Facebook–FTC Perspectives

Since Zuck and the gang hasn’t been totally honest with us in terms of privacy for the past few years, the recent FTC intervention seems like a long time coming.

Just a day after the seemingly confirmed rumor of an early 2012 IPO with a hundred billion dollar valuation, Facebook and FTC dropped the privacy settlement bomb. The settlement will push facebook to consider their user-privacy obligations and accept FTC scrutiny once in a while seems like an obvious move for facebook if they are really pushing for an IPO early next year. But if this will calm or ick investors, we do not know.

But what about the long term? Facebook is known for their implement first iterate later strategy but with this development, that may actually change. Will this hinder innovation at the company? I certainly hope not. For better or for worse, I still like facebook for their us against the world culture and pushing updates that users hate for a while, love for the rest.

Start hustling

I just realized that I was being really unproductive this past couple of months and after reading several blog posts from programmers and entrepreneurs, I’m off to do some serious work.

I still have an app to finish before the year ends, several pre-graduation projects and house responsibilities and I think I'm on a make or break scenario now. Oh how did it ever come to this. I’ll update my blog and social network profiles on my progress. Wish me luck.

Key Van McCoy classic.

facebook eureka

I attended my mom’s high school reunion last night and what I thought to be a really boring gathering (for a 19 year old) turned pretty interesting as I noticed that they’re talking about facebook and how it connected a bunch of 40 to 50 year olds.

And that’s when a the light bulb kicked it as to why no one (for me anyway) can replace facebook. Other social networks may come and go (except Google+ (I spend a lot of my time here), twitter and maybe linkedin) but social media is more than just putting an input box and a share button. There’s always a benefit to getting that niche first and Facebook has that advantage. It doesn’t need to one-up every new update of a competitor (the Hangout – Video chat anyone?) because there’s a chance that the public may actually hate it (which will lead to user jump-ship), for a few days, weeks or months anyway but it will pass.

A call to arms against SOPA

As the fight against SOPA continues, here's a lowdown of a few weeks worth of progress.

This bill is so ugly even business software alliance made up their mind and are now backing down its support.

And whether you like it or not, SOPA will affect you.

So do your part and as an added bonus, Senator Wyden may just mention your name during his filibuster of this noxious legislation.

Good? Bad? Whatever.

These social reader apps and other apps powered by Facebook’s new Open Graph Protocol are good ‘til its actually bad.

Pros: Hassle free, automatic, seamless, passive sharing.

Cons: Hassle free, automatic, seamless passive sharing.

A love story

This was a screen grab of an error when I fired up m old laptop. Funny huh? Back then that was quite normal, no love was lost because of that. But now, I feel like being on Windows is a necessity, the love that I once felt for the OS was lost, maybe because of the lack in innovation, corporate schemes and a lousy CEO.

I’m compelled to use the operating system because of its still dominant share of the market, courtesy of Gates’ brilliance which irked the late Steve Jobs. But there’s a glimmering hope on the horizon, Windows 8, the latest iteration of the Windows line is promising a quasi-major overhaul of the looks as well as the inner workings of the system.  Here’s hoping that Windows will make me fall again, maybe love really is sweeter, the second time around.