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The Facebook Effect, book review

“The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World”
By David Kirkpatrick

book cover

The website “Thefacebook” was created in 2004 (February 4) at Harvard University.  It has become what we know today as “Facebook”…

On page seven, it is explained that:  “…The Facebook Effect happens when the service puts people in touch with each other…about a common experience, interest, problem, or cause…”

The book begins with the story of Mark Zuckerberg’s arrival at Harvard, and an initial computer project he designed that would lead to the beginnings of the type of service Facebook has become.

If you’re interested in the history of social networking, there is a lot of information in (chapter three of) the book about it:  services that were, and are, in this category….some of them no longer exist, some do…how others have matured from what they were, to what they are…

As I’m reading the book, I’m seriously considering NOT watching the upcoming movie “The Social Network”.  I can’t imagine that I will appreciate it because I expect the movie to take some artistic liberties in its presentation of events, as other similar movies have.  I guess I’m more interested in facts than drama…

There’s much explanation about how Facebook was financed.  A lot I don’t understand, but anyone interested in how business investement can be done should enjoy the depictions of how some funding was courted…and others discouraged.

For me, some of the major timeline markers of the evolution of Facebook are:

  • changing from “Thefacebook” to “Facebook” (2005 September 20)…
  • when it began, Thefacebook was designed to service college students…in the fall of 2005, it allowed students in high school to use the service…
  • in May of 2006, Facebook was opened to businesses and companines including the military…
  • September 26th (2006), Facebook launched open registration which allowed the general public to become members…
  • and (as of 2009) Facebook is the world’s largest photo site, besting Flickr.

After reading halfway through the book, it becomes less “sexy” to me.  There’s a lot of great information in it about the organism of Facebook…the people in the company, and how they have functioned together…but after long periods of reading I am reminded of Charlie Brown’s teacher (what I take-away is in a haze of information, scenarios, and stories).  I don’t think it’s the writing…my perception is probably enhanced by the circumstances under which I am reading the book…

[After learning about the movie “The Social Network”, and the “The Facebook Effect”, I wanted to review this book and have my review available (at least a week) before the movie was in theaters.  The week before the movie was released, I needed to spend an entire week attempting to salvage data from old hard drives.  When I was able to return to reading, it seemed that all the stuff that held my attention had been read…and, with only a few days left before the release of the film, I found myself trudging through the book.]

There are a lot of great descriptions of how Facebook came to be, and where it may go.  Take your time digesting this book.  Some of what is in it can come in handy in the future if you are in similar situations and need to consider what actions to take, and how to react to issues of a beginning and growing organization.

On page 340 I found the “Notes” section:  notes that pertain to pages I have read.  As I was reading, I did not see ANY footnote markings, so you need to be aware of this BEFORE you being to read so you can consider referring to this “Notes” section as you go along (to see if any of the notes enhance the section you are reading).  My preference is to have the “Notes” section at the beginning of the book so I know it’s there, and can refer to it as I am reading the book…

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Facebook-Effect/David-Kirkpatrick/9781439102114

http://www.facebook.com/thefacebookeffect

Andy Taylor1 CommentTTR Website,

Comic-Con will return to San Diego!

An official press release from Comic Con International said today that San Diego Comic-Con will be staying in San Diego for the foreseeable future! Read the Announcement! We’re sure RayvenCure will be happy with this news! You can also view the Official Announcement on the Official Website at http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_pr10_stayinsandiego.php

Sept 30th – SAN DIEGO — Comic-Con International: San Diego (Comic-Con), the largest comics convention of its kind in the world, today announced it will be staying in San Diego for the foreseeable future.

Comic-Con reached a self-imposed attendance limit at the San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) in 2007 and has had to cap attendance at approximately 125,000 people each year since. In looking at ways to better accommodate the growing demand from attendees and exhibitors, the nonprofit organization considered proposals for a move to larger facilities in Los Angeles or Anaheim after the expiration of its SDCC lease in 2012. This decision keeps Comic-Con in San Diego through 2015.

“We are grateful for the tireless efforts all three cities put into to their proposals,” said David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s director of marketing and public relations. “In the end, we feel this decision is the best for all those who attend Comic-Con and for the organization itself. We are happy that the community has worked with us to ensure that we remain here.”

Comic-Con was first held in 1970 at the U.S. Grant Hotel, where it attracted 300 people. As the event grew, subsequent homes included the downtown El Cortez Hotel in the 1970s and the San Diego Convention and Performing Arts Center in the 1980s. Comic-Con moved to the then newly built SDCC in 1991. Comic-Con celebrated its 41st year in 2010.

The San Diego Convention Center Corporation has scheduled a press conference for Friday, October 1 at 11:45 a.m. at Lobby E of the convention center.

About Comic-Con International:

Comic-Con International: San Diego (Comic-Con), the largest convention of its kind in the world, is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular artforms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture. In addition to its San Diego convention each summer, Comic-Con organizes the San Francisco–based WonderCon each spring and Alternative Press Expo each fall. On the web: Comic-Con.org, Facebook.com/comiccon, Twitter.com/comic_con.

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Diedrich Bader on TechtalkRadio

Season 1 - Outsourced - Diedrich Bader as Charlie Davies
Diedrich Bader - Outsourced

Andy has posted an interview with some information on Actor Diedrich Bader at TechtalkRadio.Com. In the interview segment, Diedrich talks not only about the show of NBC called ‘Outsourced” which is based on the Movie but also about his voice work in Batman The Brave and the Bold. And yes, Diedrich recorded an “drop” for TechtalkRadio – One as Diedrich Bader from NBC’s Outsourced and the other as Batman!

Check out the interview at http://www.techtalkradio.com/celebrities/bader.html

S!ick2 CommentsTTR Website, , ,

USB 3.0 is here! And, it’s fast…

We received USB 3.0 port adapters from TRENDnet…I’m in possession of the 2-Port USB 3.0 ExpressCard Adapter, model TU3-H2EC.

expresscard USB 3.0 adapter
TRENDnet TU3-H2EC ExpressCard USB 3.0 Adpater

(“SuperSpeed”) USB 3.0 can provide data transfer rates as high as 5 Gbps, which is ten times as fast as (“Hi-Speed”) USB 2.0. USB 2.0 can go as fast as 480 Mbps. (USB 3.0 is also faster than “FireWire 400”, “FireWire 800”, “FireWire S1600”, and “FireWire S3200″…)

USB specifications can be found at http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/

USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 devices, and supports all current USB speeds: Low-speed (USB 1.0: 1.5Mbps), Full-speed (USB 1.1: 12Mbps), High-speed (USB 2.0: 480Mbps), and SuperSpeed (USB 3.0: 5Gbps).

An external power adapter is supplied to enhance the ExpressCard in case USB devices try to draw too much power from USB ports.

It’s compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

Andy has the 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI Express Adapter, model TU3-H2PIE…

We’re waiting on delivery of USB 3.0 devices…as soon as we get some we’ll talk about them on our shows, blog posts, etcetera.

S!ick1 CommentBooks, , ,

Slick gives us a look at Texts From Last Night

Slick Reviews Text From Last Night
Review of Text From Last Night

Texts From Last Night, book review

Get ready for “the funny”…

I received a copy of the new book “Texts From Last Night: All the Texts No One Remembers Sending” which has entries from the website TextsFromLastNight.com. It was published in January…

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“…We started Texts From Last Night for our friends in February 2009. We opened it up to the public in April…

“Our book is the magnum opus of our website. As told through texts, the book has a Relationship Timeline, a Hookup Flowchart and a Choose Your Own Adventure section. We also have categories of texts such as ‘Gay Pride’, ‘The Morning After’ and ‘Phone Mishaps’.

“We went through every page of our site to find the absolute funniest texts for the book. Then we went through every text ever submitted (at the time was something like 1.1 million of them)…”

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In the introduction of the book, we find that the reason…

“…we founded TFLN for reasons that include: Kwame Kilpatrick…old flings…repeatedly closing down bars and leaving old tabs open…

“…by pressing the send button a little too liberally. Those fuzzy memories used to live on in our inboxes until we ran out of room or we hit ‘delete’.”

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It gets off to a great start…the first text message is interesting and entertaining. All of the entries are good, until the fourth page…where one caused me to laugh out loud.

Here are a few entries that will illustrate how entertained I was:

“the read head has a bf”
“just because there’s a goalie doesn’t mean u can’t score”

“u cheatin on me?”
“if i did i would try to upgrade babe”

“Discussing lingerie with my father. He likes sheer black things. Not the colorful stuff I wear.”

“Dude, the girl next to me just farted. Worst part, it smells like astroglide”

“im at a bar and i misjudged a fart…go home or ride the night out?Never mind, the bouncer just made the decision for me…be home soon”

“That’s not how I planned it, it’s just the way she passed out”

“my mouth tastes like poor choices”

“When I first met her at the bar, she told me she was 23. After I bought her 3 shots of tequila, she told me she was really only 21. When we went back to my house, she said she was really only 19. She’s still sleeping next to me butt naked. I’m afraid if she opens her mouth again I could be looking at 10 years.”

“Whatever. They have the same name, so it’s not even cheating. It’s brand loyalty.”

“Boobs are like coupons for free stuff”

“But I don’t consider them one night stands. They’re auditions.”

Some of the entries were educational. For example, I’ve seen “happy trails”, but never knew that was the name for them…

Some of the content is for adults , and very graphic…and very funny!

Since it consists of text messages, this book is great for those moments when you have nothing to do and some time to kill: you can begin to read it , and stop, at anytime.

With only 192 pages, this book will fit in a pocket (8.26 x 5.23 inches). And there are eBook formats.

————————————————-

And, there’s an (iPhone) app for that.

I’ve heard that a television show might be next…I’m (still) waiting on a response from Adam Sandler’s production company, Happy Madison, to find the status of a situation-comedy they might be producing for FOX Broadcasting.

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“Texts From Last Night: All the Texts No One Remembers Sending” is published by the Penguin Group.

There are Facebook, and Twitter, accounts.