tell me, Mrs. Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?

So--after being forced to admit they've been gathering sensitive data on people who use their search engine--Google's making an offer to encrypt searches for interested clients. We don't know at this point if that will be the start of another witch-hunt against those who want privacy on the net--but it's at least moving in a reasonable direction for privacy mavens.

Meanwhile--while I laud anyone who pushes that hard to get prizes from Runes of Magic--I think there's something hinky about the Grand Prize winner for the Race to 58 on RoM's Facebook page. Why? Because they announced the contest at five pm on Friday, May 21st...and as I write this, on Friday, May 21st, at 6:13 pm PST...there's already a winner.

This? Is not possible. Flat out, one cannot level from start to 58 in one hour, thirteen minutes. This cannot be done. The fighting of monsters alone would take more time.

In other baffling news today, tech giant IBM went to the largest Australian tech convention, AusCERT, partially to demonstrate how foolproof their new security measures were...and distributed virus-laden giveaway USB drives to people who dropped by the booth.

Gee, thanks.

It's all the stranger because something nearly exactly like that happened to Telstra two years back...also at the AusCERT convention.

The incomparable artist and designer of the Windrow-Ravenswood card deck (Winneganfake on Twitter) is having a spot of trouble. Unexpected back injury has meant he's had to drain his resources reserved--prior to the injury--to afford the cost of pain medication and hospital fees.

I understand this--we've had those debates on food versus pain meds for the girl. (Just for the curious? Pain meds win. We can invent food, somehow, or beg from friends and family--but she goes off pain meds, and she seriously starts to think life might not be worth it anymore. There's no future in that kind of thinking.)

He's sent out a statement saying he is markedly improved--which is a good thing--but he can't ship out the thirty orders he has sitting on his desk without selling (he figures) four or five more decks.

If you don't already have this deck, and you have a fascination for vintage ephemera, cogs, cephalopods, and bones, you need this deck anyway. Help the man out and go order a deck if you have twenty US (or, if international, the equivalent of twenty US plus six dollars US in shipping) if you haven't. I can guarantee you won't be disappointed, because they are truly beyond gorgeous, durable, come in their own patterned box...what more can you ask for?

Join the trend--delete your Facebook page. (I especially like the term "Zuckerpunched" in that article.)

If you insist on keeping your Facebook page, even after all the screaming and pitchfork-waving, then, for the love of all gods, go here and read through that, because you will want to know. It explains in depth where each and every Facebook privacy setting is, how to get to them, how to set them correctly, which will save you years of stress down the road, trust me.

And Fleshmap has a fascinating outlook on arousal in all stages--and with thousands of comparisons at this point, is painting some pretty accurate pictures of what and where people like to be touched, just for starters. Well worth exploring. And surprising in a couple of places.

All right, planting a tree, then off the net for a bit. Ta.