For the last week I've been vexed by a damn pop-up ad that took over my phone screen. The ads were for legit companies like Gerber Life Insurance and Honda. So I wasn't dealing with some skeevy malware, this was a legit ad network that had made it onto my …
Posted on 03/27/2018 in misc • Tagged with Internet, Facebook, Privacy
As I've written previously, I've changed how I use Facebook. It's mostly about Groups and Events for me. I unfollowed everybody except my wife and kids. Now, when I want to check in with my friends I simply go straight to their walls or I use the "New Posts" filter …
Posted on 03/20/2018 in misc • Tagged with Internet, Facebook, Privacy
Facebook was not hacked by Cambridge Analytics. Hacking implies that CA broke into their data or otherwise circumvented Facebook somehow to get personal data on 5 million Americans. What actually happened is far, far worse.
The system worked exactly as designed. Facebook is in the data collection and sales business …
Posted on 03/02/2018 in misc • Tagged with Internet, Facebook, Twitter, Books
I read City by Clifford Simak recently. If you haven't read it, it is a dystopian cold war era novel in which man abandons the cities due to fear of nuclear war. Society breaks down as everybody lives in isolation, population dwindles, and eventually most humans abandons the earth, leaving …
Posted on 02/18/2018 in misc • Tagged with Internet, Facebook, Twitter, Medtronic
Facebook's algorithms are in the news a lot these days, and with good reason. But this isn't about Facebook. I've been thinking about algorithms in general lately. This has been brought on by my wife's insulin pump, the Medtronic 670G. It's the first closed loop pump approved by the FDA …
Posted on 02/08/2018 in misc • Tagged with Internet, Facebook, Twitter
It's been about 5 months since The Great Facebook Unfollowing. If you are wondering how its going, you probably aren't subscribed to my newsletter, as the evils of Facebook and social media are pretty much a weekly occurrence in it. I don't miss Facebook. At all.
I haven't quit completely …