So after Googling around a bit I came across an interesting piece of information. It is possible to update your Twitter account using Google. And to be more precise, Google’s Feedburner. It’s quite simple.

First off you obviously need an account with Feedburner and secondly you need a feed to burn (duh). Then once you have your feed setup, you go to Publicize and on the left you click on Socialize. Then you’ll be presented with a few options, you link up your Twitter account and Bob’s your uncle!

But now, I have been wondering how to get my Facebook updates into Twitter. A while ago Facebook changed their security policy once again and made it virtually impossible to get your status updates to Twitter. It’s quite easy to do it vice versa, but let’s be frank, not all of us want our Twitter updates to go to Facebook. What happens on Twitter should stay on Twitter! So, originally I was using TwitterFeed as I mentioned earlier, but then I thought, I might as well give Feedburner a bash.

Now it’s not quite that easy to setup, but once you know how, it’s a blast. And you know at least when it comes to Google, it works!! One difference is though, the update frequency is not quite as often as TwitterFeed USED to be, but it works a charm.

So how do you get the feed to your Facebook status updates?  Here comes the tricky part:

• Log onto Facebook.
• Go to your notifications page, www.facebook.com/notifications.php
• At the top you’ll see a little link that says, “Via RSS”. Click on it.
• Then in your browsers address field. Change the word notifications to status and hit enter. You’ll now we presented with your own status updates only.

And there you have your feed. Pop it into Feedburner and voila. You can publish it to Twitter or just about anywhere you damn well wish.

Have fun

Anyway, enough of me complaining about humans complaining. Lately you hear people everywhere saying how much they dislike Facebook. They complain about other people that use it all the time, they complain about it making the global village smaller, they complain that it is unsociable. Often these same people will be seen on Facebook in photos of their Wednesday night dinner party, photos of their new-born baby or their drunken night out on the town. Or they’ll be the ones that “likes” everybody’s status updates, photos, video links, blog posts, or whatever.

My theory is deep down inside, everybody enjoys Facebook. After all, humans love gossip. We like to stay up to date with what’s happening in everybody’s lives. Whether you’re a regular, or whether you just login once a week, we all love it! It’s like the reality TV shows when they came out. Everybody was nailed to the TV set, because we love watching drama and Facebook is full of drama.

I happen to visit Facebook quite often as I am a web developer and work on the internet every day of my life. To me it’s just another communication tool, like having Skype, Gmail and Outlook open all at the same time. And then the phone rings…

I remember way back when cellphones came out. Before cellphones, people could only get hold of you if you were at home or at the office. That’s it. It was great! Now you can be reached just about anywhere. But why I bring up those days is, I remember back then how people complained about cellphones. Some people even said they will never get one. It was almost as if people had this whole “big brother” fear about cellphones. Now it is an everyday thing. If you don’t have one, you’re just plain weird (I actually met someone the other day that does not have a cellphone, or an email address for that matter, weirdo). The point I’m trying to get to, if I can maybe stop interrupting myself, is this. My generation were still in our teens when cellphones came out and we easily accepted them. I remember it was mostly the older generation that were scared of them and who said they will never own one. Now the people that complain about Facebook are my generation and upwards. It’s the younger generations below us that are accepting it as the next best thing.

I remember when I started chatting on the internet. Everything was very anonymous. You used an alias and an avatar and no-one knew your real name. It was almost unheard of that you’ll expose your real identity to people in chat rooms. The first time I joined Facebook, I signed up with an alias. Haha! Needless to say, it did not take me long to figure out that it defeats the whole purpose. It took me a very long time to get accustomed to the idea of actually putting a photo of myself on the internet.

Our kids will grow up with Facebook being just another tool like a cellphone. It will probably be so integrated into our society by then that we won’t even think of it as a social website anymore, but more like a service that make our lives easier. Just like we used to crack jokes about our parents being old and not accepting new technology, our children one day will do exactly the same thing. They will probably be like, “But Dad, how did you get anything done if you did not have Facebook when you were growing up?” If used cleverly, Facebook can be a very useful tool (besides network marketing).

Facebook is here to stay. You might as well get used to it. Embrace the change. Technology is here for us. It is here to make our lives easier. It is progress. If you don’t want it, don’t use it and go back to your cave. And if you dislike it so much, why do you still have a profile on Facebook? It’s really easy to deactivate it, just go check under your account settings, it’s right there. Just a few clicks away. Otherwise, just keep your sad opinions to yourself.

Seriously, if any tourists to our beautiful country read this and have any fears, please be at peace. What you hear and see in the media has a lot of hype attached to it. We might have our problems in South Africa, but it is not that bad.

And for those who were wondering. No we also do not have lions, rhinos or giraffe roaming the streets, they are all out in the wild or locked away safely in game reserves!

One thing I must say, please no bad vibes, manners or any mass paranoia allowed, leave those at the airport before boarding.

Watch the planet go dark one time zone at a time as satellite pictures
capture the beauty of darkness and energy conservation across the
globe.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when more than 2.2 million families and businesses turned off their lights for Earth Hour on Saturday 31 March 2007.

Just one year later, Earth Hour reached 370 cities and towns in more than 35 countries across 18 timezones, and the campaign shifted from a Sydney event to a global sustainability movement.

An estimated 50 to 100 million people around the world switched off their lights for Earth Hour in 2008, and global landmarks including the Rome’s Coliseum, the Coke billboard in Times Square in New York and Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai darkened for one hour.

In 2009, Earth Hour aims to reach 1 billion people around the world in more than 1000 cities involving business, government and the community in the world’s largest global action on climate action on 28 March 2009.

Even Google is joining the event by turning its background black each year for Earth hour.

Go view the website at www.earthhour.org or join the group at Earth Hour on Facebook.

Being not only a DJ but also a producer sets Fletcher apart from the rest and he definitely sets the milestone when it comes to his genre of music.
I had a brief chat with him that evening and he said we can look out for his new album at the end of January 2009.

You can also join the group on Facebook here, African Dope Records on Facebook.

See, now I’ve got nothing against it, but lets just stop to think about it a bit. What if the government had a share in Facebook. The whole Big Brother theory suddenly comes back to mind. Oh yes, forgot about that? This is an interesting link someone emailed me the other day: ‘Does what happens in the Facebook, stay in the Facebook?‘

The scary thing for me is that they are now opening Facebook to the search engines. Have you changed your profile privacy settings?
Have a look at this story as well at this one. On that last one they give you this Google Search link of people who have already been posted on the Search Engines.

Personally, I don’t like the idea. You could probably find me on the net if you searched really hard, but to have all my information just so blatantly displayed is another story. As to the Big Brother theory, well at least we live in South Africa, I don’t think the CIA wil be looking for me!