Oh, this is such a good read

Frank Chimero has written up and posted a version of a talk he recently gave, called "What Screens Want."

His talk was (ostensibly?) aimed at web developers, but there's no way you need to fit into that slot to follow it, or to love it.

Just for example, how's this for empathy, for every plain ol' computer user out there?

Computers, after all, are just shaky towers of nested abstractions: from the code that tells them what to do, to the interfaces that suggest to the user what’s possible to do with them. Each level of abstraction becomes an opportunity to make work more efficient, communicate more clearly, and assist understanding. Of course, abstractions also become chances to complicate what was clear, slow down what was fast, and fuck up what was perfectly fine.

And this?

So what is the answer? I found this quote by Ted Nelson, the man who invented hypertext. He’s one of the original rebel technologists, so he has a lot of things to say about our current situation. Nelson:

The world is not yet finished, but everyone is behaving as if everything was known. This is not true. In fact, the computer world as we know it is based upon one tradition that has been waddling along for the last fifty years, growing in size and ungainliness, and is essentially defining the way we do everything. My view is that today’s computer world is based on techie misunderstandings of human thought and human life. And the imposition of inappropriate structures throughout the computer is the imposition of inappropriate structures on the things we want to do in the human world.

Emphasis mine. [...]

Also, to illustrate some of what he's saying, Frank has clips from James Burke's Connections, Eadweard Muybridge's work with horses, and The West Wing. Featuring CJ. I mean, the shared nerd porn interests alone ought to do it, don't you think?

Go, and enjoy.

(h/t: Jenna Wortham, via a Scuttlebot post which was presented as a sidebar on the NYT's Bits blog, which I saw while reading a note about Twitter and Perfect Forward Security, and omg, when the h/t is getting to be longer than the post, it is waaay past time to click the Publish button)

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[Added] Of course the first blockquote above reminded me of one of the classics from the mesozoic (when we had just evolved from hamsters running along wires strung between tin cans, and thence onto typewriter keyboards, and were suddenly able to sign up for Automatically Delivered Email Newsletters), Joel Spolsky's post "article," The Law of Leaky Abstractions. Joel does eventually get into specific programming examples, but don't let those throw you, if you're not a programmer. The opening, the general ideas, and most importantly, the view of what today's programmers face when trying to relate to non-programmers are well worth your time, especially if you liked Frank Chimero's piece. Even if the words are more than *gasp* ten years old.

So, the good thing about the government shutdown is ...

... at least this kind of crap won't happen anymore.

On Aug. 8, Mr. Levison closed Lavabit rather than, in his view, betray his promise of secure e-mail to his customers. The move, which he explained in a letter on his Web site, drew fervent support from civil libertarians but was seen by prosecutors as an act of defiance that fell just short of a crime.

The full story of what happened to Mr. Levison since May has not previously been told, in part because he was subject to a court’s gag order. But on Wednesday, a federal judge unsealed documents in the case, allowing the tech entrepreneur to speak candidly for the first time about his experiences. He had been summoned to testify to a grand jury in Virginia; forbidden to discuss his case; held in contempt of court and fined $10,000 for handing over his private encryption keys on paper and not in digital form; and, finally, threatened with arrest for saying too much when he shuttered his business.

</sarcasm>

Must be nice

To have that kind of money, I mean.

The military headquarters responsible for computer-network warfare, the United States Cyber Command, will grow by 4,000 personnel with an additional investment of $23 billion, ...

The creation of jerbs! With no hint of scolding from the deficit scolds!

Does it get better? Oh, it gets better:

... General Dempsey said. (Cyber Command and the National Security Agency are led by the same officer, Gen. Keith B. Alexander.)

Uh huh.

“We are doing all of this not to address run-of-the mill cyberintrusions, but to stop attacks of significant consequence — those that threaten life, limb and the country’s core economic functioning,” General Dempsey said.

I for one feel safer already!

A phrase ripped from context

But even in context, it still caused me momentary brain-lock:

... middle class and wealthier white men — the population that tends to submit DNA data to recreational sites ...

[Added] And here's another:

A computer motherboard called Grouphug ...

Uh, maybe

The NYT reports:

Microsoft instituted a policy on Friday that gives the company broad leeway over how it gathers and uses personal information from consumers of its free, Web-based products like e-mail, search and instant messaging.

Almost no one noticed, however, even though Microsoft’s policy changes are much the same as those that Google made to its privacy rules this year.

In the teaser on the front page, they say:

The difference in reactions to policies at Google and at Microsoft illustrates confusion around Internet privacy.

MY guess is that the absence of uproar is explained by this: no one uses Microsoft email, search, and instant messaging.

Okay, not "no one," literally. But pretty much no one who is nerd enough (a)  to stay abreast of such things as companies' changes to their data collection and retention policies and (b) have a platform to gripe about these things.

(pic. source: KYM, uploader: Oclaf)

So, uh, do I type "thanks!" into the search box?

Bet your google.com looks different from my google.com, today.

[ + ]

Talk about a stew of conflicting emotions . . .

Deep thought

Don't you sometimes wish that you could type in a username and find out how you first discovered that person, who is now your long-time online friend?

We should compel the NSA to make these data available to us.

From the Department of Not At All Creepy And Of Course The Cops Won't Abuse It

Did you know that your e-reader sends info back to the mothership about the books you're reading and how you're reading them?

Have a listen to On The Media's interview of Alexandra Alter (about six minutes long) and/or read her article in the WSJ.

Via Rolando's comment on the former, I see this is not breaking news -- NPR did a piece on it in 2010. Also, happily, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been on the case for at least that long (e.g., e.g.).

RIP: 4th Amendment

And while we're at it, we might as well also admit that the terrorists have won.

Justices Approve Strip-Searches for Any Offense

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.

The rest.

(previously)

All together now: If You Haven't Done Anything Wrong, You Have Nothing To Fea®

In case you haven't heard about the goings-on in Utah, "The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say):"

In the process—and for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. It has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and unscramble codes. Finally, the agency has begun building a place to store all the trillions of words and thoughts and whispers captured in its electronic net. And, of course, it’s all being done in secret. To those on the inside, the old adage that NSA stands for Never Say Anything applies more than ever.

One such insider was willing to go on the record for the article, William Binney. He is "a senior NSA crypto-mathematician largely responsible for automating the agency’s worldwide eavesdropping network," who "left the NSA in late 2001, shortly after the agency launched its warrantless-wiretapping program."

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A privacy story with a happy ending

For now, at least. But the principles are more general, and since I doubt the app in question will be the last of its kind, I still think it's worth passing along the following.

John Brownlee has an interesting article up on Cult of Mac about a creepy iPhone app called "Girls Around Me." If you use Facebook and Foursquare, you should definitely give it a look. Basically, the app shows you all the women around you that it can find, based on their having checked into nearby places with Foursquare. For the women it does find, it also displays what information it can grab from their respective Facebook pages.

As a result of the article, Foursquare has announced that they have effectively disabled this particular app. But, as I say, it's still an instructive read.

Here's a helpful link from that article, too: "Facebook Privacy: 10 Settings Every User Needs to Know."

P.S. As of this moment, the app is still available from the iTunes store, if you want to confirm that Foursquare's actions had the intended disabling effect.

P.P.S. (Five minutes later) Aaaaand, now it's not. Bow down before my bloggy power! ;)

(h/t: Ocean)

A reply to Tom Henderson

The following is a response to a discussion started in a comment thread on On The Media's website, under a segment that aired this week called "Divorcing Google," featuring an interview by Bob Garfield of someone named Tom Henderson.

It probably won't make much sense without first listening to the segment and reading the earlier comments. I posted it here only because both its length and the number of links included would have run afoul of OTM's comment policy.

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Say ... maybe there IS something to that online tracking business

Item #2 in the "Recommended For You" list the NYT just displayed to me:

Sod Off, Scotch
Irish Whiskey, an Unfussy, Constant Companion

Interesting find from last year

Embedded below is an interview by Molly Wood of Steven Levy, which was posted on 21 April 2011. The whole thing is interesting, but the part I really wanted to call to your attention is the six minutes or so, beginning at about 26:19.

(alt. video link)

"How to remove your Google Web History"

As you probably already know, Google has changed its privacy policies. The changes will go into effect a week from today, on 1 March 2012.

If you would rather not have what you searched for in the past using Google connected to other things you've done on other Google-owned sites, and/or if you'd like to prevent that from happening in the future, see Matt Elliot's how-to post.

“Mathematicians are suddenly sexy.”

I take issue with the adverb, and my degree has NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

That aside, the article where the assertion appears is quite interesting. You know how you're worried about being tracked online? It's not just online.

Yes, you knew that. But maybe you didn't know the extent of it. And anyway, it's a fascinating and creepy read: "How Companies Learn Your Secrets."

A new Pew report on online advertising and news sites

It's a monster, but I found it interesting enough to skim all the way through.

Here's how it starts:

Between 2011 and 2015, revenue from digital advertising in the United States is expected to grow by 40% and to overtake all other platforms by 2016.[1]

Yet how much of that growth will go to underwrite news remains in doubt and throws into question the financial future of journalism as audience continue to migrate online. What will happen pivots in part on whether the news industry can move into the more lucrative areas of digital advertising, particularly using consumer data to target ads, persuading major legacy advertisers to also advertise online and moving into new revenue areas.

A new study of advertising in news by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that, currently, even the top news websites in the country have had little success getting advertisers from traditional platforms to move online. The digital advertising they do get appears to be standard ads that are available across many websites. And with only a handful of exceptions, the ads on news sites tend not to be targeted based on the interests of users, the strategy that many experts consider key to the future of digital revenue.

Of the 22 news operations studied for this report, only three showed significant levels of targeting. A follow-up evaluation six months later found that two more sites had shown some movement in this direction, but only some, from virtually no targeting to a limited amount on inside pages. By contrast, highly targeted advertising is already a key component of the business model of operations such as Google and Facebook.

These are some of the findings of the study, which analyzed the advertising in 22 different news operations and 5,381 ads representing a cross section of media.

Most of us tend not to be thrilled about being tracked online, but what if your choice was be tracked and have access to lots of different news sites, or not be tracked and have access to fewer independent news sources?

From the annals of online tracking

Here's an ad that was just presented to me, on YouTube (a Google property), where, as you can see, I was logged in.

Knowing what you do about me, can you think of anything less likely to appeal to me?

(previously)

Some notes on privacy [with ongoing updates]

I keep meaning to put together a more comprehensive list of tools and references concerning online privacy, because I get asked about it almost enough to make me wish I had one place to point to. Ah, well, I guess the key word there is "almost." But meantime, here is part of an email exchange that I had yesterday that offers some links and gives you a sense of where I'm coming from, if you want it. Please feel free to add your favorite ways of protecting your privacy online in the comments, and I'll update this post with them.

A correspondent writes:

Are you mad about google's new "Privacy" plan?

My [slightly edited] response is below the fold. (Which, yes! Tells you it's another one of THOSE responses.)

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I have been granted permisssion to be an unmitigated curmudgeon

By the Google, Deparment of Tracking, Demographics Division:

Oddly enough, their belief about my age makes me feel especially young.

As to my apparent apparel interests, I can't remember if it was Bush I or Reagan who was president when I bought my last bathing suit, and I certainly didn't do it online, but if that aspect of my profile means I'll be seeing more ads featuring bikini models, far be it from me to gripe.

More from Casey Johnston over at Ars Technica, who is now suffering from gender confusion.

You, according to Google, here.