dashboard. Under your blog, click on settings.
    • Under settings, click on permissions.
    • Add new author. Invite your alter-ego.
• Now, logout of blogger.
• Go to gmail and login as your alter-ego.
  • • Click on the email for your invitation.
    • Follow the links, logging into blogger under your alter-ego.
• Logout of blogger.
• Log back into blogger under blogger-id (gmail) account.
  • • Now, the most important steps:
  • • Go to your dashboard. Under the blog you want to migrate, click on settings.
    • Under settings, click on permissions.
    • Change your alter-ego to admin (clicking on guest changes it to admin).
    • When your alter-ego is admin, both users (blogger-id) and alter-ego will display with a link, admin. Now click on the blogger-id and click Remove.
    • Scary moment, eh? Okay, logout of blogger.
• Log back into blogger under alter-ego (gmail) account. You should see your blog with only your alter-ego listed.

NOTE:
This worked perfectly for me. I migrated 10 blogs (long story about why so many). Some sites state that you need to remove the original user (blogger-id, in my example) under the new gmail account (alter-ego, in my example). I didn’t find that to be true, but it may be due to changes in blogger/google. So please try this on a practice blog, before you do it. ;-D

best of luck, robin

…and a link from the blogger google group:
Google groups

Google/Youtube takes on piracy at youtube

Google Inc.’s YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular Web site, a lawyer Friday told a judge presiding over copyright lawsuits.

[snip]
… YouTube was working “very intensely and cooperating” with major content providers on a video recognition technology as sophisticated as fingerprint technology the FBI uses…

complete article at
yahoo news (via AP)

…and an interesting response to the article

DIY google maps (maplets)

Okay, I don’t have a personal use for this YET, but I can see all kinds of fun applications. Got family or friends visiting for a week? Create a map of fun stuff to do. Got folks coming to a conference? Create a map of activities and places to eat.
Campus tours? Art about town walking tours? Hmm…. Next vacation, forget the highlighter and sticky notes on a map… I’m mapleting it.
….

———-
Maplets let users customize Google Maps
‘Maplets’ enable users to combine Google Maps with services such as a real estate listing or traffic report
By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service, July 11, 2007

Google introduced a feature to its mapping service on Wednesday that allows people to create their own customized maps, by adding information such as the location of cheap gas stations or property for sale.

The information comes from what Google calls maplets, which are small applications created by Google or a third-party developer that combine Google Maps with some other service, such as a real estate listing or traffic report.

Users who set up a Google My Maps account can then create their own customized maps, adding as many maplets as they want. They can also draw directions on their maps, and attach photographs or videos of specific locations using services such as Google’s YouTube and PicasaWeb.

The resulting maps can be kept private or made public and indexed in Google’s search engine, according to Google’s My Maps page. People can also upload maps to Google Earth in the form of a KML (Keyhole Markup Language) file, a technology for describing geographic coordinates.

A Google official said last month that the company may eventually allow paid advertisements on its mapping service, where businesses would be able to create maps with some sponsored links. The ads would take the form of the pins seen on the maps today, with pop-up photos and text.

It would be a way for both Google and businesses to earn more advertising revenue, which underpins much of Google’s strength. Google has said it will give users some say in how many ads appear on its maps, so as to not be too intrusive.

– From InfoWorld,
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/11/Google-customize-maps_1.html

Google Maplets/

Google heads wireless

Google takes on wireless

For a company that’s had an office in Washington, D.C., for less than two years, Google is wielding a surprising amount of power in the nation’s capital.

Exhibit A is the influence Google is having on a closely watched government auction of $10 billion in licenses to provide wireless service. The Web search giant has hired some big guns to help it shape the rules for how the auction will be carried out, reflecting the company’s growing interest in the wireless industry and the rising stakes in the battle for a crucial chunk of airwaves.

if you are tired of flickr, del.icio.us, and youtube, other fun things to do on the ‘net…

dappit
http://www.dappit.com/
extract content from websites

google image namer
http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/
Basically, it’s a fun way for google to help improve their image search results.

and of course, 43places.
http://www.43places.com

More on google’s book-scanning project

U. of Virginia joins Google’s book-scanning project

Following hot on the heels of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which joined Google’s amibitious library-digitization effort last month, the University of Virginia has signed on to the project.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=1711