Facebook is down…Facebook is down…5:42 (cst)
This website is not a help desk for Facebook but it’s a civic duty to keep the American public aware of all possible natural disasters!!
Facebook is down! Facebook is down! Don’t toss your Iphone in the river or hurl it at your wife and complain that it doesn’t work worth a s***.
Here is the current update from the gods as Facebook:
A small subset of canvas applications are sporadically not being redirected to their callback URLs. We are addressing the issue and will update when this is resolved.
Of course, if you receive this RSS feed through your Facebook account, god help you man!
Wow! Those facebook pics sure got some attention!
Interesting story out of Quebec, if you haven’t read the article, do so. Once again, a story comes along that just sends my editorial neurons out of whack.
So, you go to the doctor and are diagnosed with severe depression…so severe that she is forced to go on short term disability for a year from her employer…all the while receiving payments from her employer’s insurance carrier.
All of this sounds normal to me, except for one thing…the diagnosis of the depression. I am not a shrink and I don’t hob nob in the circles of shrinkdom and psychiatric medicine, but I am curious as to how “definitive” a diagnosis of clinical depression really is.
She was seen by a doctor, she was told she was depressed, she was also told to see friends as a way to get herself better…still sounds relatively normal to me….but…..
In my blogging view, if you can jump around the beach, visit your friends, smile for random party pics, and post them on your facebook account…how come you can’t wake up and go to work?
Insurance companies use these tactics all the time to avoid fraud and in many opinions other then mine, this woman committed insurance fraud, or at least in the eyes of the insurance carrier.
There are issues with what happened here. It is sad that insurance carriers are forced to take these measures because there is so much fraud in the claims arena, what other option do they have? Video taping customers is common practice especially when money is involved, money that ultimately is funded by you and I.
The insurance companies definition of “depressed” obviously differs from the doctor’s. All the while, Miss Blanchard fell victim to her own social networking profile (tch tch tch)….and her decision to post them was a costly one. (Oh and for all those “right to privacy” fanatics out there please shush yourself…the Internet isn’t private but you already knew that)
In the end, with a slick attorney, she will probably get her money back…but ask yourself something…after seeing an incident like this…are you sure you want to post some of those pics?
Why aren’t they just simply flying the plane?
The NWA pilots that overshot the airport recently claimed that they were engrossed with figuring out the new scheduling software being implemented by their new parent Delta Airlines.
The First Officer stated he was trying to help the Captain figure out how to use the new software program. Holy hell, please tell me a Captain with an extensive career as a pilot – managing a cockpit of a huge airliner – is not confused by the shiny pretty letters on his laptop.
I was confused last week when I saw the flight attendant bringing food in to the pilot on our 3 hour flight. I was thinking, there is room in the cockpit of this MD-80 for a lunch tray? Where will they put it? Why are they eating when they should be flying, its only 3 hours, can’t they eat an energy bar or something? Then I see that these two ying yangs are playing on their laptops – I was truly waiting to hear that they had been Facebook’ing. Which is worse, being drunk or being on Mafia Wars?
Facebook status messages that are better left unsaid…
Here is another in my series of rants and satirical views of our favorite pastime, Facebook.
Anyone who knows me within my inner circle understand how status messages in Facebook crack me up, I often make cracks and laugh at them because hey, I can.
I am an avid user of Facebook and do leave an occasional status message so I know how the game is played, but I do try to keep a lid on what I feel is appropriate banter for the general public and what I should keep to myself.
Over time I have observed countless types of status messages and long to decipher where they come from, what the motive is for posting them, and what reactions the user is trying to harness from their friends.
My compiled list of common Facebook status genres:
1) The Mood Status: This is a very popular one which usually starts with a negative ode’ to Monday morning or the next morning after a heavy night of drinking. Can also indicate that someone is having a great day. Examples: “I feel blessed today”, “Monday’s can bite me”, or “I miss my Aunt Edna, wish she wasn’t tied to the top of the car”.
2) The Joke Status: This typically implies that there was no original thinking put into it and as a last ditch effort, a joke or riddle was used as a status filler. Examples: “Two guys walk into a bar, ouch that had to hurt”, “I was staring at the stars last night and wondered, where did my ceiling go?”, “Everyone should breast feed, it’s room temperature, cat’s cant get into it, and the containers are attractive”
3) The Boring Status: This is a status that’s like your providing a GPS coordinate of your every move and it’s not an exciting one at that. Examples: “Just left for work”, “Throwing clothes in the dryer”, “Eating dinner with my mom”. Again, we could live without the realtime update, maybe better left to Twitter.
4)The “TMI” Status: All too common but all the while very funny. Examples: “OMG, my dog just puked on my lap”, “Colonoscopy went well, but (butt) still a little sore from the cam”, “Can someone tell me what kind of green discharges are normal?”
5) The Chronological Status: If you miss too many of these you won’t follow along and will miss something vital. Examples: “Just took my math test, wow was it hard”, “Took math test two days ago and waiting for my score”, “Sweet, got my score back!”, “Holy Shit I flunked, mother*** ”
6) The Posted it Wrong Status: Very simple one. Examples: “John is”, “Beth is”, “Chuck is”
7) The Write on Wall Status: I know a lot of people who fell victim to this when the FB format changed earlier in the year. Examples: “Dude, that is awesome, lets get ripped!”, “Are you serious?, he’s a jerk, “OMG, LMFAO, LOL, your baby pics are adorable, call me! 
”
The Chain Letter Status: One of my all time most hated things on FB. Examples: “The top 25 list”, “Write 10 things you dont like about me”, “Sign the petition to make puppy mills legal and pass it to 25 of your friends and you will see a picture of God display on your FB page!”
9) The Come Back to Haunt you Status: This is all too common and makes me cringe when I read it, folks, keep it to yourself best you can. Examples: “OMG, are all managers ‘effing worthless”, “Nothing like being drunk 5 days in a row!”, “Who knew I would get put on the sexual offenders list for that party I hosted last night, hehe”
10) The AWOL Status: Not a status but rather the complete lack there of. One of your friends who you added over 6 months ago and they have gone dormant. Not sure if you need to message them to see how they are or just leave it be. Makes you wonder, did they get all hyped up for FB for the first week then realized it’s a black hole, crack like substance that requires that you little by little wean yourself off?
Maybe no status is the best kind…
Let’s connect through our social network…but I’m only keeping you around for seven years then you’re gone!
Another installment of my rant and raves about all things related to Facebook and the like. 
Interesting (but kind of worthless) studies being done on friendships and social networks. This one does fascinate me simply for the fact that I think it rings pretty dang true. Most of us have long lasting friendships that we cultivated in grade school, junior high, high school, or college and for the most part, those relationships are still in tact. They might be strained by distance, family, or career paths, but they remain solid in some fashion.
The researchers found that most people’s “close” network of friends changes approx every seven years and those people are replaced by new ones. However, let’s not forget that in those social groups still remain the long lasting friendships that never go away, like I mentioned earlier.
I tend to look at this study in the context of social networking sites and the impact they have on our life at that particular moment in time. Most would agree that social networking is dictated by a combination of factors: your past, your location, your interests, your lifestyle, and your job.
What’s the first thing that most people do when they open a Facebook or MySpace account? You immediately attempt to locate all of your “real friends”, either those from the past or those you just met. Instantly a chain reaction is kicked off in which you add everyone to your list.
Next, you analyzed those you work with and determined who met the “cool factor” enough to be added to your friend list as well. I did it and I know you did too. Only a handfull of those “professional based” friends will still be around over the years, some will become good friends, some will become references or your professional “posse” I like to call it. Some you will never see or talk to again…and yet they were a “friend” at one time. Kind of a loose, interpretation of a strong word and it’s thrown around very easily.
Are you necessarily the best of friends with all of these people?, of course not. The same holds true for trusted co-workers, band mates, buddies on your softball team, etc. There is a sense of collective good feeling to reach out to those who you share a past (or a present) with. But, we all know the virtual connection is a fleeting one. You allow this person to penetrate your social network just enough to share a few stories, maybe a referral for a job, make some happy hour plans, or swap old stories of the past until you run out of things to say. 
The act of adding friends in the virtual world is dictated by the context in which we meet those people. Just one year ago, half of the people in my social network (if you call it that) didn’t even exist to me. Take a step back and look at who comprises your social network…are they co-workers?….family?….neighbors?…direct reports?…your current manager?…a friend of a friend of a friend who walked your sister’s dog one night last July?
Your social network is expendible and the members come and go like the wind. You change jobs, you move, your family situation changes, you meet someone new, you part ways with someone. All of these “conditions” dictate the make up of who your friends are at any given moment.
As you’ve guessed by now, I can be a little cynical of social networks and what their real value is. It is not a cyanisim grown out of hatred or despise for the world of social networking, but rather based on experiences or the experiences of other people I know. I have seen people brought to tears by messages left on social sites, I have seen people misinterpret something causing anger. I have seen people say things on a social site of which most people would not have shared with anyone had it not been for the website they were on. I have seen people alienate themselves in jobs based on a purely accidental posting of something better left unsaid.
I have grown to respect the social network because it can serve a purpose, some of which are heeded warnings. Do keep in touch with trusted co-workers even after you leave a job, do keep in touch with people who you share a history with, do keep in touch with people who are real world friends, and do use a social network for the benefit of the common good (a charity, a cause, etc). Don’t use social networking to air your dirty laundry, don’t use social networking to spread hate and scorn for others, don’t use social networking for your own personal or professional gain and not recognize the actual “person” who made it possible (this applies more to LinkedIn), and finally don’t use social networking as a tool to elevate your virtual status among your peers…because frankly you don’t have a status, none of us do.
When I have examined my own Linked In network, my Facebook network, my “real world” friends (some of which also live in the virtual world with me), I come to some conclusions.
My conclusion is a simple one, social networks are 5% useful, 5% virtual voyerurism, and 90% pure, internet based entertainment (as is this rant although I tried to infuse some truths).
The only internet past time that conquers social networking is PORN.
Facebook’s approach to “hateful” content…
Where is the line drawn?
The social networking giant has been taking heat on its willingness to allow specific hate related “Groups” to post pages on its site while the same time removing others.
Recently, a KKK group was removed by Facebook for violating it’s “hateful content” policy, however, it has not made any type actions towards a couple of pages which propagate that the Holocaust never happened.
The primary opponent of this allowance is Brian Cuban, attorney brother of Dallas Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban. Cuban has published an open letter stating his utter disapproval and distaste for Facebook’s unwillingness to remove these two pages.
I have varying views on this. I whole heartily agree that the Web should remain a free, open forum for the world in which viewpoints can be equally shared. On the flipside, I do not think the message of hate should be allowed to randomly propagate on websites in which advertisers, sponsors, and millions of general innocent users interact with on a daily basis. What I find ironic is that advertisers would not dare associate their service or products on TV stations or printed media for groups that preach hate, but essentially are doing that very thing by pimping ads on Facebook. If Facebook continues to expand its acceptance of all genres and types of users, including those who preach hateful, disrespectful messages, then what happens to the credibility of the site? Facebook stated in the article that it repeatedly reviews these issues and takes the necessary steps to hold the website to a standard.
As sick and disgusting as some of these groups can be; the web is still their best medium to enlist followers and spread these messages. I am also a firm believer that social networking sites, like Facebook, need to do the right thing.
Careless “Friend and Photo” control could be the biggest privacy threat for avid Facebook users
This is the second in what might become a small series of Facebook related blogs. My first was an earlier satirical rant of the 25 Random Things List. Recently, the Facebook gods responded to their users concerns with a general statement concerning content archiving policies and how much of this information they are disclosing to the user base. This came in the midst of a user backlash where thousands deleted their accounts out of protest to the statements made by the company.
The skinny- it’s complicated and your privacy is not high on the priority list, nothing on the web is people. In fact- the code behind Facebook is a complicated weave of spaghetti containing your content, photos, submissions, and any other items you submit for public viewing. What does this mean? It means your personal information is woven into a unregulated and uncontrolled virtual desert open to anyone – and FB can keep all your personal shit after you leave the party.
Whatever, whenever, or with whomever you send a photo, a wall post, a message, or an event – all that information gets stored on FB servers and can be retained for a long period of time. The reason- the FB gods have designed the site to allow a deactivated person to easily come back and reactivate their account. This being said- all content you submitted can magically “reappear” to make the process easier on you. The rational is that communicated information is always “there”. If you email me and five minutes later cancel your email account, does that email you sent me suddenly disappear? No. FB management has designed the site in the same fashion and for some reason it pissed a lot of people off – funny considering everything on the internet operates under the same logic.
There are two main blunders that users make. The first mistake is compiling too many Friends without organizational control of who they are, how you know them, and what their relationship to you is. The other mistake being poor security control over Photos and Tags. As an experiment, a college professor once asked his students to stand up in front of the class, plug in their laptops, and show everyone their profile on the overhead. Not one person volunteered for the request. The thought of a FB profile being exposed in a room full of people invoked thoughts of embarrassment, vulnerability, and shame.
The professor had intentionally created a startling reality for his students. They regarded their profile as private even though essentially millions of users, application developers, advertisers, search engine tracking software, and potential employers can see it everyday.
Back to the Friends and Photos thing. Okay, so you’ve added some people who now have access to view your profile and you’re pretty cool with the results. You do so some talking, share some photos, post some wall comments, update status to declare your current state of mind or relationships, or whatever. What is often overlooked is the information trail that is created. As your Friend’s list gets bigger, so does the audit trail of data, so does the list of people who can see it, which in most cases is cool, typically you add stuff because you want people to see it, no biggie.
However, as the Friend list grows, so does the accessibility to content that you might want to keep to yourself. In fact, I actually know of people in the workplace who have unintentionally alienated themselves from co-workers because of the status comments they habitually post to their FB page. Comments like “I’m tired of work” “Why am I here?” or “I can’t believe my manager just asked me to do something”. As innocent as it seems to the poster, the internet has a sneaky way of delivering it’s own interpretation of content to the on looker. You know that sarcastic email you sent to your best friend only to have them get pissed off? It’s a common occurrence in the virtual world, FB included. Apparently, these people forgot that they carelessly added half their office to their Friends list. The same goes for Photos- photos that you personally would never post, but can you control how someone else Tags you in one of their photos? Ahhh Haaaa – now that is where you’ll get in trouble.
There are Friend and Photo Tag security features that most users do not use very efficiently, or they just don’t know about them. The basis behind these controls is to better categorize your Friends and place controls on who can see what, same thing for photos and who can see those you’re tagged in.
Nick O’Neill is a contributor to the website AllFacebook.com and is considered an expert on the proper and safe ways to use the site. These are strategies that he offers users to better secure your environment:
1. Use Your Friend Lists
I can’t tell you how many people are not aware of their friend lists. For those not aware of what friend lists are, Facebook describes them as a feature which allows “you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. For example, you can create a Friend List for your friends that meet for weekly book club meetings. You can create Friend Lists for all of your organizational needs, allowing you to quickly view friends by type and send messages to your lists.”
There are a few very important things to remember about friend lists:
- You can add each friend to more than one friend group
- Friend groups should be used like “tags” as used elsewhere around the web
- Friend Lists can have specific privacy policies applied to them
A typical setup for groups would be “Friends”, “Family”, and “Professional”. These three groups can then be used to apply different privacy policies. For example, you may want your friends to see photos from the party you were at last night, but you don’t want your family or professional contacts to see those photos. Using friend lists is also extremely useful for organizing your friends if you have a lot of them. For instance I have about 20 friend lists and I categorize people by city (New York, San Francisco, D.C., Tel Aviv, etc), where I met them (conferences, past co-workers, through this blog), and my relationship with them (professional, family, social, etc)
2. Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results:
Now that you’ve decided that you would like to remove yourself from Facebook’s search results, here’s how to do it:
- Visit your search privacy settings page
- Under “Search Visibility” select “Only Friends” (Remember, doing so will remove you from Facebook search results, so make sure you want to be removed totally. Otherwise, you can select another group, such as “My Networks and Friends” which I believe is the default.)
- Click “Save Changes”
3. Avoid the Infamous Photo/Video Tag Mistake
At the least, a tagged photo/video can result in personal embarrassment. So how do you prevent the infamous tagged photo or video from showing up in all of your friends news feeds? It’s pretty simple. First visit you profile privacy page and modify the setting next to “Photos Tagged of You”. Select the option which says “Customize…” and a box like the one pictured below will pop up.
Select the option “Only Me” and then “None of My Networks” if you would like to keep all tagged photos private. If you’d like to make tagged photos visible to certain users you can choose to add them in the box under the “Some Friends” option. In the box that displays after you select “Some Friends” you can type either individual friends or friend lists.
Hope some of these tasty treats will make you a more intelligent FB user.
“Sick and Tired” joined the group “Those who are sick of 25 Random Things about me”
25: I didn’t need to know you were scared of closet monsters as a kid.
24: Wow? You’re humble, quiet, and a narcissist all wrapped into one?
23: I’m glad you love your bulldog puppy more than your parents.
22: I thought SPAM only occurred in my email.
21: They make creams and lotions for that issue on your leg.
20: Yes, it is sunny out and it’s winter…the irony?
19: I’m a fan of ketchup myself.
18: The scanner, both amazing and frightening.
17: Writing on a wall used to get your hand slapped from mommy.
16: Am I allowed a spiked club instead of a Pillow to fight with?
15: People You May Know, or just use them to bump your Friends tally higher.
16: Invite Your Friends to join Facebook, because they’re tired of the four people they hang out with.
15: Are you serious? As long as your brother doesn’t join Facebook, he’ll never know you felt that way.
14: I think the annoying chick on the Progressive car insurance commercials is cute.
13: I pick my nose…a lot!
12: Oh my – you’re hair hasn’t changed much from 1987.
11: Just completed a Mafia War on my neighbor, it’s not pretty.
10: Exhausted: John C. Holmes, the Real Story – I didn’t see that movie come up on the Which One Defines Me List?
9: Poke Me and I’ll kick your ass.
8: I just Saved The Planet by signing an electronic petition – it was that easy?
7: I was mentioned in the Note People I’m not real fond of…
6: No…
5: More…
4: 25…
3: Random…
2: Things…
1: Seriously!
Heard It In A Bar RSS Feed- Brittany Murphy’s death is troubling March 9, 2010Not that it’s another tragic celebrity death, not that it’s another young life taken so early…these are all troubling and sad in their own right. It’s another tragic case of someone getting caught up in the web of drugs…the legal type! It truly saddens me that so many of these stars seek out more and more prescription [...] […]kansasview
- Internet fun for the weekend… March 9, 2010By far one of my favorite websites of late is called GraphJam.com. Essentially, the website attempts to break down the world and how we interact with it in a series of graphs. It is hilarious when you see how the world around us can be so easily summed up in a pie or bar chart. [...] […]kansasview
- So why are more companies not yet hiring? March 9, 2010U.S. Workers are still filing a large amount of unemployment claims and this is after five weeks of declines in this area. Where are the culprits and which industries are still hurting? It’s apparent as we have seen over the last year is that a gradual stabilization of the economy does not naturally translate to a increase [...] […]kansasview
- Facebook is down…Facebook is down…5:42 (cst) March 9, 2010This website is not a help desk for Facebook but it’s a civic duty to keep the American public aware of all possible natural disasters!! Facebook is down! Facebook is down! Don’t toss your Iphone in the river or hurl it at your wife and complain that it doesn’t work worth a s***. Here is the current [...] […]kansasview
- Hot new golfer to challenge Tiger’s limelight March 9, 2010It’s tough not to hear Tiger Woods’ name in the media of late with all this marital infedelity hoopla and now text messages coming out from his brood of women across the country. Frankly, it’s getting old and let’s focus our attention on those athletes who don’t get all the attention. Especially those golfers who shy away [... […]kansasview
- Eight years of success turns into one year of demise for Kansas coach Mark Mangino March 9, 2010The story and the jokes can finally come to an end. Sports fans throughout the midwest have been following the fate of KU head football coach Mark Mangino and allegations that he verbally and physically abused his players. Well fans, now that he has resigned and the weeks of rumors and headlines about his coaching future [...] […]kansasview
- Tiger’s “cat” is almost out of the bag March 9, 2010Of course we couldn’t wait too long before throwing in our own two cents about the Woods story, it wouldn’t be American! I’m getting to the point where I’m getting angry because this is now a public issue. It’s private until Tiger hopped behind the wheel and crashed his vehicle. It’s private until the police are called a […]kansasview
- Come on ABC…Lambert only kissed another guy, big deal March 9, 2010What’s wrong ABC? You can’t allow a very flamboyant and talented singer on GMA? However, you have prime time shows that openly display homosexual men/women and sometimes they kiss! Brothers and Sisters, Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, they all have gay characters who quite frequently engaged in PDA. Granted, these are actors but there is […]kansasview
- Wow! Those facebook pics sure got some attention! March 9, 2010Interesting story out of Quebec, if you haven’t read the article, do so. Once again, a story comes along that just sends my editorial neurons out of whack. So, you go to the doctor and are diagnosed with severe depression…so severe that she is forced to go on short term disability for a year from her [...] […]kansasview
- Palin…go away! March 9, 2010Seriously, I don’t care that you have a new book….I don’t care that you have a tattered relationship with your daughter’s “baby daddy“…and I find absolutely nothing of this fascinating in the least. It’s all over TV, she’s been on every talk show on earth….all for what? To increase exposure for a […]kansasview
- Brittany Murphy’s death is troubling March 9, 2010
