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Debbie Ridpath Ohi reads, writes and illustrates for young people.

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Entries from April 8, 2007 - April 14, 2007

Wednesday
Apr112007

Stars Fall Home





Above: Beckett Gladney's gorgeous cover for Seanan McGuire's new CD, Stars Fall Home. I played flute on one of the tracks, Dorothy, which focuses on the heroine of Wizard of Oz. Great song and gorgeous harmonies!

I was also tickled to discover that Seanan had drawn illustrations of all the musical guests; you can see mine to the right. In addition to myself, guest performers include: Paul Kwinn, Michelle Dockrey, Tony Fabris, Amy McNally, Kristoph Klover, Alisa Garcia, Luis Garcia, Margaret Davis, Deirdre McCarthy, Kris Yenney, Beckett Gladney, Arlene Hills, Mich Sampson, Mike Whitaker, Jeff Bohnhoff, Maya Bohnhoff, Erica Neely, and Merav Hoffman.

You can find out more about Seanan's new CD on this page, and you can pre-order your copy for $15 here! I am SO looking forward to getting my copy.

Will Write For Chocolate


Will Write For Chocolate has been updated (click image above to see a bigger version). This week's topic: Why do YOU read blogs? Click here to read the post and answer the survey.

Sib as Gimli


The new and improved Filk FAQ has been updated. I've been gradually moving the site over to a new server as well as converting it to Wordpress format. Current survey: Stage etiquette tips for performers. Respondents' answers will be integrated into the FAQ.



Photo by Allison.


Video O' The Day



And now I'm going to try embedding my first YouTube movie. I first met Acacia Sears in a filk circle years ago, and was blown away by her voice and the energy she put into her performances. Her first album with Sleepy Records recently debuted: Dialtones ($12). I bought my copy a while back before she signed with Sleepy Records; one of my favourites is "George's Tongue" (words by Neil Gaiman).

You can hear a few of her songs on her MySpace page (which includes a recording of George's Tongue, yay!). The song below is a video of one of Acacia's original songs, "Autumn."







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Tuesday
Apr102007

Sitemeter follow-up

iPood tshirt!


Today's photos were taken at a small gathering at my friends Reid's and Luisa's place in honour of a visit from William and Mona; some of you may recall my Blather about William giving us a tour of Google.

Sitemeter has finally come out and responded to allegations about its partnership with Specific Media. It says that the specificclick.net cookie is NOT spyware and says that it can't help the fact that anti-spyware software companies incorrectly mark it as such.

It's a good response (considering the circumstances), but the timing is unfortunate; it would have been wiser to keep its users informed from the beginning, or at least responded immediately when its users began wondering what was going on.

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As I said in yesterday's Blatherings, it was the breach of trust that is prompting me to seek other means of keep track of my stats, not necessarily the fact that Sitemeter has partnered with Specific Media. It would have been different if Sitemeter had sent out an e-mail or at least put up a post, warning its users what it was about to do, giving us the option of not using the cookie from the beginning, and explaining the reason behind its changes.

Instead, it started beta testing a third-party cookie without letting users know. This was bad for several reasons.

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1. Many people (including myself) are already feeling cranky about being bombarded with things online that we don't want, like spam and annoying pop-up ads. Sometimes I feel as if I'm trying to walk down a street to visit friends, but strangers are aggressively shoving flyers in my face the entire way, and occasionally hurling ticking packages at me as well.

2. As annoying as the above scenario sounds, it's even MORE annoying when one of those people (whom I had considered a trusted acquaintance) slips a package into my pocket when I'm not looking, a package that they got from someone I don't know.

3. And BEYOND annoying when I discover that when I visit people I know (or rather when any friends visit me), the secret package spawns other packages that secretly slip into the pockets of my friends and collects info about them without their knowledge.



Photo by John Chew.


But enough with the analogy; you get the picture. I wish Sitemeter luck, but I'm off to check out other stats tracking possibilities. Right now I'm testing out Statcounter and Mint.

Statcounter gives great info, but I think will be too pricey for me. There's a free version, but it's limited to a log size of 100. The cheapest tier is US$9/month; this doesn't sound like much, but it's more than I can justify spending on my hobby blogs. I'm also trying Mint, which costs US$30/site (one-time fee); I'm trying it out for Inkygirl. The user interface is gorgeous (yes, I'm a sucker for that), and there's lots of well-presented info with easy implemented add-ons that remind me of Wordpress Plugin functionality. I'll post a more detailed review in an upcoming Blatherings.

Other solutions people have suggested so far:

Analog
Webalizer
AWstats
GoStats.com


Google pen


Links o' the Day



Pearls before Breakfast: an experiment in which a world-famous violinist masquerades as a street musician. Fascinating and sad at the same time. Thanks to Julie Duffy for the link!

How blogging can help you get a new job (Wall Street Journal article)

What happened when my friend Reid let me Twitter for him (heh)

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Monday
Apr092007

Sitemeter.com, spyware cookies, and bad PR

Sitemeter joins the Dark Side?


Many of you use a service called Sitemeter to monitor your traffic; I do, or at least I used to. According to this post, the service is allowing a third-party spyware firm to plant cookies on their customers' Web site visitors. The company was also apparently unwilling to respond to allegations, but did admit to at least one user that they have been beta testing a third-party cookie.

An excerpt from Geek News Central: "It has become obvious to me that the people behind Sitemeter are unwilling to respond to the allegations that a significant number of people have brought forth on their planting of third party cookies on their customers website visitors. I have sent an e-mail every day since this story broke asking them to respond to the charges that have been levelled against them. It is in my personal opinion that people need to run as fast as they can away from this service."

I have removed the Sitemeter counter from Blatherings, Inkygirl, and my Filk FAQ, will be removing it from my other blogs as well. I'm disappointed because I have been using Sitemeter's service for several years and been happy with it up to now, and also just bought an upgraded account for Inkygirl.

Sitemeter had every right to partner with anyone they wished, of course. Their biggest mistake, however, was not informing their customers what was going on; their privacy policy hadn't even been updated by the time the changes were made -- third-party cookies were already being sent out through customer sites without people's knowledge. Their second biggest mistake (which may prove fatal to the company) is not responding IMMEDIATELY to accusations. Instead, they've shut down comments-posting capability in their official blog.

Even if Sitemeter somehow manages to pull itself out of this mess, I have chosen to remove Sitemeter from my blogs because:

1. That little multi-coloured logo is no longer going to be a relatively neutral addition to sites; many are going to associate it with spyware, and may actively avoid sites that display it.

2. I no longer trust the company.

And now I'm looking for another online stats service. Any suggestions?

----------

UPDATE:

It seems that the cookie-placing firm had also approached another stats company called StatCounter, but they said no, so I might check them out. Also, a word of caution: since you probably have visited more than one site recently which uses SiteMeter, you may have more than once instance of the specificclick cookie in your cookie list to delete. In Firefox, I accessed my cookie list by going to Preferences - Privacy - Cookies, then clicked on 'View Cookies.'

Additional info:

- Betrayal of Trust: Is Sitemeter.com planting 3rd party cookie?

SiteMeter and Spyware (sort of): "While this is not true spyware per se - there is not physical software installed, nevertheless it is a tracking cookie which is being installed without permission."

- Wikipedia entry on 'cookies' (see info under "Privacy and third-party cookies")

Spyware Cookies: "A spyware cookie is any cookie that crosses the line from helpful to intrusive. Spyware cookies are not interested in making your surfing experience better; the sole interest is to gather free marketing data to promote a sale of a product or service."


- How to control cookies and How to delete cookies from AboutCookies.org.




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