For those of you wanting to send exclusive gifts to your FarmVille friends and neighbors, you will need to head over to FarmVille.com, Connect to Facebook, and then access the exclusive list from the Gift page.

Here are the most recent additions to FarmVille.com exclusive gift list:

• Wood Picket Fence
• Fancy Topiary
• Pink Greenery
• Sunflower in Bucket

With the February Facebook update, we lost the ability to automatically create Live Feed lists of our favorite games and apps. For all you gaming fans out there, here is how to create your own bookmarked Live Feeds:

1. You will first need to know how to create a bookmark in your browser. If you do not, please consult the help section of the browser itself.

2. You will need to find the app ID# of the game you wish to create a Live Feed for. To do this, go to your Account drop down menu and select Application Settings.

3. Find the game you wish to set up first, and click the Profile link shown on the right. This will open up the app for you. Look at the url that appears in your browser, and make note of the ID# that appears at the end of it, as shown below:

4. Now type the following url into your browser bar, replacing the 0’s with your favorite app’s ID# onto the end, as shown below:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=app_0000000000

5. Press Enter (or Go, or whatever your particular browser calls it), and you should now have a Live Feed of recent status updates for the app you wanted.

6. Now simply bookmark the page, naming it something similar to “XXX Game Feed”.

To save you all some steps above, I have included a list of popular Facebook app links below for you:

Mafia Wars – http://www.facebook.com/?filter=app_10979261223

FarmVille – http://www.facebook.com/?filter=app_102452128776

Cafe World – http://www.facebook.com/?filter=app_101539264719

Zoo World – http://www.facebook.com/?filter=app_167746316127

FishVille – http://www.facebook.com/?filter=app_151044809337

For many Facebook users, the latest update back in February has them scratching their heads at how to rearrange and reorganize their favorite bookmarks. Gone are the little icons at the bottom of your screen – they now appear in your left side navigation menu, and almost everyone has realized those links do not move up and down, as we were once able to drag them before.

Here is how to drag your bookmarks back to the order you wish them to be:

1. Select Application Settings from your Account drop down menu.

2. Choose Bookmarked from your Show drop down menu as shown to the right.

3. Drag any of your bookmarks to the position you wish them to appear, keeping in mind the top 3 will show above the ‘more’ link in your left navigation menu.

That’s it – you are done Enjoy your new bookmark order!

Note: I had this tutorial planned out last week, but completely forgot to actually post it. Thanks definitely go out to Insider reader Howie for reminding me

We’ve been asking and anxiously waiting the announcement… And it looks like it may finally be coming soon – dogs on FarmVille.

For those of you who may have not noticed, or were not aware of what the following picture is, we are fairly confident it is a dog hiding behind that curtain!

Let’s hope Zynga makes this little gem attainable by all players – and free.

Another rumor is making its’ way around player statuses this past weekend – this one directed at Zynga’s FarmVille. Here is a sample of a typical status we have seen:

ATTENTION: Zynga has announced that as of March 31, 2010 FarmVille will no longer be available in it’s Beta version. The game will be available for a subscription fee of $5.99 per month and will include additional levels above 70.

The rumor is simply untrue. There has been no announcement of this kind from Zynga, nor has there been any indication that the Beta version will no longer be made available.

However, that is not to say that a paid version of the game won’t become a reality. A large number of multi player games use a dual membership business model. This allows for a free membership plan, offering all the basics we have accessible to us know when playing FarmVille, and an upgraded monthly membership; giving us additional perks not granted to free members.

This would be a sound move on Zynga’s part, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the rumor of Beta being over and the game changing to paid membership only, is completely untrue.

It’s almost funny if it weren’t so sad that many people still use their birthdays and sometimes names of favorite family members as their Facebook password. A good password is one that is impossible to guess. Many people know this already, but only a few truly understand the importance of creating a strong, impossible-to-guess password.

So why do you need a strong password?

Your password is what you need in order to prove to the computer that you are who you say you are. It functions like a normal house key, except that instead of carrying it around in your pocket or your wallet, you carry it around in your head.

Like a regular house key, passwords can be stolen. Someone using your password will pretend to be you in order to gain access to your account, files, or any other important information you store in your computer or database.

The computer has no way of knowing if it is really you or someone pretending to be you, the same way that your door has no way of knowing if it is you holding that key inserted into the keyhole.

For these reasons, it is important to safeguard a password, and one of the most reliable ways of safeguarding your password is to create one that is difficult to crack. So you will create highly complicated passwords – unfathomable letter combinations and numbers and symbols and upper case letters and lower case letters and whatever else you can add into the whole mix.

However, the main trouble about password security is that people will have to remember them in order to gain access to the network, whether it is a home computer network or an office network.

Now, if you were using a literal cocktail of letters, symbols, and numbers as a password, you would have to have exceptionally high capacity for remembering codes. The problem is not all people have brains that function like that.

In fact, most people are better at remembering words that actually make sense than a splatter of alphanumerics with who-knows-what meaning. As such, people naturally prefer the former when choosing or creating passwords.

Unfortunately, hackers are very, very smart. If, given enough computing power, time, and encrypted data, these hackers can compromise even the most complex cryptographic system, how much more a password that is easy to crack? It is like stealing candy from a baby, to borrow a line.

The purpose therefore of creating strong passwords is to make it as difficult as possible for the hacker to figure out, even if he had all the time in the world to crack it.

However, taking into account our admittedly human tendency to remember things in context, your password should also be one that you can relatively recall fairly easily – that is, they should not be completely alien to the brain, like all numeric codes, to make them easier to remember and store in our memory banks.

In fact, experts in network security highly encourage that you use a combination of numeric codes and letters of the alphabet as this will increase the number of odds and make it more difficult for the hacker to figure out the right combination.

Passwords to Avoid

Okay, you have to admit that there are only so many words that people use and so many numbers that it is difficult to come up with something totally original to make use of as a password.

More often than not, people will use the same password for all their accounts without even knowing that some other person in some other state or country is also using the same password because they thought it was unique.

Moreover, hackers use cracking devices specifically for the purpose of figuring out people’s passwords. These devices will run a list of all possible letter and number combinations and then all the hacker has to do is to try out each one until he gets the right one.

It seems like a tedious job, but cracking devices are actually very sophisticated software that can eliminate all the other odds in order to get the hacker closer to figuring out the right password. They have resources and a deep understanding of how people think (at least, when it comes to what passwords the average Joe would likely pick up) to make the whole task simple.

Now, couple that with all the wonderful technology at their disposal, and you are practically at their mercy, unless you take steps in avoiding the following weak passwords:

* Words in the dictionary, including any dictionary in any language or technical application (e.g. engineering dictionary)

* Your username or your real name

* Your spouse’s name or the name of any person you know, including family members

(This is because password crackers can easily get a list of 10,000 names or more and then run them through your system to see if one works)

* Words found in the “cracking dictionary”

(Yes, password crackers do keep a list of words that a lot of people use. This includes abbreviations; cartoons; character patterns; asteroids; famous names; Bible; movies; god, myths and legends; Password (the word itself); female names; male names; machine names; science fiction; songs; sports; number patterns; surnames; places; short phrases; Shakespeare; etc.

* Any common words with a single character before or after it (e.g. 1happy, Paris8)

* Any common words, capitalized (e.g., Soccer)

* Any common words, reversed (e.g., soccer à reccos), doubled (e.g., soccer à soccersoccer), or mirrored (e.g., soccer à soccerreccos)

* There was a time when it was a good idea to take a word and substitute some of the characters.

For instance, instead of using the word “password,” you can make it into this alphanumeric combination: P@$$w0rd. This is actually a good password, as far as the rules of creating good passwords are concerned. However, there are actually some cracking devices today that are designed to crack even those kinds of passwords, so you probably should not take this route anymore.

Now that you know what passwords to avoid, time for you to learn what makes a good password.

Creating a Strong Password

One of the first things to remember when creating strong passwords is the balance between coming up with a password that is complex enough to give crackers a hard time, yet easy enough for the user to recall. This shouldn’t be too difficult if you take note of the following tips:

The Six-Character Rule

A strong password should be one that is composed of six characters or more. This will make it difficult for a hacker to crack with a brute-force attack.

You can use as many characters as you like so long as you meet the minimum of six characters. However, note that there are some systems that establish a maximum number of characters. For instance, the UNIX system has a maximum of eight characters.

Upper and Lower Case Combination

This was mentioned earlier. Passwords are made case-sensitive for a reason, and that is reason is to increase the security level of gaining access to your account. But in addition to upper and lower case combinations, strong passwords should also incorporate punctuation marks and numbers.

Now, one common mistake people make when it comes to passwords like this is they write it down to help them remember.

While these passwords are admittedly hard to recall, DO NOT make the mistake of writing them down anywhere or keeping a record of them anywhere in your system.

The License Plate Rule

This rule is simple. Just take a word or a phrase and then squeeze it into six or eight characters the way you would with a vanity license plate.

Small Words and Punctuation Marks

The good thing about passwords like these is that they are easy to come up with and easy to remember. Let’s take the word “coffee” for instance. Take that word and insert punctuation marks in there somewhere to mess up the crackers – i.e. “co%ff*ee”

Use Control Characters

This can be a good choice. However, note that there are some that bear special meanings. For instance, characters like ^U, ^H, or ^D might prevent you from logging in again.

Use Uncommon Phrase

Remember this rule: short phrases are a no-no. But uncommon phrases tweaked just so are okay. More than okay, in fact.

For example, let’s take a Latin legal phrase: “Dura lex sed lex”, which means “the law may be hard but it is the law.”

Now, take the last letters of each word to get this combination: “axdx.”

Finally, throw in a capital letter, punctuation marks, and numbers and you can come up with a hard-to-crack password like this: “Ax%d3x*”

Misspelling Rule

Deliberately misspelling words is highly encouraged. This will make your password harder to crack.

Random Gambit

And last but not least, try to come up with a password that is totally random to anyone else but not to you.

We can’t tell you how to come up with these because then if we ourselves can figure it out, then it’s probably not that random. So only you can really come up with random passwords that are difficult to crack. Just think hard and…USE YOUR IMAGINATION.

And once you have come up with a good, strong password using the above-given tips, the next important step is to continuously update your password. Six months is the maximum length of time you should keep using a password. Experts agree that this is the optimum period with which a password will remain secure and uncompromised. It will also take this long for a typical cracking device to crack your strong password.

If you have difficulties remembering the passwords you have created, consider using the free or upgraded version of RoboForm – the most respected and encrypted password saver available on the market.

The latest hoaxing craze circulating Facebook is groups and fan pages claiming to Facebook offering free or limited time upgrades to a supposed Gold account.

There is no Facebook Gold Account. This hoax has been circulating in various forms for over 10 months.

Here are a few samples of ridiculous pages and groups claiming to upgrade you if you invite all your friends:

Group Name:

Fake Facebook Gold Account

This one is quite funny actually. It’s a group, managed by 2 kids, and they actually interact with the members. Their claims of working on 6000+ lines of code, alpha and beta testing, server resources etc, had me chuckling. They are however a menace…And are getting kicks out of fooling people…

Here is a sample of their BS, where they claim the image/photo cannot be seen unless you upgrade to gold:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=320101003112#!/photo.php?pid=30984453&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=320101003112&id=1005892178

I particularly like how they claim “Chrome Accounts” have stolen their idea…

I am sure mom and dad are real proud of these two yahoos…

They were not however smart enough to start their hoax without revealing their real names… Can you say Bye Bye From Facebook?

———-

Hoax - Free Facebook Gold Account Upgrade

Page Name: ~~UPDATE~~ FREE GOLD ACCOUNT UPGRADE~~

This hoax has been set up as a fan page, and therefore the identity of the scammer is not revealed.

Of course, you are required to invite every single friend in order to be upgraded. Oh yes, and then you have to complete a “free” offer/survey before that official upgrade.

By the way, the offer is not free – you will be charged on your cell phone AND this yahoo gets paid for you completing the survey.

—————

Be vigilant of groups such as this. If Facebook decides to offer any enhancements to your account, be rest assured you will NOT be required to join some group or invite all your friends. These type of instructions continue to be a huge red flag that the page or group is a hoax.

Therefore, please do NOT invite all your friends

Over the past six years, we have watched Facebook evolve from a little Harvard dorm based network, into a massive world-wide 400 million user behemoth. The largest social network online is now gearing up to bring us a new feature to stay connected with friends and family – Project Titan; aka Facebook eMail!

Michael Arrington of TechChrunch says “Facebook is completely rewriting their messaging product and is preparing to launch a fully featured webmail product in its place, according to a source with knowledge of the product.” So far rumors indicate that the new service will include IMAP/POP support, giving you the ability to access your new email outside of the Facebook platform.

Facebook is all about connecting and the easiest way to do that is by people being able to find you. With the introduction of vanity urls back in June 2009, the Facebook developers gave us one more way for people to find us – especially for those who have a more common name. According to the TechChrunch report, your new Facebook email address will be your vanity url.

vanityurl@facebook.com

Currently, many Facebook users still have a randomly assigned numerical profile url. A vanity url allows you to choose an available name, or nickname instead.

You will be given a few options to choose from, or you can select your own. If your custom name is available, once you confirm, it will be immediately set as your new profile url.

I strongly recommend everyone go create their vanity url asap in order to secure how you wish your new Facebook email address to appear.

Here is a quick tip for those of you who do not care to have everyone know what games and applications you use on Facebook. There has been a new section added to the Privacy Settings page under your Account tab.

It looks like:

Facebook Game & Application Dashboard Privacy

If you choose “Custom” from the drop down menu, you will have the option to them choose “Only Me”. Alternatively, you could also select a small group of friends or family – you choose!

Thanks to our reader Barbi for passing on this tip via a comment she left!

Console gamers claim consoles are more entertaining for the reason that they just have to plug their machine into a socket and begin to play. Thus, they are easier to use. Computer games tend to take longer to set out due to the fact that the game has to be set up into a hard drive and there could even be issues about compatibility which can turn out to be a thwarting. In this arena, console games are by all odds at an advantage. One more point to study is the caliber of graphics and most gamers claim computer games are certainly superior above console games in this arena. By nature, this is so since PC’s will tend to have greater amount of space and capabilities when it comes to graphic presentation, thus, colors are sharper and shapes are much more defined. Compared to consoles, computers again have this edge. Add to this the continuing developments on computer-intended graphic technologies which practically make computer graphics increasingly superior with each upgrade option made available. In all likelihood one thing that makes console games more preferable is the fact that a player can play with a consistent level of performance from the machine as compared to computers whose performance capabilities are dictated by the PC’s specs, such as RAM, CPU, hard drive , drivers and video cards. While all these can potentially pose problems in one’s PC game experience, consoles do not have these issues and are, therefore, favorable in this respect. In terms of availability of games, it’s inarguable that more games can be played on a PC and consoles are by nature lagging behind in this category. Both PC and console gaming will have its own merits and demerits and it will just depend on the individual gaming play as experienced by the gamer for him to form his own assessment of which is actually better.