I’ve started another round of changes to the appearance of w8track. If something looks out of place, or if you just want to say what you think of the new look, please post a comment.

When I was redesigning the w8track site several months ago, I inadvertently removed the old Tell-A-Friend button, which let visitors easily spread the word about us through all the popular social networks. As of today, the button is now back on the blog, in a prominent location near the top-right corner, just below the Facebook button. It will also reappear soon on the application pages.

With the holidays fast approaching and new year’s resolutions just around the corner, now is a great time to tell your friends about w8track!

If you’re anything like me, you spent last week eating and drinking too much, and the closest you got to exercise was regular trips from the couch to the fridge and back. Now your clothes are feeling a bit snug, and you’re wondering how much weight you’ll gain before the holidays are over.

If this sounds at all like you, now would be a great time to start tracking your weight. And to make it even better, w8track is offering its first-ever Cyber Monday promotion: 50% off all new accounts created before the end of this week! More… »

I made some minor improvements to w8track’s user interface over the past 24 hours. Since you probably won’t even notice them, I’ll make it like an Easter egg hunt and not say where they are. Enjoy!

I’ve been working diligently for the past several days trying to get the w8track application integrated with Twitter. I’m pleased to announce you can now record your weight by sending a direct message from any device you use to Twitter. More… »

I suspect a lot of people have been leery of using w8track because of the lack of SSL encryption on the weight tracking features. I understand. I’m not sure I’d be using this program from work, for example, if I thought my boss might be sneaking a peek at my records. To create an extra layer of comfort, I added SSL encryption to w8track this evening, giving you the warm fuzzy feeling of the padlock icon in your browser whenever you record your weight losses or gains. I also extended encryption to the login and registration features of the content part of the site, to accommodate those of you who comment here. You don’t need to take any action to get encryption; it’s automatically enabled for the parts of the site that need it.

As you can see from the last few posts, I’ve been busy today with the w8track application. I managed to pull together a bunch of things I’ve been working on over the past several days. The most pervasive change was breaking apart the identity model. Previously, there was a one-to-one relationship between an OpenID identifier and an account. Now, multiple identities can share the same account. If you’re a user logging into w8track for the first time with a new OpenID, you’ll now be given the option of creating a new account or of associating the identity with an existing account using the secret account key I described in an earlier post. If, like me, you have several OpenIDs, you can associate all of them with one account, so you won’t have to remember later which one you used when you log in each morning to track your weight.

I added a new secret account key feature this evening. If you log into the w8track application, you’ll see a link near the top of the page to show your account’s secret key. If you click on the link, you’ll find a twenty-character secret key unique to your account. You should write down or copy this key and keep it somewhere safe. If you ever need to log into w8track with a different OpenID, you can use the secret account key to associate the new identity with your existing account. It’ll also be useful for additional features that are coming down the pike soon.

The operative word is secret. Under no circumstances should you give the secret account key to someone else.