DrAjao

Image Property of Marvel Studios "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 does everything a movie of its budget and scope is expected to do." Hey folks! Look who's back from blogging retirement, though I didn't retire as much as figure out a way to distill my angst into 140 characters or less . Anyhoo, let's see how things go this time around. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 does everything a movie of its budget and scope is expected to do. If you're insistent on a plot-heavy, character-driven thesis on what it means to be human...yada yada yada, then you might want to consider retracing your steps. This movie might not be for you. But if you want a humorous joyride with spectacular visuals and attendant action, you've come to the right place. The previously mentioned things the critics love are there but they won't distract you. Yes, it's less plot-heavy than its predecessor but it's not all fluff. There's enough plot in there to k...

The month of February is frequently chosen for fasting and other try-out resolutions because it is the shortest month (Super Bowl countries are exempt of course). Sorry but I will be eating heartily this month. I will however be giving up something else that starts with "F" for those 28 days. This addictive drug that my body doesn't seem to be able to do without. Facebook! My only treatment plan for the craving will be to actually pick up my phone and call someone...anyone and have some live conversation. So let the jonesing begin.

Here is a follow-up on this earlier post  where I suggested that Facebook add amenities to their "Groups" feature such as "search" and "categories". Thankfully, they implemented the search feature but we're still waiting for a day when group administrators (admins) will have the power to really order and prioritize the posts on their forums via categories and other means. Also, sadly, Facebook's group search feature can't seem to search beyond a limited time-frame or number of entries, depending on whether the entry was made in a comment or in a post. Illustration by Dr Ajao In another post , I commended Facebook on introducing the Timeline feature which serves as a categorization feature of sorts based on time. As long as anyone vaguely remembers what time a post was made, it can be more easily found via the timeline feature. A timeline feature should be highly appreciated by admins if also applied to Facebook Groups, the same way it h...

I'm back again, and Facebook (FB) should listen this time because they end up implementing my suggestions anyways. For shame! FB does not allow one to send messages to only the administrators (moderators)  of a group. The closest FB comes to this is a feature available to only small groups. What does FB mean by "small groups"? Apparently only groups with 50 members or less count as small groups. This won't do FB. We're not able to move as fast with our four-hundred-or-so-member groups because we can't rally the administrators (admins) conveniently. Imagine having to create a new message list of recipients every time you want to reach twenty group admins (Yes some groups need that many admins...even more).  I guess, once one has created such a message the hard way, one could keep that message thread going indefinitely, instead of needing to create a new message and painstakingly repopulating the recipient...

I said it blatantly in a post  a year and a half ago that "Nobody is as well-positioned to benefit from the proliferation of the internet like Google is." Google's decision to provide free WiFi to one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the US seems to be proof of that. Many businesses make a profit DESPITE providing free internet access to consumers. Google will probably be the first (if they aren't already) to make more money BECAUSE they provide free internet access to consumers. It's like a car dealership knowing of someone who wants to buy a car (and can afford to make regular car payments). They could probably afford to pick that person up at his home and chauffeur-drive him to their lot to see their latest selection. Other businesses are able to provide that free ride to that car dealership BUT they don't sell cars. They're hoping that while that person is driving off the lot...

If you've never checked the 'Other' segment of your Facebook inbox, you're probably not missing much. However, when I checked mine I found out that the 'Others' folder is the place Facebook sends messages that pages I've liked have sent to me. Well the pages send these messages to all their fans but they might as well have been to only me. Facebook treats the 'Others' folder as a kind of spam folder that you could decide to ignore outright, or clean up since it's possible an important mail could make its way there.  I will not complain about Facebook's 'spam filtering' because I think they try to err on the side of caution. This blog post is going to focus on messages from people that say they saw your profile and would like to pursue some sort of relationship. I've found most (99.9%) of these to be from scammers. By now, this is not a new tactic but it has replaced the slightly older tactic of claiming they are stranded in a...

A couple of days ago, a friend's e-mail address was compromised by scammers. They got access to her e-mail account and sent e-mails to her contacts (impersonating her) with the claim that she was stranded in foreign land and needed urgent financial aid. We discovered that the fraudsters had changed quite a few of her e-mail settings to make their scam keep working for them even after my friend would have changed her password! I learned quite a bit from the experience and I have a few (pre or post) cautionary measures to share. If you suspect that your account has been hacked into, here are some tips that should be very useful (especially if you use Yahoo Mail).  Change your password ! Luckily, many times, the hackers don't change your password in order to reduce your likelihood of suspicion. They know that if you're not able to log in, you're likely to contact your e-mail provider. The good scammers allow you to keep logging in, business-as-usual. Changing your pa...

Seriously, Facebook should stop abusing the word "Like". We've made our peace with their abuse of the word "Friend" but the "Like" thingy may be doing them some harm. Think about it. Imagine I find a page I want to participate in not because I like the page ("like" in the literal sense not the perverted Facebook sense) but because I want to provide an alternate viewpoint. The establishment could have the exact opposite of my values, or sell products I'm not happy with, and the best way to keep tabs on them, or offer my complaint would be to "Like" the page. Problem is I don't want to be caught dead 'liking' a page I don't...well...like. I know companies would probably want to limit the voice of the complaining customer, but some (the smart ones) will want to hear such customers so they can improve or at least know what their enemies are saying. This loss in important feedback and community activity might cost...

I'm impressed at how Facebook (FB) is 'sneaking' it's new timeline feature on us. With minimal advertisement the new template is spreading to 'hapless' users like wildfire. 'Unfortunately', the change is permanent (you might have to delete your whole FB account to undo the change). I've used the inverted commas above because...well...this time at least, I think FB made the right move. The timeline feature is actually a vast improvement. One that FB might not even have the incentive to implement, save a desire to please its users (and...em... compete better against Google+ ). I remember screaming bloody murder when FB first implemented their 'new' way of viewing photos. You clicked on the thumbnail, and instead of being taken to the photo in its album location, you got a temporary black background with the photo hovering over it. I hated the black background because I couldn't see anything else but the photo...no way to easily navigate...

Yeah, Facebook is the second most visited site but there is always room for improvement . Take Facebook Groups for instance, a very useful tool for bringing like minds and interests together. The tendency is to amass posts and threads, some, useful; some, not. Unfortunately, only so many posts can be immediately seen on the wall. Facebook allows you to show more posts by clicking the "Older Posts" link indefinitely, but this could take forever, depending on how many posts there are. Thus, the tendency is also to loose important discussions or repeat them unnecessarily. Even if the discussions are not lost, they should always be at the users' beck and call. I recommend a search feature specific to each group (or page, or event, or profile, or whatever-have-you). Not the general search feature that is sort of a joke especially when you're searching for people (maybe Facebook chose the wrong search engine to partner with). With a search feature, I'm sure I ca...

One major thing Google+ has going for it is the benefit of hindsight. They can simply look back at all the glaring mistakes that Facebook has made, and...well...make the same mistakes in cooler ways. Google+ gives people the ability to start afresh...reimagine their social networking...basically, add friends with more discrimination. Same goes for uploading content (comments, 'likes', pictures, places one visits...etc). Google also probably has the resources (even if not mindset) to limit the abuse of the right hand column of their pages with sponsored ads and 'friend' suggestions of the Orwellian order. They have the 20/20 hindsight of not describing all human relationships with the word 'Friend' and then limiting the number to only 5000. The truth is, Facebook already gave users the ability to compartmentalize their relationships with lists, so G+ isn't doing anything new in that regard...but they have not abused the words 'Friend' and 'Like...

Every new activity on a Facebook Group has the potential to generate email notifications that clutter our inboxes. While groups have many advantages (many of which we have not even begun to tap into), there is no excuse for unwanted mail. If the notifications are getting to you, don't exit the group for that reason alone (the group hasn't even started yet...you'll see), just adjust your settings a little. Here's how: These instructions apply to Facebook as of 2011 June 20th, and can be rendered obsolete at any time. Such is the nature of the web. Go to the top right hand corner of your page and click on ' Account '. It will drop-down a menu, click on ' Account Settings '. This will take you to your account page. Click on the ' Notifications ' tab. Scroll down a little to ' Groups '. At the bottom of that section, click on ' Change email settings for individual groups '. Just untick the group you do no longer with to receive notifi...

In this age of facial recognition , one should be able to accurately tag their friends in a photo of a crowd of people. Facebook allows you to use a crosshair to pin point the spot where you want attention focused. You can then label the point with a tag (a name of your Facebook friends or any name you like). When you hover over the tagged name, your spot is delineated by an empty white-outlined box which is about a square inch in size. Problem is, this can fit several identifiable people or objects. I can understand our GPS navigators being deliberately off by a couple of houses, probably for privacy reasons, but I don't get the impression that privacy is of major concern to Facebook where photo tagging is concerned. Yes, Facebook has photo recognition software which they use in suggesting your name to others when they upload pictures that feature your likeness (you may want to disable this feature in your privacy settings). Yet, even their software would have a hard time ident...

A quick way to judge whether you know someone on Facebook is by looking at your mutual friends. The quantity and quality of the friends help you make a quick decision to accept or reject a new friend request. Same should go for Twitter. Instead of wasting prime real estate showing users that are 'similar to' a new 'follower', they should show me users whom both I and the new follower...well...follow, and/or users that follow both of us. I know I'm not the first to suggest this. I just hoped to add an extra voice to the demand...'cos I know the internet is always listening. Have a wonderful weekend. Update: The internet heard .

You should have seen the exam Facebook made me take when it suspected that my account might have been hijacked. I was asked to identify my friends from images they'd been tagged in and I had to be 100% accurate. You should have seen me trying to figure out which of my numerous friends were tagged as cartoons, celebrities and various inanimate objects. What's crazier is that I eventually passed the test!

I hope this doesn't get me kicked out of school, but I agree..."Facts, hot or cold, cannot be protected by copyright since there is no author of them." News was never meant to be sold. Those who thought they sold it in the past, only sold early access to it and didn't seem to realize it. Now that the internet freely gives that access, it's time to innovate...or die! The internet isn't necessarily killing journalism...it's redefining it. Now I don't have to hear from only people who went to school to learn how to spin the facts. I can hear from anyone...people who are at the scene when it happens, or people who are feeling the pinch the most, or people who are not necessarily motivated by financial or political gain, or people who actually understand the technical jargon associated with the specific subject they're reporting about. Yes, the internet makes it easier for the facts to be distorted...but it also makes it easier and faster for those dist...

Look at it this way, instead of typing something like http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456789, all i have to do is type http://www.facebook.com/yourname to see your profile. So you can call yourself facebook dot com slash yourname (or in the near future, just simply slash yourname) Just a little easier than memorizing a number. Also, this time I’m sure it’s the real ‘yourname’ and not the many (insert more ‘manys’ here) people that share your name. This probably doesn’t apply to you Mr Shplurrggcht. DrAW!