04

Oct

Facebook Reaches Milestone & Hits 1 BILLION Users

The SOCIAL NETWORK SITE everyone seems to be addicted to, well almost everyone. 1 billion users, WOW!

Mark Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook “Celebrating a billion people is very special to me. It’s a moment to honor the people we serve.For the first time in our history, we’ve made a brand video to express what our place is on this earth.We believe that the need to open upand connect is what makes us human. It’s what brings us together. It’s what brings meaning to our lives.

Facebook isn’t the first thing people have made to help us connect. We belong to a rich tradition of people making things that bring us together. Today, we honor this tradition. We honor the humanity of the people we serve. We honor the everyday things people have always made to bring us together:

Chairs, doorbells, airplanes, bridges, games. These are all things that connect us. And now Facebook is a part of this tradition of things that connect us too. I hope you enjoy this video as much as we do.

Thanks for helping connect a billion people. We honor the everyday things that people make to get together and connect.”

LA Times reports —Internally, Facebook employees followed the live countdown and quietly popped the champagne corks on Sept. 14 when the company hit 1 billion users. The achievement is particularly meaningful to Zuckerberg, who started the company in his Harvard dormitory room and has never been shy about his ambition of connecting everyone on the planet.In June 2010, Zuckerberg said it was “almost a guarantee” that Facebook would reach 1 billion users. As of the end of June 2012, the company reported it had more than 955 million monthly active users.

In February, when it filed for its initial public stock offering, it said it had 845 million users. Facebook crossed over the 500-million user threshold in 2010. The hit film about Facebook, “The Social Network,” was promoted with the phrase: “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” The statistic was out of date before the movie even opened.Facebook held an on-campus hackathon Wednesday night to commemorate the milestone of 1 billion monthly active users. Facebook defines active users as people who have logged on to Facebook within the last 30 days. And getting users more engaged is one of the challenges the company faces.

“Now we have to make them 1 billion daily active users,” engineering manager Pedram Keyani exhorted a crowd of hundreds of employees who had gathered to kick off the hackathon.As the announcement was made, Zuckerberg was on a flight home from Russia, where he looked to boost Facebook in that country by meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, appearing on a popular late-night talk show and judging a competition for Russian programmers. He’s expected back at Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., campus Thursday for a festive all-hands meeting and a party.

Facebook apparently won’t be resting on its 1 billion laurels. It must prove its worth to investors, not just users, and is already focused on the next billion users, and in getting them more engaged with the service. The theme of Wednesday’s hackathon was the next billion.That task has taken on more urgency as Facebook’s rocketing growth has cooled. The company is looking to reach new users on mobile devices. Some of Facebook’s fastest-growing markets are in developing countries, where most people use mobile devices to communicate.

The next billion will be a lot tougher than the first. One big reason: A third of the world’s population can’t access Facebook. The Chinese government has blocked access to the website since 2009, although many still scale the “great firewall” to use it.It’s a big gap for Facebook. The Chinese are avid users of social networks. Zuckerberg has said that Facebook has no immediate plans to enter China.

“There are so many other places in the world where we can connect more people more easily,” he told interviewer Charlie Rose in February.

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09

Apr

NEWS: Facebook Buying Instagram For $1 billion In cash & Stock

Must be nice to have $1 billion in CASH!!! I am not sure how much longer I will use this application, it seems like it has been taken over by spam since instagram opened it’s platform to Android users.

LA Times reports — Facebook has agreed to buy the hugely popular photo-sharing app maker Instagram for about $1 billion in cash and stock in a blockbuster deal reverberating around Silicon Valley.

“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote. “We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook. That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”

It’s about the only thing that could top Justin Bieber on Instagram.

Facebook’s chief executive and founder made the announcement Monday on Facebook in a post that has already generated tens of thousands of likes. He has pledged to allow Instagram to remain independent.

“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote. “We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook. That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”

Zuckerberg noted that the acquisition marked a milestone for Facebook – and hinted that it might be the last of its size and scope.

Facebook has mainly targeted smaller companies in its acquisitions, spending no more than tens of millions of dollars on each, and usually just to get the raw talent, not the technology. The 2-year-old Instagram in San Francisco has just nine employees. They didn’t hear about the deal until co-founder Kevin Systrom called an all-hands meeting Monday morning.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.”

The deal is expected to close later this quarter. Instagram had been rumored to be close to a new funding round that would have valued the startup at $500 million. It had turned down a previous offer from Facebook.

Former Facebook executive Matt Cohler with Benchmark Capital is a major investor in Instagram.

 

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08

Mar

KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice. – Invisible Children

 

OMG!!! this is so heartbreaking, I couldn’t even watch the entire thing, after the kid (Jacob) broke down saying what was the point to live, if he had no future.

LA Times reports — A video gaining international attention is trying to use the power of the Internet to stop Joseph Kony, the head of a small but infamous militia that has terrorized northern Uganda with killings, kidnappings, mutilations and torture.

The unusual and controversial new campaign spotlights the horrors inflicted by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a militia that for years has been notorious for abducting children to fight as soldiers and suffer as sex slaves, as well as for mutilating its victims.

But the campaign has also spurred a debate about whether the nonprofit behind the effort and its empowering tools of social media — Twitter, YouTube and Facebook — are dangerously oversimplifying the dilemma.

The video campaign was launched this week by Invisible Children Inc., a San Diego-based nonprofit that produced a half-hour documentary that aims to ramp up international pressure to arrest Kony. The militia leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes.

Kony has been pursued by the United States, which launched a military mission in Uganda last year to stop him and other Lord’s Resistance Army leaders. U.S. officials said the brutal militia had pushed at least 400,000 people out of their homes. Yet Kony has so far remained on the loose.

The campaign argues that Kony must be made so famous that global pressure will stay on for the U.S. to continue its quest, helping governments in the region to track him down. It plans to paper cities with Kony posters on April 20, hoping to making the guerrilla leader a household name.

“If the world knows who Joseph Kony is, it will unite to stop him,” says the Invisible Children website, which seeks donations and urges visitors to sign a petition calling for Kony to be brought to justice

The video quickly went viral; more than 32 million people had watched it on YouTube by Thursday morning. The phrase #stopkony is trending on Twitter as celebrities such as Rihanna and Zooey Deschanel urge their online followers to watch the video.

But the campaign also spurred sharp criticism of Invisible Children and its tactics. The group has been criticized for downplaying government abuses under Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and accused of commercializing the conflict to profit from it. Its spending and overhead also have come under fire.

The film calls Kony “the bad guy,” writer Musa Okwonga blogged in the Independent, but doesn’t say “that when a bad guy like Kony is running riot for years on end, raping and slashing and seizing and shooting, then there is most likely another host of bad guys out there letting him get on with it.”

The fear is that in the rush to capture Kony, the problems with Museveni could be overlooked or exacerbated. Opposition leaders have argued in the past that the threat from the militias has helped Museveni keep Western support. Uganda has been somewhat shielded from criticism of its human rights abuses because the U.S. relies on its army, Human Rights Watch recently wrote.

“Stopping Kony won’t change any of these things, and if more hardware and money flow to Museveni’s military, Invisible Children’s campaign may even worsen some problems,” freelance journalist Michael Wilkerson blogged for Foreign Policy, calling the campaign simplistic and misleading.

Invisible Children has taken on the criticism in a statement on its website, laying out its financial statements and philosophy. The nonprofit says that although it has focused on Kony, it doesn’t defend human rights abuses perpetrated by the Ugandan government and isn’t seeking war.

However, “the only feasible and proper way to stop Kony and protect the civilians he targets is to coordinate efforts with regional governments,” the organization wrote.

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08

Dec

OMG!: 12 Year Old Girls Posts On Facebook “May Die 2Day” Hours Before Her Mother Shoots Her In The Head

OMG! What kind of sick person does this to their child. I hope that this little girl is resting in peace, may God Bless her soul. I cannot imagine what it was like to live a day in her little shoes :( , how said is it to be 12 years of age & know that your death is coming. To be able to touch your own death with your fingertips is scary to say the least. RIP Ramie

US News reports — Hours before her mother shot her, Ramie Marie Grimmer, 12, posted a chilling Facebook update: “May die 2day.”

Ramie wrote the words Monday night after her mother had taken her and her 10-year-old brother, Timothy Grimmer, hostage along with a human services worker at a state office in Laredo, Texas, police said Wednesday. The standoff ended late Monday with Rachelle Grimmer shooting Ramie and Timothy once each in the head and then killing herself, police said.

Ramie died Wednesday in a San Antonio hospital. Her brother Timothy is in critical condition.

The seven-hour ordeal began when Rachelle Grimmer visited the state welfare agency in Laredo with her children, angry because the family had been denied food stamps.

When the family entered the office, shortly before 5 p.m., Grimmer asked to speak to a new caseworker, not one with whom she worked previously, Texas Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman told The Associated Press.

Shortly thereafter, Goodman said, Grimmer was taken to a private room to discuss her case. She said it was there that the mother revealed a gun and the standoff began.

Police negotiators stayed on the phone with Grimmer throughout the evening, but she kept hanging up, Laredo police investigator Joe Baeza said. She allegedly told negotiators about a litany of complaints against state and federal government agencies.

Grimmer let a supervisor go unharmed around 7:45 p.m., but stayed inside the office with her children. Hostage negotiators stayed on the phone with Grimmer, reported the AP.

Five minutes later, 12-year-old Ramie changed the “employer” section of her Facebook account to “may die 2day.”

Nearly three hours later, at 10:34 p.m., Ramie posted “im bored,” and then 18 minutes later, “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahhhhhhhh”.

Grandmother responds on Facebook
Ramie’s final post, at 11:28 p.m., read “tear gas seriasly” [sic], an apparent reference to the SWAT team that had surrounded the building. In response, a woman on Facebook who identifies herself as Ramie and Timothy’s grandmother wrote back “I’m here for you guys. no reason to be afraid”.

But after negotiators hung up the phone with Grimmer around 11:45 p.m., police heard three shots, and entered the building. Inside, they found Grimmer’s body and her two wounded children.

The children’s other grandmother told The AP her former daughter-in-law had a history of mental problems. Mary Lee Shepherd of Montana says she and her son Dale Grimmer, the children’s father, had contacted social workers at least three times. She says they worried Grimmer could harm the children.

Grimmer first applied for food stamps in July but was denied because she didn’t turn in enough information, Goodman said.

Goodman said Grimmer’s last contact with the agency appeared to be a phone call in mid-November. It wasn’t clear what specifically triggered Monday’s deadly standoff.

“This wasn’t like a knee-jerk reaction,” said Baeza, adding that Grimmer felt she was owed restitution of some sort.

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10

Nov

Young Vinchi “My Style”

CLICK on the picture to follow him on TWITTER

Young Vinchi was born Albert Neysmith Jr. on May 31, 1987 to Jamaican parents and raised in the Bronx, N.Y. by a close-knit family. He began rapping at age 8 to entertain his friends at school and by the time he got to Banana Kelly High School he was the designated class “interrupter”.

Like all entertainers, Vinchi, developed a fondness for attention and soon entered the school’s fashion and talent showcases where he fine tuned his showmanship and savoir fair. After graduation, he attended LaGuardia Community College and studied theater and communications.

Vinchi also began performing at open mics and small venues around the New York metro area – Harlem, the Bronx, Long Island and New Jersey – and wet his thirst for success after winning a $1,000 prize at a local amateur night contest.

In 2007, he moved to Atlanta and began working with a number of up-and-coming producers that helped season his style by developing neck-popping bass heavy production to add to his slow, marinating braggadocio. Listen closely to his twang and see if you can’t pick up the popular idioms of your favorite trap house.

Upon the prodigal son’s return to the Big Apple, Vinchi began recording new material and has worked with several producers including J Staffz, Johnny Montana, Infinity, The Traveler and Jem Stones.

The 21-year-old Bronx native’s swagger is relaxed, his raps are clever.  His radio-friendly beats are energizing, mature and mannish; ready to make the most “skeptical” women blush.

I’m real happy that people are feeling the music,” Vinchi said. “My team and I are looking forward to giving all my fans what they want to hear:  hi-energy beats and killer rhymes. Working with J Staffz has been a great experience as he really conceptualizes beats to fit the lyrics instead of the other way around.

It was only a matter of time for cliques – like Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang, Wayne’s Cash Money and Dirty South master DJ Blaz – to take notice of Young Vinchi. Combine that love with shout-outs, endorsements, spins and heavy rotation from many of digital radio’s top mix shows and streaming hip hop stations and it’s easy to see how Vinchi’s new single “My Style” (radio release Sept. 12th) will be a hit!

His latest release, “My Style” is infectious, in your face and on its way to becoming a favorite party, strip-club and workout jam.

Produced and arranged by talented Toronto-born super-producer, J Staffz (website), who’s worked with more than 150 different artists including Wiz Khalifa, Yung Berg, 40 Glocc and G Unit’s Tony Yayo), “My Style” oozes with Vinchi’s confidence, game and swaggatude.  The song features vocalist TV.

Bet on this new boss to continue the momentum this fall as his New York-label, TroubleMaka Records (website) continues its promotion of a slew of new tracks from the “It’s Me” EP – including his current- released single “Getcha Hands Up” (reverbnation), also produced by JStaffz.  “I Want The Cash” “Nasty” and “Baddest Lil’ Chick” produced by The Traveler – on several new mix-tape collections, live club performances and social media Podcasts.

LINKS: Twitter, Facebook, Reverbnation, Podomatic

“My Style”

“I Want Cash”

“Getcha Hands Up”

“Baddest Lil’ Chick”

 

562 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Music

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21

Oct

Lil Tez aka Kidd Calioun “99 Problems”

 

582 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Music

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21

Sep

Dear Facebook, Please STOP Making Changes

I don’t know if you are on FB or not but yet again they made changes. I don’t like the layout, not to sure about this subscribe “feature” & kind of think this “friends list” is a faulty way to filter…what you like, & I have noticed I am NO longer getting notifications via my mobile app. FB used to be so simple, that’s why I stopped using MYSPACE (simple is better, I thought!)!

“You should see the things you’re most interested in, like status updates from your family and closest friends. Last week, we announced improvements to Friend Lists and a new Subscribe button to help you see more of what you care about, and less of what you don’t.” – Mark Tonkelowitz (I really could have done without this feature, to be honest)

LA Times reports — Google tried to upstage Facebook on Tuesday with news that it was opening its social networking service Google+ to everyone.

But Facebook, which is planning to launch a new media platform and other major developments this week at its annual developers conference in San Francisco, is swiveling back into the spotlight.

As Facebook and Google step up their competition for eyeballs and dollars on the Web, Facebook is rolling out an updated version of News Feed that gives priority to important posts. If you haven’t visited Facebook for a while, you’ll see the top photos and status updates since you last logged in; if you log in several times a day, you’ll see more recent news. The idea is to surface the information that matters most to you.

“Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper,” Mark Tonkelowitz, an engineering manager at Facebook, said in a blog post.

Facebook is also introducing a real-time “ticker” that streams your friends’ most recent activity and encourages you to chat with them about it.

“Ticker shows you the same stuff you were already seeing on Facebook, but it brings your conversations to life by displaying updates instantaneously,” Tonkelowitz wrote.

Quickly delivering the most important updates from friends is the goal. But comments to the blog post about these latest efforts were mixed, ranging from users complaining that the social network doesn’t have the ability to judge what’s important to them to users welcoming the changes.

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19

Aug

German Website Owners: Ordered to Deactivate Facebook Web Analytics

We are all on Facebook, and I am pretty sure no one has ever taken time to read through their PRIVACY POLICY. Some of you might not be aware what a “cookie” is or how it is used to track your online activity. Example: you are doing research on the type of “car” you want to buy, you use the world’s largest search engine GOOGLE…to help you on your research, “new” “car” “Toyota” “hybrid” “2011″ these are all KEYWORDS, words that MARKETING companies track via GOOGLE ANALYTICS, a tool that helps them track your online activity in order for them to target “masses” for their products…another ingenious way to get the CONSUMER (me & you) to buy their client’s products.

It sounds great, but do you know how long these companies track you for? Have you ever stopped to read the PRIVACY POLICY at any of the websites you visit? Do you know what information they are pulling? What is tracked vs. what is not tracked? The internet is a very scary place and in all honesty there is NO real way of being protected…this article (below) was sent to me via email & since I work in the industry of movie making, I know first hand the essential need for MARKETING…I figured I would share it with you to give you some insight of just how much you are exposing yourself, without even knowing it!!!

Schleswig-Holstein Commissioner Orders Site Owners to Deactivate Analytics

The Independent Centre for Privacy Protection (ULD)—the privacy regulator for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein—has told website owners in that state to “shut down their fan pages on Facebook and remove social plug-ins such as the ‘like’ button” from their sites.

In a press release, the ULD said that “after a thorough legal and technical analysis,” it concluded that use of such features violates the German Telemedia Act, the Federal Data Protection Act and the Data Protection Act of Schleswig-Holstein.

From the ULD press release:  <<< CLICK (must READ)

“By using the Facebook service, traffic and content data are transferred into the U.S.A, and a qualified feedback is sent back to the website owner concerning the web page usage, the so called web analytics (Ger.:Reichweitenanalyse”). Whoever visits facebook.com or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years. Facebook builds a broad individual and for members even a personalized profile. Such a profiling infringes German and European data protection law. There is no sufficient information of users and there is no choice; the wording in the conditions of use and privacy statements of Facebook does not nearly meet the legal requirements relevant for compliance of legal notice, privacy consent and general terms of use.”

The ULD calls for Schleswig-Holstein website owners to immediately deactivate the services. “If this does not take place by the end of September 2011, ULD will take further steps,” the release states.

ULD International Coordinator Kirsten Bock told the IAPP Europe Data Protection Digest that the ULD will levy fines against sites that fail to comply, “but only after having gone through the formal procedures in each and every case and as a last resort. We still hope to solve the issue in a more constructive way,” Bock said.

Data Protection Commissioner Thilo Weichert, head of the ULD, said his organisation “has pointed out informally for some time that many Facebook offerings are in conflict with the law,” but website owners continue to use them.

Weichert added that “Institutions must be aware that they cannot shift their responsibility for data privacy” onto non-German enterprises and users.

He also promised more action.

“Our current call is only the beginning of a continuing privacy impact analysis of Facebook applications” Weichert said. “ULD will continue in cooperation with other German data protection authorities.”

Commissioner Weichert has issued similar provocative proclamations in the past. Notably, in 2010 he called for the dismantling of the U.S. Safe Harbor program.

—IAPP Staff

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10

Aug

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10

Aug

Guy Fawkes Night Cyber Attack Threat on Facebook

wow…can this be true a threat to launch a night cyber attack is supposed to take place on November 5, 2011…if what this ANONYMOUS person claims to be true, about FB selling information to Government Agencies, this totally defies their privacy policy & what they claim is not used, such as cookie tracking, etc…FACEBOOK PRIVACY POLICY

LA Times reports — Anonymous could be planning a Nov. 5 cyber attack agianst the world’s largest social networking site, Facebook.

A single video was published to a YouTube account called FacebookOp, claiming to be from Anonymous that said the group would be hacking into Facebook and taking the site down.

“We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows: Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed,” reads a written statement posted in the YouTube description of the video. “If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.”

Whoever posted the video — whether actually from members of Anonymous or someone claiming to be affiliated with the group — said the reasoning behind the planned attack was allegations of Facebook selling its users’ personal information to government agencies “so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria. “

Facebook officials were unavailable for comment on the video or the allegedly planned attack.

The video was shared on Twitter on July 16, the day the video first hit YouTube, by a user going by the name of Op_Facebook. The tweet to share the video has been the only message sent from that account so far and no other videos have been uploaded to YouTube.

“You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in,” the statement paired with the video reads. “Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.

“The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is ‘free,’ it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.”

Anonymous has about a dozen Twitter and YouTube accounts and has a loose structure with no one leader or spokesperson representing the group, which has in the past claimed hacks into the Iranian government, PayPal, Visa and tech companies working for the FBI and other government agencies. The group also used its YouTube and Twitter pages to post video created by those in Tunisia who revolted against their government in January.

It’s clear the group’s philosophy is one that isn’t big on governments or police agencies as they currently exist.

But given the largely undefined barriers as to what Anonymous is or isn’t, it’s difficult to gauge how much weight is or isn’t behind this seemingly ignored threat made against Facebook.

One piece of the puzzle that is, however, easy to decipher is the Nov. 5 date on which the cyber attack could take place. Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes Night, the night in 1605 in which Guy Fawkes was arrested while guarding explosives beneath London’s House of Lords in an attempt to kill numerous politicians and King James I.

Members and supporters of Anonymous adopted the Guy Fawkes mask, as depicted in the comic book and film “V for Vendetta,” as a symbol for the group.

Lately, however, Anonymous members have been more active as members of AntiSec, a mash-up of Anonymous and members of LulzSec, a hacking group that has said it hacked more for entertainment than over political philosophy.

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