MotorMachineMercenar - Slashdot User

Submission + - Google converts links sent via Google Chat to referral links 1

Submitted by MotorMachineMercenar on Tuesday May 21, 2013 @04:13PM

MotorMachineMercenar writes: Google has apparently introduced a new feature to track user behavior in the revamped Google Chat, called Hangouts.

A friend of mine sent me a link, incidentally about an MIT study about the futility of folio hats in blocking the thought police. I use Chrome for Gmail, but being the folio-hat -wearing type, I do all my other browsing in a tightly locked down FF. I copy-pasted the link to FF, and noticed that there was flash of a Google URL before it went to the right URL.

After pasting the link to a note, I noticed it's a Google referral link, similar to the ones most (all?) links on Google search are — in case you weren't aware. So now Google knows who sent what link to whom. The only way around that is to select the entire link, and copy the text.

Now, I'm aware that by definition of me being on a Google platform they implicitly know our conversations. But the fact that they bother to make a referral link means there is even more datamining going on behind the scenes than what we already knew of.

Submission + - Assange denied residence on confidential reasons (thelocal.se)

Submitted by MotorMachineMercenar on Monday October 18, 2010 @04:19PM

MotorMachineMercenar writes: The Local (a Swedish newspaper in English) reports that Julian Assange has been denied residence permit in Sweden. Assange who is a founding member of Wikileaks and Australian citizen applied for residency in August, apparently to gain the freedom of speech protection offered by Swedish laws. When asked about the reasons for the denial, a Swedish official responsible replied, "...secrecy prevails in reference to the grounds for such a decision," essentially meaning the reasons are confidential. Assange has been recently under investigation for sexual molestation charges, which were withdrawn and then re-instated. Wikileaks is expected to release up to 400,000 confidential US military documents in the near future, which would be the largest such leak in US history.

Submission + - Students show dramatic drop in empathy (psychologytoday.com) 1

Submitted by MotorMachineMercenar on Sunday May 30, 2010 @07:07AM

MotorMachineMercenar writes: Several news sources report that today's college students show a precipitous drop in empathy. The study of 14,000 students shows that students since year 2000 had 40% less empathy than those before them, and the article has a laundry list of culprits, from child rearing practices and self-help movement to free market economy and income inequality. There's also a link so you can test your very own level of narcissism. Let's hope slashdot crowd doesn't break the lack of empathy -counter.

Submission + - Travelling with too many chargers

Submitted by MotorMachineMercenar on Thursday November 30, 2006 @01:42PM

MotorMachineMercenar writes: I just took a roadtrip over a long weekend and noticed that I need to lug around too many chargers. I have a charger for my cell phone, Nintendo DS Lite, my two digital cameras and an iPod. Sometimes I will have one for a portable HDD and laptop. In addition I have to carry a plug converter as some of them have been bought overseas. That's up to eight gadgets just to give juice my power-hungry devices, and they take precious space and weight in my bags.

Is there any way to limit the number of chargers without gimping my roadwarrior gear? Most devices have more or less fixed batteries, "smart" chargers and proprietary plugs, but is it possible as DIY or is there an existing product? I'd like to see a universal charger for which plugs for any current and future devices could be added. What are the limitations and caveats with 240 vs 120, wattage, cutting and connecting cables, etc.?

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