Apathy Sketchpad

I can’t help shake the feeling this would make a great T-shirt. (Or at least my hi-res version would.)

A bit ago, Randall changed the design of xkcd.com and in doing so very inconsiderately broke my xkcd Wallpaper Randomiser. Well, now I’ve updated it, so if you used to use it then you can download the new version and use it once more.

As before, the source code is available, so you can see just how little has changed and just how easily you could have done this yourselves, you lazy bottoms.

I am posting here to alert you to two shiny new websites. The first you may already be aware of.

Jump Leads is Ben Paddon’s new project. Well, I say “new”. Actually it’s about a year old now, but it’s just starting to really Go Places. He’s had the concept for a year or so, and he’s been writing it for about as long, but only recently has he found an artist to draw the actual comic. So the website will launch on the 6th. There are a few ‘episodes’ written, each of which will update one page at a time like a comic syndicated in a newspaper. These have been written variously by Ben, Euan and myself. I hear Friz is also officially on the list but hasn’t actually finished anything yet.

The second website is Channel Flip, which is Friz’ new project. (I have refrained from linking to Friz’ website since it appears to have turned into pornography, presumably after he let the domain lapse.) It describes itself as a satirical TV blog. It has updates from Friz, Paul, someone called Joey and myself. It updates rather more, and officially launches on last Friday.

As well as these, you can (hopefully) still cee me here and on RealVG. I just can’t stop blogging.

I can’t be bothered digging out the old template and doing it on the mouse. I’d much rather draw it and scan it. If it doesn’t fit with the others, screw it, why should it?

Earlier today I went to the pub to meet a friend. I was a few minutes late, but he’d said he’d perhaps be “a bit late”. He turned up fully one hour late, to the wrong pub, and then texted my housemate, whom he hadn’t invited, to explain this. After I’d left. Having assumed I wasn’t going to have finished having dinner yet.

I looked up the lyrics on a website just to be sure. And it had Google ads, which offered to sell me almost all the items I’d lost. How lovely, in a misguided kind of a way.

A while ago I was bullied into joining Facebook. And I’m glad I did, because it’s fantastic.

Facebook, for those who aren’t members, is a “social networking” site. You make a page for yourself, then you add friends to your list. In that sense, it’s just like MySpace, but the difference is that MySpace is shit and Facebook is fantastic. MySpace gives you a little page to write on and a way to send messages, and a contact list, and that really is it. That’s just called “the Internet”. Google give me all that, with nicer layouts, and don’t try to play Slipknot at me every time I visit a page.

Facebook is more for Real Life Friends. If you tell Facebook you’ve got a new girlfriend then it’ll tell all your friends for you. And you can put your address and phone number on it and be sure only your friends can see them. It’s very useful, and it’s been great for my social life because I get invited to more things through Facebook. Mostly I think this is because it gives you a list of all your friends when you make an event and lets you choose who to invite. My last party I invited people I’d never have thought (or been able) to invite without it, and consequently had a fantastic time.

Some people say Facebook is a privacy concern. Some people are idiots. They’re mostly the same people who say Google are a privacy concern. (Not really sure why I’m hyperlinking Google, but it seems polite since I did MySpace and I hate them.)

I can see why people might be concerned about Google. They have all my emails, via Google Mail. Doubtless these contain my address, bank details and so forth somewhere. (They know my bank details anyway because I use AdWords, but let’s pretend I don’t.) They also know what things I’ve been searching for, my favourite websites (via Google Reader), my web history (if not by Google Web History then by AdWords tracking cookies), and so forth. And that concerns people.

I’ve never understood the problem with tracking cookies. They don’t know who you are; they just know that this particular computer has visited website A and website B, and if that lets them know that the person sat in front of it is more likely to want product A than product X then that’s good, surely? It means I’m more likely to see adverts for things I want, which is good for me as it lets me know about awesome things I might want to buy, and it’s good for the advertisers as it means they get more clicks, and it’s good for me as it means I have to see fewer adverts to keep my favourite sites in profit. Everyone wins, and nobody has any significant privacy concerns.

And sure, Google index all my emails, but all email providers do that. And sure, a computer scans them for advert-inspiring words, but it’s a computer. It can’t read; it just executes its little programme. The only valid concerns with any of Google’s services are what happens if they get hacked, and that they have the capability, just like all search engines, browser plugins, ISPs and email providers, to monitor your Internet use. But really, don’t you think they have better things to do than spy on strangers?

Much the same is true of Facebook. People say it’s creepy having all that information about yourself on the Internet, but it’s not really “on the Internet”, is it? It’s on one server, which nobody can access without your express permission. And Facebook only knows what you tell it, and only shares what you let it. If you know what you’re doing with Facebook then it’s of no concern, and if you don’t know what you’re doing with something, learn before you use it.