Big Brother – Facebook Style

My friend Ben Hillman is an animator and graphic artist who has his own firm in New York. He possesses an acerbic wit and very definite political opinions. When he learned that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerman was a proponent of (and investor in) the Keystone Pipeline and drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Reserve, he developed a little graphic to display his ire:

Ben posted this on his wall on Facebook. Shortly thereafter (less than a minute) I saw the post and shared it on my wall. It appeared on my wall for less than one minute. There was a page refresh and then it was gone. It was also removed from Ben’s wall as well. 

The take away is this: Everything you post is being monitored by Facebook in real time. You have no privacy. They will censor your political and social opinions.

Finally, Mark Zuckerberg is a thin skinned douchebag.

For some interesting reading on the same subject, click here.

The censor of the graphic is mine. We’re trying to run a relatively PG blog here. For the actual, uncensored NSFW graphic, click here - Ed.

Facebook and Yahoo! NOT forming strategic alliance | VentureBeat.com

[Update] Rumor has it the rumors are wrong. While Facebook and Yahoo! may work together on certain projects and collaborations, a search alliance is not likely to be one of them in the near future.

Female executive powerhouses Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandburg may be forging an alliance between their two companies.

UK newspaper The Sunday Telegraph reported that Mayer, who is the CEO of Yahoo! and Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, are discussing ways the they can work together to conquer the internet. There is already some overlap between Yahoo! and Facebook, but according to unnamed sources, “board members expect the talks to lead to much more substantial collaboration based around web-based search.”

Read More.

Its Becoming Clear That No One Actually Read Facebooks IPO Prospectus Or Mark Zuckerbergs Letter To Shareholders – Business Insider

Mark Zuckerberg set up the entire structure of the company so he wouldn’t be forced to make dumb short-term decisions by whining public-market shareholders. And he TOLD them that he wasn’t going to make those decisions. They just didn’t listen.

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ZNGA Zingered | ZeroHedge

Invest in a company that is nothing, has nothing, and makes nothing, on the hope that it turns into something.  A sure thing.

- Ned Zeppelin, Zero Hedge comment

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Why I Tearfully Took Down My Pinterest Inspiration Board | DDK Portraits

There is a lot of buzz around Pinterest. One of the core concepts is that you don’t promote your own work, but instead build inspiration boards using other peoples’ materials. This would be all good and fine, except it runs smack into copywrite law and an iron clad ‘terms of use’ that makes you, the user, solely liable for any infringement, intentional or other wise.

In a lengthy article, the author explores the legal trap Pinterest has set for it’s users:

Being both a photographer who loves Pinterest (and admittedly had some really great “inspiration” boards full of gorgeous work from other photographers) and a lawyer who, well, is a lawyer, I decided to do some research and figure this out.  And what I discovered concerned me.  From a legal perspective, my concern was for my own potential liability.  From an artist’s perspective, my concern was that I was arguably engaging in activity that is morally, ethically and professionally wrong.

88% have creeped an ex’s Facebook | Life | Niagara Advance

“I wanted to see how breakup distress is related to Facebook use,” said Veronika Lukacs, who next week will defend her Masters thesis, called, It’s Complicated: Romantic breakups and their aftermath on Facebook.

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10 Things I Learned from ‘We Are Anonymous’ | Peter Mehit

I read Parmy Olsen’s ‘We Are Anonymous’ over the weekend. It is the story of the infamous hacker collective that brought down the Church of Scientology, Pay Pal, Master Card, Visa, Sony, the FBI and CIA among their numerous conquests. It’s a fascinating read about a group based on a contradiction: A few very talented, capable, creative people performed truly heinous acts because they thought their lives were pointless. This nihilistic perspective drove them until they were caught.

The participants were young. The oldest was 28, the youngest 16. Uniformly, they were the socially awkward. They were bullied and marginalized for most of their lives. Most left the education system in middle school because they were bored or mistreated. All of them lived with parents or relatives, reeking havoc on some of the largest organizations in the world from their bedrooms.

Anonymous was more of accident than a movement. The book details how the hacker collective transitioned from a  chaotic, leaderless group looking for lulz (fun at other people’s expense) to very small team that stole the private information of millions of people only to give it away to secure fame and respect from the hacking community. Without recounting the book, because it’s worth reading to understand hacker culture and the underworld of the internet, I was struck by several points:

Gender Balance on Social Networking Sites | informationisbeautiful.net

Back in 2010 we calculated there were 74 million more women on social networks than men. We’ve had a fresh look at the data. In the age of Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, do chicks still rule?

Read More-Do Chicks Rule?.

So Much for Sharing His ‘Like’ | NYTimes.com

On Valentine’s Day, Nick Bergus came across a link to an odd product on Amazon.com: a 55-gallon barrel of … personal lubricant.

He found it irresistibly funny and, as one does in this age of instant sharing, he posted the link on Facebook, adding a comment: “For Valentine’s Day. And every day. For the rest of your life.”

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Bianca Bosker: Is Facebook About to Crash Its Own Party?

Having attracted 900 million users to the biggest party in history, Facebook now has to sell them stuff — without being a buzz kill.

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Minute by minute, Nasdaq chaos engulfed Facebook IPO | Reuters

That move to a secondary matching engine used the order book as it appeared at 11:11 a.m. – but this meant new orders and changes in orders that came in later did not show up in the opening price.

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Market Day – GM to drop all advertising on Facebook – report

According to the report, the auto giant’s marketing executives “determined their paid ads had little impact on consumers.”

Read Article.

…$100 BN valuation….hmm…-Ed.

Fabian Stelzer Uses Neuroscience To Make Your Website Stickier | Fast Company

5 seconds.

That’s about how long I have to capture your attention on this website and convince you to stick around.

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Anti-Social Media: “Take This Lollipop” Is Your Facebook Profile Through A Psychopath’s Eyes | Fast Company

As the mystery man’s dirty fingernails pound against the keys, it becomes clear what’s on the screen: a Facebook profile. Not just any profile, though; it’s the viewer’s very own. The interactivity is seamless; the stalker’s reflection is clearly visible, glaring off the pictures on the screen. As the creepy erstwhile James Bond scrolls along, becoming increasingly agitated with what he sees, users will recognize their old status updates and messages from friends.

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I did this and it’s the single most creepy thing I’ve seen on the internet. – Ed.

Who’s following you on Twitter or Facebook? Maybe CIA’s ‘vengeful librarians’ | The Washington Post

“But within an hour, it was all surging out on Twitter and Facebook,” the deputy director said. The CIA homed in on 12 to 15 users who tweeted situation reports and cellphone photos of demonstrations

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