It turns out this is a “social plugin” from Facebook embedded in an iframe. As a (mostly former) web developer, I know that means CNN.com doesn’t actually know who I am; rather, that content is hosted on Facebook but embedded on CNN’s website in a way that CNN can’t access. But it’s ridiculous that I have to look at the source of a website and understand the DOM security model to know that. People see their friends’ activity on CNN.com and think the website knows who they are, and there’s no Facebook preference to turn that off.

Just to reiterate that, Facebook wants websites to embed iframes that can look just like their surroundings on the page and trick the user into thinking that website knows them and their friends, and didn’t bother including a way to turn that off. Maybe this iframe thing will catch on and my bank will start letting me log in from other websites too!

I considered these things and tried to think of any benefit of the Facebook service that came to close to outweighing its clear violation of my privacy. And then I deactivated my account. The answer was a definitive “no, I don’t even use the site that much anymore and don’t want to be involved if this is the direction they’re going”.

The first two days were rough; I had formed such a Facebook habit that I would go to click where my bookmark used to be and briefly hunt for it before remembering why it’s gone. But after that it got a lot easier, and today I didn’t really miss it or even think about it at all.

I’m not writing this post to try to convince anyone else to deactivate their accounts, though I know others who have for the same reasons. I understand that everyone values privacy differently (especially Facebook, apparently) and for some people the value provided really is worth the cost. I’m mainly writing it so that it’s public and I’ll be more likely to stick to my deactivation in case it gets more difficult to stay away. (ex-Facebook group therapy meetup, anyone?) Although, now that I’ve disabled third-party cookies in my browser, effectively turning off the “social plugins”, I might even consider reactivating my account down the road if they abandon this scary, scary direction they’re headed. But that seems pretty unlikely.

As the product manager of a website full of user-generated content, I try to keep up with what others solving some of the same problems are doing, and Facebook is certainly a leader in this space. That’s partly why I’m so disappointed that someone in a similar position made a conscious decision to make these new features opt-out and some parts not have an “off” switch at all. This is where I am reminded how awesome it is to work for a company that puts the user above everything else.

I guess Facebook and I will just have to agree to disagree on my privacy.

I can’t bear to type out all of the details, but I was supposed to arrive in San Jose at 8:12pm on Wednesday and instead arrived in San Francisco at 6:30am on Thursday, after which I immediately had to attend Add-on-Con without sleeping.

A breakdown of the trip:

• Hours waiting in airport: 6.5
• Hours waiting in airplane on ground: 6.5
• Hours actually flying: 4.75
• Hours of sleep on the plane: 2

And to top it off, the same snow that made my trip miserable on Wednesday brought fun and joy to everyone back home in Baton Rouge.

From Mozilla, Mark Finkle will be giving a presentation on leveraging third party APIs to create mashups with add-ons. Having Mark in attendance is great for both myself and add-on developers: I get to send all technical questions to Mark, and add-on developers don’t get incorrect technical answers from me! It’s a win-win.

Mike Shaver will be taking part in a panel on the future of the web browser, along with representatives from Microsoft and Google to wrap up the sessions. As former Director of Ecosystem Development (loosely translated: “add-ons”), Mike has a long history of working with add-on developers and improving extension support in Firefox. Plus, he’s kinda funny.

On the business track, Brian King will be exploring the state of the Mozilla Add-ons universe. You can read more details in Rey Bango’s post on the Add-ons blog.

Additionally, Mozilla will be hosting an add-ons open house the night before, so if you’re interested, you can find the details on the wiki. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the open house as my flight gets in later.

I’m also very happy to announce that I’ve accepted a full-time position with Mozilla after graduation in a few weeks, and will be moving to the San Francisco Bay Area very soon. It’s been a great 2-3 years being immersed in add-ons at Mozilla and I’m very excited for what’s coming in 2009.

If you’ve ever been to Louisiana during the summer (or anytime, really), you know that it is extremely hot and humid and that when the power and air conditioning goes out, older people and others have a lot of trouble breathing. Fortunately I’m not one of them, and I got my power back 2 days ago, 8 days after the storm. Most traffic lights in town are still out and traffic is a nightmare, although the parish curfew ended this morning.

After a few days of being without power and getting very behind in work projects, I headed to Mountain View for a few days to be productive. Things are slowly getting back to normal. Classes started again on Monday because we can’t miss anymore — we’re already having to go on a few Saturdays to make up last week.

I gave a presentation on Web Analytics this morning. When I told the class that I’d be talking about Web Analytics, before I even mentioned Mozilla, someone immediately raised their hand and asked if I know the “analytics pioneer” Ken Kovash. I lied and said no, because frankly I’m tired of everyone asking me to get his autograph, strands of hair, chewing gum, etc. for them. You’ll have to wait in line like everyone else.

I’ll be finishing up development of the AMO 3.5 Developer Tools Revamp milestone before I make myself forget CakePHP, but I’ve already started working on a couple of exciting new projects that I hope to share with everyone soon.

I’m looking forward to working with everyone in the coming months in my new role.

The courses I have left to take are:

• FIN 3715 – Business Finance
• MKT 3401 – Principles of Marketing
• MGT 3830 – Strategically Managing Organizations
• ISDS 3200 – Advanced Business Programming
• ISDS 4120 – Business Data Communications
• ISDS 4125 – Analysis and Design of Management Information Systems
• 3 hours Gen. Ed Humanities
• 6 hours ISDS electives
• 6 hours business electives

On Saturday, July 21, most of the interns took a trip to San Francisco to tour Alcatraz Island, followed by dinner in Chinatown. Pictures.

July 24 – 27 I was in Portland, Oregon for the annual O’Reilly Open Source Convention, where Mozilla was a sponsor and had a very large presence. Anywhere I went, people would start talking to me about how much they love Firefox. I had a great time meeting so many people.

The Friday that I got back, a few of us went mini-golfing (it turns out “putt putt” is not used around here). Then that Sunday, we took a trip to San Francisco and walked along Haight Street and explored Buena Vista Park to the top. We then passed through Golden Gate Park to Union Square. After that, we stopped by Coit Tower, Aquarium of the Bay, and Pier 39 before heading home. Andrew got some pictures of the sights and us.

There’s a lot planned for this week – Tuesday is the intern BBQ; Wednesday is the going away party for several of the interns (which I will unfortunately miss due to previous plans to see Avenue Q that night); Thursday is the San Francisco Giants game that we’ll be attending; and it seems like there’s something on Friday and Saturday that I can’t remember.

Last week at work was a big one for me, but I’ll talk about that in my next post soon.

In other news, I got my iPhone last weekend in Palo Alto. It’s really awesome for the most part. I’m not too happy with the built-in Gmail support. It pulls the last 25 emails from Gmail, regardless of whether they’re in the inbox or archived. I also learned that the picture the camera shows you after you take a picture is not in fact the picture it took. Several of my pictures of the Kwik-E-Mart we went to are blurry because I thought they came out fine.

I was really busy at work this week, and next week will be even worse, but hopefully rewarding. The week after that I’ll be in Portland for OSCON.

I suspect I will give in and get an iPhone pretty soon, although I’ll try to hold out as long as possible.