Dodgy FOI decision by Gillard Government: Update

11 months ago, I asked for an explanation of why the Gillard government applied a decision making process to an FOI request in 2010, that was later that year made illegal. I didn't realise at the time that the legislation outlawing the behaviour was not yet in effect, but realised after sending the email to the MP Anna Burke. I already updated my original blog post indicating I realised my mistake, but never bothered to tell the MP.

Well, I just got an emailed reply, just ridiculously late.

tl;dr: No surprises. She claims that the result "might" change based on the changed definitions, or they might find another hiding place, and it would be up to someone to actually lodge a request for a review, rather than the government correcting itself proactively.

And here it is, in full:

Oracle's Dark Pattern with the Ask Toolbar

I just noticed Oracle's use of a dark pattern in the latest Java update:

There is a checkbox to install the Ask Toolbar and to set Ask as the default search provider.

The text next to the checkbox is not clickable. This means that someone who clicks through quickly has 2 chances to install extra crapware on their computer. They are:

1. Not noticing the opted-in state of the checkbox; and
2. Noticing the opted-in state, but quickly clicking the label next to the checkbox then clicking next, not realising that the checkbox is still checked.

Most companies would stop after the first dodgy practice, though one is one too many.

The latter is the one for which I almost fell, but luckily my lack of coordination saved me and I missed the next button.

Anyone else seen some interesting Dark Patterns?

Tyrannosaurus Lex

His judgements are firm, but fair.

OK, that's enough time-wasting. I've really got to get back to this essay now...

Animation: Product Launch

This is unrelated to my previous post, which also happened to contain an animation of mine.

This one is just because I am procrastinating about writing an essay on cybercrime, and I was wondering if there are limits to how much any old mundane product could be over-hyped.

I was told by someone I know that posting comments on my blog isn't working at the moment - It's rare enough that anyone wants to comment, so I don't exactly test the functionality. Tweet to me @dcrafti if you have any problems.

University: Time Well Spent

Here's a flip animation I did in the margins of some lecture notes back in my uni days around a decade ago. I can't remember what subject it was, and I can't be bothered finding the notes, but I think it was introductory telecommunications or something equally compelling.

I'd been meaning to make this into an animated gif to preserve it for future generations, and finally got around to it tonight, when I should be working on an essay about cybercrime.

Well, that's enough procrastination...