Writes Code, Fiction
Since Google’s FriendConnect now has public APIs and Joost de Valk (is that his real name?) already has a WordPress plugin, it seems like only a matter of minutes days until Disqus will add the ability to login through Google to their plugin.
(Would it help if I said Please?)
This time-saving tip to set your email signature to say it was sent from your mobile device is one of the best things I’ve heard in a while. The way you save time with that is to just write short responses to emails, and since it’s “sent” from your iPhone or Blackberry or whatever, it’s socially acceptable for you to be brief.
And with all the time you save, you can build an office out of cardboard and draw all over it!
Of course, Read/WriteWeb compares it to Twitter rather than, say, Yahoo Answers (which is the first product that I would think to compare it to).
Whatever comparison you make, though, Aardvark sounds pretty cool. (Too bad the URL http://www.aardvark.com was already taken, leaving them with the awkward vark.com)
Basically, what Aardvark does (or will do, when it’s out of beta) is allow you to send questions to your instant messaging client (provided that you use Gmail, AIM, or MSN Live Messenger) and get answers back.
In the RWW post there is another picture with a real demonstration of an Aardvark user looking for book recommendations for someone who likes Neal Stephenson. As someone who likes Neal Stephenson, this is a great example (and I’m sure it was chosen since it would appeal to tech geeks who tend to be Stephenson’s usual audience). Again, as someone who likes Stephenson, and related authors, I can say that the recommendations given by the Aardvark responses were really very good.
RWW had 25 beta invites, but those are gone now. I’ve signed up to get my own, so I’ll just have to wait and see.
You can click for a larger view…
I’m not the only one who’s noticed.
Internet Explorer 7 blocking Google AdSense
IE7 disables javascript with the security setting on “high”, which would not allow AdSense ads to show along with numerous features of most websites. IE6 works exactly the same and the phenomenon is definitely not specific to Google AdSense. It is likely that whomever did the test had their security setting on “high”. However, this is not the default setting and we believe most users would not have a good experience on the web having javascript blocked.
I tested with the security setting at Medium-High and Medium and had the same issue, so it’s not just a problem with High security.
And some insight on Internet Explorer 8 which will apparently be doing the same thing. Now, yes, I can see how security experts would be skeptical of AdSense as being a form of spyware, but you could also (and I would think perhaps more successfully) argue that Google Analytics is even worse. (And yes, putting the two together is even worse)
That said, I (and many others) use Google AdSense to make a little extra cash from blogging (not from this blog, mind you, despite the presence of ads in some browsers). I prefer Google’s ads to just about any sort of display advertising which is usually just distracting or annoying, and the face that Firefox, Safari, and Opera (and obviously Chrome) don’t seem to have any issues with displaying Google Ads does make me leary. Microsoft has been known to be fairly anti-trusting in the past, and while the links above explain that the security measures affect more than just Google Ads, my guess would be that the Internet Explorer test suite includes a “security test” that makes sure that Google Ads aren’t showing up.
Even though the Update to this post on TechCrunch about Last.fm and the RIAA says that Last.fm hasn’t handed over any user data to the RIAA, um, guess what? There’s at least 3 different websites (and those are just the ones I know of) (that are pretty easy to find with a simple Google search) that will allow the RIAA to put in your Last.fm username and find all your other social profiles. Do you have your real, full name in Twitter? Is your Twitter username the same as your Last.fm username? Are you listening to unreleased tracks that you illegally downloaded (like, say, the new U2 album)? Busted.
See, I’d rather have everyone in the world know that I have listened to Hillary Duff (*awful BTW*), Mandy Moore, and Leona Lewis than to have the RIAA be able to easily figure out that I’m listening to music that I obviously should not have access to.
To their credit, TechCrunch does say:
Incidents like this highlight how the social Web can sometimes bite back if you are not careful. It also raises the issue of who owns all of this data about you and what they can do with it. Unfortunately, it’s come down to this: you really shouldn’t share any data on the Web you wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing in a court of law.
Yeah, it’s sticky when it comes to things like photos you upload to Facebook. But, when you are uploading/scrobbling your music listening to Last.fm, I don’t think it’s sticky at all. To me, that is all public domain data. I know that anyone and their mother can look at my listening history. But it’s clear that some people don’t really think about that. Again, as TechCrunch puts it:
most probably never even considered it a possibility that individually identifiable information about their listening habits (legal, illegal, or otherwise) could be handed over to an organization known for taking consumers to court for file-sharing. What makes this even more egregious is that it appears to be absent any legal precedent (such as a pending lawsuit) for which Last.fm could at least hide behind as an excuse.
Really, though, the RIAA could probably hire a code monkey to create a script to pull all the usernames from Last.fm who have pre-release U2 songs scrobbled, then either pull their name from Last.fm (if available) or search for other publicly available profiles to find your full name, and the do a quick Zabasearch to find your home address and/or phone number.
Now, of course, I think the RIAA needs to take a chill pill with the whole lawsuit thing in the first place, but the point of this post (if you didn’t guess from the title) is that people don’t realize that something like Last.fm can make their illegal activity available for everyone in the world to see. The same concept is easily applied to people in networks on Facebook. You know how many people that I’m not friends with in the Chicago network have hundreds of pictures of themselves which I can see posted on Facebook? I don’t either, but it’s a lot. Granted, most of them aren’t doing illegal things, but I’m sure there are some pictures that they wouldn’t necessarily want a complete stranger who just happens to live (or say they live) in the same city to see. There’s a reason that bank robbers don’t usually just walk in and wave at the security cameras while pulling off their heist. Does that mean we all need to learn to think like bank robbers when using the internet? No, but you might want to think like that when you’re doing something you know is illegal.
Bonus Link: If you’re going to kill your wife and try to make it look like a mugging, don’t search for things like “Medical trauma gunshot chest”, “Immigrating to Brazil”, “acute blood loss”. At least, not on your home computer.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png)
By disabling the Labs extensions and then reenabling the most important ones, I’ve managed to fix my issue with Gmail constantly resizing the inbox, and now have 4 different (lowercase) inboxes displayed one on top of the other: Inbox (for GTD style collection – even though my library still hasn’t gotten the book for me yet), Starred items (basically an easy way to not High Priority items), label:To Do (my original To Do inbox, now reserved for the second most important things), and label: Keep in Mind (for stuff that I don’t want to forget about, but might not necessarily be To Do items).
Image via CrunchBase
I also installed the Remember The Milk Firefox Add-On to replace the Google Gadget (I suspect the Gadgets were part of what was messing things up). The Firefox adding is better in some ways and worse in some ways. It takes up a lot more room, but it feels more full-featured.
So, now that that’s all settled, I’m going to have to play around with the Custom Theme Colors that were just added today. I tried the theme templates but didn’t really like any of them enough to switch from just the basic one. But now that I tend to leave Gmail open more and more, I might go back and have a second try with them (since I’m usually pretty terrible at coming up with custom theme colors that are any good – see also: My Yahoo!)
If it’s good enough for Gina Trapani, it’s certainly good enough for me. Sorry Apple fans (I know there’s at least 2 reading this blog)… I use and spend more time in Gmail more than anything else (yes, even Facebook!), so if an Android phone is better for that, then it’s not even really a question. Here’s Gina’s quote:
I’m a heavy Gmail user, and Android’s Gmail interface far surpasses the options on the iPhone. Reading, searching, labeling, and otherwise processing my email is the most important thing I need to do on my smartphone besides make calls, and it’s simply easier in Android.
So, yesterday I set up additional mailboxes using Gmail Labs’ new Multiple Inboxes feature. Then I created a label called To Do and added “label:To Do” as one of my other inboxes (well, actually, my only other one). This slight tweak allowed me to move things from my capital-I Inbox to the To Do label, which was still there on the Inbox page, but since I changed the multiple inbox setting to put the additional collection points below the main inbox, it was slightly less intrusive. This was surprisingly effective at allowing me to not worry as much about those things down there since my Inbox was still technically empty. While I haven’t actually read GTD (though I do have it on hold at the library right now), I felt very GTDized by doing this.
That was, until today, when the Gmail couldn’t figure out how wide to make the page, and kept moving the right side back and forth. Now, granted, I’ve moved my chat and lables boxes to the right side, and have the Remember the Milk gadget, Google Calendar, and Google Documents on the left side, and I understand that aligning things like that is probably a recipe for disaster. That said, it works fine with just one Inbox… so, I’m stuck with that for now, and stuck waiting for GTD from the library to see how I can further adapt my Gmail set up. (For the record, I have tried the GTDInbox plugin and wasn’t really feeling it, and I’ve read a bunch of other ways to organize the Inbox as a Collection Point, but feel like I’ll be better able to understand what they’re meant to do once I’ve actually read the book).
First post from Google’s new Social Web blog. Exciting!
I mean, it’s not like I do it that often anyway (since it’s so freaking expensive), but this (clearly biased, but still somewhat informative) article has convinced me. I usually respond to people’s text message by calling them since it’s cheaper (and usually faster) to call.
Some quotes from the article:
20 class-action lawsuits have been filed around the country against AT&T and the other carriers, alleging price-fixing for text messaging services.
For those financial analyst type folks:
T-Mobile called Mr. Kohl’s attention to the fact that its “average revenue per text message, which takes into account the revenue for all text messages, has declined by more than 50 percent since 2005.”
This statement seems like good news for customers. But consider what is left out: In the past three years, the volume of text messaging in the United States has grown tenfold, according to CTIA — the Wireless Association, a trade group based in Washington. If T-Mobile enjoyed growth that was typical, its text messaging revenue grew fivefold, even with the steep drop in per-message revenue.
For those slightly more technically inclined people:
text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network.
That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted.
And a quote for people who like buffets:
Once one understands that a text message travels wirelessly as a stowaway within a control channel, one sees the carriers’ pricing plans in an entirely new light. The most profitable plan for the carriers will be the one that collects the most revenue from the customer: unlimited messaging, for which AT&T and Sprint charge $20 a month and T-Mobile, $15.
Customers with unlimited plans, like diners bringing a healthy appetite to an all-you-can-eat cafeteria, might think they’re getting the best out of the arrangement. But the carriers, unlike the cafeteria owners, can provide unlimited quantities of “food” at virtually no cost to themselves — so long as it is served in bite-sized portions.
Nels Wadycki 