Apparently Twittinesis, which I'd been using to export tweets to my macro-microblog, is dead. Actually, it has been for over a month, but I've been busy and didn't bother to sort it out 'till today.

I've switched to using Loudtwitter (which was dead and is now resurrected?) and I think I have it working now. I have a feeling I'll be looking for another solution for archiving tweets soon, though. Suggestions appreciated, but I won't be able to follow up on any of them for a while!

Livejournal was either down or stupidly slow and broken a lot this weekend. And that reminded me that the nice people at Dreamwidth gave me a couple of codes to share! So if you're looking to try out Dreamwidth, here's two links with my codes in them:

https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=terriko&code=6ESQ83S3TB8BSAAAKWZL
https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=terriko&code=QMA5HBXMC5G74AAAMM4P

It's a great little blogging/community platform, a neat open source project with lots of female developers, a cool way to aggregate all the blogs you read into one reading page, and if you have an account you can friend me and maybe gain access to my private posts, which this week lets you learn about how some dude tried to attack my patriotism... for America! (Recall: I'm Canadian.)

Seriously, if you have any interest, they do give out codes semi-regularly, so don't feel bad about using one. :) I'd rather they get used than languish in my list!

Edit: Both seem to have been used! If you're a friend who wants a code, contact me because I think I have some on the account I use for twitter archiving, but I'm too lazy to go find them right now.

With me doing new research and starting in on the job hunt, it occurs to me that I might like to blog about things that might be indiscreet to talk about publicly (especially unpublished research results!) so if you're interested in hearing the nitty gritty of how my interviews and experiments are going, now's a great time to make sure you can read the posts. To do this, you need to set up an account (either a regular dreamwidth account or one using openid) and leave me a note saying who you are and that you'd like access (or just subscribe to my journal -- I can usually figure it out).

Conveniently, the fine folk at dreamwidth have given out more invite codes, so here's some links if you'd like to set up an account here (if one doesn't work, move on to the next!):

1. Code BDY97CCBP4CBRAAAFTET
   
2. Code PG572WFX6FJR7AAAFTEV
   
3. Code TPZGPFXVAEREAAAAFTEW
   
4. Code 93RWBN2B8ETFKAAAKWZG
   
5. Code FWJAB922KZ863AAAKWZF
   
6. Code MYBFAMCZ7M37SAAAKWZK
   
7. Code 3RWENCJ3KGE3XAAAKWZH
   
8. Code CRVQ984WJEDB6AAAKWZJ
   
   

Generally speaking, my private posts aren't really uber-private, so don't feel you need to have known me forever or anything -- new friends from GHC are welcome!

Edit: put up some more codes since 4/5 have been used!

I've rearranged my data feeds so I get more security news, and I'm finding I want to write a little bit about it, so I've resurrected WebInsecurity.net for the purpose of talking about recent security news. It's actually a nice warm-up exercise when I find myself having writer's block while I work on my thesis proposal. That's actually what I was hoping for when I started WebInsecurity.net, but then I found a lot of what I wanted to write should probably be in the proposal and it wasn't working so well as a change of pace. So time to reboot and try something easier to keep myself in good writing form.

So there will be new stuff at WebInsecurity.net and if you're so inclined, here's the webinsecurity.net rss feed or you can go use the fancy-schmancy subscribe buttons on the site itself. Edit: Oh, and there's webinsecurity_feed for the dreamwidth folk! (Have I mentioned how much I love dreamwidth lately?)

As most of these are just plain interesting, I'll probably post short summaries here too. So here's today's!

Web Insecurity: Credit card companies covering their ass(ets)
Exactly whose security does your credit card company have in mind? Here's a hint: It's probably not yours.

[B]asically, 3-D Secure [MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa] provides economic security rather than technical security -- but not for you, the customer. It's providing extra security for the banks by passing the buck.

(Read more)

I asked John to make this for me (and Susan, although she doesn't know it yet -- snag away, kiddo!) for PAX:



Isn't it adorable? We're doing totally girly versions of Bub and Bob (the dinosaurs from Bubble Bobble) as costumes for PAX, and I can't wait to see how we look in them together. :)

The excellent damned_colonial invited me to participate in the new Geek Feminism blog and it's been a ball thus far. You mean I get more excuse to interact with smart, sassy, feminist folk? Sign me up!

I haven't quite decided how to cross-post or whatever, so I'll give you a teaser here for one of my posts, entitled An “ass” out of “u” and “me”:

I’m off-white, so I’m used to people assuming rather strange things about me. The big one I am forever explaining is that no, I really am Canadian. Yes, that’s where I’m really from. That’s where my ancestors are from too.
...

But the weirdest assumption I ever encountered was that because I was a girl, I would somehow know something about computer usability.

(Read the rest here)

Also from me was a straight up cross-post of my entry about my good experience at PAX (and my bad experiences elsewhere), and a remix entitled Want more women in open source? Try paying them..

Perhaps the funniest thing I've seen going is the comment thread on Where are all the men bloggers? For those who aren't familiar with the sort of comment threads women have to wade through regularly on any post mentioning women in blogging/fandom/tech/politics/etc, most of the comments in there are basically stuff we've heard before with the genders reversed. It's both hilarious and offensive depending upon how you read it, as much satire is.

Go visit Geek Feminism for more interesting stuff. And those of you on dreamwidth can subscribe to geekfeminism_feed too.

I've been busy, first with the workshop that kept me at the university 12hrs/day, and now with finishing the latest thesis proposal draft on a suddenly tighter deadline. (Turns out it is quite late, and while that won't be a problem, I've been told to finish ASAP.) Not to mention Canada Day and my visiting boyfriend who, sadly, has wound up largely ignored so I can write write write.

But apparently while I've been writing for a living, my blog has been surprisingly active. Or rather, this post complaining about Rachel from Cardholder Services has suddenly become abnormally popular and garnered a small collection of comments, months after it was written.

I am mystified and amused by this development. I guess my search rank went up somehow, and now that entry gets to be a place to vent about phone spam. I'm ok with that.

But the funny thing is that I haven't had one of these calls myself in months. Perhaps I just haven't been home enough, or maybe Canada's do not call list is more effective than the US one? Early on, there reports that the the list was being abused, but apparently the CRTC has investigated the claims, and says that it turns out to have been an urban myth. Others remain concerned about the potential for abuse even if there isn't yet evidence of same, particularly because few fines have actually been levied despite many complaints. But somehow, I haven't heard from Rachel from Cardholder Services or that irritating foghorn thing in a month now, so no complaints here!