Facebook Groups: Creating your Secret Society

Facebook can get a little too public, especially if you only want a few people to see what you are posting. Using Facebook Lists and Groups is the best way to keep secret events and posts private. If you already know how to do do lists and groups, this won’t be anything new, I just started using both last month and now I can’t do Facebook without them. 

Facebook Lists: A practical use for Facebook Lists is for hiding your statuses and photos from a large group of people or even a single person. In this example I have hid all the Mormons I know from seeing my next status. Click Account> Create a list> Enter a name for the list and start adding friends.

When you compose a status click the lock key. This is even on mobile applications too. Click customize to start sharing with specific people. 

Navigate to hide this from and type the lists and any extra people you would like to hide things from.

Facebook Groups: More of a secret society kind of situation. You can start a group with a few people or a lot. Groups are different from lists because it is essentially a whole new Facebook that only can be seen by you and the members you chose to be in it. You can add more people at anytime. 

The cool thing about Facebook groups is that you can post events that only they can see, documents that they only can edit and you can also group chat with members which is a feature you can only use in groups. To create a new group click add group from the navigation bar> then add names and chose between Secret, Closed, and Open. Secret makes it so all users and group content posted is private. Closed groups makes the members public (outsiders will be able to notice your group) but the content remains private, and Open lets anyone randomly join your group and lets anyone see what you posted. 

Adding members is simple and other users can add users as well. Chatting with the group is also a very efficient way of reaching people quickly. In the end Facebook Groups is the simple way to keep a group of people looking at what you want them to see. It is honestly so much easier than group texting people, it keeps everyone on the same page.

Facebook Profile Picture Mosaic Hack

That cool Facebook photo hack thing is a waist of time but so is Facebook so why not do it. I can see this being useful for advertising. Here is how to get it set up. 

1. Find the photo you want. The profile picture part of this hack should be recognizable. When navigating facebook I usually use the thumbnail pictures as a guide to recognize who is who. So make sure your profile picture thumbnail is pretty personable. (If this confused you SKIP)
2. Download this template. Jesse Petersen from some random wordpress blog made it. It only opens in Photoshop just as a warning. If you don’t have Photoshop you can use this interlaced PNG and just paste it on any photo you want. You must have 4 lines of information under you name for this template to work otherwise you will need to make some tweaks.
3. Select the magic wand in the tool box. Select the template layer and then click the profile box. It should highlight. Then select your picture layer. Then copy this layer. Then create a new file, paste your picture and then save it. You must sadly do this for every box in this template which takes at least 5 minutes depending on your computer speeds.
4. Set your profile photo.
5. Post your mosaic photos and tag yourself from right to left. If you tagged your photos correctly they will show up on your wall perfectly. 
6. Check it out!

Here are some screen shots from photoshop. These describe steps 2-3.

Here are some other examples of what people have done with it. 

Want to try out AirPlay? Here’s how to do it without an AppleTV.

AirPlay has been one of those features I haven’t really gotten the chance to use yet because of the restrictions. I know the AppleTV is cheap but $100 is a lot for a college student. So if you have a decent wifi connection and a Mac here’s what you need to do to start using AirPlay on you 4.2 enabled iOS Device.

1. Download AirPlayer from Erica Sadun’s website. It is a free download.

2. It took my iPad at least three minutes to realize something was running over bonjour but when I launched the video app I saw the AirPlay cursor. 

3. Test it out. You can stream photos,

videos, music, and YouTube. You can also do other things on your iOS device while the media is streaming. 

It’s really fun to test out the new features of iOS that are kind of hidden. To try out AirPrint click this link. 

Enable AirPrint (iOS4.2) On Your Basic Printer.

Apple keeps on pushing these air technologies for 4.2 but honestly none of them work unless you make serious bank. No printers work for AirPrint except for 2 online printers from HP. So here are my guides on making AirPrint work with your Mac or drumroll please.. your PC.

Mac: Three Easy Steps

1. Download This These are drivers from a new version of Snow Leopard that enable you to share the printer connected to your Mac over the air. The bundle is named AirPrint Hactivator and should have a thumbs up logo.

2. Switch Hactivator to on, this will prompt you to enable your print sharing.

2a.  This is under system preferences.

2b. 

3. Now delete your current printer that you are using, then add it again and enable printer sharing! Voila, you should see your Mac in the printing options of your iOS device!

Windows is a little more complicated…:(

1. Download this. These are the bundles that make airprint work for PC. 

2. Create a new AirPrint (in this case) in this location:

• If you are using windows 32 bit you will need to go to the PROGRAM FILES folder and create a folder named AirPrint. C:\Program Files
• If you are using windows 64 bit then you will need to go the PROGRAM FILES (x86) folder and create a folder named AirPrint. C:\Program Files (x86)

3. Add the files from the download inside the AirPrint folder.

4. Then open the command prompt:

• Windows 32bit: sc.exe create AirPrint binPath= “C:\Program Files\AirPrint\airprint.exe -s” depend= “Bonjour Service” start= auto
• Windows 64bit: sc.exe create AirPrint binPath= “C:\Program Files (x86)\AirPrint\airprint.exe -s” depend= “Bonjour Service” start= auto

5. Type this after the code in done processing: sc.exe start AirPrint

6. Make sure you enable online sharing of the printer through the control panel.

7. If you have a prompt asking for a username and password it is asking for your windows id. More complicated but works!

AirPrint on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is surprisingly useful in my tests. With pages, I typed a paper and had a rough draft instantly sent to my printer without having to email it to myself then opening it in a word processor and then printing it. AirPrint is just another way Apple is making our iOS lives simpler. (Oh the irony.) 

Hyperdock: Get it While it’s free

Hyperdock gives Mac the only reason I would want to buy a PC. It has Aero-Snap, Window views from hovering your mouse over an app and quick tools on hovered apps. 

This is what happens when you hover over an app. You get a call out with the windows open. Kind of like group expose but a little bit easier to manage.

I love this view. The controls are very useful and I am freaking obsessed with cover art.

Here is the iCal hover controls. Way better than the current in your face annoying alert!

Download it here.