Saturday, November 27, 2004
None Of Your Business
One of the things I hate the most about looking around for news stories online is those sites that demand I give them all of my personal information before I can get in. It’s a problem for many bloggers as well as blog readers when the blogger tries to link to an article. What happens in a lot of cases is that the article won’t appear until the reader makes up a screen name and password as well as check off personal information such as how much they make, their zip code, their job title, etc.
In the past I have just made up stuff. Some days I’m a rich, old man living in Rhode Island and sometimes I’m a poor, unemployed, student living in Colorado. Regardless, it’s still a pain in the backside that I have to try to remember my login every fricken time I want to follow the link or read a story.
Welp, my friends, our troubles are over.
We will no longer be forced to go through this hassle for any given news outlet because there is:
BugMeNot.com.
How does this work? Let’s say you’re reading your favorite blog and the writer has linked to, oh, the Washington Post, (why any self respecting person would read that paper is beyond me, but we’ll just use it in this case as they demand your blood type, a DNA sample and your 5th birthday party wish list before you can enter.) Go to the WaPo and then open another window with BugMeNot.com and type in the URL for the site you wish to enter. Click “show logins” and BugMeNot.com will give you a fake login name and password to use for that site. Go back to the WaPo, enter the user name and password provided and wa-la! You’re in and the WaPo doesn’t get to be all up in your business or wasting your time while you fill out ridiculous, “We’re just trying to get to know our consumer base” questionnaires.
If you use a browser like Mozilla, (get off IE!), you can save that password and username directly on the page for later use. This also protects you should you ever get hacked or a virus...it’s not like it’s your personal name and password.
So, there you are. If you are one of the thousands upon thousands who have grown beyond irritated with having to submit all this information just to view a site or story, you now have an alternative to either succumbing or missing out altogether.
P.S. If you already knew about this, slap yourself around for not sharing it sooner.
<--- Here Endeth The Lesson
Posted by
Serenity at 03:05 AM
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