figby.com » 2004

April 29, 2004

More recognition for SlashNot

Filed under:

General

— 6:22 am

SlashNOT was the Link of the Day at User Friendly on Tuesday the 27th. This explains the strange traffic surges my web server experienced that day. I also noticed it listed in Jeremy Z’s Linkblog that day, which is neat since his is one of the weblogs I read daily.

This has been a great month for SlashNOT. Earlier in the month, it appeared in PC Magazine’s Top 100 Undiscovered Sites feature in the April issue. Matthew (SlashNot’s main writer) gets most of the credit–I should get my sense of humor in gear and post more.

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April 28, 2004

quick links

Lycos is for sale – Unfortunately out of my price range. [via] #
Ten Questions for Eric Meyer – at the Web Standards Group [via] #

April 27, 2004

quick links

Forgent Sues Over JPEG Patent – It’s 1995 all over again. [via] #

April 25, 2004

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OpenOffice.org mascot announced – What open-source really needs to succeed is a crazy seagull. Apparently. [via] #

April 24, 2004

quick links

Google Set to Announce IPO Plans – Google has announced its intention to announce its intention to go public. [via] #
You Send It, You Recycle It – Legal backlash against AOL CDs. This should have happened in 1998. [via] #
Utah Anti-Spyware Law delayed – Come on, let my state get something right for once. [via] #
Gmail displaying competing ads – Sounds useful to me as a consumer. [via] #

April 23, 2004

quick links

AOL is becoming a portal – The buzzwords of 1999 are coming back one by one. [via] #

April 20, 2004

28 Spyware programs per PC?

Filed under:

Windows

— 5:27 am

I’m sick of hearing about Earthlink’s Statistics on Spyware. Clickz.com says the average computer houses roughly 28 items of monitoring software. According to the BBC, the average computer is packed with hidden software that can secretly spy on online habits. Most of the articles are just regurgitating Earthlink’s vague and inaccurate press release.

These highly suspect statistics come from Earthlink’s Spy Audit service, which has a generous (and wrong) definition of spyware that includes "Adware Cookies"–any advertising-related cookies. A scan of my spyware-free PC revealed 80 such items, including legitimate cookies from several advertisers I use myself, not to mention one from Clickz.com. Despite what you might think about cookies and privacy, cookies are data–not spyware by any stretch of the imagination–and they make up a full 80% of the "total instances of spyware" in this survey.

Assuming the Spy Audit numbers are correct, they found an average of 0.35 items of actual spyware per computer scanned. One item of spyware per three computers. That’s a scary statistic, but there’s no need to blow it ridiculously out of proportion. Unless you have a Spyware Blocker feature to promote, of course.

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quick links

MP3.com Archive lives – Good news for those who didn’t have a backup copy. [via] #
Paper DVDs on the horizon – Finally, book-burning becomes practical for digital media. [via] #

April 19, 2004

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Separating behavior and structure – I should have started doing JavaScript this way a long time ago. Excellent. [via] #

April 17, 2004

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9 Beet Stretch – Beethoven’s 9th stretched to 24 hours long. Strangely listenable in parts. [via] #
Cosmic 419er lost in space – Best Nigerian scam ever [via] #

April 16, 2004

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Web Ad Space Selling Out – A very nice problem to have. #

April 14, 2004

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Better Living Through Bookmarklets – by Simon Willison – good introduction and a couple of ideas I hadn’t thought of. [via] #
TTY abuse on the rise – Overseas crooks abuse phone service for deaf | The Arizona Daily Star Â® [via] #
Gopher: Underground Technology – Wired News: Apparently Gopher still has a following. [via] #
E-mail lists choke on spam – On the imminent death of email lists [via] #
A9.com > Search Technologies – Amazon does search? It uses Google results for now. [via] #

April 12, 2004

quick links

The McCollough Effect – possibly the most disturbing optical illusion ever. [via] #
Web Page Design – Colour – Choosing colors from nature [via] #

April 10, 2004

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Cringely on Microsoft’s Future – I’ve been waiting 10 years for Microsoft to follow IBM and Wang into oblivion. Hasn’t happened. [via] #

April 6, 2004

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System 360 turns 40 – 70 percent of the world’s data are still housed in mainframe computers… [via] #
Linux on iPod – If you build hardware, they’ll try to run Linux on it. (And succeed!) [via] (1) #

April 5, 2004

quick links

Kinja, the weblog guide – Nick Denton’s latest project, a weblog directory [via] #
Topix.net – I like their UI better than Google News. [via] #
The Secret Source of Google’s Power – On Google as a platform – Amazing [via] #