Hidden in Plain Sight
Deepak Alur: So, O wise and famous (to be) anonymous blogger, do me and others a favor. Please forsake your anonymity. Please tell us who the heck you are (on your blog). The world will be a better place.
What’s amusing, to me, is that apparently earlier revisions of this weblog entry contained the following text:
Anyway, while reading Tim’s blog, I found and followed an entry titled Sam Slams SAJAX. This took me me to
http://www.intertwingly.net/blog. Once there, I have no idea whose blog this is except for the name “Sam”
If you are looking at this page in a browser, do me a favor. Look at the title bar on this window. No, not where it says “intertwingly”, above that. Above the address bar in the browser. At the very top of the window.
Have you found my name yet?
If you really want to know who a person is, it will take some effort.
Now, suppose you wanted to find out more about this person. Hmm, I wonder how you could do that? Perhaps a search engine? What information do you want? My bio? A picture? How about directions, address, and phone number?
Now, tell me, does that really help you know who I am?
Deepak says Tim’s author page clearly communicates who he is. Does it really? Tell me, if you were to reduce Tim Bray to the one thing he is most known for, what would that word be? Now look again at that Author page.
The truth is, Tim can’t be reduced to one word. Or one paragraph. Or one page. You know him based on a collection of independent experiences that you have associated with that name and built up over time.
The same is true for me.
BTW, is that a typo in “Hiden” ?
Fixed. Thanks!
So pardon my inexperience.
As near as I can tell, there is no right and wrong here. Everybody approaches the “blogosphere” differently.
Posted by Sam Ruby atSam,
On the flip side of this topic, I know you follow Shneier’s writings closely so aren’t you a little apprehensive about sharing so much personal information? Speaking for myself, I love the level of access. Reading your blog for almost two years, I almost feel like I know you even though we’ve never met. But in this day and age, where identity theft and other forms of mischief are very real threats, I’m frankly a little surprised at your willingness to share so much of yourself with the thousands of strangers that read your blog - myself included.
Thoughts?
Posted by Christian Romney at
Christian, you might be surprised to find out how much information is already out there. The last four digits of your phone number match my street address.
Posted by Sam Ruby at
Correction, that’s your work phone number. I could keep digging, but I think I’ll stop here.
Posted by Sam Ruby at
We live in the age of Google. If you are at all active on the web, anywhere, chances are there’s not much opportunity for hiding.
In any case, I partly agree with Deepak Alur here. It’s frustrating to find a weblog and see interesting stuff, and then try to put a name and a bit of personality to the thing, and come out empty. I’m not saying you can get to know a person that way. That’s obviously impossible. But it’s nice to get a glimpse at the person’s background, however incomplete, just to get an idea of who this is.
Posted by Aristotle atLet’s try an experiment. I’ve added an about link to my front page. Feel free to contribute.
Posted by Sam Ruby at
About me
Sam Ruby: Hidden in Plain Sight This post prompted me to fill in my about page. I’ve been posting here for a long time, and it’s taken this post to get me to realize I should probably tell you a...... [more]Trackback from orbitalworks at
Jumping straight to a new blogger’s bio, as Deepak seeks to do, seems like a great way to avoid learning things from people who might otherwise have taught you something.
I think you generally learn more from an active blogger’s entries than the person’s puff piece biography.
Posted by Rogers Cadenhead atI’m visitng for the first time but when clicked on the link for picture, you get this link from FBI’s most wanted list. And that’s funny. [link]
![[link]](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/yacoub.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/teralyacoub.htm&h=200&w=150&sz=8&tbnid=SIjVAf-evhAJ:&tbnh=99&tbnw=74&start=13&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsam%2Bruby%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN){kind=link}
Posted by amar at
Anne van Kesteren : Hidden in Plain Sight - Ask Google. Really....
Excerpt from HotLinks - Level 1 at
Deepak - to be honest, I’m not sold on it yet.
I haven’t been chair of Jakarta for years, nor have I contributed to Apache SOAP for a similar length of time.
I drive a 97 Chevy Lumina, my wife is the primary driver of the MDX.
Perhaps I should just change the link to read like this:
Give a man a fish, and all that.
Posted by Sam Ruby atInteresting.
Of course, Google is now pointing out that your feed isn’t validating.
;-P
Posted by Bryan Price atHmmm ... I just want to know when the next RTP blogger lunch/breakfast/what-have-you is up so I can go, take pictures on the sly, then Flickr them for big bucks.
Oh wait, I see Sam’s pix on his about me page ... okay, I still would rather meet you guys face-to-face without having to just show up on your doorstep before I fisk your latest and greatest examples of Ruby (the language), Atom and the Universe.
I understand Briggs has some killer pancakes at all hours ... I mean hot cakes. And Red-Hot-N-Blue has some good Pork BBQ ... I mean just BBQ (pork is redundant in this region) ... man, I gotta get used to the lingo.
BTW, I just noticed your warning about comments from the same IP in succession — email me if I’m breaking the rules (gosh, more stuff to learn).
Posted by Mean Dean atMean Dean: you can make an April RtpBloggers lunch happen if you like. I emailed you instructions offline.
Oh, and you just met my Comment Throttle. Generally, its bark is worse than its bite.
Posted by Sam Ruby atI’m thinking as a ‘new guy’ initiation I’ll need to host a cookout at the new home in Apex (once we close and decorate)?
Don’t worry, I’ll make sure there will be buckets of wireless for adults and popicles for the kiddies.
Posted by Mean Dean at
Hiden in Plain Sight
Sam, You are wise indeed ;-) And no i wasn’t trying to reduce Tim or You to any one thing.
[BTW, is that a typo in “Hiden” ? ]
The reason I removed reference to your blogs is because I realized exactly what you are pointing out to me now. Unfortunately, at that time, I wasn’t paying attention to the top of the window (i.e. title). I swear i looked everywhere but.
Regarding Tim’s Author page, i was referring to the fact that it was clear that the page belonged to Tim Bray. I wasn’t trying to reduce Tim to one thing. That would be impossible. And I agree the same is true for many others.
My frustration is when I find some interesting blog (like i did yours), i can’t tell who it belongs to, and I really really want to know. But, that was when i was new to the Blogosphere. So pardon my inexperience. I am still learning.
Posted by Deepak Alur at