By Brent W. Hopkins

thegeniusfiles is proud to participate in "Move Your Domain Away from GoDaddy Day" in protest of the company's decision to support the Orwellian Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Censoring the Internet: it's a no-go, GoDaddy. Buh-bye.

Oh yes, the company has made an insincere about-face in an attempt to save face as over 70,000 customers leave en masse - but thegeniusfiles will file that one under "too little, too late." Suck it, GoDaddy. We The People don't give a GodDamn about your PR spin. That bitter flavor is the taste of SOPA in your mouth.

Want to join the GoDaddy exodus? Sure you do. Here's how to transfer from GoDaddy to DreamHost. Other domain registrars may vary slightly but the process is essentially the same.

(1)   Log in to GoDaddy & Unlock domain in web panel.  GoDaddy will send you an email to let you know.  You have to unlock the domain to allow it to be transferred out.

(2)    If you have GoDaddy’s privacy turned on, turn it off.  You should receive a “cancellation confirmation” for the cancelled domain privacy order. At this point you need to wait for DNS to propagate since DreamHost’s system will read the WhoIs to send a confirmation email to the domain owner.  If you leave privacy on or don’t wait long enough, good luck ever seeing that email. A good way to check whether the new Whois data has propogated is to run a whois on the domain you’re trying to transfer.  If the privacy details have been replaced by your actual contact details then you’re good.

(3)    Unlock the domain from the GoDaddy control panel

(4)    Request an authorization key from GoDaddy control panel.  (Some companies call this the “domain secret” code).  You should receive it by email within a minute or two.

(5)    Go to DreamHost control panel and click “transfer domains”.

(6)    Enter the domain and the auth key

(7)    Click transfer and pay the annual domain fee

(8)    The email address shown in the WhoIs entry will receive a confirmation email from DreamHost.  You will also see this email address in the DreamHost web panel – “Approval email sent to xxxx”.  If it was sent to the privacy company then you didn’t wait long enough for the WhoIs to propagate.  Click re-submit and try again.

(9)    Click the link in the email from DreamHost and accept the transfer.  You must click through and accept the transfer.

(10)    DreamHost will send you a confirmation of the transfer.

(11)   GoDaddy will send you a confirmation of the transfer - this notice gives a date by which you must respond if you *don't* want the domain transferred.  You can either wait for this date to pass (it's a few days) or log in to the GoDaddy domain panel and force the transfer by accepting it.

(12)    You should receive another cancellation notice from GoDaddy for the cancelled domain.

(13)    You should also receive a success notice from GoDaddy saying that the domain has transferred to another registrar.

(14)    You should now be able to log in to the DreamHost web panel, make sure they also think the domain has transferred (if you look under “Reg Transfer” it’s no longer in the pending list but is in the list of available Auth codes at the bottom of the page.

(15)    Go ahead and check privacy is back on with DreamHost (no extra charge for this from DreamHost – thanks guys!!!), finish any other setup of hosting or the domain if necessary and check the domain is working.
         

Bask in the warm satisfaction of knowing that you just hit GoDaddy where it hurts most - profits.

By Brent W. Hopkins

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10/Oneiric Ocelot, which features the ironically-named Unity interface by default. In theory Unity has a lot of useful functionality, and you might be perfectly happy with it. Personally, though, I think Unity is cumbersome and ugly compared to other options like Cairo-dock. Furthermore, I absolutely detest the way that the top panel, or title bar clutters the desktop and refuses to auto-hide. And don't even get me started on the default theme - what an eyesore!

The login screen now has a bewildering number of Session options ranging from the default Ubuntu to GNOME, GNOME-classic, and BARF (OK, I just made that last one up). At first, I tried them all to see if anything improved, but that was a waste of time. The default session is as good as any; you just need to tweak it to make it more beautiful.

If you want a more beautiful Ubuntu, I recommend Make Tech Easier's Turn Your Ubuntu Lucid to Mac OS X tutorial, which still works for Oneiric. Once you have installed and configured Cairo-Dock, you can open the Compiz Settings Manager and deselect the Unity plugin. That deactivates the Unity dock but still leaves the fugly panel at the top of the Desktop. Unlike the old GNOME panel, this monstrosity can't easily be moved or set to auto-hide. But there is an easy way to get rid of the panel while still retaining the option to reactivate it if you change your mind.

Open a Terminal and install the Gnome Tweak Tool:

 sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

You will find this tool in the Applications Menu under Preferences > Advanced Settings. In the Desktop section, there is an option that says "Have file manager handle the desktop." By default, this is set to ON. Click it and change it to OFF. The panel will instantly vanish.

With that, the fugliness that is Unity has been vanquished. It only took me a couple of hours of poking around, to get the results I wanted. But the question is, should it take this much work? Or should I just resign myself to Unity and try to make it more bearable?

At this point, I don't think I'm interested enough in Unity to bother with it. Perhaps that will change... or perhaps I will move on to another distro like Debian. Debian is really the heart of Ubuntu, anyway.

For now, I will probably stick with Ubuntu for the life of this computer. When I get a new computer, Ubuntu may not be my first choice anymore.

By Brent W. Hopkins

Consider the power that the simple word "yes" has to influence decisions, determine outcomes, and shape your destiny. Language is one of the most powerful forms of symbolic thinking, and the word "yes" is one of the most powerful of all words. "Yes" is one of the first words that a child learns to speak. Every language has a word that corresponds to "yes." "Yes" manifests the possible. It is the key that opens the door to new experiences. Without "yes," we only have intangible collections of "no" and "maybe."

Think of something that you want to happen. Now phrase it as a question. For instance, if you want to get a new car, ask yourself "Am I going to get a new car?" Write down your answer to the question - the first answer that comes to mind. If your answer doesn't contain the word "yes," then you are not likely to be getting a car.
So you want a car, but you are not getting one. See what just happened? You verbally negated your desire. Perhaps the universe will intervene and give you a car, despite that fact that you nullified your own desire? Anything is possible, but it is unlikely that the universe will forcibly bestow a car upon you if you don't say "yes."

Why? Because if your answer didn't contain "yes," then it probably contained "no," or "maybe," or some variation on those themes. Only "yes" has the power to manifest results.

Consider this thought experiment. Imagine you are thirsty, and you want a glass of water. Now, imagine a person approaches you with a glass of water in hand and asks "Would you like a glass of water?" How do you answer this question? If you say "no," then do you think the person will give you the glass of water? Of course not! If you say "maybe," or "someday I too would like to have a glass of water," or "I am thirsty, but now is not the right time for me to get a drink of water," or pretty much anything other than "yes," do you think the person will give you the glass of water? No, because you really have not answered the question in a way that communicates that YES, you would like the glass of water, right now.

To carry the thought experiment a bit further, imagine that you didn't answer "yes" and so the person shrugs and walks away, carrying the glass of water with them. Is it reasonable to become angry or bitter because of this outcome? Is life unjust, did the person do you wrong, because you are still thirsty, while they have a nice cool glass of water? No!

Of course, "yes" on its own does not automatically manifest your desires. You still have to do the work! But without "yes," your efforts will not bear fruit.

Power can manifest itself in positive or negative ways, and this is also true of the word "yes." To say "yes" can sometimes be extremely unwise. Just as "yes" can open the door to positive experience, it can also drop you into the pit. For example, consider the question "Do nice guys finish last?" If your answer is "yes," then you have created a mental framework that is almost certain to manifest unhappy outcomes. If being nice brings failure then either you choose to be a nice failure or a successful jerk. Neither of these outcomes are desirable. You said yes to an idea that constrained your choices to negative outcomes.

Think of the word "yes" as the "on" switch for a machine that can turn your thoughts into reality. Be careful of the thoughts you feed into the machine before you flip the switch!

Now you can read the latest posts and tweets from thegeniusfiles with the new TGFiles Beta Android app.

My recent decision to unplug from Google has opened my eyes to some of the shortcomings of the Google-centric Android platform, or more specifically the Android developer ecosystem. If you uninstall the Market app, you will quickly discover that you won't get updates to any of the apps you installed with it - even if you purchased those apps.

It's true that there are a number of alternatives to Google's Market for Android apps.  However, none of them has even close to the same variety of inventory as Google - not even Amazon's AppStore. Even where their inventory overlaps, they can't update your app if it was originally installed using Google's Market or some other app market.

Furthermore, Amazon's AppStore brings its own hassles with it. If you uninstall the AppStore app then all the apps you installed from Amazon will stop working. Even Google isn't that heavy-handed! You can at least still use your apps after you uninstall Google's Market - you just can't update them.

This is not a good situation for anyone other than Google, its mobile carrier partners, and Amazon. The big guys with their captive markets can get away with a lot of arbitrary or questionable (but profitable) business practices. Developers and consumers are left with a take-it-or-leave-it, you're-welcome-to-leave-if-you-don't-like-it, don't-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out kind of "freedom" of choice. That's not cool.

Android is advertised as open source software, but Android devices as sold to the consumer are open in theory only. In reality, Google has a lock on app sales and distribution, and Amazon is the "competition" that Google can point to as a counter-argument to accusations of anti-competitive business practices. I guess you could consider the mobile carriers' half-baked app stores as "competition" too. What do they all have in common? Oligopoly. Market control. Enormous informational asymmetry compared to consumers and developers.

For consumers, where is the choice? For app developers, where is the choice?

It doesn't have to be this way. Android could be set up so that an app could call home to its own developer's code repository, keep track of its own license keys and manage its own updates. This approach has been demonstrated to work very well in other Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. This way, you could purchase an app wherever you like, and not worry about how it will be updated or how you will verify your purchase if you need to reinstall it.

Such an approach would be unlikely to harm Google or the other big players. Most people would probably continue to use Google's Market simply because it's easy to find a wide variety of apps there, and because they trust Google to remove known malware. But consumers should have a choice, and that choice shouldn't be artificially limited by a system designed to make it difficult to leave. Consumers should stay because the products and services are better - not because it's difficult to leave. The difficult-to-leave mentality gave birth to Windows Vista. Is that what you want Android to become?

Developers should not be shackled to a take-it-or-leave-it revenue model. Amazon with its "free app of the day" fiasco, and Google with its history of sometimes-arbitrary suspension of developer accounts, demonstrates the inherent problem here.

The current approach of walled-garden, proprietary app stores is anti-consumer, anti-competitive, and contrary to the spirit of open source development. It's time to break down the walls.

If you are one of the millions of people who read this blog, then you know that I recently deleted my Facebook personal profile. My main reason was to escape Facebook Group spam. I had previously deactivated my Facebook account, explaining to Facebook that I was unhappy with the "new" Groups, their ability to add me without my permission and thereby spam me. Well, enough time passed to make me realize that Facebook is not about to halt its Group spamfest - so it was time for me to take matters into my own hands.

Facebook Pages, on the other hand, are a different sort of beast. They can't be added to Groups, so are not as vulnerable to spam. You can even turn off visitor's ability to Wall post if you start getting Wall spam. Best of all, you can have a Page without having a personal profile. In fact, it's preferable not to link your personal profile to your Page, because if your personal profile ever gets suspended (too many friend requests, or whatever) you won't be locked out of your Page. Here's how to configure a Page without a Profile:

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
2. Pick what kind of page you want to create; agree to the TOS; click "Get Started."
3. Select "I do not have a Facebook account," enter your email address (cannot be already associated with an existing Facebook account). Pick a password, enter a date of birth and type the captcha. (Hint: audio capcha may be easier than the visual one)
4. Click "Sign Up Now!"
5. Go to the inbox of the email you used to sign up, and click the confirmation link
6. If this is your first Page, continue filling in the information, adding links, uploading photos, etc. You can also add other admins.
   

If you already have a Page you want to transfer to your new profile-less account, then don't bother with the Page you just created - it's a dummy. Instead, you need to do a couple more steps.

1. Login to Facebook with your old, personal profile account that you use as admin for your pre-existing Page.
2. Go to your Page, click "Manage Page," then "Manage Admins."
3. Type in the email address you used to sign up for your new Page account (from previous step 3) into the box that says "Start typing a name or email..."
   
4. Click Save Changes, enter your password.
5. Log out.
6. Log in with your new account.
7. Go to your pre-existing Page.
   
8. Click "Manage Admins." You should see the new account there. Click Remove on your old personal profile.
9. Click "Save Changes" and enter your password. Now you can manage your Page without a personal profile.
10. Now you can delete the "new" dummy Page that you created when created your new profile-less account. Go to the new page, click "Manage Permissions" and click "Delete Page" at the bottom of the page.
11. Check to make sure everything is working as intended. If you use third-party client apps to manage you Page, you will have to re-authenticate with the new account credentials.
12. When you have verified that everything is working, go ahead and delete your old personal profile if you don't want it anymore. Be aware that Pages can't do everything that Profiles can do, however. Experiment a bit before you take the plunge.

Enjoy your newfound freedom from Facebook Group spam!

I have successfully completed my migration from Gmail to Zoho Mail - the cornerstone of my GooglePlusStrike -  and I have some observations to share. First up, a note about contacts. While Zoho has a built-in contact import from Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail, the import didn't work with my Google Apps account. I tried several times without success. I don't know what the problem is, but I solved it by manually exporting my contacts from Google as a CSV file and then uploading the file to Zoho. Unfortunately, all of my contact photos are gone now, as are all my Groups. Losing the photos is a minor annoyance, but losing Groups is a much bigger annoyance. It makes me realize yet again how under-developed contact management apps are in general, and how much we need a better way to exchange contact information. Feel free to chime in on the topic of contact management in the comments below. I'm most interested in open source solutions.

The Filter function is one of my favorite things about Gmail - it really helped me organize my messages. While Gmail allows you to export your Filters, it does so in a XML file format. Zoho can only import filters in .dat format. So, I must start all over again with Filters in Zoho mail. On the one hand, it's an inconvenience. On the other hand, it presents an opportunity to rethink my overall email usage strategy.

Gmail rather famously encourages you to archive mail rather than deleting it. Since Gmail gives you a lot of storage, it's a persuasive argument. But is it really necessary or useful to keep every message you ever send or receive? It's probably more useful to Google than it is to you. Since Google scans all Gmail for keywords, a larger data set presents an opportunity to build a more detailed AdWords profile of the Gmail user.

One of the cool things about Gmail is the way it uses Labels instead of Folders. You can attach multiple Labels to a single message. Contrast that with the alternative of placing copies of a single message in multiple folders. Labels are just more elegant.

IMAP sees Gmail Labels as Folders. Here's where things begin to get complicated. IMAP basically reverses the elegance of the Label concept, by putting a copy of the message into each Folder it creates for a Label.

Zoho can import email from external accounts, using IMAP or POP. I chose IMAP, mostly because I prefer IMAP "push" on my Android device. In retrospect, POP might have been a better choice for migration, and here's why.

Zoho uses a mixed approach of Folders and Labels. But my messages, imported by IMAP from Gmail, did not get tagged with Labels in Zoho. Instead, they went into Folders that are named with the names of the Gmail Labels that were attached to the email messages. Consequently, every Gmail message which had more than one Label attached to it, was copied into multiple folders. So if a message had three Labels, now separate copies of it are sitting in three different Folders.

This is not elegant. It is not an efficient allocation of storage. It's also not an effective way to organize conversations.

So, I have been going through each Folder, and doing some housekeeping. Creating new Filters, creating new Labels, deleting duplicate messages. I'm a fast reader, but this is a lot of work. I think that if I had chosen POP instead of IMAP, I would at least have avoided the duplication problem.

However, there is a positive side to this situation. As I review all my email messages, I am realizing just how much unnecessary junk was in there. I'm also realizing just how much of my email is near-spam quality. Newsletters, Facebook Groups, email lists. Why does it make more sense to have Gmail "smart labels" filter out this junk, than to just delete it or unsubscribe? Does it perhaps serve Google's interests to retain this stuff for keyword analysis? I certainly don't need it.

Since I'm on the topic of near-spam, sometimes called "tofu," let me digress for a moment to <RANT> talk about the unholy devil-spawned "new" Facebook Groups. Between Gmail "smart labels" and my own filters, I had set up a system in Gmail where most of the unconscionable spam-drivel of Facebook Groups was intercepted before it got to my Inbox. But enough of it still got through, to inspire me to write a post entitled Group Spam Is Facebook's MySpace Moment. Well, migrating to Zoho pulled back the curtain on this can of worms. There were THOUSANDS, yes THOUSANDS of Facebook Group messages squirreled away in my smart label folders! I could say more, but will summarize it with two words: ₣U€₭ THAT!!!!! I have permanently deleted my Facebook Profile. Failbook can suck it. </RANT> (Note: currently my Facebook Page is still up, because it hasn't been spamming me.)

So, going forward, what have I learned about email? It doesn't take much - if any - more time to click Unsubscribe than it does to create a filter for crap messages. Delete is not a bad thing, as long as you use it wisely to get rid of junk. Archive should be used for messages that actually have some value; not as a substitute for Delete. Failbook sucks even more than I had realized when I was using Gmail.

When was the last time you audited your email? Maybe you should, and if you use Gmail you might want to ask yourself if it really makes sense - for you - to "remember everything" that ever passed through your email account.

Today I was pruning my old email, and I came across a message from Verizon about Customer Proprietary Network Information.

Customer Proprietary Network Information Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is CPNI?

A. Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) is information created by virtue of your relationship with Verizon Wireless. This information includes: services purchased (including specific calls you make and receive), related local and toll billing information, the type, destination, technical configuration, location and amount of use of purchased services.

Q2. Why does Verizon Wireless need my consent?

A. Verizon Wireless wishes to share your CPNI with our parent companies, affiliates, and agents in order to develop better products and services and offer you the full range of the communications–related products and services offered by them. The Federal Communications Commission requires that we obtain your consent to do so.

Q3. If I give my consent, what can Verizon Wireless do with my information?

A. With your consent, Verizon Wireless will be able to share your CPNI with our affiliates, agents and parent companies. CPNI will not be shared with unrelated third parties. Sharing such information will enable us to collaborate on how to better serve your telecommunications needs.

Q4. How do I give my consent to share CPNI?

A. Unless you provide us with notice that you wish to opt out within 45 days of receiving this letter, we will assume that you give us the right to share your CPNI with the authorized companies described above.

Q5. Can I change my mind about giving consent?

A. Yes, you can withdraw your previously–given permission to share CPNI by notifying Verizon Wireless. Register for My Verizon, sign in and click the "Account" tab located on the top navigation bar. Select "Account Profile" and scroll to the "Alerts and Preferences" section, then click on "Manage Privacy settings" in the "Privacy Settings" section. You can also call 1–800–333–9956 and follow the recorded directions. Finally, you can also call 1–800–922–0204 from 6am to 11pm to reach a Customer Service Representative who can process your request for you.

Q6. How am I affected if I decide to not provide my consent?

A. The decision to disallow the sharing of CPNI will not affect the services that you currently obtain from us. However, the inability to share your CPNI may make it more difficult for Verizon Wireless to work with our affiliates to offer you new communications–related products and services in the future.

Q7. How can I opt out of CPNI sharing?

A. 1. Register for My Verizon, sign in and click the "Account" tab located on the top navigation bar. Select "Account Profile" and scroll to the "Alerts and Preferences" section, then click on "Manage Privacy settings" in the "Privacy Settings" section. You can also call 1–800–333–9956 and follow the recorded directions. Finally, you can also call 1–800–922–0204 from 6am to 11pm to reach a Customer Service Representative who can process your request for you.

Verizon is typical in that it will share your data unless you say "no." If you don't explicity say "no," then you have "given" your consent. What a bunch of BS! I decided to go ahead and opt-out of this nonsense. The directions given above are a little confusing. Go to Verizon Wireless - Cpni Settings and check "Don't Share CPNI" then click Submit.

While you are there, you might also want to take a look at the Verizon Wireless - Manage Your Location Privacy. 

For all intents and purposes, opt-out privacy is the same as no privacy. That's because you have to go to the effort of making sure that every company you do business with doesn't sell or share your data. It's like trying to slay the mythological Hydra, a many-headed monster that sprouted two new heads every time it lost one of its heads. Hercules was only able to vanquish the Hydra by cutting off its one immortal head and burying it under a huge boulder. That's analogous to opt-in privacy. Opt-in should be the legally-mandated default. But don't expect the many-headed beast of industry to go along with opt-in without an epic battle.

Your Privacy Is Our Concern (burp!)