The Facebook Controversy

Once again, I'm running low on time tonight (I had four meetings today, one of which got cancelled but I was there waiting around for a while anyway), so I'm going to get through this post as fast as I can. I have to rant right now about the big controversy over Facebook's new feature that gives you a news feed that basically just shows what friends have updated their profiles recently with and any events you have coming up soon. Apparently, people are mad because they believe it's a violation of privacy, which I find laughable and I feel that it's my duty to expose the irony here. People feel that it's a stalker-esque feature, and yet their participation in Facebook invites people to peer into their private lives! This news feed does not provide information that is not already available by clicking through to your profile, but rather just gives it to you in a more convenient manner. Is this a necessary/useful feature? That's debatable, but not the point here (then again, is Facebook itself really necessary?). The point is that people are upset about the rehashing of information they've already posted themselves for other Facebookers to readily see just because it doesn't require a click-through to their profile to obtain it. Anyone else see how dumb this is? If you're really so uppity about your private life, then why even use Facebook in the first place? How are people more exposed now than they were before? The ideal solution, in my opinion (since they've already put all this time and effort into the feature), is to just make the feature optional, or possibly even let people block themselves out of other people's news feeds. I guess it's ironic in and of itself for me to even comment about the social impact of a service as useless as Facebook (which I use only because I had my account a long time ago), but I just want to jump up and down and scream out and ask if I'm the only person who sees the idiocy here in this backlash.


In a surprise move, Apple unveiled a 24" iMac today with a Core 2 Duo for just $2000 (a good deal considering the processor and monitor size and quality), and its two siblings got upgrades to Core 2 Duos as well with pricing starting at $1000 for the 17" one. This revelation makes me wonder what we'll see on September 12 now. Variety is reporting that Apple will actually only be rolling out its movie store with offerings from Disney while ironing out deals with other studios while Amazon.com will have a much larger variety since they're being less difficult about pricing. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple already had deals with other studios penned but will just take longer to get their movies on the store, and it sounds like they may have a better plan for bringing these movies into your living room as well. If you use Gmail then you'll love this feature that most people didn't know about that allows you unlimited aliases on your e-mail address to see where your spam is coming from by filtering out your e-mail by alias. It's a great idea and I will definitely be using it from now on. Lastly, students will appreciate the Global Text Project, which aims to create a wiki for at least 1,000 textbooks, and I think it's a neat idea but I don't see enough people participating in it without incentive. Then again, there's really not much of a monetary incentive for open source projects either and yet many of them seem to succeed.

There's only two pieces of worthwhile movie news today. Capone over at AICN saw Tzameti and really enjoyed the Russian roulette-centered story. The trailer for it is a pretty intense scene showing a bunch of guys with guns pointed at each other's heads before the lights go off and triggers are pulled. I liked movies like this that really mess up your mind for days afterwards, so I look forward to checking it out. The other thing is a trailer for The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D, which obviously isn't in 3-D itself but I just love Tim Burton.

Now for the Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. When is the last time you sent someone a letter in the mail?
Maybe the second grade? I don't actually remember. I've written letters before, just not to be sent by snail mail.

2. What usually comes in your mail?
Sales papers and assorted junk (plus 3 bills every month).

3. What kind of a mailbox do you have?
One of those small apartment mailboxes.

4. If you could send a package to your postal worker to show your appreciation, what would you send them?
Definitely nothing resembling white powder! I'm not really sure, to be honest. What do you get a postal worker? Some gum?