Great Advice

Great Advice
Originally uploaded by akozlik

Bwah ha ha ha ha!

Add Digg, Reddit, and Del.icio.us to Blogger

After searching the web for a comprehensive tutorial on adding digg, reddit, and del.icio.us to your Blogger blog, I decided to write my own. I eventually found the tutorials for each respective site, but wanted to add in my own comments, as well as use the actual Blogger variables for setup. Keep in mind that this post is specifically for Blogger. I can't guarantee that it will work with Wordpress, as I don't know what variables they use. Enough of the disclaimer, lets code!

Digg

Firstly, you'll have to get the javascript from digg.com. You can go to www.digg.com/tools/integrate to get it. You do not want to use the first option, as it will not keep track of diggs for each individual post. The second option, "When the URL you wish dugg differs from the current webpage" will work perfectly for us. Copy the script from that section.

The next step is to add the link to your blogger template. Logg into blogger and click the 'Template' tab. This will allow you to edit the html on your blog. Keep in mind that the page uses XHTML, therefore all coding rules apply. i.e. all lowercase tags, make sure all tags are closed, case sensitive, etc.

Scroll down the the <-- begin .post --> section of the code. Below this, you will see a tag that says <$BlogItemBody$> Below this is where you will want to put in your code. I found that using a table to maintain structure gave me the appearance I wanted. It also left room for additional links in the future. I used the tag.

<table width="100%">
<tr>
<td width="25%">
</td>
<td width="25%">
</td>
<td width="25%">
</td>
<td width="25%">
</td>
</tr>
</table>

In between the first set of tags you'll want to add the script for digg. Paste the <script%gt; tags there.

Next, change the digg_url = 'WEBSITE_URL' variable to: digg_url = '<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>' This will automatically copy the individual posts direct url to the digg button. When the script calls the diggthis.js script on digg's server, this is the variable it will pass.

All you need to do now is save all the changes and republish your blog. After doing so, you should see that you now have a fresh digg button under each posts. Now you can successfully connect to the digg network and get traffic to your site!

Reddit

You'll follow the same techniques listed above to install the reddit button onto your blog. To find the script to copy go to www.reddit.com/buttons. You'll be given a list of different buttons you can use to hook reddit up to your site. Personally, I like style 2 because it maintains the same style as the digg tag. Nothing brings style out like consistancy. This type of button is also beneficial because you can see how many people have dugg or redd your site. Anyway, back to the task at hand.

Copy the <script> tags under whichever style you wish you use. You must include the green text in order to connect each individual post to your blog. Paste this text in it's entirety between the second set of td tags listed above in the digg section.

All you need to do now is change the script variables. Change the script so it reads as follows:

<script>reddit_url='<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>'</script>
<script>reddit_title='<$BlogItemTitle$>'</script>
<script language="javascript" src="http://reddit.com/button.js?t=2"></script>

Where t= the style number you wish to use.

Save, re publish, and presto! You now have an active reddit link on your blog!

Del.icio.us

I've found that adding a link to your del.icio.us profile could be useful to some. As such, I'd like to explain how to hook it up to your blog. Unlike the digg and reddit buttons, I feel that this button looks much better if placed in your right sidebar. I've placed it under my Atom rss subscription link, but you can put it wherever.

Firstly, if you're not already subscribed to del.icio.us, do so now. If you're unfamiliar with the site, take a look around. It's actually extremely useful, especially for school.

After logging in, click on the 'settings' link at the top right corner of the page. From there, scroll down to the Blogging section and click 'network badges'. After selecting the options you want, copy the javascript code that's given to you.

Back in your template page, scroll down until you see the <MainOrArchivePage> tags. Below this is where you will paste your script. I pasted mine under the <p id="blogfeeds"> tag, but you can place yours wherever. This post assumes that you're using a default setup, so if you're using a template just experiment. After you've pasted the code save the changes and republish the blog. After doing so, you'll find that you have a nifty little del.icio.us link on your sidebar. We even managed to make it look like it belongs there, so the blog doesn't look like it belongs to an amateur! I know that sounds funny with me using one of Blogger's default layouts, but graphic design was never really my strength.

I hope this post has been helpful to some. We'll see if it gets around as an easier alternative to some of the other instructions out there. If the post has helped please digg, reddit, or del.icio.us the post to get it around. Take care, and keep coding!

Andrew

Gmail scam

Just read an interesting article about a new Gmail phishing e-mail that's being sent around the net. The full article can be read here: http://5thirtyone.com/archives/845#comment-50706

I decided to do some investigative work and see what I could figure out about the person running the scam. Their server's based in China, so obviously nothing will ever be done about it. It's unfortunate that there's no international law against spamming/scamming/phishing, etc. All people have to do is purchase an offshore server and voila! Instant identity theft. The results of my investigation, and my reply to the post, are posted below:

===============================================================
Just figured I’d putt around on the fake website. I tried going directly to the login.php page and got a table that looks like this:

Warning….You may ingore this…!!!!You have set to get upload/attachments in your email from form, however, you have not set temp folder path, where your image would be save Please Set this path in variable “$TempFolder”

Warning….You may ingore this…!!!!However, If you don’t specify the path, then uploaded files will be store in the folder ” /home/fabio20/public_html/gmailupgrades// ” Is this ok ?Just for your information

What do you wish to do with uploaded files, after sending those file with email as an attachment to you ? Do you wish to keep upload files or wish to delete? If you wish to delete your uploaded files after sending an email to you,set option to “0″,like,”$DeleteUploadFiles=0″, if you wish to keep the uploaded files set this to “1″, Currently it is set to “0″

Obviously the guy’s running a linux server with the username fabio20. A whois.net search on the domain name returned these results:

Registrant Contact:
name– DNS MANAGERorg– ABSOLUTEE CORP. LTD.
country– CN
province– Hongkong
city– Hongkong
address– FLAT/RM B 8/F CHONG MING BUILDING 72 CHEUNG SHA WAN RD KL
postalcode– 999077
telephone– +00.85223192933
fax– +00.85223195168
E-mail– gm2827655711104@absolutee.com

It’s the same information for all sections of the whois.net result.

I checked the domain the e-mail was registered at, and didn’t pull up an actualy website. Rather, I googled the domain section of the e-mail and found that a lot of scammer e-mails come from that domain. It’s probably something offshore, maybe Hong Kong also. I didn’t bother doing the whois.net search on it, but if anybody’s bored you can do it.

Just wanted to throw this information out there for everyone to look at. I know it’s not super important or anything. It’s too bad that these people make so much money from scamming and phishing. If only people would begin to wisen up and not trust e-mails asking for verification of usernames and passwords. Alas, this problem will always be around.
===============================================================

Just make sure you don't fall for this scam. I'm sure a lot of people are going to anyway, because the site is actually pretty convincing. You can check out the original site at www.gmailupgrades.com *DO NOT INPUT YOUR ACTUAL LOGIN INFORMATION*

Remember, information is power.

-Andrew

rotfl

rotfl
Originally uploaded by akozlik

Definitely ROTFLing when I saw this guy's license plate. I love creativity.