Geek Stuff category archive

In the San Jose Mercury-News.

Do you embed videos on your blog and find that they are just too damned big?

Fixing that is absurdly easy, but it’s only easy when you know how.

Find out how at Geekazine.

Another reason not to get an iPad.

Listen up This is essential reading for anyone who has ever visited a website. I just double-checked my Opera browser settings–yup, I turned off third-party cookies a long time ago:

In a recent conversation with Fresh Air contributor Dave Davies, Angwin explains how consumer surveillance works, how users can disable the tracking software — and how advertisers are continually evolving to keep up with the data they receive. She notes that many Internet users are unaware that their information is being tracked and then traded.

“Most people that we have heard from since writing these stories did not know what was going on,” Angwin explains. “So when you go to a website, you’re not thinking about the fact that they might have relationships with all different types of monitoring firms, and those firms are installing things that are invisible to you on your computer.”

Follow the link to listen to the show or read the transcript.

Via Atrios.

More here.

The ACLU has a quiz to help you diagnose your on-line exposure.

I didn’t learn anything new from it, but I have followed this sort of stuff for years. If you aren’t sure about your privacy on line, it’s probably worth the three minutes.

My first Youtube.

Yes, I am humorless.

Details at Geekazine.

Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source.

What: The 4th Annual Super Summer Saturday TWUUG Meeting.

Who: Everyone in TideWater/Hampton Roads with interest in any/all flavors of Unix/Linux. There are no dues or signup requirements. All are welcome to attend

Where: Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk-Employee Cafeteria. See directions below. (Wireless and wired internet connection available.)

When: 12:00 PM till whenever (usually 3ish) on Sat Aug 7

Stuff: Lots of great door prizes from ThinkGeek and O’Reilly!!

Food: Free pizza! Free drinks! Free dessert!

Directions: Lake Taylor Hospital-1309, Kempsville Road, Norfolk, 23502 (Kempsville Rd. at Lowry Rd.) 461-5001

Chew on this tidbit from Bizarro World:

Baidu Inc., operator of China’s most- popular website, said the cost of complying with domestic self- censorship laws is giving Google Inc. a competitive advantage in the world’s biggest Internet market.

Aside:

The article does not go into what concessions, if any, Google made to regain its license to do business in China.

Details here.

Via El Reg.

It’s a promo, but what a promo–viral marketing done right:

Some more information here.

Via GNC.

Eva Wiseman in the Guardian:

Mob (a near-future science fiction story) by Tom Scott from hurryonhome on Vimeo.

If the embed doesn’t work, go here.

July 25, 2010 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Geek Stuff | Bookmark this post

Via OhMyGov.

And they know where you are.

Hiring flacks to twit:

The explosion of social media analysts is happening at a rate so fast, even for the tech world, that organizations of any scale are having trouble keeping up. “Across the country, companies like Petco are going through a two-step process,” writes Felix Gillette of Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “First, they scramble to hire social media officers. Second, they figure out what it is, exactly, that social media officers do.” For government and nonprofit groups, the experience is similar, though more likely to involve existing employees who are drafted to be the “social media guy” or “gal” at the office, rather than a brand new hire.

Reuters reports that Google is turning to wind energy to power its data centers.

This is a good thing.

In the Netherlands.