Apparently many Facebook users are reporting that the Facebook Login Page comes up blank when they go to www.facebook.com . Facebook has acknowledged the problem and is currently working on a fix for those who are experiencing problems. Here is Facebook’s official response on the issue:
We are aware of the blank page that our users are experiencing using Facebook and we are working on a fix please make your readers aware that there will be a fix soon.
Regards Facebook
If you are currently seeing a blank screen when you try to log into Facebook, sit tight and check back here later for updates. If all else fails, you can contact facebook directly at support@facebook.com .
According to Facebook’s own Fan Page, they are using an index to measure how happy people are in the United States. Your status updates are what help them to measure whether, as a whole country, we’re feeling positive or negative. Their studies so far have shown that there is a pattern. As holidays approach we seem to show that we’re happier and more positive. National holidays like Thanksgiving and the 4th of July, religious holidays like Christmas and then social holidays like Halloween have given the biggest spikes on the positive side. The most negative days in the past two years were on June 22, 2008 when the Asian stock market crashed (also when actor Heath Ledger passed away) and on June 25, 2009 when pop legend, Michael Jackson, passed away. It’s nice to know that in a nation as big as the US we tend to feel the same emotions. We can only suspect that this would create sympathy from one stranger to the next.
Facebook has said there is no reason to worry about your privacy though. They are not keeping tabs on you personally. There is no human, with an unlimited pot of coffee, sitting behind a desk scrolling through millions of personal updates. The in-house software has been given certain keywords to pick up on when scrolling through all the information. These keywords were collected by social psychologists. For instance, when searching for positive feelings, the software picks up on words like “happy”, “yay” and “awesome”. On the flip side, when searching for the negative feelings, the software picks up on keywords like “tragic”, “sad” and “doubt”.
Right now the software is only productive when measuring the English-speaking US. Facebook has said more countries and languages may be added in the near future. For now, they are naming this the “Gross National Happiness” index. Positively speaking it is nice to know that we’ve had more happy days due to our national, social and religious holidays vs. the two most negative days which related to the deaths of a legend and a market.
It’s like you were chosen out of the loser lottery when you tried to open your Facebook account and received a “site maintenance” display. If you were one of the 150,000 unlucky winners you’re probably back at ease since you can log in again. Or aren’t you?
Facebook announced today that the weeklong outage has been repaired yet some of us will find that postings, photos, contacts and personal information may be missing or inaccurate. Missing, where has it gone? Better yet, why the outage? Oh, you mean the technical issue. Well, that explains it all then.
If you’re like me, you look further into the question of “why”. Not that Facebook would explain anything further than” technical issues”. Let’s be honest, the World Wide Web is sort of a life line for many of us. So easily we put our trust into the sites we choose to post our personal information on. We do our banking there, our online shopping, networking, resume posting, vacation planning and well, pretty much anything. You can virtually do anything on the web.
So, it makes you wonder when you see that your Facebook status has reverted from married back to single. Don’t be fooled, everything you post on Facebook, has been saved somewhere in the virtual world. Take it for what it is and be weary of what and how much personal information you release. Even though this outage wrecked havoc on your day to day obsession with Facebook, positively speaking, this is an eye opener and maybe we should thank them for the lesson well learned. All I’m saying is that there is always a positive in a negative, if you know how to look on the bright side.
If you rob a bank and are on the run, it’s probably not wise to post your where bouts or befriend a former Justice Department official on Facebook. Take your lesson from Maxi Sopo, the 26 year old native of Cameroon. Sopo arrived in the US during 2003 and mostly spent his time selling roses at night clubs around the Seattle area. Maybe he was bored, or just struggling like the average American, when he took his idea of income to the next level.
Sopo and his accomplice, Edward Asatoorians, plotted a grand scheme! They convinced further accomplices to lie about their income in order to obtain loans for fake auto purchases. In turn, they pumped the funds into Asatoorians’ business and took an over the top trip to Vegas. From there Sopo rented a car and crossed the Mexican border. Sopo and his accomplice are said to have obtained more than $200,000 from their robbery.
Once Sopo got comfy in Mexico he joined Facebook and began updating his status. He posted updates like “LIFE IS VERY SIMPLE REALLY!!!!” (June 21st), “BUT SOME OF US HUMANS MAKE A MESS OF IT…REMEMBER AM JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN PARTEEEEEEE.” He mentioned in his status that he was “loving it” and “living in paradise.” At this point he might as well have emailed the FBI personally and said “catch me if you can”. Wait, it gets even better!
Sopo befriended a former Justice Department official while at a club in Cancun and proceeded to send him a friend request. For a while the FBI had been surfing all the social networks and could not pin point his exact location in Mexico until Sopo slipped up so foolishly. It wasn’t long before Secret Service agent Seth Reeg requested a phone call with the former official. It turns out Sopo has been living in a nice apartment while working at a local hotel. Sopo was arrested last month and could face up to 30 years behind bars.
Have you casually given a friend or even a stranger a little Facebook poke? They’re harmless, right? Think again! When Facebook originally came on the scene it was common to poke a friend or send a virtual gift as a way of saying “hi” or “thinking of you”. We would pass a virtual drink on a Friday afternoon or a virtual morning coffee to get that Monday started. I know I’m guilty of it. Although it’s not that common to receive a poke or gift any longer, since gifts do cost a pretty penny now, isn’t it still harmless?
Not according to a woman in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Shannon D. Jackson, 36, was arrested for virtually poking a woman through Facebook. She was previously ordered not to communicate with someone but still “poked” her through Facebook, reported The (Nashville) Tennessean on Monday. The police department of Hendersonville made a copy of the web page and submitted it as evidence. There was an affidavit filed in Sumner County General Sessions Court and Jackson was arrested. She was put into jail and later released on a $1,500 bail. She is due in court on October 28th to face the charges.
I can’t help but stop and think about this. We hear so many media stories based on internet crime and it varies from identity theft to child pornography and so on, but Facebook poking? Ok, I know the main point is that when someone has an order against you, you’d be dumb to think that the littlest bit of contact won’t get you in trouble, but Facebook poking? Was Ms. Jackson that bored and ignorant? How do you explain something to that extreme? “Hey, I need to be bailed out of jail for Facebook poking”. I don’t know about you but if I received a phone call and heard that story on the other line I’d think I was being pranked. Ms. Jackson, you need to find a good hobby!
As if checking your Facebook wasn’t already a top priority on your cyber “to do” list! Now you’ve got another addiction to lose yourself in. Zynga and Facebook have joined together in providing Facebook users an opportunity to create their own cyber dream world. These games will become as much of a routine as it is for you to update your status. Don’t believeme, give it a try! Grow your mafia in Mafia Wars, harvest your farm in Farmville, and let other Diva’s know whose boss in Diva Wars or show your house sisters how it’s done in Sorority Life. Don’t be fooled though, these are never ending games. The moment you think you’ve come so far, Zynga manages to create more levels, hence where the addiction slowly eats away at your resistance.
Oh, did I mention that you must use energy, health, stamina, money and strength to survive? Yes people, that’s what keeps you coming back for more! You’re 100 experience points away from the next level but have run out of energy to accomplish another job. So you wait. You wait so patiently and as you wait, the addiction has fully grown into an obsession. Get addicted!
Mixed reviews are surfacing in regards to Facebook being accessible through, yet another, electronic device. The time has arrived folks! Facebook has now joined forces with Microsoft to invade your Xbox 360. From what I understand there are pros and cons and it’s more of a personal opinion as to whether you find this a beneficial addition. Are you really that “status update” obsessed that accessing Facebook through your PC and phone isn’t sufficient enough? No worries if you are. You won’t be able to access all the features of Facebook through your 360 but you will most definitely be able to read your friend’s statuses and update your own.
That’s not all; prepare yourself for the most sensible reason to add Facebook to your 360. The Mac Daddy of all features will enable you to locate Xbox Live players from your friend list. Xbox has not yet released any information in regards to whether the restriction on the amount of live friends will be increased but for now, that’s a pretty cool way of connecting. After all, who enjoys playing the computer during our friend’s absence? More than likely this will become a new feature for Xbox but in due time we will know. As for now, indulge in more of the Facebook phenomenon.
Facebook is being sued, yet again, for patent issues. It seems that Phoenix Media/Communications feels that Facebook is violating a patent that relates to setting up online personal pages. A division of the company’s People2People Group, named Tele-Publishing, filed their complaint in the US District Court, located in Boston, last Wednesday.
It is presently unclear as to what damages Phoenix is seeking. They are claiming that Facebook’s computer network and process in creating personal pages are covered by one or more patent’s issued by the USPTO in June of 2001. They allege that the patent includes an online template and graphics for the use of building a personal page. It also providers users with a secure way of sharing their personal information with other computer networks. Facebook has fired back saying its ‘without merit and will be fought vigorously’.
Do you remember the olden days when you pulled up your chair to this weird machine, stuck in a floppy disk and got excited to play games like Oregon Trail? We’re talking the 80’s here. Do you think anyone, besides the geek who sat next to you quietly, ever thought we would reach a point where we had search engines and social networks competing for our business? Well, that time has come!
We all know that Google has taken then number one spot for the majority of our searches. Now the time has come to put the best social networks up to bat. According to the September 2009 reports by Experian Hitwise, Facebook has reached the top and hit a home run when it comes to our preference for social networking. Myspace came in second place and Tagged trailed in as third. Surprisingly, Twitter and myYearbook finished off in fifth place.
If my memory serves me correctly, it was just yesterday that MySpace was dominating all age groups with the ability to individualize your page with everything from music, icons and backgrounds. We all flocked to MySpace with the excitement of being able to customize our pages to our own liking. We were able to express who we were and what our current moods were through colors, pictures and the sound of lyrics. While Facebook offers none of that, I think they’ve proven the point of “less equals more”. Another plus to Facebook is that we’re not flooded with unrelated ads the moment you open their web page.
It will always be a personal preference but hey, why not live it up with the best of all worlds? You can update your status with Facebook, decorate with MySpace and let people know 24/7 where you are and what you’re doing with the ease of Twitter. If you’re talking numbers though, Facebook is a sure shot when it comes to competition. They’ve packed their bags and are on the road to the top.
Could it be surprising or merely a new trend when addressing the amount of lawsuits that Facebook has been up against for patents? On top of dealing with other current lawsuits, Facebook can now add another one to their counter clock! According to Bloomberg the Tokyo based company, Mekiki, has claimed that Facebook is infringing upon three patents in regard to a human relationships registering system. Mekiki is pushing for royalty rights and a court order to furthermore prevent Facebook’s use of their creation. The Tokyo based company filed their suit in a federal court located in Wilmington, Delaware. Facebook has not yet commented on this accusation.
