From Kenneth Thomas … Facebook paid 0.3% Taxes on $1.34 Billion profits:
If you are as cynical as I am, I know you are not surprised that Facebook paid Irish taxes (via Tax Justice Network) of about $4.64 million on its entire non-US profits of $1.344 billion for 2011.* This 0.3% tax rate is a bit below the normal, already low, Irish corporate income tax of 12.5%.
As with Apple, Facebook funnels its foreign profits into its Irish subsidiary.
Interesting social media experiment shared by Steven Sande … Readdle to give away Printer Pro for iPhone ... if you like them on Facebook:
Our friends at Readdle, the development house that makes such great apps as PDF Expert, Scanner Pro, and Remarks, have an interesting proposition for iPhone users who have a Facebook account. In order to increase the number of people following Readdle on Facebook, it's willing to give away its Printer Pro for iPhone app -- usually US$4.99 -- via a Readdle Social Challenge.
Here's the challenge -- you need to help Readdle get to 10,000 "Likes" on Facebook within 7 days, and then they'll give away Printer Pro for iPhone for a 24 hour period. The Social Challenge is already underway, and there's a countdown clock spinning away the days, hours, and minutes until it's all over.
Hmmm …
Gervase Markham notices Facebook doing MITM attack on your email.:
Facebook silently inserted themselves into the path of formerly-direct unencrypted communications from people who want to email me. In other contexts, this is known as a Man In The Middle (MITM) attack. What on earth do they think they are playing at?
Facebook really has to make a big move in mobile!
From Mike Simons … Facebook Is Toast, Forrester CEO Says:
Apple and Google will dominate the emerging digital economy while Facebook "is toast," claimed George Colony, CEO of Forrester, in the opening key note of the analyst group's European forum in Paris.
Colony's provocative predictions came at the conclusion of a session where he challenged IT leaders to "disrupt or be disrupted" and pushed Forrester's theme that Chief Information Officers and the departments they manage need to transform themselves to focus on business technology
The Forrester CEO focused on the accelerating pace of innovation and predicted that mobile engagement will bring as profound a change to business technology as the client-server revolution of the 1980s.
Photo by oskay - http://flic.kr/p/HHCnT
Gordon Snyder and I have started podcasting again – a new re-branded Bits and Bytes Podcast.
You can listen to this week's podcast Disappearing Facebook, Online Cheating, 4G and Dial-Up Modems here and read the show notes at Gordon And Mike's Bits and Bytes Podcast
University of Michigan researchers Zhiyun Qian and , Z. Morley Mao detail and demonstrate an Off-Path TCP Sequence Number Inference Attack
They also link to an Android app they've developed to:
find out if your network has deployed the sequence-number-checking firewall middlebox. It also helps us collect more data on which network providers are vulnerable so that we can report the issue to them.
What is off-path TCP sequence number inference attack?
Off-path sequence number inference attack is a new network attack that we discovered which can further enable TCP injection and hijacking attacks. One form of the attack is that an attacker on the Internet can collaborate with an on-device malware (unprivileged, such as a disguised third-party app) to hijack the facebook webpage (which is loaded by a separate app -- browser). Here's a picture of the threat model. In this particular threat model, the unprivileged malware collaborates with an Internet attacker to hijack the connection to the Facebook server. A more complete list of attacks possible is described in our paper.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Frédéric Filloux has some interesting insights on the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook. Facebook in Frantic Mode
I think the point that users "liked IG because it wasn't FB" is very true. I know users who have already deleted their Instagram accounts – there are even services such as Instaport, designed to let Instagram users download all of their content.
In the startup world, this will have two side effects: For one, Facebook is likely to become the exit of choice Google once was. Two, the size of the Instagram transaction (some of it in stock) is likely to act as a beacon for any startup harvesting users by the millions. It sets an inflationary precedent.
…
with this transaction, the ultra-dominant social network acted like an elephant scared of a mice. Instagram has 35 million users? Fine. But how many are using the service more than occasionally? Half of it? How many are likely to switch overnight to a better app?
…
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger designed the ultimate stripped-down application: a bunch of filters and a few basic sharing features. That’s it. It is both Instagram strength and main weakness. Such simplicity is easy to replicate. At the same time, if Facebook-Instagram wants to raise the feature-set bar, it might lose some of its users base and find itself competing with much better photo-sharing applications already populating Apple or Android app stores.
…
And if it chooses to grant some level of exclusivity to the Instagram app, how will the audience react (especially when you read comments saying “We liked IG because it wasn’t FB”)?
…
Instagram had no monetization strategy–other that a lottery-like exit. This says applying any kind of cost per user ($33 for the theory in vogue) is bogus. Being unable to project any sustainable revenue mechanism makes such a valuation process completely pointless. In Instagram’s case, the only way to come up with a price tag was guessing the amount of money a small group of suitors–Facebook, Google and Twitter–might be willing to cough up for Instagram’s eyeballs.
If this deal shows one thing, it is the frenzied, cutthroat competition these three players are now locked in. Mark Zuckerberg is not through with collecting hatching eggs. He won’t be alone either.
Sanya Khetani reporting … Spies Used A Fake Facebook Account For NATO's Supreme Commander To Get Private Personnel Information:
Last year, senior British military officers, Defense Ministry officials, and other government officials were tricked into becoming Facebook friends with someone masquerading as the current Commander of the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM), and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, exposing personal information to unknown spies, ZDNet reports.
United States Navy Admiral James Stavridis – who was in charge of operations in Libya against Colonel Gaddafi’s– now has an official Facebook page, while the bogus one has been permanently deleted, but officials are worried about the photos, phone numbers and email addresses that were compromised, The Daily Mail reports.
Wow!
From Todd Wasserman – Facebook To Hit 1 Billion User Mark in August [STUDY]:
one-seventh of humanity is now within the social network’s grasp
Irony!
Shared by Ben Brooks How to View Private Facebook Photos:
So glad I am not on Facebook. Also here are Mark Zuckerberg’s private photos.
At the end of last week’s Monday Note, I briefly wondered about the rumored Amazon smartphone. Would it follow the Kindle Fire strategy: Pick Android’s lock and sell the device at or below cost in order to lubricate the wheels of Amazon’s e-commerce of tangible and intangible things?
This week, we have the rebirth of another story: the Facebook phone. All Things D, the Wall Street Journal’s site dedicated to… All Things Digital, aired a series of postsfocused on Facebook’s hypothetical jump into the smartphone fray. Given the site’s reputation for reliable sources and real writing, this must be more than idle speculation floated for pageviews.
But what’s going on? Why would Facebook — or Amazon — create its own smartphone?
From Dan Frommer 3 random, meaningless stats, because I love you:
- 55.5 million people “Like” Facebook on Facebook, or about one for every 14.5 of its 800+ millionusers.
- @Twitter has 6.8 million followers on Twitter and has tweeted 1,222 times.
- Google has “About 12,240,000,000 results” for “google”. (Bonus: If you Google “search engine”, Google doesn’t show up on the first page of results. But Altavista, Lycos, and Webcrawler do.)
Infographic by Veracode Application Security
Missouri Repeals Law Banning Teacher-Student Facebook Friendship:
Remember back in July when the state of Missouri enacted legislation making Facebook friendship between teachers and students— as well as any sort of social networking — illegal?
After teachers complained the ban was unconstitutional and interfered with education, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon altered the state policy in a new bill signed Friday. The initial state senate bill, which has come to be known as the “Facebook Law,” is no longer in effect,reportsThe Kansas City Star.
Instead, all Missouri school districts will have until March 2012 to create their own social networking policies.
This true for Facebook, and all of Google's products and services ...
if you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer. You’re the product being sold.
Relatively new Web companies such as Facebook don’t hold many patents and could soon face data-center-related legal battles. VMware CEO Paul Maritz, who has witnessed a number of patent skirmishes in the 1990s when he was at Microsoft, believes that many patent confrontations are coming, and Facebook may find itself in the midst.
Quickly-growing services like Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, LinkedIn, and Groupon have so far avoided becoming casualties in the ongoing patent wars, which have centered on mobile devices, but the honeymoon may not last. “When the continents shift and new players come into a space, it results in an unstable situation,” Maritz told Business Week. “If you want to be a permanent fixture of the landscape, you better get some defense.”
Social media websites have weak patent portfolios: Facebook has only 12 patents to its name, while the totals for the other guys range from zero to two each, according to filings with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has upheld the right of the University of Minnesota to discipline a student in a mortuary sciences program who posted jokes about a cadaver on a Facebook page, Minnesota Public Radio reported. The student argued that the First Amendment protects the posts, but the appeals court found that the university could take action if it could "reasonably conclude" that the Facebook postings would "materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school."My first impulse was - "this a slippery slope", "If a student can be disciplined for offensive comments, could a student or faculty member be disciplined for posting comments critical of the institution"? But a closer reading of the Minnesota Public Radio story the article links to tells a different story.
Who knew embalming lab was so cathartic! I still want to stab a certain someone in the throat with a trocar though.[4] Hmm..perhaps I will spend the evening updating my "Death List #5" and making friends with the crematory guy. I do know the code . . . .The court makes clear that "the university's substantial interest in protecting the safety of its students and faculty" was an overriding factor in the decision.
[The student]1 also argued that the U of M didn't have authority to discipline her because the activity to which it objected took place off campus. "Whether or not [name removed] intended her posts to be satire or mere venting does not diminish the university's substantial interest in protecting the safety of its students and faculty and addressing potentially threatening conduct," the Court of Appeals said. It added that in these times, schools need to watch for and respond to student behavior that indicates a potential for violence.I expect better from Inside Higher Ed.
if you want to learn more here are some suggestions :-)
1) Check out the Google + Guide that is being created by hundreds of Google users, using Google docs. How Google Coolgle is that??? Imagine what kids could do if we allowed them to use social networks to connect with others and make guides about things they cared about???
2) Eric Curts, who I was fortunate enough to have join my first hang out, shared with me a whole blog post he wrote about his ideas for Google + for schools which you can read here. If you're a Google Apps school, you'll love his App User Group which connects and assists schools in the use of Google Apps for education. His post was also mentioned on the Read Write Web blog in their article, "Is This the Social Tool Schools Have Been Waiting For? by @audreywatters . Check it out.
3) Click this link for information about why it's great for folks who create graphic novels / comics.
4) Visit Larry Ferlazzo's round up of Google + resources here.
5) Check out this Google collaborative doc that shares Ways to Use Google+ in Education. Consider adding your own ideas too!
Here is what I like, love, a great tip, and what surprised me about Google +Top 3 things I like.
- You can edit your posts
- You can hit return without the comment posting itself
- You can still tag people
Top 3 things I love
Great tip
- You can select who sees your message. I REALLY like this as I know my friends are annoyed by my work chatter.
- Hangouts are really cool. They're so easy. I didn't need to install or do anything, though I believe this is because I use the Google Suite. If you don't, you may need to install some plug ins.
- Creating circles. I don't know why but this seems so much better than creating groups in Facebook.
Shorten your Google+ page url at http://gplus.to This allows you to change the url for your Google+ page to be something like this: http://gplus.to/InnovativeEdu instead of this: https://plus.google.com/116727180683288878674
Surprise
One thing I wasn't looking forward to is re-establishing my personal learning network on Google+. I was surprised that this wasn't a problem. Within a few days it seems I already have all my Facebook work friends in Google+. Rebuilding those I connect with was very easy and the circles are so nice because as people are added I quickly and easily dropped them in the right circle. Facebook let you just accept friendship without grouping people so there was no good way to connect with certain groups because I hardly grouped anyone. The instant circles feature has allowed me to instantly group all and those I spoke with most on Facebook and Twitter are right there with me and in the right group :-)
I became a Google + user this week and I like it. From what I can tell it lets you do pretty much everything Facebook lets you do with some bonuses including being able to edit your status updates and comments and that you can select who the feed goes to via the circle(s) in which you share your updates. The circles I'm using are colleagues, co-workers, GTA, friends, family, volleyball. The status updates still don't have a feature which I really want: nesting of comments. Is that really so hard??? It does let you tag people in your status which I find useful.
Another cool feature is hanging out. This lets you connect with up to ten people via audio, video, and chat and from my experience it works rather seamlessly. It also has a YouTube video share which I think will be powerful as a teaching and learning tool. While as an educator, my initial thought was only ten people? My next thought was, the reality is that it is difficult to have meaningful discussions with more than ten people. The rule of ten might in fact result in much more interesting and effective learning. For instance:
- What if students were empowered to lead hang out discussions and if necessary the teacher could move from discussion to discussion.
- What if the teacher set discussions with groups of students as it made sense.
- This could be great for meetings of educators who are not from the same school. Think librarian hangouts, science teacher hangouts, etc.
- This is a nice tool that could be more efficient for staff who are located in different districts. Rather than spend time commuting, just set up a hang out.
