18 March 2013
[funny] How To Get Coments On Your Posts … ‘My post included cute animals, Chuck Norris, open source software, bacon, Ron Paul, the recession, epic failures, cynicism, Apple and a FREAKING NARWHAL!!!’
8 March 2013
[twitter] The Real Weird Twitter Is Espionage Twitter … Is Twitter being used as a numbers station? … ‘GooGuns posts nothing but strings of letters and numbers, like b39e65fa00000000 in intervals of about five minutes on average. The string of characters always ends with zeroes, occasionally with the location service turned on, so you can see that 554705fa00000000 was allegedly tweeted from the “Region of Khabarovsk.” This has been going on all day and all night, for years, with more than 318,000 tweets posted since 2009. But why?’ [via @qwghlm]
28 February 2013
[socialnetworks] An Autopsy of a Dead Social Network … ‘They say that when the costs-the time and effort-associated with being a member of a social network outweigh the benefits, then the conditions are ripe for a general exodus. The thinking is that if one person leaves, then his or her friends become more likely to leave as well and this can cascade through the network causing a collapse in membership. But Garcia and co point out that the topology of the network provides some resilience against this. This resilience is determined by the number of friends that individual users have. So if a big fraction of people on a network have only two friends, it is highly vulnerable to collapse.’
14 February 2013
Why Facebook Makes You Feel Miserable … ‘The most common cause of Facebook frustration came from users comparing themselves socially to their peers, while the second most common source of dissatisfaction was "lack of attention" from having fewer comments, likes and general feedback compared to friends.’
30 December 2012
I Am Facebook Friends With Ryan Lanza … What happens if you’re friends on Facebook with somebody who is suddenly receiving a lot of media attention … ‘I found myself inundated with messages, some from journalists seeking confirmation, many from people saying angry and bizarre things to me or about Ryan. One demanded to know how I could be friends with such a monster. Could I help a random internet sleuth create a “psychological profile”? Did I see warning signs in Ryan? Why did I suspiciously post cartoons about mass shootings only days before? That was very tasteless. A text to my phone from an unknown number read “looks like this killer is a fan of yours.” A Twitter user declared me a “snitch” for sharing Ryan’s post. Someone accused me of having something to do with the killings, “which you take delight in,” they wrote, and hoped the FBI would hold me accountable.’
27 December 2012
Here’s How Facebook Gives You Up To The Police … a fascinating look at what Facebook hands over to the Police after a legal subpoena … ‘Your entire Facebook browsing history – When you click on someone’s profile, it’s logged. Other Facebook users don’t know you’re looking at their profiles, but Facebook itself most assuredly does. Or rather can, if the police come asking.’
19 October 2012
[web] The Gospel According to Pinterest … The New York Times on Pinterest – notably that an estimated 10% of Pinterest web traffic comes from inspirational quotes …
“It’s one thing for a family member to tell you to get yourself together,” Ms. Martinez said. “It’s quite another when a person you follow on Pinterest presents some sound advice with a great typeface on a pretty background.”
12 July 2012
[twitter] Debit Card (@NeedADebitCard) … a twitter account retweeting people who post pictures of their Debit / Credit Cards to Twitter.
28 February 2012
[web] Dr. Samuel Johnson on Pinterest …
Pinterest (n.) modish Notice-Board whereupon one shares Etchings, Oils, PRINTS & the dreadful Truth that Adults are playing at SCRAP-BOOKING
— Samuel Johnson (@DrSamuelJohnson) February 25, 2012
26 September 2011
[web] The Relative Sizes of the World’s Largest Photo Libraries: ‘…this year people will upload over 70 billion photos to Facebook, suggesting around 20% of all photos this year will end up there.’
15 September 2011
[twitter] The insane ramblings of Betfair Poker on Twitter … Betfair Poker seems to have had a corporate breakdown on Twitter …‘I’ve invented a new kind of pizza. I’ve replaced the cheese with disappointment.’
13 September 2011
[web] Go Look: In 60 Seconds On the Internet… ‘694,445 Search Queries’
8 August 2011
14 July 2011
[twitter] Grace Dent: 100 things about me and Twitter … ‘I unfollow my friends all the time. I think life’s too short to have someone pissing you off in your timeline. It’s like radio interference in your brain on a lovely day.’
29 June 2011
[internet] Social Fax Machines … James Shelley On Social Media … ‘Imagine that you were one of 300 people with fax machines. Each one of you program your respective machines to carbon copy every fax to all 299 other machines. Then, together, you go about your day diligently reading the faxes that pour in.’ [via Sore Eyes]
20 June 2011
[twitter] How Decisions Made by Twitter Founders in 2006 Led to Anthony Weiner’s Dickish Demise … Steven Levy looks at how design decisions and Anthony Weiner’s reckless use of Twitter led to his downfall …
Weiner needed a more private channel of communication for flirtations up to and including pictures of his package. Since the women followed him already, he could send them direct messages. But to receive their replies, he had to follow them in return. Only then could he engage in flirting or sexual repartee.Weiner seemed not to realize the extent to which Twitter’s rules still made him vulnerable. The women were publicly listed among those accounts he followed. Since he only followed around 200 people, these new followers seemed out of place among the politicians, journalists, and celebrities on his list. It was all too easy for a political foe to notice that Weiner was adding young women (and in at least one case, a porn star) to his followers soon after a public exchange.’
1 June 2011
[funny] Dr Johnson On Adam Curtis …
Adam CURTIS (n.) tapestry-weaving Sophist who feigns that placing Events betwixt each other does magically prove a CAUSE
— Samuel Johnson (@DrSamuelJohnson) May 30, 201125 May 2011
Bradley Manning’s Facebook Page … I can’t help myself but be fascinated by this archive of Bradley Manning’s Facebook Wall … ‘Manning’s Facebook postings are a vivid, if partial, portrait of his life in the military and of the political and social issues that he followed closely. They reflect his commitment to gay rights and defiance of the military’s ban on openly gay or lesbian soldiers. They track the anguish in his personal life. And they conclude with an entry, put up in Manning’s name by his aunt, explaining his arrest with a link to a WikiLeaks website.’
23 May 2011
FaceFacts … Jason Scott on Facebook … ‘[Facebook] is like an ever-burning fire of our memories, gleefully growing as we toss endless amounts of information and self and knowledge into it, only to have it added to columns of advertiser-related facts we do not see and do not control and do not understand.’
5 April 2011
7 March 2011
[art] (Fake) Gilbert and George Are On Twitter …
Lucheon. Prolific as ever, we masturbated onto a stamp while soup simmered. Food: adequate. Stamp: no longer usable in any practical sense.
Gilbert & George
artfortwats
10 February 2011
Is Facebook Making Us Sad? … ‘Facebook is, after all, characterized by the very public curation of one’s assets in the form of friends, photos, biographical data, accomplishments, pithy observations, even the books we say we like. Look, we have baked beautiful cookies. We are playing with a new puppy. We are smiling in pictures (or, if we are moody, we are artfully moody.) Blandness will not do, and with some exceptions, sad stuff doesn’t make the cut, either. The site’s very design-the presence of a “Like” button, without a corresponding “Hate” button-reinforces a kind of upbeat spin doctoring.’
18 January 2011
[Facebook] Mary’s Welcome to Facebook … ‘Kellen, why did you sign me up for this?’
7 December 2010
[comics] The Twitter Hulks … Kottke surveys the Hulks on Twitter …‘HULK WEIGH OVER 1 TONNE. HULK KISS ANYONE HULK WANTS TO. HULK WORRIES ABOUT EDITORIAL OVERSIGHT AT MARIE CLAIRE.’ (Cross-dressing Hulk)
26 November 2010
[comics] The Batman is On Twitter … [previously]
My iPhone is DEEAAAAAAAD!!!
The Batman
God_Damn_Batman
21 November 2010
Who’s going to win X Factor Based On Facebook Likes … ‘Facebook isn’t going to show lost votes (its rare for people to UNLIKE) and its less effort to hit a like button than pay to vote, but should still reflect increasing popularity, so keep an eye on those ‘LIKES’.’
18 November 2010
Facebook: Privatising The Internet, One Poke At A Time … Andrew Orlowski on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook … ‘At a typically oversold launch event yesterday, Zuckerberg complained about the “friction” generated by having to compose a simple email. You had to type a subject line in, he said, incorrectly, making people wonder if he’d ever used email himself. It’s too formal, he concluded. The poor love – I’m surprised he hasn’t thought about suing the developers of POP3 for emotional distress, as well as repetitive strain injury.’
10 November 2010
Risk Reduction Strategies on Facebook … interesting look at the cautious was some teenagers approach Facebook …‘She’ll leave a Like up for a few days for her friends to see and then delete it. When I asked her why she was deleting this content, she looked at me incredulously and told me “too much drama.” Pushing further, she talked about how people were nosy and it was too easy to get into trouble for the things you wrote a while back that you couldn’t even remember posting let alone remember what it was all about. It was better to keep everything clean and in the moment. If it’s relevant now, it belongs on Facebook, but the old stuff is no longer relevant so it doesn’t belong on Facebook. Her narrative has nothing to do with adults or with Facebook as a data retention agent. She’s concerned about how her postings will get her into unexpected trouble with her peers in an environment where saying the wrong thing always results in a fight.’
9 November 2010
[twitter] Twitter: The great pretenders … some interviews with Twitter’s most successful spoof account creators [@CherylKerl | @chilean_miner | @CatBinLady | @dianainheaven | @DrSamuelJohnson] … ‘I’ve yet to meet a female fake tweeter. I think the whole idea has that mix of Radio 4 panel game and practical joke that appeals to a certain type of nerdy Englishman. At the launch of my Dr Johnson book, it was like a cross between an AGM of trainspotters and the League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.’
27 October 2010
[twitter] Inference … interesting look at how to passively geo-stalk your friends … ‘I just wanted to document this for future reference. Certainly not as some impressive moment of Holmesian deduction, or some dire warning about the leaking of personal information. Just as a moment of oddness. That choosing to give away one piece of information publicly, allows accurate inference of other things. Something that has always been true, but for which a new dimension has been introduced.’
7 October 2010
[life] A single sperm has 37.5MB of DNA information in it…
A single sperm has 37.5MB of DNA information in it. That means a normal ejaculation represents a data transfer of 1,587.5TB.
A.V. Flox
avflox
29 September 2010
[comics] The Wisdom of Tharg The Mighty …
“As an alien superbeing. I have little time for the primitive biological urge you lesser evolved beings call sex.” – Tharg the Mighty
2000AD Daily Quote
2000ADailyQuote
28 September 2010
[twitter] Sam Leith On 50 Cent’s Twitter feed … ‘If you ever wondered what really went on in the heads of the people you are used to goggling at on telly, you needed wonder no longer: now, thanks to the wonder of Twitter, we would be able to SEE DIRECTLY INTO THEIR BRAINS.’
23 August 2010
Random Facebook Status Generator … ‘Darren… Subscribes to the tenets of irrelevant herrings.’
22 August 2010
11 August 2010
[tv] Jon Ronson:
True fact. The That's Life researcher who found and filmed the dog that says sausages is Adam Curtis.
— jon ronson (@jonronson) August 10, 2010
6 August 2010
15 July 2010
Effectively manage your Facebook privacy settings with three simple lists … if you’ve got OCD and time to spare this is probably an effective how-to on dealing with friends, work colleagues, family and acquaintances on Facebook.
12 July 2010
[comics] J. Jonah Jameson is on Twitter …
THE ONLY POSSIBLE “UP SIDE” TO THIS MISERABLE HEAT AND HUMIDITY IS THAT SOMEWHERE IN THIS TOWN, SPIDER-MAN IS DRENCHED IN HIS PERVERT SUIT.
J Jonah Jameson
JJONAHJAMESON
3 June 2010
[comics] Favourite Tweets #2: TimeLostBatman … I’M VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE FACT THAT YOU PUT PICTURES OF ME ON YOUR CHILDREN’S UNDERWEAR.’ (more…)
29 May 2010
[comics] Favourite Tweets #1: Warren Ellis … ‘COME AND SIT IN AVANT-THARG’S SPACE LAP NOW, BOOB EARTHLETS’ (more…)
10 May 2010
Apparently Facebook Considers Your Current IP Address To Be “Public Information” As Well … more privacy issues with Facebook …
See that header in your Facebook notification email that looks like this?
X-Facebook: from zuckmail ([NzYuMTY5LjIzLjU2])
That’s your friend’s IP address…
29 April 2010
[internet] Getting depressed with this whole Social Media thing … ‘Where is the social technology, the social news, the social web? Instead we get networks flooded by marketers looking for ways to manipulate us all under the guise of having conversations. Instead we get flooded with follow and friend requests where 4 out of 5 are spammers or marketers. Instead we get a Web that is being treated like a business acquisition where we are nothing more than shares to be bought and sold.’
26 April 2010
[comics] Top Trending Twitter Topics of the Marvel Universe … #itsclobberintime #youwouldntlikemewhenimangry #accursedrichards
21 March 2010
[woz] Steve Wozniak is on Twitter: ‘Rare massage (for me), then dance practice. No pain, no gain. Awkward but fun, this dancing. I still can’t do Macarena.’ [link]
9 March 2010
[internet] In Praise of Online Obscurity … ‘In 2007, [Maureen Evans] began a nifty project: tweeting recipes, each condensed to 140 characters. She soon amassed 3,000 followers, but her online life still felt like a small town: Among the regulars, people knew each other and enjoyed conversing. But as her audience grew and grew, eventually cracking 13,000, the sense of community evaporated. People stopped talking to one another or even talking to her. “It became dead silence,” she marvels. Why? Because socializing doesn’t scale…’
11 January 2010
Conversations About The Internet #5: Anonymous Facebook Employee … an interview with a Facebook employee about internal practices at the company …
Q: When you say “click on somebody’s profile,” you mean you save our viewing history?
Facebook Employee: That’s right. How do you think we know who your best friends are?
24 December 2009
[twitter] Tweeting Too Hard … a blog collecting the most self-important tweets from Twitter … ‘fan belt light came on in the 911 so now I’m driving the Cayenne Turbo S – the backup, backup car. Trying not to think about the Tesla…’ [link]
11 December 2009
[comics] Time Lost Batman is on Twitter: ‘You don’t get it, Pharaoh. This isn’t a desert. It’s an operating table, and I’M THE SURGEON!!!’ (more…)
13 November 2009
Facebook Status Bolsters Alibi In Armed Robbery Case … ‘His defence lawyer, Robert Reuland, admitted that it might be possible for anyone who knew Bradford Junior’s username and password to have made the update, while dismissing the scenario as highly unlikely. “This implies a level of criminal genius that you would not expect from a young boy like this. He is not Dr. Evil,” Reuland told The New York Times…’