2010-05-13

darkemeralds: Painting of a nun, with caption OMFG. (OMFG)
2010-05-13 10:45 am

If you still use Facebook

If you still use Facebook, I think you owe it to yourself to see this amazing graph of the devolution of privacy on that service over the last five years. It's a shocking thing.

If you don't use Facebook and are just interested in the graphical presentation of information, you might want to have a look at it too. It's a gorgeous thing.

ETA: How To Permanently Delete Your Facebook Account

More ETA: Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] shezan for How To Opt Out of Facebook's Instant Personalization, where there are step-by-step instructions for turning off the invasive features, handy if deleting your FB account isn't the move for you.
darkemeralds: Photo of an empty room with caption "Imagine an Empty Room" (Empty Room)
2010-05-13 01:15 pm

Zippity

I joined Zipcar today.

Zipcar is the car-share business that lets members reserve and use cars for a few hours at a time. Their cars, rather than all being at the airport or in a central garage, are parked throughout the city. Once you're a member, you reserve online, you go borrow the car, you drive, and you park it back where you found it--easy peasy.

There's a Zipcar parked a couple of blocks from my house. It's not that my own car isn't working--it is, I think, though I haven't started it months, and last time I did the fuel tank was near empty. That's the point. I don't really need to own a car. I haven't needed to own a car for a while now.

So I'm gonna try out ZipCar for a few months. It cost me $25 to join, and the hourly rental fees (which include fuel and insurance) wouldn't amount to a hill of beans at my rate of car-usage.

Then, at the end of the summer, if it's been viable, I'll probably sell my car. It's just sitting there.