Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
I just deleted my Facebook account. I do not wish to do business with these people.
Facebook simply doesn’t understand that their way of doing business is unacceptable. Given the repeated public statements by their founder Mark Zuckerberg, who’s on some personal mission to make the world “more open” — whatever the hell that means — that’s unlikely to change. Fuck him.
Continue reading “Why I’ve deleted my Facebook account”A quick reminder: I’m about to head to Seattle for the rest of this week, returning to Sydney on Sunday 30 May 2010. Why? I’m visiting Microsoft to talk security. I’ll be posting pictures and stuff at my new Posterous site, Stilgherrian’s Stream. Also on Sunday, we’ll be watching Eurovision on the big screen at Kelly’s on King, Newtown, gathering there from about 6pm. See you then?
[Update: I’ll leave the formatting of this post as-is. If you look at the code, you’ll see that Posterous has its own somewhat shitty ideas about HTML. It also scaled the photo to Posterous’ 500-pixel width rather than my layout’s 600-pixel width. Bother. I have, however, changed the category from “Uncategorised” (ugh!) to stuff that fits my taxonomy. I’ve also added tags. The tags I’d added for Posterous didn’t make it through to WordPress.]
[Update January 2011: Note the date on this post, and the fact that it refers to Android version 2.1 specifically. Android 2.2 features Wi-Fi and USB tethering as a standard feature. If you’re running that or later this article probably isn’t the droid you’re looking for.]
Here’s how to connect your HTC Desire (or perhaps any Android phone) to a Mac via a USB cable so that your computer can use the phone’s mobile broadband connection.
In my opinion, this sort of functionality should be built into the operating system, but I’ll save that rant for another day.
This uses the PdaNet for Android app, which costs USD 23.95 (currently on special at USD 18.95 for a limited time). However there’s a free trial which will suit my fellow reviewers in the Telstra HTC Desire Social Review. You can still use the app after the free trial is over, with the limitation that you can’t connect to secure sites.
Has Facebook gone too far? Is it out of control? Another change to its privacy settings and a new 5800-word privacy policy have triggered concerns by US authorities and European privacy organisations. In Sydney the death of 18-year-old Nona Belomesoff has been dubbed another “Facebook murder”. Is regulation needed?
In this week’s Patch Monday podcast, I cover Facebook privacy from two angles.
First, security and the risk to you and your employer. Paul Ducklin is Sophos’ head of technology for Asia Pacific. His research shows that half the time people will befriend anyone who asks — exposing all their personal details to strangers. Criminals wanting to steal your identity or probe your business have it easy.
Second, the policy implications. David Vaile, who heads up the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at the University of New South Wales thinks Facebook’s privacy model is “dangerous”. He foresees a time when personal information is considered as valuable and vulnerable as financial information — and any IT systems that hold that information will need network security as strong as the banks.
You can listen below. But it’s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.
Please let me know what you think. Comments below. We accept audio comments too. Either Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.
I’ve just realised I didn’t post a link to last week’s Patch Monday podcast, How can women win in IT? There it is now.