What the heck happened to Facebook?

A large proportion of users of the popular college/adult social networking site Facebook were surprised, shocked, and upset when Facebook launched a new feature that aggregates data about changes to user profiles into a “feed” page that shows, at a glance, what your friends are doing, new photos they’ve uploaded, changes in relationship status, added and removed group memberships, and publically posted messages on other users’ “walls”.

I don’t get it, not at all. I’ve never really understood or enjoyed using social networking sites, mostly because I find them fairly useless. When I logged into Facebook and saw all this interesting new information, I found myself coming back much more frequently than I ever had before. I don’t care to spend hours trolling through my friend’s profiles seeing what they’ve added and removed. Being presented with it on one page made Facebook actually useful, sorta like a blog, letting me keep track of what the people I knew were up to.

Wendy’s take on the outrage is a bit different:

When thinking about our information, we don’t just have two settings, “public” and “private.” Those who spill their lives into Facebook profiles still have expectations of privacy. We might be comfortable sharing information with some people, in some doses, expecting the typical human attention span to shield us from too much probing, but object when that same information is catalogued and read back. This is part of the horror of a wiretap or a secret police file, even if it discloses only innocent activities.

I guess she’s right, but I’m really confused about what users were using the site for and what they expected. Perhaps it is a bit surprising and upsetting to see how much information you have put into Facebook, but *you* were the one who put it there in the first place! Its like the kids who are shocked that potential employers check out their public profiles and see them admitting to engaging in illegal acts and then deny them jobs.

Facebook’s News Feed feature did not do anything that contradicted with the site’s already extensive set of privacy settings. Users had already chose to let their friends see things about them. Their friends are now able to see those things a bit more easily. It is a useful and innovative feature, and ironically, being able to see friends joining groups and posting messages made it far easier for masses of users to join in anti-News Feed protests utilizing Facebook itself. I doubt the people protesting understand the irony.

Just one example

I can buy _The Jetsons_ season one on DVD for $25, complete with multiple languages, special features, and commentary tracks, and I can play it in any standard DVD player or use (admittedly illegal) tools to transfer it to my computer and/or iPod. Or I can buy _The Jetsons_ season one as DRM-encumbered Windows Media files for $38 with no commentary, no special features, and no ability to play it on a DVD player, much less an iPod (or even a Mac!).

Yeah, Amazon, I’m afraid your new video download service, so carefully negotiated to appease Hollywood and other rights holders, is not the least bit appealing to your actual customers, people like me. You need to do a lot better, and the only way you’re going to do that is by sticking up against the big rights holders and negotiating terms that favor the people whom you actually want to buy your videos.

Five years later, NYC unveils 9/11 Memorial Hole: “I firmly believe, as does every person here, that this deep, empty hole has come to stand not only for the New York City of today, but also for the transformation of the entire United States since Sept. 11, 2001,” said Reverend Charles Bourne. I’ve gazed into this hole the last couple times I’ve been to New York, and I have to agree.

The Comcast guy didn’t come for a third time. They gave me a $20 credit and apologized profusely. I still don’t have digital cable, but I do for some reason have basic, which allowed me to see a most excellent Comcast commercial that reminded me of just how “Comcastic” they are. Yeah.

Glenn Reynolds points to a _WSJ_ piece about the paramilitarization of US police forces and the increasing use of SWAT teams to carry out no-knock raids based on generally faulty intelligence. The use of “special weapons and tactics” is up *1300%* in the last twenty years. Among those targeted, an innocent NYC city worker in her 50s who died of a heart attack during the raid, a deaf, asthmatic Coney Island woman, who was handcuffed in the present of her two crying children and denied her asthma pump, and a Virginia optomotrist who was mistakenly shot during a raid of his house based on a police investigation of some sports betting he did with his friends. I find it not the least bit surprising that most of these egregious abuses of police power are caught up in the long-ago failed “war on drugs.”

★★★★★
Review

Life on Mars

Detective Chief Inspector Sam Tyler is 100% a product of the “new” school of British policing — he follows the trail of evidence, reads suspects their rights, and leaves personal feelings out of the mix. Just as an important murder case goes bad and Sam’s detective girlfriend is plunged into danger, he gets hit by a car and wakes up to find himself on the same street, but in a different time. Is he in a coma? Gone mad? Or did he really somehow get transported to the year 1973? People here seem to know him as Detective Inspector Sam Tyler, recently transferred from Criminal Investigation Department in Hyde, and he certainly has the credentials and outfit to match.

!>/files/2006/08/annie_sam_11.jpg(Life on Mars)! In addition to having to deal with being an anachronism in the 70s, Sam must also learn to work with a different kind of police force, one where hunches are more important than evidence, getting bad people off the streets more important than respecting suspect’s rights, and a little bit of sexism and corruption are just par for the course. Through his constant clashes with his new boss, DCI Gene Hunt, a hardened lawman, Sam brings a little bit of modern policing technique back to the 70s while learning some valuable lessons of his own. After all, the 70s is not just an age where modern forensic techniques like DNA tests and computerized fingerprint databases don’t exist, its that plus a time of great social upheavel, changing gender roles, new societal norms, labor unrest, war, and scandal. Not only is Sam a fish out of water who has to relearn a profession he thought he had down cold, he is also confronted with a bigger investigation, and one not so easily solved — finding out how he got here, and why, and how he will get home.

_Life on Mars_ is a great concept, a police drama with just a dash of science fiction, and if works because the writers are very keen to get things right, representing both the fun and the very serious sides of the 70s, the actors are marvelous, and the stories are compelling. Sure there are a few repeating themes that drive me batty, and sure many of the British cultural references fly right over the heads of we Yanks, but the show is still an excellent watch and, beause its a BBC drama, there are only 8 episodes to get through in series one.

Want another reason to watch? David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, Boston Public) is producing an American version. Watch the original first, and then see what setting the story in a US context does to it. 🙂

“Miranda” warnings around the world

In an episode of _Life on Mars_ I watched a few days ago, Sam Tyler arrested a suspect and began reciting the warning mandated by the UK’s Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, before correcting himself with the proper 1973 warning, which begins, “you have the right to remain silent.” Interested in what the new warning is, I looked it up on the ever-useful _Wikipedia_ and found a few interesting variations. I like the UK one’s phrasing best (even if it might serve to abolish the right to silence), what do you think?

United States:

bq. You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you at no cost. During any questioning, you may decide at any time to exercise these rights, not answer any questions, or make any statements. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak with me?

Australia:

bq. “You are not obliged to say or do anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say or do may be used in evidence. Do you understand?”

United Kingdom:

bq. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

Many other countries have variations that include statements about the charges and maximum length of custody.

Holding out for a roommate

I need someone to live with me because my previously-agreed tenant bailed on me a couple days ago. The place is nice, the price is reasonable for the area, and the move-in date is flexible. I’m posting here rather than Craig’s List because I’d like to find someone I know, at least somewhat, who is clean, quiet, and low-maintenance. 2 bedroom, ~1000 sq ft, washer/dryer, 1.5 bath, by Porter Square. Email me for details: zeno at agblog — dot com!

First USChase

Just for reference for anyone who may have been considering getting an Amazon.com Visa card — everything was great until my card went from FirstUSA to Chase, and ever since everything about it sucked — the card was constantly being deactivated for “security fraud” purposes, the phone support system sucked, and the web interface was flaky. When I tried to login today I found all my account details and history missing and a cryptic message on the bottom of the page telling me to call Chase. After much bouncing around, it turned out that my address change, which I did through the online interface, caused a fraud alert to be tripped. They don’t even trust the security of *their own online banking system*. The only thing Chase was able to do *right* was cancel the card — from the second I said “I want to cancel” to the action occuring was about 45 seconds.

Looking for a fairly short and interesting appeals court case to read on your summer vacation? Check out United States v. $124,700 in US Currency. In the 8th Circuit, at least, driving with a large sum of money hidden in a container, even in the absence of any other factors, is apparently enough evidence for the government to seize the money as ill gotten gains from illegal drug trade. The War on Drugs, I guess, has reached its illogical peak. Amazingly disproportionate prison sentences, arrests of terminally ill cancer patients, and now carte blanche to just take citizens money with absolutely no proof of wrongdoing, all in the name of fighting a never-ending and unwinnable war on an amorphous concept. Hmm, wait, I’m seeing a pattern here.

I’m moving!

On Friday, if all goes well, I’ll be taking posession of the property that will be my new domicile for the forseeable future. The property in question is a condo in 205 Richdale Ave., so junk mailers and mail bombers should note that somewhere in their databases (note: the stuff in those pictures belongs to the previous owners, not me).

This is all very exciting and complicated and expensive, and among other things I’m now saddled with a hefty mortgage, although that will be offset slightly by rent from a roommate (hmm, no more fancy computer purchases for the next 30 years…). The other fun things I’ve been doing to support this purchase include signing lots of paperwork, negotiating details, getting insurance, working on a color scheme and finding art, looking for furniture, and buying my first TV (ooh, shiny LCD).

Its all quite exciting, and Carol and I will have to plan some sort of open house thing once stuff is a bit more settled, so save the non-existent date!