13 ms·

Way too creepy for me. I'm (approximately) Cringely's age, and it doesn't seem to bother him, so maybe it's not an age related thing, maybe an introvert vs extr

Way too creepy for me. I'm (approximately) Cringely's age, and it doesn't seem to bother him, so maybe it's not an age related thing, maybe an introvert vs extrovert thing. What do the 20-something hipsters on HN think of this? Are you OK with computers becoming more and more adept at mining your personal information and relationships? Of course Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al. already do this. But they (pretty much) keep the results to themselves. They don't shove the mining back in my face.

aeontech 13y ago
My view is, if you don't want your data out there... don't put it out there. If it's out there, don't be surprised to see it mined and used :) Especially for people that use consistent handles across the internet.
grecy 13y ago
Likely it doesn't bother Cringely because he's such a public figure. Like most celebs, I bet he gave up trying to hide the vast majority of his life anyway. A scan of his Wikipedia page [1] gives me more information than I know about the vast majority of people I interact with on a daily basis. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely
laureny 13y ago
> Way too creepy for me. Based on my use so far, it only displays information that the user has access to, so I don't see anything creepy about it. What's creepy (in a good way) is how they manage to pick up the things that are actually interesting and relevant, which I often miss since my friends' walls are so busy already.
bmc42 13y ago
Look at it this way: you don't have to use it but people you meet might be using it :)
ZirconCode 13y ago
>> 20-something hipsters on HN think of this Seems very wrong. For some reason, especially the mention of "meeting" the girl at the bar, and of course, "befriending" people on this basis seems wrong overall. I don't think these are really friendships. Seems to be a business world thing. I find it so creepy, I might go out of my way to post hilarious fake information about myself. Like how I baked gummy-bear pie for my niece, and how my stocks in BLAH something were faring. This way I would know who was doing this to me. I would disdain them... If i were "important" that is =)
- aw3c2 13y ago
  Hey Matt, it was great to meet you at rubyconf last year. Did you get that lawnmower back from Sal? All the best, Kevin

aeontech 13y ago

My view is, if you don't want your data out there... don't put it out there. If it's out there, don't be surprised to see it mined and used :) Especially for people that use consistent handles across the internet.

grecy 13y ago

Likely it doesn't bother Cringely because he's such a public figure. Like most celebs, I bet he gave up trying to hide the vast majority of his life anyway. A scan of his Wikipedia page [1] gives me more information than I know about the vast majority of people I interact with on a daily basis. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely

laureny 13y ago

> Way too creepy for me. Based on my use so far, it only displays information that the user has access to, so I don't see anything creepy about it. What's creepy (in a good way) is how they manage to pick up the things that are actually interesting and relevant, which I often miss since my friends' walls are so busy already.

bmc42 13y ago

Look at it this way: you don't have to use it but people you meet might be using it :)

ZirconCode 13y ago

>> 20-something hipsters on HN think of this Seems very wrong. For some reason, especially the mention of "meeting" the girl at the bar, and of course, "befriending" people on this basis seems wrong overall. I don't think these are really friendships. Seems to be a business world thing. I find it so creepy, I might go out of my way to post hilarious fake information about myself. Like how I baked gummy-bear pie for my niece, and how my stocks in BLAH something were faring. This way I would know who was doing this to me. I would disdain them... If i were "important" that is =)

aw3c2 13y ago
Hey Matt, it was great to meet you at rubyconf last year. Did you get that lawnmower back from Sal? All the best, Kevin