Buzz Privacy Fail

Issues with Google Buzz

Google Buzz has a huge privacy flaw

Buzz: Privacy Nightmare

My own take on this is that the privacy stuff got really messed up, or perhaps wasn't thought through at all to start with. I coincidentally started to use Google Reader this week. It turns out that the following lists for Reader and Buzz are the same. I'm entirely uninterested in having a Buzz account. But I had been planning on sharing a few things via reader, and perhaps seeing what some friends on Reader were reading. Unfortunately I'm going to have to not do that. Anything that I follow in Reader gets auto-added to my Buzz follow list. This is not obvious from Google Reader. Especially since I had clicked that little "Turn off Buzz" link at the bottom of my gmail. However all that ink does is suppress the UI. It doesn't actually turn jack shit off. So I was happily adding people to follow in Reader and then I happened to read a hint of this. I just checked my Gmail Buzz, and I"m really really displeased to see that in the feature I though I turned off I am following a whole bunch of people.

Google Buzz Fail.

Balou wants

I had to be at work at 9am this morning. Given my inherently lazy nature, this is damn early. Especially considering that it takes, at best, an hour to drive to work at that horrible traffic filled time of day.

Since we didn't get home any earlier than usual Balou and Trillian had a long and lonely day. Fortunately, despite being home alone for well over eleven hours the dogs didn't destroy anything. Well they did open a package of fire logs, but the fire logs are now burning merrily, so no harm done.

Anyway I have sat down to eat my dinner and Balou is happily lying at my feet. All Balou wants is to lie at my feet while I eat my dinner. He's perfectly content to just lie here.

Well, he wouldn't mind some pets.

All Balou wants is to lie here at my feet and get some pets. He's perfectly content to lie here and get some pets.

Well, he also wouldn't mind if I gave him some of my dinner.

All Balou wants it so lie here at my feet and get some pets and have my dinner. He would be perfectly content if I would pet him while he lies at my feet and feed him some of my dinner. Perfectly content if only I'd keep petting him and stop eating my own dinner...

Writing

I have a bunch of things bouncing around in my head lately. I've been paying attention to the Proposition 8 trial. Work has been pretty crazy. I've been playing WoW, though not as much as I want to. The dogs have kept me busy. My ESO and I have been trying to watch some anime (Crying Freeman FYI). I've also been doing a fair amount of reading.

Since I'm actually kind of stressed from some of the above I've been using the rest of the above to do my usual escapism thing. Hence the reading and WoW and anime. As is usual with my escapism I've also been adding to the stories in my head. That might sound a little crazy. Perhaps it is. /shrug

But what I really mean is that I've actually been trying to write down some of the stories that I tell myself. Some of these stories are about my WoW characters. I've written the easier WoW stories down and am in the process of putting them out for people to see. If you want to you can find them. I warn you: I'm not that great a writer, I'm working on it, but I harbor no illusions as to my current level of skill.

I'm also trying to add to the other stories in my head. The ones I've had there for years. See, a long time ago I was told that the best way to get yourself to sleep was to tell yourself a story once you were lying down to sleep. In theory you'd get into the habit of falling asleep as soon as you got to a certain part of the story, and it would basically be self hypnotism. Well, it didn't quite work that way for me. Either I didn't get the memo that you were supposed to use a story that you already knew or it wasn't made clear that the goal was to sleep at a certain part. So whenever I have trouble sleeping I add to a story. Maybe I add more plot to the end, or perhaps I refine the characterization in the beginning. Either way these stories have been in my head for years and years now. I've written parts of them down, and I'm trying to write more. But since most of my work on them happens just before I go to sleep it's hard to remember the changes I want to make.

China export fun...

Toxic Cadmium Swapped for Lead in Jewelry

.....

Manufacturers have been barred from using lead in children's products, such as toys and jewelry. And a new Associated Press investigation shows cadmium, an inexpensive, dangerous metal known to cause cancer, is being substituted for it.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, of the Department of Preventative Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, told CBS News, "It's a nasty toxic metal and, in my opinion, has no place in children's toys -- none."

The Associated Press bought more than 100 pieces of children's jewelry made in China and sold at Wal-mart and other retailers around the country. Twelve percent of the trinkets contained at least 10 percent cadmium, but Disney's "Princess and the Frog" pendants came in between 25 percent to 35 percent cadmium. In a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer charm, the level was 91 percent.

Dr. Jeffrey Weidenhamer, professor of chemistry at Ashland University, in Ashland, Ohio, called it "appalling" to find cadmium at those levels in products designed for children.

He added, "There's recent research indicating that it can cause learning disabilities and permanent loss of I.Q."

Liz Hitchcock, a consumer advocate with U.S. PIRG, a consumer advocacy group, says, "It's outrageous that an industry that's been told that it can no longer use a toxic chemical like lead in products turns to another toxic chemical, cadmium, a known carcinogen, to use in the same products."

As part of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, cadmium in paint is banned from children's toys, but the law doesn't address cadmium in jewelry, which is how these trinkets are reaching the market.

The CPSC issued a statement, saying the agency is now moving swiftly to prevent foreign manufacturers of children's jewelry from substituting high levels of cadmium and other heavy metals in place of lead. The CPSC, Koeppen observes, is also investigating the jewelry cited.

......




Seriously? I can't even begin to follow the logic here. You're not allowed to use lead because it's too toxic, so cadmium is the substitute of choice??!?

Three Day Weekend

I only found out today that we have a three day weekend coming up. I'm quite excited, because it's a three day weekend with Monday off, which is so much better than Friday off. My reasoning for this is as follows:

It's Saturday and you're kicking back, you've got a whole three day weekend before you. Not just the regular two days of weekend, but three whole days.

Now it's Sunday. Normally you'd think that you needed to rush to get the last few things you need done before the work week starts up again the next day. But not in this case! You have two days of weekend left, and it's Sunday!

Around comes Monday and you don't have to get up and go to work. It's still the weekend! Yay! Three day weekend!

And then, here comes Tuesday, you're back to work. But it's not so bad. You've only got to survive four days until it's the weekend again!

To The Robbers:

Dear Robbers,

I'm not surprised that you stole the tv and dvd player and Play Station. They were all old and about to be replaced so it's not that big a deal that you took them. Though I am sad that they are missing.

I'm sad, but again unsurprised, that you took several jewelry boxes. I think most of them contained costume jewelry or things that weren't too important. But I can't remember and now I'll never know.

I really wish you hadn't taken my ESO's parent's anniversary clock. That clock was neat, and since it was an heirloom, irreplaceable for sentimental reasons.

But why did you take the power cord for the dsl router? You didn't even take the router itself. I don't blame you for not taking it, it's kind of a piece of shit, but why take only the power cord? The router is so old that we had to buy a whole new router. Taking the cord just renders the old one entirely useless. That's just mean.

Also, were you cold? Is that why you took the portable oil heater? I liked that little oil heater. It kept me warm on many a cold and WoW filled evening. I sincerely hope that the oil bursts out of the heater onto you and sets you on fire!

Die in a fire you thieving mother fuckers!


That is all.

Christmas Cards

My ESO and I are doing Christmas cards. If you want a card and you don't think I have your address (you've moved in the last two years or I never had your address anyway) send me an email with your current address.