Blocking Farmville on Facebook

Elliot Silver
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I recently posted a comment on my Facebook wall about blocking those annoying Farmville posts that seem to frequently appear on my wall, and judging by the messages sent by friends on and off Facebook, I thought I would share how I did it in case you don’t know.

When someone posts something (whether it’s Farmville, a Facebook game, comment, or other Facebook app), if you hover over the upper right side of their post, a “hide” button appears. When you click the hide button, it gives the option to hide the person or the app they used. When I clicked the comment related to Farmville, it allowed me to block all Farmville comments from anyone that uses it.

Another friend pointed out that if you want to unhide a friend that you hid previously, go to the bottom of your wall feed and click on the edit options button.

I know this isn’t related to domain names, but I am sure there are plenty of people who would like this information. I am glad I learned how to do this, otherwise the next step would be to block these people.

Help Save the Life of a Friend’s Wife

Elliot Silver
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Jen AustinOne of the people I admired most while in corporate America was a guy I worked for named Shawn Austin, who was (and still is) one of the best strategic thinkers and who is liked by everyone. Sadly, I recently learned that Shawn’s wife, Jennifer is battling leukemia, a cancer of the blood or bone marrow.

Shawn and Jennifer have two young children, and Jennifer is in need an immediate bone marrow transplant.   To be a donor, you need to be a 100% match, so a number of donor drives have taken place and are set up in the hopes of finding a perfect match for Jen. To test if you are a match, all that is needed is a bit of blood or a swab of cells from inside your match.

I hate giving blood and hate needles in general, but I am going to go to the drive on Saturday to see if I happen to be a match. I will be at the drive at the Berkeley Carroll School in Park Slope, Brooklyn at 10am. The first and only time I’ve been to Park Slope was when I sold ParkSlope.com a couple of weeks ago, so maybe that’s a sign.

If you have ever thought about getting tested or joining the Be the Match Marrow Registry (Marrow.org), why not check it out? You can learn more about Jennifer Austin and upcoming marrow donation events on SaveJen.com. There is a list of marrow drives being held around the country on the website as well.

Happy Snow Day from New York City

Elliot Silver
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I love the snow! I think we got around 8-10″ in the City. Nothing like playing in fresh snow in Cental Park on a relaxing Sunday morning. Here’s wishing you and your family happy Sunday.

Unique Ad Buy – Bloomberg on Twitter

Elliot Silver
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Bloomberg on TwitterI was going through my spam email message folder this morning, when I found an email from a colleague asking for an opinion on Twitter user names. I don’t know why it got marked as spam, but it was in there. As you may or may not be aware, Google monetizes all Gmail emails with sponsored links, and I found one that was very interesting when reading this Twitter-related email.

As you can see in the image above, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is encouraging people to follow his account on Twitter. Not only was Gmail detecting my location via IP address (New York City), but it could also tell that the email was related to Twitter, and it placed a targeted advertisement on top of the spam email.

Over the past several months, my wife an I have received a significant amount of mail from Bloomberg, who is looking to become elected for his third term. He has also taken to the airwaves, bought space in print media, and now is advertising on Adwords to encourage people to follow him on Twitter.

Although I find political advertising to be quite annoying, I think it’s cool to see this integrated marketing campaign.

Wine Tasting and Friends in New York Area

Elliot Silver
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Jordan on WineThis post isn’t about domain names or the Internet business, but I wanted to let you know about a great wine tasting experience I just had if you happen to live in the New York, Connecticut or surrounding areas.

Yesterday started like most other days for me with a dog walk and some business-related work. I met up with one of my best friends to go watch shopping to celebrate his recent promotion. Our wives were at home cooking dinner as part of a cooking contest we’ve been having. The “secret ingredient” was mozzarella cheese.

At around 6pm, we returned home, and as I entered my apartment, I was shocked to see it was full of some of my closest friends, their wives, my parents and my brother. “Surprise,” they yelled as I walked through the door – they were belatedly celebrating my 30th birthday.

The kitchen table was full of wine glasses, and we were introduced to Jordan Ross, an enologist from Connecticut. We learned about the proper way to taste wines to get the most out of each sip – in a non-snobby way. The tasting consisted of three flights with some of my favorite types of red wines – Pinot Noir, Malbec, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

During each tasting flight, we learned quite a bit about the different types of wine, where they’re grown in the world, what makes a specific type of wine better than others, and a variety of other things. I especially liked that my wife was able to choose the wines before the actual tasting, and I also appreciated that Jordan doesn’t work at a wine store, so the tasting wasn’t like a sales pitch at all.

If you are looking to have a private wine tasting or seminar in your home and live in the area, I think you’ll enjoy working with Jordan. You can check out his site, JordanOnWine.com or send Jordan an email to set something up.

Escape an Expense Report with Expense Report Generator

Elliot Silver
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I remember the “good old days” when I was at AIG and had to fill out the monthly expense report. Having a corporate card was cool, but filling out the report at the end of the month was annoying – especially when there were random charges I forgot about – or for those charges where a receipt was nowhere to be found.

Maloney & Porcelli, a local steakhouse in New York City, has a tongue in cheek solution for your expense report – and they used a pretty creative domain name to go along with their “expense report generator” –   ExpenseASteak.com. This comedic website provides fictitious “photcopied” receipts that match any amount you type.

Pretty amusing if you ask me!

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