coffee.geek.nz

there's a geek fallacy that your friends are friends with you therefore they'd naturally be friends with each other -- yeah, it's a fallacy.

"Friend" is a changing word - facebook has destroyed it's true meaning. I define friend is someone you'd expect would let you sleep on their couch (and vice versa).

In absence of any photograph of me with a giant group of friends, here are photos of friends. If i've missed you out, it's mostly likely becasue there's no photo!

This week I've seen a series of blog posts on my rss reader, in variations of the same theme. The idea that if you don't want your private data shared with everyone that you shouldn't put it in the internet, not even in private space. They claim that facebook and/or google should be able to do what ever they want with your information because you gave it to them.

It doesn't seem to matter if the data was in a private communication from one person to another - it doesn't matter if you deliberately restricted access to that information / profile, according to the rules at the time of data entering. Some people believe it's fine for the website you sent the data through to open this data up later to the public. (and people developing facebook application are the public. anyone, in theory, can build one, and anyone of my ditsy cousins can add the application.).

This opinions seems to come from a position of security. From people who don't have any reason to fear for their safety, or their standing in the community, if their private communications are suddenly made public.

The examples they give are all wrong too - people are postulating that those wanting privacy are merely wanting to hide their own "slagging off" of something else, their rants and bitchings about other people.

When people see this notice:

by installing this facebook application you agree to grant the company behind this stupid quiz access to your info, your facebook activities, your friends' info, your friends' facebook activites, your childrens' facebook info and all their activies too, forever and ever or until you find the semi-hidden link to remove this application.. click yes if you agree

all they actually see is this:

if you want this app to work, you have to click yes

New Zealand Goes All Black Against Three Strikes | Electronic Frontier FoundationSource: www.eff.orgWhether you're following a New Zealander on Twitter, or have friended a Kiwi on Facebook, you will not have missed Net users from that country protesting Section 92A in NZ's new Copyright Act. Thousands are turning their sites and their icons black to mourn the coming enforcement of the provision, w...

Graffiti drawn by Brett TaylorSource: apps.new.facebook.co...

Web page claims i've been lying to you all

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 8%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 92%

Site Male-Female Ratio
youtube.com
1
facebook.com
0.83
flickr.com
1.15
isohunt.com
1.94
sourceforge.net
1.74
archive.org
1.11
garmin.com
1.9
slashdot.org
1.74

Everyone want to be your openid provider suddenly.

The truth is, you only need one.

Sure, you probably want to have a dozen or so. But the real point of open id is use an open identity to get into website.

No more remembering a username and password for every single one of the thousands of websites you log into. Likewise, just disable a compromised open identity at one place, the provider.

i prefer to host it myself and keep control of my own identity.

What we need is for sites to accept openid for authentication and identification... We don't need more providers. We need sites (like facebook.com and google.com and hotmail.com and telecom.co.nz and ird.govt.nz and flickr.com) to accept our openid to identify who we are and let us log in, instead of that archaic and time consuming username+password remembering method.

Once open id takes over the world (just like lisp already did) then you'll just whack your openid into login boxes, and watch the magic system authenticate you faster than you can blink. No longer will you have to remember your username or your password. No long will you have to request "forgot password" on that website you visit twice a year and no longer remember your details on.

Please to be accepting openid!! not providing.

KTHNXBYTE.