Archive for the 'Media' Category
Well, These New Zuckerberg IMs Won’t Help Facebook’s Privacy Problems
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his company are suddenly facing a big new round of scrutiny and criticism about their cavalier attitude toward user privacy.
An early instant messenger exchange Mark had with a college friend won’t help put these concerns to rest.
According to SAI sources, the following exchange is between a 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg and a friend shortly after Mark launched The Facebook in his dorm room:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don’t know why.
Zuck: They “trust me”
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
Brutal.
Could Mark have been completely joking? Sure. But the exchange does reveal that Facebook’s aggressive attitude toward privacy may have begun early on.
Since Facebook launched, the company has faced one privacy flap after another, usually following changes to the privacy policy or new product releases. To its credit, the company has often modified its products based on such feedback. As the pioneer in a huge new market, Facebook will take heat for everything it does. It has also now grown into a $22 billion company run by adults who know that their future depends on Facebook users trusting the site’s privacy policy.
But the company’s attitude toward privacy, as reflected in Mark’s early emails and IMs, features like Beacon and Instant Personalization, and the frequent changes to the privacy policy, has been consistently aggressive: Do something first, then see how people react.
And this does appear to reflect Mark’s own views of privacy, which seem to be that people shouldn’t care about it as much as they do — an attitude that very much reflects the attitude of his generation.
After all, here’s what early Facebook engineering boss, Harvard alum, and Zuckerberg confidant Charlie Cheever said in David Kirkpatrick’s brilliantly-reported upcoming book The Facebook Effect.
“I feel Mark doesn’t believe in privacy that much, or at least believes in privacy as a stepping stone. Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong.”
Again in Kirkpatrick’s book, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg puts it this way:
“Mark really does believe very much in transparency and the vision of an open society and open world, and so he wants to push people that way. I think he also understands that the way to get there is to give people granular control and comfort. He hopes you’ll get more open, and he’s kind of happy to help you get there. So for him, it’s more of a means to an end. For me, I’m not as sure.”
Facebook declined to comment about Mark’s attitude toward privacy.
more:
11 Companies that tried to buy Facebook
Original Post: businessinsider.com
No commentsGoogle joins the titans of Silicon Valley lobbying
With great power comes even greater headaches. Just ask Google.
The company’s transition from upstart to Goliath has multiplied its legal and policy problems. There may be no better measure of this phenomenon than Google’s expansion of its lobbying activities on Capitol Hill.
In just five years, the search engine giant has gone from almost no presence in Washington to spending more money on lobbying than all but one other Silicon Valley company in 2009. And in the past three months, Google topped all other valley spenders.
“The growth in their lobbying reflects what the company has become,” said Dave Levinthal, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics. “They’ve gone from a tiny company to a behemoth.”
Google’s drive for influence in D.C. extends beyond dollars and cents, and demonstrates remarkable savvy in the ways of Washington. These include Google funding policy fellowships and hosting politicians at the Googleplex, and Google employees taking jobs in the Obama administration.
Google seems determined not to repeat the mistake Microsoft made in the 1990s when the software company ignored politics until it was ensnared in an epic antitrust lawsuit.
There’s certainly nothing unusual about a company aggressively pushing its agenda. But in Google’s case, I think there’s a disconnect between the company’s view of these efforts, and how they look to outsiders.
Google has always
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been a company that believes it has a special mission to make the world better, and it sees its lobbying and policy efforts as part of that crusade. In truth, this massive investment in lobbying is just one more sign that Google is acting like the big corporation it has become.
That’s neither good, nor evil. Sometimes Google’s interests align with the interests of consumers, and sometimes they don’t. But while Google believes it’s not evil, its size means many others will increasingly question whether its motives aren’t less than good.
I put this idea to Alan Davidson, head of U.S. public policy for Google, who said it’s not true, and that Google works to show humility.
“We’ve always known that with growth comes responsibility,” Davidson said. “We’re grateful for the company’s success. We know as we grow, we need to show that we’re a responsible industry leader.”
It seemed like just yesterday we were writing stories about “Google goes to Washington” as the Mountain View company opened its lobbying office in 2005. Now, Google’s right at home.
In 2009, Google spent $4.03 million on its lobbying efforts, up from $260,000 in 2005, according to U.S. Senate records. In the valley, that’s second only to
Oracle, which spent $5.1 million. And in the fourth quarter of 2009, Google outspent Oracle $1.12 million to $1.05 million.
While Google’s expansion is extraordinary, it does reflect an increase in the valley’s investment in lobbying. The top 10 valley companies increased their lobbying expenditures from a total of $12.4 million in 2005 to $26.4 million in 2009. Only Hewlett-Packard, a company that’s been around for decades, came close to matching Google’s expansion, growing from $380,000 in 2005 to $3.62 million last year.
“There was always a plan for steady growth in our presence,” Davidson said. “We knew when we started the office here, the issues facing our users and industries were only going to grow out here in Washington.”
Davidson notes that on some of the issues that Google lobbies for, it now butts heads with companies that spend far more on lobbying. While Davidson wouldn’t say which ones, he’s most likely talking about telecom companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, whose expenditures ranged from $12 million to $17 million in 2009. Google looks at them, and still sees itself as the guppy.
And in the tech industry, Microsoft and IBM spent more last year, $6.7 million and $5.4 million respectively. But the gap is closing fast.
Davidson said Google’s efforts are benign, aimed at educating politicians and making sure its users’ interests are being heard.
“We started this office with the same philosophy as we did the business,” he said. “If you start with the user and focus on that, everything else will follow. If what we’re doing is good for our users and the Internet community, then it will be good for us in the long term.”
The problem is that the company often seems so certain of its mission that it can’t believe anyone would question its motives.
For instance, in a New York Times op-ed last fall, co-founder Sergey Brin painted Google’s efforts to scan books as a crusade to protect the world’s knowledge against the ravages of history. He bristled over criticisms of a settlement with publishers and authors: “In reality, nothing in this agreement precludes any other company or organization from pursuing their own similar effort. The agreement limits consumer choice in out-of-print books about as much as it limits consumer choice in unicorns.”
Sorry, but it is hubris to expect us to genuflect and accept that Google is doing this purely for the benefit of mankind. Google is scanning books because it expects to make money in some fashion down the road.
Lobbying on behalf of its position doesn’t make Google evil. It just means it’s a big corporation. But for a company with a messianic belief in its purpose, that’s a hard truth to accept.
Contact Chris O’Brien at 415-298-0207
mailto:cobrien@mercurynews.com
Michael Jackson… Post, Moonwalker Torrent
can’t see the video? click here
I don’t have a lot to say about this other than when you recap you say wtf happened. Was it the media, pedophilia, owning the elephant man’s bones that haunted Michael Jackson, was he a robot? I can’t say i don’t have the time, someone’s being shady outside our apartment. This should have been posted two days ago but I’ve been busy. Anti Elvis.
Plot: A movie that starts out with the “Man in the Mirror” music video, it then changes to a montage of video clips of Michael’s career. Next comes a parody of his Bad video by children, and then Michael is chased by fans in a fantasy sequence. 2 more videos are shown, and then a movie in which Michael plays a hero with magical powers. In it he is chased by drug dealer Mr. Big and saves three children. Videos included in the movie are “Smooth Criminal” and “Come Together”.
IMDB: Rating: 4.9/10
Release Date: 1988
Runtime: 1:28:53
Cast: Michael Jackson, Hakeem Abdul-Samad, Khiry Abdul-Samad, Tajh Abdul-Samad.
Genre: Fantasy, Music…. Thriller
Rating: VG
Torrent:
[Moonwalker.1988.DVDRip.XViD] | 693.22 mb
Michael Jackson – Moonwalker + NL sub’s DVD-rip DRaGon | 1.76 gb
[Certifiably accurate about the deceased]
[How Jackson's family handling]
[Share your memory at MichaelJackson.com? i dunno]
[Wiki Michael Jackson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8
BONUS: search “moonwalker” from the search panel to real Michael Jackson: Moonwalker for Sega Genesis.
No commentsInaugural: “Air and Simple Gifts” by John Williams performed by Yo-Yo Ma
Violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Gabriela Montero — offered the premiere of Air and Simple Gifts, composed for the occasion by John Williams (some of you know him better as the composer of the Jurassic Park or Jaws themes). A solid studio recording of the track has yet to be leaked, in the meantime you can listen to this low-fi rip that i scoured the web for. Almost sounds unnaturally flawless, and I know a version had been recorded weeks earlier in preparation… see if you can spot the sync.
if you’re ever heard the Copland, this piece is kinda reminiscent
Torrent: some of Yo-Yo Ma’s great cello concerts (TPB)
…wikis when i have more time…
No commentsScrummage NYE, Detroit -12.31.08
Objectified, a film about industrial design
No commentsObjectified, a film about industrial design, is a new movie by Gary Hustwit. It’s his followup to Helvetica, which was totally awesome. The film should be released in March, 2009.
Paola Antonelli (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
Chris Bangle (BMW Group, Munich)
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec (Paris)
Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis)
Anthony Dunne (London)
Naoto Fukasawa (Tokyo)
IDEO (Palo Alto)
Jonathan Ive (Apple, California)
Hella Jongerius (Rotterdam)
Marc Newson (London/Paris)
Fiona Raby (London)
Dieter Rams (Kronberg, Germany)
Karim Rashid (New York)
Alice Rawsthorn (International Herald Tribune)
Smart Design (New York)
Rob Walker (New York Times Magazine)
and more participants TBA
S2DIO NIGHT JAN 23RD: DetroitExposure.com release party @ the Bankle
This is the first gallery showing of 2009. The event is being throw in collaboration with DetroitByDesign.org to celebrate the founding and development of DetroitExposure.com. Come join us, drink be merry, and buy some of my limited edition works.
[DetroitExposure.com]
[GrimIndustries.com]
[DetroitByDesign.org]
Detroit By Design Fashion Show, Bankle Building 12.06.08
been uber busy, I might put up the shots from motorcity if a few more people mail me.
[cyberoptix.com] clothing by Bethany Shorb
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