Sitemeter follow-up

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.




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.



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

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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Sitemeter.com, spyware cookies, and bad PR

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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A ragtag punitive fleet...

Thanks to mainly to Jeff's efforts, our solarium is now free of moving boxes! Now we have to figure out what to do with that room. Helpful suggestions from friends have ranged from a mini-greenhouse to a cottage-y reading room to installing a hot tub. We're both leaning toward a reading room with some houseplants; the small room gets a great deal of light, though it's chilly in the winter.

Speaking of winter, where did spring go?!?



Anyway, one of the boxes we unpacked contained some old books from my childhood, like the Battlestar Galactica Photostory pictured at the top of this page. This memorable piece of literature dates back to 1979, and was based on the original Battlestar Galactica movie in which Lorne Greene played Adama, Dirk Benedict was Starbuck, and Richard Hatch was Apollo.

Hey, and that's an excuse for me to re-post a great photo that Gary Ehrlich took of me jamming with Richard Hatch at Marcon about five years ago!



That's Richard Hatch on the left; he now plays Tom Zarek on the new Battlestar series. A fellow named David is in the middle and I'm on the right. I never had a chance to chat with Richard but Rand tells me he's a nice guy, easygoing and approachable.



Does anyone out there remember the original Battlestar Galactica movie and series? I used to watch the series on television in my childhood, but I seem to recall I lost interest somewhere near the end. I tried watching Galactica 1980 but hated it.



My brother, sister and I were all big fans of the original movie and series. When I browsed the first page of the photostory book, I realized I could still almost recite the intro text from memory: "There are those who believe that life here began far across the universe with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Taltecs, or the Mayans -- that they may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilization of Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive far, far away, amongst the stars."

I suspect that I'm not the only one who can still clearly remember how those words were recited in Lorne Greene's regal (and Canadian, eh?) tones, the dramatic rise and fall of key phrases. If only other childhood experiences (like say, my history lessons in school) had claimed equal share of my longterm memory.

Jeff and I both immediately noticed the typo on the last page:



"PUNITIVE" (instead of "fugitive")?!? Someone obviously wasn't paying attention in the proofreading department.




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Review: e-DENTITY at the Royal Alex, Toronto

Jeff and I recently attended a performance of e-DENTITY, a new play at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. I went in with neutral-low expectations; the promo images (like the one to the right) struck me as somewhat cheesy. I also half-expected the play to target a general audience, so mentally prepared myself for the usual over-explanations of Internet elements so common in mass market movies and tv shows these days. Our friend Craig convinced us to go, however; it's hard to say no to Craig. :-)

Conceived by Jacquie Thomas with script by Michael Spence, the play explores the various ways human communication has changed since the advent of cyber communication. I know, I know! Even as I typed that, I could picture you making a face and reaching for your mouse, itching to click away to anywhere else but here.

But wait!

Jeff and I were both surprised by how much we liked this production. The people behind e-DENTITY did an excellent job at getting across the whole feel of being online with clever use of projections, transparent screens, original music (including using the human voice for interesting acoustic effects), and (believe it or not) choreographed dance-like movements. AND they assumed the audience was already somewhat Internet-savvy.

It would have been so easy to go overboard, but these elements were all well-integrated into the overall dialogue, which was well-written and engaging. It's not aimed at the typical theatre audience; you need to have some experience with the Internet to appreciate all the segments. The show is a collection of vignettes rather than a continuing story.

However, even vague familiarity with certain topics was enough to appreciate certain vignettes. My closest experience with Warcraft, for instance, was watching the South Park episode focusing on the online game; I still found the Warcraft segment entertaining though I wasn't in hysterics like some of the audience who obviously WERE very much into the game :-D.



Some vignettes had me laughing to the point of tears, while others were surprisingly moving. The projected images, original music and choreography were mesmerizing, but it was the strong writing that carried this show for me. That, and the fact that I could identify with many of the elements. :-)

For those attending: be sure to read the inserts in your program, which give extra info: several of the vignettes are based on real-life incidents. The ticket prices, by the way, are much more reasonable than the regular "big name" productions at the Royal Alex, ranging from $20 up to $65.

For more information:

e-DENTITY.ca

Mirvish.com: e-DENTITY (buy tickets online)

Runs March 20 - May 20, 2007
Tues - Sat 8PM; Wed, Sat, Sun 2PM

The Royal Alexandra Theatre
260 King St. W.
Toronto, Ontario




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Wow! Women On Writing interview

(Update: I just found out that my Guest Blog posts will be updated on DesignSessions Notes On Design every few days, not every day, so have updated the info below.)

WOW! Women On Writing ("an e-zine for women writers, authors, editors, agents, publishers and readers") interviewed me for their April issue; you can see the interview online. The interview was done through e-mail and over the phone; I hope I get to meet Beryl and Angela in person someday...it was fun to chat with them, and their site looks like a great resource for writers. Thanks to Ray Vankleef, Tony Fabris and Beckett Gladney for use of photos they've taken of me in the past! :-)

The issue also has a Q&A with Moira Allen, who helped me with Inklings (companion newsletter to the site) during my Inkspot days, and now runs the excellent resource for writers, Writing-World.com.

Thanks so much to WOW! Women On Writing for their interest in me and my work!

I'm not sure how often I'll be posting for the rest of this week, so I also wanted to remind you all that I'm Guest Blogger at DesignSessions Notes On Design over the next while; please do visit! The blog is part of Sessions School Of Design. There will be five in total. I was limited to 70 words max a post, which was a challenge for me. :-)




My new Wacom Artpad arrived yesterday, a birthday gift from Jeff. I didn't hug the delivery guy, but just barely. Thanks so much to Michelle Dockrey for letting me check out her Artpad at a recent convention. I'm already finding the programmable keys highly useful. My Painter X upgrade package arrived yesterday as well, along with a hefty manual. Yay, I love manuals!



Above: a chocolate calligraphy experiment. I'll be posting more experiments, I'm sure. My focus is on my writing, but I did allow myself the luxury of installing the Wacom driver and Painter upgrade during the day yesterday. I am in artsy geekgirl ecstasy.



Above: A cartoon I created for Illustration Friday. This week's IF word: "Snap." :-)

I'll be posting more FKO photos and highlights eventually. Traveling and FKO were fun, but I'm now looking forward to burrowing back into my usual hermit-ish work habits, losing myself in my writing down in my basement office, with occasional ventures out into the fresh air (I did my first outdoor run of the season yesterday, woohoo!).





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