Arranged Delirium

I’ve been telling myself to leave Facebook for months now. I never have time to log one - maybe once a month - and I have these feelings of selfishness as a result: like I’m not giving anything back to my community of friends. You see, I might log in monthly to see what folks are doing; but I never really update my profile or offer anything in return. So, it feels like another thing I need to get to, and never really can (i.e. fail).

Sounds like a personal problem? I suppose, and it doesn’t really bother me, but I wonder if I need yet another online social responsibility? A simpler life is definitely what I’m after…

And I’m not the only one thinking such things. The Courier Post recently ran an article discussing the idea and the trend of leaving these online communities. Give it a read. What do you think?

PS: I can across Julian Smith’s 25 things I hate about Facebook again while reading, so I’m linking to it here:

I’ve been slow to the Google Chrome experience. Primarily, because I use web technology a lot which means that I need my primary browser to work very effectively and very reliably. Of course, I’m always testing out various flavors of browsers, but making a switch is typically a big deal for me.

I almost considered making the switch to Chrome, which is a fine browser, but in the end I decided to stick with Safari, because it simply works better for me. But I’m also a huge fan of Firefox - and typically, that is what I recommend to others. Flash and javascript issues have kept me with Safari.

But this post isn’t about that.

What I’m actually writing about are the privacy concerns that many have raised with the Chrome browser. In part because they are valid concerns that everyone should be thinking about as the cruise the web, but also because they tend to be issues that affect most browsers and not just Chrome. There’s a great article/thread at this blog, which lays out most of the basics (though the screen shots are out of date). Of course, if it is really a concern for you, there are always ways around it including running a version based on the open-source Chromium. But in the end, and given my recent frustration due to Google Buzz, I’ve decided to just avoid it. Without any compelling need for any specific feature, there’s really no reason to use it…

David Pogue has written a piece on Google Buzz. He refers to my earlier privacy concerns as “paranoia” which just clearly indicates that he doesn’t get it; but in his defense Google has already addressed most of the issues that infuriated me. (I’m still killing my Gmail account though.)

But Pogue does a very good job of articulating the myriad of problems regarding the service. Its worth reading…

I’ve been using Gmail since it was a private beta. It’s basically been my most heavily used email account aside from my college account. In those early days of Gmail there were a number of folks ranting about privacy concerns since Gmail effectively maintains an index of all your messages. I never really cared too much because I don’t really conduct a lot of private discourse via email and I didn’t think there was anything there that I cared about others accessing.

I’ve been annoyed though by Google Buzz. In part, I was annoyed because I didn’t even know about it - these “social features” were simply added to my Gmail account. One reason I didn’t know about though, is because I never check my Gmail account via a web browser - I just use a separate email client because I have multiple accounts I’m checking all the time and its easier to do in one place. My major criticism is with the Buzz features that are enabled by default. I think these significantly impinge upon my privacy, and I think it should be my choice to enter into the Buzz. In essence, before you could change your settings settings, someone could see the people you most frequently email (or chat with). I know I don’t really have any privacy on Facebook, but I’ve always thought of my email as relatively private. Secondly (and an annoyance more than a privacy concern), the overall noise generated by this tool is too great and simply creates more unnecessary information to cull through. Its useless like Twitter.

In Google’s defense, they have made some immediate changes - and fast. But I expect such amateur behavior from Facebook - not from Google. Google is smart enough to have known better before implementing. Here’s a decent article from Silicon Alley Insider that has been following the story as it develops. Here’s a link to an update that covers the changes Google has made. The timeline toward the ned is helpful in learning how the story developed.

So am I abandoning all Google services? No - there are still many Google tools that work for me. Nonetheless, Buzz makes my Gmail account one more thing that I need to worry about in terms of maintenance. So, Goodbye Gmail. I didn’t really need you anyway…

As I continue to reflect on our computer game course from last month, I’ve also continued to work a bit with GameSalad a tool designed to help you develop iPhone games, without taking the time to program them exclusively with Objective-C. Conveniently, Creative Mac has recently published a short review.

In some ways, it similar to AppMakr and it’s ilk of programming assistants, but GameSalad is much more robust. Most of the tools like AppMakr, simply coalesce RSS feeds into one convenient tool and let you change up some text and add some images. I could easily make a SamFee app for the iPhone with AppMakr, but then again, why? GameSalad on the other hand, would actually let me make a decent game. Now, if I only had a creative idea…