While nosing around Netvibes the other day I noticed that its email widget doesn’t use HTTPS to send usernames and passwords back to the server. It is right there in the HTTP stream in clear text.
Seems a bit insecure no? You might want to avoid any sensitive data like your GMail login on Netvibes.
(I emailed the problem to Netvibes last week and they replied that they are working on an HTTPS solution but it isn’t ready yet.)
I am a 28 year old South African male living in Waterford, Ireland. I enjoy photography, reading, movies, travel and tea. My work is also something I enjoy; web-application development. I am 5′11″ high, average build, I like to wear comfortable clothes and have no interest in fashion or clothing brands beyond their utility and reliability. I don’t smoke but I do drink, normally the odd beer, Carlsberg please not Heineken, but mostly good whiskey. I am in a committed relationship, want children and hope to buy a house in the next few years.
Advertisers, what are you going to send me based on that information that I don’t already know about or have? Camera deals? No thanks, I’m doing fine there. Travel deals? Sure but every other travel deal I have ever seen has been rubbish, how can you do better? Technical books on web-development? Sorry, I don’t read them. Savings on beer and whiskey? You can beat the local Tesco that is undercutting to sell me other things can you? Didn’t think so.
Everything I am interested in I first read about on a friend’s blog or hear about direct from someone. Everything I need in life is already quite well sorted out. If it isn’t then I go out and find it. An advertisement has never ever fulfilled that role. Not once in 28 years.
I don’t get targeted advertising.
So when I read about how social networks, with there deep data mines of personal data on me, are going to revolutionise targeted advertising, I don’t get it.
Is the rest of the world idling their time away looking for something, just anything, to spend money on? “Give me something to swipe for!”
So it seems. Idle spending must be what all the targeted adverts are after. The hope to snap up a few bucks here and there
Professionally I get it. Every user application I have ever worked on has “demographic data mining potential.” People are always talking about “monetizing that personal data” and “demographically pinpointing recommendations” etc. but I have never seen it work. Amazon doesn’t get it right, Google AdSense doesn’t get it right, Facebook certainly doesn’t get it right.
My bank knows a lot about me, a lot more than Facebook ever will. And yet my bank has never sent me something I wanted. They send me loan offers and yet with a glance at my bank balance you’d see a loan is the last thing I want. They send me car finance deals. I already have car finance with them. I’ve looked and I can’t find anything else I want from my bank. So they can data mine my personal data all they want. It isn’t going to target their adverts any better.
There has to be a deep change in targeted advertising for it to become in any way useful to people like me. I hope I am not in the minority, it makes me worry that people are out there idly clicking on “People also bought this” links on Amazon.
When I first started my tumble blog I thought it wouldn’t last a week. It seemed like yet another deli.cio.us clone. Months later and I am using deli.cio.us simply for bookmarks I want to properly read later and my tumble blog is humming along nicely. It is the repository of everything interesting I find during the day.
It sounds odd but I enjoy having a look at my tumble blog every now and then. Looking over deli.cio.us pages in contrast is frustrating and dull. Unlike other tools that preach simplicity and focus Tumblr doesn’t eschew aesthetics. It looks good while still being simple and useful. Whoever does the design over at tumblr has a keen eye, hats off to you.
The thing about tumblr is that it isn’t game changing, doesn’t pretend to revolutionise your life and doesn’t try to squeeze more into less. There is no hype to cut through and over time it grows on you. It is just a simple, useful, good looking tool.
If you are interested they released v3.0 today with some nice updates.
Yup, 200 big ones to find out the problem with my Ford Fiesta was just the spark plugs. I’ve changed plugs on my Toyota a few times and I’d happily do it for 200 euros. Heck, I’d do it for half that and I’d clean your windows.
I can’t really complain though, it was my fault. I haven’t had the car serviced since I bought her and this was a cheap reminder that I should. I must also credit Sheridans Ford in Waterford for very fast and very efficient service. I called them this morning, they picked the car up a few minutes later and about two hours later they phoned to say it was fixed. 80 euro of the total bill was for the tow service back to the garage. I didn’t want to risk driving the car to the garage.
Daily bits...