The downside of Facebook.com chapter two · Monday June 9, 2008 by colin newell
I wrote this over a year ago: Facebook.com is a website solely devoted to data mining – extracting your personal information and selling it to the highest bidder – you are giving up your privacy in exchange for a place to deposit every miserable detail of your McLife.
Some tangible reasons why people are drawn to Facebook.com:
-you really need to catch up with that kid that had a crush on you in Grade Six
-you really need to kill the kid that bullied you in Grade 3
-that 19 year old student teacher had a thing for you in 1974 and now that you are all grown up, it’s time for a follow-up
And for this you are willing to publish your birth date, place of employment, social insurance number, preference in Vodka, etc.
God speed friend, God speed.
And yet today, in June of 2008, we are investigating Facebook.com because of the obvious…
Canada’s privacy commissioner is investigating allegations that the social networking site Facebook.com may be illegally collecting personal information such as telephone numbers, birthdays, and instant messaging addresses without authorization.
Hello. Hello. Read the freaking fine print. Facebook.com has you by the DNA from the word go and all you need do is read the user agreement.
Getting Canada’s privacy commissioner involved with this nonsense is a waste of time. I mean, why not spend those government dollars on some more meaningful study… like why Dog’s bite, why Nun’s always have an evil glint in their eye and why there are signs like “Piercing & Tattoo’s while you wait”?
On a more ironic note – yesterday while waiting for my dear Mom-in-law and wife to finish a round of shopping at the Fairfield Thrifty Foods I watched a guy and a gal who had just met over Thrifty Foods sushi on a sidewalk table… interact, flirt, smile, touch and, get this… exchange Facebook creds. Surprisingly, the pretty Girl (Fiona) from Australia spent more time laughing and touching the guy – a slightly younger dude who heralded from a French farming community in Saskatchewan – he had a French last name starting with B but I was not paying that much attention to him. She was confident, older and Worldly wise. He just looked goofy and spent too much time imagining her naked.
And I did all of this with my ears… without the internet connection…
Try it sometime. Turn it off. Tune it out. And use what God gave you… to participate in the World around you.
Gas Price Rant #14 Trimac trucking delivers more bad gas pains · Monday June 9, 2008 by colin newell
Victoria B.C. area gas prices rise to $144.9 this morning.
I am stunned.
Repeating what a relative told me on the weekend… he is an insider in the Petroleum distribution industry…
“On lower Vancouver Island, Trimac Trucking brings in the Gas and Diesel to all the stations… they are a one source supply for fuel in the Victoria area… It is a monopoly. There is an electronic system called Viper that auto-dials all the local gas stations with a digitally synthesized voice stating what the gas price will be that day…“
Trimac is simply the trucking company that delivers the goods… no more or less.
The product distributor calls the entire shot… hence the instant message and hence the simultaneous price increases.
Yesterday I noticed that the price of a Mexican avocado doubled to $1.89
That is one of the signs that we could be in for very hard times.
Meantime, gas and oil producers, their executives and investors will be living like Kings.
Your Daily Planet #2 · Thursday May 29, 2008 by colin newell
If I had a dollar for every absurd thing I have seen or heard this week, I would have… let’s see… 56$.
Still. If there are people from other Planets cruising our internet via a free wireless connection, I would just like to let them know…
…that we are not normally this kooky or illogical. Really.
But back to the silly files for a moment.
Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray after complaints that a fringed black-and-white scarf that the celebrity chef wore in the ad offers symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism.
Uh-huh? Right. Critics, including right-wing want-to-be journalist Michelle Malkin who ejaculated: “The scarf wrapped around her looked like a kaffiyeh, the traditional Arab accessory.” Woo! Scary! Head-scarf! Obvious sign of terrorism, Woo!
A quick read of Michelle’s open comment system revealed that many readers thought she was out of her mind… as well as the readers that support her headline grabbing nonsense. I will add my sentiment to that list of comments, “Michelle, you are a dying breed of ignorant, fear-mongering web nobodies… enjoy your fleeting moments of whatever…”
In other news – Afraid of flying? Watch your facial expressions.
A prototype surveillance system being tested by the European Union would place cameras inside the back of every passenger seat to track the facial expressions of travelers and catch would-be terrorists and unruly fliers on the brink of “air rage.” link According to a report in New Scientist, the cameras would look for passengers sweating profusely or behaving in a nervous manner, but it would alert the crew only after detecting a combination of signs, rather than a single one.
Sweating. Nervous behavior. Gee. That describes, what, less than 1% of the flying population?
In an update to the Big Brother post: Lap-top, i-Pod, gadget searches to become routine in your daily air travels… There are numerous court challenges yet to be prepared and contemplated in Canada and the U.S.A. It seems our American constitution and Canadian charter of rights and freedoms still have some basic protective tenets built in – there has to be a reasonable expectation of privacy in your travels, there has to be a reasonable suspicion of guilt or potential guilt when fishing for data in your computer or personal electronic and ex-parte searches are still open to challenges, if not immediate in the airport objections to security staff rifling your stuff. Still, if you are an American returning to America or a Canadian transiting the American aviation infrastructure, there is a remote possibility that your laptop and all its contents will be confiscated – despite your protestations – with no promise of return.
If this upsets you, write your senator or member of parliament.
additional reading from the TSA themselves…
Big Brother Air travel rant #2 how long is your pocket knife · Sunday May 25, 2008 by colin newell
Long delays at Vancouver International Airport on Friday were the product of a traveler slipping through security screening with…
- A handgun?
- A grenade?
- A copy of the Koran?
- A copy of the Torah?
- A copy of Mad magazine?
- A bottle of mother’s milk?
Nope. Security staff spotted something on an X-ray machine around 10 a.m.
The passenger had already collected his bag and walked into the secure area of the domestic terminal.
At least 10 domestic flights were grounded for the next hour and a half while staff searched for the passenger and a knife.
What kind of knife? Steak knife? No. K-Bar knife? Hardly.
A pocket knife… probably 10cm long.
Woo! Scary!! Pocket knife! Woo!
Listen up folks. I am Ex Canadian Army and I can do more damage to the average human with a slice of stale pizza than a randomly selected civilian can do with a hunting knife.
So. Enough of these stupid security alerts at Airports.
Small statistic: The U.S. has spent billions on protecting us from terrorists in the U.S.A.
Ironically, bath tubs have killed 100 times more Americans since 9/11 than honest-to-goodness wild-eyed terrorists.
That’s right folks, bath tubs. You’ve seen them in bath rooms all over America… perhaps you have one in your own home. But do you really know what lies behind those porcelain surfaces, composite materials and space-age plastics?
I do: Mayhem, tears and death…
by slippage.
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