Author: Tim

Who Twitter Blue?

Tim 1 Comment

Maybe you have heard about Twitter being in the news lately 🤣. With Elon’s recent purchase of Twitter and the release of Twitter Blue Verification, there has been a lot of discussion around the “Verification Icon.” In the past, its always been reserved for those notable in government, news, entertainment, or another designated category. Some users are excited to be verified finally, and some think it will ruin Twitter.

Who Twitter Blue Extension

Inspired by Wes Bos’s Tweet, I hacked together a Chrome Extension that swaps out the verification icon with an emoji for users who paid for Twitter Blue. You can choose between 🤑, 💰, or 💩 emoji icons—also, thanks to  Will Seagar and Walter Lim for their eight-dollars package. Remember, this extension is just for fun and is not to be taken too seriously. Warning it could break at any time.

Install Who Twitter Blue

Who Twitter Blue Screenshot

 

I’m curious what are your thoughts on the changes to the verification system and Twitter Blue?

 

 

Financial Security Tips

Tim Leave a comment

When I think of security, the first thing that comes to mind is hackers online. I worry about compromised passwords, credit cards, accounts, and protecting servers. I already have several best practices to stay safe online to combat digital security.

Digital Security Tips

  • Unique passwords
  • Use a password manager (1Password, Lastpass)
  • Always enable Multi-factor authentication
  • Firewalls
  • VPN
  • Up-to-date software

When it comes to physical security, I already do the standard things like locking the doors, security cameras, etc. But for the most part, I did not worry much about being robbed. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were hiking in the mountains. We parked in a safe parking lot for a short 2-mile hike. We were gone about an hour and returned to our car window broken and my wife’s purse and laptop stolen. We immediately called the police and credit card companies. Due to being in the mountains, cell phone service was poor, and it took a while to cancel everything. In the meantime, the thief had made it to the closest Walmart and bought over $2,000 worth of prepaid Visa cards. They were experienced and planned to get as much untraceable money before the cards were reported stolen. After countless hours on the phone with the bank, insurance, and police, I wanted to share some tips to help you in this situation. Read More

T.LY Affiliate Program

Tim Leave a comment

I’m a big fan of affiliate programs for the products I use and recommend. It’s a great way to make some extra cash if you have a popular website, a significant social media presence, or a large YouTube Channel. Some people earn a living just from affiliate programs! I’ve been using Amazon Affiliates since the creation of this blog, and it’s a win-win for bloggers and readers. Amazon Affiliates was how I made my first money online when my first post made over $500 in a few days back in 2015.

T.LY is one of the top link management platforms, and I just added an affiliate program to help grow awareness.

  • You can earn a 20% commission for every T.LY customer you refer for the first three months.
  • The cookie will last for 60 days. As long as your referrals come back within those 60 days and convert to a paying account, you’ll still earn the revenue on that sale.
  • We have an affiliate dashboard where you can view your total visitors, leads, and conversions. You’ll also be able to see how much commission you’ve earned.
  • You will be notified, by email, whenever you earn a new commission. The payments will be made monthly through PayPal.

Read More

Block Fake Disposable Email Addresses

Tim Leave a comment

If you run a website that allows account signups, you’ve probably faced abuse from fake users, abusive users, fraudsters, and other malicious actors. If you look at their email addresses, you may have noticed a pattern among these users. Fake users tend to use disposable emails and temporary email services that allow abusers to quickly cycle through new emails with unique address names across thousands of domains. These services make it possible with a simple mouse click to generate a brand new email address.

Since the creation of T.LY URL Shortener, I’ve had to learn a ton about how to stop malicious users on the internet. One part of this was preventing users from signing up using disposable email addresses. Fortunately, there is a Laravel package that handles this functionality. I got a quick solution released that auto-updated from an ever-growing list of fake email address domains. Read More