Atherton Bartelby is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer, art director, writer, blogger, and photographer. He authors a blog at Curious Affairs . We’ve all been there: You’re at a party hosted by that one fabulous friend, and populated with the best of your mutual circle of friends. The atmosphere is almost carbonated with excitement; the guests’ personalities flawlessly compliment each other; and the conversations that abound are infused with intelligence, caustic wit, and a wide variety of knowledge that ensures the complete absence of any pregnant, awkward pauses. Then, it happens: someone appears who just doesn’t…fit. A similar phenom happens on Twitter . You’re having conversations with your established Twitter friends, you’re broadcasting useful information, news, or links to your followers, and you’re “engaging your Tribe,” etc., when suddenly, someone begins following you who, much like that previously referenced party guest, just doesn’t fit. This is the...

Carter Rabasa of Cubanlinks.org has created a must-try tool for FriendFeed users looking to sync comments on their websites or blog posts (via Disqus) with the corresponding entries on FriendFeed. The alpha version of the tool is a javascript client that requires a download, but the just released FriendFeed/Disqus Comment Sync v.2 is a hosted version (no download required) that automatically syncs comments across both platforms every hour. To set it up, start here . Enter your Disqus API key (or click the available link to get it), select the correct site for syncing, add your FriendFeed name and remote key, chose between one way sync options or a full sync, and save. That’s it. From now on every time someone comments on your blog post, the same comment will appear on the matching thread of the FriendFeed entry and vice versa. I just set up the full sync between my blog and Disqus, and the sync seemed to work without a hitch. Now my blog entries will definitely get noticed on FriendFeed when someone comments on my blog...

Flektor , the slideshow creation tool that MySpace acquired in 2007 , might be on the chopping block. A source close to the company tells us that employees were informed in a meeting today that Flektor is being dissolved as of this Friday. The acquisition of Flektor made a lot of sense back at the peak of widget mania. MySpace was a huge outlet for posting widgets, and by acquiring Flektor, they’d also be a leading destination for creating them. At the time, we wrote: “[Flektor] allows everything from photo hosting, slideshow, video editing, web cam broadcasting (ala UStream), in-stream quizzes and polls as well as IM and media storage. For something that tries to be so much, they do fairly good job at it.” Alas, in 2009, it’s all about identity management ( MySpaceID ) for third-party websites and in-house application platforms . Thus, as MySpace attempts to cut costs along with everyone else in the new media industry, eliminating Flektor wouldn’t be a huge surprise to us, though we’d expect the technology to still...

Last year Steve Jobs’ MacWorld keynote put Twitter to bed . This year, even in the absence of Jobs, Twitter still can’t seem to handle the pressure of the buzz worthy event. If you’re like us, you probably noticed that Twitter stopped updating around 10:30am PT. Instead of fail whales swimming across Twitter streams the world round, we’re noticing that things “appear” normal even though updates have come to a complete standstill. Twitter is obviously aware of the malfunction, and they’re hopefully doing everything they can to restore service. Meanwhile, the keynote is over, Twitter is dead silent, and FriendFeed is still alive and kicking, no downtime, no sad status message. Thanks for the update Twitter, but you had a whole year to prepare for this event. Shame on you. ---Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web: The Daily Poll: How Did You Follow the Steve Jobs Keynote? No, Steve Jobs Didn’t Die; Just More Hacking Steve Jobs Speaks. Twitter Goes Down. Steve Jobs...

Today’s MacWorld keynote by Phil Schiller introduced massive improvements to the iLife suite of products. In iLife ‘09, iPhoto, iMovie, and Garage Band are all getting performance and functionality makeovers. Perhaps, most notably, is the introduction of built-in support for online services Facebook and Flickr in iPhoto ‘09 . We think the annoucement pretty much trumps yesterday’s release of Picasa for Mac . The Facebook and Flickr integration is an exciting new addition to the product that will make iPhoto the dynamic photo sharing application it should be. Now, users who upgrade can automatically send their photos to Facebook and Flickr within iPhoto. As soon as you post new photos of friends to Facebook, notifications are also immediately sent to your tagged friends. With Flickr, when you share your new photos, locations are shown on Flickr photo maps. Given that the new iPhoto also has three additional much needed features - Face Detection, Face Recognition, and Places - tagging faces, names, and...

Apple has confirmed the rumors that iTunes will be moving to a variable pricing structure. Top tracks will carry a $1.29 price point, while other, less popular songs will be available at $0.99 and $0.69. Along with the new price points, all tracks on iTunes will be DRM-free by April. So who are these changes good for? For one, the record labels, which stand to make more money on releases from expensive, top 40-type artists. Meanwhile, as I wrote last night, the drop in prices is good for consumers whose musical tastes fall more into the long tail of iTunes’ huge music catalog. But, for the millions of people who fuel downloads of iTunes’ most popular tracks, this change marks a 30% price increase, which, adds up to a lot of money on an annual basis. Another footnote to add to the DRM-free iTunes store: as Ben Drury, CEO of 7Digital points out to us in an email, “Downloads from iTunes are still in the AAC file format regardless of whether they are DRM-free … the AAC file format is only compatible with iPods/iPhones and a limited...

Another day, and another hacking event has Twitter abuzz. With hundreds of people live blogging and tweeting the Macworld keynote, one of the more bizarre items to pop up so far is the “ Steve Jobs just died ” meme. While rumors of Jobs’ demise were mostly squashed yesterday when the Apple CEO issued an official statement regarding his health, with so many people tuned into MacWorld coverage, the timing was enough to let the rumor spread, at least for a few minutes. Apparently, the site MacRumorsLive.com was hacked, and the perpetrators posted the comment into their live stream. Meanwhile, on Twitter, the @macrumors account has been suspended due to suspicious activity. This is on the heels of yesterday’s Twitter hacking , where the accounts of Barack Obama, Britney Spears, and other prominent users were all compromised and littered with bizarre messages. So yes, Steve Jobs is alive and well. Expect the ridiculous rumors of his demise to quickly be replaced by outpourings of joy should the icon make a surprise appearance before...

LiveJournal, one of the longest-running online communities, is apparently being hit harder by the recession than most. The company has reportedly laid off 20 of 28 employees , “leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers.” The blogging site has gone through several changes in ownership since its inception, first being acquired by Six Apart, who then sold it to the Russian media company SUP in late 2007. Unlike competitors Automattic and Six Apart, LiveJournal is a completely hosted blogging solution, blending blogging with social networking features, and the vast majority of its blogs take the form of personal diaries as opposed to more professional, topical writing. While LiveJournal execs are apparently blaming the slowdown in the economy and ad spending, stats point to an overall decline in interest in the medium. Both LiveJournal and competitor Xanga have seen their traffic decline over the past two years, as social networks like Facebook and MySpace have come to dominate the demographics that the blogging sites...

When people think of the BlackBerry, they tend to think of it only in terms of enterprise users. Over the past few years it has become much more than that; a device that is easily accessible to anyone for any number of uses. One of the biggest trends on the device has been easing communication. Be it in the form of Instant messaging or social networking, there are plenty of free tools out there for you to use to stay in touch with anyone from anywhere. Use these 15 free tools to turn your BlackBerry into a communications powerhouse. What are some of your favorite ways to communicate on the BlackBerry? Instant Messengers AIM - The old guard instant messenger of AIM is available for various models of BlackBerry and includes picture messaging inside of chat, avatars, emoticons, instant login and more. Google Talk - Google brings their popular instant messenger to the BlackBerry with features such as changing your status, chat logging just like the desktop version, buddy pictures and everything else you could hope for. ICQ - A favorite...

On the eve of Macworld, one hot rumor making the rounds is that Apple is set to announce a deal with three of the major record labels to make all tracks on iTunes DRM-free. In exchange, the service would introduce more variable pricing on music, with current hit songs carrying a higher price than older and less popular music. According to CNET, the move would include both music added to iTunes going forward as well as tracks already on the service, from labels Sony BMG, Warner Music, Universal, and EMI (who already has DRM-free tracks on iTunes). While DRM has long been a hot button issue, one has to wonder if the trade-off of higher prices will be worth it to the majority of users. iTunes, which publishes a list of its 100 most popular tracks at any given time, is dominated by popular, current music. Naturally, that means raising the prices on these tracks will be immediately obvious to tons of users, who might not necessarily think (or even understand the benefits of) DRM-free music is worth paying additional fees for. Of...

Google’s blog is announcing the release of Picasa for Mac at MacWorld . Even though they’ve previously released a Picasa Web Albums uploader and iPhone plug-in , the full-featured free software offers Mac users a way to edit, upload, and share video and images, surpassing iPhoto in feature set and maybe even usability. You’re probably thinking, “I’m already using iPhoto, so what’s the big deal?” That was certainly my first thought too, but then I downloaded the software to test it out, and I changed my tune a bit. Picasa for Mac pulls in images and videos stored anywhere on your hard drive, lets you edit and tweak, save changes, and of course upload them to Picasa. Picasa for Mac, which is still a Google Labs application (meaning it’s not perfect), has a feature set that is pretty darn extensive — it would be almost impossible to list them all — but some cool things you might like include the ability to filter by stared images, images with faces, and movies. You can also batch...

Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success , and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog . Between current economic conditions and the technological evolution of the Internet, the traditional approach most job seekers have taken in the past is no longer viable. The approach — developing a resume and cover letter, locating jobs on and submitting your resume to corporate sites and job banks, and crossing your fingers in hopes of receiving a call from a hiring manager — is, for the most part, a thing of the past. The new approach is far different. It boils down to the fact that there are fewer jobs available, more competition for those jobs and more touch points for recruiters and seekers to interact. The current environment In 2008, there were 1.2 million job losses , unemployment is currently at 6.5%, and the largest companies are shedding as much as 10% of their workforces. There will be 1.5 million college graduates this year, yet the job growth rate is at a...

As an aficionado of great literature - I was an English major in college - I’m always on the look out for a great read. My current strategy for discovering novels and novelties is to park myself in a bookstore aisle and scour through classics I’ve always wanted to read. This particular methodology can be quite enjoyable, but it’s not an incredibly effective way of finding more than one book at a time. So where I do a turn for a more scintillating and satisfying book finding system? Enter Reading Trails , a new social network that takes a fresh approach to finding books online. The site lets you piece your book breadcrumbs together to create a trail, for example, “Fairytales with a twist.” User trails are connected through intersections, which are just books that are shared across multiple trails. To get started with the site you can either view existing trails or create your own. Trails are user-defined, and allow for adding books, descriptions, and tags. Once more and more books are added to trails...

Mashable’s New Year Networking event takes place on January 15th: come join, mingle and possibly find a job! As part of the event, we are offering two free tickets and a free Mashable Job Board posting to any company hiring in January. For more information on this offer, please send a short description of the job being offered and the company name to newyearnetworking |at| mashable . com With great networking, complimentary Peroni Italian Beer (while supplies last) and the company of Mashable readers, it’ll be a cozy gathering to welcome in 2009. Thanks to Peroni for supplying beverages. Two sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact newyearnetworking |at| mashable . com for more information. Tickets are now on sale and there are only 150 public tickets remaining for advance purchase. Mashable’s New Year NYC Networking Where: 212 Restaurant & Bar , 133 East 65th Street, NYC When: Thursday, January 15th from 7 pm – 10 pm Cost: Early Bird ($10), Regular ($15) and Door Pricing ($20) Tickets: Through Eventbrite...

So how did the Twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Facebook, and others get broken into and littered with inappropriate messages earlier today? It wasn’t residue from this weekend’s phishing problems, but rather, a breach of Twitter’s customer support tools. From the Twitter blog , “These accounts were compromised by an individual who hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things like edit the email address associated with their Twitter account when they can’t remember or get stuck. We considered this a very serious breach of security and immediately took the support tools offline. We’ll put them back only when they’re safe and secure.” Yikes. On one hand, it’s good to know that Twitter was able to identify the problem and get it under control relatively fast, but on the other, who knows how many accounts could still be vulnerable. Needless to say, it’s probably a good time to change your password. Kudos to Twitter for at least being transparent about the situation...