Smarterware » Cloud Computing

Host Your Nameplate Site on a Domain You Control

Gina Trapani — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:04:02 +0000

I couldn't agree more with the premise behind services like About.me and Flavors.me: if you spend a lot of time online for work, play, and your sparetime projects, you want a one-pager which explains who you are, what you do, and where to find you regarding those different contexts. A nameplate site is a great way to do this, which is why I've kept up ginatrapani.org for over six years. Since I've always linked to it from every single thing I do online, it's the first search result for my name. (Sorry, other Gina Trapani's). Social networks like Twitter and Facebook and services like About.me and Flavors.me and LinkedIn come and go, but when you host your nameplate site (and blog) on a domain you control, it doesn't change, you never lose Google juice, and there's never a question about the canonical web page which identifies you.

This Week in Google Episode 72

Gina Trapani — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 01:43:41 +0000

Got to chew over all the recent Google News with Tom Merritt, Jeff Jarvis, and Kevin Purdy this week while Leo was at the Le Web conference. We spent a lot of time talking about ChromeOS and the Cr-48, and during the show I said I was dubious about a web-only computing experience, and that I didn't know how I'd write, compile, test, and manage code using it. Since then I've received my Cr-48 and begun trying it out for myself, and jQuery creator John Resig described how he conceivably would program on it day-to-day. The fact that there's a terminal with the ability to SSH into a remote server--and more robust "chromoting" remote desktop capabilities to come--make ChromeOS a much more viable everyday computer for me. More on living with the Cr-48 after I spend more time with it.

Disposable Computers

Gina Trapani — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:53:01 +0000

Here's another difference between Apple and Google: Apple makes beautiful computers, and Google makes computers disposable. Check out this ChromeOS commercial. I actually recoiled watching the coffee, toaster, sink, and ice cream sundae land on the notebooks in this video and destroy them. Zero data loss is great, but I also love keeping and caring for devices I love.

This Week in Google, Episode 71

Gina Trapani — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:07:07 +0000

Really fun episode yesterday with Matt Cutts, one of Google's most friendly and well-known engineers. We talked about the power of links (even negative ones), net neutrality, Google possibly buying Groupon, and Google TV. My tip of the week was doubleTwist's new wireless media syncing feature, AirSync.

Google Apps vs. Google Accounts Parity Coming

Gina Trapani — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:02:00 +0000

Google Apps users who want access to all the same products that regular Google Accounts have won't have to wait much longer. An anonymous tipster tells me a Google Trusted Tester program is underway right now, which "transitions" Google Apps accounts to full access to all GOOG products, including Voice, Reader, Buzz, Analytics, and more. Here's the official Help page which includes a visualization of the transition, in the screenshot here. (Here's a PDF, in case they pull access to the link.)

On this week's episode of TWiG, Leo, Jeff, and I were hoping aloud that there would be some way to merge existing Google/Apps accounts into one. It doesn't look like that will be possible. However, if you have a Google account that "conflicts" with your Apps account because you've assigned the same email address to both, GOOG will resolve the conflict by adding a +personal to your regular account's sign-in address. Stay with me here.

Here's what that means. If you have a Google account for sue@example.com as well as a Google Apps account for sue@example.com, after the transition you'll still be able to sign into your Google account using sue+personal@example.com. It's a bit confusing, and a little more work than the one-click account merge we'd hoped for. However, thanks in large part to Google's internal Data Liberation Front, many of Google's tools offer data export features. So, while it'll take some time, it shouldn't be difficult to export your data from your Google account and import it into your Google Apps account after this transition is done.

The only product I'm worried about? Google Voice. Since it's got my primary phone number associated with it, transitioning it from my Google account to my Google Apps account won't be a simple data export/import operation. I hope I'll be able to port my Voice number from my original account to my Google Apps account when all this goes down. No word on when exactly that will be, but the fact that it's in Trusted Tester phase means "pretty dang soon."

Update: Hooray!! You can currently request to port your Google Voice account to another Google account (though not a Google Apps account--yet?) Thanks, programzeta!

About the conversion: A visualization on what's changing [Google Accounts Help]

How to Set Up OpenID on Your Own Domain

Gina Trapani — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:36:20 +0000

For some reason I was under the mistaken impression that setting up an OpenID on my own domain, ginatrapani.org, would be a big hassle: that I'd have to host my own OpenID server software and that it would take all sorts of installation and maintenance BS to do so. I feel strongly about owning my identity online, mapping it to my nameplate domain, and actively choosing an authorizing party instead of just accepting the sign-in service du jour like Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, or Google. Still, I never got set up with OpenID on ginatrapani.org because my perceived hassle factor was daunting. Instead, I used idproxy.net for my OpenID and put the domain setup on my "someday I have to do that" list. It meant that my OpenID was ginatrapani.idproxy.net instead of my own domain. Idproxy is a great service and I thank them for getting me started with OpenID; but still, I want my OpenID URL to be a domain name I own and control.

Turns out I was dead wrong about the hassle. Setting up OpenID capabilities on your own domain name is a two-lines-of-HTML affair, and it's finally done. (Thanks to Chris Messina for bringing me into the year 2006.) If you're interested in doing the same, here's what to know.

First, Google Profiles (and, it turns out, idproxy.net and ClaimID and a bunch of other OpenID providers) can work with your domain name, so all I have to do is add a few tags to your HTML to get things set up. Second, you can specify multiple OpenID providers, so if idproxy.net was down or Google Profiles was down, you can have a provider fallback. Sweet. Now, in the tags of ginatrapani.org you will find the following:

That sets Google Profiles as the authorizing party for my OpenID, but my OpenID URL is ginatrapani.org. You can see my new OpenID in action right here; I signed into this very site with my new OpenID and posted a comment.

I'm not sure yet how to set Idproxy as my "fallback" provider just yet; if you know how to do that, post it up in the comments.

Thanks to the folks in this Stack Overflow thread for clearing up how to use Google Profiles as an OpenID provider and to Chris for a great discussion of OpenID, OAuth, and verifying identity on the web.

This Week in Google, Episode 46

Gina Trapani — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:30:09 +0000

This week's episode of TWiG featured Jeff Jarvis Skyping over 3G from a moving car on a NJ highway, Brad Stone from the NY Times who was a total trooper during our criticism of the Times' takedown of the Pulse iPhone RSS reader, and Om Malik of Gigaom, a very smart teddy bear who I'd like to hug. My tip this week: the new Gmail Labs' Maps Preview, which embeds a Google Map into any email that has a U.S. address in it.

Tell the White House What Our Next Tech Challenge Should Be

Gina Trapani — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:19:07 +0000

This week the White House will put out a call to techies and scientists across the internet, asking a simple question: What should the United States' next greatest technological and scientific achievement be? Get your answers ready, geeks.

When you reply to the White House's prompt--on Twitter, Facebook, or via email--your voice will be heard and your ideas will be counted. I know, because I helped build the software that will capture your responses and deliver them directly to the people in charge.

Ready to get involved? Here's what to do.

Think big! Imagine an ambitious science or technology challenge (something huge like the moon landing!) which you think can inspire great new ideas and inventions. Here are some examples President Obama listed.
Follow @whitehouse on Twitter or become a fan of The White House on Facebook, and watch for a tweet or post about the grand challenges in science and technology between Monday April 12 and Wednesday April 14.
Reply to the tweet or post with your idea, or a link to ideas you find interesting. On Twitter, use the hashtag #whgc. Alternately, you can email your response to challenge@ostp.gov.
Encourage your friends and followers to respond, too!

Everyone working on the Grand Challenges initiative can't wait to hear what you have to say, so thanks in advance for your insights and participation. We'll be sharing the responses we got both online and at Twitter's first official conference, Chirp, this week in San Francisco.

Give @whitehouse Your Feedback! [Expert Labs]
Join the Conversation on the Future of Science [AAAS]

TWiG: The iPad Episode

Gina Trapani — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:34:31 +0000

This week's episode of This Week in Google included my friend Matt Haughey. Because we recorded on iPad launch day, the conversation inevitably centered around the new device, which I didn't buy. A live viewer told me I looked a little bored at times--and I'll admit, since I didn't have one of the toys to play with myself, I kind of was. Still, it was a fun discussion full of iPad love, even though Jeff Jarvis had a little morning-after regret.

Correcting Kindle E-Books on the Fly

Gina Trapani — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:51:43 +0000

A few months back I bought Brian Tracy's Eat That Frog--a great book about beating procrastination that I cited in a recent Fast Company video--on my Kindle. Today I got an interesting email from Amazon. To quote:

We're writing about your recent Kindle purchase of Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. The version you received contained some errors that have been corrected.

An updated version of Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time is now available. It’s important to note that when we send you the updated version, you will lose any highlights, your last page read, and bookmarks made in your current version and the locations of any notes may not match the updated copy of the book.

The whole part about my losing highlights and bookmarks stinks. But Amazon reaching down into my Kindle and correcting errors in a book I bought months ago? Wacky!

Update, 4/12/2010: I posted this in a rush last week and didn't include the entire text of the email, or fully-baked thoughts about it. To clarify: the updates to the book are indeed optional and opt-in. The email ends thusly:

If you wish to receive the updated version, please let us know via e-mail at amazonkindle-feedback@amazon.com.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and would like to thank you for your business with Amazon.

My apologies for making it sound like this update was not opt-in. While I wish Amazon would provide a diff between the revisions so I can see exactly what I'm getting when I ask for the update, they won't touch my book unless I ask them.