jdavid.net Social Software Hacker, Designer, Consultant living in SF.

Is Facebook Fingerprinting Chrome extensions?

This morning I noticed something new in my Chrome Console while working on a Chrome Extension. It looks like Facebook is now looking to see if you have a set of Chrome extensions installed in your browser. Most of the extensions I looked up on Google's web store and via their search engine and they look like they are Malware of some sort, but a few of them look like they are much less harmless. It's hard to see what the extensions actually do because they have been pulled from the Chrome Web Store, but some of these look like they modified the appearance of Facebook intentionally.

Some users don't like being forced to see walmart colors all over the web and have used various tactics to customize the web to their liking. Some other users might do it for usability reasons or just plain augmentation of the web.

Does Facebook have the right to do this? It feels like an invasion of my privacy. I think the latest version of Chrome protects us from this sort of attack but that does not mean that Facebook won't invest in other ways to discover this information or that they won't lobby google to discover it. Some extensions also have the ability to open up channels to other extensions so if facebook had it's own extension it might still try to fingerprint which extensions are there.

This isn't all bad, in fact it really depends on how it's being used. If it's only used to defend our privacy and security then it seems fine, but if this little trick is being abused this could really sour things.

I guess I am mostly just surprised that Facebook is doing this.

To get this to occur in your own browser you will need to be a bit sneaky and use a private session. Once Facebook runs the finger print they don't do it all of the time, I think they only do it on auth and then they cache the result in some way. In fact since some extensions have access to the cookies I wonder if one could 'skip' the finger printing by setting the proper cookies or localstorage setting.

Finger Printed Extension IDs

• kjafndplmofcedgddaoceenkcbfankem
• kincjchfokkeneeofpeefomkikfkiedl
• iejbljbhhoclgfiapmomcpkpkcmihfib
• lkfhadffdnjnogmgjfihlcmmjhcfchaj
• afnnkheojlgkipfabekmdkngocfhegck
• hkpibllecmidllaojdmkcmfnoinmejco
• gpllafflnmgjjcakjloknldkndnkmcpi
• pkhidkonipdjidjglnkfcfhnkfnlefbk
• kjafndplmofcedgddaoceenkcbfankem
• kincjchfokkeneeofpeefomkikfkiedl
• iejbljbhhoclgfiapmomcpkpkcmihfib
• lkfhadffdnjnogmgjfihlcmmjhcfchaj
• afnnkheojlgkipfabekmdkngocfhegck
• hkpibllecmidllaojdmkcmfnoinmejco
• gpllafflnmgjjcakjloknldkndnkmcpi

Whose Responsible for our Country?

If the CEO isn't ultimately responsible for his or her company than who is? If the captain is not than who is? When Steve Jobs was captain of his ship he did amazing things at Apple. When Bill Gates created MS he did amazing things. I certainly believe that a great president can help us build a great country. I also absolutely know that Mitt is not a great man, and I am pretty sure that Obama is not as well, however, he is much better at selling what he wants than Mitt is, who just comes off as angry and whinny. I want a leader in office, one who doesn't need the government to do everything, but one who leads this country in all of it's facets to make this country great.

When we finally stopped giving SETI money from the government, they rethought the problem and started a revolution in cloud computing. I would argue that Amazon's EC2 is because the government stopped giving money to SETI, and people were so enthralled with the fun of searching for aliens that we started to share computing resources. It got people thinking of computer's as a cloud to send data to and fro.

Durring this administration we stopped flying shuttles, and now private industry is going to pick up the slack. They are rethinking the problem and we have visionaries like Elon Musk and Burt Retan that can take their passion and get all of the support that the world has to offer. They are free to chaise their dreams with the world as their tail wind. When the government does it, they do a job that's just good enough for no one else to try.

Yes we need services to take care of people when they get sick. Yes we need services to take care of people when they loose their job. Yes we need services when people make purchasing decisions that encompass the what they might earn over decades, but the government does not need to do those services.

I also strongly believe that, a good government inspires hope when there is none, and finds a way to charge forwards. To not go down the path of traditional liberalism, but to actually find it's true latin root, in which liberalism means either to be libre or free or to drive change and actualization of some sort.

We are a wondering country who blossomed into something more than we were when we won WWII and since that greatness we have not had a proper vision to be more than to find the next bully and the next evil to attack.

For us to move forward we need to put aside this notion of bettering other nations, and we need to find out who we are and what we want to be. Essentially we are having our mid life crisis.

What if our census asked people what their 3year, 10year, and 100year goals were. What if as a nation we tried to understand where we want to go and we put plans together to get there. What if we had metrics that allowed us to not only track those goals but how well our laws and governance were working to get us there?

We would transform this nation from one of sound bites, to one of substance.

I am so sick of the rhetoric and the 'red' vs. 'blue' propaganda. I am sick of us throwing votes at a meaningless argument of who is the better politician, when we should be discussing what would make us a better country and how 100% of American can work together to get there.

In 10 years we could solve AIDs if we wanted to, if we wanted to dedicate the resources to it. I'm sure we could figure out how to produce enough food for the world if the world came together under that goal. Sure we don't all deserve to eat like kings, but we all deserve to eat something. We all deserve to have access to the worlds knowledge, although we may not all have the privilege to have private tutors.

If as humans we can land a machine on mars that sends data across a solar system that takes at the speed of light minutes to get here, we can surely accomplish great things. 30+ years ago we sent a space craft into space that is now escaping the solar wind of our sun. Just think about that we launched something 30 years ago that is still working and is sending data back to us.

There is a foundation brewing called the long now foundation ( http://longnow.org/ ) their goal is to engineer things that will make humans think about a new time scale, maybe moving from status update to status update isn't enough for a Great Culture. Maybe quarterly reviews isn't enough for a Great company. Maybe every 4 years isn't enough for a Great Country.

Where do you want our nation to be in 25 years? How do we answer that question? How do we make and keep those commitments over that time span?

In Silicon Valley, to buy a home or not to buy a home

As many Americans are currently evaluating decisions they have made. I am currently evaluating a number of decisions that I will make in the future.

Owning a home might be one of those decisions. Right now I am working out the math on the topic. And it seems to me that owning a home allows one who has earned income to potentially do two main things.

• move retirement income into a hard asset with fewer rules.
• allow you to take a portion of your income and stash it in a hard asset.

The math is preliminary, but let's just say that 1 year worth of rent in SF is about

$20k

So far is seems like the rent on a mortgage + taxes and stuff for the same type of place would require I buy a $500-650k condo.
The net year cost on that would be

~$30k + possible association fees.

The income tax code says that I can write off the interest on my income, and since it's a new home most of that mortgage payment can be written off.
Right now the government says that I can write off about $7-11k per year.
This means that my post tax cost for the home is

$20k a year again.

some portion of that $20k that get's spent is actually principle.

let's say $5k

As that principle grows, I can use that equity, even though it's trapped in a home, to take out an SBA Loan with only 25% of the total covered.

So that means with a 5% down ( yes this is still allowed on some homes ), in 5 years turns into

$50k. ($25k down payment + $25k in new equity )

This should allow for an SBA loan of up to $200k that you can use to buy hard assets. Now this does not get you that much if you plan to do software start-ups like i do, but it does provide you leverage on those hard assets. My point being is that just because money is at work in one place, it doesn't mean that you can't still get leverage other places.

So, there is a case for moderate leverage. But, what about buying pressure?

As people pay off their mortgage, more principal is paid off and less of that payment is interest. Over time they get less and less back from the government. I think this creates a sort of pressure to be on a new mortgage. I wonder if this has anything to do with why people tend to move every 7 years on average. There are also some interesting rules around selling a home and saving on taxes if you have lived in the home for 2 of the last 5 years. I also think that people get board, and want to move for various reasons, more kids, fewer kids, etc...

Heck I'd like a *maker* room for crafts, electronics hacking extra. In fact at maker faire one of the exhibits was for a company called the 100k garage. So yeah, i'd like to *paint* the walls but i'd also like to continue playing the *start-up* game a bit longer and it seems more and more like they are mutually exclusive if I am going to be really good at either one of them.

It seems to me that buying a home is only good if you have earned income, and secondly if you don't expect to have to move in 3-5 years. Out here if your company get's acquired by google or facebook, you might have to start driving to a new office 30 miles away. It's been a pain for some people I know and it's been part of the reason they shed the golden handcuffs a bit early.

If I bought a home out here, i'd have to make some major decisions about what my life is going to look like for 3-5 years. It would limit my job choices or my time, which can already be a 60+hr work week, before transit. I'd have to decide between living in the city ( san francisco ), on the peninsula near FB and Google ( where prices are 30% higher ), in the north bay ( very pretty and better schools, no public transit to the city ), around berkely/ oakland. Each has their advantages and their disadvantages.

I'm just not sure what needs to happen to maximize all of my options, and secures a future. I'm just not sure earning an extra $5k in home equity a year is worth it.

New Babelfin logo and Site design coming.

Babelfin Logo - Icon

In the near future I hope to push out a version of Babelfin that will work in Japanese. Soon after I will release one in French. As part of that release I thought I would iterate a bit on the logo and the site layout. The previous logo was a one color logo with grey text ( which in print is two colors anyways ), this one is a two color log and is high contrast. I think the new logo is readable and distinct. I also hope that the subtle abstract nature of a fish bone is present.

I found inspiration for this logo via the hit show Mad Men and my recent visit to the Picasso exhibit.

Let me know if you like the logo, or if you are feeling bold, I would love to see what you come up with. Take this as inspiration.

As for the site at large, I really just need to add a call to action to collect email addresses and to send people a link to the plugin/ chrome extension. I felt like an email list is the best option until I can afford to dedicate some time to really write some copy. At some point I expect to add at least two more pages, one for each language. Over time I will start to add the other typical pages like About, etc... But for now I only need a landing page.

What are your thoughts?

Getting VerifyStatus API working in Sandbox

There are a few caviots to getting the API working.
I hope this saves someone a few hours/ days.

• CallerServices.php has a small bug
• Only Sandbox email accounts work in the sandbox. Thanks for confiming @ppalavilli
• ALL Sandbox accounts have the First Name: Test Thanks @ppalavilli
• ALL Sandbox accounts have the Last Name: User Thanks @ppalavilli

If you get a

PHP Warning: Missing argument 3 for CallerServices::callWebService()

On line 101 of CallerServices.php you have:

function callWebService($request,$serviceName,$simpleXML)

It should read: //(most of the calls that use callWebService are parent::callWebService( $request,$serviceName ) anyways.

function callWebService($request,$serviceName,$simpleXML=NULL)
{
$response = null;
try {
$endpoint=API_BASE_ENDPOINT.$serviceName;
$response = call($request, $endpoint, $this->sandBoxEmailAddress,$simpleXML);
}
catch(Exception $ex) {
throw new FatalException('Error occurred in call method');
}
return $response;
}

Here is the code I used. Replace {email} with one of your sandbox email addresses.

public function verify_email($params){
$VstatusRequest = new GetVerifiedStatusRequest();

$VstatusRequest->emailAddress = '{email}';
$VstatusRequest->matchCriteria = 'NAME';
$VstatusRequest->firstName = 'Test';
$VstatusRequest->lastName = 'User';

$rEnvelope = new RequestEnvelope();
$rEnvelope->errorLanguage = "en_US";
$VstatusRequest->requestEnvelope = $rEnvelope ;

$aa = new AdaptiveAccounts();
$response = $aa->GetVerifiedStatus($VstatusRequest);

echo json_encode($response);
}

The JSON encoded object looks like such:

{"responseEnvelope":{"timestamp":"2011-03-25T15:37:32.443-07:00","ack":"Success","correlationId":"42bce847aebc9","build":"1772158"},"accountStatus":"VERIFIED"}

@jdavid

Japan: Pay it Forward

I just sent this message to a friend in Japan. My hope is that others will do the same.

I was inspired by a few articles I had read about in the past about pastors giving money to the congregations members to do good in a community. I don't know how my friend Jon will make use of the money but I trust he will slightly know better than I how to use it.

I figure that this $100 will work in different ways than the other money that I have sent to the relief effort via the Red Cross.

If I get a note back of how the money was used, I will update this post. Please let me know if you choose to do the same. #japan #payitforward

Jon, I am sending $100.00 to you in Japan, if you need the cash please use it. If you know of a way to leverage the money please do that. If you think someone else could make better use, pay it forward. Write back to tell me how you use it.

Cheers,
Justin