Protect Your Online Privacy and Take the Battle to Facebook’s Turf

May 23, 2010

All of the recent explosive disclosures about the changes to Facebook‘s privacy policy–something that has been an ongoing and procedural erosion of our privacy (see here for a graphical representation of the changes) by acceptance of their terms of service and privacy policy changes–had begun to make me think strongly about quitting Facebook all together. It can be a time wasting website, and it can give you too much information about some folks who you don’t really want to know that much about. However, it allows you to reconnect with old friends, and more importantly, stay connected with professional colleagues. It is primarily for this latter reason that I have decided to stay on Facebook and take the fight to their turf. The reason that Facebook is so insanely popular is that it facilitates social networking and communication in a a very streamlined and generally snappy website. There are no other players on the near horizon that can do the things that Facebook does that I can switch to and bring all of my friends and colleagues with me. I have pitched my tent in the Facebook frontier, and I intend to fight for my tiny share of profile space and the inroads that I and my friends have made there. It is a good land with a lot of possibilities that I don’t want to give up on just yet. I know that we can use Facebook and protect ourselves, but we will have to be proactive and ever vigilant to the changes instituted by Facebook that may conflict with the way we want to use the service and the way Facebook may take advantage of us using their service. Also, I should note that I have no problem with Facebook making a buck off of my using their service, but I believe that I should not be made into a commodity rather than a potential consumer (via ads, add-ons, etc.). Give me respect as a person, and I will be happy to play ball. As it is now, Facebook sees me and my information as so much stuff to be bought and sold, so I am offering the following tactics (there’s some de Certeau for you guys in the know) to fight back against Facebook’s strategies.

  1. Suit up with an updated version of Firefox. Then, go to Preferences > Privacy > Uncheck all except Clear History when Firefox Closes. Click on Exceptions for Cookies and manually add the domains for the sites that you want to accept cookies from (Facebook might not be one of those sites you want to list).
  2. Yield a mighty sword: Install AdBlock Pro. Inside Firefox, go to Tools > Add-Ons > Search for AdBlock Pro and choose to install it. After installing and restarting Firefox, click on the ABP icon in your navigation bar and choose preferences. Click on Filters > Add Subscription > Choose EasyList to add, and then add Fanboy’s List. You will also want to manually add the following filters one-by-one:
    |http://*.connect.facebook.*/*
    ||facebook.com^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net
    ||facebook.net^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net
    ||fbcdn.com^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net
    ||fbcdn.net^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net
    [Thanks to Andrew and pfc.joker's comments on Lifehacker for these.]
  3. Store your gear when you’re not using it. When you’re not using Facebook, make sure that you logout. This is probably a generally good rule of thumb when it comes to other sites accessing cookies saved by your web browser.
  4. Secure your stable door. This is where you adjust your Facebook privacy settings. First, go to Account > Privacy Settings. Here, you need to go through each page and adjust the settings. Personal Information and Posts > Set to Friends Only for all. Contact Information > Friends Only (you can allow Everyone to add you as a friend or contact you, but hide your email addresses by setting to Only Me). Friends, Tags, and Connections > Friends Only. Search > Uncheck Allow Public Search. Applications and Websites > What Friends Can Share > Uncheck All. Applications and Websites > Instant Personalization > Uncheck Allow.
  5. Clean up your stable. This is where you cut the new “Connections” that enable the flow of information between you and your friends to companies that Facebook sells your info to. Navigate to your Profile > Info. You have to leave your basic info, but you want to remove all of your interests, likes, education, work info, etc. You may also want to go into your photos and profile pictures and delete anything that you don’t want circulated (this is just good sense). You can use your bio to include the parts about you that you want people to know about. I only include SFRA and IAFA in my Likes and Interests, because these are professional affiliations that I use Facebook for.
  6. Ride off on a new adventure. If you’re really fed up with Facebook, you can create a new account and reconnect with your friends. There is a procedure to follow for this that you can find on Lifehacker here. They also have a nice set of 10 privacy tweaks that will generally improve your privacy online here.
  7. There be dragons in every cave and a troll under every bridge. The important thing to remember is that for every new and creative way of protecting our information and online identity from exploitation, there are corporations out there looking for equally inventive ways to make a buck on the information that we make freely available. Even our browsing habits can be tracked according to the way we configure our web browser (read about a project by the EFF regarding this on Slashdot here). You have to educate yourself about how your software works, and how you can use it to be prepared for unexpected onslaughts against your privacy. Check in on the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Read Slashdot.org. Lifehacker is good (even though its part of Gawker), and BoingBoing.net has some good info along with other wonderful things.
  8. Leave your own tips and favorite electronic privacy links in the comments, and let’s let Facebook know how we feel about their new policies before more of our online rights are eroded by big business.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

I Passed the French Language Exam at KSU and So Can You

April 16, 2010

On Wednesday, April 14, I spent four hours translating Lydie Moudileno’s “Pas de romance sand finance: la construction du couple moderne dans les romans sentimentaux de l’Afrique de l’Ouest” from Sites 6:1 (2002). I have included my experience with the exam and preparation tips for others who will have to take their language exam at Kent State.

Professor Maryann De Julio selected the Moudileno article for me to read prior to our conversation about it, which constitutes the exam itself. I couldn’t have asked for a better essay, because it was very much connected with some of the other things that I am thinking about in my PhD exam studies, namely the influence of capital on the cultural construction of identity. In this case, Moudileno argues in the case of francophone romance novels in the 80s and 90s written and published in French-speaking African countries present a non-African ideal of Westernized romantic love embedded in circuits of capital and brand recognition. Following a structuralist analysis of a particular collection of these kinds of Westernized love stories in Adora, Moudileno demonstrates how these stories and romance novel book covers exist in opposition with the realities of patriarchy in much of Africa. However, she does end by considering the possibility of how a universalized idea of love presented in these novels, which apparently sell very well in many African capital cities and bookstores, do offer a form of resistance to male dominant societies despite their heteronormative message.

The exam itself went very well. Professor De Julio, Professor Mack Hassler, and I had a wonderful conversation that began with the article but traversed into French film history and the science fictions of Phillip K. Dick.

The four hours of translation on the other hand was nerve-racking. I translated the whole document verbatim just under the 4 hours, and I made a one sentence summary of each paragraph in the margins. I reviewed this before coming out of the room to let Professor De Julio and Mack know that I was ready for the exam. Having already translated the entire document, the spot translations that Professor Dejulio asked me to do went very well. There were some things that I didn’t translate accurately, because the literal translation did not match the idiomatic meaning of certain phrases. The nice thing about the exam is that it isn’t just about translating, it is about having a conversation and engaging the ideas in the article being translated. Professor Dejulio picked an excellent article that I was able to sink my analytical teeth into, which made the exam, past the translation, an enjoyable experience. However, I should say that it was a draining experience, which two twenty minute afternoon naps did not cure. I did feel more like myself the following day when Yufang and I went to Cleveland for groceries at Cleveland Asian Market and for free flash drives at Microcenter (4GB flash drives no less!).

For those folks who, like me, are not superstars in their second language for the exam, I can offer you these study tips that I used to prepare for the exam:

  • Begin your studies well in advance with an online newspaper in your second language, and print out articles (or in my case, movie reviews) double spaced so that you can write out your translation between the lines. Use online verb conjugators and Bablefish to check your translations, and make notes of idioms and phrases that recur repeatedly.
  • Move on to scholarly articles and translate those. You will notice a difference in the writing.
  • Throughout, practice conjugations, keywords, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions. I would write these 5-10 times each along with the English translation to make sure that I could remember them.
  • A few days before your exam, lock yourself in a room for four hours with a scholarly article and translate it as you would on the day of the exam. It was from this experience I got a sense for how quickly the time passed and I developed a better strategy of divide and conquer–I translated the first paragraphs, the last two paragraphs, and then the beginning sentence of each paragraph before filling in the rest. If you can read the language, which is the ultimate goal of having proficiency in another language, you do not need to do this. Just read the essay and make notes. I had to think hard and rely on my dictionary extensively for understanding what was being said, so that is why I took this strategic translating strategy.
  • Prepare your dictionary for your test day. I made notations throughout the dictionary as I was doing my preparatory work, and I put lettered tabs at the beginning of each section of the dictionary for quick page turning and reference. In the back section with irregular verb conjugations, I made a note of the definition so that I could save time from flipping back and forth on words that I wasn’t immediately familiar with. I used Collins Robert French Unabridged Dictionary, which I found to be rather good with only a few idioms missing from the translation that I worked on.
  • Bring snacks like nuts for energy and water to drink. If you’re lucky like me, your wife will bring you a slice of lemon cake and a triple shot soy latte halfway through the exam!

Despite passing my exam, I am still critical of the foreign language requirement as it now stands at Kent State University. I believe that it should be something integrated into the curriculum in some way more than the exam. I know of some folks who were told to remove foreign sources from their dissertations, which seems counter productive to being scholars who attempt to engage a wide array of worldly discussions connected to your object of study. Based on my practice for the exam, I did find some Philip K. Dick articles that I will probably include in my dissertation. I can warn my future dissertation committee that they will be damned if they think I won’t include some French in my dissertation after spending part of this past year and a year and a half at Georgia Tech preparing for that one exam that allows me to move forward with my PhD exams. Also, I think it would be useful if there were a source requirement for the dissertation, or taking part in a foreign language seminar might meet this kind of requirement. The foreign language requirement should be something promoted more when you are beginning a program of study; students should go ahead and meet with the examiner in their secondary language right away even if the test will be put off until later. These are only some ideas, but the foreign language aspect of the Literature PhD at Kent State needs to be improved (along with the degree’s requirements and supporting coursework in general, but that’s another issue). As graduate students, we are part of that conversation to improve things, so we need to assert ourselves and make sure that our voices are heard. Otherwise, it will be left up to others to decide for us and those that follow us at Kent State.

Vive la langue françaises!

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Posted by Jason Ellis

My Writing Class and Clarke’s 2001, A Break Through

March 4, 2010

I believe today was a very good day in my introductory writing class. Today’s class concludes week seven, and until today, I didn’t feel like I was connecting with my students as well as in my past classes at this point in the semester. It was with that in mind that I devised a different third essay topic that still conjured my overarching exploration theme while keeping it grounded in their personal experiences and individual choices regarding their future careers.

After my students completed their beginning of class writing (15 minutes) and reading quiz over part 4 of Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (5 minutes), I began to go over the quiz and open the floor to questions about the novel. This is where things got exciting. My students began asking me insightful questions. They were seeking clarifications on plot holes in the text (e.g., TMA-1 coverup on the Moon, particularly after the Discovery is on its way), as well as seeking better understanding about HAL and his neurosis.

Then, I introduced their third major essay topic:

For your third major essay in our class, I would like you to write at least 1000 words about your future career choice and how you would feel about working with and competing with intelligent machines like HAL from Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is an exploration not only of the kinds of work you may do in your future career, but it is also a personal reflection on how you would potentially interact with machines in your work place.

In your essay, I would like you to write about your future job and the intelligent machines you may encounter there. Your manager may be a computer, or the surgeon may be a robot. Creative ideas for the type of work you do may be devised or distributed by a computer. There are many other possibilities, which I would like you to think about and include in your essay. Basically, think about existing jobs performed by human beings, and consider what it would be like to work with a machine instead of a human being.

Your essay should include at a minimum these things:
- introduce your topic and your personal feelings toward working with intelligent machines
- briefly explain how 2001: A Space Odyssey and HAL provide a model for your discussion
- provide some examples of where you may work with intelligent machines in your workplace and how you might deal with that–positively or negatively
- conclusion in which you discuss the ways in which intelligent machines should or should not find their way into your workplace

This is my first time offering this essay topic on 2001, and I let my students know this. I asked them to help me clarify the assignment as I went over it. They responded with more questions and possible examples that we then worked through. Also, several students approached me after class with further ideas about how to proceed with their writing, and I was happily surprised with the connections that they had already made in the final 30 minutes of class while they brainstormed their examples.

My students know about my blog, so if they find their way here, I do want them to know that I applaud their attention and questions in today’s class. I’ve tried different approaches in our class, and today, I believe that we made a very positive breakthrough that I want to carry forward in our further work together in our introductory writing class. Furthermore, it acknowledge that it wasn’t just the text or my essay assignment that made things connect today; it was my students who made things happen today and I was only too happy to go along for the ride.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

NASA Speaker Professor Jay Reynolds Visited My Writing Classes Today

December 3, 2009

Thanks to NASA’s Speakers Bureau, Professor Jay Reynolds of Cleveland State University and the Glenn Research Station agreed to visit my two intro writing classes today to talk about America’s return to the Moon, current research on Mars, and investigations of asteroids and protoplanets, which is what Prof. Reynolds is at the present involved in with the DAWN mission to observe Vesta and Ceres.

I asked Prof. Reynolds to speak to my classes about some of the things taking place right now at NASA, particularly in relation to NE Ohio, where the majority of my students are from, and to give some context to the work that NASA does. He did an excellent job of this in his two presentations today for my students. Based on the subjects that he covered, I believe that he filled in many gaps that I either didn’t have the time to cover or those things that didn’t occur to me at the time as my classes worked their way through Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars as part of the “Space Exploration and Your Future” theme of my intro writing classes.

Prof. Reynolds demonstrated his depth of knowledge about NASA and its missions while also engaging broader economic and political interests in response to questions put to him by my students. He displayed a contagious abundance of energy and excitement about his work and the work taking place at NASA that I believe carried over to some of my students in the two classes.

At the beginning of his presentation, he began simply by asking my students what they thought of the unauthorized, yet mission making, Apollo 8 picture of the gibbous Earth next to the lunar surface [find it here] and the Apollo 17 image of the fully illuminated Earth [find it here]. What he stressed with these images was that our missions to the Moon turned into missions about the Earth. Our going out there gave us, meaning humanity, a new perspective on our planet and ourselves as co-inhabitants of what Carl Sagan termed a pale blue dot.

He discussed the Space Shuttle, Saturn V, and Ares I and V launch vehicles [see my Lego versions here] in detail, which elicited many questions between the two classes. Other questions included: How safe are the launch vehicles? Why did we go to the Moon? Does anyone own the Moon? What do you do with Helium-3?

Prof. Reynolds’ presentation ended with a discussion of asteroids and the importance of locating and tracking those objects which cross or may eventually cross the orbit of the Earth. This is related to the work that he does for NASA with the help of undergraduate and graduate students from Cleveland State University in conjunction with the DAWN mission [some related info here].

I am thankful that NASA can make a special event like this possible, and I am especially grateful to Prof. Reynolds for taking the time and energy to drive down to Kent and spend the afternoon with my students. It was a terrific occasion to close out the Fall 2009 semester for my students.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

KSU Writing Classroom Improvements

September 15, 2009

Thank the maker–my first class students had unimpeded wireless access in SFH, and our peer review exercise went off largely without a hitch. I’m very happy that I was able to use that computer classroom without any technological hiccups.

My second class is busy working on their peer reviews now, and they are all busily engaged with each other’s essays. But what would this post be if I were not to complain about something–the desktops in MOU should have the default Microsoft Windows XP games disabled. I would rather my students have “underlife” talk after completing an assignment rather than playing a throw-your-brain-into-neutral game of solitaire.

And one concluding question: Why do computer support folk have to be jerks? This isn’t a universal rule, but it a widespread malaise that appears with a variety of stenches. I encountered the kindergarden teacher routine today, when I asked for help getting the projector to mirror the computer monitor. If the podium in these otherwise nicely equipped computer rooms wasn’t a Frankensteinian agglomeration of multiple breakout boxes and wires that must be configured in just like a sudoku puzzle for the proper video source to be projected. I wouldn’t be quite as upset about this if the tech didn’t use a normal tone of voice with her assistant and would code switch into a condescending cutesy voice when she would turn back to me.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

KSU Information Services, Please Increase the Wireless IP Pool

September 10, 2009

Today, I finally learned that another issue may have been contributing to my computer woes in SFH 213. Apparently, the IP address pool for wireless network connections at KSU has run out of addresses, but a greater allocation of IP addresses for use on the wireless network should be in place by Monday.

As in my previous SFH classes, my students and I roll with the punches and switch to the tried and true method of writing on paper. With their daily work on pulp, I ask them to type up their scribbling on vista when they are online in the dorms (I wonder if this IP allocation issue is affecting the dorms–I understand that not all students use ethernet). This extra step with writing, as I told my students in that class, may actually help them develop their writing further, because it adds another layer or step to their production of text. I encourage them to consider what they wrote in class and how they can make it better or write it differently when they are transcribing it on vista. Considering this, it will be interesting to see how my two classes develop if the computer connectivity issue continues.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

Pitfalls of the Computer Classroom, Again

September 8, 2009

I had another unfortunate encounter with the computer classroom in SFH, but I think I stumbled on the solution. The students who couldn’t login to the wireless network hadn’t yet updated their passwords with Flashword. Apparently, this needs to be done before they can login to other services on campus besides Flashline, Vista, or campus email. It was very frustrating to discover this during class when I would have preferred to focus on the writing assignments. As with last time, I had students work with pen and paper when they weren’t able to login to the wireless network. Even though they should have updated their passwords in order to access the wireless network, I wish that the computer classrooms in SFH had wired connections to the Internet as they do in MOU. I understand that this requires more infrastructure investment, but a wireless access point connected to a switch with wires snaking around the room to each laptop wouldn’t be that expensive and it would remove the added “cost” of having students login to the wireless network each class.

Recap–For other KSU instructors in SFH, make sure that  your students have updated their passwords with Flashword if they trouble connecting to the wireless network.

Bottom line–I’m glad that I was able to roll with this (second) punch, and that I had a plan b to offload the writing to more traditional media.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

First Week of Fall Semester 2009 Continued Again

September 3, 2009

It is a world of difference moving from SFH to MOU. It has nothing to do with the students, but it has all to do with the way technology is implemented in the two buildings. MOU is a newer building that is wired for ethernet and has desktop computers with large screens on a desk that wraps around the perimeter of the room. There is no need for my students to login to the wireless network or use under powered laptops (this is not to say that desktop computers can’t be underpowered, but in this case they do have more horsepower than those in SFH).

In my second class of the day, which is in MOU, my students were able to easily power on their computers, launch Firefox, login to vista, and respond to the writing prompt. The success of everyone being able to access vista without any technological hangups provided an opportunity for me to relish the ticky-tap of my students’ writing. After providing the students time to work on the introductory writing prompt, I segued into the writing assessment exercise, which they are working on now.

Today’s classes have made me reconsider, to a certain extent, how I use technology in my classes. I will need to do a little more prep, despite my exploited circumstances, to have a substantial plan B in case students can’t get access vista. I do not like this state of affairs, and I certainly hope that I do not have to employ these tactics when there is such an emphasis and push to use the technology provided for students in the writing classrooms. Tentatively, I would say that there needs to be more support staff and a better or more established departmental commitment to the technology needs of our students and the goals of the writing courses. Also, I would remind my readers that this and the previous two entries are based on one week’s worth of experiences and it (hopefully) won’t be indicative of a trend throughout the semester. Instead, I am merely saying that the technology, at least in SFH, is off to a weak start this semester.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

First Week of Fall Semester 2009 Continued

September 3, 2009

I just had my first technological meltdown and it’s only the second day of class. When I got into SFH 213 today, there were five laptops on the back air conditioner, which left five empty spots around the room. Also, two laptops had trouble–either the trackpad wouldn’t respond, or the laptop would not prompt the student to connect to the wireless network. Another student had password trouble just as I did about an hour ago, which required my calling the KSU Information Resources desk to have them unlock my active directory password. I suppose in all, the majority of students were able to login to the wireless network, login to vista, and respond to my writing prompt. However, there was about 5-10 minutes of going around trying to extinguish fires during the 15 minutes that students had to respond to the prompt. It’s frustrating using technology in a digital classroom when the technology isn’t supported as properly as it should. Granted, KSU’s English department isn’t Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Communication, and Culture–this is a shout-out to Grant and Melanie–, but I think these types of issues should have been resolved in the Summer. For one thing, I’m wondering when was the last time these laptops were imaged–they are speed along at a glacial pace compared to Fall 2008 (or so it seems). I hope for the sake of my students and the utility of using computers in the classroom that these issues get sorted out as soon as possible.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

Kent State University, Fall 2009 Begins

August 30, 2009

Tomorrow officially kicks off the Fall 2009 semester at Kent State University. My syllabi are ready for my two sections of composition, and I created Vista8 course pages for both classes so that I can go completely paperless this semester. Another added benefit of the paperless classroom is the virtualized classroom–maintaining an online presence may be advantageous if Swine Flu creates havoc on our petri dish campus.

If you would like to see my syllabus, you may download a pdf of it here: ellis-jason-11011-050-syllabus. This is my third semester of using the space exploration theme, but I have once again shifted and changed things to better accommodate my students’ needs as well as my own. I will post in the future on this iteration of my syllabus.

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Posted by Jason Ellis

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