I’ve deactivated my Facebook account.
Now, this really isn’t a very big deal for me. I hardly ever logged in to my account, preferring instead to make my life visible on my blog. But for those people who spend an unhealthy amount of time on Facebook, I could see it being a nearly Herculean accomplishment to click that “deactivate” button. I guess it would be akin to asking a hard core World Of Warcraft player to cancel their toon or a hipster to give up his traditional morning triple latte macchiato.
When deactivating my account, this captcha appeared. No, Facebook, I'm quite sure I want to deactivate. Thankyouverymuch.
What had me concerned about Facebook was their lack of security and their willingness to sell my personal information to third parties. Any site that requires me to take ten steps to secure my personal information isn’t for me. Shouldn’t all of these steps be enabled as a default setting? And with new buttons popping up, it seems as if Facebook is doing all it can to take your information and disseminate it to anyone asking for it.
And so, to my legions of followers on Facebook (all five of you), I’m sorry for dropping out. My profile pic will never darken your wall again. Feel free to keep up with me on my blog. Sure, I can’t poke you from here, but I think I can live with that.
Computer
Computer
Thanks to some forward-thinking geniuses at work I was glued to my monitor for nearly two hours today parsing through hex files to try and unlock a few “urgent” legacy databases. This goes to show that you don’t fire somebody before obtaining the passwords they use to secure company files.
I’m beat. I think I’ll relax tonight and watch Avatar on blu-ray. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this picture of Steve Martin ironing a kitten:
Happy Friday, everyone!
Blu-ray, Computer
Blu-ray, Computer
Dear Microsoft,
Can you do something about this?
Please stop teasing us with a grayed out button. Either give us the option to restart at a later time, or don’t mention it at all and just get on with the reboot.
Thank you,
-HermanTurnip
Computer
Computer
I created a new Windows 2003 VM server this afternoon to use as a development box. Loading up Visual Studio 2008 I couldn’t help but notice that the install splash screen cycled the same three faces over the entire length of the install:
Each photograph cycled in every 90 seconds, so that meant that over the course of an hour I saw each face forty times. And the longer I stared at these photos, the eerier they became. Come on, Microsoft. Can’t you mix things up a bit more? I’m sure you can afford to include more than three stock photographs in your insanely expensive software. After an hour I was getting a bit creeped out by Mr. Beady Eyes, Mrs. Neck Tendons, and Mr. “Mommy Made Me Wear This Sweater”.
I felt like gouging out my own eyes with the dull corner of my Post It Notes cube after an hour of watching these pictures scroll past over and over again. Can you please do something about this? I know that in the greater scheme of things this doesn’t really mean much, but if you’d mix in a few more graphics you’d set my mind a bit more at ease. At least replace Hipster Sweater Man and “OMG, I forgot that my badge was on. LOLcopters!” with something a bit less parodiable and disturbing.
Computer
Computer
It appears that the unfortunate plane crash in Palo Alto yesterday afternoon managed to not only cut the power to several sections of the city, but also affected the offices of Facebook and VMware (among others).
This is a huge deal to virtual companies which rely on such services. I find it interesting because the company I work for uses VMware (on our own intranet only). It’s a great product, but I’d hate to be in the shoes of the companies that are reliant on the Palo Alto location for their online presence. By some accounts up to 240 startups are affected by this plane crash.
PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said the plane crash affected three transmission lines that serve Palo Alto. Power is expected to be restored between 4:30 and 5 p.m.
Meanwhile, downtown Palo Alto is pretty much closed down.
As Palo Alto transformed into a modern day ghost town, some startups set up camp in local coffee houses that offered free wi-fi and (more importantly) electrical outlets. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. Heaven forbid I couldn’t order my swanky new hipster t-shirt just because three people died in a tragic plane crash.
…sorry about that last sentence. For some reason I’m feeling a bit smarmy today.
Computer
Computer
