Silent Scribbler: Tech Stuff

Showing posts with label Tech Stuff. Show all posts

The Social Network

Jesse Eisenberg & the real Mark Zuckerberg. Credit: Google images

It's the award season right now and I managed to catch this movie after wanting to watch it for so long.

A movie about Facebook is an obvious focus of interest for contemporary film makers, and of course us Internet users. Facebook has become so popular that verbs are built upon it (i.e. Facebook me) and if you don't have a Facebook profile you are pretty much out of the loop! I was eager to watch it because I wanted to see the historical beginnings of it and was expecting it to be a light, though informative movie. I wasn't expecting it to be this thrilling and thoughtful!

The film summarized in detail the origin of Facebook in the humble college dorm and its ascend to the huge, corporate office in Palo Alto, California. Zuckenberg quit university to expand Facebook to California on the advice of Sean Parker (who started Napster, was influential in the expansion of Facebook and also starting Chatroullete). If you have no interest in technology and social networking websites, have no fear, this movie is about friendship too. How friendship can change because of money, and how greed can change who you are. A lot of the storyline though is centered on the lawsuit brought upon Zuckerberg by his former best friend and other students claiming that he stole their idea on Facebook. If you Google, you would know that these lawsuits were settled, and that his former best friend had his name restored back onto the masthead of FB. Read more about the film and other stuff at the official website.

Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg was excellent in his portrayal; just the right mix of geek, ambition and a wannabe jerk. Even if he doesn't win an award for his role, there should be more interesting roles coming to him because of this performance. A question that lingered for me though was if Zuckerberg was really as ruthless, introverted and sarcastic as portrayed in the movie, and was he really just under the influence of Sean Parker and thus aspired big things for Facebook because he wanted to be like Parker? (If you Google, you would have found out that Zuckerberg insisted that he did not create the site to 'meet girls' but he wanted to 'build things'! Why would he admit that he created it to 'meet girls'? Ha ha ha ha ha. They did however, manage to make sure that ever single thing worn by Zuckerberg in that movie was something that he has worn before, that's really good attention to detail!).

And is Sean Parker really that horrible? (Justin Timberlake was really excellent, and it's a pity he wasn't nominated). And if the portrayal of Zuckerberg is really true, isn't it kind of ironic that someone as awkward , socially inept, and as friendless as that (at one point in the movie the former best friend shouted at Zuckerberg: "I was your only friend!" only to be met by a blank and inscrutable stare) would be the genius who would create the most powerful social networking website known to man (as of now)? Other critics claimed that it was an anti-geek or anti-technology movie, but to me it was just an interesting take on how important technology is to our generation, and it was worth the two hours spent watching it and fighting my sleepy eye.

Interesting fact: Look out for Disney Star Brenda Song as Christy Lee, the former best friend's girlfriend. I seldom see her in a serious role, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Did you guys watch it? What are your thoughts on it?
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The Facebook Conundrum (Part Two)

P.S.:This entry is specially for Kak Amy. He he he he he. If you have people you cannot delete from FB but want to control the content that they see in your profile, here's what you can do. The answer is: Limited Profile!

Step 1: Create categories for friends; i.e. Family, friends, limited profile, colleagues etc. You can do this manually by clicking the 'create new list' tab in the Friends page and typing in your categories. After you are done then go to your friends page again, and click your friends into their specific categories.

Step 2: After that adjust your profile setting. Go to privacy page. Click profile information.

Step 3: In each category of information under profile information, adjust setting specifically. Choose 'custom' and edit. When you see a pop up dialog that contains 'hide information from', just choose Limited Profile, or you can even choose individual names.

Step 4: Done! They will only see the information that you want them to see. Perhaps you want them to see your work place, but not your photos. Just adjust each option according to your preference. Very important is not allowing them to post on your wall. If I'm not mistaken, if you do this also they will not be able to see your news feed, hence they would also not know your status updates. If all fails, just delete them , and dump them in block list and they won't be able to see your name or click your profile again.

Step 5: Want to see what they see in your profile? In the privacy setting page, just click preview your profile, and again, click a person's name from the limited profile. For example, for mine those in limited profile cannot see any photos beyond the profile picture, they do not see any highly personal information and they are not allowed to write on my wall.

Conclusion: This is useful for those who you can't delete because they keep adding you or they will be offended if you do that, yet you don't want them to see your status updates! Enjoy!

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The Facebook Conundrum (Part One)

Don't you just love the new privacy setting in Facebook?!

In the past, I used to have problems with FB requests because students were sending add requests and I didn't know what to do with them. Certain students are OK while others are too intrusive. Having the bitter experience with my previous blog (which I had to shut down due to nosy students) the same problem still applies to FB. It is too tedious to go through each picture and comment while taking care not to self-disclose too much. But with the new privacy setting I don't have to worry about that! And there are so-called friends who you seldom talk to in high school/uni; the conundrum occurs when they send you add requests and you are having trouble remembering who they are (and let me tell you, especially with high school friends they look so different now that you haven't seen them in 10 years. Plus they are using nick names too!)! Tak nak terima nanti kata sombong pulak. Adoi! This is where the Limited Profile becomes so handy!. I love it! I accept your add request but you cannot see my photos, see my personal information nor can you write on your wall. P.S.: I also decided to move one Hamba Allah to this group after she posted snarky comments on my wall, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't coming from the bottom of her heart. :-P

But all in all, generally I do accept add requests if they are people that have been in my past, as fleeting as it has been and no matter how crappy the interaction was. I just usually draw the line when it's total strangers. There was one creepy guy who got upset when I didn't accept his request for adding applications! "How come you never accept the invites I send you?!" in a rather petulant tone (well not exactly, but I can imagine him sitting at his computer saying that petulantly!). How weird is that???

On the other hand... there are some Facebook pages that are totally hilarious, like the one dedicated to those who hate Fasha Sanda. Sian kat ko Fasha... :-P

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