Roland's Merciful Modly Mash-up Random Banter Thread #221

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I scrub my pictures of locational data and I mean no one knows what apartment number I am so it's fine. And really if anyone wanted to find and kill me or wahtever they'd have to go north of the 60th Lateral and aint nobody got time for that.

For years Andrew Sullivan ran a kind of contest in his blog where he’d post a picture and we’d have to find its address (“view from your window”). I once got second place (I was closer as the crow flies, but on the wrong side of the border). Believe me, the true masters of that game can easily place that building in a map in like 30 minutes.

Grey Wolf

[Qwertystop]

For years Andrew Sullivan ran a kind of contest in his blog where he’d post a picture and we’d have to find its address (“view from your window”). I once got second place (I was closer as the crow flies, but on the wrong side of the border). Believe me, the true masters of that game can easily place that building in a map in like 30 minutes.

Grey Wolf

The building's got name-and-number (and some distinctive crosses) on the side, and the fire engine tells us the city, and it's a three-way (or more) intersection with an island in one of the roads. building is most likely T-shaped from above, nearest route to fire station is along the road with an island.

[Aluminum Man]

alright babies how's life treating you

I've felt better.

[Insane Jeenyus]

re: apartment building

there is a building name and number in the foto.

[enderlord99]

Spoiler

Show

[LaZodiac]

For years Andrew Sullivan ran a kind of contest in his blog where he’d post a picture and we’d have to find its address (“view from your window”). I once got second place (I was closer as the crow flies, but on the wrong side of the border). Believe me, the true masters of that game can easily place that building in a map in like 30 minutes.

Grey Wolf

They must really suck if it takes 30 minutes for them to figure out given the name of the building is literally all but fully visible.

The building's got name-and-number (and some distinctive crosses) on the side, and the fire engine tells us the city, and it's a three-way (or more) intersection with an island in one of the roads. building is most likely T-shaped from above, nearest route to fire station is along the road with an island.

That's almost right, except it's not t-shaped.

re: apartment building

there is a building name and number in the foto.

Yeah that. That's a big tell. Doing a google search of just the names in a private browsing window gives me the location immediately.

[Insane Jeenyus]

and then there is this mammal that lays eggs!

Spoiler: duck billed platypus

Show

just beware of the spur

Spoiler: the spur

Show

that spur has a venom duct that delivers a painful dose of a toxin similar to that of cat fish and lion fish, but much stronger, I am to understand.

[Anonymouswizard]

Well there's still a disagreement over here about whether or not we should burn the shop down...

On the other hand my deep fried lamb experiment went well, although I'd forgotten how much oil deep frying takes. It was tasty, but would probably have been better if I'd remembered to buy Hoisin sauce.

[Insane Jeenyus]

.. .. .. .. .. on the other hand my deep fried lamb experiment went well,

yeah ! ! ! !

Yeah that. That's a big tell. Doing a google search of just the names in a private browsing window gives me the location immediately.

maybe, in hindsight, which is always 20/20, you could have blurred out that kind of info for security.

[Insane Jeenyus]

sorry, double post not intended.

[LaZodiac]

yeah ! ! ! !



maybe, in hindsight, which is always 20/20, you could have blurred out that kind of info for security.

I've been pretty fairly open about where I live, and it's far too expensive to actually come up here so it's not that big a deal. If someone's willing to drop like a thousand bucks to fly up here to get me they're gonna find me no matter what.

[Peelee]

Bathroom painted, new toilet installed! New fixtures to be added on tomorrow, I'm achy and tired.

Also, got my bike back from the shop. New tires, cleaned up and tuned. All that plus the purchase price still came out half price of buying new, but the new one has a WAY better battery design and looks like it can actually fit on a vehicle bike rack as opposed to mine, so I'm still a little envious. I don't regret anything, though, this thing is awesome.

[SZbNAhL]

To be honest, we're probably all personally identifiable from the details we've mentioned here over the years. I've mentioned the university I study at and the subject, which narrows me down to about 160 people when you account for gender. Anonymouswizard's mentioned degree subject, degree result, city of residence, current occupation and a moderately rare disability. Peelee's listed his location (in a much smaller (and therefore easier to identify people in) city), plus marital status, approximate age of house and exact age of child. I could go on.

[Mith]

To be honest, we're probably all personally identifiable from the details we've mentioned here over the years. I've mentioned the university I study at and the subject, which narrows me down to about 160 people when you account for gender. Anonymouswizard's mentioned degree subject, degree result, city of residence, current occupation and a moderately rare disability. Peelee's listed his location (in a much smaller (and therefore easier to identify people in) city), plus marital status, approximate age of house and exact age of child. I could go on.

Heck, 3-4 people on here have my full name and province I live in.

I get security, but at the same time, much of it is an illusion.

ION: it sucks when you realise at the end of running data processing that you screwed something up when it will take about 2 hours to redo the whole thing.

[Anonymouswizard]

To be honest, we're probably all personally identifiable from the details we've mentioned here over the years. I've mentioned the university I study at and the subject, which narrows me down to about 160 people when you account for gender. Anonymouswizard's mentioned degree subject, degree result, city of residence, current occupation and a moderately rare disability. Peelee's listed his location (in a much smaller (and therefore easier to identify people in) city), plus marital status, approximate age of house and exact age of child. I could go on.

Yeah, honestly pretty much anybody I know in real life could identify me here, and when you take everything I've shared you could track down my other internet profiles fairly easily (please don't).

Although I also have a lot more interest in not having potential employers and the like link me to this account then making sure I'm impossible to identify here. Partially because the relative anonymity of the account means I have less need to keep it 'clean' than my mainstream forum social media accounts. Sure, you can find out who I am, but nobody knows just from the name attached.

[Peelee]

Peelee's listed his location (in a much smaller (and therefore easier to identify people in) city), plus marital status, approximate age of house and exact age of child. I could go on.

You assume I don't deliberately pepper inaccuracies every so often.

[2D8HP]

Usually in Room G-15, please bring beer, a corned beer sandwich, or chocolate chip cookies.

[Peelee]

Usually in Room G-15, please bring beer, a corned beer sandwich, or chocolate chip cookies.

A.) I assume that's in the Hall of Justice? (I love saying that super dramatically, btw).

2.) I assume a corned beer sandwich is an SF delicacy.

[2D8HP]

I assume a corned beer sandwich is an SF delicacy.

Oops!

No, I think that's just soggy bread.

[Peelee]

Oops!

No, I think that's just soggy bread.

So Guinness?

[2D8HP]

So Guinness?

You could do worse!

[Anonymouswizard]

Usually in Room G-15, please bring beer, a corned beer sandwich, or chocolate chip cookies.

I'll remember next time I'm in San Francisco

ETA: Guinness is really more of a bready sog...

[Teddy]

No water sprinklers set off, I hope. Those do a number on apartments.

Sprinklers are heat-activated (the blocking mechanism is a little glass bubble filled with a liquid, which explodes when subject to intense heat), so they wouldn't go off anywhere where the fire isn't. That said, if the floors aren't properly sealed, water can leak down to apartments below, as you mentioned.

I scrub my pictures of locational data and I mean no one knows what apartment number I am so it's fine. And really if anyone wanted to find and kill me or wahtever they'd have to go north of the 60th Lateral and aint nobody got time for that.

As a Swede who lives right on it, I find this statement highly amusing. Given, the Gulf Stream does offset our notion of North-iness somewhat.

maybe, in hindsight, which is always 20/20, you could have blurred out that kind of info for security.

I'm pretty sure Zodi has dropped enough personal info over the years to make her trivial to look up in a phone book. If someone put a private detective on tracking her down, they would succeed.

The same goes for me. Sweden is pretty much masters of burocracy, so I'm easy to search in all kinds of registers. And I must say I find efforts of maintaining perfect anonymity to be too much work and frankly unfun. I want to be the me who is me without having to worry about others figuring out who I am. Creepy Internet stalkers is an unlikelihood, worry is eternal.

[Qwertystop]

I've got a bit of natural cover thanks to sharing a name with a person of nonzero celebrity (also ruins the "search yourself and see what comes up")... but people would probably find address-related stuff (at least down to a city or town) long before they actually get a name, unless they get access to a site that has my name for financial reasons.

[DataNinja]

At least one person here has my last name, which, unfortunately, is stupidly uncommon here, so basically a dead giveaway to anyone with access to the local phonebook. And I know a bunch of people have the city. And I've shared pictures, which include fairly distinctive characteristics. So... whoops?

[Peelee]

I've got a bit of natural cover thanks to sharing a name with a person of nonzero celebrity (also ruins the "search yourself and see what comes up")...

I believe common names also lend that effect. My brother jokes he's un-googlable. I've tried finding myself, and even with some pretty specific information coupled with my name, I enjoy some security through obscurity.

[Anonymouswizard]

I credibly common names also lend that effect. My brother jokes he's un-googlable. I've tried finding myself, and even with some pretty specific information coupled with my name, I enjoy some security through obscurity.

Yeah, while some of us have to deal with one of your names being uncommon enough that both together turns out to be relatively rare. Apparently you can find on Facebook with my name, the place I live, a picture of my face, and glasses that really aren't the right prescription.

Also, latest bugbear at work: people asking for something, then wandering off when I go and get it. I've started only calling once, waiting a while, then putting it back.

[Mith]

At least one person here has my last name, which, unfortunately, is stupidly uncommon here, so basically a dead giveaway to anyone with access to the local phonebook. And I know a bunch of people have the city. And I've shared pictures, which include fairly distinctive characteristics. So... whoops?

I know a man who only introduces himself by first name because 1) Westerners cannot pronounce his surname, and 2) He's the only one with his name in the greater city area, and therefore likely half of the province.

[Algeh]

Yeah, my goal is to be "vague enough that my students are unlikely to find me accidentally" rather than "the government will never know it's me", so I mostly try to keep the name of the specific town I live in away from other words that one might search when looking for stuff that's local to my area and also my real name at the same time. You can definitely figure out both my name and my area (possibly not specific town/city/suburb, but certainly metro area) from my posts if you're patient, but with any luck I'm not going to show up as [real name] in [location] has [interest high school students are likely to search for].

Sooner or later I figure someone I know in real life from either school or cons will wonder if I'm me on this forum, so I try not post anything here that would be an actual issue at work or swirling con drama dumpster fire convention volunteering, but it hasn't happened yet and I'm not seeking it out. (Technically, I'm not supposed to "friend" students on non-work social media as part of general professional boundaries, but I don't think that extends to proactively asking everyone I meet on sites that use handles and mostly aren't teens if they happen to be one of [real name]'s students before we talk about what kind of toilet I should buy.)

[Insane Jeenyus]

I've got a bit of natural cover thanks to sharing a name with a person of nonzero celebrity (also ruins the "search yourself and see what comes up")... but people would probably find address-related stuff (at least down to a city or town) long before they actually get a name, unless they get access to a site that has my name for financial reasons.

true this, as I have blazonly posted what city I am in, that I am vet of US armed forces and whatever else I've posted .. .. .. .. .. that being said, there are over 40 f my name on Linked in, so apparently I am more common then I thought.

I believe common names also lend that effect. My brother jokes he's un-googlable. I've tried finding myself, and even with some pretty specific information coupled with my name, I enjoy some security through obscurity.

as I just googled myself and as mentioned, there are over 40 of my name on linked in plus other entries of "Me".