leo charre

I’m having to pause a moment to know if to file this under development, or near life experience..

This is how my day at work started..

Dear Linkedin.com,

Today I received a request from one of your members to join your social
networking website.
I joined.
I was offered to scan my email for people I may already know. I was offered to
select from a list of people I have emailed with before, to make a contact
with.
I had a list of ten people.
To make this short- your software has sent requests to people on my email list
without my a) approval, or b) revisio

I’m software developer. I’m a mid level unix hacker. Please- take me
seriously.
You have a serious security issue here.

My platform/specs:

firefox 2.0.0.19
uname output: Linux nicotine 2.6.25.9-40.fc8 #1 SMP Fri Jun 27 15:56:35 EDT
2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

I expect a reply back. If I don’t hear something’s being done about this-
Just- please- being in software myself I get it- but please- this is
embarrassing to your users- *me*.

Leo Charre

I wanted to say some harsher things. But.. I dunno- I thought I’d try to be useful instead of .. just.. venting.

Well- what I really come here to write about ..
I didn’t have any clue what this linkedin.com was.
It’s a little funny, I suppose.
I’ve been using the net since.. well.. since hotmail was happening.
I remember geocities being a wild shiny thing.. and dammit.. it was.

Anyhow, my social networking life has been limited to sleazy promiscuity, some mypage, mm.. what else.. Oh yes, a very short stint on facebook where somehow it listed some psycho bitch as someone I was in a relationship with, and my girlfriend found this and wanted to kill me. I think that’s about it- to all of those days, have long been past.
Linkedin.com.. It seems it’s some kind of professional networking site.
That sounds cool- maybe I can meet some good people in the field- who knows.
At first, as you can see above- I wanted to destroy them.
But some interesting little things have happened as I updated some more information.

I am impressed- I mean- they are glitchy as all fucking hell- like the UN. But- there are some very impressive – well- the site is just..ambitious!
I’m jealous.. Of whomever is working on that website.. I really really am..
They asked for a resume.
So I went and found one.. The first I saw was an html version at http://leocharre.com/resume , so I turned that into a pdf with html2pdf.pl, uploaded the thing.. and… WOW-
They scan the document, and try to extract information from it, like.. what positions you have had for experience.. etc.. And it was kind of .. not a bad try! I mean.. Got some shit wrong.. but.. It TRIED- IT FUCKING TRIED!!! That’s the shit I like to do- heuristics, kind of.. guessing- it gives me a fucking boner.
I mean- computers.. they can’t do things for you. But what puters *can* do- is speed up your work- they can set the stage upon which a human being may revise- edit- and approve- data.
I love that stuff. It’s really a lot of what I do at work.

So.. I was impressed.

In fact- jealous. Of whatever coders are hacking away at that shit.
Of course, once in linkein.com- you can export a pdf of your data, a csv, or a… See- that makes me beyond jealous. That makes me angry.
I wonder if this site is open source or such- at all.. that would be wild. That would be like finding love- or being in Nazi occupied France and meeting some ressitance people.
Wow..

I am jealous. I am angry. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Wow, I should find out who’s hacking for these guys- I’d love to get drunk with them…
AHA I knew it.. a unix hacker. Hm- well- maybe I should just rewrite the entire site.
Yes, oh yes.. I do know- I am aware- I am- really.. I am. Look at my work. I know- I know it’s insane. But- I can do it. I know I could.. hmm….

Ahh..
So.. the “invitation accepted” messages are starting to come in..
Ahh.. I think i’d be less embarrassed dressed up like a transvestite clown taking it up the ass from a dead dog in a elementary school playground- professionally speaking, that is. Because you know, there’s liberal, and then there’s just offensive. Neither of which can be taken to heart- we’re all talk until we do.. the do! Ahh… Ah..

Well there *is* a good thing to this, I’ve had some people who I would never imagine would accept an invitation from me, accept me. Oh, joy- Nah..seriously- some people I’ve briefly interacted with, some hackers- I mean- *real* hackers- People I wouldn’t want to bother for anything, if I saw them walking down the street I would make sure to walk on the other side not to bother them whilst they have their important anti-microsoft thoughts.
Still.. I .. think I want to cry, a little.
This was done on my behalf.. Little me.. I who think that to as much as look at a stanger withouth being asked to- is spam.
My god. I am tainted.
I have sinned- or.. well- Yes. Because it doesn’t ever matter what really happened- it’s all about what what the world perceives you to be- not what you are. Maybe? Because well.. you only *are* via other people?
In the wise thoughts of Mr. Eric Raymond in “The Art of Unix Programming”- If you code open source (ack, he had to call it that, didn’t he.. *gag*) and you have shared with people- if you know other hackers, and they call you and know you as a hacker- you are one.
Peer review. How humbling.
And now- I am the creep who sends linkedin invitations to everyone i’ve ever corresponded with on email.

I think I need to step out for a smoke. Maybe cry a little.

---

Ok, I finally got a response. What did that take.. a week???

Response (LinkedIn – Amber) 05/05/2010 10:32 AM
Dear Leo,

Thank you for contacting LinkedIn Customer Support.

We certainly apologize for any frustration you may have experienced through the process of creating an account on LinkedIn. Please know that LinkedIn values your privacy and has no design on capturing your information.

At the time of account creation (or at any point during your ownership of an account on LinkedIn) the address book import functionality can be utilized. Before being allowed to do this, there is a requirement for the entering of your email account information, whether that is through Yahoo®, Gmail®, AOL® or any other contact list access we support. During this import process, you are also given the opportunity to send Invitations to your imported contacts list. By default, all people on the list are selected to be invited to join your LinkedIn network. The process allows you to review the list and un-check any individuals you do not want to invite at that time before clicking on the ‘Send Invitations’ button. The action of clicking on the ‘Send Invitations’ button is the only way in which an Invitation can be sent to your contacts.

Our intention is for you to have nothing but the most positive of experiences on LinkedIn. If you would like us to remove all pending Invitations sent from your account, we will be more than happy to do so. This action will cancel out the Invitation that was generated from your LinkedIn account.

Thank you for being a valued member of our LinkedIn community!

Amber
LinkedIn Customer Support

Hmm… let’s write back again..

Customer (Leo Charre) 05/05/2010 10:40 AM
Your software may be working- but your design has a bug.
I have pointed out the bug. You assure me this is not a bug.
Your answer is unacceptable.

Leo Charre

No- That’s of no use..

Customer (Leo Charre) 05/05/2010 11:47 AM
I have revised once again the process that you mention which would activate the action to send invitations.
1) I enter my email+password, and it looks for a list of people that I correspond with-
2) I get a list of these contact- I see also which of these people are already on linkedin- I can select who I send an invitation to.
This is the behaviour I *do* expect from such an action.

This is *not* what happened on signup.
I saw a list- of maybe 6 people.
There was no ‘next’ or ‘keep searching’ link, etc.

On signup- your design, automatically sent invitations to people – on *my* behalf- to people- to real human beings- without my revision- or approval.
Do you think this is sitting ok with your users?
That’s a rhetorical question.

I have corresponded with my peers in the industry and I’ve been laughed at for trusting my email+password tuple to a social networking site.
Do you understand what this says for your reputation? Devopers think of your security/privacy policies akin to spammers and pyramid scheme scammers.
This is not the view I hold for services such as the one from your organization. This is not how I want to view your organization.

I don’t care about the sent invitations. I will deal with that.

What I am trying to do for you is what we do in free software- which is– when there is a problem with your software, I tell you.
You make note of it- you put it on a todo list. You fix it- according to your priorities.

And if you don’t-
Well. If you’re writing free sofware I just fix it and re-release.
In your case- If one were inclined- I would rewrite your entire service.
Only it would work right.

Leo Charre

Hm.. too bitchy… Must ad some positive reinforcement- after all- My intent is not venting. .

Customer (Leo Charre) 05/05/2010 12:03 PM

want to stress that I am bothering to detail this event because – well. . I am impressed with a lot of what your services are trying to do.
I think it’s incredibly ambitious. The pdf/resume scanning heuristics are- Well, I’m just incredibly happy to see someone trying to use computers for what they are *meant* to do- which is to prepare data for human revission.

You just really really need to keep careful track of the feedback. Maybe you’re already doing that, I hope so.

Leo Charre

And we wait. I assume from last time- they will either never reply- or it will be in a week. I hope they fix this shit- I really like the stuff they’re doing there- but if they won’t do this- I am kind of tempted to do something crazy. Like a gpl version of the entire concept. That would be insane. It would also succeed.
It would be the only thing I do night and day for a while. I wouldn’t be able to spend any time with my kids girlfriend cat friends.. Hmm..