The article was very clever and interesting (also the trip down memory lane, I remember this being possible in MSN Messenger!) but the console warning was a first for me, it's even nicely localized. Do more websites do this?
A Facebook Sixth Sense
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Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#32A somehow similar hack I want to do when I have the time:
When you have a WhatsApp Web tab opened, it keeps a socket connection opened that gives you information such as your phone battery level.
I really want an icon on the Chrome toolbar showing me that charge level.
Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#33The article was very clever and interesting (also the trip down memory lane, I remember this being possible in MSN Messenger!) but the console warning was a first for me, it's even nicely localized. Do more websites do this?
Regarding the warning, a nice StackOverflow question with an answer for a Facebook engineer on the topic:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21692646/how-does-faceboo...
Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook users are apparently broadcasting the fact that they are typing to their conversation partners, why should you ignore that information? If you don't like that, disable that feature, or complain to Facebook if it is not something you can disable yourself (or don't use Facebook). It can't hurt to raise some awareness of what you are invisibly broadcasting in terms of data on-line. (I always liked how this feat…
I suppose it would be even easier to make a script that blocks facebook from sending this information? Does it already exist?
Yes, "Facebook™ Chat Privacy" Chrome extension:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-priv...
Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Used to? Did you stop or does it no longer work? Was it as easy as adding that URL to your ad blocker blacklist?
I've started using a bundled app for messenger.com so haven't looked into blocking them for that. Also use the mobile Messenger app a fair bit. I'd like to switch away from the Facebook platform, but it's seriously difficult to convert people away from it.
I know of various third-party IM clients which allow you to do this. Been a long-time user of Trillian myself, for which this was one of the cooler features back in the day. Allowed you to be notified of people typing, regardless of having an open conversation, and set up whether you wanted to send typing notifications always, only after having sent a initial message, or never. Was pretty cool to be able to say "Hi!" to someone just when they were about to message you. Most of my friends never figured how I did that, since their official clients never supported it so they didn't even know it could be a thing.
Haven't got Facebook myself, but I know Trillian fully supports Facebook chat and I suppose many other (free/open source) IM clients do as well. Such multi-network clients are in my experience great for slowly moving people away from pretty much any network, since they pretty much remove the distinction between them. I just add my friends and let the software figure out how exactly it gets the message to them. :)
Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Used to? Did you stop or does it no longer work? Was it as easy as adding that URL to your ad blocker blacklist?
I've started using a bundled app for messenger.com so haven't looked into blocking them for that. Also use the mobile Messenger app a fair bit. I'd like to switch away from the Facebook platform, but it's seriously difficult to convert people away from it.
Just do it. Seriously, moving away from fb is important, but it won't be seen as such as long as people like you don't flat out refuse to use the crap. It's worked out extremely well personally, drastically cutting down on social noise, thus getting distracted less. Somehow, people who actually wanted to stay in touch, managed to over different channels (of which there's a fuckton; signal being my goto solution).
Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#37Huh this was a really interesting write up on semi-obscured code. I had never seriously thought about crawling through popular sites code like that, I'm definitely going to have to give it a go!
I would really enjoy more such in-depth explanations about major websites.
A bit like this guy's series on game engines: http://fabiensanglard.net/quake3/
Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#38Fascinating article, and thanks for taking the time to research it and write up the results. This kind of thing makes me think that Facebook et al will eventually push for a way of having closed source client-side scripting.
Good for us that there is no such thing as closed source client side logic in web applications (without installing extensions/plugins). You can only obfuscate.
Well, if they introduced some "special feature" that's available only when you install a certain plugin, I am sure millions of people will do it just because they can get the "special feature."
Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#39beep beep beep
Re: A Facebook Sixth Sense
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suppose it would be even easier to make a script that blocks facebook from sending this information? Does it already exist?
Yes, "Facebook™ Chat Privacy" Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-priv...
Anyone else get an error when trying to add this extension?
>Package is invalid. Details: 'Could not load background script 'tracksy/tracksy.js'.'.