//beconfused » facebook

Student suspended for slamming teacher on Facebook can sue

Mr. Dew — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:01:36 +0000

In US, a student suspended for creating a Facebook group “Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever met”, can, and is now suing the school:

Student suspended for slamming teacher on Facebook can sue
… The now-19-year-old Evans had created a Facebook group in 2007 to criticize a teacher that she had clashed with; the group was called “Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever met.” On the group’s wall, Evans had invited other students who didn’t like Ms. Phelps to “express [their] feelings of hatred.” Two days later, Evans thought better of her decision and deleted the Facebook group.
The principal of the school, Peter Bayer, caught wind of the group and suspended Evans for cyberbullying and disruptive behavior.
Evans filed a lawsuit against Bayer shortly thereafter, arguing that she was engaged in nonviolent, off-campus activities and that the punishment essentially ruined her academic reputation thanks to violations of her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. She’s not asking for much—Evans asked for her suspension to be expunged and a “nominal fee” for the violation of her rights.
The case has been going back and forth ever since. Bayer moved to have the suit dismissed, claiming that qualified immunity should shield him from litigation. Judge Garber disagreed, writing that qualified immunity doesn’t necessarily shield Bayer, and that Evans’ actions didn’t qualify as on-campus speech despite targeting a particular audience at her school. Additionally, Garber wrote that there was no proof of disruption—Bayer didn’t even learn about the page until after it had been deleted—leaving only the opportunity to punish. Bayer had tried to argue that Evans’ speech could constitute libel or defamation, but the judge responded by saying that “a statement of pure opinion does not give rise to a defamation action.”

FBI Adds Facebook, YouTube, Twitter Profiles

Mr. Dew — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:17:22 +0000

FBI goes Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

FBI Adds Facebook, YouTube, Twitter Profiles
The FBI is willing to do just about anything when it comes to tracking down bad guys. They did the widgets thing last year. And today they announced that they’ve “set up shop in several social media websites.”
They’ve now got profiles on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube profiles are highlighted. They even have billboards up in Second Life. But nothing is mentioned about MySpace. Except that you can add FBI widgets to “social media websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Blogger.” (Source: Techcrunch)

More government agencies going social?

I’m getting bored of Facebook

Mr. Dew — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:46:20 +0000

I’m getting bored of Facebook too. I love the communication element there, but unfortunately some of the applications are annoying. Facebook changed a lot since it’s launch but not enough to make me excited.

Facebook Anthem

Even NTU Zi Char Uncle uses Facebook

Mr. Dew — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:56:35 +0000

I was browsing through Facebook and realized that the NTU Zi Char Uncle starts Facebook too.

Got Facebook group some more.

Nowadays more and more advanced already. And you thought Zi Char Uncle only know how to cook your sin chow mee hoon? Uncle now know social-networking okay?

Facebook consolidated all requests now

Mr. Dew — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:27:38 +0000

I love watching my requests grow longer and longer cos it just looks so dumb each time I log in.

Then

Now

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Seems like I can’t already.

Let’s watch my Facebook request grow longer

Mr. Dew — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:30:35 +0000

Let’s watch my Facebook request grow longer:

(Facebook requests are getting longer and longer. I wonder how long they would grow. Click to expand the picture.)

Now I have to scroll the bloody thing and my screen resolution is 1680 x 1050. Now I don’t ignore, just waiting for the list to grow, quite fun watching that somehow.

Picture: Facebook application invites start looking ridiculous

Mr. Dew — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:50:16 +0000

Look what’s happen to my Facebook homepage. It looks ridiculous now, so many application invites:

Hate the vampires, the pirates, the werewolves and the ninjas. Facebook is additive though.

Microsoft is in talks to buy Facebook stake

Mr. Dew — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:15:44 +0000

Microsoft is in talks to buy Facebook stake
SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp. is in talks with Facebook Inc. about making an investment in the social-networking startup that could value Facebook at $10 billion or more, according to people familiar with the matter.
Microsoft’s approach to Facebook in recent weeks with proposals to invest in the fast-growing site is part of the software giant’s effort to catch up with the Internet rival Google. If successful, Microsoft’s talks with Facebook could give it an up-to-5% stake in the closely-held startup — a stake potentially valued at roughly $300 million to $500 million, the people familiar with those talks said.
The people familiar with the matter said that the discussions are still preliminary and Facebook could wind up not taking an investment from either Microsoft or Google. Factors in the discussions include the valuation the suitors would offer to Facebook and other business considerations they could contribute to sweeten any deal.
A Facebook spokeswoman and spokesmen for Microsoft and Google declined to comment.
Source: Wall Street Journal

Microsoft previously had an arrangement to serve advertisements at Facebook. Social Networking is kinda the in thing this year, isn’t it? Google has Orkut already, although the membership haven’t been exactly impressive. Somehow Facebook just have something special I guess.

Some thoughts on Web 2.0

Mr. Dew — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 01:40:04 +0000

Everyone is talking about Web 2.0 these days. Honestly, I don’t really like to use that term a lot as it has been overused and has, in my opinion, kinda lost its meaning.

Today, Web 2.0 can mean anything – video content, social networking, social news, social bookmarking, Ajax, Prototype libraries, JSON, accordion visual effects, mash-ups, Ruby on Rails, XML, and whatever.

It’s a marketing term for any webservice that is published after 2005. Google managed to revolutionize the way people understand ‘beta’. Today, some products is following some sort of a perpectual beta idea, meaning it’s just beta forever. That, once again, is pure marketing.

(Facebook has communities for Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 4.0, Web 5.0 and in case you haven’t noticed – Web Ã¯Â¿Â½??.0.)

Has the web really changed that much? Sure it has, but it didn’t just come overnight. It came a long way and Web 2.0 describes the awakening – the awakening of ordinary people such as my mom and my elephant – and the reintroduction of these technologies. Magazines that cover whatever Web 2.0 ideas are selling like hotcakes and if you actually read a couple of them you’ll realize none is particularly clear of what Web 2.0 is.

Because it just is so many things! But ultimately, I think Web 2.0 is about you and me addicted to connecting and sharing information. It’s as if we allow ourselves to be part of a whole movement. Just thinking of that scares me, but the thought never fails to make me tingle with excitement.

Digg to use Microsoft ads

Mr. Dew — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 03:03:24 +0000

From Kevin Rose

We’ve signed on Microsoft as our new partner to sell and serve the ads on Digg. It’s a deal similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year.
This move gives us an advertising partner with a larger organization and a more scalable technology platform to keep pace with Digg’s growth. Best of all, it lets the Digg team completely focus on new feature development. Federated Media, which has been an awesome partner for the last year and a half, will continue working with Digg focusing on integrated sponsorships and custom programs like the Arc project in labs.
Source: Digg blog

Digg intends to switch from Google to Microsoft? I love to see how their ads actually work. I didn’t know Facebook switched to Microsoft too. Google should watch out a little. Ads are a good business.

A little sick of social networking websites

Mr. Dew — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 03:46:15 +0000

Social networking websites are kinda driving me nuts by contantly sending me reminders that my friends have added me. I am displeased that my friends added me into those mailing list. It keeps sending me reminders to join those social networking websites like Multiply, MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, Hi5 and others. (I refuse to link them.)

I know how it works roughly, once you register, you’re given an option to input your Hotmail username and password. Then made a promise not to do anything to your passwords asides to collect your friend’s email addresses. You log in and they collect your friend’s email and mass invite them to join the social network.

It’s kinda like spam if you think about it. My friends always seem to get tricked into doing that.

Before you guys submit your username and password, think about security a little okay? You’re actually giving someone your username and password to tell him or her to sign in and take all your friend’s emails. The process is just automated, but your password can remain with the website and the webmaster can eventually log in to your account.

It is unlikely that the webmaster would check your email account. But what if the website got hacked and their databases got accessed by others. It’s just not the safest to do. On a side note, I believe the Microsoft Windows Live ID team has something in plans to build APIs for retrieving user’s contacts without having to surrender your username and password to a third party website.

Please don’t get all your friends into this type of trouble. Think twice before surrendering your username and passwords.