‘ Technology ’ category archive


My Facebook Account Got Disabled – I Want Your Help

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

If you’re seeking help on getting your Facebook account back…

The only help I can offer is that you follow the process I followed.

Simply send them an email and await a response. It’s happened to me and my wife and both of us have been able to get our accounts back. It took about two weeks for both of us from the time when the account was disabled.

The thing is to be patient and set yourself a deadline. If you don’t get your account back by that specific date, then make a new account. Tools are here today and gone tomorrow. Social capital and relationships are here to stay.

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UPDATE

Hi Belal,

Your account was disabled because you took repeated actions that could be construed as spam.  For instance, it is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use to repeatedly send the same message or to make the same post.  Facebook prides itself in protecting users from spam, and we take this standard very seriously.

However, after reviewing your situation, we have reactivated your account, and you should now be able to log in.  Please refrain from sending the same message or repeating the same post, as further violations of our Terms will result in your account being permanently disabled.

Please also be aware that when a warning message appears on your home page, it will generally be displayed for 24 hours.  It can be displayed for longer, however, if you continue to perform these actions.  We appreciate your cooperation going forward.

Thanks for your understanding,

Rachel
User Operations
Facebook

Jazakallahu Khairun for everyone who helped :-)

– — –

This post has two purposes:

  1. Request for your help in getting my account back
  2. Tell you the story about what happened

Firstly, send Facebook an email interceding on my behalf — appeals+dw5w8wy@facebook.com — asking them to reinstate my account profile.

Secondly, I’m going to tell you the story of what happened.

This past week I’ve been getting several emails from Facebook friends asking me what happened to my profile. The sad news is that my Facebook account got disabled on Eid day!

I guess I got a little excited and was sending out Eid holiday greetings to my groups and friends last Monday. I was prompted with a warning message for sending too many messages too quickly. I made the mistake of thinking, “let me send just one more…” — After which I got logged out of Facebook telling me the message pictured above.

I did some research and asking around for the proper course of action and was directed to send an email to the following email addresses:

  • disabled@facebook.com
  • appeals@facebook.com

First email I sent them was the following:

Hi,

My account  was disabled. I was sending out Muslim holiday greetings to my friends and groups and it gave me a warning. I used the same message for the different groups I administer to save myself time. Is there any way that my account can be open again?

After a couple days – not having gotten a response I tried again, and they responded with the following:

Hi,

The Facebook Team has received your inquiry. We should get back to you soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to review our Terms of Use (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php) for more information.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

The Facebook Team

After another few days of no results, I wrote them a poem:

Is there any hope of me getting my account back
or shall I be patient a lil while longer?
We can all use some slack,
which makes us no less stranger

Some of us can cross the line in the excitement
but no one was put in danger
Looking forward to my account’s reinstatement
preferably sooner than later

You guys do us people a great service
It would be sad not to continue to be a part of it
It would be of great happiness
If you let me back into it ;-)

I hope my poem hasn’t annoyed you
I just hope to appeal to the better part
I would love to be back into facebook’s white and blue
Getting my account back would be a start :-D

Looking forward to your reply.

- — -

It’s been about three days since I wrote them a poem and have yet to hear anything from them. Those of you who have active Facebook accounts — if you can send an email to appeals+dw5w8wy@facebook.com interceeding on my behalf to get my account reinstated — I would really appreciate it!

I found a couple online articles that talk about how and why your account can get disabled:

Read them and be aware!

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YouTube now had 720p

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

Update: 11.25.2008

The following articles expand more on the whole YouTube 720p update.

— – —

YouTube recently added 720p HD footage support (It’s about time). See this video below:

YouTube Preview Image

no watch it in 720p by adding &fmt=22 after the YouTube web URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b1fpn7-c_U&fmt=22

maximize the footage and see the HD splendor!

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Final Thoughts And Conclusions On Canon FS100

Reading time: 8 – 14 minutes

Frankenstein was the last thing on my mind when I purchased the Canon FS100 a few months ago, but along the way this cute little camera has turned into a monster that is meant to be treated with caution. In this post I discuss certain challenges I faced with this camera and the solutions I found to those challenges.

I blogged about this camera in the past in the following posts. I recommend you follow me in my journey with this camera.

After using this camera for a few months below are a list of pros and cons that I personally found. Depending on your use bases this list of “pros” and “cons” may or maynot apply to you. After the

Pros:

  • Tapeless – Hours of recording time with flash media and easy access and transfer video files.
  • Portable – Small and light weight allows you to carry this everywhere.
  • LED Light — Great for when you have low light situations (but not all that helpfup)
  • Cheap — Purchased this camera for about $350. You can get is for less than that now.
  • Video Quality – Although the data has been compressed, you cannot really tell it apart from similar tape based cameras.
  • Modifiable To My Will! – You’ll see what I mean below.
 Cons:

  • Image Detail – In still photo mode the detail of images is not that great especially when there is movement.
  • Bad Low Light Sensitivity — If you don’t have adequate lighting in an area and you try to up the exposure in the camera, then you image becomes extremely “noisy.”
  • Plug Needed To Transfer Files – If you want to transfer files from the camera to the computer then you have to plug it into the wall or else it simply wont connect to the computer.
  • No Audio Levels Control — You can attach an external microphone to the camera, but it won’t do you any good because the audio peaks terribly.
  • No Hot Shoe – If you want to attach an external light or microphone to the camera, you really have no place to put it.
  • No Threading for Lens Attachment – If you have a wide-angle, fish-eye, or telephoto lens that you want to attach, you wont be able to since there is no threading in front of the existing lens.
  • Too Light for Steadicam Merlin – I had purchased the Merlin with this camera. When balancing a camera on that contraption you want it to be slightly bottom heavy. The weights on the Merlin are in .25 lb pieces. The camera is about .5 lbs. I can either be equally balanced or too heavy at the bottom, thus the images seems to have a pendulum effect.

What do I mean by “Modifiable to my will?” It means that I was able to modify the camera in ways that helped me get around the challenges have solutions to the cons I mentioned above.

Bad Image Detail In Still Mode

Understand that this is NOT a still image camera. Its a VIDEO camera, thus its strengths will be in its respective area. If you want to be able to take quality still images on cheap while still grow in your skill I would recommend purchasing one of Canon’s Powershot Digic II or Digic II cameras that have the ablity to get CHDK on them.

CHDK is an upgrade that gives a consumer Canon Powershot camera professional abilities. Couple of my friends, Usman and Basil applied this upgrade to their cameras and the results were awesome. I’ve blogged about that in the past here:

Amazing Timelaspe Using a Canon Powershot and More

If you want more info on the whole CHDK upgrade for Digic II and Digic III cameras, see CHDK Wiki

No Threading For Lens Attachment

Krazy Glue is my best friend! I purchased a step down ring where on one side is 37MM threading for the 37MM threaded lens that I have. Depending on the size of rings that you have you will need to get the appropriate step down ring and “Krazy Glue” it onto your FS100.

I purchased a step down ring from eBay for about $14.

Bad Low Light Sensitivity And No Hot Shoe For Attachments

This camera is a single CMOS chip camera, thus its light absorbing capabilities are limited. The on camera LED light isn’t all that helpful in practical situtaion. On top of that there is no hotshoe to attached an external light to the camera. I figured I’ll bring in my friend Krazy Glue and glue on a separate hot shoe.

I purchased a “Sima SL-20LX Ultra Bright Video Light” from Amazon for about $35. It came with a metal bracket and the light. I also purchased two hot shoes for about $11 each. The plan was to glue the hot shoe to the top of the camera. Since the top of the camera was a bit curved I needed something to straighten out the curvature.

The metal bracket that came with the light had some rubber on which I cut off with a knife and krazy glued that on to the top of the camera after which I krazy glued the hot shoe onto the rubber.

No Audio Levels Control, No Place To Place A Mic And Too Light For The Merlin

I still had the issue of the camera being too light for the Merlin and the audio levels control. I decided to purchase level’s control device called the BeachTek DXA-2S. It screws on to the bottom of the camera where the tripod would go.

The great thing about the DXA-2S is that it allows for a tripod slate or even the Merlin slate to be added on. It plugs into the Microphone input on the FS100 and then you simply control the levels using the knobs on the back.

The BeachTek DXA-2S comes for about $180 on Amazon.

Now that I can plug a mic into the camera with control over the audio levels, where to I place the microphone? This is where the metal bracket and the second hot shot comes in handy. I took the hot shoe and krazy glued the top part to the metal bracket that came with the light and then I Krazy Glued the metal bracket to the DXA-2S.

Only issue with this is that Krazy Glue isn’t strong enough to hold the metal bracket due to the strong leverage the extended part has on the Krazy Glued part. If you wrap tape around it and the DXA-2S then it will hold just fine.

In the end your rig will look like the first pictures in the post. A true Frankenstien of a camera. If any of you are wondering what sort of microphone that is, its the “Azden Sgm-2x Xlr 2 Barrel Shotgun Mic” — It comes for about $250 on Amazon and it’s a great microphone.

With the attachedk BeachTek DXA-2S, Azden Mic, and barrels of Krazy Glue, there is enough weight on the camera to be properly balanced on the Merlin.

If you don’t want to go the metal bracket glued on to the DXA-2S route, then another option is to simply purchase a pistol grip. It can easily give you more flexibility with your sound coverage and it looks down right cool! — Almost like a police baton or a real gun!

The pistol grip comes for about $7 on Amazon.

This setup can give you quite the freedom that you may need when recording on the go. Another option that can come in handy is that lets say the subject you are recording on camera isn’t comfortable with the bright lights in their face, you can use the pistol grip for the portable light.

These are my final thoughts about the Canon FS100. I believe this is a great camera even if you don’t want to go through what I did to get excellent capture of image and sound.

Understand that the camera isn’t the most imporant aspect of a recording setup. You need lights, microphones, lens, and be able to move the camera as well. Its not always about having the “best” camera.

For me and what I’m doing, this is the “best” camera for ME. It may or maynot be the “best” camera for you. Its up to you to decide.

To help you in that matter, I made a post over at MessageMastery.com on the question: What Camera Should I Get?

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I hope you benefitted from this post. Stumble it and share it with others! :)

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Chair, The Most Important Peice of Equipment

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

Now, this is a story all about how
My butt got flipped-turned upside down
And I liked to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I got the RealSpace Pro Quantum Chair

In the western world I wasn’t born, but raised
On a chair I spent editing most of my days
Chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all stiff
And shootin some paper b-ball in the office
When a couple of girls
Who were up to no good
Startin making trouble in my neighborhood (office)
I got my chair worn out and I got scared
So I said ‘You’re leavin’ and I’m gettin’ a new chair!’

Herman Miller chair, yo this is bad
So, this is how the pro editors be rollin’ first class.
Most of us don’t have of $800
So Ima give the next best thing a holla’

I zoomed to office depot and when I got near
The price tag said $300 and it had mesh in the rear
If anything I can say this chair is rare
Now I thought ‘This is it’ – ‘Yo homes my new chair!

I pulled up to the house a lil late
And I yelled to the chair ‘Yo homes smell ya later’
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne, the RealSpace Pro Quantum chair

- — -

If you’ve never done editing before then you probably don’t know that you will be sitting in once place for a number of hours. Any normal office chair will begin to hurt your butt after four to six months of use. I personally have been through four different office chairs in the past two years.

Ideally it would be great to have a Herman Miller Aeron chair to spend one’s hours working on. That is one amazing peice of equipment. Unfortunantly most of us don’t have $800 in the budget for a chair including myself.

So here I am, stuck between worn out cushion and a hard place and the desire to not want to repeat the same process in another six months. What do I do?

I purchase the next bext thing! Office Depot had the RealSpace Pro Quantum chair for about $300 and man this is FAR better than the hard chair I’d been spending my time editing on.

Keep in mind, chairs aren’t only good for editing, but great for watching videos/movies, working, chillin out maxin’ relaxin’…um…anyway. Watch these two videos on the Herman Miller chairs. They’re really cool!

YouTube Preview Image YouTube Preview Image

InshaAllah, when I’ve got my own studio with editing and production workstations, I’ll make sure that my editors and workers are comfortable where they sit!

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Nikon Releases The First REAL Photo-Video Camera

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

Nikon recently released the D90 which is the first in its own category. Its a camera that takes amazing still photos and has the ability to shoot real HD video footage.

Watch the video that the New York Times released about the camera and what it can do here: New Photo Revolution

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After having watched that video I’m really excited to see what other cometitors such as Canon and Sony come out with. This is really going back to the origins of motion picture photography. Lumiere brothers simply made their camera take 16 pictures every second. I can’t wait till the day they have 50 megapixel (theortical size of 35mm film) cameras shooting at a solid 120+ frames per second.

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