cshen.ca

Today I stumbled by chance across a Facebook flaw, which will show you all the guests of an event, even if the event creator unchecked “Show the guest list.”

It’s pretty simple, actually. To use a random example, I’ll demonstrate with the “University Relations Officer” event.

As you can see, the guest list for this event is hidden.

But that doesn’t stop us from seeing the guest list. Just click “Invite People to Come”.

Use the drop-down box at the top to show guests which might be attending, not attending, and have not yet replied.

Try it yourself!

Apparently SFU is running its own experimental blogging service, complete with an SFU theme. According to the description (and later verified by myself), it’s using the same software that WordPress.com uses to host multiple users, and can apparently disappear at any time. Also according to descriptions, there’s supposed to be a university-wide blogging service in the making. How come I never heard of any of this before? The service.

The fight against Turnitin.com is certainly easier if more students are aware of the issues and support the cause, this is why I wrote a 2000 word Peak article detailing the copyright and privacy issues as I know it. Wonder how many people will actually read it.

The Peak removed all the references from the article, so quotes are not properly attributed, or even attributed at all. Considering these were in-text references as opposed to footnotes (which I was told they won’t print), I’m kind of disappointed that they were not printed.

The article: The Peak | Original referenced draft

On the subject of religion, tragic events are often brought up. The religious use tragic events to support the claim that god loves you and will help you solve problems. A large list may be enumerated of people who after having suffered a tragic event turned to god for consolation and strength. On the other hand, the non-religious use tragic events to support the claim that god either hates you, don’t care, or is simply inept at his job. A large list may also be enumerated of people who shed their convictions as a result of tragic events, because surely god wouldn’t permit such horrible things to occur. The religious might counter this with a variety of possible arguments, all of which are open to further counter arguments, and so on. So what’s actually the case? Why do tragic events sometime convert people, and sometimes deconvert people?

We all know that Facebook has not had the best track record in the privacy department, with employees viewing profiles for fun, showing your profile to an employer, and having reserved the right to use your information at will. But apparently a new feature goes beyond all that, and actually collects information about your activity on other websites.

The new feature is the Facebook Beacon, you may have noticed it on your feed, something of the form “Jane Doe has played Pacman at Retroarcade”. If you have played a game at any website that uses the Beacon, you would have seen a Facebook-style pop-up at the bottom right corner of the screen, telling you that it is sending the information [of what your playing] to your Facebook profile. As with most Facebook features, there is, of course, a privacy option on it.

But that, apparently, isn’t enough.