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meattle

392 karma · joined June 16, 2008

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meattle··on Google won't ditch third-party cookies in Chrome after all
And cameras…
meattle··on Eu.org, free domain names since 1996
Yup! It’s hard to keep spammers at bay, but not impossible. Takes a lot of effort. A big reason to stay away from shorteners that don’t have legit companies/orgs behind them putting in the effort.
meattle··on Eu.org, free domain names since 1996
We were getting spammed by hundreds of eu.org subdomains. We had no choice but to place a ban on the entire domain as banning a few just led to more popping up.

We ban as we see spam. Most free shorteners end up getting banned as there is no need to double shorten a url other than for double obfuscation which is usually shady.

meattle··on Eu.org, free domain names since 1996
I’m involved with a URL shortener service. Service had to ban this domain as sub-domains from this domain seem to be loved by spammers/scammers to host their scams…
meattle··on Proposal: Treat FLoC as a security concern
WordPress is 41% of the web. If this goes through and FLoC is disabled by default by WordPress, will FLoC be dead on arrival?
meattle··on Sites using Facebook ‘Like’ button liable for data, EU court rules
Coming in cold, that's a very fair concern/comment. I generally believe that products can be privacy-first but still serve the needs of marketers while providing consumer choice. Consumer choice is the key in my opinion. Shareaholic tools do what the customer sets them to do, with opinionated safeguards to prevent customers from missteps with regards to GDPR and consumer choice. For example, Shareaholic is one of the very few that also respects DNT signals (even though DNT is now defunct).

Btw, Share Count Proxy is also whitelisted by Firefox which provides the added advantage of share counts actually showing on Firefox if you use the proxy while direct calls to Facebook.com, Pinterest, etc are blocked.

meattle··on Sites using Facebook ‘Like’ button liable for data, EU court rules
Shareaholic offers many different types of marketing tools. The product that you're referring to is the URL shortener, which is independent of the Share Count Proxy product -- https://www.shareaholic.com/link-manager/retargeting

This URL Shortener service is also GDPR compatible as retargeting pixels are not set for EU subjects regardless of what customers want to set. In the roadmap is to add an opt-in message on the redirect.

meattle··on Sites using Facebook ‘Like’ button liable for data, EU court rules
For those that want to show official Share Counts on their Share Buttons while maintaining User Privacy, take a look at Shareaholic's Share Count Proxy -

https://www.shareaholic.com/blog/social-share-count-api/

Share Count queries to the Social Networks are proxied through this service securely and visitor privacy is protected... like an anonymous VPN.

meattle··on Who stole the Mona Lisa?
If you're interested in learning more about the painting, I created an entire mini website about the Mona Lisa a few years ago:

http://hepguru.com/monalisa/

It was featured by USA Today, etc. You may like it.

meattle··on Ask HN: What non CompSci courses to take in college?
I would recommend a Statistics class, if it is not already a requirement. In this increasingly data driven world, it's handy.
meattle··on Export your bookmarks from delicious
Pinboard.in seems clean and simple.
meattle··on Export your bookmarks from delicious
Really sad to see Delicious go. One of my most used services :(

See http://www.shareaholic.com/services for a list of over 50 bookmarking services.

meattle··on Yahoo is Shutting Down Del.icio.us
If you're looking for a Delicious alternative, then also worth checking out is:

http://www.shareaholic.com/services

(a list of over 50 bookmarking services)

meattle··on Ask HN: Who's hiring (for H-1B)? | Dec 2010
Compete.com does H1B's. But Compete's not a startup anymore.

You should be looking at startups with at least a few US employees. Currently, I think you'll find it rare for a startup with < 3-4 US employees to be able to sponsor an h1b. Homeland security has been getting pretty strict about this.

I believe it generally costs about ~$6k to sponsor one. More if you premium process.

meattle··on How Shareaholic Reached 2+ Million Installs Of Its Browser Add-On
Several YC companies have created browser add-ons as well. Would be cool to get a discussion going here about browser extension distribution and getting to scale.

---

Shareaholic was just a “nights and weekends project” until its creator reached a big milestone: 1 million downloads.

My goal with this interview was to find out how Jay Meattle, a single founder with no outside funding, got that many downloads for a web browser add-on, when convectional wisdom says that “no one” installs browser add-ons. As you’ll hear in this interview, he did it by creating a tool that was inherently viral, and he helped grow that virility by creating stories for bloggers.

You’ll also hear how Jay has since blown past 2 million downloads, why he decided to take a small round of funding, and why he’s ignoring revenues (for now).

meattle··on Chrome extension for submiting articles to HN
Also available for Firefox, etc. Feedback much appreciated!
meattle··on Amazon's Universal Wish List button: add anything on the web to your wish list
It has been around for a while. Been using Amazon Wishlist through Shareaholic.
meattle··on Shareaholic Contains Spyware
Wish it was not needed, but Compete.com requires it from developers to prevent fraud usage of their API. fwiw, the Compete Stats API is usually a premium/paid service from Compete.com and the stats are generally not made available for free at scale.

Anyways, that is why it was made easy to shut off completely in case people didn't want to deal with it. Also making this behavior very clear in the next update within the extension itself (not just the welcome/upgrade pages). Privacy is critical.

meattle··on Shareaholic Contains Spyware
Shareaholic for Firefox does not contain any spyware. Privacy is critically important.

The API call that Michael refers to is related to the "Stats Monitor" feature of Shareaholic for Firefox that can be turned off at any time.

The Stats Monitor shows users the Compete.com stats for the page they are on. The API call is intrinsic to the functioning of this feature. For example, only by knowing which web page the user is viewing can the browser tool show the user information about that web page or Web site.

To disable the Stats Monitor, go to "Shareaholic Options" -> Display Options -> Uncheck Stats Monitor.

And, all users are now made aware of this feature upfront:

http://www.shareaholic.com/tools/firefox/welcome http://www.shareaholic.com/tools/firefox/upgrade

The Stats Monitor is only available in Shareaholic for Firefox.

meattle··on Shareaholic v1.7 is here - More services, more options (would love your feedback)
Amongst numerous other additions & improvements, we’ve added the option to turn on the Shareaholic button in the URL bar right next to the orange RSS icon. We feel that this is a very natural place for the icon to live within the browser. What do you think? love it/hate it/indifferent?
meattle··on TED 2009: How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air
The Areca Palm is indeed available at Ikea (i know friends who have bought some from there). I suspect the Money Plant would also be available there or most garden stores. Home Depot is another one to check.

Picture of one of the building plant rooms -

http://greenspaces.in/images/pbc_greenhouse_1.jpg

http://greenspaces.in/images/pbc_greenhouse_2.jpg

One of the things that is done in the building is that air is passed through these rooms first, and then circulated through the building.

meattle··on TED 2009: How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air
The data shows that they work well together.

Areca Palm is good for the day, while Mother-in-law’s Tongue works during the night. Money Plant helps remove toxins like Formaldehyde (from carpets and furniture) from indoor air.

meattle··on TED 2009: How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air
RiderOfGiraffes, thank you. Couldn't find a "search box", hence the somewhat duplicate entry. The page posted today should be more useful to readers, as it has many more actionable details. The talk was given by my father.
meattle··on TED 2009: How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air
With only three varieties of plants, we can grow our own fresh air indoors, to keep us healthy.

After studying the effects these plants had on air quality for the past 15 years in a building in New Delhi, India it was found that there was a 42% probability of increasing blood oxygen by 1% simply by being in the building for one hour. Compared to other buildings in the city, eye irritation was reduced by 52%, respiratory symptoms down by 34%, headaches by 24%, lung impairment by 12%, and asthma by 9%.

They were also able to reduce the fresh air supplied to the building and still meet industry standards for healthy indoor air, netting a reduction of energy costs by greater than 15%. With buildings consuming 40% of the world’s energy, this is a big deal.