Dear Facebook, stop giving preferential treatment to the ivy-leagues!

I’ve been patiently waiting for Facebook Chat to launch for a week or so, even though I’m not sure why I care so much about it. A staunch devotee to GChat, I don’t really plan on using the feature, but I guess curiosity has gotten the better of me. I blame my thesis, since I want to blame just about everything on it right now (e.g., My Saxby’s chai tastes bad? Must be because of my damn thesis! grrr). Yes, yes, I know, too much anger is a bad thing. But it’s also so much fun!

ANYWAY… So last week Nick O’Neill teased me by saying the launch was imminent, and should definitely happen by week-end, i.e., April 5th. Well I waited and waited. When I was presenting research at a conference Saturday, I excitedly told everyone it should be “any second now.” A CNN article boldly claims that Facebook Chat will surpass GChat in terms of use because of the frequency with which users log onto the site.

But here I am, still excited, and still waiting. This feature could have a significant impact on both my recent research on collegiate Facebook use, as well as Michigan State’s ongoing Facebook research. I don’t know about you, but because of GCHat (and, I’ll admit, because I’m addicted to my email), I keep Gmail open 24/7. I don’t quite do that yet with Facebook, although it is often open as a reference for my thesis writing (ok ok, and because I’m obsessed with online communication). Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t talk about instant messaging in my thesis…

But now I just found out why I’m not seeing Facebook Chat yet. After teasing me last week, Nick O’Neill has now posted on allfacebook that the feature did indeed roll out, but just to the “elites” of the collegiate world — namely, Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Berkeley, Brown, Dartmouth and MIT. First, a quick question: Why the hell is U of C in this group? C’mon people, Georgetown should get chat long before that university. The rest of the roll out will happen gradually, and in typical Facebook-fashion, without a definite time frame. I’m expecting it to launch completely on the day of my thesis defense, and somehow find a way to nullify all my results.

Damn you Facebook!

Has anyone else noticed that the mobile Internet is blowing up?

I guess I like to blog in clusters. Tuesday, I posted a blog on Pew Internet’s site. Today, I put up a related blog on gnovis’ website. And as I have come to realize in my thesis research on Facebook, the evolution of cell phones is the next big hot topic. We’re going to see so much happening in 2008 in the world of cellular technology that you should probably buckle yourself in. In you didn’t get enough to sate your appetite reading my Pew post, check out my latest gnovis blog here.

Here’s a tasty snippet:

The U.S., which has never been a leader in mobile technology, may finally be catching up (ever so slightly, at least) with foreign markets, thanks in large part to Google and Apple’s recent efforts to make the Internet mobile.

At the very least, American demand for many of these newer technologies, especially phones with internet capabilities, has been experiencing a significant upswing in the last year. Earlier this week, I posted a blog on the Pew Internet Project’s website that looked at the organization’s most recent data in light of some recent tech business news. For example, Pew’s most recent data suggest that many Americans cannot live without their cell phones — 51% say that it would be “very hard to give up” using them. This number has increased by 15% over the last five years. Even more significant is the percentage of Americans who report they would have a hard time giving up their Blackberries, which has jumped from just 6% of respondents in 2002 to 36% of respondents in 2007. I expect if this same question was asked at year-end 2008, we would see that number approaching, if not surpassing, the 50% mark. [More…]

New blog post on Pew Internet Project website

My latest “masterpiece” resides on the Pew Internet site here.

Want a little taste? Well here’s a scoop of yummy mobile Internet goodness:

John Horrigan’s recent data memo on mobile internet access spotlights a growing trend: consumers are increasingly relying on mobile technologies (cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, etc.) to stay connected on the go. In the memo, Horrigan cites recent Pew Internet data showing that Americans now list their cell phones as the most difficult technology to give up. At the same time, the percentage of consumers saying they would have a hard time giving up their Blackberry or other wireless email device has increased six-fold in the last five years, from 6% of American adults in 2002 to 36% in 2007.

These data support current trends within the business sector, and recent reports from some of the country’s biggest technology companies back up Pew’s findings. Americans want the freedom to access the internet anywhere and at any time, and technology is currently evolving to meet this demand. [More…]

Who cares about the war on drugs? I want to know if we’ll ever win the war on spam.

Stupid spam. I tried to count the ways I hate you, but I ran out of numbers. Why must you invade every aspect of my life?

So spam. We all know it, we all (I assume) hate it. Yet it’s still here, doing better than ever, invading every aspect of our lives. Why is this?

Well, let’s take a quick history lesson of spam first. Ever wonder where the word “spam” comes from? I did, so I looked it up. Apparently, there is no absolute understanding of the word’s origin as related to unsolicited email, but most people tend to believe it refers to a Monty Python’s Flying Circus skit in which a couple go to a restaurant and the only thing on the menu is spam. The word “spam” is used to excess throughout the skit, until the couple (and the viewers) are ready to poke out their eyes, if only to make it stop.

I like this explanation, as it sums up my feelings toward spam rather succinctly.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. Spam filters have improved exponentially in recent years, so much so that (until recently) I rarely receive spams in my inbox. Well, at least in my Gmail. Yahoo!, on the other hand, doesn’t do as good a job, unless you consider the number of spams getting through to my inbox each day (3-6) in comparison to the number going into my spam filter each day (200+). I guess it’s not too bad, when examined from that angle.

However, I have begun to notice spam encroaching into previously sterile areas in recent weeks. At first I thought I was crazy, but I’ve been reinforced by a number of blog postings suggesting that spammers are getting more intelligent.

First, I noticed an increase in my Gmail about a month ago. The only reason I noticed this was because I never used to get any spam in this account, and suddenly I was seeing a few a week. Again, not a huge deal, especially since you only have to click two buttons to make it go away, but still a little unsettling. At first I thought that maybe I had signed up for something online that was causing the influx, even though I typically reserve registrations like that for my Yahoo! account. But then I was validated when Mashable reported that they were noticing a “leak” in the spam filters too.

Then there’s blog spam. Here at WordPress, the filters catch the vast majority of spam comments, but the sheer number caught (at least on my account) has gone up significantly since February. Mashable recently reported that WordPress thinks up to one-third of blogs posted on the site are actually “splogs,” or spam blogs.

THEN, this past weekend I began receiving notifications from Twitter of new followers on the site. As I am not a big user of the site and do not have a lot of friends using it, I was curious and a little confused by the notifications, although I did not link them to spammers until this morning when I read on Mashable that the Twitter problem is not just a coincidence, and there are users who are creating massive followers’ lists for no go reason. At least the “spam” aspect to this is minimal, since you would need to follow the spammer in order to have their messages appearing on your homepage. But still, this is annoying!

Finally, there is the impetus that caused me to write this post. Mashable is now reporting that spam has entered the most sacred realm of Google Calendars. How is this possible? Let me echo Stan’s post by asking, IS NOTHING SACRED ANYMORE? This insanity has got to stop!

Looking at the situation more broadly, it is obvious that spammers are becoming more persistent. The AFP reported at the end of2007 that virtually all email is now spam, with the number reaching 95% in 2007, up from 70% in 2006. Now that is quite a lot of junk emails about rich African businessmen who want to wire you money, penis enlargements to make her “hot all night”, magic weight loss pills, and free, well, just about everything. Where is the profit in this? Maybe it’s not a lot of work for the spammer, but does it ever pay off? I understand that phishing scams have the potential to be quite profitable, but spam just seems like a waste of space and time for everyone. So do us a favor spammers and go find another hobby. How about crocheting? Racquetball? Maybe stamp collecting?

So that is my brief look at how spam is taking over my life. Am I supposed to just deal with it and accept that spam will be a part of my life indefinitely? Do I even have a way to fight back without withdrawing myself from the Internet entirely (like that would ever happen)? What’s a girl to do to get a little peace and spam-free quiet these days.

Grr…

[And thanks to Mashable for providing me with tons of stuff to write about in this post!]

Twitxr mashes up Twitter and Flickr; Vitak’s head subsequently explodes

I guess you could say I’m still new to this tech-heavy lifestyle I’ve thrown myself into over the last six months as I write my master’s thesis, but the seemingly nonstop, daily influx of new companies with ever-so-slight variations on the original is slowly driving me crazy. I wonder if I would have survived the tech bubble of the 90s, or if, in the end, I would have blown up my computer to get away from the insanity. Luckily, I was a naive little college student back then, without a care in the world past my next keg stand.

Now, however, keeping up on this stuff is part of my job and my education, so there will be no computer explosions in my house anytime soon (that, and my house is really old, so it’d probably burn down in under 30 seconds, which would totally suck). Don’t get me wrong, I’m fascinated with a lot of the new social networking sites launching every few milliseconds, but I have never particularly liked Twitter, and I don’t like posting my pictures for the whole world to see, so I haven’t yet caved to the massive powers of Flickr. So why in the world would I want them combined?

Well, that exacty what Twitxr has done my friends. Here we have one of the newest social networking site (it just launched this week), which is for all intensive purposes Twitter with pictures. Now, you can twit about photos you take on your cell phone, basically allowing people to follow your every last move as it happens — or at least shortly after it happens. Find some funny graffiti in a public bathroom? Send it on over! Amazed at how pretty your fancy, $175 entrée costs and want to show everyone that you’re a real spender? Post it up! Want to show the whole world how lame you are because you feel the need to share every minute of your day? Please, indulge us. We love it!

Ugh, sometimes this social connectivity and identity sharing starts to wear me down. It’s like we’ve all just given up on the hope of keeping any part of our lives private. Hold strong people, hold strong!

Picture of the Day: This is (sadly) my life

Enough said:

[Thanks to the ever-awesome xkcd!]

10 minutes, 2 ideas, 1 man, and a whole lot of political change

With my academic background, I am quite familiar with the writings of Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and the author of such books as “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace,” “The Future of Ideas” and “Free Culture.” He writes about what I’m most interested in: how technology (ie, the Internet) impacts society (in his case, through a legal lens).

So I was quite surprised (and somewhat intrigued) to read the other day that Lessig is considering a run to replace recently deceased Congressman Tom Lantos of California. Lessig may not have much of a political background, but the man is damn smart and has some great ideas about what is wrong with DC. It might be refreshing to have someone like him stirring the pot in Washington.

Lessig has launched a website devoted to his campaign consideration and his “Change Congress” movement. He’s also posted a 10-minute video (seen below) which summarizes his beliefs on the inherent problems of the current system and why he’s considering this run for Congress.

I may need to change professions, now that I know I’m a psychic (at least when it comes to DVD turf wars)

The battle royale is over and the victor has been chosen. Not since the Sony-Betamax showdown have consumer electronics fought so bravely to win dominance over the market. But after months of indecision, we can finally announce our winner: Blu-ray high definition DVDs have vanquished HD DVDs.

And who predicted this? Why, me of course. I think it was the obvious choice as soon as they announced PS3’s would contain a Blu-ray player, but apparently some others out there are not quite as quick at these things. And on top of that, Warner Bros. said in January they would only release their films on Blu-ray. If that wasn’t the final nail in the coffin, I don’t know what else could be.

So what caused this tipping point in favor of Blu-ray? Today, Toshiba revealed they will no longer make HD DVD players, thus effectively handing victory to Sony and Blu-ray. Luckily for me, I am typically not an early adopter for this very reason. At minimum, buying the technology too early can cause headaches when rebates are offered just a few months after the product is released or having to pay for upgrades to the software. At the worst end, you’re stuck with an expensive gadget and a few movies, and you can’t buy anything else. AND, no one will want to buy your now useless piece of electronics. Of course, it isn’t that expensive anymore, with the price of the players plummeting to just over $100 in many cases. Maybe now IS the time to buy one so you can show it off to your friends in 20 years as a collector’s item.

jessica vitak, phd

Category Archives: Technology