Being outed by Facebook?

by jbcurio

More privacy headaches for Facebook: gay users outed to advertisers
[Via Ars Technica]

Facebook’s privacy problems continue this week after researchers discovered that Facebook may inadvertently be outing gay users to its advertisers. Saikat Guha from Microsoft and Bin Cheng and Paul Francis from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems set out to study the challenges in targeted advertising systems (PDF) online, but found that advertisers can ferret out gay users from straight users just by looking at who’s clicking—even when that sexual preference is hidden.

The team set up profiles for straight men, straight women, a gay man, and a lesbian to see how the ads differed between the different types of users. The ads did change for the gay and lesbian users, though the difference in the ads was much greater for the gay males (compared to the straight males) than gay females, “indicating that advertisers target more strongly to [gay males]” reads the paper.

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One of the problems with ad-driven operations – unscrupulous people can data mine information that you keep private. Using ads, they could figure out who is gay, even if the Facebook user have not publicly said so. Then, using the ads, they can tie together that information with a Facebook ID, and out the person.

So, almost any information you put on Facebook, even if you keep it private, might be available to the unscrupulous.

This might only change if Facebook actually makes some punitive decisions. But since their real customers include the advertisers, it may not happen. Access of advertisers to this data is why Facebook is worth billions.

Essentially, do not put anything on Facebook that you would not want others to see – because someone is going to know it anyway. But refusing to put important information about yourself lowers the value of Facebook to its advertisers.

And never click on ads – because you are giving people important information about preferences for free. But refusing to do this lowers the value of Facebook to its advertisers.

So, the things that people should do to protect their privacy are actually things that hurt Facebook’s bottom line. Which is why they will not really do anything about these things nor provide real control.

[Listening to: We Used to Wait from the album "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire]

Windows Phone 7 starting out 20 lengths behind

by Kjunstorm

First reviews of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 find it lacking
[Via AppleInsider]

Early reviews of Microsoft’s re-entry into the smartphone operating system market have been impressed with some of Microsoft’s user interface decisions, but see the company as having a long way to go to catch up to Apple’s iPhone.

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When they come out with an OS that does not even effectively compete with what the competition had out 2 years ago, MS sets it self up to have to come from behind by quite a bit. Because their competition is not sitting still at all.

Apple now has an integrated approach to cover all of its offerings from mobile to desktop with one overarching OS:

Apple has created a system where innovations on one form factor can be easily moved into others, whether those innovations are hardware or software. No one else can do this.

How will MS compete with that? How will Google compete with that?

Instead of having separate systems and GUIs for mobile, laptop and desktop, Apple will have a single approach. Google at least has a chance to compete on the mobile space. But it has a system based purely on ads so paid for apps are not a high priority, attracting a different sort of developer than the desktop.

Same as MS. But Apple’s approach can be attractive to developers on any form factor. With relatively short development timelines, they can produce software for any form factor – since the underlying OS is the same.

That is why MS is so far behind. It does not even compete with Google. Its mobile OS sales do nothing to drive greater sales of its hardware because the OSes are completely different. They each inhabit completely different ecosystems.

But not Apple and that is why they will succeed in the end.

Non-condensing greenhouse gases are why we are not a frozen wasteland

by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

How carbon dioxide controls earth’s temperature – NASA’s Lacis: “There is no viable alternative to counteract global warming except through direct human effort to reduce the atmospheric CO2 level.”
[Via Climate Progress]

A study by GISS climate scientists recently published in the journal Science shows that atmospheric CO₂ operates as a thermostat to control the temperature of Earth….

CO₂ is the key atmospheric gas that exerts principal control (80% of the non-condensing GHG forcing) over the strength of the terrestrial greenhouse effect. Water vapor and clouds are fast-acting feedback effects, and as such, they are controlled by the radiative forcing supplied by the non-condensing GHGs….

There is no viable alternative to counteract global warming except through direct human effort to reduce the atmospheric CO₂ level.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has posted three articles on their website explaining two important new studies, “Atmospheric CO₂: Principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature” (subs. req’d) in Science by Andrew Lacis et al. and “The attribution of the present-day total greenhouse effect” (subs. req’d) in JGR by Gavin Schmidt et al. Together they make a terrific tutorial on the critical role human-caused CO2 plays in climate change.

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A lot of nice data that all demonstrates that the key forcings for climate come from GHG such as carbon dioxide. The Science article states:

Ample physical evidence shows that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the single most important climate-relevant greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere.

While water may be a stronger GHG than CO2, it cycles through the system and its condensation can remove it from the atmosphere. It is CO2 and other GHG that moderate the greenhouse effect that keeps the planet warm enough for us to live.

Without the carbon dioxide and other gases, water rapidly condenses out, freezes and completes a cycle that results in a much colder world. Without carbon dioxide, we would not be here. But too much carbon dioxide released by humans enhances this warming effect to the point that it results in increased warming.

“The bottom line is that atmospheric carbon dioxide acts as a thermostat in regulating the temperature of Earth,”

And just as with any thermostat, turning it up increases the temperature.

What happens when there is no middle anymore?

Robots replacing middle class jobs?
[Via Boing Boing]

If the middle class is disappearing, who will do all that work? Robots? That’s the question posed by GOOD editor Andrew Price in his article titled “Automation Insurance.” From GOOD:

Economists will remind you that new technologies create new jobs as they destroy old ones. That’s true. When you have robots, you need robotics engineers. But those aren’t going to be mid-range jobs.

On the low end of the spectrum, we have physical jobs that we can’t automate yet (yard work, for example). On the high end of the spectrum, we have creative and cognitive jobs that we can’t automate yet (law and management, for example). But as technology advances, and it certainly will, more people are going to be elbowed out of the workforce.

We may be heading toward a future with plentiful high-end jobs and plentiful low-end jobs, and not much in the middle.

“Automation Insurance: Robots Are Replacing Middle Class Jobs”

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We are talking about perhaps 1/3 of the people in the US being unemployed if these mid-range jobs disappear. Where will the jobs come from for these people to earn an income? What will they do?

Carrying the install drive on a keychain

New MacBook Air features USB software reinstall drive
[Via AppleInsider]

Rather than relying on an external optical drive or another computer sharing its DVD drive, the new Mac Book Air supplies a solid state reinstallation drive the plugs into the USB port.

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I wonder when everyone else will be doing this?

Five important things to remember in science

[Crossposted at SpreadingScience]

by banspy

Avoid the career virus!
[Via Naturally Selected]

When we come down with flu, we do everything we can to get rid of the virus and get better. But when we come down with mind viruses—or ideas that harm us rather than help us—we often just accept them as “how things are,” doing nothing to counter their damaging effects.

There’s one mind virus, particularly acute these days, we should all pay attention to:

Science is a real struggle. It is a dog eat dog endeavor, and if you aren’t hyper competitive, super smart, and working 80 hours a week, you won’t succeed.

This mind virus was highlighted by the recent case of the postdoc poisoning his colleague’s cell cultures, because he was afraid she might be getting ahead. Not only was the act itself borne of this mind virus, but so were many of the comments following it. “That’s just the way it is in science these days,” was a common refrain in the blogosphere.

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Such ultracompetitiveness often does more harm in science than good. Pushing yourself may help sometimes but viewing everything as a zero-sum game where the only way to move yourself forward is to harm others is not a long-term successful strategy.

Because science is a small world and it gets around when you abuse others. Your brilliance may be enough to overcome the distaste of others but you can find yourself quite alone when you need help the most.

Here are the 5 things Morgan suggests that can help:

1. Learn to live “in the moment” and enjoy every moment. If you’re in the moment, then you’ll realize that you have great power to make things happen. Some people refer to this as “mindfulness.” It works.
2. Don’t focus on what success others are having, or what you haven’t achieved yet. Focus only on your own success and what you want to achieve.
3. Help other people rather than being afraid of them. The more you help others, the more it will come back to help you. his doesn’t mean giving away your results to a competitor—but it does mean helping a lab-mate or a colleague whenever you have the chance.
4. Get enough sleep. Many of us academics think that the only way to get ahead is to spend long hours working, while depriving ourselves of sleep. That’s like driving your car without enough engine oil. You can get away with it for a while, but eventually the engine blows out.
5. Realize that the only thing you can control in your life is what’s in front you, here and now. You can’t control the competition. You can’t control whether your experiments will have the outcome you want. Make the most of what you can control, by doing the right work at the right time—and ignore the rest.

Not only will your life improve, but very likely you will be more productive and a lot happier. Work towards win-win and things will be much better. There can be more than one blackjack at the table.

We have always complained about education in the US

I Agree With Bob Somerby’s Challenge to Ezra Klein & Kevin Drum: Will Progressives Stop Engaging in Willful Ignorance About Education?
[Via Mike the Mad Biologist]

I write about education and educational data a lot, and I’m always struck by the insistence that the U.S. K-12 educational system is DOOMED! This is a staggering display of willful ignorance that rivals creationism (and, arguably, is more pernicious). Without going through the entire backstory (that’s what links are for), some U.S. states–relatively large ones–excel, to the point where they do better than every European country and most Asian countries. These states also do better than expected, given their childhood poverty rates; some cities also do a better than expected job of educating poor children.

Regarding long-term trends, according to the NAEP, African-American students have increased reading test scores by the rough equivalent of three grade levels during the period of 1971-2008:

(from here)

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It is very easy to continue complaining about education – we have apparently been doing it as long as we have had public schools. In 1943, the New York Times was shocked to discover that a large number of college students could not identify who George Washington was – some thought he was President during the War of 1812.

Thomas Jefferson complained about the poor quality of our schools. In the 1880s, politicians suggested that the public school system was so ineffective that it should be abolished. In the 1920s, parents complained about the progressive reforms that provided group activities rather than grammar and drills.

Here we have the point that some states have education numbers higher than most countries, outdoing all European ones. They are doing a great job.

As long as we have some states that are producing some of the best students in the world, we have a hope of being competitive. And even the laggard regions are better today than they used to be.