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Andy Baio: Think You Can Hide, Anonymous Blogger? Two Words: Google Analytics | Epicenter | Wired.com.

Last month, an anonymous blogger popped up on WordPress and Twitter, aiming a giant flamethrower at Mac-friendly writers like John Gruber, Marco Arment and MG Siegler. As he unleashed wave after wave of spittle-flecked rage at “Apple puppets” and “Cupertino douchebags,” I was reminded again of John Gabriel’s theory about the effects of online anonymity.

Out of curiosity, I tried to see who the mystery blogger was.

He was using all the ordinary precautions for hiding his identity — hiding personal info in the domain record, using a different IP address from his other sites, and scrubbing any shared resources from his WordPress install.

Nonetheless, I found his other blog in under a minute — a thoughtful site about technology and local politics, detailing his full name, employer, photo, and family information. He worked for the local government, and if exposed, his anonymous blog could have cost him his job.

I didn’t identify him publicly, but let him quietly know that he wasn’t as anonymous as he thought he was. He stopped blogging that evening, and deleted the blog a week later.

So, how did I do it? The unlucky blogger slipped up and was ratted out by an unlikely source: Google Analytics.

tl;dr version: Reverse lookup of GA ID.

Why would anyone blogging anonymously care about analytics?

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§85 · November 16, 2011 · Shares · (No comments) ·


Twitter / @drewbrees: I’m watching Baylen on the ….

@drewbrees: “I’m watching Baylen on the baby monitor waking up singing “Black and Gold, Super Bowl”. Is that normal?”

Best baby since this one.

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§83 · November 16, 2011 · Shares · (No comments) · Tags:


Cheeseboy to Open at the Natick Mall in Natick | Boston Restaurant Talk.

A takeout restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches is expanding a bit more into the Boston area, with their next location being in the western suburbs of the city.

If this sort of crap is successful enough to expand, I really need to get into it. Those jokes about “Two Hot Bricks, American Cheese and Some Bread Food Truck” need to become reality.

In the meantime, here’s how to get the great taste of (insert bullshit grilled cheese [food truck, restaurant, sidewalk stand staffed by 4-year-olds] establishment) in your own home:

  1. Make something flat very very hot. Like so hot you can’t touch it.
  2. Get some bread, butter, and cheese from the store. (I’m assuming because you need this tutorial, you don’t already own any of these things.)
    • Doesn’t even matter what kind — the wackier it is, the more gourmet the sandwich.
  3. If you really want that gourmet grilled cheese experience, put a bunch of other shit in there until it becomes what most people call a “melt” or sometimes “cheeseburger”.
  4. Put all that shit between two pieces of bread.
    • If you need help unwrapping the bread, or the cheese, don’t hesitate to comment below.
  5. Rub some butter all over that bread. The more butter you use, the more gourmet it’ll taste.
  6. Put the bread and shit on the hot flat thing for a minute or so.
  7. Flip it over. Don’t use your fingers! Use that spatula thing, that long thing with the flat thing on the end? Looks like a fly swatter. You probably use it as a fly swatter, and that’s OK, just wash it off first.
  8. Take the grilled cheese off the hot thing and eat it.
I’d say these things are the dumbest restaurant idea ever, but there was the whole cereal bar concept that even got a goddamned Zooey Deschanel movie, and Zooey Deschanel is always the trump card for measuring the stupidity of an idea.
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§80 · November 16, 2011 · Blog · (No comments) ·