the recursor home : about : rss : spamgourmet : otherdog studio
#deletefacebook 2018-03-25 13:48 UTC
I "deleted" my personal facebook account just now - I think it takes some time before facebook actually [claims to] remove the account - like a 14 day grace period in case you change your mind. Before I did it, I went through and deleted each of my posts and private message threads, which was pretty tedious, but would have been much worse if I was more of an active user. I resisted signing up until 2008, so I suppose my account is (was) about 10 years old.

I had been waiting for an excuse to do this for a long time - the recent push to #deletefacebook sort of gives me the cover to do it without seeming like a complete curmudgeon (even though that's probably what I am).

I'm not fooling myself into thinking the data is actually deleted - but it felt good to see it all fall away piece by piece. It's funny - I got feelings of nostalgia reading the old posts and especially the old private messages, but the private messages were usually *about* the feelings of nostalgia experienced when the person I was talking to and I were remembering stuff that happened much longer ago. So - meta-nostalgia.

Facebook was amazing at re-connecting with people I knew from long ago - I just broke most of those reconnections by deleting my account. I do have contact info for a bunch of people, so I suppose they're not completely gone.

Silly as I know it sounds, I'm still on Instagram. I had been logging into my instagram account using my facebook login, but I found out it really is two separate accounts. I had to look in instagram settings to see what my username was, then log out and go through the lost password reset function to get the independent login working, but now it's fine.

Hope we come up with something better soon.
permanent link

troll factory 2018-02-20 20:36 UTC
I read another article about how a particular protest and counterprotest in my city that defied explanation were both organized by the troll factory in St. Petersburg. Which is both hilarious and scary. What's scary is how easy it was and - think about it - how easy it will always be.

It's comforting to blame the Russians (and I suppose I do), but when we do that, aren't we setting ourselves up for more? Sure seems like another case of trying to explain post-national events using a nations model.

We won't fix what happened with statescraft (or with facebook/twitter shaming). Right now I don't see how we can fix things with technology alone, either. We - each individually - are going to have to adjust. Do you think we will?

Peter Steiner's one-panel public service announcement from 1993 bears repeating (over and over): On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Of course, using deception to create or magnify political unrest has been going on for a very long time - what's new is that anyone can do it.

Things are different now, and there's no going back.

permanent link

not posting enough 2017-10-10 12:35 UTC


permanent link

google plus 2011-07-12 01:48 UTC
I'm having a great time at google+ - It's so impressive that I, um, I'm not going to post here any more, but instead start posting there.

Here's my profile page

and a shortcut url:

permanent link

compiling for android 2011-05-24 15:44 UTC
I'm getting closer to being able to compile linux programs to run on my G1 - I'm currently following these instructions - hopefully I'll be building roguelikes soon.
permanent link

previous 5 entries

Creative Commons License
original works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.