More of why Facebook is finished

Since CNN doesn't have a blogger button to share, I am cutting and pasting this article from CNN.   Here is the URL:  http://us.cnn.com/2013/06/21/tech/social-media/facebook-contact-bug/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Facebook bug exposes some contact information

By Heather Kelly, CNN updated 10:46 AM EDT, Sat June 22, 2013 | Filed under: Social Media

(CNN) -- A newly discovered Facebook bug may have inadvertently compromised the contact information of 6 million users, the company says.

The bug, which has since been repaired, was part of the Download Your Information tool, which lets Facebook users export all the data from profiles, such as posts to their timeline and conversations with friends. People using the tool may have downloaded inadvertently the contact information for people they were somehow connected to.

Some people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook, which the company then uses to suggest new friends they can connect with who are already using the service.

Though the number of people impacted is sizable, the actual spread of their contact information appears to be limited. The phone numbers and e-mail addresses were not exposed to developers or posted publicly. It is only shown to people they had at least a tentative connection with, and who may have already had their contact information. Even in that pool, it was only exposed to people who had used the data-exporting tool.

"For almost all of the email addresses or telephone numbers impacted, each individual email address or telephone number was only included in a download once or twice. This means, in almost all cases, an email address or telephone number was only exposed to one person," Facebook's security team said in a post.

The company says it has no evidence that the bug was "exploited maliciously" and that there have been no complaints so far.

The social media company announced the bug on Friday afternoon. The issue was discovered by a third-party security researcher who submitted it through Facebook's White Hat program.

Facebook's White Hat program is set up so that people such as security researchers can report any vulnerabilities they find on the social network and get a reward for $500 and up in return. These types of programs are common at Internet companies.

"Your trust is the most important asset we have, and we are committed to improving our safety procedures and keeping your information safe and secure," read the post.

People who were affected by the bug will receive an e-mail from Facebook.

Read More

Adding A New Development Dimension ~ Mac

After visiting clients in the tropics (did I mention that I have developed software for high net worth individuals), I have come to the conclusion that being a straight Windows developer is a path to oblivion.  I have to take the plunge and develop for iPad and Mac.

If you try and download the Mac SDK on a Windoze machine, the downloader detects it.  So you really need a Mac.  Because I split my time between North America and the tropics, I had to get a laptop for uninterruptability.  So MacBook Pro it is.  I always try to develop for one generation behind the curve, so you see that the iPad is a slightly older iPad.

Here is a usage tip -- it turns out that geezers with money are now travelling with iPads.  They can read their email, they can review documents and they can get their entertainment, news and stock quotes.  They do not travel with laptops any more.  I have to cater to that market.

So in upcoming posts, I will start relaying tips on my Mac development experience.  Stay tuned.

(And for the meta-data collectors -- add one more developer converted to Mac.  Microsoft is truly dead man walking, as is Facebook.)

Read More

MyEvent.com ~ The Death Knell for Classmates.com

This entry is about changing or evolving revenue stream paradigms on the web. I have previously written about classmates.com and how it will turn into a MySpace shortly. You can read the blog article HERE. In that article, I mentioned how it was easy to find my old classmates for free on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Well several things have happened since then that have reinforced my view that Classmates.com is dead man walking as well. Revenue stream paradigms evolve quickly on the internet.

For Classmates.com, you sign up for free, but that is just a teaser. You can send messages, but to read them, and see extended information about your classmates, you have to buy a membership. This was the same paradigm for dating sites like Lavalife.com. For dating, along came PlentyOfFish.com which was free and made money out of advertising. It took a big chunk out of Lavalife's revenue stream.

One of the events that happened recently was that my old high school is having a 50 year reunion. They didn't go for the reunion feature on Classmates.com. Rather they chose to go to MyEvent.com. Instead of people paying to join and see reunion details, MyEvent.com charges a very reasonable price for an instant website and it is free. It has all of the benefits of Classmates.com and one can communicate with former classmates for free.

I went to the customized MyEvent.com website for my high school, and I was totally impressed. It was made by a teacher (who was a student back in my day) with no IT or web experience at all. And the cost varies between $15 and $25 dollars a month, or you can have the website for 5 years for $599. Such a deal !!!!

Classmates.com revenue stream paradigm is outdated, and in my estimation, they are floundering. I still get spam from them regularly begging me to visit my old account where I signed up for free, and haven't upgraded or even visited for several years. At one point, they were the only place on the web where one could easily find ex-classmates looking to be found, but that was back in the dinosaur era of the internet (a few years ago).

So this is more of a cautionary note to all of my fellow geeks. When you come up with the killer app idea, you better make provisions for an evolving revenue stream. It's very Darwinian out there, and it is survival of the most adaptive capable of going viral. And the final word, is plan on a shelf life for your killer app of no more than 10 years if you make it past the first year. A ten year old idea is ancient on the internet.

Read More

Guess What Tech Stock is Gonna Tank Today?

It's 8:47 AM. About 13 minutes before the market opens. Guess what famous stock is going to tank again today? (says he gleefully -- he who predicted that Facebook is dead man walking).

Update 2:12 PM EDT. It's at 28.36 down $3.06 and that 9.62%. Now if it loses half of what's its at now, it might be getting near the range of a buy.

Update 4:07 PM Market Close. Facebook closed at 28.75 3.16 9.9% down almost 10%

This downward slide isn't over. The market will ultimately correct.

Read More

Microsoft Turning into Spamming National Enquirer

(click on image for larger picture)

During World War II, intelligence agencies used something called content analysis to determine conditions and morale in war-time Germany. They did this with soft information. They would get regional and small town weekly newspapers, go through them with a fine tooth comb.

Typically, these papers would have lists of local people that died. From that, they could create overall casualty estimates. The local papers would have notices that the butchery was closed due to lack of supplies. That would tell the Allies of food shortages. An article telling folks how many ration coupons was required for a liter of gasoline was a good window into fuel.

Essentially, content analysis is taking innocuous bits of information, making inference about them and coming up with a bit of knowledge. It is the process of integrating facts into knowledge about a situation.

Analysts on Wall Street do this by looking at balance sheets. However analysts miss the big picture very often. I am still irked that Arvind Bhatia was all over the media, pumping up Facebook saying that it was the best thing since sliced bread. He should be fired or resign in disgrace.

That aside, let's put Microsoft under the lens. I could not believe that my Hotmail inbox had spam from Microsoft. And to top it all off, it was salacious spam of the National Enquirer ilk.

My own content analysis tells me that their search engine Bing is suffering. Of course I don't have to cogitate hard to come to that fact. I have several websites, and I can see what search engines are the referrers, and Bing shows up once in a blue moon.

However this latest spam from Microsoft trying to encourage me to use Bing is pretty much a sign of Seattle desperation. The spam says: "We can't make this stuff up. Scary disease is turning cats into living robots !!!!!!". THe fine print says that you are seeing some of the hottest Bing searches.

I suppose that their reasoning, is that if they spam their entire hotmail userbase, and get a few clicks, then their numbers will improve. But this strategy is just as lame as those used by the spammers of malware and the Twitter spammers who say: Click here because I saw a funny picture of you on the Internet.

How the mighty have fallen. Microsoft used to be so supercilious that they didn't need to advertise at all. Now after begging didn't work, they tried scaring. After logging out of hotmail, they re-directed to a page that tried to tell me that my secure Chrome browser was a 2.5 out of 5 and that I should upgrade to the virus haven Internet Explorer. When the scare tactic didn't work, they sunk even lower and tried the tabloid effect with the kitty robots.

So, chalk up another dead man walking. Microsoft has had its day. And I am a geek but I oughta be a stock analyst. And if I was, I would advise my clients to short the living crap out of Microsoft stock. You will make a ton of money. (Fine Print: This by no means constitutes investment advice. You should consult a professional to be properly advised on how to lose money in the stock market. It is their job to mislead the ordinary investor and give inside information to institutional clients.)

Read More

Microsoft Buys Into Nook ~ RIP Nook

Having just bought an eReader (the Sony) and wishing that I had bought a Kindle, I eagerly read about Microsoft putting $300 million into the Nook reader. Microsoft is dead man walking, and everything they have touched eventually turns to crap. They couldn't make a go of their phone. They have lost the internet browser market because of their bullheadedness in integrating it with Windows and trying to rule the computing world with an OS that is bulky, bloated, regressive, poorly designed and made and literally a piece of crap.

Microsoft did have dominance, and they were a world changer, but they couldn't take the news that their paradigm no longer works. And, believing that their dominant position was because of their belief in their own brilliance, they haven't had many successes lately.

They are using wads of cash to stuff into the holes to stop the market-share hemmorage, and they have lost the ability to think strategically and re-invent themselves.

So, I am here today as a prophet to say that Nook the eReader is also dead man walking. Having Microsoft invest in anything remotely successful, is the kiss of death in the marketplace. They will bugger up the OS to try to incorporate Outlook or do something similarly stupid and ruin a good product. They are clutching at straws and applying $300 million dollar bandaid fixes and are going nowhere. They need a total re-invention, and they don't have the balls and creativity to do it.

In the meantime, goodbye to Nook. I never did use you because ebooks are cheaper on Amazon, but I am sure that there will be some folks out there who will be sad to see you go.

Read More