Twitter Mikeyy Hack – How to fix & avoid

Worried about Mikeyy hack?

FIRST: DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS IN TWITTER – DO NOT VISIT ANY TWITTERERS PROFILE.

Apparently random tweets being sent out from your account – Sounds like you have the worm… Heck – you might not even know until someone tells you….

BNO NEWS and TechCrunch Explains.

To avoid this hack DO NOT visit any other Twitter users profile. The worm is spread when you visit someone’s infected profile.

Also – do not click any links to STALK DAILY – Do not even visit the site. It is linked to the hack.

Better still – DO NOT USE Twitter via Twitter.com itself. Use iTweet, Tweetdeck, Twitterfon etc – any third party application AS LONG as it doesn’t link and open pages within Twitter.com itself.

Once more, the iPhone’s Twitterfon application is riding the waves on this one! A brilliant application!

WARNING!!! Tweetdeck is one of the applications that can link and open peoples profiles in Twitter.com itself – THIS IS BAD!!!!

If you use an application like this, be careful. In fact with Tweetdeck you can see peoples profiles within Tweetdeck itself. Just go into settings (the spanner at the top right) and UNCHECK (untick) the box in the GENERAL TAB that says “OPEN PROFILES IN WEB PAGE (SAVES API)”

NOTE: This hack DOES NOT steal your password. It doesn’t break into your bank account and steal your identity – it’s just a pain in the backside. It only works when you are logged in to Twitter – so it doesn’t need your password.

FIX: If you have the hack already – go into your twitter settings and reset them and change your password.

More fix info HERE if the above doesn’t sort it for you (Cheers for the heads up Julie).

This is all I have learnt so far – If you have anything to add, then please feel free to enlighten me!

TwitterDeck, Twitterfon and Facebook Tweeting

So by now you’ll know that I use Twitter. It’s part of this blog (see the left hand column) and fast becoming the best way to communicate bullet points and sound bites of information by mobile phone and computer.

It is primarily a web based micro-blog texting system, but as with a lot of things today, you don’t even have to go near the actual Twitter web pages to participate (once you have your membership – which is free).

If you want help on Twittering, then sign up and follow me  at LucasBlack, or follow one of the Twitter Gurus I have bumped into: DaivRawks.

Twitter as seen on its web page

It is the great leveller of people. There is no special treatment (tweetment?) between users. I rub tweet-shoulders with people all over the World in all sorts of lines of work. Recently I have been tweeting with Robert Llewellyn (Scrap Heap Challenge,  Red Dwarf – Kryten etc) – and the beauty of Twitter is that he is on the same level as me – We have the same 140 characters to play with, where age, social standing, profession etc just don’t come into play.

I like this levelling idea, as Robert Llewellyn is quite simply a great guy regardless of what he does, and I think “celebrity stalkers” tend to ruin things for people who just want to chat as equals and not simper to these well known people. I’m sure these public figures feel the same way sometimes – Why can’t people just chat without going all gushy and doe eyed at what they do? Thank goodness for Twitter then – It’s all very calming.

On to the various choices of applications you can use to operate within Twitter. There are flipping hundreds of choices, but the ones I use are generally the ones that are heartily recommended by other users. I have tried many types now, and the following ones are the applications that I have found most user friendly and satisfying to use. All are free, although you can make donations.

For a quick simple Tweet system on my PC I sometimes use “Twitterfox” for the Firefox web browser. It appears as a small pop up window in the bottom right of my screen (much like a messenger chat window). Very simple and easy to use for general tweet following.

The trouble is that you can end up with a cacophony of tweet messages that you are trying to keep up with. By far the best computer application is TweetDeck, as this sorts Tweets out into various categories and is very “tuneable” for each users preferences. When following tweets you will see the application that people have used to post messages – and TweetDeck is one of the most popular systems I have seen being used – and for a good reason.

TwitterDeck as I use it

Now a lot of people use Facebook and don’t want the fuss of having separate applications all over the place -but worry not, as Facebook has a Twitter application on it. I don’t really use it, but it’s a useful little tool to have at hand.

Facebook Twitters

The final application I use is “Twitterfon” – an application for the iPhone. There are lots of iPhone Twitter applications, and I have tried many of them. Twitterfon is the one application for tweeting that I just keep returning to as it is simple, clear and very, very functional.  For me, the top two applications are Twitterfon and TweetDeck – they do everything I need from them (at the moment). I am sure many more applications will come about, but for now I am pretty happy in the Twitter world.

Twitterfon on the iPhone