Category Archives: MACC

Iron Horse Trail bridge installation begins Friday night – San Jose Mercury News

I like them improving my trail – tres bien

Iron Horse Trail bridge installation begins Friday night – San Jose Mercury News: “ron Horse Trail bridge installation begins Friday night

By Lisa P. White Contra Costa Times Posted:Â 06/03/2010 02:54:06 PM PDT Updated:Â 06/04/2010 12:49:18 PM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

The support columns of a pedestrian bridge sit at the intersection of Treat Blvd. and Jones Road… 1 2 Â» If everything goes smoothly, by Saturday morning two mammoth arches forming the framework of a pedestrian bridge will be suspended 18 feet above Treat Boulevard. Although the job isn’t nearly as complicated as replacing a 300-foot section of the Bay Bridge, it’s a delicate operation. The span across Treat Boulevard is 240 feet long and weighs 500,000 pounds; the tops of the arches will soar 43 feet above the roadway. The four sections of the arches are scheduled to arrive from Lindon, Utah, this afternoon, said Nick Panayotou, resident engineer on the project. ‘Basically, we’ll turn them into position in line with where they will go in the air and bolt them together,’ Panayotou said. ‘Then we’re going to hoist them up using 200-ton cranes.'”

(Via .)

Out and About

Posted via web from mclasen’s posterous

Report: Facebook caught sharing secret data with advertisers

So now we know

Report: Facebook caught sharing secret data with advertisers: “Report: Facebook caught sharing secret data with advertisers
By Eric Bangeman | Last updated about 14 hours ago
The privacy issues that have been hounding Facebook may be coming to a head. A report in the Wall Street Journal indicates that the Facebook, along with MySpace, Digg, and a handful of other social-networking sites, have been sharing users’ personal data with advertisers without users’ knowledge or consent.

The data shared includes names, user IDs, and other information sufficient to enable ad companies such as the Google-owned DoubleClick to identify distinct user profiles. Some of the sites in question, including MySpace and Facebook, stopped sharing the data after the Journal asked them about it. The surreptitious data sharing was first noticedÂ (PDF) by researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and AT&T Labs in August 2009, who brought it up with the sites in question. It wasn’t until WSJ contacted them that changes were made.

Not surprisingly, Facebook appears to have gone farther than the other sites when it comes to sharing data. When Facebook’s users clicked on ads appearing on a profile page, the site would at times provide data such as the username behind the click, as well as the user whose profile page from which the click came. ‘If you are looking at your profile page and you click on an ad, you are telling that advertiser who you are,’ Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman told the Journal. Advertisers contacted by the paper said that they were unaware of the additional data and did not make use of it.

Facebook has tweaked its privacy policy throughout its history, with the most recent moves to open up more user information to the public drawing heavy criticism and FTC complaints. Users have also had a tough time navigating the site’s often-Byzantine privacy controls, which has led to a trickle of user defections. With these latest revelations about Facebook ignoring industry standards, not to mention its own privacy policies, that trickle may turn into a torrent.”

(Via .)

TidBITS Networking: How to Protect Your Privacy from Facebook

How to Protect Your Privacy from Facebook

by Rich Mogull

Claiming over 400 million users, Facebook is the dominant social networking service on the Internet, uniting families, school friends past and present, and international political movements. Facebook started as a restricted social networking site for college students back in 2004, before opening up in 2006 and taking over from competitors such as MySpace. Facebook has since morphed into a behemoth of a platform with a diverse set of features, such as real-time multiplayer gaming, online chat, retail operations, event management, and thousands of small applications. From sending birthday cards to trading “flair,” Facebook seems to have it all.