Web/Tech
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The Supreme Court keeps Donald Trump on the ballot. Facebook crumbles
That's as good an explanation as any for why Facebook and its related platforms crashed this morning, locking out millions of users. Here's a flashback to Facebook's automated apology from an outage nine years ago. As we often forget, Facebook's customers are its advertisers. Viewers like you and me are not Facebook's customers, but Facebook's…
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Here’s what I can do because Facebook is down right now
I will believe what happens next in videos. I won't know which "Lord of the Rings" or "50 Shades of Grey" character I am. No one will suggest posts to me. I will have to find my own pictures of acrobatic cats. And I'll have to find my own good deals on car insurance. Not…
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Maybe Google doesn’t think that anyone reads click-sign licensing agreements
Wanting to download Google Earth to my computer, I used Google to find the website. Picking one on the first page, I clicked to obtain the download. As all good sites do, this one asked me to read and click-sign a licensing agreement. Here's a portion of the licensing agreement that Google offered me, obscurantist…
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The defining question for the current generation
Where were you when you heard that he had died? In my case, I had just returned to work from making some purchases at the Apple store.
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BPA’s personnel office tries to dam an electronic torpedo
Technology has, speaking metaphorically, made the bag an ineffective and obsolete device in which to capture an escaped cat. A senior manager at Bonneville Power Administration's Portland office learned this lesson this week after an anonymous employee sent an e-mail to her on Monday, with copies to dozens of managers and other employees at BPA. The e-mail, which the…
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Google gives Portland a route to Quebec
Who knew? In addition to its designations as Interstate 84, the Columbia River Highway, U.S. 30, and the Banfield Freeway, that freeway running through northeast Portland is also Quebec Route 366. Just ask Google Maps! Click the image for a full-size view.
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Willamette University apologizes for creating a spam engine
Last week Willamette University spammed the mailboxes of hundreds of lawyers as it advertised an upcoming continuing legal education program. The announcement itself wasn't so bad; the problem was that Willamette sent to a mailing list it had created, leaving the listserv address in the "TO" field, so every lawyer who responded with "unsubscribe" or…
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Oregon lawyers have a list, and Willamette Law School’s on the “naughty” side of it
Willamette Law School sent out an e-mail today to a list that it had compiled, mostly of lawyers, to advertise a program of continuing education that it plans to present in December. Apparently most of the people on the list had no idea that they were on the list. Well over 100 of them sent…