Mike Southby

So at long last it would seem that Facebook have opened up their chat service to allow you to use the feature ‘off site’ by adding your account to one of many popular chat clients.  Facebook are using the Jabber (XMPP) open source technology which is supported by most popular instant messaging clients including Pidgin, iChat, Adium and Miranda.  It will also work with the latest release of AIM.

Further information can be found here where you’ll also be able to find specific instructions for setting up YOUR username on your chosen client.

I have to be honest; I can take or leave Facebook.  Sure it is probably the most used social networking service out there but I much prefer Twitter.  Facebook has too many Pirates, Vampires, Racers and other annoyances for my liking these days.  I wonder if Facebook – like many before it – is becoming a victim of its own success.  The number of Facebook users may well be continuing to climb but I wonder for how long, it’s becoming too commercialised and too full of junk.

Still, I acknowledge Facebooks relevance and am surprised to see that the latest version of the Android specific client which is found on the new Motorola Droid has not been ported back to the wider community.  The version available in the Android Market is pretty poor.

So you want the new version?  OK, it’s actually quite easy to get it to work:

Caveat:  You MUST uninstall any previous versions of Facebook from your device before trying to install this new version.

• Download this file and copy it to the root of your SD card
• Open a terminal window and type the following:
  su
mount /system –o remount,rw
rm /system/app/Facebook.apk
cd /sdcard
cp Facebook.apk /system/app

You don’t need to reboot, the Facebook app will show up immediately in your menu.

Enjoy.

Note:  Feel free to add me on Facebook if you wish but remember to add a note that you’ve come from my blog otherwise as if I don’t know where you’re from I may not accept your request, and more importantly, any requests to join your Vampire or Werewolf clan (or any other for that matter) will not be met with enthusiasm.

I was amused this morning to read that staff at some shops owned by the DSG group of stores (Dixons Stores Group, i.e. PC World) have been caught insulting customers on Facebook. A group setup for staff of DSG features comments from existing and former staff. The comments accuse customers of being “stupid” and recount alleged incidents that have happened during the employees working time at the stores.

Are they for real?

I remember a few instances over the last few years, such as the time I was told I would not be able to buy a Serial-USB converter because “they do not exist Sir, what you need is a Serial-Parallel converter”, urm yes they do actually. Then there was the time more recently when I overheard an alleged technician giving advice at the PC Repair Helpdesk, “no sir, it’s not possible to put the original software back on the machine, you’ll need to replace the machine with a new one, can I recommend…”, great advice, not.

Stores such as PC World are a convenience; they stock a fairly good range of general IT peripherals although at an extortionate price. I try not to use them if I can as I get much better pricing from on-line retailers, but they do have a place when you need a particular component straight away. My gripe is the lack of knowledge available at the stores, the general public are fooled into believing that they are going to receive excellent knowledge and advice from the staff at a competitive cost when in fact, they are often simply mislead because the staff member in question does not know the answer.  Perhaps it’s about time we revolted and created a new group on Facebook and shared some of our experiences with the staff of DSG, now that would make interesting reading!

I have most recently been recommended to join the professional networking site, Linked In as a way of making new contacts and keeping in touch with colleagues, both past and current.  Unlike Facebook, MySpace or Bebo, Linked In is not a social networking site and does not carry all of the usual gimmicks, it’s more an online way or finding or recruiting the skill set you need and exploring your colleagues contacts.  Networking in it’s purest sense.  It’s also a place where you can personally recommend people who you have worked with or people who have worked for you in the past, so if you need any references to my work, you can find some on here.

If you want to join my network please visit my page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesouthby