Al's Blog-o-Sphere

Today I got three emails from Facebook. One told me that my password was changed and that, if I had not done it myself, I might have been a victim of a phishing attack.

The second one told me my account had been deactivated and that if I changed my mind and wanted to reconsider, all I needed to do was log back in. Too bad I changed that password…

The third one, was titled Facebook Service sent you a message on Facebook… and came from “Facebook Team.” Wow! Were they going to beg me to come back. Were they asking what they could do to make me stay? No.

This is what it said:

To read this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=156102208989&mid=6f888e491cd35db616b1089c9fe2d4da&n_m=facebook notify

Okay, so it wasn’t a personal message. Maybe it was something they wanted everyone who was quitting to see. Maybe about the changes they are making to correct the issues people have been complaining about. I had my hopes up.

Nope. It was a Viagra Ad. Canadian Pharmacy spam. Just one last shot to tell me I had made the right decision…

Incidentally, all the while I was a member in good standing with FB, I don’t ever remember getting a message like this that portrayed itself to be an important message from the “Facebook Team.” Guess I know what the “Team” thinks of me now…

Well, I did it. I committed “Facebook Suicide.” That’s the term for deleting your profile in the social network as if you no longer exist.

Of course, as soon as I was done, they announced sweeping revisions of their privacy policy and a simplification of the user controls that had become so complex that most people gave up and just didn’t deal with them.

I wasn’t terribly worried about my privacy. I assumed that pretty much everything I put in my profile or said online was visible to everyone. I mean, it may be only your “friends” who are supposed to see what you write, but if someone is determined, anything is available.

You can still (always) find me online. I have Twitter, MySpace, Google Buzz, AIM and other accounts. And of course, this blog. For all of my stuff, just Google me, my profile is there.

Continue Reading…

Dear Volkswagon,

What’s up with your commercials? You don’t get to punch someone for a Tiguan. And it’s called Punch Bug, not Punch Dub.

What’s with the “dub” business anyway? Dub is a form of music, based on Reggae.

Look, it’s a childish game that we’ve all played, but your marketing department doesn’t get to change the rules to suit your ad campaign. It’s a pop culture thing, and manipulating it to suit your sales ought to be a big flop.

Leave it to Wikipedia to have the whole story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_buggy

And what’s up with the name Tiguan. Tiger and Iguana? Oh yeah, that’s the image I want my car to suggest…

I’ve been using Windows 7 for a while now on several computers and have to admit, I’m pretty happy with it, despite the fact that, even with all the hype, it’s really what Vista should have been, maybe after a service pack.

You must have seen the annoying commercials like the one above, where people seem to think that Microsoft actually listened to them and took their advice on some little nitpicky thing. Well, Microsoft, here’s My Idea (TM). Continue Reading…