Tumblr (3.0; @benw)http://blog.benward.me/<img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kz56kg0dO51qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><h1>Disqus now encourages reckless enabling of third-party cookies</h1> <blockquote> <p><strong>Warning</strong>: A browser setting is prevent you from logging in</p> <p>Help: Enabling cookies</p> <p>In order to properly log you in, your browser needs to accept cookies from all domains.</p> <p>Open up <kbd>Settings > Privacy</kbd>. Then, make sure <strong><kbd>Accept cookies from sites</kbd></strong> is checked. Also, make sure <strong><kbd>Accept third-party cookies</kbd></strong> is checked as well.</p> <p>After closing your settings, you may try logging in again.</p> <p>Optional: If you would rather add an exception just for Disqus, click <kbd>Exceptions…</kbd> and add <kbd>disqus.com</kbd> as an allowed domain.</p> </blockquote> <p>For a fairly long time now, browsers have been configured not to allow third-party domains (or, to use their real name “advertisers”) to set tracking cookies on computers via embedded advertising. Now, in the age of (kinda crappy, JavaScript-dependent) comment widgets like <a href="http://disqus.com">Disqus</a>, it is apparently acceptable to provide blanket instructions to users on how to undo that small step forward in sane privacy settings, because it’s inconvenient for a single piece of their functionality.</p> <p>That final paragraph about adding Discus as an exception to the blocked cookies setting should be the <em>only</em> paragraph. The rest of it is up there with ‘Hey, just disable your virus scanner’ in terms of lazy idiocy, and to present the entire scenario as an <strong>error</strong> (red highlight, ‘warning’ language) is completely disingenuous.</p> <p>If you’re a third party widget of any kind who needs this kind of non-standard, much-abused functionality, you should be <em>asking</em> for permission, not telling the poor user that their system is at fault when it’s not.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/442097581http://blog.benward.me/post/442097581Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:57:52 -0800<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kz55uk6igE1qzt3x8o1_400.png"/><br/><br/><h1>Subtle Permissioning</h1> <blockquote> <p>Since this isn’t your photo and isn’t public, the only person you can add to it is yourself. Are you in the photo?</p> </blockquote> <p>Flickr’s people tagging feature has interesting restrictions on who you can/can’t tag in other people’s photographs, depending on other privacy settings. The UI approach is smart, in that when you run into it you get a decent explanation. Although, I am starting to find that I no-longer have a firm grasp on what Flickr does and doesn’t permit me to do in different situations, not to mention whether (and where) this stuff is configurable.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/442068529http://blog.benward.me/post/442068529Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:42:20 -0800<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kz55c7wvpl1qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><h1>How to handle not being at South By South West in Socialite</h1> <p><a href="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/socialite/">Socialite</a> is a rather magnificent Twitter (and Facebook, RSS, Flickr) client for Mac OSX. I really need to write up ‘how I use it’ properly at some point, because it’s full of really smart, but quite buried little features that make me happy.</p> <p>One of the more obviously useful features, though, is Smart Folders, which are just like smart folders everywhere else in Mac OSX, and can be used to filter content. The picture above shows how I’ll be coping with my absence from South By South West this year.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/442048822http://blog.benward.me/post/442048822Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:31:19 -0800<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kz1ihoyJkK1qzt3x8o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><a href="http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/03/how_san_franciscans_view_the_bay_area.php">How San Franciscans View the Bay Area - San Francisco News - The Snitch</a></p> <p>Ahem.</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://timoni.org">Timoni</a>)</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/437792292http://blog.benward.me/post/437792292Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:25:00 -0800“Cameron rejected the view that he was too weak to take on Ashcroft. “I would put it to you that it’s now time for the BBC to go after the Labour party and ask questions about their donors and where they pay tax.””<br/><br/> - <em><p><cite class="vcard"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/08/david-cameron-michael-ashcroft-donations"><span class="fn">David Cameron</span> comes out fighting over Ashcroft · The Guardian</a></cite></p> <p>Apparently, every self-defence of the Conservative party must be accompanied by an attack on the BBC. Somewhat terrifying.</p></em>http://blog.benward.me/post/436165177http://blog.benward.me/post/436165177Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:48:44 -0800<p>You hear a song, quiet on the radio, underneath somebody’s conversation. You don’t know this new song, but it helps you to remember two bars of another, different song. You desperately want to hear this second song, but you don’t recall anything but those two bars (which are now repeating over and over in your head.) You want to hear that song, but you can’t, because the song that’s playing isn’t that song.</p> <p>It’s been 24 hours since I couldn’t remember the name of that song.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/435338651http://blog.benward.me/post/435338651Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:02:00 -0800“The States seem to have an aversion to products with “blood” in their name. I have to go out of my way to buy German Blutwurst, for example. Fortunately the British are so traditional that they wrap around and become progressive, offering these delicious breakfast cakes. I enjoy them much more than bacon or sausages.”<br/><br/> - <em><p><cite class="vcard"><a href="http://rentzsch.tumblr.com/post/429421873/the-british-junk-food-report"><span class="fn">rentzsch</span>: The British Junk Food Report</a></cite></p> <p>Rentzsch covers the basics of snacking when you visit England. I really want some black pudding, now. And wine gums.</p></em>http://blog.benward.me/post/435259815http://blog.benward.me/post/435259815Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:15:37 -0800<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kyu4kc64gy1qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><h1>Coffee Project Vinyl</h1> <p>Woah, it’s like you took two of my favourite things in the world and combined them; <a href="http://vinylography.paperandplastick.com/bands/coffeeproject.html">lattésque 10” vinyl</a>. (The band <a href="http://www.myspace.com/coffeeproject">Coffee Project</a> are on MySpace. Not something I’m fussed by, alas, else I’d be all over this.)</p> <p>Via <a href="http://www.notcot.org/post/28833/">Notcot</a>.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/429159163http://blog.benward.me/post/429159163Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:41:00 -0800“In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”<br/><br/> - <em><p>Andrea Fay Friedman—an actress with Down syndrome—voiced a character with the same condition in Family Guy. There was a gag about being the daughter of the former Governor of Alaska. Sarah Palin continued her selective indignation about retard jokes on Facebook, roping in one of her other daughters to write about how offensive it all is.</p> <blockquote> <p>The show that mocked her baby brother, Trig (and/or others with special needs), in an episode yesterday.</p> </blockquote> <p>And:</p> <blockquote> <p>People with special needs face challenges that many of us will never confront, and yet they are some of the kindest and most loving people you’ll ever meet. Their lives are difficult enough as it is, so why would anyone want to make their lives more difficult by mocking them?</p> </blockquote> <p>—“<a href="http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/fox-hollywood-what-a-disappointment/305122263434">Fox Hollywood - What a Disappintment</a></p> <p>Thing is, the Ellen character in Family Guy? That character is strong, capable, smart and a total fucking bitch; just like anyone. Her condition is not played for laughs, it’s not a gag, it just ‘is’. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what to do when we’re finding messages of social progress in episodes of Family Guy, but then I’m not the one who freaked out about it without watching the show.</p> <p>In short Bristol and Sarah are both Palins.</p> <p>Also, Family Guy isn’t very funny, so save yourself the trouble with that.</p> <p>Via. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/18/family-guy-actress-respon_n_468331.html?ref=fb">Huffington Post</a>.</p></em>http://blog.benward.me/post/401770832http://blog.benward.me/post/401770832Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:33:49 -0800“Well, yeah, of course it’s extreme. You don’t know anything about the individual. He could have had other issues, certainly. No one likes paying taxes, obviously.”<br/><br/> - <em><p><cite>Scott Brown (<abbr title="Repubican">R</abbr>-Mass)</cite></p> <p>Viva la difference. Apparently the occupation of ‘<a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/crash_pilot_wrote_anti-irs_anti-corporate_screed.php?ref=fpb">terrorist suicide bomber flying an aeroplane into a building</a>’ provokes sympathy and calm, psychological consideration if you just do it in the name of Republican economics.</p> <p>Self parody is long gone. This is genuinely tragic.</p> <p>Scott Brown quote from <a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/02/not_ready_for_prime_time.php?more?ref=fpblg">Not Ready for Prime Time, Talking Points Memo</a>.</p></em>http://blog.benward.me/post/398121210http://blog.benward.me/post/398121210Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:35:30 -0800“<p>Across Britain thousands of people took to their computers and mobile phones to be comprehensively wrong about freedom of speech and the role of the Press Complaints Commission.</p> <p>@Nickking said: “Don’t understand why PCC are not acting on #janmoir comments on Stephen Gateley. When 25,000 offended people complain it has to be offensive.”</p> <p>But Professor Henry Brubaker, of the Institute for Studies, explained: “No it doesn’t.”</p>”<br/><br/> - <em><p><cite><a href="http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2485&Itemid=81">The Daily Mash - Twitter Filled With People Being Wrong About Jan Moir Again</a></cite></p> <p><a href="http://thedailymash.co.uk">The Daily Mash</a> straying dangerously close to posting straight up actual-factual news analysis. Bonus points for captioning a picture of Twitter with “<q>The power of wrongness</q>”.</p></em>http://blog.benward.me/post/397872316http://blog.benward.me/post/397872316Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:08:00 -0800<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ky0islKxCq1qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><h1>“Auto tune last played radio station”</h1> <p>Filed under “checkboxes disappointing to T-Pain”.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/395625423http://blog.benward.me/post/395625423Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:00:21 -0800checkboxesdisappointingtotpain<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ky0hm0ukxi1qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p><h1>*grumble* *grumble* economic recovery *grumble*</h1></p>http://blog.benward.me/post/395579801http://blog.benward.me/post/395579801Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:34:00 -0800<embed class="audio lala" src="http://www.lala.com/external/flash/SingleSongWidget.swf" width="400" height="127" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allownetworking="all" allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="songLalaId=576742266176094823&host=www.lala.com&partnerId=membersong.41335%40189677"></embed><br/><br/><h1>“Into Dust” — Mazzy Star</h1> <p>Oh, God.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/394318407http://blog.benward.me/post/394318407Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:15:16 -0800song of the day<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxtovtmE3x1qzt3x8o1_250.png"/><br/><br/><h1>“Putting repeat drunk drivers behind bars”</h1> <p>It seems as if this might only make matters worse, or is your copy editor hitting the sauce too?</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Drink Drivers Beware</strong></p> <p>Putting repeat drunk drivers behind bars, making roads safe for you and your family.</p> </blockquote>http://blog.benward.me/post/388674358http://blog.benward.me/post/388674358Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:28:41 -0800<img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxtnwylc4k1qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><h1>Appropriate Badge Unlocking</h1> <p>Thank you to everyone who came over to celebrate my birthday last night. It was wonderful.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/388649855http://blog.benward.me/post/388649855Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:07:46 -0800<img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxpela6SqF1qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p>On March 5th 2008—two years ago—<a href="http://fireeagle.com">Fire Eagle</a> went into public beta. Underpinning the design was this: Given the multitude of different public and private contexts in which a user can benefit from using their location, the user should have simple granular control over the disclosure of their location.</p> <p><em>Two years</em>. Today, Molly Wood writes about her initial experiences with the brand new <a href="http://buzz.google.com">Google Buzz</a> (emphasis mine):</p> <blockquote> <p>When you first visit the [Google Buzz] mobile app on your Android phone and attempt to post something, you’ll be asked whether you want to Share Location or Decline. The “Remember this Preference” box is prechecked too, so be sure you’re ready to have everyone know right where you are, whenever you post to Buzz.</p> <p><abbr title="Snip">[…]</abbr></p> <p><strong>Buzz also displays buzzes from people near your location—and identifies them, as well—by exact address</strong>. And there are no preferences in the Android app—no way, near as I can tell—to choose to broadcast only to the list of people you follow or a group you’ve established, as you can in the Web interface. So be equally prepared for everyone around you to know who you are and where you are when you post to Buzz from your phone. Yeah, no, really. I’m totally not making this up.</p> </blockquote> <p>—<cite class="vcard"><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-10451428-256.html">Google Buzz: Privacy Nightmare</a> by <a class="fn url" href="http://news.cnet.com/molly-rants/">Molly Wood</a> (<span class="org">CNet</span>)</cite></p> <p>On a related note, <em>Twitter’s</em> geotagging feature doesn’t support disclosure granularity yet, either. If making your precise location public via each Tweet you post sounds unsettling, can can still hook up Fire Eagle to Twitter (using the old-school “Update your profile location field” method) using <a href="http://eagletweet.com">Eagle Tweet</a>, and have control over the level of detail shared.</p> <p>(Disclosure: I was a member of the Fire Eagle engineering team for eight months in 2008 and 2009.)</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/384610073http://blog.benward.me/post/384610073Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:55:58 -0800<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxe9w46H0B1qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><h1>I ♥ the Blue Lego!</h1> <p><a href="http://flashcrash.dempsky.org/">FlashCrash</a> — Exploits a Flash bug and crashes your browser… Unless you’re running Snow Leopard and Safari (or, I guess, Chrome), in which just the plugin crashes and everything else carries on as normal.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/373132771http://blog.benward.me/post/373132771Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:40:52 -0800<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_HOoKMcVMY8&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_HOoKMcVMY8&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br/><br/><p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HOoKMcVMY8">The Beatles Rock Band Ending Cinematic</a></p> <p>Oh my. The Beatles Rock Band cinematics (also the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGePL8CPuts">intro</a>) blow my mind.</p>http://blog.benward.me/post/372110866http://blog.benward.me/post/372110866Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:46:10 -0800<img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxcsxxOas61qzt3x8o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p><a href="http://www.pvponline.com/2010/02/03/app-solute-power/">PvPonline  » App-solute Power</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.pvponline.com">PvP</a> are running a FourSquare arc. It’s weird, because it’s not really satirical, nor even contain any actual jokes. It’s just the straight, absurd truth. Reading this as a resident of San Francisco, it’s like someone was spying on me through the window of Four Barrel.</p> <p>Start at <a href="http://www.pvponline.com/2010/02/01/grinding-rep-2/">Part 1: Grinding Rep</a></p>http://blog.benward.me/post/371854334http://blog.benward.me/post/371854334Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:37:00 -0800