A Confession

[Nuke]

I confess that I have just joined Facebook. I did it because someone I know wanted me to see their photos posted there.

I only did so however with a false name and disposable email address. I discovered that my name had to be plausibly real - at my first attempt at registering, a fantasy name like "Nuke" caused registering to fail (no reason given though). This seems to be their policy - I notice that users do not have the cyber-handles and avatars that most other forums do.

I was astonished that immediately after registering it asked me for my email PASSWORD! Apparently so that it could search my address book to check if I had "Friends" in Facebook already. It amazes me not only that some people would do this, but that FB had the nerve to ask. Fortunately you could skip this step.

I put that I lived in Bristol and worked for London Transport (both true once, not at the same time though), so it promptly gave me a list of people - random people living in Bristol, and London bus drivers, who it thought "I might know"! I don't seem to be able to dismiss this list; their mugshots have remained up the side of the screen most of the time.

Unbelivable! At least it works in Linux and does not nag that I need plug-ins.

[bobthebob1234]

You mean you aren't comfortable giving away all your details to a faceless corporation for them to sell and do with what they will? What are you, some sort of mad man?


In other news I was talking to a friend (this time) on facebook messenger, and they had 'location services' on (which it is by default), which tells me exactly where they are in the world (not just town/city, the exact lng/lat, which allowed me to reverse geocode their address (and they revealed they were at home), so I now have their exact address, and using another website managed to find their home phone number (even though they were ex directory, and both his parents names and ages).

I also found out where someone lived though 1 photo taken from inside their front room, but I could see out the window and used lamp posts and a sign to triangulate exactly where their house was, (the chat friend also took a photo out of his new flat, I was able to find exactly where it was (I had a starting point of Manchester) and the exact window he took the photo out of...) all using the power of google street view

Also found out who my downstairs neighbours were from 1 first name...

Also amusingly if you are in a relationship with someone on facebook, and you privacy setting is the highest it can be (IE I can't see nothing about you, just your name, but your partners privacy settings are on a lower setting, I can find out all your information, including private photos that they are tagged in, etc (which you may also be tagged in) through them...

Not that I'm a stalker or anything

[el chapulín]

fakebook is a perfect example of the sheeple effect - "everyone else is doing it so it must be ok". Needless to say, I'm not on it and have no desire to be on it. It never ceases to amaze me how gullible some people can be and how willing they are to just hand over their personal information.

It's pretty sad that most smartphone users use the thing solely as a means to achieve continuous round the clock fakebook access.

People like Ritchie and Thompson brought computing to where it is today, only for idiots to sit typing the scarcely intelligible gibberish, which seems to pass for English these days, about what they did last night into the their fakebook page...

Computers have gone from being educational and work tools to goggle boxes for idiots to watch TV on, read about celebrities and post inane drivel on "social networking" sites... we are quickly going full circle with evolution and in probably only a few hundred years we will have knuckle dragging simians roaming the streets, who can only communicate with grunts and via smartphone using "txt speak"... oh wait...

[roseway]

What a wonderful rant, with which I wholeheartedly agree.

[nelz]

[Dutch_Master]

+1

Like

[Paradigm Shifter]

The last time someone told me to join Facebook so I could talk to them or see pictures they were posting, I simply said if they can't e-mail me the pictures or text/call/e-mail me... they can't be that bothered.

We continue to talk on the phone and communicate regularly through e-mail, so it was obviously the bandwagon effect that motivated them to Facebook.

I really dislike Facebook; it's like Reality TV; voyeurism, but online.

[Marrea]

People like Ritchie and Thompson brought computing to where it is today, only for idiots to sit typing the scarcely intelligible gibberish, which seems to pass for English these days, about what they did last night into the their fakebook page...

Beautifully put that man.

Apart from the idiots you mention though I believe there are many otherwise completely intelligent, sane people who have allowed themselves to be sucked into Facebook/Twitter and, once in, do not seem able to escape. It becomes an addiction, without which they are unable to exist.

[AndyBaxman]

It's pretty sad that most smartphone users use the thing solely as a means to achieve continuous round the clock fakebook access.

Completely untrue. I use mine to play Bad Piggies.

[Ram]

It's pretty sad that most smartphone users use the thing solely as a means to achieve continuous round the clock fakebook access.

Completely untrue. I use mine to play Bad Piggies.

+1

Not that I've played Bad Piggies (might try later) but other games yes.

My main usage is as a Phone, GPS and Sports Tracker. Oh and ogg / Tuxradar podcast player.

[Paradigm Shifter]

It's pretty sad that most smartphone users use the thing solely as a means to achieve continuous round the clock fakebook access.

Completely untrue. I use mine to play Bad Piggies.

+1

Not that I've played Bad Piggies (might try later) but other games yes.

My main usage is as a Phone, GPS and Sports Tracker. Oh and ogg / Tuxradar podcast player.

Does no one use a phone to make calls and send texts, any more? (Other than Ram and myself...)

edit: The grammar was terrible...

[Bazza]

Some people are just SOOOOOO paranoid...

I have no problems with FB. It is just a fun site for we oldies...

I use my _public_ Email address instead as I couldn't give a proverbial s**t whether it gets hammered, (with or without a password), or not. It is shown in abundance on the WWW.

My callsign is also public domain so my real home address and some details can be _ripped_ from the WWW! Big Deal...

My old Compuserve all digit Email addy is still active and that can be found on the WWW if you look hard enough; however if you can find my third private email address anywhere in the public domain then I will allow you to post it on here...

Have fun finding it... ;o)

[wyliecoyoteuk]

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT out to get me........

[el chapulín]

Some people are just SOOOOOO paranoid...

Ignorance is never a strong defense. Some people may be paranoid, but many more are extremely gullible and naive...

[M-Saunders]

fakebook is a perfect example of the sheeple effect - "everyone else is doing it so it must be ok"

Not always, no. I'd never been interested in Facebook, but at the start of the year I moved to a different country and spent a few months at a language school. Everyone was on Facebook (not everyone had mobile phones that worked in the country). Just about every social activity was planned on Facebook, and I realised how much I would've missed without it. I've made many good friends and done lots of things thanks to it.

I have no interest in the company and I understand the privacy concerns. There are problems with Facebook. But to flippantly suggest that everyone on there is a "sheep" shows a gross misunderstanding of how humans work.

Computers have gone from being educational and work tools to goggle boxes for idiots to watch TV on, read about celebrities and post inane drivel on "social networking" sites.

Sigh. No they haven't. They haven't "gone" from anything. They're more than ever used as educational and work tools They just happened to be used by more people now, some of whom use them for non-serious stuff which we consider pointless. But these "it's all over" predictions are just ridiculous.

Wikipedia, travel guides, Google Maps, science websites, Khan Academy, astronomy forums... There's more great serious content than ever before out there. There's a lot of crap too, of course, but let's stop with the doom and gloom scenarios

M