This is an oops! of massive magnitude. Flickr accidentally deleted more than four thousand pictures from one users – and they cannot be restored. Mirco Wilhelm – a photoblogger – claims that Flickr mistakenly deleted his entire account along with everything in it. Thankfully, he has the original files stored elsewhere. Imagine how long it’s going to take him to re-upload them to Flickr – or any other photo-sharing site.

The biggest problem is that as a noted photoblogger, his pictures have been linked to all over the Internet from their cushy homes within Flickr’s servers. Every one of those links are now broken, the images no longer appearing on posts and pages. Additionally, the followers he had accumulated, tags, photo captions and copyright information have been wiped out and may not be restored.

Mr. Wilhelm was flabbergasted when he attempted to log in to his account earlier and was asked to create a username. He’s been a premium account holder for more than five years already! He then recalled a support ticket he filed a few days ago, complaining to Flickr about a different user who had posted photos without permission that Mr. Wilhelm had taken. He started to wonder if it were possible that the powers-that-be had accidentally deleted the incorrect account.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. And – the response from Flickr is definitely not very satisfying:

Unfortunately, I have mixed up the accounts and accidentally deleted yours. I am terribly sorry for this grave error and hope that this mistake can be reconciled. Here is what I can do from here:

I can restore your account, although we will not be able to retrieve your photos. I know that there is a lot of history on your account-again, please accept my apology for my negligence. Once I restore your account, I will add four years of free Pro to make up for my error.

A few years’ worth of free Pro service – a mere $24.95 value per year – doesn’t quite seem to make up for a screwup this large. He is understandably a little miffed: “They cannot reactivate anything more that the account itself, leaving me with an empty shell of what I did during the last 5 years. This would be acceptable, if I had a free account. But since I’m a paying customer, I would expect a bit more than a ‘Again, I am deeply sorry for this mistake,” he writes.

This serves as a good – albeit scary and sad – reminder to all of us: back your stuff up! Shame on the folks behind Flickr for simply deleting an account prior to deactivating it and double-checking their work.

Flickr Accidentally Deleted 4000 Photos

Well. Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz sure wasn’t kidding when she announced in her layoff letter that the company is changing much of their focus. I received an email today “politely” informing me that the struggling online service is going to nix their video content – ALL of their video content. They’re kindly offering me a tool to use to download and save my videos. Thankfully, I’ve also uploaded this same content to much more reliable and stable sites. I don’t have to worry about it. That’s not true for everyone, though.

In the succinct email, it was stated that Yahoo! “will be removing all general user-generated content upload capability and user-uploaded video from Yahoo! Video. As a result, your videos, user profiles, ratings, favorites, and playlists will no longer be available after March 14, 2011. User video content from Yahoo! Video that remains embedded on third party sites will no longer be playable after March 14, 2011.”

Some users have a lot of content on that network… and nowhere else. Sure, they can download their videos and save them. Can they download their ratings, comments and profiles? Of course they cannot. Those things are simply going to be gone.

The good news is that you can take the time to upload that same content to Flickr. The popular photo site now allows video uploads, along with your pictures. However, you can only upload clips of 90 seconds or less, they have to be content you created yourself, and they have to meet some pretty strict requirements as far as “appropriate” levels go. Think of these as “long photos.”

What are your thoughts? Do you even use Yahoo! at all these days? Will you bother to download any videos you may have on their sites?

Yahoo! Removing Video Content

Let’s see if this sums up your feelings:

Do you Yahoo!?

What do You do When Yahoo Goes Down?

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Derrick is a fan of instant messaging applications, just as I’m sure most of you are. Each of us has our own preference when it comes to an all-in-one program. Some may love Adium while others swear that Pidgin is the only way to go. However, Derrick feels strongly that the newest version of Trillian will make you want to leave other IM clients behind.

Derrick admits that he was never a fan of Trillian 3 or Trillian Astra. He feels that #3 was lacking in nearly every way… and that Astra had the same shortcomings with an interface that was seriously overdone. He says it was too busy and over-crowded, and I have to agree.

The beta for Trillian 5 was recently released into the wild, and it has been seriously improved. The first thing you’ll notice is how quickly it starts up – and how much it looks as though it was made for Windows 7. That is likely because it was designed for the newest OS from the Microsoft campus. The interface was carefully designed to integrate with your operating system.

The client is more comprehensive, with more types of feeds – including Facebook events and Twitter searches. It’s flexible and will store feeds in your contact list or system tray. Instant updates to all of your services are just one click away, which is likely why Derrick feels this is the fastest IM client he’s ever used.

Links and pictures are expanded automatically so that you don’t ever have to open a web browser if you don’t want to. You can also view things such as “likes” directly within the client, as well as being able to read and write comments.

In past versions of this IM client, users had issues receiving files coming from friends using different clients, and not being able to video conference with people who weren’t also using Trillian. With this new version, that is no longer an issue. Derrick reports that he was easily able to video conference with a friend of his who was using Digsby.

Trillian can connect you to AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo, Google Chat, Facebook Chat, Jabber, Skype and more. It even has support for Foursquare and LinkedIn! There’s a comprehensive library of plugins, skins and skin packs. This lets you customize Trillian in whatever way suits you best.

Going by what Derrick has shown us, this Alpha release is definitely worth a try – and one to watch grow into full release. I have a feeling many of you will be making a switch (or upgrade) to this as soon as it’s available.

Thanks, Derrick, for a fantastic screencast.

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Trillian 5 for Instant Messaging

I hate traveling. I love the places that I visit and the people I interact with when I get there. It’s the actual travel part that gets to me every time. There’s always such a rush to do everything, you know? Checking into my hotels is probably my least favorite task. God love ‘em for what they do, but the desk clerks always make me batty. They’re always so helpful and happy. I know, it’s a good thing that they’re good at what they do. But when I check in, I’m usually frazzled and just want to pass out on my bed. Like all of you, though, I have to stand in line and then go through the entire process while talking to someone who is entirely too perky. InterContinental Hotels understands my frustrations, and is working on a plan to change things drastically.

Next month, InterContinental Hotels Group will start testing new technology at two of their Holiday Inn locations which allows guests to use their smartphones to unlock the doors to their rooms.

IHG exec Bryson Koehler thinks that the phones may be the perfect answer for weary (and harried) travelers. “The proliferation of smartphones is growing in such a way that we have to look at what people are already bringing with them to make their stay more enjoyable,” he said. “We don’t need to burden people with additional items; it just clutters up their lives. The beauty of the smart phone is that they’ve already got it.”

The test will begin in June at the Holiday Inn Chicago O’ Hare Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center. To join the trial, participants will need to download an Open Ways app to their phone. Guests will call up the confirmation email on their screen and hold it up to a sensor on the door which will automagically unlock it.

What are your thoughts on this? If you have a smartphone and travel often, is this something you feel you would take advantage of?

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Unlock Your Hotel Room with Your Cell Phone

Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz participated in a cozy little chat with TechCrunch CEO Michael Arrington earlier today during TechCrunch Disrupt. True to himself, Michael opened the chat by asking Carol “So how the fuck are you?” Niceties aside, Arrington got down to the nitty gritty.

There have been a couple of major changes over at Yahoo! in recent weeks. Personals are no longer a part of the site. Instead, Yahoo! and Match.com have teamed up to take dating to a new level. Additionally, the company just recently announced a deal with Nokia. Both of these moves show that the company is struggling to catch up and try to become the powerhouse they once were.

Michael asked some tough questions of Carol, such as: “How important is social to Yahoo?” Carol seemed to fumble through her answers at times, as though she wasn’t quite sure what to say. In response to that particular query, she quipped: “Back when social had a broad definition, you could almost say that Yahoo Finance chat was the first social product. We have a million comments a day now. We had 85,000 comments on day one at Yahoo News. And we’re merging in some of the big products like Twitter, etc. We’re doing some new cool things with Mail next month too. It’s about finding out the new things about people.”

I hate to tell you, Carol, but you guys are just a tad late to the party. If you want to consider the Yahoo Finance chat to have been the first social product, we’ll go ahead and give that to you. However, while other companies such as Twitter and Facebook have been dominating the field, Yahoo! has remained stagnant and forgettable. The claims of being “on 37 million of the 82 million mobile devices in the US.” honestly don’t ring very true. Take a glance around the Internet – ask people how often they use any of the Yahoo! site or services. I have a feeling you’ll be pretty shocked at the reply.

Arrington was ruthless in his questions to Carol regarding Google. He attempted to call her on a few things she has said in the past, when she claimed that Google “needs to grow a Yahoo every year — just go into a lot of businesses. They have to be a 20% grower.” What, exactly, are they supposed to be growing? Google has already carved out their niche, and they continue to expand on it nearly every day. Have we forgotten Google TV already, Ms. Bartz?

What bothers me most about this interview is Carol’s lack of professionalism. I don’t honestly care how much Arrington grills you… you don’t tell him to “fuck off” at the end of the interview. I know that she (and the audience) laughed it off, but it was a serious gaffe. She was frazzled by all appearances, and knew that Michael had gotten the best of her. Just moments earlier, she had stated that she is only “one of many” people who could do her job, and that that was “the beauty of it.”

Here’s a piece of advice: NEVER tell the world that others could do your job as well as you can, and then tell the CEO of a “very tiny” business such as TechCrunch to fuck off in front of a live audience. The point isn’t that she said it to Arrington. The point is that she said it at all. Sure, I curse on occasion. However, I don’t go around telling people to f*ck off when they have made me uncomfortable. You’re supposed to smile and nod your head. Give back as good as you get. Above all else… remain calm.

You get more flies with honey than you do with the F word. I’m willing to bet that the “many people” who could do her job wouldn’t have caused such an uproar.

What are your thoughts? Do you think that Carol’s send-off was appropriate, or something she should have likely kept to herself?

Bartz Curses Arrington at TechCrunch Disrupt

Do you remember back in 1981 when the floppy disc first made its appearance? At the time, it was a fairly large leap in technology and portability. While many of you young people may snort and scoff at that statement, I assure you it was true of the times more than twenty years ago. As of last year, Sony was still reportedly selling around 8.5 million of these little discs in Japan alone.

However, due to the changing times, Sony has announced they will stop making floppies. Sony wrapped up international sales of floppy discs last month. The company already stopped producing the drives last September. Sadly, it’s the end of an era for those of us who remember. It will be interesting to see how many old-school Geeks will have a fit over this turn of events. I do happen to know people who actually still USE their old beloved floppies.

Are you still a die-hard floppy disc user? Does your computer even HAVE a place to use them?

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