My Facebook Timeline

If you have a Facebook Developer account, here is how to enable your Facebook Timeline -

1. Log into Facebook
2. Enable developer mode, if you haven’t already. To do this, type “developer” into the Facebook search box, click the first result (it should be an app made by Facebook with a few hundred thousand users), and add the app.
3. Jump into the developer app (if Facebook doesn’t put you there automatically, it should be in your left-hand tool bar)
4. Create a new app (don’t worry — you wont actually be submitting this for anyone else to see/use). Give your shiny new app any display name and namespace you see fit. Read through and agree to the Platform Privacy agreement. This is the step you need to be verified for.
5.  Ensure you’re in your new app’s main settings screen. You should see your app’s name near the top of the page
6. Look for the “Open Graph” header, and click the “Get Started using open graph” link.
7. Create a test action for your app, like “read” a “book”, or “eat” a “sandwich”
8. This should drop you into an action type configuration page. Change a few of the default settings (I changed the past tense of “read” to “redd” — again, only you can see this unless you try and submit your application to the public directory), and click through all three pages of settings
9. Wait 2-3 minutes
10. Go back to your Facebook homescreen. An invite to try Timeline should be waiting at the top of the page

The timeline goes all the way back to when you first joined Facebook and even before then listing your friends’ birthdays. The new timeline allows you to add pictures, status updates, notes e.t.c to any period in your timeline, in essence, allowing you to create an online scrapbook of your life.

Beware though as pictures/posts e.t.c from way back in the past are now easily visible, so make sure you have the right privacy settings. If you’ve previously split up with your boyfriend/girlfriend, and got a new relationship with someone else, all those previous “I love you” messages can be easily seen by your new partner, which has the potential to end your current relationship with them. Albeit, if your partner is prepared to dump you because you’re not the only person they’ve ever slept with, you’ve got much bigger problems than Facebook.

You can apply a privacy setting to each individual post or if you go into your Account Privacy Settings – Limit the Audience for Past Posts. This applies a privacy setting to all your private posts in one go, but beware, if you want to unapply these settings you need to go undo it on each individual post.

Happy Scrapbooking!

Dei Volente Productions Website

Client - Dei Volente Productions

Brief - A website that will promote the music of Dei Volente Productions and help to build up Dei Volente’s fan base across a variety of social media channels. The social media channels should also be integrated into the website.

Website - http://www.deivolente.com/

Technologies used - XHTML, CSS, WordPress, PHP and MySQL

Listed as Top 100 Programmer in London

In December 2010, I was listed as a Top 100 Programmer in London by iClickster . I didn’t really think much of it as being in any list is subjective to the person creating the list.  But then I started receiving emails and facebook messages from friends and a few randoms, congratulating me on having made the list. I have also received a couple of job offers because of it. Never thought lists could be so powerful, maybe I should do my own list in the future.

In the meantime, I will revel in being one of the best Programmers in London

Williams Murray Hamm - Creating Difference blog

Client - Williams Murray Hamm: Award winning packaging design agency, amongst the Top 5 in UK

Brief - A blog that reflects the quirkiness of the agency and promotes it’s brand values

Website - http://creatingdifference.com/blog/

Technologies used - XHTML, CSS, WordPress and PHP

Zoosk have created an ideal landing page

Landing pages are a key tool in an online marketers’ toolbox. They are often linked to from social media, email or PPC campaigns to convert site visitors into sales leads.

Building landing pages over the past 3 years has taught me that it is both an art form and a science.  Below are a collection of best practices I take into consideration when optimizing landing pages:

1.    Have a clear strategy and don’t take your eye off the big picture

2.    Keep it simple, stupid (KISS) – This is the fundamental of any design project. The landing page is a place to deliver a simple message and to push conversion. DO NOT try to go overboard with content or design. Any forms on the page should only collect the bare minimum information required for a conversion.

3.    Another design concept, try to keep content above the fold, people hate scrolling.

4.    Create the page on brand – the landing page should be an extension of your company’s branding, so it must adopt the same voice, tone and style as the rest of your site

5.    Provide social proof – People like to know that others approve of the product and are using the product/service successfully. You can do this through testimonials, customer logos, awards badges or press logos.

6.    Make the Call to Action (CTA) clear and easy to respond to.

7.    Ensure the page is browser or platform compliant. Many people use mobile devices to access websites and having a landing page that breaks on these devices could seriously affect conversion rates.

8.    Respect social norms – Not including links to a privacy policy or terms of use can lead to the credibility of your landing page being questioned.

9.    Use Analytics and Thank you pages to monitor conversion and ROI. Thank you pages can also be used  to give respondents additional information that was not presented to them on the landing page

10. Go Social – Adding social features to your landing page such as “Like or Share” buttons could further propagate the reach of your landing page. Videos could be added to the page to further add to visually showcase a product.

Lapbitz

Client - Lapbitz – Laptop parts

Brief - E-commerce store that allows for searching by both category and manufacturer of laptop parts. Store needs to automatically calculate shipping costs based on delivery address.

Website - http://www.lapbitz.co.uk/

Technologies used - XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL and Payment gateways

LSBU Timeline using CSS

Client - London South Bank University

Brief - An accessible and visually clean timeline to showcase the history of LSBU using CSS

Website - http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/about/timeline.shtml

Technologies used - XHTML, CSS

London South Bank University website

Client - London South Bank University

Brief - Homepage re-design. The new home page should be visually pleasing, accessible, promote social networking and have an improved information architecture. It needs to conform to LSBU branding and web guidelines

Website - http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/

Technologies used - XHTML, CSS, JQuery, RSS and PHP

http://www.youtube.com/v/rDu2A3WzQpo&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0

When I first logged in to Google Wave, I was fortunate enough to have my one and only Wave contact online as well. So together we set about learning and experimenting with Google Wave.

Collaborating in a discussion with multiple Wavers

Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.

Having toyed with Google Wave almost the whole of today, there is no doubt that there are a lot of creases that need to be ironed out but overall Google Wave has lived up to the hype. I have been able to do the basic features such as IM (with real time typing display), create waves, send attachments, organise waves into folders e.tc but in addition to these, I have also been able to collaborate with other “Google Wavers” in a group discussion. Also using Google Wave Gadgets and Robots, I have been able to easily insert maps into waves by just typing a postcode, ask any question I want and get an instant answer (accuracy is around 70%), embed videos and some “Google Wavers” have also been able to tweet from within Google Wave using Tweety.

Adding a map in a wave

Google Wave is a great tool to use within an office environment for collaboration between team members but it also has ample features such as instant messaging, integration with social media sites, games e.t.c that is sure to attract the younger generation.

Asking BingyBot a question through Google Wave

Further Information -

• A complete guide to Google Wave
• Google Wave 101
• Top 11 Google Wave robots

I have been asked numerous times as to the best way to caption YouTube videos hence this blog post. When I initially started to caption videos, I used the ever popular MAGpie software but found that captioning YouTube videos proved to be extremely tedious with MAGpie. Fortunately, there are a number of free tools available on the web that makes the captioning process a whole lot easier. Below is a review of the tool that I use CaptionTube:

CaptionTube

It has taken a while but Google have finally come up with their own tool for adding YouTube captions. Unfortunately it does not integrate with YouTube as fluidly as we may want it to but neverthless works efficiently as a caption editor once you get past the learning curve. It allows you to connect directly to your YouTube account and have access to your videos within CaptionTube. Once the captions are created though, you will need to export the file and then upload the file to your YouTube account, this is where the fluidity is lost. Add a functionality to automatically add the caption to the YouTube video and I think we are on to a winner app. CaptionTube is what I used to caption the LSBU YouTube videos

Screenshot of captiontube

Other tools that I have found useful include:

• Subtitle Horse
• dotSub
• Easy YouTube caption creator