User21 - Yuval Atzmon

The operation completed successfully, please tell Microsoft about this problem

Yuval Atzmon — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:36:17 +0000

I think by now I already installed Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 at least 4 or 5 times but today was the first time I encountered this message:

In reality, VS2010 installed successfully though there was some failure installing the Silverlight SDK. I would expect this sort of result to be conveyed differently, hopefully this would change for the RTM version.

Still had a good laugh though.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit Stores Passwords in Plain Text

Yuval Atzmon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:49:37 +0000

If you’re using Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit it’s worth noting that when you specify a username and password in the Server Connection settings (CRM Explorer Options in Visual Studio) the password is stored in the registry in plain text.

The password is stored in the following registry path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\DialogPage\
UKDynamics.CrmExplorer.OptionsPageCustom

This may not be a big issue for many developers, even when an administrator user is used, since most developers usually know the administrator password or are administrators themselves at least on dev\test environments, but still this is something you should be aware of.

If you’re concerned about this and cannot connect to your CRM server using default credentials, you can simply leave the password field blank and switch to default credentials every time you’re done working with the toolkit. This will clear the password registry key until the next time you wish to connect.

Google Israel – Now Availbale in Arabic

Yuval Atzmon — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:12:04 +0000

Just noticed this: Google Israel (google.co.il) is now localized into Arabic, as well as Hebrew.

“Share on Friendfeed” Plugin for RSS Bandit

Yuval Atzmon — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:18:05 +0000

Personally I prefer using RSS readers which come in the form of client applications rather than online services. My favorite for many years was Omea Reader but unfortunately ever since JetBrains stopped working on it and made it open source, the product development is simply stuck. Combined with a few annoying bugs, I am gradually pushed towards looking for a replacement.

I haven’t settled on anything yet but lately I decided to give RSS Bandit another try. So, while working with it I thought it would be nice to add a “Share on Friendfeed” functionality. RSS Bandit supports the IBlogExtension plugin interface, and following Dare Obasanjo’s del.icio.us sample made it very easy to develop a Friendfeed plugin.

The IBlogExtension framework is supported by other RSS aggregators so this plugin may work with other applications but I only tested it with RSS Bandit. Let me know if you successfully use it with other apps.

Download and Installation

Share on Friendfeed Plugin (12Kb)

1. Download and unzip the plugin to RSS Bandit’s plugins directory. The default path is C:\Program Files\RssBandit\plugins .
2. Restart RSS Bandit.

Configuration

1. Right click any RSS feed item and then click “Share on Friendfeed – Configure”.

2. Enter your Friendfeed username and remote key (you can get it here).

3. Check the “Display confirmation” checkbox if you want to see a notification dialog after posting to Friendfeed.

Sharing Items on FriendFeed

1. Right click the feed item you want to share and then click “Share on Friendfeed”.

2. You can edit the URL and title (both are populated automatically from the feed item) and add your comment, before hitting the Post button.

3. If you checked the confirmation box in the configuration dialog, you’ll receive a confirmation message with a link to your newly posted entry.

Disclaimer

This is the very first version of the plugin. It is provided “as is” and under the “works on my machine” terms and conditions. I tested the plugin with RSS Bandit version 1.8.0.870 under Windows XP SP2.

Feel free to comment below or contact me with any feedback.

Is that a late Syrian president in your doodle?

Yuval Atzmon — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:25:58 +0000

Couldn’t resist this one. The guy in this year’s Google holiday doodle really reminds me of Hafez Al-Assad, the late Syrian president.

See for yourself:

FriendFeed Images on Amazon S3 – Potential Exploits

Yuval Atzmon — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:10:27 +0000

It’s been a while, I know. Been busy, still alive, thanks for asking.

Here’s a little test I performed. About two months ago I deleted an entry which had an image attached to it. I noted the URL of the uploaded image (the location where FF stored it on Amazon S3 storage service).

I checked this URL a few hours later, the next day, next week and so on, assuming there’s some sort of garbage collection process that would delete this resource, but the image is still there at the time of writing. I have repeated this test more than once.

This raises a few concerns:

Potential exploit #1 – someone who wants to save on their site’s bandwidth costs can store images on FF at no cost.
Potential exploit #2 – storing files on Amazon S3 costs FF money (currently $0.15 a month per 1GB), so if someone wants to increase FF’s monthly bill they can just dump a lot of large photos there. Not to mention bandwidth costs (think Digg homepage kind of traffic).
An entry you delete might not really be deleted – if FF doesn’t bother deleting these binary resources, one may assume the text is kept as well, which is a bit of a problem if you shared something by mistake and wouldn’t want it popping up in the future.

Of course this could all just be a bug and these images should have been deleted in the first place. I’m just speculating here.

FriendFeed Suggestion: Two Column View

Yuval Atzmon — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:57:50 +0000

FriendFeed has a very clean design but it doesn’t utilize wide screen real estate. On a 24″ display using 1920×1200 pixel resolution, you can show at least two columns of FF feeds and still have some room to spare.

I’m not sure how to balance width vs. scroll. Having two columns can be confusing, and I certainly don’t want to scroll down to read the left column only to scroll up again to read the right one. However I’m sure this screen real estate can be used in some way to enhance my productivity.

Maybe something along the lines of the Pagerization Greasemonkey script, only horizontal? Still thinking about it. In the meantime I’ll just keep scrolling down.

FriendFeed Aliases

Yuval Atzmon — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:51:11 +0000

Did you know FriendFeed has two aliases, pointing at the same site?

Try these links:

Simpli.st – this domain is registered under FriendFeed.
Frnd.us – this domain is registered under Paul Buchheit, FriendFeed founder. It actually redirects to friendfeed.com .

FriendFeed’s Top 250 Most Followed Users

Yuval Atzmon — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:30:59 +0000

I’m still fine tuning my crawler but below you’ll find the top 250 most followed users as calculated from data collected at the end of June. All previously mentioned limitations still apply. The percentage is calculated against the active public users discovered in this crawl, which is 52137 users (8143 users are private, and the current grand total is 60280).

Terminology

I changed my terminology from “active” to “most followed” as it better describes what this is all about. When I use the term “active” I mean “discoverable”, and it doesn’t matter if a person actually does anything on FF as long as his feed keeps flowing in. If she streams her twitter activity to FF but doesn’t set foot in FF, she will still be picked up by my crawler because her twitter activity contributes to her FF feed.

Margin of error or coverage limitations

Occasionally FF users mention how many followers they have. I tried comparing these numbers with my limited data and it seems to fit well within the estimated 15-20% margin.

For example, take a look at this entry and notice the numbers reported there by Susan Mernit and Jeremiah Owyang. Susan reports 1290 followers, I was able to discover 1055. Jeremiah reports 1979 followers, I was able to discover 1578.

Also, as far as the “big guys” go, I’m sure I’m missing a lot more than 15-20% which is natural given their popularity. There are probably a lot of dormant/inactive users who simply follow Scoble and Arrington without contributing anything to the feed (which makes them non-discoverable by my crawler).

The top 250

So, here is the top 250 list. As you can see, it goes “long tail” pretty fast.

	User	Followers	% of Total
1	scobleizer	9889	18.97%
2	techcrunch	6626	12.71%
3	leolaporte	5240	10.05%
4	jasoncalacanis	5068	9.72%
5	davew	4347	8.34%
6	laughingsquid	3966	7.61%
7	loic	3884	7.45%
8	petecashmore	3277	6.29%
9	bret	3222	6.18%
10	steverubel	3199	6.14%
11	chrisbrogan	3131	6.01%
12	l0ckergn0me	3092	5.93%
13	fredwilson	3090	5.93%
14	paul	2690	5.16%
15	factoryjoe	2582	4.95%
16	thomashawk	2558	4.91%
17	veronicabelmont	2221	4.26%
18	jzawodn	2211	4.24%
19	louisgray	2095	4.02%
20	elatable	2025	3.88%
21	dbfarber	1932	3.71%
22	marshallk	1711	3.28%
23	dsifry	1628	3.12%
24	jeffjarvis	1608	3.08%
25	jowyang	1578	3.03%
26	jessica	1354	2.60%
27	rafe	1294	2.48%
28	brianoberkirch	1278	2.45%
29	kevinrose	1265	2.43%
30	shellen	1239	2.38%
31	kfury	1160	2.22%
32	ambermac	1144	2.19%
33	jeffpulver	1121	2.15%
34	smernit	1055	2.02%
35	waxpancake	1006	1.93%
36	chrisheuer	982	1.88%
37	andrewbaron	973	1.87%
38	bfeld	927	1.78%
39	chris	889	1.71%
40	johnfurrier	852	1.63%
41	davemorin	847	1.62%
42	niniane	837	1.61%
43	joi	835	1.60%
44	ricmac	825	1.58%
45	sanjeev	796	1.53%
46	duncanriley	793	1.52%
47	spin	766	1.47%
48	monstro	762	1.46%
49	erick	758	1.45%
50	chapman	756	1.45%
51	gaberivera	753	1.44%
52	kwerb	746	1.43%
53	keso	744	1.43%
54	daveman692	741	1.42%
55	barackobama	736	1.41%
56	davidhornik	690	1.32%
57	nicolesimon	688	1.32%
58	tomforemski	686	1.32%
59	problogger	669	1.28%
60	davemcclure	669	1.28%
61	sacca	667	1.28%
62	trishussey	660	1.27%
63	eddale	631	1.21%
64	orli	630	1.21%
65	costolo	626	1.20%
66	ana	620	1.19%
67	mparekh	606	1.16%
68	jim	593	1.14%
69	evhead	592	1.14%
70	quixotic	591	1.13%
71	jimturner	590	1.13%
72	kteare	581	1.11%
73	andybeard	579	1.11%
74	stevegarfield	573	1.10%
75	sethgoldstein	567	1.09%
76	mhmazidi	561	1.08%
77	tamar	552	1.06%
78	mathewingram	551	1.06%
79	donlbe	547	1.05%
80	tariqkrim	511	0.98%
81	rohit	511	0.98%
82	gapingvoid	510	0.98%
83	warrenwhitlock	509	0.98%
84	briansolis	509	0.98%
85	parislemon	505	0.97%
86	ijustine	498	0.96%
87	marismith	496	0.95%
88	kanter	490	0.94%
89	stoweboyd	487	0.93%
90	misteroo	484	0.93%
91	sarahintampa	483	0.93%
92	karen	482	0.92%
93	charleneli	482	0.92%
94	dweekly	480	0.92%
95	leahculver	479	0.92%
96	philipp	476	0.91%
97	corvida	473	0.91%
98	cathybrooks	470	0.90%
99	pacificit	466	0.89%
100	bwana	459	0.88%
101	marccanter	457	0.88%
102	patobryan	457	0.88%
103	kamangir	457	0.88%
104	missrogue	455	0.87%
105	tempo	451	0.87%
106	vanderwal	450	0.86%
107	rindawahmhoff	449	0.86%
108	saulklein	439	0.84%
109	cspenn	434	0.83%
110	drewolanoff	431	0.83%
111	msaleem	430	0.82%
112	schlomo	427	0.82%
113	mihai	425	0.82%
114	websuccessdiva	423	0.81%
115	rklau	421	0.81%
116	bgolub	419	0.80%
117	weblaunches	419	0.80%
118	giovanni	415	0.80%
119	domino	414	0.79%
120	emilychang	413	0.79%
121	veen	412	0.79%
122	zadi	410	0.79%
123	iankennedy	408	0.78%
124	staenman	406	0.78%
125	rumford	405	0.78%
126	technosailor	401	0.77%
127	biznickman	400	0.77%
128	labnol	399	0.77%
129	stevegillmor	398	0.76%
130	genuine	398	0.76%
131	doshdosh	391	0.75%
132	engtech	391	0.75%
133	theinfluencer	390	0.75%
134	susanbeebe	387	0.74%
135	katson	382	0.73%
136	dimitrihage	382	0.73%
137	carls	380	0.73%
138	dahowlett	379	0.73%
139	drsuccess	378	0.73%
140	robocallaghan	376	0.72%
141	maryam5063	375	0.72%
142	alireza1356	373	0.72%
143	jaffejuice	370	0.71%
144	vjmario	364	0.70%
145	doughaslam	364	0.70%
146	evernote	363	0.70%
147	andykaufman	362	0.69%
148	rebeccabriggs	361	0.69%
149	bamdadi	359	0.69%
150	bourne	359	0.69%
151	sbooth	354	0.68%
152	howardrheingold	353	0.68%
153	whitecrow	352	0.68%
154	mjesales	352	0.68%
155	rizzn	352	0.68%
156	garyvaynerchuk	352	0.68%
157	williamlong	350	0.67%
158	eldon	349	0.67%
159	hardaway	347	0.67%
160	alexiskold	346	0.66%
161	willpate	346	0.66%
162	justinkan	346	0.66%
163	jerrym	346	0.66%
164	dotben	342	0.66%
165	christinelu	341	0.65%
166	peter	341	0.65%
167	anjrued	341	0.65%
168	mager	340	0.65%
169	danraine	337	0.65%
170	alexdc	336	0.64%
171	dhinchcliffe	335	0.64%
172	jeffnolan	334	0.64%
173	nlbctim	332	0.64%
174	mattcutts	332	0.64%
175	shermanlive	332	0.64%
176	dannysullivan	331	0.63%
177	ryancarson	329	0.63%
178	gartenberg	329	0.63%
179	creativesage	328	0.63%
180	e3r	326	0.63%
181	stevenhodson	321	0.62%
182	artbushkin	320	0.61%
183	mazoox	319	0.61%
184	foadsa	318	0.61%
185	charlieanzman	317	0.61%
186	bhc3	316	0.61%
187	susanbratton	315	0.60%
188	1938media	315	0.60%
189	jjprojects	309	0.59%
190	andycarvin	307	0.59%
191	shey	307	0.59%
192	dsearls	307	0.59%
193	aydin	307	0.59%
194	pmarcablog	307	0.59%
195	shankman	305	0.58%
196	evanwolf	304	0.58%
197	chrisgarrett	303	0.58%
198	alexw	302	0.58%
199	georgesharik	301	0.58%
200	mbites	300	0.58%
201	zefrank	293	0.56%
202	1fathi	293	0.56%
203	vahid	293	0.56%
204	chrisabraham	292	0.56%
205	gregarious	292	0.56%
206	webleon	291	0.56%
207	hunterwalk	290	0.56%
208	geoffliving	290	0.56%
209	rycaut	289	0.55%
210	peiman	288	0.55%
211	sarahcuda	287	0.55%
212	jabancroft	286	0.55%
213	rexhammock	284	0.54%
214	shashib	284	0.54%
215	jasonw22	282	0.54%
216	derek	282	0.54%
217	kashani	282	0.54%
218	kosmar	282	0.54%
219	jasongoldberg	282	0.54%
220	digidave	280	0.54%
221	mommycast	280	0.54%
222	ckieff	280	0.54%
223	davidjhinson	279	0.54%
224	divedi	279	0.54%
225	adamostrow	279	0.54%
226	moniquebriand	278	0.53%
227	philrosenberg	275	0.53%
228	dkaye	275	0.53%
229	sthayden	275	0.53%
230	fenng	273	0.52%
231	vakster	273	0.52%
232	waynesutton	272	0.52%
233	ginger	271	0.52%
234	olegus	271	0.52%
235	kriskrug	270	0.52%
236	sanford	270	0.52%
237	baratunde	269	0.52%
238	kveton	269	0.52%
239	altaide	269	0.52%
240	rohitbhargava	269	0.52%
241	aglick35	268	0.51%
242	davidberkowitz	267	0.51%
243	benyoskovitz	267	0.51%
244	maryamsharif	267	0.51%
245	tomraftery	267	0.51%
246	mspeiser	265	0.51%
247	andybeal	265	0.51%
248	cherylwhite	264	0.51%
249	mikejones	264	0.51%
250	ontarioemperor	264	0.51%

FriendFeed Has ~75,000 Active Users (Personal Research)

Yuval Atzmon — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:00:57 +0000

I believe my little research project has gathered enough data to produce some meaningful results. Please read my previous post regarding the methodology and imitations of this analysis. Just to clarify, my analysis covers only active and public FriendFeed users, and only those I was able to discover.

But enough with the disclaimers, let’s see some numbers.

How many FriendFeed users are there anyway?

For now I stopped crawling at about 60K users since I was discovering less and less new users with every crawl until it became clear that I’m discovering users who have just joined or existing inactive users who just happened to post something and went back to sleep. Basically they don’t interest me in the context of this little research.

Factoring in a few technical limitations, API coverage issues and some secret sauce, I assume I’m missing about 15-20% of the users. In fact I could be bold and speculate that FriendFeed has an active userbase of about 75K users. Again, this is based only on partial data and my own interpretation.

What is the public/private ratio?

The total number of users my crawler discovered is 57560 .
49580 of these users are public, while 7980 are private.
So the public/private ratio is about 6:1 .

Who are the most popular FriendFeed Users?

Out of this total of 57560 users, here are the top 20 “heaviest” (most subscribed to) FF users:

	User	Subscribers	% of Total
1	scobleizer	9558	19.28%
2	techcrunch	6393	12.89%
3	leolaporte	4913	9.91%
4	jasoncalacanis	4838	9.76%
5	davew	4201	8.47%
6	laughingsquid	3848	7.76%
7	loic	3787	7.64%
8	petecashmore	3166	6.39%
9	bret	3164	6.38%
10	steverubel	3111	6.27%
11	chrisbrogan	3027	6.11%
12	fredwilson	3014	6.08%
13	l0ckergn0me	2967	5.98%
14	paul	2648	5.34%
15	factoryjoe	2533	5.11%
16	thomashawk	2505	5.05%
17	jzawodn	2167	4.37%
18	veronicabelmont	2076	4.19%
19	louisgray	2060	4.15%
20	elatable	1989	4.01%

You probably didn’t need my help to figure out that Robert Scoble is the most popular user on FriendFeed but my research seems to support this. Almost 20% of the public population I discovered are subscribed to his feed, 13% follow Michael Arrington, 5% follow Thomas Hawk and only 4% are “stuck following Louis Gray“…

What next?

Any suggestions for further analysis are welcome. I have my own ideas but I’m interested to know what others think and if this research has any value. Leave a comment or contact me by mail.

I wonder, maybe I should just let people search this database? You could ask “who follows louisgray” and get a list of users subscribed to him. Interesting.