Internet Inside Joke

I feel like part of the internet "in" crowd when I find the following hilarious. If you have no idea what's so funny, then you are definitely not "in."

Shown below are the first two comments to the article, Best Buy offers $99 iPhone to some reward members from Macworld.com.

Pig Poem

Here's a poem I wrote to a friend the other day in church:

There once was a lad
who wasn't too glad.
But then he learned a jig
from his best friend, a pig.

So the pig
and the jig
made the lad
much more glad.

And then he had some toast.

Crisis Appeased

Less than an hour ago Mark Zuckerberg, founder and owner of Facebook, posted the following clarification regarding the recent TOS changes:

A couple of weeks ago, we updated our terms of use to clarify a few points for our users. A number of people have raised questions about our changes, so I'd like to address those here. I'll also take the opportunity to explain how we think about people's information.

Our philosophy is that people own their information and control who they share it with. When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they've asked us to share it with. Without this license, we couldn't help people share that information.

One of the questions about our new terms of use is whether Facebook can use this information forever. When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created—one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.

In reality, we wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want. The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work. Our goal is to build great products and to communicate clearly to help people share more information in this trusted environment.

We still have work to do to communicate more clearly about these issues, and our terms are one example of this. Our philosophy that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant. A lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective of the rights we need to provide this service to you. Over time we will continue to clarify our positions and make the terms simpler.

Still, the interesting thing about this change in our terms is that it highlights the importance of these issues and their complexity. People want full ownership and control of their information so they can turn off access to it at any time. At the same time, people also want to be able to bring the information others have shared with them—like email addresses, phone numbers, photos and so on—to other services and grant those services access to those people's information. These two positions are at odds with each other. There is no system today that enables me to share my email address with you and then simultaneously lets me control who you share it with and also lets you control what services you share it with.

We're at an interesting point in the development of the open online world where these issues are being worked out. It's difficult terrain to navigate and we're going to make some missteps, but as the leading service for sharing information we take these issues and our responsibility to help resolve them very seriously. This is a big focus for us this year, and I'll post some more thoughts on openness and these other issues soon.

So I feel much better. It is interesting to note that this clarification was issued today - a full 12 days after the TOS were changed. Is this a response to my e-mail to the Facebook legal department?? Well... probably not. More likely it's a response to the nearly 300,000 people who have read the consumerist.com article I posted earlier. So, as Rachel said on my facebook entry, quantity, not quality, appears to have prompted a response this time! I feel something akin to a victory dance coming on...

Facebook Tricks Users into Irrevocable Contract

The following article on consumerist.com alerted me to the following situation that I find slightly disturbing:

Facebook's New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."

If you're taking the time to read this, then you should take the time to read the above article because I won't be summarizing it here.

After doing some sleuthing myself and finding that what they are claiming is indeed true (refer to the Terms of Service (TOS) dated before 4 Feb 2009 and the TOS edited 4 Feb 2009), I found the following paragraph in the current TOS interesting. As listed under the "User Disputes; Complaints" section:

"If you believe that the Facebook Service or Facebook's business practices are in any way unfair, fraudulent or unlawful, you agree to bring it to the attention of Facebook's legal department. If you do not report the issue or continue using the service after discovering the issue, you expressly waive the right to claim that the Facebook Service is unfair, fraudulent or unlawful with respect to that issue."

So I did. It took me awhile to find the Facebook legal department contact information, but here it is:

Facebook Legal Department
legal@facebook.com
Phone: 650-543-4801

I sent the following e-mail this morning:

Facebook Legal Department,

As referenced in your Terms of Service (TOS) revised 4 February 2009:

"If you believe that the Facebook Service or Facebook's business practices are in any way unfair, fraudulent or unlawful, you agree to bring it to the attention of Facebook's legal department. If you do not report the issue or continue using the service after discovering the issue, you expressly waive the right to claim that the Facebook Service is unfair, fraudulent or unlawful with respect to that issue."

I hereby am notifying you of my complaint regarding the following clause removed from the terms of service made effective on 4 February 2009:

"You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

It is my opinion that the TOS are no longer acceptable and that it is my responsibility (see above) to notify you that I consider these business practices unfair. Namely, I resent that you claim rights to content that I have uploaded to your site indefinitely regardless of my status as a subscriber of your services. I respectfully demand that you alter your TOS to restore what I consider my right to restrict your indefinite use of my content.

Nicholas G Herrick
[my contact information]

I fully realize that my e-mail will have no effect on their legal practices, but is it my hope that perhaps others will complain and that the deluge of negative feedback will bring about a change of heart. After all, we're not dealing with Microsoft or George Bush here, it's Facebook! We like Facebook.

The Idiot's (short) Definition of Optics

I recently became aware that while talking to my parents about my optics research, optics classes, and optics career aspirations, they had no idea what I was talking about. So, assuming that the physically uneducated masses are similarly in the dark about the definition of optics (pun intended), I will venture to give a palatable definition:

The physical field of optics is huge - it encompasses much more than the common person supposes. From simple everyday phenomena like colors, mirrors, cameras, computer screens, eyeballs, and eye-glasses, to technologically vital applications like lasers, microscopes, x-rays, satellite dishes, radios, and (of course) microwave ovens, you use light and all of its complicated electromagnetic theory constantly (heh heh, literally if you're reading this with eyeballs).

Optics has such a significant impact on your life you likely don't even realize it: You regularly use heatlamps, fiber optics (internet), DVDs, laser pointers, and laser printers. Not to mention you get sunburns, suntans, use sunglasses, and watch TV.

Some of the more subtle applications of optics include computer chip manufacturing, radar, digital camera CCD chips, WiFi, cell phones transmissions, and toaster ovens (well, maybe toasters aren't so vital).

I could keep going and mention how the upper atmosphere keeps us safe from nasty particles and high-energy cosmic rays by playing tricky optics games, or why some cars have blue headlights while most have orange. Or I could mention the color of the sky, the color of snow, or why the sun is so stinking bright. But I won't. I bet by now you realize you underestimated those funny little photons and all they do for you, didn't ya? So thank God for photons! (And for folks who understand them.) Cause the world would be awfully bleak without them.

(For the record, please don't ask me how rainbows work - they're so freaking hard to understand!)