By Brandon Griggs
CNN

Facebook, for better or worse, is like being at a big party with all your friends, family, acquaintances and co-workers.There are lots of fun, interesting people you’re happy to talk to when they stroll up. Then there are the other people, the ones who make you cringe when you see them coming. This article is about those people.

Sure, Facebook can be a great tool for keeping up with folks who are important to you. Take the status update, the 160-character message that users post in response to the question, “What’s on your mind?” An artful, witty or newsy status update is a pleasure — a real-time, tiny window into a friend’s life.

But far more posts read like navel-gazing diary entries, or worse, spam. A recent study categorized 40 percent of Twitter tweets as “pointless babble,” and it wouldn’t be surprising if updates on Facebook, still a fast-growing social network, break down in a similar way. Take a CNN quiz: What kind of Facebooker are you?

Combine dull status updates with shameless self-promoters, “friend-padders” and that friend of a friend who sends you quizzes every day, and Facebook becomes a daily reminder of why some people can get on your nerves.

Here are 12 of the most annoying types of Facebook users:

The Let-Me-Tell-You-Every-Detail-of-My-Day Bore. “I’m waking up.” “I had Wheaties for breakfast.” “I’m bored at work.” “I’m stuck in traffic.” You’re kidding! How fascinating! No moment is too mundane for some people to broadcast unsolicited to the world. Just because you have 432 Facebook friends doesn’t mean we all want to know when you’re waiting for the bus.

The Self-Promoter. OK, so we’ve probably all posted at least once about some achievement. And sure, maybe your friends really do want to read the fascinating article you wrote about beet farming. But when almost EVERY update is a link to your blog, your poetry reading, your 10k results or your art show, you sound like a bragger or a self-centered careerist.

The Friend-Padder. The average Facebook user has 120 friends on the site. Schmoozers and social butterflies — you know, the ones who make lifelong pals on the subway — might reasonably have 300 or 400. But 1,000 “friends?” Unless you’re George Clooney or just won the lottery, no one has that many. That’s just showing off.

The Town Crier. “Michael Jackson is dead!!!” You heard it from me first! Me, and the 213,000 other people who all saw it on TMZ. These Matt Drudge wannabes are the reason many of us learn of breaking news not from TV or news sites but from online social networks. In their rush to trumpet the news, these people also spread rumors, half-truths and innuendo. No, Jeff Goldblum did not plunge to his death from a New Zealand cliff.

The TMIer. “Brad is heading to Walgreens to buy something for these pesky hemorrhoids.” Boundaries of privacy and decorum don’t seem to exist for these too-much-information updaters, who unabashedly offer up details about their sex lives, marital troubles and bodily functions. Thanks for sharing.

The Bad Grammarian. “So sad about Fara Fauset but Im so gladd its friday yippe”. Yes, I know the punctuation rules are different in the digital world. And, no, no one likes a spelling-Nazi schoolmarm. But you sound like a moron.

The Sympathy-Baiter. “Barbara is feeling sad today.” “Man, am I glad that’s over.” “Jim could really use some good news about now.” Like anglers hunting for fish, these sad sacks cast out their hooks — baited with vague tales of woe — in the hopes of landing concerned responses. Genuine bad news is one thing, but these manipulative posts are just pleas for attention.

The Lurker. The Peeping Toms of Facebook, these voyeurs are too cautious, or maybe too lazy, to update their status or write on your wall. But once in a while, you’ll be talking to them and they’ll mention something you posted, so you know they’re on your page, hiding in the shadows. It’s just a little creepy.

The Crank. These curmudgeons, like the trolls who spew hate in blog comments, never met something they couldn’t complain about. “Carl isn’t really that impressed with idiots who don’t realize how idiotic they are.” [Actual status update.] Keep spreading the love.

The Paparazzo. Ever visit your Facebook page and discover that someone’s posted a photo of you from last weekend’s party — a photo you didn’t authorize and haven’t even seen? You’d really rather not have to explain to your mom why you were leering like a drunken hyena and French-kissing a bottle of Jagermeister.

The Maddening Obscurist. “If not now then when?” “You’ll see…” “Grist for the mill.” “John is, small world.” “Dave thought he was immune, but no. No, he is not.” [Actual status updates, all.] Sorry, but you’re not being mysterious — just nonsensical.

The Chronic Inviter. “Support my cause. Sign my petition. Play Mafia Wars with me. Which ‘Star Trek’ character are you? Here are the ‘Top 5 cars I have personally owned.’ Here are ‘25 Things About Me.’ Here’s a drink. What drink are you? We’re related! I took the ‘What President Are You?’ quiz and found out I’m Millard Fillmore! What president are you?”

You probably mean well, but stop. Just stop. I don’t care what president I am — can’t we simply be friends? Now excuse me while I go post the link to this story on my Facebook page.

As posted on CNN.com

by Ian Paul, PC WorldAug 3, 2009 8:58 am

The Apple tablet is real, and someone claims they’ve actually seen the thing. Well, so goes the latest rumor anyway. After months of speculation, innuendo and good ol’ wishful thinking, someone finally found an anonymous source not willing to go on the record who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the storied Apple tablet. This morning’s rumor comes from the anonymous “A. Veteran Analyst,” who says they’ve actually held a prototype for Apple’s next wonder device in their own hands, according to Barron’s.

Mr. Analyst says Apple is going to have a final design ready in the next six weeks, and the device would then be announced in September for a November launch. The Apple tablet may also break your bank, costing you a whopping $699 to $799. But for those big bucks you’d get a device that would be able to, among other things, play high-definition video. While other features might be nice, it sounds like the Apple tablet’s video capability is the feature to beat. The anonymous source says the device’s video quality “is better than the average movie experience.”

So the 10-inch Apple tablet is a better movie experience than staring at a giant screen with surround sound or watching a DVD at home? That must be some mythical device.

Computer Industry Scared Stiff

While Apple is busy creating its next super device to replace the multiplex, everyone else in the computer industry is reportedly so nervous about the Apple tablet they’re waiting to see what the product looks like before imitating or ripping it off. That’s a smart move considering how one guy was left with a warehouse full of iPhony Nanos after this year’s MacWorld Expo. By the way, if you’re looking for a fully non-functioning mini-iPhone drop me a line.

Apple Tablet: the Rumor That Keeps on Giving

Apple tablet mania has been heating up in recent weeks. Earlier this month, another rumor came out saying the Apple tablet might be available through Verizon with a multiyear service contract. An arrangement like that would subsidize the heavy cost of the device, and with a price of almost $800 it’s not hard to see why that would make sense.

Late last week, there was also a rumor the Apple tablet would launch with a secret software project codenamed Cocktail. The software is rumored to be a development in conjunction with the major music labels, and would be “a new type of interactive album, which will combine photos, lyrics sheets, video clips, and liner notes, all gathered into an interactive booklet.”

That sounds like an interesting concept, but software is one of the big questions hanging over the Apple tablet. As Barron’s writer Tiernan Ray says, no one knows if this device will be attached to the iPhone App Store or will have a software model closer to Apple’s MacBook line. As I’ve said before, I think tying a tablet to the App Store could be a mistake since it would virtually guarantee a less-functional device. But we may have to wait until next month’s supposed announcement before we’ll know for sure how this device will work.

Assuming of course, that this yet-to-be-proven device exists. As PC World’s Michael Scalisi pointed out last week, the rumored Apple tablet, despite all they hype, could end up being a flop given the poor track record of past tablet devices. So would Apple risk its iPhone mojo on an unproven device that nobody may want, or are we truly at the point where the world will just go nuts for anything Apple comes out with? If the rumors are correct, we may know the answer to that question very soon.

As Posted on PCWorld.com

by Stephen ShanklandAt about 8 a.m. PDT Friday, Firefox crossed the billion-download threshold–a notably large number for Mozilla’s open-source Web browser but one that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Firefox fans love their statistical milestones, and Mozilla enjoys fanning the flames by providing plenty of opportunities for self-congratulation. In 2008 was the Firefox Download Day, with more than 8 million downloads in 24 hours. Next came the Firefox 3.5 debut and its download tracker.

And now we have the billion-download figure on the Spread Firefox site. That includes updates people have fetched deliberately, not automatic updates, Mozilla said. To maximize the marketing potential, Mozilla also is touting the 1,000,000,000 + you site.

That site probably could be named better. Firefox director Mike Belztner said in June that Mozilla estimates there are 300 million Firefox users, up from 175 million a year earlier, so don’t go thinking there are a billion people using it. Indeed, I find the total user population a much more interesting statistic than downloads.

Firefox has truly achieved real success, eating steadily into Microsoft Internet Explorer’s dominant market share to become the second-most used browser. The newest version is downloaded between 40 and 60 times a second worldwide at present.

IE 8 downloads surpass 200 million
But lest Firefox fans get too carried away with their success, there’s another number that shows what Mozilla is up against. According to a source familiar with Microsoft’s statistics, IE 8 has been downloaded more than 200 million times in the last four months since its release.

That’s a fifth of the way to what Firefox achieved since Firefox 1.0 was released nearly five years ago. And Microsoft hasn’t even begun pushing IE 8 through update in earnest yet. Microsoft’s 200 million statistic doesn’t include updates such as bug patches and security fixes.

So let’s face it: being installed along with the world’s most widely used operating system remains a huge advantage for IE’s use, antitrust concerns notwithstanding. Microsoft declined to comment on its download statistics.

So what do all these numbers really show besides browser makers’ urges to thump their chests about their popularity? This: the world of browsers is in serious flux.

Next-gen Web en route
That’s because after years of near-dormancy after IE crushed Netscape in the 1990s, the browser wars are back in full swing. The growing migration of personal and professional activity to Web applications, the growing adoption of broadband Internet connections, and the growing adoption of truly Web-capable mobile phones are combining to make Web browsers a strategic asset in the computing industry. Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, Google, Opera Software, and others all want to be the gateway to the world’s most vibrant medium, the Internet.

Even the fifth-ranked browser can claim notable success. Opera’s desktop browser has been downloaded more than 270 million times from the company’s own servers since 2003, and the daily download rate has jumped from 30,000 to 40,000 back then to about 200,000 today, the company said. Throwing Opera Mini for mobile phones into the mix increases the total to about 500 million.

The download rates show that there’s a powerful movement afoot to “upgrade the Web,” as Mozilla’s marketing catchphrase would have it.

It’s a gradual change, with plenty of laggards such as corporate users who can’t upgrade from IE 6 or cybercafes with locked-down PCs. And there’s plenty of turmoil about next-generation Web standards. But the herd is gradually moving to more sophisticated browsers that collectively enable a more sophisticated Web.

As Posted on cnet.com

Online movie rental company Netflix Inc. will begin streaming earlier seasons of ABC TV shows such as “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” in a deal with The Walt Disney Co., the companies said Monday.Netflix subscribers who pay at least $9 a month to rent DVDs online will be able to instantly watch the first five seasons of “Lost,” seasons four and five of “Desperate Housewives,” and season five of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Seasons one and two of the fantasy series “Legend of the Seeker” will also be available.

Netflix said many of the episodes have been available since Aug. 1 and the rest will be available in subsequent months, beginning in September.

The deal comes as Netflix looks to expand its library of more than 12,000 movies and TV shows available for streaming.

The agreement extends an online relationship that Netflix and Disney-ABC Television Group entered last September.

By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: August 2, 2009

Since the 1760s the fragmentary works sat scrawled at the back of a music book used by Mozart’s sister to study keyboard. They were in the hand of their father, Leopold, but no composer’s name was attached.

The International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg now says the two pieces were probably composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself, as a young boy.

The music consists of 35 measures of a piano prelude and the solo part, 75 measures long, of a complete movement of a keyboard concerto, said Ulrich Leisinger, director of the Mozarteum’s research department, who is credited with the discovery. The results were announced at a news conference on Sunday in Salzburg. Florian Birsak, an Austrian keyboard player, performed the two pieces at a Mozart residence on Mozart’s own fortepiano.

Mr. Leisinger said in a telephone interview that the pieces were probably composed in 1763 or 1764, when Mozart was 7 or 8. If truly by him, they would serve as an important link between his simple earliest compositions and his first major works, Mr. Leisinger said.

Neal Zaslaw, a Cornell University music professor and Mozart expert who was not involved in the discovery, said the attribution to young Wolfgang was “highly plausible,” although it was not likely that it could be proved “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Called “Nannerl’s Music Book,” the manuscript volume containing the pieces has long been known and studied. It has been in the Mozarteum since 1864. Mr. Leisinger said that preparation of a facsimile edition by the Mozarteum prompted him to examine the pieces more closely and ultimately led to his deduction. He said that the concerto part and the prelude were musically and technically related.

Leopold used the music notebook to give Nannerl, as his daughter Maria Anna was called, keyboard lessons. It contains some 60 pieces, many by contemporary composers and 18 recognized as by Mozart. Most of those are in Leopold’s handwriting, composed before Wolfgang had a firm grasp of writing out music, Mr. Leisinger said. After Mozart’s death, Nannerl ripped out pages with his handwriting and gave them away to friends and Mozart admirers.

The two newly examined pieces were written hastily, with corrections, evidence that Leopold was not copying out somebody else’s work. At the same time the nature of the music departs from the compositions Leopold himself was producing. Instead the concerto movement, labeled Molto Allegro, contains a multitude of notes and technically demanding, sometimes awkward, passages.

“This is nothing you would use to teach your children,” Mr. Leisinger said. It was composed by “someone with high ambitions” but lacking the expertise to write out the music, he added.

Mr. Leisinger said that an anecdote from a Mozart family friend shortly after Mozart’s death, provides circumstantial evidence to support his theory. The friend, a trumpet player named Johann Andreas Schachtner, said he and Leopold were looking at a blotchy effort by the young Wolfgang to write down music.

“At first we laughed at what seemed such pure gibberish, but his father then began to observe the most important matter, the notes and music,” Schachtner recounted. “He stared long at the sheet, and then tears, tears of joy and wonder, fell from his eyes. ‘It is so very difficult that no one could play it,’ Leopold said. And Wolfgang replied: ‘That’s why it’s a concerto. You must practice it till you can get it right.’ ”

Mr. Leisinger said the anecdote supports the idea that Mozart was writing keyboard concertos at around the time his father was using the Nannerl music book to write out his son’s pieces.

Robert Levin, a Harvard University musicologist and pianist, said the ambitious technical writing and its awkwardness in the Molto Allegro movement fit “rather touchingly with the Schachtner anecdote.”

Mr. Levin has written an orchestral accompaniment to the concerto movement.

The music book facsimile is scheduled to appear in the fall, but facsimiles of the two piano pieces are to be made available immediately, for 12 euros, about $17.

As Posted on The New York Times