You know those pictures… the ones from that one party a few years ago, when you were a freshman… the ones you then put up on MySpace and Facebook? The ones you need to remove now that Dad’s on facebook and can see? Just in the nick of time, you deleted those. So they’re gone, never to be seen again, right?
Well, Cambridge University released findings in June that said “Not always.” Arstechnica.com put it to the test recently. On 21 May, they deleted pictures from MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. (Note: With Twitter, I don’t know if they’re referring to Twitpic.com pictures, or actual individual tweets. I’ve asked for clarification.)
Arstechnica reports that Twitter and Flickr deleted your pictures immediately, within seconds of the request. The other two services, MySpace and Facebook, however, still have not deleted the data; they have simply removed it from public consumption. Both services provide direct links to pictures uploaded; anyone who had copied those direct links before the deletion request came in CAN STILL SEE THOSE PICTURES. And to make things even better, they can STILL be shared with friends, enemies, and family members… you know, those people like your grandma, who might have tough questions about that night you were the beer pong champ? Or when you played the Presidential Debate Drinking Game? Yeah.
Both sites claim to delete user info immediately, so we reached out to the companies to see what they had to say about the findings.
“MySpace takes the safety, security and privacy of its users very seriously and immediately deletes user content and profiles in their entirety when requested to,” MySpace spokesperson Amy Walgenbach told Ars via e-mail. “We are aware it can take longer for images to be removed from third party servers (servers from the vendor we work with) and are actively working to address this.”
Facebook offered a similar statement, but went a step further by claiming that third parties could not access the information even though it is retained on the server. “As stated in the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, the governing document for the site, ‘when you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others),’” Facebook spokesperson Elizabeth Linder said. “We are working with our content delivery network (CDN) partner to significantly reduce the amount of time that backup copies persist.”
(Emphasis mine)
This is simply not true. Arstechnica proved it; they also have provided links to the myspace and facebook pictures in question. As of this writing, I was able to view them. If I can view them, then Facebook has one of two problems: 1. Their rep is lying through his/her teeth, or 2. All of their backups are available on line, all the time.
The moral of the story is easy: If you want to keep those embarrassing photos private, keep them offline.
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Tags: facebook, flickr, myspace, twitter, social network, backups
I had to blog this for the headline alone.
Via Lowering the Bar comes a story of a man who, while at Nevada’s Burning Man festival, walked into the farking HUGE bonfire of a man (as in, the Burning Man) and argued that it was the festival staff’s fault for not stopping him.
Get a load of this shizzle:
Beninati’s complaint stated that when he approached the bonfire, the flames were still roughly 40 feet high. He walked around the bonfire three times, each time “circl[ing] a little closer to the fire.” Eventually, he walked still closer, into what was variously described as an area of “embers,” “low flames,” “burning remnants,” and “a spot where there was fire on either side of him.” Basically, he had walked inside a huge bonfire. Then, as you might have expected, he tripped on something and fell into the actual fiery part of the bonfire, burning his hands.
In his deposition, Beninati admitted he knew “fire was dangerous and caused burns” before he walked into one. He knew there was some possibility of falling into said fire. He admitted no one affiliated with the defendants asked him to walk into the fire or told him it would be safe to do so. But he testified that he did not think it would be dangerous to walk into the fire, although he knew it “was not ‘absolutely safe, because there [was] a fire present.’” And, as noted, fire is hot.
This is why drugs are bad, mkay? And why Hippies should be eradicated from the face of the earth. Or not, I’m not advocating that. But still. Artiste types spending $300 for admission to a desert, where NOTHING IS EXCEPT OTHER PEOPLE who paid $280 to be there, where they can be all artist-y and walk through a freaking bonfire. Morons.
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Tags: burning man, humor, morons
Macro toys

Macro toys
Originally uploaded by Big Guy
One of the first pix I took with the Canon XSi.
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Day-late RIP
These things are, as previously posited, supposed to come in threes. So we had ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. Leave it to Billy to throw one more in there for you, free of charge.
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Tags: billy mays, death
A Tale of Irony and the TSA
Ironic, to say the least: Comics artist Mark Sable was detained and searched by the TSA recently. The irony is this: The reason he was detained and searched is because he was carrying a comic script about a person who is detained and searched by the TSA in a post-911 world.
The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.
Apparently the TSA still lacks that crucial sense of humor, or irony for that matter.
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Tags: government, irony, transportation, TSA
playground equipment

playground equipment
Originally uploaded by Big Guy
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Night shot

Night shot
Originally uploaded by Big Guy
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Quick RIP notes…
Michael Jackson, my ear candy in the early 80s
Farrah Fawcett, my eye candy from around the same time
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Tags: celebrities, farrah, fawcett, michael jackson
pool balls

pool balls
Originally uploaded by Big Guy
From the local community center. I like the look of the balls.
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Netflix still rocks
So that 30 day trial, the one I’d been waiting to use, ended Sunday. Here’s the final results:
390 minutes of DVD watching
The instant Queue, though, is where things got awesome. We watched Season 2 of Heroes 3 times — because I watched it, then Eldest decided to watch it, then when SHE was done then Boy decided that HE wanted to watch it. We also watched Seasons 3 and 4 of The Office, Series 1 of The Office (UK version), 2 seasons of Weeds, and (parts of) 13 movies. I say “Parts of” because these are movies we would never have rented or bought, but decided to check out on either the computer or the XBox. BOY was I glad we waited, there were some real stinkers.
Also a nice feature, that I’ve probably already mentioned — simultaneous viewing. Wifey doesn’t care that much of what I’m watching? That’s OK, she got on the computer and put on Weeds. Or vice versa. I think I’ve tested 3 simultaneous viewings, and it looks like I could have unlimited devices viewing, as long as my bandwidth could support it.
So yeah, we watched a crapton of stuff during the free trial, and proved to ourselves that this beats the snot out of waiting until HBO or Starz is playing what we want, especially since new titles hit DVD (and therefore, Netflix) long before premium cable has a crack at it.
Total savings: $15.05
Filed under: dot entertainment, dot stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: DVD, internet, netflix, television
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