On Internet Trolls and Critics

You can always tell you are doing something right because people start trying to tear you down.

When I worked as a community manager for an MMORPG developer I had plenty of practice dealing with internet trolls and other loud, bilious and spiteful people. Read on past the jump my thoughts on internet trolls.

How I Use Archive.org To Podcast For Free - Quick & Dirty Edition

I produce a podcast for my Power Word: Gold blog called (unsurprisingly) The Power Word: Gold Podcast.

I was asked by another blogger wanting to start a podcast for any advice. I've decided to share my response to them with all of you in hope that it might help point you in the right direction if you are thinking about getting into podcasting and are looking for a completely free podcast hosting solution.

Read on past the jump for more.

My Instagram Replacement Apps For The IPhone & iOS

I'm probably not the only one who deleted their Instagram account in protest (and disgust) over the recent user agreement changes that allowed Instagram to sell your photos to third parties without your knowledge and/or providing any compensation.

But many of us have come to love the retro aesthetic that Instagram provided with it's easy-to-use filters. We've also come to love how simple it was to upload photos to multiple services with a single click.

So, what will I will be replacing Instagram with? Read on past the jump to find out.

How To Delete Your Instagram Account (And Why I Did)

To delete your Instagram account go to the Instagram website, sign in, click on your name in the upper right, select "Edit Profile" and look for an "I'd like to delete my account" link at the bottom right of the edit page. Click that link and follow the instructions to delete your account.

Interestingly, even within Instagram's account deletion process they use three different words to describe what is happening. (See screenshots.)

• "I'd like to delete my account"
• "Permanently deactivate my account"
• "Your account has been removed."

I mean how hard would it be to unify those? I was a bit thrown off by "Permanently deactivate my account" be cause deactivating seems to apply that it can be reactivated and/or your information is saved for reactivation.

Regardless of the semantics of the deletion process I did delete my Instagram account today. I wanted to do so before their new Terms of Service come into effect on January 16, 2013.

Deleting My Instagram Account

I deleted my account because I didn't want them to be able to sell my copyrighted photos to third parties to use for advertising (or for what ever else they would use it for) without notifying me or giving me any kind of compensation.

This is bad. get out while you can and tell Instagram (and its parent company Facebook) that you won't stand for these types of money-grabs that make services worse for the user.

I'm not sorry to go.

This is what happens when services stop looking at us as users and start look at as as products to sell (in this case quite literally).

Turn On iTunes 11's Missing "File Edit View..." Menu Bar

TL:DR - Hold Alt > View > Show Menu Bar (Or press Ctrl + B)

If you've updated to the new iTunes 11 and have noticed some of the useful items missing then you're not alone.

After updating I wanted to simply select "File > Add Folder to Library..." which is how I normally add albums to iTunes. The only problem was that there seemingly was no "File" menu to speak of. It just wasn't there.

After hitting a few modifier keys to try to find the menu I stumbled upon holding down "Alt" (I'm on a Windows 7 PC) which temporarily showed the "File" "Edit" "View" etc. Menu Bar.

Holding "Alt" Brings Up The iTunes 11 Menu Bar 

This was helpful but the fact that something as useful as a "File" menu is hidden by default is very bad design in my opinion. We're all used to "File" and "Edit" menus and we can often get lost when we can't find them or even worse think features (like "Add Folder to Library...") have been removed.

If you like the iTunes Menu Bar to only appear when holding "Alt" then simply press ALT when you need to use it.

If, however, you are like me and want the Menu Bar to show up all the time you can select that option by:

• Holding down Alt to bring up the Menu Bar
• Selecting "View" from the Menu Bar
• Selecting "Show Menu Bar" (or press Ctrl + B)

The menu bar should now be visible without having to hold Alt.

Turning Menu Bar On: View > Show Menu Bar

Having to hold a somewhat obscure (or any) modifier key to access something as fundamental as the Menu Bar is really a UI fail in my book. If I hadn't stumbled upon it I would have simply assumed iTunes 11 didn't have a menu bar and therefore was less useful.

Having just started using it I can't say for sure whether iTunes 11 is a step in the right direction but I think hiding much-used and familiar features is not a good route to go.

How to Fix Youtube "This feature is currently not available in your country." Monetization Error.

So I went to monetize my personal YouTube account today only to be greeted with a strange "This feature is currently not available in your country. Learn more." error.

After searching google and the YouTube forums fruitlessly for a solution I think I finally found the reason why I was getting this error.

The possible solution was buried deep in a very unintuitive place inside of YouTube's settings. Read on past the jump for the solution.

My First Day On App.net

Last night I couldn't hold out any longer and went ahead and paid $50 (@jimyounkin) for one year of access to App.net. App.net (often shortened to "ADN" by its users) is a new short message service (read: twitter) that is being built around the idea of users paying for use of the service rather than the service being paid for (and beholden to) advertisers.

While I have more to say about Twitter's recent missteps when it comes to 3rd party developer relations and their increasing push to monetize their users to advertisers I won't do it here. Suffice it to say that in my mind twitter, while still a very useful service, has "jumped the shark" in the last few weeks.

I chose to put my money where my mouth is and commit to paying for App.net even at this early stage because I want a service like this to exist and the best way I can do that is by supporting it now.

So, how did my first day inside App.net go? Did it meet my initial expectations? Where can I see it going from here? Read on past the jump for my impressions.