That bloke

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Many of my posts are friends-only. If this journal seems light and trivial, well, it is, but there's more blood, sweat and tears to read if you have an LJ account and I befriend you, although you're more likely to find me on Dreamwidth now.

http://news.livejournal.com/144003.html

I cancelled the renewal for my LJ paid account a few months ago. Glad I did. The new friends page is extraordinarily awful.

Dreamwidth doesn't currently require invite codes...

I like maps, and so I read the Strange Maps blog. There's an entry about how the US presidential election works that you should read. OK, if you're an American you probably know most of what it says, so here's the best bit:

From the footnotes: "the Rasmussen list of 11 swing states excludes New Mexico and includes Michigan."

So, as with UK elections, most people's votes are almost completely pointless, but a minority get to choose who's in charge.

I'm not sure if people here are aware of the drivingrevenue thing, and I've only just discovered the scorecardresearch thing. Both of these are plain examples of LJ doing things that users would not want, if only they knew about them.

The drivingrevenue is that LJ sends your browser a script that modifies links you click, and notifies external sites about links you mouse over. It's a way of making money for LJ.

The scorecardresearch thing sends info about the pages you visit to a market research company. It's a way of making money for LJ.

If you look at your LJ privacy settings, you won't find any mention of these. You haven't opted in to them.

So that's two more reasons not to use LJ any more. I'm on dreamwidth. I have dreamwidth invites if you want to go there. If you don't, you can read me on LJ here: jbanana_dw

I've had a few anonymous comments on Dreamwidth that turn out to be from LJ people I know. You don't have to be anonymous if you're logged in to LJ. Here's what you do.

1. Log in to LJ, but then go to a Dreamwidth comment page.
2. Pick "OpenID" and enter exampleusername.livejournal.com (but use your name, silly).
3. Write and submit your comment, and LJ asks you to confirm.
4. If you say yes, your comment is submitted to Dreamwidth, and I can see who's talking. 8~)

This works on other sites too.

I found this yesterday: the "Let's tag" page in ScrapBook, which I'd never seen before. It's lovely, as is the tag cloud page.

I'm pleased with dreamwidth. If you want to read my stuff it's available on LJ here: jbanana_dw. I'll be mostly posting on there, but still trying to read on here.

You may already have seen this, but just in case you haven't, have a look at the three women dressed up as Daleks. It shouldn't work, but it does.

I can't cope with the word "cosplay", and I had to look up "gijinka" - I think "dressed up as Daleks" is fine.