On Facebook’s Privacy Backlash

There’s a good post on the latest privacy issues and big F at A VC: Facebook and The Privacy Backlash.

My view, for those who haven’t been reading this blog for a long time, is that all of this privacy stuff is way over the top. You need to disclose what you are doing and Facebook has done that. You need to give users a way to opt out and I believe but am not sure that Facebook has done that. Certainly the partner sites that are runnning Facebook’s beacon need to disclose and provide an opt out

But beyond that, tracking what we do and reporting it to our friends and using that data to target advertising and content is a good thing. In fact, its why the Internet is getting better and better every day

When the internet knows who you are, what you do, who your friends are, and what they do, it goes from the random bar you wander into to your favorite pub where your friends congregate and the bartender knows your drink and pours it for you when you walk in the door

Read more here: http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2007/11/facebook-and-th.html.

I found the entire post full of interesting opinions and it provided a different perspective than other posts and articles I’ve read recently – Facebook+PrivacyIssues=EVIL. Read that last sentence again – what an interesting perspective. I love reading different views that cause me to rethink things and form/adjust my own opinion. One comment summed it up best: “Great viewpoint – though I remain conflicted.” ANYway – do check out the complete post, it’s great and the comments that follow it are also worth a browse as they contain different views and commentary on Facebook, privacy and more.

Origin of the phrase “The Whole Enchilada”

I didn’t realize how popular this query was until I picked the phrase for my new blog WholeEnchilada.wordpress.com. Wow – a lot of people really want to know the origin of the phrase “The Whole Enchilada”! So I did a bit ‘o research and found some info at Phrases.org. Admittedly, not the best source of information and probably not fully vetted, but I think the first answer to the question makes it worthy:

The Whole Enchilada 

: : : : : What is the origin of this phrase, please?


: : : : : It comes from the Mexican dish ‘enchilada’ and means ‘all of it’.


: : : : : I don’t think so. I would agree that it is obvious that the saying came from the Mexican dish. However, I thought that the poster was questioning why the phrase uses that particular dish as opposed to others. Anyone?


: : : : :Someone in the Nixon administration used this phrase on one of the notorious tapes, and it became popular. I forget who exactly.


: : : : : It was Herb Kalmbach, talking on the phone to Nixon’s assistant John Erlichmann.

Read more here: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/25/messages/534.html

Hahahaha!!! “It comes from the Mexican dish ‘enchilada’ and means ‘all of it’.” Sarcasm at it’s best? Idiocracy in real life? You decide! Other than that, it seems plausible that this could be the origin of the phrase. So for now I’m going to say the phrase came from Herb Kalmbach on the Nixon tapes. If I come across better info, I’ll do another post.

You can read more about how “the whole enchilada” and similar phrases at World Wide Words:

What we do know is that the whole ball of wax is everything and so essentially means the same as other American expressions such as the whole nine yards, the whole shooting match, the whole megillah, the whole shebang and the whole enchilada. Until recently, its first appearance was in the ninth edition of Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary of 1953 and was assumed to be of that period. It turns out to be much older.

Read more here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-who5.htm

Talking about Lessons learned from Vista

download squad has a post with some info on “lessons learned” from what they refer to as “Vista’s underwhelming debut”:

The amount of significant changes to the core OS were blamed for many of Vista’s delays, as well as many of the compatibility problems with existing products. While Microsoft doesn’t regret making these changes to Vista (well, so they say), they are not making changes on that scale with Windows 7. When it comes to addressing release issues, Microsoft has made the decision to be less transparent about release schedules, only making information available when the date is actually feasible. Right now, Microsoft is aiming to launch Windows 7 sometime in 2010 (or 2011 or 2012…this is still Microsoft).

Read more here: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/11/14/lessons-learned-from-vista/

Some interesting points but nothing a lot of folks haven’t already discussed on the Vista front:

• 65 More Windows Vista Mistakes ~ Chris Pirillo
• Windows Vista Feedback ~ Chris Pirillo
• About those Windows Vista “mistakes”… | Ed Bott’s Windows …
• » Vista mistakes Microsoft won’t repeat with Windows 7
• Ballmer Analyzes Microsoft’s ‘One Big’ Vista Mistake – IT Channel …
• 5 Mistakes Microsoft made with Windows Vista – Digit Forum
• Vista’s biggest problem remains Windows XP, survey says
• Windows Vista Gripes (list of links)

Tags: Vista, Windows, Operating Systems, OS, Windows Vista, Technology, Vista Mistakes, Windows 7, Vista Reviews, Vista Sucks

Image credit: http://www.blogography.com/archives/2006/06/vista.html

She put the lime in the coconut, and drank them both up

Here’s a really cute picture of a tequila lime kitty that goes nicely with the well-known Harry Nilsson song:

Coconut lyrics from the album Nilsson Schmilsson
by Harry Nilsson

Brother bought a coconut, he bought it for a dime
His sister had another one, she paid it for the lime

She put the lime in the coconut, she drank ‘em both up (3x)
Put the lime in the coconut, she called the doctor, woke him up, and said

Doctor, ain’t there nothin’ I can take, I said
Doctor, to relieve this bellyache, I said
Doctor, ain’t there nothin’ I can take, I said
Doctor, to relieve this bellyache

Now let me get this straight
Put the lime in the coconut, you drank ‘em both up (3x)
Put the lime in the coconut, you called your doctor, woke him up, and said

Doctor, ain’t there nothin’ I can take, I said
Doctor, to relieve this bellyache, I said
Doctor, ain’t there nothin’ I can take, I said
Doctor, to relieve this bellyache

You put the lime in the coconut, you drink ‘em both together
Put the lime in the coconut, then you feel better
Put the lime in the coconut, drink ‘em both up
Put the lime in the coconut, and call me in the morning

Read the rest here:  http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/coconut.htm

And for all you nutty Muppet fans, here’s a great clip of the group performing the song: 

Tags: Coconut Song, Harry Nilsson, Nilsson Schmilsson, MuppetsVideo, Cat Humor, Funny Videos

Cute Video: 4 y/o Hunter Hayes gettin down w/Hank Williams Jr

This video shows a 4 year old boy on stage at a live concert with the Big Boys, playing accordian and singing Jambalaya. He really gets down and you can’t watch without smiling  

Original Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQPEsa5e7K0

For more on Hunter Hayes:

• http://www.hunterhayes.com/
• http://www.boysoloist.com/artist.asp?vid=126
• www.lsue.edu/acadgate/music/hhayes.htm
• www.oakridgeboys.com/Pages/98129.html

Tags: Hunter Hayes, Hank Williams Jr., Jambalaya, Cute Video, Cajun Music, Accordian

Is Wikipedia getting into social networking?

Whoa – Is Wikipedia getting into social networking? I’m a fan of Wikipedia. I know a lot of people claim it’s useless because the information is not fully vetted, some finer points on entries are debated and any entry might easily be manipulated, but I still find it a useful resource. I trust that the site is going to be around in a year (I hope!) and I always verify the that the info in a given entry is accurate for my needs. But when I read they might be getting into social networking I found myself thinking “huh?”. Thankfully, it looks like more of a teasing headline (which, of course, I used here for the same “sensational” reason). Here’s some detail from download squad’s post:

We’ve been hearing bits and pieces of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales’ big plans for a search engine for a while now. But it’s never been entirely clear how this human-powered search engine would look. Would it be more like Google or Mahalo?


South African blogger Matthew Buckland raises a third option that we hadn’t considered. It could look a lot like Facebook.


Last night Wales showed a few screenshots of his new search project to a South African audience. Buckland was in attendance, and he says some of the screenshots looked exactly like Facebook profile pages. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that your search results are going to take you to social networking style pages. Honestly, that doesn’t even make much sense. If you’re searching for information on Abraham Lincoln, you probably don’t expect to find his MySpace page.

Read more here: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/11/16/is-wikipedia-getting-into-social-networking/

Whew, my head was spinning in trying to figure out the whole Wikipedia Social hoo-ha, hopefully it stays on track with it’s core model of serving great information on wide-ranging topics, and stay away from Facebook, Friendster, etc. models.

Will The Future Of Social Networking Be Email Based?

Interesting post over at download squad on the future of social networking: Social networks of the future could be email based:

While Facebook, Friendster and MySpace are the big names in social networking these days, tomorrow’s social networking giants could be Yahoo! and Google. And we’re not talking about Google’s OpenSocial platform.


The New York Times’ Saul Hansel suggests that Yahoo! and Google are working on bringing social networking features to your email account. Think about it. What’s the first thing that happens when you sign up for Facebook? The service scans your email address book to find friends who are already members. There’s a lot of valuable information in your inbox. So it makes sense that the companies providing your email service might want to build on that information and give you a few more reasons to stick around their site all day.

Read more here: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/11/13/social-networks-of-the-future-could-be-email-based/

As a lot of the comments from the post suggest, this actually seems like a step back to 1990′s where folks used email forums very effectively, so we know this model will work. I think the question is more who will adopt the email based social networking and give up the more “social” aspects of it. It’s an interesting shift in the industry as folks look for ways to consolidate their social network information & contacts and get the most bang for their buck.

Are folks writing off Amazon’s Kindle book reader too quickly?

Saul Hansell has a post titled In Defense of the Kindle which outlines his thoughts on Amazon’s newly released (and recently sold out!) e-book reader. Some pretty interesting insights on why you might want to give it a second look or, at lest, give it time to grow into a better, more useful product.

A lot of people are writing off Amazon’s Kindle book reader much too quickly.The comments on our blog posts on the Kindle are filled with people talking about features it is missing. My colleague Damon Darlin posted that he finds it too expensive.

All these are true statements. The Kindle could have lots more useful features, it is too expensive, and lots of people would rather read books on paper. It’s also true that products like this fall in price and add features rapidly in the two years after they are introduced.

So don’t buy it right now unless you are the sort of early adopter that enjoys playing with, and showing off, gadgets that are bound to be replaced with cheaper better models in a year.

But it’s plain wrong to dismiss Amazon’s innovation because it is saddled with the inevitable version 1.0 problems. Remember the iPod was introduced without the touch-sensitive scroll wheel and no legal way to buy music from Apple.

Read more here: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/in-defense-of-the-kindle/index.html?ex=1353387600&en=b386978a7da70cc4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


I for one am passing on this first version. Perhaps if a newer version is slicker, more powerful and feature rich, I might take the plunge. But for now, it just isn’t worth the $400 for me. My two cents


Related reading:

• Enough About Kindle 1.0. What About Kindle 2.0?
• Electronic Books: If It Ain’t Broke . . .
• Amazon’s Kindle sells out in 5.5 hours
• Kindle ain’t no e-book reader

Blogging Tips: Keep it legal – How to avoid committing libel

Steve Tobak over at Train Wreck has a great post for bloggers on how to avoid breaking a law you might not even be aware of: Bloggers beware: You’re liable to commit libel. While I always try to avoid saying anything negative about people online, I can see how folks writing seemlingly innocent posts might get trapped by the libel monster. Tobak states that only one person has to read your post for it to be considered “published” and the parameters for what is/isn’t libel can be a fuzzy line. Injecting opinions or writing factual statements that later prove to be false can be considered libel. Again, I try to be extremely careful with what I write, but others might not be aware of this potential legal trap, offering bold opinions based on internet news or media gossip that might later be proven wrong. Check out this excerpt:

First, people usually ask the wrong question: “Can a blogger be sued for defamation?” The sad truth is that almost anybody can sue you for almost anything these days. So, don’t ask that question; it’s dumb. What you want to know is your responsibility under the law, and therefore, how best to protect yourself from successful litigation.


To prove libel, which is the same thing as written defamation, the plaintiff has to prove that the blogger published a false statement of fact about the plaintiff that harmed the plaintiff’s reputation. Let’s break that down.


“Published” means that at least one other person may have read the blog. That’s right, just one.


A “false statement of fact” is a statement about the plaintiff that is not true. Truth is the best defense against libel. An opinion is also a defense against libel. But, depending on the context, the difference between an opinion and a statement of fact can be remarkably gray. Context is a big deal in determining defamation.


One thing to watch out for: simply inserting the words “in my opinion” in front of a statement of fact doesn’t magically make it an opinion.


Satire and hyperbole can also be defenses against libel, but again, very gray.

Read more here: http://www.cnet.com/8301-13555_1-9821584-34.html?tag=rsspr.6219820&part=rss&subj=news

Some good mental food for thought. No matter what type of blog you write, it’s focus or the size/power of the company/person you write about, you need to take care to choose your words carefully. How much would it suck to get served over some silly comment you wrote in a blog? It can happen – be careful out there!

Facebook denies interest in Chinese social network

According to cnet Facebook denies desires to buy Chinese social network:

According to a Monday report in The Times, Facebook offered $85 million for Zhanzuo, which has about 7 million active users. (Facebook has slightly more than 50 million, about 100,000 of which are in China, according to The Times.)

While the newspaper cited a Facebook spokeswoman in reporting that Zhanzuo CEO Jack Zhang is “acquainted” with Mark Zuckerberg and that “there could be more information by the end of the month,” a Facebook representative on Monday afternoon denied to CNET News.com that any such offer exists.

“No offer has been made, and no acquisition of any company in China is being considered by Facebook,” the representative wrote in an e-mail. “We do not know who the spokeperson is that they are referring to in The Times story and were never contacted by the paper to confirm the accuracy of this story.”

Read more here: http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9820048-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Very interesting. So far Facebook hasn’t done much in the way of major acquisition’s, aside from Parakey and they would face some stiff competition from the likes of MySpace and Friendster, both of them are already in Asia. We’ll have to wait and see what happens over the next few months.