Bleadof's world of tinkering

Thoughts on Facebook privacy

Bleadof — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:19:13 +0000

I think the most important difference between for example Twitter and Facebook is that in Facebook people share more personal things compared to Twitter. Also in Twitter a lot of people are behind a nickname where as in Facebook people are actually using their own name and it’s shown everywhere. I don’t mind that my followers for example in Twitter are public since it works with a nickname and the if you want to share your full name you’re more than entitled to do so. Where as in Facebook it guides you to share your full name and makes it thus easier to connect that data to you than in Twitter. This fundamental difference, as far as I’m concerned, has always been more of pain point than anything else.

Now that the privacy settings have been made more clearer, it still doesn’t really mean that people will understand why to use them. As the privacy isn’t just about the technology but awareness of people. I still think that part of people don’t really understand why it’s important to have the privacy features or what is really good to share. I’m sad to say that at the moment I’m not still all convinced that defaults in Facebook privacy settings are all quite OK. I wouldn’t want to undermine people and say that they won’t get why privacy is important but I’m afraid that’s what is going to happen.

Most of my Facebook friends aren’t really my friends but more like acquaintances. You still add them there because you don’t want to be rude and you might want to get to know them. Do I really want them to see all the things I want my close friends to see? No, I don’t. I know how to manage that, but can the average Joe do it? I think not. He won’t probably even care until something bad happens.

This isn’t of course only issue with Facebook. It applies generally to internet privacy and I don’t have a clear solution for this. I wouldn’t mind though if the default privacy settings would be more stricter.

I wrote this first as a comment to a Facebook and Privacy: It’s Time to Move On article/.

Riverside 28.11.2009 at Tanssisali Lutakko, Jyväskylä, Finland

Bleadof — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:56:16 +0000

I just came from the Riverside gig held at Lutakko, Jyväskylä and wanted to share my feelings about it.

As I had never heard their new album I was quite anxious and a bit on my toes because I usually like to check out the bands material beforehand. I picked on a vibe that the rest of the audience was the waiting side as well, because apparently not many, maybe even any, had seen them before. Luckily that wasn’t a problem at all.

They started with some old songs, I’d name them if I’d remember which were they, but I don’t. Anyway, it set the mood right and sucked me in. The vocalist, Mariusz Duda, was a nice chap and kept chatting to the crowd between the songs. After the first piece he announced that they were not here to play songs but compositions and that they’d play the whole new album. Crowd cheered and I felt sting but forgot it after the first composition started to build up. I was tapping on myself, waving, enjoying it. There on I didn’t really loose touch to the music, I was living and solely concentrating on it with my way of course, tapping and “drumming”.

There were highs and lows. The music took paths that seemed familiar but felt still right and weren’t too familiar. I didn’t feel lost at all with the new album and I was just able to enjoy it and the gig. There were short pauses between some songs as Duda was trying to interact with the crowd, apparently trying to probe the mood. I don’t know the impression he got but I felt that others were enjoying too although I didn’t really connect with anything but the music. I couldn’t because I was too busy admiring the way it flowed, progressed and felt.

The drumming being the key aspects of my enjoyment, there was quite enough hooks and technicality in it that kept me awed, but again didn’t loose me. I would not have changed hardly anything.

The new album finished, I only knew it because I could actually recognize the melody again and I suspect that Dura might’ve said it. I knew that the end was near but didn’t want it break the spell so I concentrated on jamming along. Then it came, the last song, encore and the end. I was left wanting more, so I bought the new album which came with 2008 live DVD. Again I was but mere mortal but for a while I was just living through music.

Thank you Riverside for cheering me up and providing me with a amazing experience.

Miranda that ghost just isn’t

Bleadof — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:48:04 +0000

I seem to blog only when there’s a meme. Maybe it’s because I don’t really have anything to say but I find these memes amusing… This one I saw in Facebook.

Put your iTunes/Napster/Zune Player/WinAmp/etc on shuffle.
For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
Tag 10 or more friends who might enjoy doing this as well as the person you got it from.

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?: Russia on Ice – Porcupine Tree
WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?: San Tropez – Pink Floyd
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?: Don’t fear the reaper – Apollo 440
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?: Roy’s Keen – Morrissey
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?: Kohtaaminen – Ultra Bra
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?: Inertiatic Esp – The Mars Volta
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?: Shine on me – Kingston Wall
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?: A forest – Nouvelle Vague
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?: When the sun goes down – Arctic Monkeys
WHAT IS 2+2?: Transport is arranged – Pavement
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?: Monochrome – Dominique A – C’était ici
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?: Planet – Kemopetrol
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?: Monochrome – Dominique A – Le Phare
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?: ﬂversögn – Sigur Rós
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?: Textures – Robert Miles
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?: Two minute warning – Depeche Mode
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?: Bang bang – Nancy Sinatra
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?: Ei – Maija Vilkkumaa
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?: Vuokralainen – Zen Café
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?: Nobody home – Pink Floyd
WHATS THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?: Winter – Coney Island Low – Clint Mansell
HOW WILL YOU DIE?: Starman – David Bowie
WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?: Come here boy – Imogen Heap
WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?: The slow drug – PJ Harvey
WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?: Wednesday – Tori Amos
WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?: Vähän ennen – Maija Vilkkumaa
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?: Bildungsrock – Tommi Liimatta
DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?: Näkyvän valon olennot – CMX
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?: Satellite – Depeche Mode
WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?: Cowboys – Portishead
WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?: Miranda that ghost just isn’t – The Mars Volta

Book meme (nearest book, page 56, 5th sentence)

Bleadof — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:28:52 +0000

Book meme seen on Planet Gnome by Sebastian Pölsterl, Karl Lattimer and Mark Doffman.

Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

For example, many implementations of CORBA do not contain a security service at all.

Quote is from chapter which tells about different distributed object platforms and what things to consider when choosing one. It is from the “Building Secure Software: How to avoid security problems the right way” by John Viega and Gary McGraw. I’ve been reading for my thesis and it was just few centimeters from my right hand.

AT&T x86 assembly instruction reference

Bleadof — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:22:39 +0000

The juice of this blog post is here: AT&T x86 assembly instruction reference can be found in the Appendix B. with the the title “Common x86 Instructions” from Programming from the Ground Up by Bartlett, J.

The actual process how I came about finding this bit of info was when I was reading Building Secure Software by Viega, J and McGraw, G in towards efforts of finishing my bachelor and master thesis on “Common faults in software which lead to a vulnerability”. The book is a brilliant as an entry level book for everyone working on software development and trying to think more securely when programming. Although hopefully my master’s thesis will serve this entry level of thinking secure while programming as well. Anyway, I was reading the BSS book and on the Stack Overflows chapter there’s this part where you’re told to use the gcc with -S flag to compile the C code to Assembly language and tweak it. So to be able to tweak it I wanted to understand what were the instructions in the Assembly language. I googled a bit to find AT&T instructions and that didn’t give me much until I finally found a question on comp.lang.asm.x86 news group which said that one would be in the Programming from the Ground Up book and there it was.

Podcasts

Bleadof — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:33:02 +0000

I know that podcasts have been around for quite some time already but it’s just recently I’ve really started to listen more than one podcast. Because the podcasts I listen are pretty neat I just wanted to point them out to people who might read my blog. So I composed a list!

Podcasts

Entertainment

SModcast: SModcast is a podcast from Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.
Rogues’ Gallery: It’s a progressive rock radio which is streamed live on Friday morning here in Finland. Frans Keylard is the host of the show and he plays mainly new progressive rock and occationally few wishes the listeners have submitted. You can interact with Frans during the show in IRC by coming to server irc.thedividingline.com:6667 on channel #dividingline.

Information technology

Software engineering radio: It’s a podcast where couple of German dudes interview people and talk about subjects in software engineering. They have some brilliant stuff there. I’ve started listening it just a while and I’ve picked up so much about different things that it’s amazing. Beats easily most of the lectures I’ve been to!
The Java Posse: It’s a podcast where Tor Norbye (Sun Microsystems), Carl Quinn (Google), Dick Wall (Google), Joe Nuxoll (Navigenics) talk about what’s happening in the Java community. Another one of those podcasts which I haven’t yet had really time to listen much but I will in the future.

Security

Silver Bullet Security Show: Is a podcast done by Gary McGraw and is sponsored by IEEE Security & Privacy. Gary interviews people from the field of security. I haven’t yet really started listening this, but it’s worth of mentioning.
Security Now!: Is a podcast done by people from Gibson Research Corporation. They talk about security in information technology. Another one of those podcasts I haven’t really had time to focus but I will in the future.

iSync not launching on Leopard 10.5.3.

Bleadof — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:51:11 +0000

I had a problem for a while that I couldn’t launch iSync normally from /Applications, but it did still did work launching it from /Applications/iSync.app/Contents/MacOS/iSync . I knew this must be an issue for someone else as well so a little digging got me the anwser from the Apple Support discussion with title “iSync won’t open in 10.5.3.”.

Fix iSync launching problem

Drag iSync from Applications to Desktop.
Drag it back to Applications.
Try launching it normally.

Great Assembler programming book

Bleadof — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:02:47 +0000

I found this brilliantly written Assembler, which I’m reading for my thesis, book online a while back already but I thought it might worth mentioning now. It’s called “PC Assembly Language” and its author is Paul A. Carter. It can be downloaded in PDF and PostScript so I suppose most of the people can read it. I don’t about the accessibility of a PDF or PS so I won’t say everyone can read it, but the text itself is very clear and easy to understand. It also offers good examples. I think it’s a bit sad that it’s written in Intel syntax, but I suppose that’s unavoidable. I’ve been reading mostly AT&T syntax which is a bit different, but you get used to Intel syntax fairly fast.

Now I’m off to a meeting…

Get me a job from Rovaniemi for the Summer, pleeeeease!

Bleadof — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:58:00 +0000

Why, oh why, is it so hard to get a job from Rovaniemi? I can’t believe my current luck with the companies there. They’re either in need of proper employees, who want to stay there but not in need for summer employees. What’s up with that? Boring I say!

Please someone who knows about something about the work possibilities for skilled software developer please point me to a some direction! Here’s my CV. Please find me a job!

Ei nimi miestä pahenna, jos ei mies nimeä…

Bleadof — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:40:16 +0000

To explain the title to non-Finnish speaking it translate something to: “The name won’t worsen the man if the man won’t worsen the name.”.

Another page has turned in my life! I’m now Tarmo Aidantausta and not Tarmo Friman anymore… It’s kind of weird, but then again it feels good at the same time. The reason why I changed my surname is that Aidantausta is a really rare surname and at the moment I’m the only male in our generation. It’s my mothers maiden name and because I’ve been raised by my mother, it just felt natural.

My parents divorced when I was something like three or so and I’ve never really got to know my biological father while I was still bearing his name. I don’t think that there’s really anything wrong with the name Friman but I guess Aidantausta is more the family I belong to. My grandparents and my few aunts are the only proper link in my fathers family I really keep in touch. Not to petty their impact on my life but more to embrace my mothers side of my family. I admire my inheritance also from the Friman family but come on Aidantausta-Friman is really far fetched. Besides it’s way cooler to have a surname which has ever had 36 members (me included)! Aidantausta is also more Finnish because Friman is actually Swedish and means free man. Of course having a Swedish name in Finland is very common since we were indeed once under their dominion.

Anyhow… I know it’s been a while (like two years now) since I’ve written anything and it kind of feels odd to blog again but I suppose I’ll get used to it. Now I had something to say and maybe I’ll have more to say while I’m writing my thesis which is about: “The common programming mistakes which lead to a security hole”. The title is still in draft phase but I suppose most of you get the drift of the subject. I still have almost two months before I have to deliver but I’m in a big hurry so we’ll see how it goes. I hope I have more to write soon…