Why I’m leaving Facebook for Google+

To be honest, Facebook isn’t shedding any tears.  I was barely active in Facebook anyway.  Facebook has been a convenient Rolodex to use from time to time.  My wall is closed except for posts from this blog, and I don’t post pictures.

It is not that I don’t like people.  More specifically, it isn’t that I don’t like YOU people.  It’s just that, well, my social circles  don’t all overlap.

What do you do when your boss, or an associate requests you as a friend on Facebook?  In fact, it is a bit messy whenever anybody requests to be your friend on Facebook.  Refusing is dicey, and ignoring it requires a little white lie of “oh I don’t check often.”  Let’s face it, it was ok when only the current “in” techie crowd was on Facebook when it first started, but now EVERYONE is on Facebook.  My boss… my mom.  Heck I’m sure my niece will get an account soon.  I don’t always want to share the same thing with my buddy from college as I would my parents or my niece.

Google+ has an answer, which is to immediately put people into “Circles” of friends, and then allow you to share anything with certain circles only.  This fits perfectly with how I share things in my life.  Some random picture will go to my friends, my pictures of my family will go (only) to my family, and my boss and work associates can get something reasonably clean and civilized, like a picture from a new restaurant.

The reality is that my all my social contacts are not the same.  It’s not that anyone is more or less important to me, but simply the fact that the stuff I share with a four year old family member is different from those that I share with thirty somethings at a tailgate, which are different from things I share with people with which I do business.

Google+ simply fits my reality better.

For now.

edit:

A nice review by David Pogue at the the New York Times here:

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Deuteronomy on False Prophets…

Deuteronomy 18:20 “But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized ²⁷  him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 18:21 Now if you say to yourselves, ²⁸  ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’ ²⁹  – 18:22 whenever a prophet speaks in my ³⁰  name and the prediction ³¹  is notfulfilled, ³²  then I have ³³  not spoken it; ³⁴  the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”

(from net.bible.org)

Of course, this passage can also be misinterpreted and lead to religious wars.  However, I do wonder if we would get a few less doomsday predictions…

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Catholic Professors Criticize Boehner in Letter – NYTimes.com

Finally, someone from the Christian community has spoken up and pointed out that Charity and Social Justice are central and important basics of Christianity… that there is more to morality than abortion and gays…

More than 75 professors at Catholic University and other prominent Catholic colleges have written a pointed letter to Mr. Boehner saying that the Republican-supported budget he shepherded through the House of Representatives will hurt the poor, elderly and vulnerable, and therefore he has failed to uphold basic Catholic moral teaching.

“Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings,” the letter says. “From the apostles to the present, the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor. Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.”

via Catholic Professors Criticize Boehner in Letter – NYTimes.com.

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Why The New Guy Can’t Code

The premise is a decent one.  Make developers show they can code, kind of like a portfolio that an architect or an artist puts together even before they finish college.  Is this a reasonable standard? I do feel like hiring developers feels like hiring blind.

We’ve all lived the nightmare. A new developer shows up at work, and you try to be welcoming, but he1 can’t seem to get up to speed; the questions he asks reveal basic ignorance; and his work, when it finally emerges, is so kludgey that it ultimately must be rewritten from scratch by more competent people.

via Why The New Guy Can’t Code.

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The gadgets police use to snarf cell phone data

This issue has gotten a bit of press lately, and Ars goes through the details of the actual technology the police might be using on your cell phone.

If a police officer stops you in the course of investigating some matter, can she peruse the contents of your mobile device as she might demand your identification or the contents of the glove compartment of your vehicle? Does a routine traffic stop allow access to your phone’s photos, videos, text messages, and contacts?

The gear to grab this data is widely available. Cell phone extraction hardware made by CelleBrite, for instance, can grab a phone’s contacts database, its text message log, call history, pictures, videos, ringtones, or even a “complete file system memory dump.” The Michigan State Police is a CelleBrite customer, and its routine use is raising questions about the propriety of law enforcement accessing data stored on cell phones.

via The gadgets police use to snarf cell phone data.

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The PhD problem: are we giving out too many degrees?

In the end, I think the problem has to do with the last point.  Students really need to consider why they are getting Ph D, and programs really need to look at why companies will rather higher an undergraduate than their PhD candidate.

Finally, it may be time to encourage some young people to forgo graduate education and enter the workforce. Some companies actually prefer to hire recent college graduates—or even undergraduates—because they believe that PhD students are not well-prepared for real-world jobs. Although this point of view is still somewhat rare, and having a graduate degree does open some doors, it might be wise to encourage students to consider their options before they jump into a PhD program with dreams of a tenured professorship.

via The PhD problem: are we giving out too many degrees?.

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Jane McGonigal: Video Games: An Hour A Day Is Key To Success In Life

One hour a day, and not more than 21 hours a week.

Fortunately, however, this temporary exodus is not a complete waste of time! When we play a good game, we get to practice being the best version of ourselves: We become more optimistic, more creative, more focused, more likely to set ambitious goals, and more resilient in the face of failure. And when we play multiplayer games, we become more collaborative and more likely to help others. In fact, we like and trust each other more after we play a game together — even if we lose! And more importantly, playing a game with someone is an incredibly effective way to get to know their strengths and weaknesses–as well as what motivates them. This is exactly the kind of social knowledge we need to be able to cooperate and collaborate with people to tackle real-world challenges.

via Jane McGonigal: Video Games: An Hour A Day Is Key To Success In Life.

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“Bullies”: P2P lawyers demand sanctions against those suing them

Interesting.  ABA doesn’t have anything to say about this?  As much as everyone makes jokes about lawyers being liars, it does seem different for a company to defend lying, and state that they can’t be punished or sued.

So, can I lie and extort money from people?  Or do I have to be a lawyer to have that privilege?

Yesterday, DGW fired back with both barrels. Barrel number one was the claim that Shirokov had no right to sue for any of this, even if his claims were all true. For one thing, Shirokov never settled, so had suffered no harm. For another, attorneys can’t be sued for lying.

Thomas Dunlap of DGW

“Although an attorney may be accused of defrauding opposing parties, knowingly committing discovery abuses, lying to the court, or purposely and maliciously defaming another individual, if it takes place during the course of litigation, the conduct simply is not actionable,” says DGW’s response. Such behavior may result in judicial sanctions, but private citizens can’t file lawsuits against opposing lawyers who are “simply doing their job.”

via “Bullies”: P2P lawyers demand sanctions against those suing them.

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Foreclosure for Reservist on Active Duty Prompts 4-Year Legal Battle – NYTimes.com

A really sad story, and really shameful of Deutsche Bank.  Really? Market value for taking away the home for almost 6 years?  So you can illegally sell someone’s property, dumping it in the market, and only owe the “market value” of the property?  It was illegal, the legal system has decided it was illegal.  This is really a poor way to treat our servicemen.

Typically, banks respond quickly to public reports of errors affecting military families. But today, more than six years after the illegal foreclosure, Deutsche Bank Trust Company and its primary co-defendant, a Morgan Stanley subsidiary called Saxon Mortgage Services, are still in court disputing whether Sergeant Hurley is owed significant damages. Exhibits show that at least 100 other military mortgages are being serviced for Deutsche Bank, but it is not clear whether other service members have been affected by the policy that resulted in the Hurley foreclosure.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment, noting that Saxon had handled the litigation on its behalf. A spokesman for Morgan Stanley, which bought Saxon in 2006, said that Saxon had revised its policy to ensure that it complied with the law and was willing to make “reasonable accommodations” to settle disputes, “especially for our servicemen and women.” But the Hurley litigation has continued, he said, because of a “fundamental disagreement between the parties over damages.”

In court papers, lawyers for Saxon and the bank assert the sergeant is entitled to recover no more than the fair market value of his lost home. His lawyers argue that the defendants should pay much more than that — including an award of punitive damages to deter big lenders from future violations of the law. The law is called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and it protects service members on active duty from many of the legal consequences of their forced absence.

via Foreclosure for Reservist on Active Duty Prompts 4-Year Legal Battle – NYTimes.com.

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Your Employer Can Read Your Work Emails, Even to Your Lawyer

Noteworthy from Lifehacker.  Personally, I’ve dispensed any illusion of privacy on a company email a long time ago.  That said, it doesn’t seem to apply to attorney-client privilege, according to California appellate court.

There are many, many reasons not to use your work email address for anything remotely personal. Here’s one more: a California appellate court has ruled that even attorney-client confidentiality doesn’t apply when the email is on company servers.

via Your Employer Can Read Your Work Emails, Even to Your Lawyer.

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