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via David Brooks, The New York Times As a young man, Peter Thiel competed to get into Stanford. Then he competed to get into Stanford Law School. Then he competed to become a clerk for a federal judge. Thiel won all those competitions. But then he competed to get a Supreme Court clerkship. Thiel lost … Continue reading
via Mark Hachman, PC Mag Facebook’s strength—that it has evolved beyond a social network, into a platform—appears to be its greatest weakness, at least in the mobile market. Much has been made in the last week about Facebook’s inability to derive revenue from or otherwise monetize its mobile business. That may be one of the … Continue reading
via Marcus Wohlsen, The Huffington Post A watchful eye has arrived on San Francisco’s bar scene, but not to keep you in check. It just wants to check you out. A new app launched this weekend that will scan the faces of patrons in 25 bars across the city to determine their ages and genders. … Continue reading
via Matt Krantz, USA TODAY Facebook shares jumped 13% to $43 as the stock opened in the frenzied first minutes of trading Friday, but just as quckly the price slid, tas investors stormed Wall Street to trade shares of the world’s leading social networking company. The stock rose $5 from its initial price of $38 … Continue reading
via Steve Olenski, Social Media Today Facebook is currently testing the idea to charge users to highlight a given post or picture on their Facebook wall. Let’s say you’re out one night at a club and you take a picture of your buddies making complete idiots out of themsleves and you want to post that … Continue reading
via John Naughton, The Guardian: The Observer Earlier this year, American legal scholar Tim Wu published a sobering book: The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. In it, he surveyed the history of the great communications technologies of the 20th century – the telephone, movies, broadcast radio and TV. And in the … Continue reading
via Venkat Balasubramani and Eric Goldman, ARS Technica This post references a case decided by the US District Court of Eastern Virginia, Bland v. Roberts, 2012 Bland and his cohorts worked in the Hampton Sheriff’s Office, under B.J. Roberts. Roberts ran for re-election against Jim Adams, and the plaintiffs were lukewarm in their support of Roberts. … Continue reading
via Alex Fitzpatrick, Mashable The House of Representatives changed, then passed, the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, late Thursday afternoon. As the dust settles, many are wondering where CISPA stands now and where it’s headed next. Hey Mashable, what’s CISPA? CISPA’s designed to let private business share information about … Continue reading
Social media—from Facebook to Twitter—have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)—and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill. A report on what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and our society. … Continue reading
via Dave Jamieson, The Huffington Post In a victory for privacy hawks and worker advocates, Maryland legislators passed a bill Wednesday that would ban employers from asking job candidates or current employees for their passwords to social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter. If the bill is signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and becomes law, … Continue reading
via Morgan Little, Chicago Tribune In spite of their hopes, Internet activists are finding that their efforts to keep the digital world free of further regulation did not end with SOPA’s defeat. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 is working its way through Congress, and is the latest proposed legislation to raise … Continue reading
via Josh Constine, TechCrunch Facebook has just finished a deal to acquire mobile photo sharing app Instagram for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock. Instagram will remain an independently branded standalone app that’s separate from Facebook, but the services will increase their ties to each other. The transaction should go through this quarter pending some standard … Continue reading
via Alexia Tsotsis, TechCrunch It’s hard to tell if the Wikipedia article on April Fools’ Day is itself an April Fools’ prank. Tidbits of the ubiquitous holiday’s history seem like jokes in and of themselves; “In France and Italy, children and adults traditionally tack paper fish on each other’s back as a trick and shout … Continue reading
via Ross Anderson, The Atlantic Our mourning rituals are being adapted to — and evolving because of — our strangely persistent online personas. In this interview, a philosopher tries to make sense of death on the Internet. Think of how rich and deeply personal your online persona has become. Now think of what will happen … Continue reading
via Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic You might not think about the Fourth Amendment while you’re using Facebook and other online tools, but you probably should. You are no doubt familiar, now, with Facebook’s concept of “frictionless sharing.” You enable a social reader like the one from the Washington Post and the next time you read … Continue reading
via Bianca Bosker, The Huffington Post Google’s plan to collapse 60 privacy policies into a single one and combine informationit collects about its users has sparked outcry among privacy advocates and scrutiny from lawmakers around the world. Privacy experts have slammed the approach as “frustrating,” “a little frightening,” and even “illegal.” But users will not notice much of a … Continue reading
via Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet A Homeland Security training manual belies claims made by DHS representatives during a Congressional hearing last week that the federal agency is only monitoring social media outlets for “situational awareness,” and proves the fact that Bis Sis is also tracking online criticism of government, including discussion of airport body … Continue reading
via Denny Watkins, Men’s Health News Facebook used to be a source of amusement and happiness—why else would 483 million people check in daily? But if you find your news feed to be more of a bummer with each passing day, you’re not alone. In a study presented at the recent Society for Personality and … Continue reading
via Somini Sengupta, The New York Times The unlikely coalition of companies and consumer groups that last week helped quash antipiracy legislation on Capitol Hill is now weighing the future of what might be called lobbying 2.0. Can the Internet industry, along with legions of newly politicized Web users, be a new force in Washington? … Continue reading
via Luke Johnson, The Huffington Post The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), have ignited widespread online protests–yet there is considerable confusion surrounding the legislation. Here’s a rundown of how the bills would work: The legislation would allow copyright holders and the Justice Department to seek court … Continue reading
via Jasmin Melvin, Reuters Lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation in its tracks on Friday, delivering a stunning win for Internet companies that staged an unprecedented online protest this week to kill the previously fast-moving bills. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would postpone a critical vote that had been scheduled for January 24 “in light … Continue reading
via Sarah Skidmore, Christian Science Monitor Wikipedia will black out the English language version of its website Wednesday to protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress, the foundation behind the popular community-based online encyclopedia said in a statement Monday night. The website will go dark for 24 hours in an unprecedented move that brings added muscle … Continue reading
via Liz Gannes, AllThingsD Counting Twitter mentions would have you believe that Ron Paul is the most popular Republican candidate in the ongoing U.S. primaries. Umm, right. But some social media analysis of politics is going beyond that. A partnership between Facebook and Politico announced today is one of the more far-reaching efforts. It will … Continue reading
via Maggie Haberman, Politico If it’s Sunday, it’s meet the candidates. In a debate moderated by “Meet the Press” host David Gregory, the six remaining major GOP presidential hopefuls took the stage for the second time in 12 hours — and this one was a far livelier and entertaining debate than the forum the night … Continue reading
Facebook via Greg Hoard, Slate Facebook on Tuesday launched a new program that makes it easier for anyone expressing suicidal thoughts to get help. The Associated Press reports that the social-networking giant has added a feature that allows users to instantly connect with crisis counselors through its chat messaging system. The new service works like so: If … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 