Bookmarks for August 5, 2011

  • Ghostery
    An ad-network and spyware blocker for most of the major ad networks. May ad-blockers just stop the ads from displaying. This one can stop them from spying on you, too. Nice.
  • danah boyd | apophenia » “Real Names” Policies Are an Abuse of Power
    An excellent summary of the what the "real name" policy Google are attempting to enforce is, basically, Evil. Me, I'm absolutely in favour of real names being used on-line, and I certainly insist on it in forums I moderate. But those forums tend to be small, relatively closed membership things, formed with the intent of supporting offline in-the-flesh interaction. That's a very different use case to massive social networks, where the ability to feel comfortable using one's real name is a privilege that all sorts of people don't possess for all sorts of reasons.
  • One tweet takes a journalist on a voyage of discovery | Media | guardian.co.uk
    Here's a thrilling example of our lack of privacy in the 21st century. There really not a lot that's going to be done about it,I'm just linking because I think this is good illustration of how the world work now. It's probably not an earth-shattering revelation to most of you, but nonetheless, it's interesting background in these days of phone hacking…

Links for Wednesday June 22nd 2011 through Monday June 27th 2011

  • Hoban Cards – Letterpress Printed Calling Cards
    Oooh, tempting! Very lovely letterpress business cards.
  • Contact Us – Conversion University Help
    I need to understand google analytics much better. Please kill me.
  • F.B.I. Seizes Web Servers, Knocking Sites Offline – NYTimes.com
    Seriously, at some point, someone needs to start running training seminars for law enforcement agencies, explain what technology actually *is*. I have no doubt that they employ many people who know, but it's be useful if the people doing the physical work weren't half bright morons hopped on fake authority. Because while knocking a few sites off the intertubes isn't the end of the world, it still is neither right nor fair that innocent third parties like pinboard.in, or Instapaper should be knocked off the internet, and their paying customers deprived of their service (and therefore their money) by government incompetence just because they happen to be in the same room as a computer someone might have used once to do something wrong. This sort of thing makes me disproportionately angry, not for what it is, but for the principle it represents: that the government can screw people for no reason, any time it likes, and receive no comebacks, not even be required to make an apology. Power and stupidity and no accountability. How do we stop this, exactly?
  • Adramelech Books
    Here is where you can order C.J. Lines new short short collection, Cold Mirrors. You should do this, pretty much right now. I routinely describe his previous novel as one of the most gleefully horrible things I've ever read, and if you like horror, and haven't read it, you've missed a treat. This short story collection promises to be superb, so seriously, make with the clicky and the shopping.
    Tags: friends, books
  • WordPress › Passwords Reset
    The WordPress main repository got hack the other day, and several popular plugins were modified to carry malicious code. Long strong short: if you are running a WordPress blog, and have updated your plugins in the last few days, then you should probably check to see if there are new updates available. Most plugins are unaffected, but a few of those that are are very common. The new updates will fix the problem.

Bookmarks for October 28, 2010

Bookmarks for June 25, 2008