Progress

Disclosure: The original pepper spray photo is here. I though the image was too dark in comparison to the 1967 photo above it, so I adjusted some of the mid-range and high-range tones using Levels and Brightness & Contrast in Photoshop. It had the effect of making the spray stand out a bit more. If you want an un-‘shopped image, go to the original.

Surprisingly aggressive marketing from Google

I love all things Google. I really do. If only more companies would follow a “don’t be evil” philosophy. So, it was surprising when I encountered a surprisingly aggressive sign-up strategy for Google Offers, Google’s daily-deal email service (the Google version of Groupon).

I was on the NYT site, and saw this in-body ad:

I was curious, so I clicked on it, which led me to here:

I clicked NO (which I circled red so you can see it easier). I already am signed up to too many of those daily deals. I’m not using them and I’ve been going through the process of un-subbing. So, imagine my surprise five minutes later when I check my inbox.

I didn’t sign up for this. I very clearly clicked on the NO button.

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk this off to a bug, but if it’s not a bug, then shame on somebody. Tisk Tisk.

Your Own Private Dictionary

You know how your computer underlines your misspelled words in red? If you use a word a lot but your dictionary doesn’t know the word, you can stop it from “correcting” you by adding the word to your dictionary by right-clickig it and choosing the “learn” or “add to dictionary” choice.  Your computer will keep a list of these words.

Since no two people will have the same list of words, this strikes me not so much as a fingerprint as it is a bit of personality – part of the computer’s soul; its unique, ongoing  logomachy.

If you have a mac, your list is here:  ~/Library/Spelling   Go check your list out!

I haven’t had my lovely Macbook Pro for very long, so I haven’t added many words to her custom dictionary. My list is short, yet revealing. When I look over my list, every word has meaning to me – some more special than others.

Here are the words I have told my computer to Learn so she stops correcting me:

cunt
douchebag
Drupal
hisnameistimmy
htaccess
kerfluffle
NationBuilder
Ponzi
Shotwell