So I’m a member of a few Ning sites and I really like it.  In trying to edit my profile, I have managed to import my regular blog here into the standard Ning RSS widget.  But you only get one Ning RSS widget.  So for a work-related Ning community like ELESIG, I wanted to show my work blog too.  You get a Ning Text Box widget on your Ning profile which supports embedded widgets from external sites, so I’ve used yourminis RSS widget to import my SPLASH project blog.  yourminis widgets are nice because you can template them really easily to match their destination or leave them in a minimal format.  The only difficult thing here was to get the size right on the yourminis site because you can’t resize them once you’ve embedded them on the destination page.  The next thing I wanted to do was to put a tag cloud of my del.icio.us links on my Ning page.  The standard del.icio.us provided javascript code is stripped from the Ning Text Box widget so that didn’t work.  I couldn’t find a yourminis del.icio.us widget but I found a Widgetbox one.  Again this provides javascript code which is stripped by Ning, but Widgetbox does give you an opensocial URL which should allow you to embed a Widgetbox widget in a Ning site.  But I don’t get what I’m supposed to do with this URL.  Widgetbox says ‘Click the “Copy” button and then paste the url on Ning to add the app”.  OK but where on Ning do I paste it?  I tried the Ning Text Box widget but this just writes the URL out unformatted.  Hmm.  Anybody know how to put a tag cloud of del.icio.us links onto a Ning profile?  Or what I’m supposed to do with the Widgetbox URL for Ning?

Tags: ning, opensocial, widgets, widgetbox, javascript, embed, elesig, rss, yourminis

This is annoying. I’m trying to sort out some of my Google groups, which are all registered to my Yahoo email address. But I also have a Gmail account which I want to combine with my Yahoo Google account. Google will let me add alternative email addresses to my Yahoo Google account, but it won’t let me add my Gmail account. It tells me here that I have to delete my existing yahoo related Google account, then open up my Gmail related Google account, then associate my yahoo address to that. But all my groups and history are connected to my Yahoo Google account! I don’t want to have to re-join all of them again.

Tags: yahoo, google, gmail, Google groups

Plaxo just put me off by forcing me to choose my gender:

The only options were male or female. C’mon Plaxo, get with the program! This is the modern day and you should know better than to only give us these limiting binary options with which to define ourselves (and must you force us to define ourselves in those terms at all?). What about everyone between or outside these options?

When you’re building a social networking site you should have advisors on identity politics, since you are getting your users to create identities on your site.

An example of gender being handled in a lighthearted and positive way is Pownce.

Tags: plaxo, gender, social networking, queer, feminism

I got tagged (by Rowan Stanfield) in a game of blog tag a while ago and I only just got around to doing this. So here’s 8 random things about me.

1. I’ve done a round-the-world trip twice. My favourite cities have been Melbourne, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and New York (and of course Brighton!). New Zealand is over-rated. New Delhi (and surrounding area) is depressing. Hawaii is full of tourists. Fiji is beautiful but full of honeymooners and Christians.

2. I am impressed by films involving aliens, robots, zombies, gore, explosions, and big guns.

3. I am scared of the dark. Possibly due to over exposure to things in point 2.

4. I am constantly looking for a new job, even when I like my current one. I think I like to keep up to date with what opportunites exist, and how much I *could* earn.

5. despite point 4, OKCupid.com tells me I am unambitious. I think that’s because I put lots of things before money/ownership, but I think OKCupid has ambition confused with materialism. I’ve been on OKCupid for years and years. It’s good for self-obsession but nearly everyone on there is really ugly.

6. I play World of Warcraft. My main character is currently level 45. I don’t obsess over it, but have been known to play for about 5 hours in a row on occasion. Even though I find it repetitive, it’s quite a good way to unwind. When I was about 16 I had to ban myself from playing Doom because I started to tense up when approaching a corner in real life, envisioning flaming skulls coming at me from the other side. I went cold turkey on it.

7. I’m totally fat-ist. I think people should know when to stop eating and just not be fat. If you eat too much, you are greedy and weak. It’s a sign of lack of self control. I just don’t like looking at fat people. I know this is hypocritical because I’d quite like to gain about a stone and I find that hard. Oh well, I’m a hypocrite and a bad person.

8. I did a Biology degree and specialised in evolution and mating behaviour. So I know lots of strange facts about slug mating rituals, field mouse penises and how environmental resources relate to monogammy/polygammy. I do tend to apply my knowledge of evolution to understanding human behaviour, relationships and flirtation.

OK so now I have to tag 8 people and they can do the same if they like (but they don’t have to):

Jeremy Keith (adactio)

Christine Hennessey (evilolive)

Shannon Ritter (micala)

Dave Stone (builtbydave)

Josh Russell

Trevor May (antikewl)

Richard Bacchus (dubnacious)

Paul Burgess (delarge)

Andy Budd