Collusion: Tracking the Trackers

We all know that we're being tracked on the Internet - almost every site we go to records at least a small amount of information about our visit and a number of sites actively record much more information about our visit and share it amongst themselves. Do we know, however, exactly how many sites are actively tracking us as we trawl through the Internet doing what we normally do at home or at work?

There's an interesting Add-On available for Firefox called Collusion that lets you visualize who's tracking you in real time.  It is quite interesting to leave this open in one window as you go about your normal Internet-based activities and see exactly who's keeping an eye on you throughout the day.  Interesting in quite a creepy and disquieting way, that is.

I first came across Collusion after watching the TED presentation given by Gary Kovacs, CEO Mozilla Corporation.  One of the points Gary made during this presentation was that he was “not even two bites into breakfast, and there are already nearly 25 sites that are tracking me. I have navigated to a total of four.”  I'd recommend you all watch Gary's presentation. :)

We're giving away private and personally identifying information on the Internet all the time that we'd think twice about giving to a random stranger in the street.  What is it that makes it so easy for us to give personal information to a faceless website yet not want to give this to a random stranger we actually meet in person?

Especially where children are involved, the level to which our Internet activities are being tracked is quite concerning.  Aside from this regular user/personal information tracking for the purposes of advertising, our children simply don't comprehend the types of filth that are out there trolling for information on them so it is our job as responsible adults to ensure we protect them from those elements of society that are out to harm them.  When your child types in their birthday, school, sex, sports interests or uploads photos, there are some people out there taking this information so that they can prey on your children - we need to make sure we monitor the information our children are likely to give out *before* they do so and regret it later.

So, please, have a look at this TED presentation and have a look at Collusion to see how many sites are tracking your Internet activity - it will give you some idea how vigilant we need to be to protect our children from any forms of privacy and personal abuse they can receive directly and indirectly through the Internet.

Lifehacker has some more information on Collusion and some things you can do to make the Internet a little more Opt-In than Opt-Out.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Vibrams FiveFingers

OK, so I've known about the Vibrams FiveFingers range (well, some of it) for some time and know a few people who have some and quite like them, but it wasn't until I recently posted in Facebook that my physio recommended that I buy some supportive, anti-pronation shoes to help my recently (2011-10-23) badly sprained ankle that I actually considered buying some.  And if it wasn't for a friend suggesting that I look at them, I'd have totally forgotten about them!

So, as Joanne suggested I take a look at these instead of buying "normal" shoes, I did just that.  And I'm glad I did.  The exclusive Australian distributor for Vibrams products is Barefootinc, and right now they are at the end of a sale on some of their line, so now was a perfect time to make the leap.

I decided to buy a pair of Mocs for around the house, mainly in winter when it *does* get just a little chilly here in Brisbane.  They'll also be great when I'm staying in a hotel somewhere.  I also bought a pair of Sprints to walk in as I need to get back into walking a few afternoons a week to help get rid of a few(1) extra kilos and also to start strengthening my ankle now I can walk on it sans crutches and heavy strapping.

I've been wearing the Mocs for most of the past week since they arrived and find them to be quite nice.  They have a soft, kangaroo leather upper which appeals to me - I eat a lot of roo anyway, so walking around in the carcasses of my conquests seems only fair.  (Please note, I buy my roo pre-packaged in plastic.)  As they are designed exclusively for indoor use - they don't have the same soles as the majority of the Vibrams range - I've been wearing them mainly indoors and also out to the car/bin, but not out on the footpath or road.  I can see these being well used as time goes by...

I only received my Sprints on Thursday and wore them last night when a mate and I went to Nandos for some excellent Portugese chicken (much better than that sub-par Oporto stuff).  I wandered around a bit in them and was pretty happy with the way they seemed to alter my standing/walking posture and also they felt good to walk in.

This evening I took the Sprints for a walk around some fairly flat streets (until my ankle's strong enough, I'm keeping clear of the hills I normally encounter on my walks).  I was quite comfortable walking in them and was impressed with how "natural" they felt when walking.  OK, let me just say that unless I'm on a client site I'm generally always barefooted around home and the office and have been for many, many years.  I don't hate shoes, I just prefer to be barefooted.  So wearing the Sprints when walking felt like I wasn't wearing shoes (which I wasn't in the traditional sense) and really did feel good.

I walked for about 50 minutes and probably about 30 - 35 minutes into the walk I decided to walk on the grass beside the footpath and see how my ankle handled the uneven surface, which has been a HUGE issue over the past few weeks.  Well, I can report that in the Vibrams Sprints, my ankle felt fine - both on the footpath and on the grass/uneven surface.  I even considered walking a bit further but the rain was just starting to fall and I decided that I'd prefer to keep my phone dry and head out again tomorrow.

So, with the way I feel my standing/walking posture improve when wearing these VFF Sprints and the fact that they are extremely comfortable to walk in, I'm now considering a pair of black KSOs a size or so larger so I can wear them with Injinji socks (also from Barefootinc) to replace my normal shoes (Adidas runners that actually feel pretty good for regular shoes) most of the time.


(1) Well, OK, a few more than a few(2)
(2) And maybe a few more than that

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Crank Chiropractor and Crank Power Balance Bracelets

Back on 23rd December, 2010 I blogged about the ACCC finally forcing Power Balance Australia to remove false/misleading claims about any enhancements that their rubber band offers.  Now, I wonder if Matt Bateman - a chiropractor that went on air to state that he saw a 500% increase in the strength of his "patients" who wore this - will now retract this statement that all claimed enhancements of this product have been proved false and have been retracted by Power Balance Australia?

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Power Wristbands A Crock

Now, as hard to believe as it is, a rubber band around your wrist doesn't help your strength, balance nor flexibility (but it does give a healthy increase to the bank balance of the company who were (up until recently) promoting this with false claims.

The ACCC has finally ordered Power Balance Australia to cease marketing its wristbands with any claims of enhancement - Choice spoke to Power Band Australia some time back, but only now have they been forced not only to take down the misleading claims, but to pay back anyone who feels they have been mislead by the totally baseless claims about these rubber bands.

Good to see some sanity creeping into the faux health product market!

(Update: This was just posted on the Gizmodo site.)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Commonwealth Games Conditions

The saddest thing to me is not that pictures like these are finally being seen by the public and the athletes, causing concern for the health and welfare of the athlests, their support staff and the spectators of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, but that construction skills and building standards are this appallingly low in India that despite the numerous public declarations by Indian officials that all is going as planned and that there will be no issues for the teams and their supporters, these Indian officials feel that this level of habitability is acceptable.

It shows the chasm that exists between the First and Third Worlds rather clearly.  What really needs to happen is that India needs to accept that they are in dire need of help in bringing acceptable building, health and living standards to their population.

Hopefully, the slums that were razed to make those attending the Commonwealth Games not be able to easily see the squalor don't result in people thinking that India doesn't have any slums anymore.

Hopefully the photos like those referenced here will help to reinforce to the rest of the world that we need to encourage and help India to raise its standards and help its population.


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Kaseya's SMBiT Professional KPR Day

A big thanks to Tim and Kaseya for sponsoring the Kingston Park Raceway day.  We had around 35 SMBiT Professionals, associates and vendors present, making for a fun day all round.

Congratulations to Brad Clarke (1st), Tory Adams (2nd) and Noel Ervine (3rd) for leading the Top 10 Shoot Out pack at the end of the day, to Radek for the first Black Flag disqualification in the Shootout (shot tyres, he claims) and to Helena from Kaseya for the most spectacular crash of the day - and it was even caught on camera!  :)

Yes, those tyres are about 6' in the air thanks to Helena!  :)

Our Podium - happy lads!  :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Serious Boy Toy

Now, this is a must have boy toy: http://www.flixxy.com/jet-man.htm

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Micro-GPS for Mangled Spines

In a random result from a Google search (well, not random as it had the search terms in it, but not what I was looking for), I found this link. This is a really interesting alternate use of a technology that has become almost commonplace and shows how much thinking outside the box can benefit us.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

World Class Farce

I cannot believe what a complete and utter cock up the umpires and the ICC have made of the World Cup Cricket final between Australia and Sri Lanka.

During the Sri Lankan innings it started raining, this rain then got progressively heavier, yet the umpires didn't make a decision to leave as they could see a clearer patch of sky beyond the clouds. This was a sensible decision - Sri Lanka needed to keep playing to ensure they had a chance to win, had they gone off then, there would have been too many overs lost, along with any chance of Sri Lanka being able to win.

So, as the rain started to ease, the umpires decided to send the teams off the field. Why, I guess, no sane person will ever be able to understand. Aleem Dar and Steve Bucknor had just made the most stupid decision (probably) ever in cricketing history.

Then, when they decided to bring the teams back on, they failed to calculate the new target. Sure, they could work out that 2 overs were lost and correctly subtracted 2 from 38 to get 36, but they couldn't work out how to use the Duckworth Lewis system to calculate the new target and a few balls later, both teams stopped the match to enquire about the new target. Failing to have this corrected, the teams started playing again whilst waiting for the farce to end, which it eventually did.

Or so we thought.

Now, as the light was fading due to the ridiculous waste of time that the umpires caused by the stoppages, the umpires offered the light to the Sri Lankan batsmen on a number of occasions, which they finally took 3 overs before the end of the match. With absolutely no chance of Sri Lanka being able to win and with absolutely no chance of the light improving (as the WCC final ground dows not have lights), everyone had figured - the ground officials included - that Australia had just won the World Cup. Of course, Aleem Dar then chose to point out to Ricky Ponting that this was not the end of the match and that they would need to come back tomorrow to bowl the three remaining overs. The ground staff at this point had already congratulated Australia on the scoreboard and were preparing to set up for the presentations, yet the umpires shooed them off the field, explaining that the match wasn't over.

Mahela Jayawardene then came onto the ground and discussed the options with Ricky Ponting and, instead of making the most obvious decision there was - conceding defeat - he chose to send his batsmen back out to face the final three overs.

At this point, the commentators couldn't distinguish between players on the field. The batsmen had to face spin bowlers for safety - pace bowlers would have been deadly. The cameras couldn't easily focus on the players for the lack of light. Basically, the game should have been over when the players took the offer of bad light.

Despite the "look" on the broadcast, the light was appalling. The cameras and CCU operators were able to enhance the light way beyond was actually available. The true state of affairs, and the true view of what a farce the umpires made of this match, was seen when Stump Cam was shown - there's no way to artificially enhance the image from Stump Cam in the same way as the regular broadcast cameras. It was close to total darkness. Even the enhanced camera images were significantly grainy due to the enhancement artifacts. This was something that never should have been allowed to go on.

The umpires made appalling decisions. The ICC allowed them to do it. Jayawardene had a clear opportunity to stop the stupidity and chose not to do so. The whole thing showed the world how far away from being able to make Cricket a world game the governing body is. It is a shame, but hopefully the ICC will learn from this and take steps to ensure some form of sanity creeps into the rules and the interpretation of the rules.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

England find the right end of the bat

Well, bugger me!

England beat Australia by 93 runs in the One Day match in Sydney today. That's something for the books!

We played poorly - we fielded like the English team and batted pretty much the same. Sure, Roy retired hurt, but regardless of that, we'd not have come that much closer.

England played well - they batted quite well, fielded much more like Australia than we did, bowled well and basically kicked our butts.

I trust this will give the Poms a good shove in the right direction - ie, playing cricket! They haven't done much of that all summer to this point. They did well today and deserved to beat us. I just hope this continues for them. They may keep their houses after all!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

The Death of English Cricket

It may have been back in 1882 that, satirically, it was claimed that English cricket had died, the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia, but it looks like it took until 2006/2007 for English cricket to truly die.

I was there in Brisbane for the first Ashes Test Match. England played like a team who didn't understand the game and didn't really care if they won. I watched with interest the remaining Ashes Test games and England really didn't have a better attitude or prospect for the remaining four games. Sure, in Adelaide they had a chance to win and a great chance to draw, but on Day 5 they utterly decimated their chances by abysmal gameplay.

Then we played them in a Twenty 20 match that we'd probably have had a better competition playing a preschool teachers' team.

And now with the One Day Series, England is simply disgraceful. In the game currently underway, England were all out for 110 runs after less than 34 overs (in a 50 over match) and Brett Lee has bowling figures of 8 overs, 2 maidens, 2 wickets for 8 runs. I'm sure if he bowled against a team of comatose (or completely maggot drunk) players he'd have worse figures.

The English Captain, selectors and players have put in the worst ever effort in English cricketing history. They almost deserve to forfeit their remaining games, refund the Barmy Army's tickets, flights and accomodation and go home with their tails between their legs. The problem is that they may very well not have a home to return to - I'm sure that the English authorities are seriously considering revoking their Visas and resuming the land their houses are on and turning them into memorial parks.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie