Any Facebook users out there? I need your help… I’d heard miracles about Facebook being simple. The inital design? Simple enough. I used the network mainly last year when writing for Web 2.0 blog Profy, but since then, it appears that Mark Zuckerberg’s “lil ol’ experiment” has exploded. 3rd party development widgets here and there, cluttered profiles, fancy new features and a whirlwind of options. Perhaps the bombardment of settings and options isn’t quite so invasive, distracting or off-putting as MySpace’s slow, buggy, crashing interface, but nevertheless, the plethora of choices has me stumped.

So why am I asking for your help? I’m giving a flying whirlwind tour of the social network this coming Monday on BBC Radio Manchester. If anyone feels like giving an ol’ man a hand - feel free to contact me with all your Facebooky knowledge. It’s past 11PM and I’m stumped. I’ll leave you with a little good news on the development of Affiliate Defined (being that substantial progress is being made), and some food for thought regarding the future of Facebook. Adios, Amigos!

Post sponsored by: TechRave

Keen photographer and Apple employee, Mike Matas has been snapped-in-action using an iPhone, on San Francisco’s Caltrain. Caught in the act by a fellow commuter, this photo has been doing the ’rounds’ so to speak on various gadget/technology websites. It’s incredible how such a simple little thing can get so many of us foaming at the mouth.

I for one am doing my fair share of drewling… Moving back to the Safari debate, whilst version 3.01 might have fixed some of the crashing bugs and patched the odd security loophole, it’s not fixed my font problem and the browser is as unusable as ever. I’ll be upfront with you… I had/have no intention to move to Safari as it is. I simply wanted to use Safari for some light browsing, see how certain designs render, etc. The fact I’ve not been able to visit websites I choose? It appears there’s a whole club of us with unsuable browsers - not just Vista either, though that does seem to be the main source of the problem. That’s why I’m annoyed. Anyhow… Get back to drewling over the iPhone shot.

Post sponsored by: TechRave

After my initial problems, things have only got worse. Granted - one website now shows text (CNN), but seeing as I now can’t type URLs into my address bar, type queries into my search area, read my menus (at all) and even browse most websites, I’ve switched back to Firefox. For good.

Lots of commenters yesterday were complaining that on systems not using XP, some serious bugs were popping up (aside from the aformentioned ones), such as random crashing, de-bugging errors, start-up failures and random browser closing. Ian Gray wisely pointed out that without our Firefox extensions, we’d be back to the old ways of manually going to Google PageRank servers and checking a page’s status. Same with Alexa - and Compete. Ron Scott shared his denial of service excitement… The icing on the cake?

Veteran security researcher Thor Larholm wrote in his blog that he found a “0day” vulnerability in Safari within two hours.

Researcher Aviv Raff highlighted in a blog post the company’s product statement, that reads: “Apple’s engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one.” Raff found a vulnerability, a memory corruption error that could allow an attacker to insert malicious code on a Windows machine, within three minutes using publicly available fuzzing tools.

Security researcher David Maynor, posting on his Errata security blog, said he was also able to generate a memory corruption error “in no time.” By the end of the day, he was able to generate a total of six bugs–four producing a denial of service (crash), and two capable of executing remote code.

Could this be the end of a secure OSX? Errata certainly thinks so… I can’t help but agreeing in that if the 6 uncovered bugs can be used on the current production versions of the Safari browser - already rolled out on millions of machines, how will Apple respond? 6 expolits in 2 hours is pretty incredible stuff.

Picture via Gizmodo.

Post sponsored by: TechRave

So Safari on Windows… Rocks. Ironic all the same, that the first website I open (the Apple.com website) renders horribly in Safari running on Vista. Unfortunately… It’s not just Apple.com having problems. Images on all website render great. The kicker comes in the form of text not showing. Amazon. Apple. TechZi. It gets worse… NO text is showing. It’s not just website content. Menu buttons, bookmarks, feeds, browser navigation, the works. Anyone else having the same problems? Pictures after the jump…

All this said… Browsing without words is quite an experience - if you’re a Windows user, you should probably try it. That said, I much prefer my video/picture/text based browser as standard. Firefox wins, I’m afraid… Installation wasn’t exactly brilliant too, however that’s down to Vista’s lovely “Windows Account Control”. I love security. I’m paranoid, as it happens. WAC? WHACK. Microsoft, in their tighter security frame of mind still haven’t eliminated the need for anti-virus (having contracted 2 trojans after switching to Vista) and at the same time, have managed to make the whole ‘Wow’ far less impressive.

On a side-note, toying with a $1,000 CMS tool proved more fun that I expected… I’d write a full-length review (affiliate links included, each paying $500 or so per sale), but truth be told, I really can’t be bothered. CMS-Infusion is incredible. If you’re an Internet Marketer - you need it. If you’re not, don’t waste $1,000 on a tool you’ll never use. Whilst I’m incredibly impressed with the whole Marketing Main Event package - unless you’re a web developer, Internet Marketer or into mass site development, I seriously don’t believe this is the opportunity for you. Anyhow - there’s only 24 hours before the script is taken off the market forever. Just my two cents. Chances are though, this probably isn’t for you.

The Logitech MX Revolution. Truly incredible… Costing over £70 ($140), I’ve been a proud owner of one of these babies ever since they first hit the shops. When you can pick up an ordinary bog-standard beige Microsoft mouse for less than a tenner, is there really any need for splashing out the extra cash? I guess it depends on your situation really. Master Gamer? Uber Designer? Professional Programmer? This mouse is for you. If you’re simply browing the net, looking to have a laugh, there’s really no way you can justify spending so much on a mouse.

Laser precision isn’t for the faint of heart, and that for me, is where the MX comes into it’s own. Whether I’m playing Test Drive Unlimited, throwing together some graphics in Photoshop CS3 or going through massive long list of CSS atributes, I know I’ve got a mouse that won’t let me down. The wireless features are so impressive, I can browse my desktop from downstairs. Of course not being able to see your screen defeats the purpose of having a mouse, but you’re missing the point. Who doesn’t want a super-charged (rechargable) mean machine? When not in use, the MX sits in it’s unobtrusive cradle nicely.

The mouse is sleek and dare I say it ‘fun’ to use, accuracy is second to none and the browser buttons such as the ‘back’, ‘forward’ are becoming increasingly useful navigating through 60+ Firefox tabs a day, and the ‘windows flipping wheel’ looks lovely with Windows Vista’s Aero effects. My favourite feature however, whilst not the fancy forward/back buttons, Google one-touch search button, the lovely effects and useful flip wheel, but is rather the standard scroll wheel. The catch? This scroll wheel is anything BUT standard. A casual click of my finger? I can scroll down 20,000 rows in Excel. A flick back and I’m at the top. Worried the sensitivity won’t work for you? Auto-adjustment. The scroll-wheel bases it’s sensitivity based on the program you’re using and how long the page is. Playing a game Logitech doesn’t recognize? The software flips the mouse’s wheel into it’s standard mode (again specified by you) and you’ve got yourself a normal scroll wheel. I hate the ‘clicking’ sound often associated with scrolling, and am proud to announce the MX ‘click-free’.

The design is… Interesting. It fits like a well-worn glove, feels like a dream and slides glossily over surfaces. You can tell though, that some poor old sod at Logitech spent a few years coming up with and perfectly creating the design, only to find that… Yep. You guessed it. If you’re left-handed, you’re outta luck. Of course - I’m not left-handed, so I’ve got nothing to worry about.

All in all, it’s a great mouse. I paid the money because I felt I needed a “one-up” from my standard mouse. Do I regret blowing so much on a mouse? Strangely, no. The mouse has served me well, looks the part and caters brilliantly for all my needs. Recommended? Again - it depends on your circumstances. If money’s no object though, go for it…

You can check it out (and pick one up) at the Logitech store online. No affiliate link either and no sponsored review. Just my thoughts, feelings, gripes and greats.

Web 2.0 is confusing at its best. Words escape most of us when trying to explain the wonder that ‘is’ next-gen web. Here’s my few top picks for June…

Picnik - Online photo editing.

Viddler - Online video management.

Zoho - Kicking Google’s office offerings in style…

Digg / Del.icious - No surprises there, eh?

Pandora - Sing-a-long songs!

Feedburner - Quality feed management. Something’s cooking… Google pie?

37signals - Simple organization.

And that’s a wrap… Any suggestions? Feel free to drop me a comment!

Google’s alternative to Snakes On A Plane… Rather nifty technology at that, too.

Read your feeds anywhere! On a plane - in a car, at a restaurant (even ones without net connection). Anywhere your lappie can take you! Another great invention from the Google Labs!

Design your own 2012 logo and win fame and glory. Sure, the tagline’s not quite as good as the London 2012 promotional video, which literally has the power to knock you out, but all the same, provided you spell London with a capital ‘l’, you’re ahead of the witty designers who decided four livid pink clipart shapes and a tacky lowercase ‘london’ would make a nice London 2012 Olympic games brand… Seriously - $800,000 could have been far better spent. Offering $100,000 even and having a public ‘open competition’ would no doubt have attracted tens of thousands of entries, and although I’ve not got $100k on me, I do have a whole load of karma, linkback space, traffic and good looks I can send your way though. Heh…

Let the games begin! Submit your own London 2012 logo (whether your own brand new design or a mock-up of the original) and watch the laughter ensue. We’re in for a good night ahead…

Alternative Logos

Funny Shapes

Send your enteries into us via the contact form, or post links in the comments! Even if you have NO design skills and want to delve into the thing they call ‘Microsoft Paint’, I’ll put money on somethig better than the $800,000 monstrosity that caused this post.

For the record - Swearing isn’t tolerated on TechZi. Neither are flourescent pink logos though. Credit goes to Clive for the ‘re-vamped ooops logo’ seen as the title. Seriously though - we don’t do swearing. The blogosphere is angry…

I’m often getting tagged in link-trains, memes, backlink builders and the like, but very rarely do I participate. When you get tagged twice in two days by two great bloggers, you know something’s going down. Chris Cree from SuccessCREEations and the wonderful Liz Strauss from Successful-Blog both seem hell-bent on getting me to participate, not to mention poor ol’ Wendy who also appears to have been tagged by the troublesome duo. Here are the rules…

Here’s an opportunity to let your creativity flow. Tell us:

1. How full is your glass?
2. What kind of glass is it?
3. What’s in the glass?
4. Reasons for #1, #2, and #3

How full is your glass? Very full. A big dome of liquid is just waiting to tip over the edge, but when I look at it from sideways on, it appears to be rising above the lip of the glass already.

What kind of glass? Something shiny, preferably expensive. Crystal, perhaps? Otherwise, a plain ol’ plastic coloured cup will do.

What’s in the glass? Strawberry smoothie, lemonade, a hint of lime and a dollop of vanilla ice-cream. Et voila! Fizzy limonawberry ice-cream smoothie.

Reasons? I get more bang for buck, the fuller the glass (showing my cash conscience side). I’m served things looking at their best (presentation accounts for most life descisions, whether we realise it or not). The limonawberry ice-cream concoction? I like to try new things. Without diving in head first, being bizzare, and doing/saying something different, would we still think the world was flat?

‘Nuff said. Limonawberry it is. Nate, Jeremy, Gary and Josh. You’re up next.

The past few days, there’s been the massive hooplah surrounding the SB2 ‘Child Robot’. Personally - the robot looks (and acts) more like the popular ‘Baby Born‘ dolls advertised on every other TV channel. Call it Baby Born 2.0, call it a masterpiece, or call it the most disturbing machine ever built. Ever which way, I won’t be getting one. Why? It seriously does act like one of the annoying electronic ‘Baby Born’ dolls. It kicks its legs, rolls its eyes and makes random ‘gaga’ sounds at pre-determined intervals. It looks just ’bout as pretty too. More pictures after the jump.

Okay - so there wasn’t any jump, but what the heck. I always wanted to say that. Check out the video, though. Anyhow - the general concencus appears to be thinking along the same lines as me. Bunny agrees, stating what a great job has been done “creating a simulation of a raver at a London club, high on Ecstasy!” Maybe one day - something blogworthy will arrive. Till then, we’re stuck with squeeking babies I’m afraid…