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Slashback: Pie, Election, Alarm

Posted by timothy on from the irs-is-a-nest-of-worms dept.

Slashback this evening with another batch of updates and responses to previous Slashdot posts, including: how Firefox users can avoid post-cookie Web tracking (for now), more on open-source graphics drivers, and an alarm clock that sounds perfect for annoying a spouse. Read on for the details.

Does he feel like Reese Witherspoon? Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier writes "After many years of trying, Branden Robinson has finally won the Debian Project Leader election. Linux Magazine has an in-depth interview with Robinson about his plans as DPL, the problems that face Debian, and what it's like to finally win the election."

(We mentioned Robinson's election a few days ago.)

In lieu of perfection, fixability is a good start. gyardley writes "After discovering that a company called United Virtualities was making use of Flash's Local Shared Objects to silently restore my deleted cookies, I decided to combat this marketer behavior with a Firefox extension.

Objection 0.1 adds a 'Local Shared Objects' line to Firefox's Options > Privacy panel, allowing you to delete them as easily as you'd delete cookies. It's still pretty rudimentary - all or nothing deletion, working on Windows only - but Slashdotters are more than welcome to improve it. Since Local Shared Objects have the same functionality as cookies, we need the same amount of control over them as we do over cookies - and built into the browser, not tucked away in some obscure Macromedia page."

Sure, come on in, there's still some punch and snacks left, I think. orv writes "The Unichrome project has issued a response to VIA's recent open source announcement covered on Slashdot.

The response (and further comment) clarifies the current Unichrome driver situation and whilst welcoming VIA's move suggests that VIA should become more involved in existing open source projects rather than simply issuing repeated grand sounding press releases. The Unichrome project has provided and supported a full open source driver, including MPEG support, for the Unichrome and Unichrome Pro chipsets for the past two years."

But this implies that 'perky' is the desired state. dhalsim2 writes "Yahoo reports of a Smart Alarm Clock Set for Perky Wakeups. On the heels of Clocky comes this new alarm clock that will monitor a sleeper's brain waves to determine the best time to wake him up. The device uses a microprocessor within a headband that wirelessly transmits brainwaves to the clock. When the person is in a light sleep and is likely to wake up 'perky,' the alarm will go off. Brain wave monitoring? Sounds a lot like Plankton's Plan Z."

10 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. The whole PIE thing really bugs me by jessmeister · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have blogged on this repeatedly and even mentioned a good article which should give some perspective on this whole cookie question. Its not that cookies are such a bad thing when used correctly. Some people dont want to use them and thats fine. For them let them log in repeatedly and see ads that arent relevant or contextual to what they have been doing or watching. Coming up with another way of tracking users isnt the problem. The problem is that users are scared of the tracking. Educate the masses on the benefits and advertisers would see positive results. Who knows maybe they wouldnt have to resort to making ever more annoying advertisements just to try and snare my attention.

    1. Re:The whole PIE thing really bugs me by An+Ominous+Cow+Erred · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's just I really DON'T want people knowing I spend 40% of my time on slashdot. I don't have a reason in particular, I just DON'T. I place a significant value on NOT having information about be spread willy nilly everwhere.

      Regarding Javascript, I REALLY don't like the idea of my browser automatically running code that someone else has written without me having the chance to check it out first. I don't think javascript is evil as a language, I just don't like the idea of going to a website and blindly running code from there. I don't care that it's in a sandbox -- all it takes is one exploit for the code to break its way out of the sandbox and boom. (And hopefully I'm running Linux and the developer is too focused on Win32 for his payload to do anything once it's out of javascriptland, but you never know.)

      Seriously, I'm never going to put instant, blind trust in anything online until I've checked it out first, and even then on general principles I won't enable cookies or jscript unless there's a compelling reason to do so.

      (3 the session-only feature in Moz browsers) =D

    2. Re:The whole PIE thing really bugs me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      How about advertisers can go fuck themselves? How about I'm going to employ every blocking technology I can get my hands on because it's none of your damn business? How about I'll delete all my cookies at the end of a session except the ones that I whitelist to leave alone? I want to know why people, advertisers in particular, are so damn interested in what I choose to do with my computer? Fuck off you assholes. I want to do my shit and be left the fuck alone. Okay? You can't have my money. Go to fucking hell you rat bastard scumbags.

    3. Re:The whole PIE thing really bugs me by NickFortune · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Its not that cookies are such a bad thing when used correctly
      Bad for whom?
      Educate the masses on the benefits and advertisers would see positive results. Who knows maybe they wouldnt have to resort to making ever more annoying advertisements just to try and snare my attention.
      And no doubt spammers worldwide would suddenly see the errors of their ways and spam no more, give that targetted ads driven by tracking cookies were suddenly so effective...

      I'm sorry, I can't see it. Advertising is not an industry known for it's string ethical stance, and let's face it, such plagues as popups and flash ads were rife long before most people started disabling cookies.

      Logging in isn't such a big problem. I allow session cookies where they have a clear and useful purpose, so I only have to click that button once or twice a day.

      And besides which, my surfing habits are none of their business.

      --
      Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
    4. Re:The whole PIE thing really bugs me by CDarklock · · Score: 1, Interesting

      > Advertising is not an industry known
      > for it's string ethical stance

      I wonder why?

      "Hey," says the advertiser, "we'll give you free internet service if you use our special browser that shows you ads."

      "Why, that *is* a good deal," says the consumer, who signs a contract and gets online with the free account.

      Then he runs off and downloads a program that hides the ads, so he doesn't have to see them. Now he's got free internet service at the advertiser's expense, but the advertiser isn't getting to advertise.

      Eventually, the people who buy the ads realise they don't get any business through this advertiser, and they go to another one. The advertiser loses all his sponsors, can't afford to continue providing internet connections, and shuts down.

      "Hey!" shouts the user. "We had a DEAL, scumbag."

      Ethics, like morals, are a luxury. You have them when you can afford to have them. When times get rough, ethics start getting fuzzy, and eventually they disappear altogether. So the advertiser has few if any ethics, because he cannot afford them.

      But what's the user's excuse? He signed a contract and took his share of the bargain, but wouldn't honor his own obligations.

      "Of course not," scoffs the user. "It was an obligation to an *advertiser*. Advertisers are scum, and have no ethics, and never keep their word. So it's *okay* to lie to them, and cheat them, and steal from them."

      Self-fulfilling prophecy, ne-c'est pas?

      --
      Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
  2. Wakeup watch... by Polo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's already a watch that helps you wake up at the "optimal" time:

    http://www.sleeptracker.com/

    1. Re:Wakeup watch... by jacobcaz · · Score: 3, Interesting
      • Do you know if that works?
        Looks interesting - If I'm not woken during a light sleep-phase I am completely wasted myself, it would be nice to have something to help ;)
      It actually does work really well. I bought one (read about my experience here on my blog).

      It does sense when I'm mostly awake and starts beeping which fully wakes me up. I'ts still an exercise to pull myself out of the soft, warm, fluffy bed at 6:30 in the morning. Goddamn corporate job, sucking the life right out of me!

  3. Uhhhh by elid · · Score: 2, Interesting
    On the heels of Clocky comes this new alarm clock that will monitor a sleeper's brain waves to determine the best time to wake him up. The device uses a microprocessor within a headband that wirelessly transmits brainwaves to the clock. When the person is in a light sleep and is likely to wake up 'perky,' the alarm will go off.

    What if I go to sleep late? Will this thing let me sleep till 2PM? I don't really understand the use of this thing.

  4. Re:Just what we need by RevDobbs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    FWIW, I know that I feel much better after four hours of sleep than I do after six; I always assumed that the reason the extra sleep left me groggy was that I was being jarred awake from deep sleep (details here). I find sleep fascinating, and always enjoy reading the disussions on it -- especially on how to get the most out of it. It seems like quite a safe tuning parameter to optimize, and a lot easier to get into than nootropics.

    I gladly, and with out hesitation, welcome our brain-monitoring alarm clock overlords.

  5. Right man for the job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Well done debian, you've gone and elected a jerk to office. Nicely done.

    I'd like to quote JWZ's comment on this issue, Please choke on a bucket of cocks. Thank you.

    So, Branden. How's that going?