I LOVE the Internet! Facebook Privacy Petition

A few days ago, I joined a petition in Facebook called, "Facebook, stop invading my privacy!" So did around 60,000 other Facebook users.

Apparently, they were listening!

Today, the following article appeared in the Wall Street Journal:

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of Facebook Inc., apologized Wednesday for gaffes the company made in rolling out a controversial new advertising system, and said users would be able to disable the system entirely.

Facebook last week tweaked the ad program, known as Beacon, after more than 50,000 users raised privacy concerns about features that tell Facebook users what their friends are doing and buying on other Web sites.

Facebook made the changes last week without much public comment from its executives, but Mr. Zuckerberg weighed in Wednesday of Facebook's corporate blog.

"We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them," Mr. Zuckerberg wrote. "We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it."

Mr. Zuckerberg said Facebook took too long to react to user complaints. He said Facebook is releasing a privacy control to allow users to turn off Beacon completely, and he hopes "this new privacy control addresses any remaining issues we've heard about from you."


The flurry of criticism for Beacon and Zuckerberg's mea culpa underscore the heightened scrutiny Facebook is under as its user base soars and as investment money pours in. The three-part advertising plan Facebook announced last month is an attempt to wring a financial bonanza from its devoted users, but it's increasingly clear Facebook's road to marketing riches will be bumpy.

Mr. Zuckerberg said he hopes the change to Beacon "addresses any remaining issues we've heard about from you." But Facebook's move wasn't enough for some critics.


"This is an attempt to hope the privacy mob will simply disappear into the digital ozone," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, which is advocating tighter regulatory oversight for marketing on social networks and other online properties.

Mr. Chester said Facebook shouldn't include its users in Beacon unless they expressly indicate they want to participate.


More broadly, Mr. Chester said he's worried about the amount of information people share on social networks - including names and addresses, political affiliation and other sensitive data - and the Web sites' increasing efforts to tie marketing to that information.

Both Facebook and MySpace have announced recently new marketing schemes that target ads based on the interests people indicate on their profiles. MySpace parent company News Corp. is slated to acquire Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

Comcast Sucks

If you live in Downtown Memphis and use Comcast to get a high speed Internet connection, you may have noticed that Microsoft Outlook stopped working properly after Friday of last week.

This happened for those who are using their own email address (anything@randomdomain.com) and sending it out through Microsoft Outlook.

After much trouble shooting the past days and calling Comcast twice, I was able to debug the problem. Please note that Comcast was no help in this process; they refuse to answer questions if you are using your own e-mail. My question to them was, "has anything changed on your end?" This seems reasonable.

Everything on my end was working properly. I rebooted multiple times, I restarted my wireless router and my cable modem, I set up my email on a seperate computer, I tried sending out through different mail accounts, etc. There were no signs for the problem.

But of course, the problem wasn't me. It was Comcast. Comcast decided to change their e-mail settings over the weekend, and they did not communicate those changes to their customers... even when their customer (me) called twice.

If you have been having trouble sending e-mail for the reasons listed above, here are the steps to change Outlook, so that it will work again.

Happy troubleshooting!

Step 1: Open Outlook
Step 2: From the menu at the top, select “Tools” --> “Email Accounts”
Step 3: Select the “View or change existing e-mail accounts” radio button, then select “Next”

Step 4: Click the “Change” button
Step 5: Type “smtp.comcast.net” into the “Outgoing mail server” field (I whited out my entries for the other fields, but they should remain as they are today—with your own email information, such as anything@randomdomain.com)

Step 6: Click the “More Settings …” button
Step 7: Click the “Outgoing Server” tab
Step 8: Click the “My outgoing server requires authentication” box
Step 9: Select the “Log on using” radio button
Step 10: Type in your COMCAST user name and your COMCAST password. You may have to call them to get this information. Their number is 901-259-2225.

Step 11: Click the "Advanced"

Step 12: Type "587" into the "Outgoing server" box

Step 11: Click “OK”

Step 12: Click “Next >”
Step 13: Click “Finish”

After you complete these steps, your e-mail should work again! Good luck. :-)

Drugstore.com: Buy one get one free event through August 31st

Drugstore.com is having a buy one, get one free event from now until August 31st. Check it out!

If you haven't tried ordering these sorts of products online before, you should. The selection is almost always better, you can order from your living room, and it's a huge relief (that you didn't have to fight through traffic, kids, and shopping carts) when the box shows up.

Don't forget, its free shipping. There are also free samples and gifts.

Many parents now get domain names for kids too young to type

I found an article this morning that brings me back to a topic that I've been discussing for a while: the way in which our increased comfort level with sharing information on the Internet will shape future generations.

This goes back to the idea of publishing photos of a child's ultrasound, their birth, their first steps, first day of school, first haircut-- all the way up to the day they pack up and move off to college. I can't image what the world would be like if today, I could pull up an entire archived history of all of my friends online. But at some point that will be the case because, that's the direction that we're going in.

Here's a link to one of my previous posts on the same topic.

Below is part of the article that I found today on CNN.com. Apparently, some parents are selecting the names for their children according to whether or not the domain name is available. Since there are roughly 300 people in the US with my exact same name, I own all of the (most important-- .com, .net, .org) domain names that have my name in them. Clearly, the other 299 Angela's are out of luck.

At any rate, this is an interesting trend for two reasons: First, have we moved to the point of awareness of technology as a society that checking for a domain name is right up there with purchasing a baby car seat for the ride home from the hospital? Second, think of the creative names that will exist in the next ten years. As businesses have attempted to always own their domain names, new businesses have had to be more and more creative. No longer can you just be the only ABC Cleaner in town; now you want to be the only one-- period. If parents are buying domain names for their unborn children, it's only a matter of time before the same thing is happening with children's names.

To get your very own baby domain name, click here to go to GoDaddy.com.

Anyhow, here's the article:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Besides leaving the hospital with a birth certificate and a clean bill of health, baby Mila Belle Howells got something she won't likely use herself for several years: her very own Internet domain name.

Likewise newborn Bennett Pankow joined his four older siblings in getting his own Internet moniker. In fact, before naming his child, Mark Pankow checked to make sure "BennettPankow.com" hadn't already been claimed.

"One of the criteria was, if we liked the name, the domain had to be available," Pankow said. It was, and Pankow quickly grabbed Bennett's online identity.

A small but growing number of parents are getting domain names for their young kids, long before they can do more than peck aimlessly at a keyboard.

It's not known exactly how many, but the practice is no longer limited to parents in Web design or information technology.

They worry that the name of choice might not be available by the time their babies become teens or adults, just as someone claimed the ".com" for Britney Spears' 11-month-old son before she could.

The trend hints at the potential importance of domain names in establishing one's future digital identity.

Think of how much a typical teen's online life now revolves around Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace. Imagine if one day the domain could take you directly to those social-networking profiles, blogs, photo albums and more.

"It is the starting point for your online identity," said Warren Adelman, president of registration company GoDaddy.com Inc., which sells basic domain name packages for about $9 a year. "We do believe the domain name is the foundation upon which all the other Internet services are based."

Hundreds of companies sell domain names with suffixes like ".com," ".org" and ".info," which individuals can then link to personal Web sites and e-mail accounts. Parents simply visit one of those companies' Web sites, search for the name they want and, if no one else has claimed it yet, buy it on the spot with a credit card.

There's no guarantee, though, that domain names will have as central a role in online identity. After all, with search engines getting smarter, Internet users can simply type the name of a person into Google.

"Given the pace of change on the Internet, it strikes me as a pretty impressive leap of faith that we're going to use exactly the same system and the same tools ... 15 to 20 years from today," said Peter Grunwald, whose Grunwald Associates firm specializes in researching kids and technology.

Still, even if the effort is for naught, $9 a year is cheap compared with the cost of diapers and college tuition.

Besides providing an easy-to-remember Web address, the domain name makes possible e-mail addresses without awkward numbers -- as in "JohnSmith24", because 23 other John Smiths had beaten your child to Google Inc.'s Gmail service.

Parents not ready to commit or knowledgeable enough on how to buy a domain, though, are at least trying their luck with Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail or Gmail.

Melissa Coleman of Springfield, Massachusetts, grabbed Hotmail addresses for her two kids. She said the kids' grandparents occasionally send e-greeting cards to those accounts, and she sends thank you notes for gifts in her child's voice.

"I think it's great that it's so loud and that it came with an actual WORKING MICROPHONE ... and I'm not sure what `annoying' means, but I'm sure it means that Mommy loves it too!!!!," read one message to Grandpa.

She said she logs in at least once every month to keep the accounts active and plans to save all messages for when her children get older.

Tony Howells, a business consultant in Salt Lake City, Utah, got a Gmail address along with the domain name for his daughter, believing people would enjoy seeing "an e-mail address pop up for an 8-month-old who is obviously not equipped to use it."

Although some parents have yet to use the domain names they've bought, others are sending visitors to baby photos, blogs and other personal sites. Domain name owners have a variety of options to have their personal sites hosted, typically for free or less than $10 a month. They include baby-geared services like TotSites.com and BabyHomePages.net.

Theresa Pinder initially received a domain name as a Christmas gift from her son's godparents and gives it out to friends and family who want updates.

"People are like, `Wow. He already has his own Web site,"' said Pinder, a physician assistant in Phoenix.

There are downsides to all this, though: An easy-to-remember domain also makes a child easier for strangers to find. Chances are one only needs to know a child's name and add ".com."

Pankow, a database administrator in Phoenix, said that was one concern keeping him from using the domains he bought for his five children, including a 9-year-old daughter.

"I'd want to research and try to figure out how easy it is to find out what school she goes to and where she lives" based on the Web site and domain name, Pankow said.

GoDaddy and many other registration companies offer proxy services that let domain name buyers register anonymously. Otherwise, the person's name, address and other contact information are publicly searchable.

Notwithstanding the privacy concerns, Adelman said domain names for kids have become more and more popular as parents start to get domains for their business or family and realize how difficult it is to find ".com" names not yet claimed.

But the numbers are still relatively low. Our Baby Homepage, which lets parents set up personal baby pages with photos and greetings, says only 10 percent of its customers have bought their own domains. A similar service, Baby's First Site, considered selling domains for parents but didn't get much interest.

Brian Vannoy, founder of TotSites, said parents might need more lessons on safety measures such as how to password-protect sites. But he believes the hurdles can be overcome once parents who are less-savvy about technology see the benefits.

"It's easy to remember," Vannoy said. "Everybody knows the new baby's name."

AIM Fight

Really quick-- Check out this new AIM feature, AIM Fight. It allows you to compare the number of connections you have compared to others.



http://aimfight.com/

Projectionist Pans Movie, Loses Job

Wow, what an interesting past few days it's been. A friend here in Memphis, Jessie Morrison, has been fired this week from his job. Why? Because while working as a projectionist at Malco, he wrote a negative review of a movie online.

What difference does that make you may ask? Well, he wrote it about the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. What happened next is a little surprising...

Fox figured out that he wrote the entry and where he works. Fox then phoned his boss and threatened to pull their movie from Malco's entire chain of theatres.

Just after, he was fired.

It's all a little sad. The reviewer loves movies and had been writing online reviews for quite some time-- and his company new in advance that he was doing this. In addition, he didn't reveal any movie "spoilers" in his review. He simply stated his opinion.

Anyway, the whole thing is burning up the Internet today. All you have to do is search for "Memflix" on Google and you'll now find over 35,000 entries.

Here's the latest from CNN.com:

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- A projectionist at a Memphis, Tennessee, theater chain has lost his job after writing an unauthorized early review of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" for the Web site Ain't It Cool News.

Jesse Morrison, the projectionist, claims that the film's distributor, 20th Century Fox, was behind the decision by Malco Theatres Inc. to suspend him for an undetermined period. The studio denied the charge.

While studios and filmmakers have endured early reviews of their movies, both negative and positive, on Web sites since the early days of the Internet, the incident might mark the first time someone working in the entertainment industry has lost a job for voicing an early opinion online.

On Saturday, http://www.AintItCool.com posted a negative review by Morrison (writing under his online moniker Memflix) under the headline "Memflix crushes all hope for 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.' "

A 29-year-old film, video and journalism major at the University of Memphis, Morrison worked for $7 an hour at the Ridgeway Four, next door to Malco's home office. He picked up further compensation by readying movie prints for exhibitor and press screenings, which allowed him during the past year to write reviews of such movies as "Disturbia," "Vacancy" and "Spider-Man 3" for Ain't It Cool. He also wrote reviews for Malco's movie blog and a circular distributed at the theater.

On Monday, two days after his "Silver Surfer" pan appeared, Morrison was called into a meeting with Malco senior VP Jimmy Tashie and, according to Morrison, was "suspended until further notice," with the suggestion that he would not be asked to return.

Morrison said Tashie pointed out that "20th Century Fox called them that morning and threatened to take away the press and trade screenings because of this whole thing. They were upset."

Asked if Fox had any role in the suspension, Tashie said: "Absolutely none." The executive said his company received a call from Fox that said "there's somebody there working for (Malco) who is writing reviews in advance. That's all they said. No one asked us to do anything. We have been in business 95 years, and this is the first time anything like this happened. And this boy knew what he was doing was the wrong thing. ... He was in a position of trust and he violated that trust."

Drew McWeeney, known as "Moriarty" on the Ain't It Cool site, picked up Morrison's cause. Amid two positive reviews for the new movie, he championed Morrison's right to free speech and wrote: "He's written many reviews for us before, but when he wrote one for 'Fantastic Four,' Fox went into hypersensitive overdrive. They tracked him down and had him fired, threatening to pull their business from the entire chain over that review."

Sources inside Fox denied the studio's involvement, saying that the disciplinary action was beyond their reach and was the theater chain's decision.

Some entertainment companies, including film productions, do ask workers to sign confidentiality agreements, agreeing not to disclose information. Morrison said he had never been asked to sign such an agreement, though he would have if asked.

"If they had sat me down and told me that this has caused such a stink and that we would like you to sign some waiver, I probably would have signed it," Morrison said. "In my opinion, they used strong-arm tactics. I don't regret going on my Web site or Ain't It Cool at all. I just wish it hadn't come to this, but I don't really believe I did anything wrong."

Tashie said: "In the future, anybody in that position will sign something."

A number of Ain't It Cool readers have rallied to Morrison's cause, some even offering him jobs like a cameraman gig in Mexico.

Morrison said he is weighing his options. "I'm hoping to get a job as a professional movie reviewer, but I don't know what's going to happen with that. I guess you could say I'm at some kind of crossroads right now."

11th Annual Webby Award Winners Announced

Check out the 11th annual Webby Award winners: http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php.

Angie's Favorite Phrase: "New Media"

My favorite phrase right now: "New Media."

Wikipedia definition: "New media is a broad term that usually refers to new technologies and communication methods in the context of their effects on the established mainstream media.
Originally this term was used by the pioneer Website developers to differentiate their techniques from the other methods of communication that shared the "media budget" within a company. This allowed the suggestion of new vs. old while at the same time establishing a claim on the budget available. Over time the term was used to refer to anything that was Internet-related."

Examples of New Media:
Video games and virtual worlds as they impact marketing and public relations.
Multimedia CD-ROMs
Software
Web sites including brochurware
Corporate blogs and wikis
Email and attachments
Electronic kiosks
Interactive television
Mobile devices
Podcasting
Hypertext fiction

Apple iTunes Sells DRM Free Songs, Music

Starting yesterday, Apple began selling songs in its iTunes store without copyright protection.

Purchasing songs without DRM (digital rights management) protection software will mean that you will be able to play these songs anywhere, on different types of players.

Apple is starting first with songs from music company EMI Group. The music available includes songs from Frank Sinatra, Norah Jones, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, and the Rolling Stones.

The DRM-free songs are higher quality than past songs Apple has offered for download. They also cost 30 cents more than the normal 99 cent iTunes songs.

I urge you to support Apple's trend-setting move and help to make this the new standard!

(To check it out, click the banner below.)

My Thoughts on the Future

I've been thinking about this for a while, so here it goes...

Do you remember the first time that you posted a photo of yourself online?

I can't remember just how old I was, but I'd guess I was probably about 14. The Internet was still brand new and AOL was charging by the minute.

Actually, after a little digging online, I found it. I believe that this is very possibly the first photo ever put on the Internet of me. It was over 10 years ago and I posted it myself.

Do you remember the first time you allowed your height to be published somewhere?

What about your last name?

The city where you live?

And your job title?

Your resume?

All of your friends names?

Photos of your family?

I can remember all of these moments in my life. They were all very deliberate choices; many of them directly tied to my age and stage of my life. I was careful not to reveal too much too quickly or at too young of an age.

I am completely aware that a potential employer, friend, or colleague can learn all about me at anytime. Heck, I do it myself when I want to learn about someone new.

This is a reasonable thing to think about, because once something is posted online, it doesn't go away.

What about nowadays though? Do we think before we post?

I've started to notice a trend...

More and more people are tracking their pregnancies online. There are photos of new moms' big bellies each month, growing larger by the frame.

Dads are posting photos of their newborns, still all red and just delivered at the hospital.

Parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are posting photos of a child's first steps, first haircut, first, first, first...

Some parents even write restaurant reviews about their experiences eating out online.

With online papers, you can track a child's grades and accomplishments who live in another city. (This comes in handy for me with my brothers that live in Oklahoma.)

What happens in another 10 to 20 years when an adult persons entire life has been traced online, from conception to present?

How will this further impact us when we apply to school, for a job, or even when we ask someone on a date? What about children who are making friends, applying to high school, or looking for a first job?

Hmmm......................................