Apple

Deleted Facebook

Yesterday was my last day on Facebook. Today I deleted my account.

I may write more later, but fundamentally I don’t trust Facebook with my data or their motives.

I have similar concerns with Google as well and I don’t use GMail (I use FastMail), I don’t use Google Search (I use DuckDuckGo), and I don’t use an Android device (I use an iPhone).

Facebook (similar to Google) has repeatedly demonstrated they want to ingest all possible information they can about me, my family, my friends, my coworkers, and my acquaintances…damn the consequences.

They do this in overt and obvious ways, such as on the Facebook site itself when I provide them information, as well as offsite via the use of embedded “Like” buttons across the web. I used Firefox’s ‘Facebook Container’ and EFF’s ‘Privacy Badger’ plugins in an attempt to segregate Facebook from the rest of my online digital presence.

Facebook also does this in more covert ways, such as creating social graphs to see how people are related and interact with each other, scanning photos to identify people (even people who aren’t users of Facebook)[1], and even creating ‘shadow profiles’ for people who don’t have accounts [2].

Facebook desires to be at the intersection of every kind of interaction they can be — social groups, personal communication, advertisement, sales, currency, etc — and to profit off it…to profit off of me.

This is a dangerous desire, in my opinion, and one I do not want to be involved in or exploited to achieve.

I also don’t like what Facebook does to my brain in terms of the intermittent reinforcement (similar to what happens at casinos) with new posts and updates from friends as well as the comparing (and glamorizing) of idealized existences.

I also hate the polarization that occurs with Facebook, and is in part driven by Facebook. Through their algorithms, Facebook encourages echo chambers and the spread of (dis)information thereof.

This is incredibly scary in our current socialgeopolitical climate…we seem to have lost the ability to have rational debate…something that is very urgently needed.

But know that I’d still love to keep in touch, so please call, text, email, or visit the blogs: andrewferguson.net (more tech and politics) and andrewandrachel.com (more life events and pictures…you’ll need to create a login because it’s private, you can also get email updates if you want too!)

[1] https://chicago.suntimes.com/metro-state/2020/1/29/21114569/facebook-could-pay-550-million-to-illinois-users-in-privacy-settlement

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/11/17225482/facebook-shadow-profiles-zuckerberg-congress-data-privacy

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Quotes for 2010

Every year I collect quotes in the “Favorite Quotations” section of my Facebook profile. I feel that every year has a theme, which make the quotes of that year somewhat reflective of who I am and what I learned. For me, these quotes — these snipets of ideas — serve to inspire, and remind, and educate:

“… when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” – Author Unknown

“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough” – Mario Andretti

“Whatever makes you nervous” – Michael Jordan in response to what he bets when he plays golf

“Malo Periculosam Libertatem Quam Quietum Servitium.” – The Palatine of Posen

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them; disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones – we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Apple

“When I became a man I put away childish things including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” – CS Lewis

“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.” – CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

“I would hope that everyone in every profession would take the time to ask themselves on a regular basis one question: Do I tolerate mediocrity? And if the answer to that question is yes, then the next question obviously is: Why? For if we are to have integrity we must answer that question well and not tolerate excuses or half measures. We must lead our lives in an exemplary fashion, offering ourselves a constant, persistent challenge to excel.” – Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger

“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” – Arthur Conan Doyle

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The Finer Points of Configuring Your Airport Express and Error 10057

I was recently having an issue with my Airport Express. I was trying to set it up so that I could play music through it. I got it to join my network, but I couldn’t connect to it in iTunes. When I went to go reconfigure it, I found that I also couldn’t connect to it…even though I could see it. I kept getting an error message:

An error occured while trying to access the Apple wireless device. Make sure your network connection is valid and try again. Error 10057

The problem turned out to be a subtle configuration setting with my WiFi. My network is set for WPA with TKIP encryption. However, it appears that Airport Express doesn’t really like to play well with TKIP. Switching the encryption to WPA with TKIP and AES (also called TKIP+AES) fixed the issues. Presumably, setting the network encryption to WPA with AES would also work.

I tried confirming my findings, however I wasn’t able to find anything in the manual or tech specs.

Hopefully, this post helps someone else with a similar problem.

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Fighting with OneNote

I’ve been fighting with my computer all afternoon to try and get inking to work in OneNote 2007. I kept getting an error about OneNote needing Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 with Service Pack 2 in order to work. Well, I have the RC2 of Service Pack 3, so I was thinking that may have been the issue.

So I uninstalled SP3 (build 3311). That ended up screwing even more things up since it decided to basically uninstall all my drivers. So I rolled back using system restore to Monday. That got me back to where I was this morning: working but still no love on the OneNote inking.

I tried a couple of things I found on the internet, including Daniel Escapa’s trick of of running cd %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Ink\
regsvr32 /s inkobj.dll and trying to the KB900722 patch.

No joy.

I trying running the OneNote diagnostics tool.

Again, no love.

I finally break down and get ready to send an email to Microsoft support. I’m entering in my details and I notice that the inking panel is active again.

Figures. As soon as I try to contact Microsoft, the program works again. No rhyme or reason.

By the way, I seriously was thinking about just getting another computer. I have less then 2GB of free space left and things are starting to fail (such as the motherboard). Lenovo has an awesome Outlet site and I priced out a MacBook that would have been nice. Problem is, I don’t have have $1500 lying around. Although I suppose I could get a pretty penny for my current Tablet…maybe $500? So I guess I would only need $1000. I still don’t have it.

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Today’s Definition of Irony

Today’s Definition of Irony is brought to you by Amazon.com‘s new Amazonmp3 service1:
1234onamazon.jpg
…for having the top MP3 song as Feist’s 1234, also known as ‘that cool song that Apple uses in their new iPod commercials’.

This may or may not be made funnier (more funny?) by the fact that 1234 is only #4 in the iTunes Store:
1234onitunes.jpg

1From en.wikipedia.org:

On September 25, 2007, Amazon launched a new music store (currently in beta) which sells downloadable tracks, all in the MP3 format and most recorded at 256 kilobits per second Variable bitrate (VBR).[16] The Amazon MP3 Music Service: Terms of Use legally restrict use of the music, but Amazon does not use DRM to enforce those terms. Most songs cost US$0.89 or US$0.99, and most albums cost between US$4.95 and US$9.99. Participating record labels include EMI and Universal, as well as many independent labels.

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Paradigm Shifts

“Paradigm shifts are for people too stupid to spot trends.”

In addition to being funny, the quote makes a good point. A paradigm shift is just a major change in the way things work. An example might be Apple switching from the Power PC chip to the Intel chip. However, if you looked close enough Apple was probably dropping hints the entire time about wanting to leave IBM and go to Intel. Thus, most people viewed the switch as a paradigm shift. Whereas it was really a trend.

Quote via Warner Crocker’s Life on the Wicker Stage: Act 2 via James Governor’s MonkChips

Updated to correct MonkChips link. Moved from “My Life” to “Seen, Heard, Said”

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Vertigio by U2

After a few week of hearing U2’s new song Vertigo on the TV in Apple’s iTunes + iPod commercial, I finally bought it. However, I used iTunes. This was the first time I used iTunes and I have to say that it was very quick and painless. I just searched for "U2 Vertigo" and it came up with the song I wanted. I had a free download, so I used that and 30 seconds later, the song was on my hard drive. It also automatically downloaded the artwork from the cover, so that was pretty spiffy. Apple’s iTunes Store is defiantly giving conventional brick and mortar stores a run for their money. Not to mention curbing illegal downloading to some extent.

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