Apr09

Expressed Thoughts

Never allow facebook apps to post on your behalf

Recently, I started seeing facebook posts that look like ‘spam posts’ such as ‘this person read an article’ or ‘that person watched a video’ etc.
Even if you report them as spam to facebook, you would still see them in your news feed, because facebook thinks they are legitimate.
so what is going on? Why does FB think it is not spam? how will you protect your own Privacy? Read on to find out…

Problem:

You read an article in the ‘Yahoo! app for facebook‘ or ‘The Guardian app for facebook’ etc, Or you watch a video from the ‘Dailymotion App for Facebook’.
The App ‘automatically‘ posts to all your facebook friends – that you read that article or watched that video.
Problem Description

If you really think about it, it should never be happening this way. The App should not be posting to facebook on your behalf. You should be the person to decide what things are shared on your facebook wall. This is really an intrusion of your privacy.

Facebook’s take on the problem:

Anytime you allow an App to access your facebook wall, FB asks you if you want that application to

  1. Access your Personal Information
  2. Access posts in your news feed
  3. Post to your wall on your behalf

And since these Apps have your permission to post to your wall on your behalf, FB thinks these are valid posts from you.

What is the solution to this problem?

  1. Login to your facebook.
  2. Click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of any page.

    Account Settings
  3. Select Privacy Settings
  4. Scroll down to Apps and Websites and click Edit Settings
  5. Find that annoying App and click on ‘Edit’
  6. You would see something like this.

    App Settings
  7. From here, either you can completely ‘remove the app’ from accessing your facebook account, or you can disallow the app from ‘posting on your behalf’

Please revisit all your apps and make sure they can not post on their own. Also, whenever you are approving any new facebook app, please make sure you give the right permissions to the app.
Hope I have helped one of my facebook friends, and in turn saved myself from seeing these annoying posts on my facebook news feed.

Additional Reading:

  1. How to control Facebook App Privacy
  2. Social Reading and Privacy

on Apr 09 2012

4 Responses so far

Aug25

Wishes

Blessed with our second daughter

Anjana G SadishWith God’s grace, we have been blessed with a baby Girl, Anjana G Sadish. She arrived on yesterday, just 2 minutes after midnight.
Both mom and the baby are doing well, so is my first daughter, Nivedhana G Sadish.
We sincerely thank everyone for their wishes personally and on the facebook. Thank you.

on Aug 25 2011

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Jun29

Expressed Thoughts

Android experience

This is a story of my experiences with an Android phone after being an iPhone customer for so long.

Sometime around 2002, when I first tried an iPod with the click-wheel at a CompUSA shop, I became a fan of Apple and started to follow them closely.
As soon as I saw the iPhone introduced by Steve on Macworld 2007, I wanted to get one. See below for the video of Steve introducing the iPhone.

And then on the launch date, I stood on the queue at the Apple retail store. While in store, all I checked out was how my websites look on that tiny screen and whether they were readable.
Initially the phone only had Apps made by Apple but still I thought the phone is revolutionary at that time.
Since then I have been buying every version of iPhone (3G, 3Gs and 4) as soon as they are released.
Time to explore
Samsung Galaxy S2 For some reasons, I got tired of the look and feel of the iOS [Operating system for iPhones] after using it for the past 4 years. Also I thought I should not be so blind-folded with Apple and should be exploring the market to see what is out there.

Last week, I bought a Samsung Galaxy S2 (SGS2) to experience Android.
Initially I thought I will “try” the Android phone for a couple of weeks and if it is no good, I can go back to the iPhone, but after a week’s use I sold my iPhone and decided to stay with the SGS2.

Things I like about the Android OS

  1. Much better Phone Application.
  2. Ability to customize the Look and Feel [you can even customize with a new launcher program with more than 4 apps on the bottom dock].
  3. Automatic synchronization of emails, contacts and calendar items with google account.
  4. Android version of the Google Maps with turn-by-turn direction.
  5. Unobtrusive notifications.
  6. Google Voice application(banned on iPhones).

Android is still lagging on

  1. Android even the most latest version as of now, does not support Tamil (and for that matter any of the Indian languages). I hate to see just boxes when I visit my tamil blog. I think Google needs to fix this as fast as they can, otherwise they can not win on the tablet market.
  2. The “browser” on the android is not as polished as the Safari on iOS. I hate to see horizontal scroll bars on web pages that work well with Safari. Safari does a better job in resizing the content to fit into the window.
  3. Searching on the Android market for an App is still a hit or miss. Being a search engine giant, I hoped that Google would do a better job in bringing the best matches for Apps but it did not. Sometimes the search results show completely unrelated Apps.
  4. Also, since the Android market is not curated, you got to be cautious when installing Apps from the market. It could be a spyware. This is never a problem with any of the apps you download on iOS.

With all this stated, I am still enjoying the new phone. Samsung has done a really nice job with their Galaxy S2 phone. Feel free to share your experience or thoughts by commenting on this post.

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on Jun 29 2011

5 Responses so far

Aug23

Expressed Thoughts

God gave a gadget to you!

My brother, Saravanan Balasubramanian wrote on his facebook page.

I could use my HD camcorder to capture the green fields and share it in YouTube in no time.
But it really feels different seeing it with the fresh smell of the green fields.
How do I capture it?

To which I added the following comment.

That’s when you realize God has given a device(your own body) that can see, talk, smell, feel, memorize, repeat etc.
We seldom take care of it while we are busy looking at all these cool gadgets and keep wondering what magical device will Steve unveil next.

Your body is your device, that god gave it to you. Are you taking good care of it? Post your thoughts by commenting below.

on Aug 23 2010

3 Responses so far

Apr21

Expressed Thoughts

My thoughts on the iPad

I bought the iPad on April 6th [3 days after the launch day] and returned it promptly on April 20th because I bought it just for playing with it for 2 weeks. I am trying to put down my observations while I tested this thing out.
Believe me I am an Apple Fan boy!
I have been an apple fanboy since 2001 when I first bought the original scroll wheel iPod and nothing has changed about my perception about Apple or its products.

on the Plus side

Photos
Looking through the Photos collection and using the iPad as a picture frame, while playing iPod in the background is one of the best things in iPad.
Watching Videos and YouTube:
bombay-jayashri-playing-on-ipad
click for larger size
It is amazing in this unit. My daughter can navigate with ease and enjoy her rhymes and I feel that YouTube on iPad is much better than a laptop browser [too many Ads nowadays on youtube.com] or the iPhone.
Using the iPad optimized Apps:
Apps from NYTimes, USAToday or BBC, which are specifically designed to use the larger screen of the iPad, are really nice to read and share.
Also I liked the Epicurious app for browsing through recipes.

On the Minus side

Weight:
launch-day-ipad-me
click for larger size Weight is one of the main drawbacks; even Steve Jobs was sitting in a couch, keeping the iPad on his lap while showing the demo. This thing is not designed to be carried on one hand and typing using the other.
Shortage of iPad optimized Apps
Though it can run all the Apps designed for the iPhone, they do not look good when you expand them to occupy the full screen on the iPad. We do not have a large collection of free Apps that are designed for the bigger screen iPad at the moment.
Not for creating content
Even though there are productivity apps like Keynote, Pages etc, iPad is more of a device where you consume the content rather than a device for creating it. If you have to sit down and use a bluetooth keyboard to type large documents, you would rather type it on your laptop or desktop.

My Verdict

This version may be sufficient for most people, but I would like to wait for the next version.
I am sure it will be lighter in weight with a wider range of iPad optimized Apps.

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on Apr 21 2010

5 Responses so far

Feb10

Expressed Thoughts

Cars are not the only ones

Cars are not the only ones that are recalled by their makers!

A quote I read at the entrance to a Church, on my way to drop my daughter at school.
Interesting, isn’t it?

on Feb 10 2010

4 Responses so far

Jan21

Usual

Next big thing from Apple

come-see-our-latest-creation The fanboys of Apple [including the one that is writing this post] are waiting for the next media event from them, scheduled to occur Wednesday, January 27th 2010.
They already gave a hint on their invite “Come see our latest creation!”

So they are going to introduce some new gadget at this time. That’s for sure.
but what would that be?
Most people think it is going to be the “Tablet”. Is it going to be called iSlate, or iPad? SOK ! (Steve Only Knows).

if you have a few minutes of your time, check out the following article, it is very informative.
The Apple Tablet Interface Must Be Like This!

I can not wait !
Is it Wednesday yet ?
Update: That Wednesday was here and gone, and Steve introduced the iPad. Let us see it when it arrives at the store.

Tags: , ,

on Jan 21 2010

No Responses yet

Nov08

Usual

Moved to Texas

I have finally moved to Texas along with my family, slowly adjusting to warmer weather.
I will keep this site updated as and when possible.

Tags:

on Nov 08 2009

2 Responses so far

Sep24

Usual

Coming to Sugar Land Texas

I am considering about moving to “Sugar Land, Texas” as I got a new job offer.
Do you live around that place, or been there?
Any thoughts, suggestions? please feel free to let me know by commenting on this post.

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on Sep 24 2009

4 Responses so far

Sep17

Usual

Amazingly Incredible Apple!

I think Apple Inc has been running a training campus for all executives, to practice and practice these words repeatedly.
“Incredible”
“Awesome”
“Unbelievable”
“Amazing”
“Really Really Easy”
justanotherguy84 – one of the youtube users has used his incredible iMovie App, to just get the collection of these words as uttered by the apple executives at the iPod Event on Sep 08 2009.
Even though I am an Apple Fan, I was just laughing when I see this video, as it was not an incredible event in my opinion.

Tags: , ,

on Sep 17 2009

2 Responses so far

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