Comments

silence • February 17, 2010 3:04 PM

I believe Facebook imposes a limit of 5000 friends. As such, you might want to set up a fan page for people to follow you on — that’s apt to be substantially more useful.

JT • February 17, 2010 3:52 PM

I’d love to get your blog updates through Twitter if you were willing. Coming closer and closer to ditching RSS.

Anyways, thank you for the wealth of knowledge you share here!

Bruce Clement • February 17, 2010 4:31 PM

@Bruce Schneier

Some of those 1,150 followers you have on Twitter will be real people.

Why not reach them by setting up an auto-feed of the RSS of your blog postings to tweets using a service like twitterfeed (.com)?

If it’s all too much like hard work, you have my email address and I’d gladly do the set-up for you … I owe you that & more for all the interesting articles in the old newsletter and now the blog.

Bruce

DaveShaw • February 17, 2010 4:39 PM

“If it’s all too much like hard work, you have my email address and I’d gladly do the set-up for you … I owe you that & more for all the interesting articles in the old newsletter and now the blog.”

Yes, Just sent me you’re usrname and password and It’ll be setup in mooment Mr Schneer.

Sorry Bruce C, couldn’t resist it :D.

Dave

Bruce Clement • February 17, 2010 4:43 PM

@DaveShaw

I’m sure Bruce S would have the sense to send me a unique temporary password just for the previously unused twitter account.

I’m fairly easy to identify … the registration data on my domain is real & my identity can be verified in the New Zealand white pages, electoral roll, etc.

But a big please to any Americans thinking of phoning, please take into account the “Round Earth Theory” and consider what the local time is here first.

Markus • February 17, 2010 5:11 PM

That a very epic statement: I finally have control of my Facebook page.

It implies that there was Facebook page before which was yours, but you did not have control over. A contradiction in itself in my view.

aikimark • February 17, 2010 5:50 PM

I’m just mirroring my site

Wouldn’t I need to hold a mirror in front of my monitor to read it? 🙂

d3sm0nd • February 17, 2010 6:07 PM

@Markus–

I don’t know, it seems to me that it’d be incorrect for most Facebook users to assert that they DO have control of their respective pages. 🙂

The Archon • February 17, 2010 7:28 PM

“Et tu Bruce?”

Who’s Brucus?

(Sorry, just read the Wikipedia article on the vocative case. And now I’m thinking of Bruce in a toga. WHY DO YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME THINK WEIRD THINGS?)

Jon • February 17, 2010 9:06 PM

You know Facebook. It’s that site where most people expose their date of birth, mother’s maiden name, first car, first pet, etc. to friends and high school classmates.

Doug • February 17, 2010 11:26 PM

Please keep your blog here too. I value privacy more than social networking (especially with Facebook’s ‘forced disclosure’ privacy settings), and will never have an account there. I also appreciate that Twitter begins with ‘Twit’…it’s a waste of time and energy.

Don’t even get me started on the business model (i.e. where’s the profit) questions on both services….

lars • February 18, 2010 2:59 AM

“Et tu Bruce?”
Not really. I’m just mirroring my site.

I would really like a mirror of this site in some decentralized communication infrastructure. What about usenet-schneier instead of facebook, or IRC and Jabber instead of twitter? And while we’re at it, dump it in the darknet too. (Censor-protection for Schneier…)

I really never… well, actually I understood why “the majority” seems to not find their way into those, but the reasons I found are not exactly compliments. But I do somehow dream of a world where the internet really remembers its decentralized roots and starts to use the synergy and power of “the many” …again.

Dave • February 18, 2010 5:31 AM

The words ‘leaping’ and ‘bandwagon’ spring to mind…

Honestly Bruce, you really don’t need to follow the herd to Faceache and Twatter. They are ‘of the moment sites’ – in vogue today but destined to be usurped in a few years time by ‘the next big thing’. Probably Google Buzz.

If you’ve joined Facebook, then why not MySpace and Bebo too? All the cool kids hang out there! Honestly, all these social networking sites are just so much hot air, and the biggest waste of time since watching paint dry became unfashionable.

You already have your own website incorporating a very popular blog. It’s all you need.

Soullessatheist • February 18, 2010 5:40 AM

@Dave

“Honestly Bruce, you really don’t need to follow the herd to Faceache and Twatter. They are ‘of the moment sites’ – in vogue today but destined to be usurped in a few years time by ‘the next big thing’. Probably Google Buzz.”

Didnt people say that about Blogs a few years ago? Facebook, MySpace et al have been around for quite some time now. 6 years ISTR. While it probably wont last for ever, thats not really a flash in the pan*

If you dont like facebook (I dont), dont use it (I dont). Does it matter to you if someone else choses to use it?

—
* unless contrary to expectations, our internet timescales have changed to the degree that half a decade can be viewed as a blink of an eye….

Dave • February 18, 2010 6:52 AM

@Soullessatheist

Of course Bruce is perfectly free to do as he chooses. He could paint his body green and run around shouting “I’m a squid!” and it wouldn’t matter to me in the least.

But I do think that Facebook and Twitter are fads which will stagnate over time. Better to have your own independent website and blog. People are also discovering that they can’t extricate themselves from social networking sites once they’ve joined. So some people ‘defect’ from a once popular site to an ‘in vogue’ site, but the ‘baggage’ from the previous site won’t go away. The more you get sucked into the social networking craze, the messier it gets.

There’s also an argument that social networking and security/privacy are mutually incompatible. After all, the whole point of social networking is to broadcast information about yourself. Which is probably why social networking sites are a treasure trove for ID thieves and fraudsters. So, as a respected figure in the security field, is Bruce sending out mixed messages by joining the social networking frenzy?

Kevin • February 18, 2010 7:34 AM

“So, as a respected figure in the security field, is Bruce sending out mixed messages by joining the social networking frenzy?”

Not at all. I think he’s sending the right message. The message I take: Understand the risks, act appropriately and move beyond fear.

Rich • February 18, 2010 8:06 AM

So how did you get your facebook back?
I lost control of mine months ago and can’t find any way to get it returned

David • February 18, 2010 8:57 AM

@Dave: I believe Bruce is going to keep the blog (and I certainly hope so).

As far as social networking and security/privacy goes, it’s a matter of limiting the information out there. There is nothing on my Facebook account that I don’t mind broadcasting to the entire world. (This is because I have absolutely no faith in any security or privacy assurances any social site offers.)

There’s public information on me, and private information. I don’t post anything I want private. I have at least some control over what becomes public on Facebook, which I don’t have with, say, credit reporting.

Facebook.com • February 18, 2010 9:18 AM

“I finally have control of my Facebook page.”

Actually we just let you think that you do.

HJohn • February 18, 2010 11:10 AM

@Craig: You may be known as a social networking guru in years to come 🙂

I don’t know if he still writes restaurant reviews in Minneapolis or not, but if so I certainly would enjoy if those were occassionally mentioned on his facebook site as well. I’m not in Minneapolis enough to read the paper, but I’m there enough to care about good restaurants.

Then again, i read about the restaurant reviews on Wikipedia, so it could be totally inaccurate altogether. 🙂

RH • February 18, 2010 11:44 AM

@dave:
“Of course Bruce is perfectly free to do as he chooses. He could paint his body green and run around shouting “I’m a squid!” and it wouldn’t matter to me in the least.”

I would at least have some concern for his mental wellbeing if this occured.

That being said, Bruce, could you clarify your statement about “regaining controll?” Did someone else setup a facebook page in your name pretending to be you, or are you making a generalized statement about their terms of service?

Fausto • February 18, 2010 2:32 PM

I am interested that Bruce uses his Twitter account to share thought and other info. That would be REALLY interesting and in no way useless tweets.

Moderator • February 18, 2010 3:18 PM

HJohn,

Your timing is perfect–Bruce’s archive of restaurant reviews was completed just this week.

http://www.schneier.com/restaurant.html

(I recommend the “Restaurants at the End of World” section at the end of the 2001 Minneapolis restaurant guide — especially the part about the food stall in Yoseu, Korea.)

RH,

It’s nothing exciting. Someone created a fan page for Bruce on Facebook — with permission, I believe. When Bruce decided to mirror his blog feed there, the originator gave him admin access.

Thomas • February 19, 2010 1:21 AM

I won’t worry about Bruce having gone to the ‘dark side’ until Squid-Friday turns to LOLcat-Friday

Nick P • February 24, 2010 12:40 AM

@ acq

He looks funny in that pic. Maybe swap it with one of his moments of mad gesturing at conferences. Or maybe one of those serious looking book cover pics where he looks like the Rogue Warrior. Minus the killer instinct… 😛

Xenioth • May 13, 2010 2:45 PM

OHOE
OFYN
KBTJ

Still is bugging me as I am unable to actually solve it. The book Beyond Fear was loaned to me, and you left that message with your signature.

Good read so far, though the encrypted text is killing me.

Moderator • May 13, 2010 3:12 PM

Xenioth, the F there should be an E. And I think if you consider it from every angle, you’ll find the encryption is fully justified.

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.