Not that I’m belittling the need for social interaction, we all need it, but my need wouldn’t even register on a collective measure of most social networking sites’ users. Over the years, I’ve accepted the fact that I’m unique and don’t require the presence of similar individuals to feel better about myself. That marks me as a loner and an introvert, and while others may be saddened by that, I’m perfectly fine with it. But I have recently found myself wanting to share with people and decided it was time to join the online community a bit more than I have been.

The most prominent evidence of that is the blog, but it only occupies a minute corner of the Net. I had a MySpace account but never used it for more than looking at band’s pictures. Facebook attracts too much attention, and along with Twitter, has shown a reluctance for improving privacy security. I have a Twitter account and was going to make an attempt at using it more until the report of an administrator using a simple plain text password along with the login process being prone to dictionary attacks.

For now, I’ve gone with last.fm which deals with tracking people’s music listening. As you listen to music on your computer, a client updates your last.fm profile with your listening choices. That data is gathered and shared with others. You get information about favorite artists and shown similar music you may be interested in. You can also keep track of other’s lists, or group’s lists, and listen to them as well.

It’ll serve me well during my foray into the social networking scene. Maybe I’ll see you there.

From an article posted at Mac World by Robert McMillan:

A small Indiana company has sued tech heavyweights Microsoft, Apple, and Google, claiming that it holds the patent on a common file preview feature used by browsers and operating systems to show users small snapshots of the files before they are opened.

Cygnus Systems sued the three companies on Wednesday saying that they infringed on its patent with products such as Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome, which allow users to view preview images of documents on the computer. Mac OS X, the iPhone and Safari also infringe, the company said in court filings. Apple uses this technology in its Finder and Cover Flow Mac OS X features, the filings state.

A quick look at Cygnus Systems’ website shows at least a strong relationship with one of those named defendants:

I guess I don’t quite understand the politics behind it, but suing a vendor which you’ve been named a partner of and for which a large part of your business is based on doesn’t sound very logical. Given the nature of the patent which the lawsuit is based on, other companies could be considered future defendants.

A more in-depth article now exists at Ars Technica.

You may not know this, but your color laser printer may be embedding codes into your printouts without your knowledge. The US government has quietly convinced printer manufacturers to have their products print codes in light yellow ink that identifies the model, make, and quite possibly the owner.

The main idea behind the initiative was to help trace counterfeiters of US currency. Unfortunately, there’s been no judicial oversight over the use, or abuse, of such knowledge.

EFF is asking for volunteers to send in test sheets to help compile a list of printers that do or do not add identifiable codes to the paper.