Friday News: Facebook faces new lawsuit, new view of a marriage proposal, rules for creative success, the evolving e-book universe
Facebook facing class-action lawsuit over unauthorized message scanning – Sent or received a private message in Facebook over the past two years? Then you may very well be part of the class that is now allowed to proceed with a claim against the social network for scanning private messages, supposedly in the name of targeted advertising. Apparently Google has also been scanning messages, but they have not yet been sued. Facebook’s defense was not particularly strong:
Facebook tried to dismiss the claims, saying that it didn’t break any laws and that the alleged message scans were protected under an exception in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to Reuters. Which one specifically? That these “interceptions” are lawful if they occur over the “ordinary course” of a service provider’s business. The presiding judge countered, saying that Zuckerberg and Co. failed to offer explanation of how the scans fell under the website’s ordinary course of business. –Engadget
This Guy Wore a Heart Rate Monitor During His Marriage Proposal and Graphed the Results – Sesipikai (a reddit user) and his girlfriend went to Rome, where he proposed to her, and decided to use the occasion to measure his heart rate throughout the proposal and then graph it, marking each step through the sequence of events. Very clever and very illustrative of the emotional pressure he was under.
After visiting the Colosseum the couple went to the Roman Forum where he popped the big question (after enjoying some delicious ice cream). Interested to chart his heart rate (bpm) during the marriage proposal he wore a heart rate monitor belt and detailed the moments before, during and after the proposal (about 40 minutes worth). Sesipikai says his typical resting heart rate is about 60 bpm. –Twisted Sifter
Molly Crabapple’s 15 rules for creative success in the Internet age – An interesting post from visual artist Molly Crabapple (I use an avatar she designed, and there’s a great example of her work here) who has some pretty good advice for success in a creative environment that relies on digital access and connectivity. Although most of her “rules” would be applicable in any environment or venue. As Crabapple notes of herself,
My success would not have been possible without the internet. I’ve used every platform, from Craigslist and Suicide Girls to Livejournal, Myspace, Kickstarter, Tumblr and Twitter. I’m both sick of social media and addicted to it. What nourishes you destroys you, and all that. The internet is getting increasingly corporate and centralized, and I don’t know that the future isn’t just going back to big money platforms. I hope its not. . . .
4. Very often people who blow up and become famous fast already have some other sort of income, either parental money, spousal money, money saved from another job, or corporate backing behind the scenes. Other times they’ve actually been working for 10 years and no one noticed until suddenly they passed some threshold. Either way, its good to take a hard look- you’ll learn from studying both types of people, and it will keep you from delusional myth-making.
–Boingboing
The eBook Universe 2014 – Although Cane posted this in April, given that we’re closing in on the end of the year, it seems fitting to link to it now. What is it? Flow charts from 2009, 2010, and 2014 that detail the “e-book universe” for each year. The changes in just 5 years, most of which boil down to reduction, are pretty interesting to contemplate. –Mike Cane
Glad the woman said yes. The heart rate graph with commentary was interesting.