Egg on Your Facebook

Zuckerberg Apologizes, Allows Facebook Users to Evade Beacon after just last week saying they wouldn't make it an opt-in deal.

I've had and still have serious issues with Facebook and, as a result, will never use the site for any reason whatsoever. Carefully read the Terms of Use and you will realize that you are signing over the rights to your words and images forever. No, I'm not kidding and neither are they. Use the site and you are granting them permanent use and derivative use of your words and images. Which is, of course, insane.

The latest stupidity is trying to monetize their massive user base by broadcasting purchases at affiliated sites. And there was no way to turn off the "feature" until this week when massive protests made it crystal clear that it was a patently stupid idea.

I'm not a social networking person really. I like my social groups, I enjoy my online and offline communities but I don't live for them. And, I guess, that's part of the reason why I find it easy to avoid crap like MySpace and Facebook, they don't really offer anything to me that I need.

Oh yeah, there's also the hypocrisy aspect where Mark Zuckerberg wants to have an article about him possibly stealing the concept for Facebook from fellow students at Harvard. Funny how people don't mind exposing other people's dirty laundry but get all lawyered up when their own dirty tricks get aired out.

I have no interest in handing over any of my rights to a hypocrite like Mark Zuckerberg.

How an Oopsie Can Protect Your Data While Travelling

Did you know all new US Passports being issued have an always-on RFID chip embedded in them? Do you know what that means?

It means you are, effectively, walking around broadcasting your full name, address, social security number and all of the countries you've recently visited.

Why is this a problem? Because that info is, essentially, floating around you in a cloud of personally revealing and dangerous info. And a thief can, very easily, scan that info, save it and then use it or sell it to identity thieves.

But there's a solution. From Wired Magazine:

All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats. Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you can do about it. But be careful – tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison. Not to mention the “special” customs search, with rubber gloves. Bon voyage!

1) RFID-tagged passports have a distinctive logo on the front cover; the chip is embedded in the back.

2) Sorry, “accidentally” leaving your passport in the jeans you just put in the washer won’t work. You’re more likely to ruin the passport itself than the chip.

3) Forget about nuking it in the microwave – the chip could burst into flames, leaving telltale scorch marks. Besides, have you ever smelled burnt passport?

4) The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the passport, so you can still use it.

That's right, folks, it is Hammer-Time!