More recently, services like YouSendIt have made it much easier to send large files over the Internet. Those services are great, but I just found an even better way, AirDropper.

AirDropper works with Dropbox, which is the best cloud computing file manager I've ever used (and I've tried them all). Unlike YouSendIt, where I have to manually download the link to my computer, AirDropper saves the file(s) in my Dropbox account. That means all of my incoming files will be automatically synced to my computer. Perfect!

Sending Files via AirDropper

Sending files via AirDropper is quite simple. You connect to Dropbox from AirDropper, send the message, wait for files to be uploaded, and you're done!

AirDropper properly connects to Dropbox. When you want to request files, you'll be sent to Dropbox to approve access to your account for AirDropper.

After you approve access for AirDropper, you'll be sent back to the AirDropper website. You can send a message to the person you want the files from, or skip that process and just get the link for uploading files.

The file upload page is incredibly simple, and should be easy enough for most people, including my mom.

The problem with affiliate links is that they aren't what I would call quality outbound links. That's especially true when using an affiliate program that doesn't use the root domain of the company you're linking to. You can always add the rel="nofollow" attribute to an anchor element, but I'm not a big fan of nofollow, and I'm not so sure it even works anymore, regardless of what the so-called gurus and experts are saying out there.

My preferred method of using affiliate links is to use redirects, but with a twist. I'm not completely sure when I first heard about this method, but it was probably from Michael Gray or Rae Hoffman.

Affiliate Link Redirects in WordPress

There are several redirect plugins available for WordPress, but the one I've become accustomed to is GoCodes. Here's the quick an dirty method for setting up affiliate link redirects.

1. Download GoCodes.
2. Install and activate the GoCodes plugin on WordPress.
3. Go to the GoCodes Settings page and optionally change the URL Trigger to something different from go. I usually do something like ext or out. I also leave the Nofollow option unchecked.
4. Open your robots.txt file. If you have no idea how to do this, download and install the Robots Meta plugin. Add the following line to your robots.txt file:
   Disallow: /go/*
   (change "go" to whatever you named your URL Trigger).

The last item (aka the twist) will tell search engine bots to not spider and index your redirection links. Whether or not they respect that request is a whole other issue.

Whenever you want to add an affiliate link to your site, use the GoCodes option in WordPress. Simply add the file, give it a short name, and GoCodes will create a redirect link for you to use, instead of the affiliate link.

Like OpenID, Facebook Connect makes registering and logging into websites much easier. I realized that I had created many accounts using Facebook Connect, and that – at least for now – it would be too time consuming to figure out all of the sites I'd used Facebook Connect on, so I could update my accounts to not use it anymore.

Continuing to use Facebook Connect still doesn't solve any privacy issues, so what I decided to do was make a change in how I use Facebook, and what information I share.

Since I control what I share, the first step I took was to remove all family photos. Then I removed most of my contact information – keeping just a bare minimum. Finally, I removed all of my interests. That includes favorite movies, shows, etc...

From here on out, I'm going to simply use Facebook for Facebook Connect and for fun, publicly consumable information sharing. I'm still hopeful that my more personal online social interactions will return, but I don't expect that to happen until open projects like OpenID and Diaspora become a reality.

What I don't like is one company having closed control of my activies, likes, etc..., and using them in a way that doesn't benefit me and/or shares information that might make me less safe. It's not like Facebook is the first company to threaten my privacy, but its reach and influence seems to be much more significant than others.

If I'm being totally honest, I also don't like mass conformity. That's not to say that I'm not a conformist. The fact that I drive a car and wear pants is proof enough that I've conformed to society just fine. But when it comes to matters of the mind, I know first hand – especially from my religious upbringing and education in psychology – that groupthink and conformity has hardly anything to do with rational, logical thought.

I've also always been slightly rebellious. Again, it's been in a more subtle way. I don't have blue hair and bone going through my nose, but more often than not, I've found my gut feelings and thoughts to be much more correct than general sentiment. Perhaps my aversion to Facebook (and yes, Twitter too) is that once everyone uses it, it loses it's charm and uniqueness. I suppose I'm teenage-minded when it comes to matters of applying personal value. If everyone is using it, it must be uncool and not worthy of my time.

Finally, I'm not enthralled about being social. That is perhaps the biggest aversion I have of all social media. When I look at how I use social media, it's usually attention seeking. More often than not, I'm trying to bring attention to myself, instead of really connecting with other people. At the end of the day, I guess I'm really just an introvert that prefers intimate communication (small groups, one-on-one conversations, physical versus virtual meetings), and the only thing I really get from social media is pathetic attempts at ego stroking.

So anyways, that's why I'm contemplating clicking the button in the bottom right corner of this image:

As this howto video shows you, it's actually pretty easy. It doesn't provide a lot of user feedback to show that it's happening, or that it was successful, but it works. I'm sure that in future builds they'll work on the usability for that.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYPU8PituPs

To check for updates on your extensions in Google Chrome for Mac, click on the menu item Window and then on Extensions. A new window will appear with a list of all of your extensions. Click on the Developer mode link and then click on the Update extensions now button. You won't see much happen, but if there are updates, it will update the extensions in the background.