Facebook Lexicon counts occurrences of words and phrases on Walls over time
[via:Waxy]
31 December 2008
12 September 2008
StackOverflow.com (beta) is made of distilled awesome
Stack Overflow will be a questions & answers site for programmers. A reputation/experience points and “bagdes” system comparable to those of online gaming systems are what’s supposed to drive people to the service, making the intended audience (easily distracted programmer types) forget about their jobs and ruining their lives further.
In addition to giving social advantages to people who ask good questions and give useful answers, the innovation of the system is described as a mix of features from digg/reddit voting sites, wikis and forums. Most notably, the site is entirely usable for anonymous users, keeping it easy to ask questions quickly. The reputation-tracking accounts use OpenID.
The project’s blog is now offering a beta access code, giving anyone who’s interested access to the site before its launch next Monday. Having played with the site earlier in the beta stage, I can wholeheartedly recommend anyone who might need help with coding to take a look at this.
5 September 2008
Facebook Blocks Users From Mentioning BugMeNot.com in status posts
BugMeNot is a wonderful service which publishes user accounts for sites with stupid login/registration requirements (New York Times, I’m looking at you).
23 August 2008
“Compare People” Facebook App Selling User Info
I’m not surprised. Something about the app struck me as quite sleazy from the beginning, but I avoided it too efficiently to notice any premium options. Maybe the features discussed here were pulled later, but I can’t seem to recall hearing about this matter before.
The same author has a later post with more details (read: screenshots) on what the premium mode that exposes the actions of your friends looks (or looked?) like.
[via:Trent E.]
13 August 2008
Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public (Modern Mechanix, August 1935)
“To aid persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts, a robot message carrier has been introduced in London, England. Known as the “notificator,” the new machine is installed in streets, stores, railroad stations or other public places where individuals may leave messages for friends.
The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device.”
[via:the Twitter blog]
Research paper on inferring personality from young people’s e-mail addresses (University of Leipzig)
“Using 599 e-mail addresses of young adults, their self-reported personality scores and the personality judgments [...], it was shown that personality impressions based solely on e-mail addresses were consensually shared by observers. Moreover, these impressions contained some degree of validity. This was true for neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and narcissism but not for extraversion.”
[via:Slashdot]
6 August 2008
1 August 2008
The history of online discussion “trolling”/disruption
“In the late 1980s, Internet users adopted the word “troll” to denote someone who intentionally disrupts online communities. Early trolling was relatively innocuous, taking place inside of small, single-topic Usenet groups. The trolls employed what the M.I.T. professor Judith Donath calls a “pseudo-naïve” tactic, asking stupid questions and seeing who would rise to the bait. The game was to find out who would see through this stereotypical newbie behavior, and who would fall for it. As one guide to trolldom puts it, “If you don’t fall for the joke, you get to be in on it.””
/b/ is now featured in New York Times. Once the basic concepts have been explained about halfway into the article, the story gets really weird. Really Good Journalism.
[via:Slashdot]
22 July 2008
My profile just noticed be about this. The new (vastly improved and less cluttered) layout is available for testing at new.facebook.com, but it’s also terribly unresponsive and slow at this time.
Facebook apparently posted about this yesterday on the company blog.