A painting of me

Instagram's Terms of Service

   17 December 2012, mid-afternoon

Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf. — The new Instagram terms of service, emphasis mine.

In the back of my mind I knew this day would come, but now that it’s here it isn’t any less disappointing. Instagram’s new rules are pretty draconian. A lot of times websites will have unfortunately worded terms of service, but they often written the way they are to facilitate displaying your content on their servers, etc. This language seems quite clear when it comes to Instagram / Facebook

Flickr’s new iOS application is quite nice, but I don’t know how I feel about spamming my Flickr feed with photos of Mythilli. Part of the original appeal of Instagram was that it was a nice light-weight way to share little snapshots. Flickr is a big mix of people posting one-off photos, big sets of photos from their vacations, and all sorts of other random stuff. Still, Flickr probably has the nicest terms of service when it comes to this sort of thing.

I really love Instagram, so this change is really bumming me out.

Comment [10]  

  • Canada puts asylum toddlers behind razor wire - thestar.com 

    “They are not jails,” insists Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. “In the case of the Toronto one, for example, the main one, it’s a former three-star hotel with a fence around it.”

    If you need to start a sentence about where you are housing children with, “They are not jails,” you know you’re doing it wrong. Is Canada trying to out-class Australia here?

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  • Highly Available Real Time Push Notifications and You. 

    Flickr is coming back out of retirement, apparently. Their new iPhone application is pretty great. They’ve slowly started doing more things with the site itself. I don’t know if all of this is too little too late. They still have a big user base and lots of photos. It’s clear the site could have been so much more: they had a lot of talented people working for them.

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  • A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths. 

    To get a gun in Japan, first, you have to attend an all-day class and pass a written test, which are held only once per month. You also must take and pass a shooting range class. Then, head over to a hospital for a mental test and drug test (Japan is unusual in that potential gun owners must affirmatively prove their mental fitness), which you’ll file with the police. Finally, pass a rigorous background check for any criminal record or association with criminal or extremist groups, and you will be the proud new owner of your shotgun or air rifle. Just don’t forget to provide police with documentation on the specific location of the gun in your home, as well as the ammo, both of which must be locked and stored separately. And remember to have the police inspect the gun once per year and to re-take the class and exam every three years.

    If you are buying something that only exists to shoot and kill other people it really should be that difficult.

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Skyfall

   13 December 2012, lunch time

How did I forget to write about Skyfall, the new James Bond movie. Like the two films that came before it, the film is pretty spectacular. It opens with a crazy action sequence and then moves on to spies and intrigue. Unlike the previous two films Skyfall feels like more of a throwback to the older James Bond movies. There are all sorts of nods to the earlier movies, presumably because it’s the 50th anniversary of the franchise. Bérénice Marlohe plays the bond girl in the film, and she is smoking hot. Daniel Craig has got to be the best James Bond. This is one of my favourite James Bond films ever, though I don’t know if it’s better than Casino Royale.

The official Skyfall website.

Comment  

  • "Made in the USA" is back, baby. 

    Several companies have started moving production of their goods back to the US from places like China, with the results being better made and cheaper products.

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  • YouTube: Do you know this guy? 

    Microsoft’s latest ad for IE 10 is pretty great. The front-end guy I work with also thinks it’s the bees-knees, so who knows, it might actually be really good.

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