So go ahead and delete all you want, but Facebook creepily never forgets. When it comes to your friendings, defriendings, pokes, and RSVPS, it keeps it all. Plus they  also keep track of what computers you’ve used to access your facebook account as well as others who have used your device to log onto facebook with their own account.

Facebook remembers 57 data points, at least that is what they are sharing with users they keep. Here is a list of those data fields.

Now while I understand websites have to have complex databases. That gives them no right to track so many things as well as the newly discovered information that even when you log out of facebook you never really log out. This is all very ultra creepy. I like many people use facebook, but as soon as a better solution comes along I am going to switch. And by the way I am not convinced Google Plus is going to be better. The Do NO Evil company has done plenty of creepy web following. Disappointing.

Have you ever wanted to download a video from facebook and did not know how to get around their flash player? Well there are a couple of complicated methods or you can just go visit tubekeeper.com and paste in the url and it will grab it and let you download it right to your hard drive.

I had a client who uploaded a video and was not able to get me the file in time for a deadline. So I turned to tubekeeper. This came in very handy. It also has a feature to let you search videos. And they just added Tudou.com the wildly popular Chinese video repository.

Tube Keeper says it will work with all of these sites.

Personally I like the idea. Facebook is a convenient way to stay in touch with people, however not at the total loss of privacy. Facebook most likely is even selling private data to the evil mid east regimes that are killing their own people. The almighty dollar rules again. Everyone has their price, but when you have people lives at stake then its going too far. I have no idea how Mark Zuckerberg can sleep at night knowing what he is doing by keeping peoples information for all time and then selling it to the highest bidder.

Even if you delete the information FB still has it and will keep and sell it. Plus they do facial recognition on your photos of you and your family. So lets say you have never been in trouble with the law, we then the law can buy your information from facebook and now they know everything about you. Or maybe its not the law just some huge corporation that wants to sue you or harass you and keep you under their thumb for some reason that benefits them.

Facebook pure evil.

This new style is much like a captcha image. The beauty of it is the image is that of something only someone who is 18yrs or older would only know. In the case of this image you need to be at least 30.

Click for larger image.

“The actions by the Federal Communications Commission fall far short of what they could have been,’’ said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. “Instead of strong, firm rules providing clear protections, the commission, created a vague and shifting landscape open to interpretation.’’ This means that if Amazon will pay extra then their service will have preference over their competitors.

What this means is that you will have access to your businesses website throttled back to allow greater bandwidth speed for others who pay for the privilege. Many small businesses online depend on high speed connection to their payment service provider and a slow internet will certainly hamper this for them. Having a hierarchical structure applied to the internet will undermine its free and open principles, leaving those without the means to compete with the large companies large bank accounts, left languishing stuck at a lower level of service.

On the other side you will have to pay more for your mobile internet service. It is a big money business decision for a company like Comcast to find those customers most interested in upgrades, whom would have the most to gain by receiving premier service, and then charge for it. Plus then you know they will raise the lower tier service price to help pay for the upgrades to their network. They will be making money left and right.

When Internet activists discovered what was going on inside the Internet business community, many were appalled because the once open borders of the Internet frontier is becoming smaller before their very eyes. The idea that the Internet would be used to discriminate between users, based upon an money, as opposed to first-come, first-serve fairness principles is infuriating to all, except for the firms lobbying for this bill.

A study by Stephen Pociask concluded net neutrality rules would raise the cost of Internet services for consumers and make millions of Americans cancel broadband subscriptions, which would obviously hit lower income households hardest. Mr. Pociask added, ”Given the national commitment to universal broadband service, Internet regulations would drive millions of lower-income Americans offline, which is last thing we should do.”

A man referred to affectionately as the Father of the Internet, Robert Kahn, has delivered a strident argument against “Net Neutrality” legislation. First, Kahn dismissed the phrase “Net Neutrality”, as “a slogan”, and he warns against dogmatic views of the development of the still-young Internet. Virtually all of the early pioneering senior engineers responsible for creating the Internet of today oppose “Neutrality” legislation, it turns out. The so-called “Grandfather of the Internet,” Dave Farber, is a scathing idea of the legislation.

Internet Giant Google, who positioned them as the defenders of net neutrality, has now done a complete 180 on the topic. Instead of promoting net neutrality, they are now saying that it should only apply to wired broadband connections, not wireless. Then Adam Green said “Google, a company that I’ve long admired and currently hold thousands of dollars of stock in, just ‘went evil.”

The bottom line is: When I buy a wireless broadband connection from an ISP, I expect them to deliver whatever speed I pay for. They have no right to say: “Well, we know you have paid for a 6mbit connection, but you are only going to get the full speed when you are visiting Google’s sites. If you want to use Flickr, then we only give you 2mbit.”

The very idea of not having true net neutrality is simply a violation of our internet freedom. I should decide what I want to use my internet connection for. Not big business.

I don’t want my potential success as a new or small company to be limited because some rich company has made a special arrangement with my internet provider. I say let the best service come out on top. That’s what a free market is all about. That’s what net neutrality is all about.

Thanks again Obama for selling the American people out!

Facebook is an utter waste of time. It is not original or well designed. Its nice at first to stay in touch with some distant friends but after a while you have so many people on there that you don’t really want to keep in touch with and then you stop using it. The idea that it is worth billions of dollars is one of the moronic thoughts that lead to the internet stock bubble that has already burst. Yahoo do not waste your money. The AOL and Myspace buyers lost all of their investments.

Facebook changed the world how exactly? By ripping off other social networking sites? This is a poor attempt by Time magazine to appear relevant – as if Time magazine means anything to anyone anymore. I don’t read it. Facebook is an online fad and so Time thought that they might  get some attention by trying to ride the coattails of Zuckerbergs undeserved fame. Its all about sales.

Zuckerberg is an idiot for not taking the billion dollars offered by a bigger idiot willing to pay for it. He is going to end up the way of MySpace and have a worthless pile of computers when he could have retired at the age of 25.

This award is supposed to go to the person who most influenced the world (for good or bad) Shame on you Time Magazine for writing an advertorial.

I was reading an article posted on reuters about how 17 U.S. billionaires, including Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, have pledged to give away at least half their fortunes in a philanthropic campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Most of the comments were very good. You can tell who knows whats going on and the young idealistic people who have no clue. Saying things like; “In turn, we as consumers have an obligation to support companies that give back.” and “I don’t understand this new trend to vilify people who are successful.” and “The “rich” do not have any more or less obligation to our nation than you or me.”

My response on reuters…

Really?!? If you think these people earned their money with hard work and honesty then you are way too naive’ The facebook guy got lucky that was all. Actually Gates did also with the IBM blunder on his software rights. Bill gates should pay damages to the thousands of companies he bought up for no other reason than to shut down and reduce competition.

They are not really giving away 1/2 of their money. It goes into the foundations that they set up. Yes it does have some trickle down benefit but they provide mostly tax savings than anything else. So in the end yes its better than them stuffing it in their mattresses.

If they really wanted to help America and the rest of the world they would use their money to help stop corporate corruption in Washington. It never ceases to amaze me how people think new politicians are going to solve the economic problems when the same old big money lobbyists are still there waiting to pay them off each new re-election.

90% of the wealth in America is owned by 10% of the population. Read that again! Yeah the rich are getting richer because they buy politicians. If you think the country is hurting now wait until the Chinese quit buying our massive debt. Then watch unemployment triple what it is today.

The only solution is to make lobbying illegal and let the government run the country and not the rich elite.

Steve Jobs Figurine

The Hong Kong based MIC (Made in China) gadgets. Was selling a Steve Jobs figurine made with incredible detail and likeness. SJ’s outfit is his classic trademark. The black turtleneck and Levi’s 502 jeans. You could even tell his pair of New Balance sneakers while standing on an Apple Logo platform. MIC Gadgets was contacted with a cease and desist letter from apple of California. Some web sites have stated that Apple is suing MIC Gadgets, but from what I can tell its only a letter asking them to stop.

From Apple: “Unauthorized use of a person’s name and/or likeness constitutes a violation of California Civil Code Section 3344, which prohibits the use of any person’s name, photograph or likeness in a product without that person’s prior consent…”

I am not even sure if a California law can be upheld in China. Maybe the Hong Kong legal rules are a bit different than mainland China. But Apple can not seem to stop all the iphone and ipad knockoffs that are in mainland China nor Hong Kong.

However the letter has scared them enough to stop selling the figurines at 300 units. They were selling for $79.90 USD with free shipping. The toy had gained much attention on the Internet, with many noting how the figure was holding the iPhone incorrectly, in the supposed (death grip) that causes signal loss on the iPhone 4. This issue did not hold back customers from purchasing the figure, which sold out completely.

M.I.C gadget apologized to Steve Jobs, and Apple.Inc for any inconvenience. For the full story and more pictures you can view them at the MIC gadget Site For now the Steve Jobs Action Figure has been taken off the market.

Google Creeping you out?!?

Is Google creeping you out? Are all the ads you see the same type? This is their new retargeting campaign. It will work for a small percentage of people who need that extra reminder. For everybody else it will just seem really creepy. If this does creep you out, you can go to this page to see what Google thinks your interests are based on a cookie, and you can also download a browser plugin if you’re spooked about Google’s latest ‘interest-based advertising’ initiative.

What is ad “retargeting.” If you visit a page on an advertiser’s own site or YouTube channel, Google can now show a related follow-up ad to just that person when they visit another site which shows Google ads. Since there are millions of these sites in the Google Content Network, chances are Google will see you again.

The term “remarketing” has multiple definitions, but Google uses it describe a way for AdWords advertisers to run campaigns throughout the whole Google Content Network. The idea is that while visitors of a certain advertiser’s website may have shown interest for a product or service, leads don’t always convert to sales and Google aims to make it easier for AdWords clients to try and win over the potential customer at a later stage. Retargeting can be applied to either text or display ads, and during the trial period was used for everything from boosting brand awareness to driving clicks and sales.

If you’re spooked about Google’s latest follow you around until you buy something strategy then let them know it. Personally I feel like not using Google. Like they need more money?!?

Castle changes phones?!?

Last night on the TV show CASTLE, Richard Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, Also known as Caption Mel on Firefly, and his ever so small role on as Private Ryan. Needless to say he is an awesome actor. Now his Character on Castle, the TV show, has him portrayed as a pretty cool guy. He has been flashing his iPhone around all season. It seemed quite normal, it may have been a plug for Apple but it was considerably more subtle than last night when he pulls out his LG device in what has to be one of the more ostentatious product demos on TV. I mean it was awkwardly blatant. Like really a phone get’s that much screen time?

I will however give props to the ad agency who is making the Windows Phone 7 TV commercials. They are pretty funny. I don’t think they will sell many phones from it, and the sales numbers for WP 7 phone reflect that. Plus their logic in the TV commercials is quite flawed thinking the WP7 is has different behavior characteristics than other smart phones, but they are funny. If Microsoft really was interested in selling phones then they should take their name off of it. I mean it worked for the launch of X-box hardly anyone knew it was Microsoft for a long time. Plus then their flagship game HALO made by Bungie was a Macintosh only game developer. Nothing cool can ever be related to Microsoft its just not their culture.

So I hope Richard Castle can come to his senses and start using his iPhone again. Because that is believable for his character. WP7 is not. Sorry Microsoft another fail.