Can Commons work without the Timeago module, and which (other) modules are also calling home?

a) On some sites and for example early projects, a security concern may mean that one does not want to make the site known to the outside world, perhaps at least not until later/ready. It seems that Commons makes such calls out to other web servers "uncalled for", for example trying to reach http://timeago.yarp.com/jquery.timeago.js . (which incidentally has not been available and thus causing errors).

Can this be avoided? For example, is that the case if that .js file is in the local folder? Any other such modules that also calls out/home/etc. before configuring them to become active? Obviously social-media related features calls home, but do any of them start doing that on their own before the administrator has configured them (started to actually use them)? Would like to know which modules are revealing the presence of a site before the admin can prevent it.

b) Can Commons be configured to work without the current dependency on the Timeago module? Would that be simple or complex to do?