Meetings Cost A Lot 2010

I'm pleased to see that others have had the meeting cost calculator idea and done something about it.

Toby Tripp, Lydia Tripp, and Roy Kolak's Meeting Ticker has now been joined by Bring Tim.

Every tech company I've ever worked with (except those run by Clemens Pfeiffer) has needed a device like this, but some need it more than others. Yes, you with the weekly hour-plus meeting attended by the CEO and three VPs, I'm looking at you.

(Thanks for linky goodness, Boing Boing!)

Great power, great responsibility, and unsolved challenges 2010

Here I am once again pulling back in frustration and anger from my use of Facebook.

I don't want to have to do this. I want there to be an easy way for me to keep up with people I like, to promote things I like and help them succeed, and to engage in good conversations about what's happening in the world. I want the web to be smart and save me redundant effort. I want it to be easier for information and reactions to it to flow throughout multiple sites. I want people to be able to use the tools they are most comfortable with and for that choice to be independent from the content encountered through the tools.

But I don't want my or my friends' demographic information and details of our activity to be continually and pervasively leveraged for corporate marketing purposes. I want it to be possible to share and participate without providing a neatly packaged commodity that can be used to alter our perception of the online world.

What Facebook's new Instant Personalization feature reminds me of is that manipulation of our online reality. Certainly the list of wants I gave above would be a change to my online reality of great power, but such a change demands great responsibility. It demands transparency – what is being changed, by whom, and what other ways might it be presented to someone else? – and it demands control – opt in, not opt out. Facebook is not demonstrating that responsibility, nor does its history or the statements of its CEO suggest it is likely to.

In many specifics this is a design problem. My experience with the feature so far is that it's very hard to see what is happening or why. I want to give permission before a site can use my data or my friends'; that's something I should decide, not Facebook's business partnerships team. I want a way to lift the hood and see just what's being done underneath. I want a way to have a certain thing not done – and I want that way to be very obvious and easy.

Think about the difference between visiting an Instant Personalization site (e.g. the surprise of seeing my contacts from Facebook's list of articles they commented on when I visit a site I didn't even know they were reading and then trying to figure out how to stop that sharing of data with this site) vs. visiting a site and having Firefox ask if I want to allow this site to open pop-up windows. The former is confusing and opaque, the latter clear and easily controlled. I don't want to have to fumble around trying to figure out how to prohibit the undesired action after the fact, I want to be asked first and be given the option to set a policy for this site henceforth.

Why does this matter? I am very confident that Facebook's marketing and business growth aims do not map exactly to a map of my trust. Just because they might think a particular company should be allowed to receive a package of social data (me, my demographics, who my friends are, and all their demographics, for instance) doesn't mean I would ever choose to package up all that info for the site myself.

"But it's public information!" you might say. Perhaps – though my confidence over what will and won't be shared is shaky given Facebook's company culture  – but the information wasn't shared by me (or my friends) for this purpose or context. It wasn't packaged by us for use across the web. There's a difference between me saying to Facebook "my friends can know when my birthday is" and Facebook saying to an online store "this user falls into this demographic group by age, gender, and location" so that they can adjust their pricing based on market research of what that particular group is willing to pay for their products. That's a hypothetical example off the top of my head, but it certainly seems to fit within the existing capabilities of the feature.

What compounds all these concerns is the fact that Facebook friends can share your data. User A can go to Site X and by not blocking the feature tell them all kinds of things about his friend User B. Maybe User B never goes to Site X because she does not trust them with her information, but it's passed out of her control now.

In the course of removing all my "friends" on Facebook (and letting each know we're still friends in non-Facebook contexts), I was chatting about these concerns with my friend Glenda Bautista and she brought up a great analogy:

When you add a friend on Facebook or allow someone to add you as a friend, you end up being responsible for each other in your actions. As she said, it's messed up logic to have to treat a tool like this as an STD, but that's just what it is: socially transmitted.

Play safe, gang.

Facebook questions on day one (updated) 2010

(a.k.a. "Oh gawd, I hate you, Facebook; why doesn't anything make sense? At least the Devil gives you a deal when you sell your soul!")

((Update: a.k.a. "Yay! The Discardians are gathering! And, omigawd, I haven't connected with this person in years. This is really cool!"))

I've been online almost more than sleeping for the past 11 years... this should not be so hard and it shouldn't take hours and hours.

I had to create a personal profile in order to create what I wanted, a Page for Discardia where fans can congregate & have discussions, etc. Fine. That part was fairly easy (credit where credit is due), but I've spent the last three hours banging on integration problems.

1) Why don't I see a big ol' link to my Page (Discardia) from my Profile (Dinah Sanders)?
Can't even figure out how to add one. The little blurb box under my picture doesn't accept HTML. Currently only able to get to the Discardia page by going back in my wall to when I became a fan of Discardia and clicking on it. (After I have 25 fans I'll be able to apply for a nice short URL, but only halfway there.)

((Update: Apparently because the integration of Pages with Profiles is still pretty weak. Ya can't do that without custom FBML effort.))

Only thing I've been able to do so far is add the Favorite Pages app which adds a new tab that lists them in reverse chronological order, so Discardia – the one I thought of adding first because it's most important – is under all the others. Why is this even an app instead of part of Facebook's own functionality? Surely there must be a better option.

2) Why isn't Twitter integration doing what I keep telling it to do: show Discardia tweets on the Discardia Page Wall and not on the Dinah Sanders Profile Wall?
I did realize that to avoid redundancy - a very undiscardian trait - I should syndicate Tumblr only to Twitter and then Twitter to Facebook, but that last piece of the puzzle isn't falling into place.
(Tumblr, big kisses to you; your syndication process to Twitter was easy and worked quickly.)

((Update: Apparently because the official integration doesn't include it. Facebook, come on; I thought you were out to crush MySpace.))

3) Why am I not getting email notifications of new fans of Discardia?
Can't even find controls for this from the Page. (The whole Page vs. Profile thing is a rough road indeed.)

((Update: Apparently there's a weekly email. That'd be a great thing for Facebook to send the owners of newly created pages after they get their first fan. "Not much info for you this time, but here's what your weekly update will include..."))

Step by slow step, pulling it all together 2009

*phew* Even for web geeks sometimes this stuff can be such a long slow haul.

What I want is for my blog at MetaGrrrl.com to reflect all my online publishing as MetaGrrrl. That means, currently, that I want to have my tweets from Twitter and my photos from Flickr to appear inline along with longer blog posts.

It would also be swell if when I post to my blog, that would also be reflected in Twitter with a tweet.

All of this is made much more complex by the fact that I use advanced templates. Yes, I'm greedy; I want the maintenance ease of TypePad and the control of Movable Type. Fortunately, Six Apart usually gets me at least 80% of the way to where I want to go and frequently does so with more ease and elegance than I expected.

In theory, I've now linked my Twitter account to my TypePad account, but so far I haven't seen it actually work. Perhaps that's because the new little mini Compose function doesn't actually share out to Twitter, which seems bizarre since it's intended for short content, but might be true.

---

Aha. Finally found a Share This Post help page with some screen shots and I wasn't getting the options in the interface. I deleted the Twitter account and re-added it and now it seems to be tickety-boo.

All watched over by machines of loving grace 2007

A lovely vision of technology in this poem here by Richard Brautigan.

I do like the way the Long Now folks respond to the world and what resonates with them. (Ah! and that word - resonates - rings and reminds me to go put the album by Brian Eno of the chimes for the Clock of the Long Now on my wishlist).

Creative ways to destroy old backup tapes 2007

The user group for the products of the company I work for had an amusing thread a while back about good methods for destroying old backup tapes from servers.

Among my favorite suggestions:
- Put them on the magnetic security desensitizer and bang them several times
- Microwave DVDs/CDs "Smells bad, but a good light show"
- Give them to your medical professional spouse to run them through an MRI scanner

But the hands down winner?
"The tape itself is great for tying plants to supports stakes in the garden.  The old 1/2" stuff was best, 2400' would handle a lot of tomatoes, but 1/4" should still do."

Brevity is the sole of wit. Whew. That's less than 140 characters. 2006

Today I signed up for Twitter as metagrrrl.

[retroactive post written July 16, 2009]

Tramp The Dirt Down 2006

Fantastic news over at kottke.org: "Microsoft to retire pile-of-crap web design program FrontPage."

Let's have a poll in the comments - what's the best drink to hoist to celebrate this brightening of the future of web development?

Paradigm shift 2005

I was just looking at FasterFox and thinking about their pre-caching and about AJAXy things and realized that we really can't trust our old stats anymore to tell us the kind of things they used to tell us.

User attention is no longer equated with page requests.

Bad Upgrade 2005

Springstreet Networks, the folks behind Salon and Nerve personals appear to be conducting an exercise in how not to change your service. The new look is cluttered and unsophisticated. Some email messages are lost. Some users have just vanished. (Too bad for you if that email courtship was progressing nicely!) If you had more than one account, they've been merged. If you had pictures that weren't on display, they're displayed.

Oh and how did they announce this? I thought not at all, but now a friend tells me he saw a popup window that said something about it. Too bad most of us have popup blockers these days. And this from a company that has your email address?

Tacky and poorly managed, Springstreet; you really could have handled this so much better.

Disk space for multimedia files 2005

As I prepare for my trip to Africa and for capturing audio & video on my journey, I'm realizing I need a lot more storage space for the media files I'll create. Questions are coming up:

1. Should I upgrade the drive in my 12" PowerBook G4 to a larger size than its current 60GB?

I've already had advice from my friend Tantek to definitely have a pro do this if I go this route since its a fragile operation. (Of course, I could get an immediate 28GB upgrade by moving my iTunes folder off, but since this is my primary stereo, that'd only be a temporary solution and is unattractive).

2. Should I buy some small physical size, high storage USB drives to store things on? What are the largest ones available?

I saw Seagate has a 5GB. Anyone know of others or have experience with them good or bad? Seems like I'd want to carry at least two so I could back files up to both in case of disk failure.

3. Where can I learn more about video capture and editing so I can work with the largest file size I need and no larger?

Friend of a friend Elli recommended I get Quicktime Pro which will let me edit my movies and export them to other formats. Any other recommendations? Good books or online tutorials?

4. Anyone got any experience with or know any resources to help me with safely and securely uploading posts and/or media from random internet connections? Advice on extending battery life and recharging while traveling (especially in regions with flaky power supplies) would also be most welcome. (I don't suppose there's a good solar charger yet...)

More multimedia experimentation. 2005

Maybe audioblog's tools will be easier & better for me and my viewers.

Floundering toward multimedia 2005

Well, I'm trying to beef up my skills before I go to Africa and so I broke out the iSight and with a certain amount of futzing about with Quicktime Broadcaster - made a little video post.

Then I signed up for audioblogs.com (which also does video, don't ya know) and tried uploading it. 

Turns out they only support avi format, so I flailed around a bit more before figuring out how to convert it in iMovie - and man is it an awkward process, would an Export option in the menu right under the Import option have been so hard, Apple?

I'm uploading and it's taking forever so I look and see that the Quicktime movie is 1.6MB while the avi file is over 29MB. What the hell, man?

There has got to be a better way. Advice anyone?

Mac OS X Tiger and Treo syncing problems 2005

Can't sync your Palm device after upgrading to Tiger? The helpful instructions you need to get the Palm Desktop Installer to quit failing with an "Access Denied" error are right here at PalmOne where I searched but didn't find them. Thank you, Google for indexing sites better than their owners.

The Mondayish Tuesday 2005

I took a long weekend to visit my folks - and it was lovely - so today was my first day back in the office since last Thursday. Always a shock to the system since so much email seems to come in over two days, but compounded today by a team lunch (fun, but for someone who often eats at her desk a big chunk of the day to lose), meetings and a system support problem I needed to help resolve (and will have to give up some of tomorrow to as well).

The day washed me up on the shore of home, tired, spacy and contemplating sleep. I got myself out of workbrain mode by playing around with my new iSight camera. It turns out that contrary to what I expected, you can't record into iMovie with it. Apple! Duh! I'm seriously considering returning it, but they may bail themselves out with the Quicktime Broadcaster which (thank you, Mac Dev Center!) is free and lets you record to your hard drive.

Tonight I just futzed around with the microphone a bit. Clearly lots to learn to get good sound quality, but pretty darn easy to get something adequate.

As is normal for everyone, I was appalled by the sound of my own voice (am I really that nasel and arch sounding?), but recovered after a bit of exposure to it. Well, and after the theraputic step of reading the beginning of Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood. Round lovely sounds.

Not sure what I'll play with next. Maybe a little video tour of my house that I can show my grandma next time I visit her. Hmm, and that inventory I've been meaning to update for my renters' insurance.

No, I am not going to become a camgirl. I may not have learned anything else from Paris Hilton (thank goodness), but I at least know that video never goes away.

Got tips for someone just learning to use an iSight or Quicktime Broadcaster? Leave 'em in the comments!

Apparently using the new "throw darts at a board" recommender engine 2005

I just bought from Amazon a pedometer (recommended by Maggie) and a dual kitchen timer (since my cooking grows more complex).

Afterwards Amazon recommended things.

The things it recommended were:

- books about knitting

- books about squirrels

Um. What?

User Switching and Palm conundrum 2004

I use OS X's multiple user accounts capabilities and Fast User Switching to keep my personal computing separate from my work computing on the same device (my PowerBook G4).

My Treo 600 phone/pda/camera does not have this kind of sophistication. So far it appears that I can only synchronize into one user account. This is a bit annoying because I'd like to be able to access my calendar - which includes both personal and work information - from either account. Since the calendar is more important to work, I chose that account, but I'd really love to be able to see this data whichever hat I'm wearing.

Anyone know a way around this problem?

I was using that... 2004

Every now and then my browser will crash, often upon visiting a site doing something clever and/or of dubious standards compliance. Every now and then I'll close the program or restart the computer when I had pages open in the browser I still wanted to do something with. When this happens I lose track of things I intended to do.

What I want is a Firefox feature or plug-in which allows me to always launch the program with the tabs/windows I last had open. I want some way to indicate "okay, I'm done with this URL" and that way is probably most easily achieved by hitting the browser "home" button and then, when launching the program, never opening more than one window with that home page.

If I was planning to tackle this program (which since I'm not a programmer, I'm not), I would start with a file in which the "currently open URLs" are written - this might already exist - and then write changes to the location to it (removing the old location) and append new entries when new tabs/pages are opened, then save it. When launching the program, I'd treat the file as though I'd selected a bunch of bookmarks in a folder and clicked "Open". Or at least that's where I'd start my research & experimentation.

This just doesn't seem that hard...

I like patterns and sequences. 2004

Wouldn't it be cool if you could set up iTunes to randomize tracks, but constrain it to following each song with one which has some common element?

Possible elements to permit this bridging:
- similar beats per minute
- same genre
- same rating
- same comment
- same year
- same artist (but different album)
- same title (but different artist)
- added to iTunes within a week of this one
- same non-common words in band name/song title/song lyrics

Is Multiply simplifying the world? Maybe in one sense... 2004

Apparently there's yet another social network manager now. I received an invitation to join it from 3 people so far. Two of them are male, one isn't and has never evidenced an inclination to be identified as such that I'm aware. The invitation read:

Molly has added you as his contact on Multiply so he can better stay in touch with you, and he told us that he is your Online Buddy. To see Molly's Multiply home page, or start your own, please go to the following address to confirm that he is your Online Buddy

My reaction was basically the same as Biz Stone's: "Hellooo Computer"

I am torn between a spirit of scientific inquiry, prompting me to join and see if I become similarly stripped of my femininity*, and contempt, encouraging me to ignore the service until they can get through what ought to be the first page of their QA process.

After visiting their site, though, I'm inclined to a third option: don't use the service.

Multiply, if you're in the social network software business, if you're all about personal relationships, your site damn well ought to include sections like "who we are", "why we started Multiply", and "our plans for Multiply". It just feels to me like somebody's get-rich-quick scheme: accumulate a bunch of data and sell the service (& the data) to the highest bidder.

Answer me this, o software service providers: Why should I trust you with my information and my friends' information?

I thought I'd see if I could fiind out a little more about the company:
Multiply.com is registered to Peter Pezaris of Delrey Beach, Florida [source: whois.000domains.com]

He's probably the same Peter Pezaris who was president of operations and product development for SportsLine.com [source: Google query leading to bio article, announcement of resignation from SportsLine last November]

At this point, I googled for his name and Multiply appearing together and found that someone else is asking the same questions I am and reaching the same conclusions. [And, after looking on Technorati to see who else is talking about this, I find Brian and I aren't alone: danah had the same reaction]

Frankly, I feel highly uncomfortable with what I've discovered. I wouldn't give these people my data. My gut sense is that they're looking to make cash and get out, not to build a long-term relationship with their customers.

(*Why does "efeminated" sound like it means "made effeminate", i.e. "more feminine", rather than being the counterpart to emasculated?)

Meme Propagation Test 2004

This posting is a community experiment started by Minding the Planet to see how a meme represented by a blog posting spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs are most influential in the propagation of memes. The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet; results and commentary will appear there in the future.

Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate – the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is: as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawstw98qwrt189849813907azq4

(this GUID enables anyone to easily search Google for all results of this experiment). Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post at Minding the Planet; Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.

INSTRUCTIONS

To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and fill out the info below, substituting your own information in your posting, where appropriate.

(Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers):

1. I found this experiment at URL: http://www.jluster.org/node/249
2. I found it via “Newsreader Software” or “Browsing or Searching the Web” or “An E-Mail Message”: Browsing or Searching the Web - regular list of friends kept as toolbar bookmarks in browser
3. I posted this experiment at URL: http://www.metagrrrl.com
4. I posted this on date (day, month, year): 2, August, 2004
5. I posted this at time (24 hour time): 20:00
6. My posting location is (city, state, country): San Francisco, CA, USA

OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS (Replace the answers below with your own answers):

1. My blog is hosted by: TypePad
2. My age is: 39
3. My gender is: Female
4. My occupation is: Software Product Manager
5. I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: none
6. I use the following software to post to my blog: Typepad, ecto
7. I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 29, September, 1998
8. My web browser is: Firefox

Hey! I resemble that remark! 2004

Matt said "In my experience Mac users tend to be total browser flirts, and have every browser you’ve ever heard of installed."

Okay, yes, you could call us slutty, but we prefer to think of it as an open relationship.

CSS, reputation and gender 2004

In response to conversations happening at Doug and Molly's sites among others, I have to say I agree most with Angie's comments.

As someone who studied history, I do understand that to effect change you sometimes need to stir things up. G.B. Shaw said "The reasonable man is content with things as they are, therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Substitute woman and we've got a good argument for not taking whatever bias or oppression we get handed.

However...

I don't see bias or oppression as pervasive among the top thinkers on CSS or even in web design in general. In my experience, these are people who do not care what's in your pants when it comes to judging your work. How do you "make the list"? Not by nepotism ("bestowal of patronage in consideration of relationship, rather than of merit")

You make the list by doing great work and/or enabling others to do great work; by being a muse and a teacher. And you don't do great work or teach because you're looking forward to the glory; you do it because good design matters. It matters.

You do it even before you're good. You do project after project after project, paid and unpaid. You continuously learn about design, actively and unconsciously through observation. You talk about it with other people who are passionate about it. That's how you get good.

If you are really exceptionally good; your work will probably get you noticed, but there are role models and there are muses. Muses are catalysts. It's not just that Doug does good work; it's that he talks about his work in a way which makes us understand and appreciate good design more. He plants the seeds for us to do better design.

This is what I think someone (Molly, I think, but I'm getting lost in too many threads) was getting at in commentary on this when talking about how weblogging can help improve diversity. Yes, you let the work speak for itself in terms of whether or not it's good, but you do speak for yourself as the creator to inform about the process of its creation. Doug's recent series about the header images in the redesign of his site is a great example.

Add to that more personal and subtle form of teaching attendence at conferences, participation on panels, writing of books, teaching of classes, and, providing you're good at it, you become respected.

It's not about stridency, about fighting for respect; it's about getting good and then sharing your strengths. If you think you can be the female Doug Bowman by getting in people's faces, then you haven't learned much about him or his design sense.

So, here we are with a short list of the most respected people in a field and there are more men than women on the list. Don't blame these men or women for that. I didn't choose to respect Doug or Eric or Dave or Molly because of their genitalia. To the best of my knowledge it plays no significant role in CSS. I respect them because not only do they do good work, they've contributed to the community so that the quality of everyone's work can be better.

What I think has come out of all these conversations is that in some, probably many, places young girls will be discouraged by adults or their peers or pop culture from being technically savvy. If you're bothered by the lack of women on that list, get out there and start visiting schools. And your message will mean a whole lot more if you don't just go in saying "I'm a woman and I want to get girls interested in technology." If the whole feminist point is that gender doesn't matter, then women need to stop giving the "even though you're a girl" part of the "you can do this" message. If a woman designer visits a class and inspires kids to become designers or even just to care about good design, that's what counts. It really doesn't matter if the ones inspired are boys or girls.

Lies in your inbox 2004

Most of the readers of my site probably understand this already, but I want to give an example of the kind of malicious email being sent these days. Unfortunately, unscrupulous people have abused this wonderful communication system terribly. It is still worth using and just incredible when you think about how it has enabled friends and family to stay closer, but it must be said that it is sorely damaged.

Know these things about email:

1. Your address is probably on one or more big lists of addresses which are sold to companies who do not mind inconveniencing millions of people in order to make a very small number of sales. Thus, just because it's addressed to you doesn't mean the sender wants to contact you personally.

2. The "From" address can be faked. Unfortunately, it is probably another name chosen from such a list. It is possible if not probable that if you receive spam (junk email) that it has also been sent out in your name. Thus, just because it says it came from someone doesn't necessarily mean it really is.

3. The text of email can be lies. Thus, just because it says its from a company you do business with, it may not necessarily be. If a phisher (someone trying to steal personal identification and financial information) sends out millions of a letter claiming to be from, say, CitiBank, some will probably end up happening to reach an actual CitiBank customer who might be fooled into divulging information. Here's an example of a related tactic which I received in June:

Dear user, the management of Metagrrrl.com mailing system wants to let you know that,

Our antivirus software has detected a large ammount of viruses outgoing
from your email account, you may use our free anti-virus tool to clean up
your computer software.

For details see the attach.

Cheers,
The Metagrrrl.com team http://www.metagrrrl.com

Attachment converted: ire:Attach.pif ( / ) (0012E22C)

This came to dinah at this domain and claimed to be from administration at this domain. The attached "anti-virus tool" is probably spyware (software which collects information as it is entered on your computer) or some other malicious program such as one which could allow another user access to your machine. Thus, just because it seems on the surface legitimate, doesn't mean it isn't an attack against your privacy in disguise. After receiving such an unexpected letter, always visit the web site of the company by typing in the address yourself in your browser rather than clicking a link or downloading from the email itself. When personal information is requested - the classic "update your records with our company" phishing technique - call the company (and not using a phone number listed in the email!) to see if they do legitimately need the information. When you receive such a scam email for the first time, you can forward them with their header information to the company's abuse department. This department email address is usually "abuse@" whatever the company's domain name is. They will only need one example of each distinct scam you received and it is probably only worth forwarding the email to them if it is within the first hour after you received it or if you receive a lot of spam and this one seems to be using a new phishing technique which you want them to warn their customers about.