Gmail: essentiel d'activer la double identification (avec téléphone) [fr]

[en] Haven't turned on Google two-factor authorization? Do it now, or you risk being the next Mat Honan.

Pour mes lecteurs plus francophones, dans la série “sécurité internet de base”, il est essentiel d’avoir pour votre e-mail non seulement un bon mot de passe, unique, et que vous ne partagez pas, mais également d’activer l’authentification en deux étapes.

C’est le genre de système qu’utilise votre e-banking depuis des lustres: pour vous connecter, vous devez donner votre mot de passe (=quelque chose que vous savez) et prouver via un code reçu par SMS que vous êtes en possession de votre téléphone mobile (=quelque chose que vous avez). Ainsi, le simple crack de votre mot de passe ne suffit plus à rentrer dans votre boîte e-mail.

Une fois activée la double authentification, Google va générer à votre demande des mots de passe à usage unique pour les services et applications que vous avez besoin de connecter à votre compte Gmail. Par exemple, votre logiciel de chat pour Google Talk, votre client e-mail sur votre ordinateur si vous en utilisez un, ou un réseau social qui voudrait accéder à vos contacts pour vous aider à démarrer.

Pas convaincu encore? Lisez Matt Cutts, patron de l’anti-webspam chez Google, qui vaporise un certain nombre de mythes (oui, si vous perdez votre téléphone, il y a quand même moyen pour vous d’accéder à votre e-mail!). Il a écrit cet article suite au hacking assez dramatique dont a été victime Mat Honan (en gros, perdu toutes ses données dans l’histoire, y compris toutes les photos de la première année de vie de sa fille). Si cette triste histoire ne vous motive pas à prendre un tout petit peu sérieusement la sécurité de votre identité en ligne… je ne peux rien faire pour vous!

"Happy Holidays" and Christmas boycotts: Here We Go Again [en]

[fr] Joyeux Noël!

It’s the time of the year again. Christmas. I like Christmas. I’m not Christian. And like each year, the stuff that annoys me is the “let’s boycott Christmas” movement and the American “Happy Holidays” stuff.

Here’s a post I wrote two years ago which pretty much sums it up and is still valid today.

I think making a point of saying “Happy Holidays” instead of simply “Merry Christmas” only emphasizes the religious/believing dimension of Christmas, in a sort of weird Streisand effect: “ew, it’s a Christian celebration, I’m not Christian, I’m not going anywhere near it.” To me this kind of attitude actually smells of fear. What on earth is wrong with considering Christmas a secular celebration of love and peace for those who do not believe (in Christianity), a celebration which has its historical roots in the dominant religious tradition of Europe and America, and that we keep around even when it’s emptied of its religious dimension? (Er… like Thanksgiving, for example?)

And even if it wasn’t, what is wrong with wishing somebody with a different faith of yours a good celebration of something that’s important to them? I have no problem wishing Muslims a Happy Eid, or Hindus a Happy Diwali — or Christians a Merry Christmas. Why would I seize the occasion to point out that I believe that what they believe is not true? I don’t see the point.

But again, my argument is that Christmas has long since ceased to be a religious celebration (except for the more religious Christians out there) and is now mainly a family/commercial thing.

Which brings us to my second pet peeve: people who throw out the baby with the bathwater and reject all of Christmas and all of the gift-giving because of the excesses involved. Of course, present inflation sucks. But there are ways to reject present inflation without throwing out Christmas. You can decide to have less presents. You can put a price cap. You can decide to have only presents that have cost time rather than money. You can have a present lottery with one present given and received per person. There are options.

What irks me the most with the (mostly) American “Happy Holidays” is that I don’t believe that Thanksgiving gets the same treatment. Hullo? Thanksgiving! The pilgrims! Giving thanks to… who, already? I sometimes see the very same people who turn their noses snobbishly up on Christmas joyfully feast on turkey at Thanksgiving. Why the double-standard?

So Merry Christmas everybody. Whatever you believe.

Welcome to India! [en]

[fr] Arrivée en Inde!

“Welcome to India!” is a phrase I often use somewhat ironically. Like, when the Indian Consulate General sends back your visa application paperwork with a note saying “please apply in person” because you didn’t see that applications by post had been discontinued (despite the instructions for applying by post still being on the website), and so you end up on the train to Geneva with those very papers they had in their hands the week before, yes, because they stuffed them in your return envelope to send them back to you so you could bring them back to them in person… Yeah, welcome to India, indeed.

So anyway. All this to say that I’ve arrived. After a little airport adventure (a flight that didn’t exist, flying through Zurich instead of Munich, arriving nearly two hours before we were supposed to!) we made it to Pune. I managed to have a decent number of hours of sleep and still wake up before lunch (methi, Nisha knows I love it).

Sandy, house guest 1 Bruno, house guest 2

I got to meet the two canine house guests, take note of the advancement of the building works in Akashganga since last year, and this afternoon, was faced with the evisceration of the road leading up to the house. I hope nobody needs to take their car out these next days.

Construction works in IUCAA

My plans for the week? Not many:

  • make sure our waitlisted train tickets to Goa get confirmed
  • a couple of trips to the jeweler’s (one to drop off orders and stuff to repair, one to pick up)
  • pick up a SIM card *fingers crossed*
  • meet up with a few people, old and new
  • maybe go to the cinema for the latest Amir Khan movie
  • eat nice food
  • see if I can buy a pair of jeans (a challenge given my size and shape)
  • leave enough space for reading, writing, photography, chatting with my hosts, learning to cook nice food, and general unpredictability of Indian life!

Two hours later: the power is back, I can publish my post! (We’ve been without pretty much all afternoon and Nisha has been cooking by candlelight.)

Economiser vite des sous avec Orange CH [fr]

[en] Two ways to save a little money with Orange Switzerland (or maybe, not spend it uselessly).

Bon, des fois on apprend à ses dépens comment ne pas donner de l’argent inutilement à son opérateur télécom. Même quand on a de la famille qui y bosse et que ledit opérateur télécom est un client (full disclosure, hein).

Alors je partage avec vous:

  • Les plans tarifaires Orange Me ont changé de prix. Moins chers. Mais ce n’est pas automatique. J’ai renouvelé mon contrat en prenant un nouveau téléphone (il était temps) et donc ça a réglé mon cas. Mais peut-être qu’en appelant pour demander à être basculé sur le nouveau plan tarifaire (qui si j’ai bien compris a le même nom et les mêmes formules que l’ancien, juste des prix plus avantageux), on peut changer le prix de son abonnement. A tester.
  • A l’étranger, vous faites bien gaffe de désactiver les données cellulaires, et de ne pas répondre au téléphone ou en faire? Bravo. Par contre, saviez-vous que chaque fois que quelqu’un vous appelle et est dévié sur votre boîte vocale, ça vous coûte? 1.20 + 0.40 à chaque fois. Sans que vous ayez à lever le petit doigt. S’il y a des gens motivés à vous contacter et que vous les ignorez royalement, ça peut finir par vous coûter cher. La solution? Désactiver sa boîte vocale avant de partir à l’étranger. ##002#[Appel] ou bien ##004#[Appel] si vous avez un iPhone. Pour réactiver, le code est un poil plus complexe: **004*086[votre numéro]#[Appel] pour l’iPhone. Ah puis oui, il faudra enregistrer à nouveau le message d’accueil de votre boîte. Eh.

En espérant que ceci permettra à un lecteur ou deux d’apprendre de mon ignorance!

Ah oui, et si vous avez des soucis, essayez le nouveau forum en ligne Community. Je n’ai rien à voir avec, mais je trouve que ça marche pas trop mal et c’est pas encore trop saturé 😉

Off to India [en]

[fr] Départ pour l'Inde. Programme.

My bags are packed, all is set, the plane takes off at 8.50am tomorrow morning.

The Painter of Signs

Why India? The short answer is that I have lived there, have friends there, enjoy the food and the place. And like a sunny warm break in winter. And a good break in my working year — no e-mails for me during my trip.

What’s the plan?

  • Pune (25.12-02.01)
  • Madgaon (Goa) where I’ll be going back to Arco Iris (03.01-06.01)
  • Kannur (Kerala, 06.01-09.01)
  • Mysore, back to Hillview Farms of course (09.01-15.01)
  • Bangalore for a couple of days with Anita (15.01-18.01)
  • Kolkata (18.01-01.02)

Off I go!

A Bunch of Links [en]

[fr] Pelote de liens.

Linkball time.

Now that you’re nice and depressed, let Kim Wilde lift your spirits with an impromptu performance on the train home the other night.

Se raconter, laisser une trace: un peu de moi… pour toi [fr]

[en] A lovely book a friend of mine wrote -- a kind of guided biography to pass down to your children and grandchildren. In French and for sale in Switzerland at the moment, but it will shortly reach the rest of the French-speaking world and be translated in English.

Il fallait y penser: un livre pour se raconter, pour laisser une trace à ceux qui nous sont chers une fois que l’on ne sera plus là.

un peu de moi… pour toi 1

C’est Christine Wirz qui y a pensé. Christine est une copine de judo et d’uni. Comme moi, elle a perdu sa mère trop tôt: elle avait 13 ans. L’autre soir, elle m’a dit: “Qu’est-ce que ça aurait été différent pour nous, si on avait eu ça pour nos mamans.” Elle a bien raison. Quand les gens ne sont plus là, il y a tout un tas de choses qu’on ne peut plus leur demander.

un peu de moi… pour toi 2

Christine et Alessandra Marchetto ont publié à compte d’auteur, en créant albiziabooks (avec une page Facebook à aimer!). J’aurais fait le même choix. (Le monde est petit: c’est Corinne qui a fait l’intégration de leur site web, dans le plus grand secret.)

un peu de moi… pour toi 3

A temps pour Noël, ce très joli livre est disponible dans les librairies romandes (29 CHF). Ne tardez pas toutefois — même si le premier tirage a été important, je ne serais pas étonnée qu’il y ait rupture de stock avant les fêtes.

un peu de moi… pour toi 4

un peu de moi… pour toi 5

Urges [en]

[fr] Un vieux texte ressorti des brouillons.

A draft dating back from March 2010. Probably inspired by a dream.

Loud rhythmic music started drifting in the air, and the crowd on the festival river boats slowly went quiet. People stood up and started dancing and cheering.

I looked at Paul. We could feel the urge, but knew that giving in would only make it harder to resist what would come next.

Everyone sat down as the music went silent.

People looked at each other grimly. They knew that however strong the urge, they should not jump overboard.

In a flash, I noticed the group of children a few seats away.

“You! Come here right away!” I ordered.

A little bewildered, they came withing reach. People around me had understood, caught the children as they arrived, and sat them firmly in the seats next to them.

As for me, I grabbed two under each arm — two girls and two boys.

The girls didn’t budge, but the little boys started struggling and hitting me. I didn’t let go.

CatBlock Fills Your Internets With Cats [en]

[fr] CatBlock vous montre qu'internet est fait de chats. Miaou!

The other day, Anna told me I should blog about CatBlock for Chrome. Here we go.

You knew the internet was made of cats, right? Well, instead of simply hiding ads like AdBlock, CatBlock reveals all the hidden cats inside them.

Since I’ve been using it, it has greatly helped me get my daily cat fix. Yes, with CatBlock, my work is no longer interrupted by a sudden urge to run off and look at cat pictures on Tumblr or I Can Has Cheezburger. (Or wherever the cute cats are hiding nowadays.)

See it in action:

Blog with CatBlock

Blog with Cat (CatBlock

Une Nuit au Sahara -- catblock

catblock -- rencontre sérieuse

You can even send in photos of your own cats if you like. Did you spot Safran?

And if you’re not that into cats, you can tell CatBlock to display pretty much anything: unicorns, dogs, or even motorbikes.

Go download AdBlock/CatBlock, which started off as an April Fools’ joke. You’ll have to pay a small monthly fee but it’s a great way to support the developer of AdBlock.

Meow!

Anil Dash Writes About The Web We Lost [en]

[fr] Le web qu'on a perdu. Nostalgie.

Yes, there are people who have been blogging for longer than me. Quite a few of them, actually. Anil Dash is one. You should read him.

His most recent article (found thanks to danah, who has also been blogging for longer than me, and whom you should also read) is titled The Web We Lost. It hits right on the nostalgia that has been creeping up on me these last years, expressed for example in A Story About Tags, and Technorati, and Tags or Ye Olde-School Blogs Are Still Around.

Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr and Pinterest are all great, but they tend to suck us in, and I feel we are all collectively high on real-time content and interaction. I miss the slower days. I miss the sense of “community” I felt with other bloggers in the old days, as I mention in the wrap-up post to my “Back to Blogging” challenge. I feel that on Twitter and Facebook community has been replaced with network. Networking is great. I love spending time with my network. But it’s not the same thing.

Most of all, the timeline we now live in is made up of transient content. It’s there and gone. It’s the world of orality, of the spoken word which evaporates once pronounced, even though we are typing. We are going back to an oral tradition. Blogs and wikis, however, are still part of the written tradition. We are losing searchability. We are also using content portability due to the lack of RSS feeds on certain platforms, and increasingly restrictive API access. APIs seem to be the promise for more holes in our buckets, but they seem more and more to be a way to control tightly what happens to the content locked in a given platform.

That’s sad. That’s not the way I hoped things would go.

There is more. Go and read Anil’s piece. And leave a comment there through Facebook.