Posts Tagged ‘texting’

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Zuckerberg Weds Longtime Girlfriend, No Word on Prenup (Reuters)
Details of Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg’s surprise wedding trickled out on Sunday, but mysteries remained, not least whether there was a prenuptial agreement in place that could affect Zuckerberg’s large stake in the company. Zuckerberg wed his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, on Saturday in the backyard of their modest home in Palo Alto, Calif., with fewer than 100 people in attendance, a Facebook spokesman authorized to speak on behalf of the couple said. CNET However, a woman in India is reportedly divorcing her husband because he committed the cardinal 21st century crime: he didn’t change his Facebook status when they got married. How can a woman trust a man who doesn’t whip out his cell phone the minute the marriage ceremony is over and declare himself to the world? VentureBeat NASDAQ chief executive Robert Greifeld admitted Sunday that the exchange was at fault for some glitches in early trading of Facebook’s IPO but said it had nothing to do with the stock’s uninspired performance. Facebook expected trading to begin at 11 a.m. on Friday, but it did not begin until about 11:30. GigaOM Catching the last five minutes of the Boston University commencement speech by Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on WBUR, I was struck by the veiled swipes (pokes?) he took at Facebook. You know, the company that last week launched the most anticipated IPO in years, and that despite NASDAQ glitches and a disappointing finish, wiped Google out of the record books? Yes, that Facebook. CNET A mother wanted to share a picture of her son on Facebook. He lived only eight hours. Facebook removed the image, deeming it “too graphic.” Much later, the company offered an apology and admitted it erred. Read more

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Facebook IPO Week: The Basics (PC Magazine)
Big news for Facebook this week — and no, not just because the company is testing new ways for its users to annoy each other in the form of paid-for “highlighted” posts. Actually, it’s Facebook IPO week! The significance of this fact carries a ton of importance if you’re an institutional investor, a small amount of importance if you’re a neophyte investor, and absolutely no meaning whatsoever if you think the stock market is little more than organized gambling. ZDNET Going public brings with it all new pressures. For venture-backed companies such as Facebook, it means a difficult transition from the multi-year expectation on delivering returns to the quarterly results horizon. Even in the extremely fast-moving world of Internet companies, this can come as a shock to the system. AP He famously wears a hoodie, jeans and sneakers, and he was born the year Apple introduced the Macintosh. Today is his 28th birthday. With eight years on the job, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has logged more time as leader than the average CEO, whose tenure is a little more than seven years, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart. Bloomberg News Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said he will buy shares in Facebook when the social networking company sells stock to the public. Wozniak, who built the first Apple computer with Steve Jobs and co-founded the company with him in 1976, said he would buy Facebook’s stock regardless of its valuation. Mashable Facebook, infamous for its changing policies and confusion among users about what they’re getting themselves into when they use the world’s largest social network, has finally aggregated all its terms and policies under the same roof. That roof — Facebook.com/policies — contains, in the words of Facebook, “Everything you need to know, all in one place.” Read more

We’ve all seen people weaving or driving inappropriately too slow or too fast while speaking on a cell phone or texting and perhaps even tweeting or updating Facebook. Reuters reports on a study by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA – a non-profit group) that reviewed 350 scientific papers from 2000 that indicates that 25% of car crashes occur while drivers are using cell phones and other gadgets.

Cell phones, devices biggest driving distractions

The data incidates that 5,500 people died and almost 500,000 people were injured in accidents related to a distracted driver. Many states and cities have enacted some form of law that bans distracted driving. This usually takes the form of not allowing people to holding and using a cell phone to speak or text while driving. However, ABC News notes that the same report shows:

No Evidence Cell Phone Bans Are Effective, Report Shows

So, what should be done as car manufacturers and drivers install and use more and more distracting devices while driving?

You can find the GHSA report at:

Distracted Driving: What Research Shows and What States Can Do

Oprah warns against it, a multitude of video campaigns tout the dangers and there are even mobile apps to help you avoid it. But if none of those things has convinced you not to text and drive, a new YouTube video just might.

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Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says he hopes to have the social media alert system working by September 19, 2011. The date is significant to the anniversary of the 8.1 magnitude earthquake in 1985 that killed as many as 10,000 people. Ebrard said last week that his administration is talking to numerous service providers to put the new alert system in place.

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It looks like the girl that fell in the fountain isn’t a stranger to going to court, but usually she’s the defendant. The Reading Eagle reports that Marrero has faced all sorts of charges from theft to a hit-and-run.

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State laws banning texting and cell phone use while driving have not seemed to resonate with drivers still compelled to type away on their iPhones and Blackberry while behind the wheel. Well, now there’s an app for that. It’s StartTalking, the world’s first smartphone application that is voice-controlled all the way, letting drivers keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel while composing, sending and receiving text messages.

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The summer has always been a time where high school kids seem to undo a lot of the things they learned over the school year. But with the rise in “constricted writing environments” like Twitter and texts, teachers are growing concerned that students are regressing in terms of their ability to meet the standards of English class and college entrance exams. StageofLife.com thinks the answer to this phenomenon lies not in pushing against new social media, but rather embracing it: by encouraging high school students to blog.
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Sounds like a pathetic plea from a young teenager trying to convince his/her parents to buy a mobile device: ‘Texting makes you smarter!’

But it’s true. Now students can utilize a text messaging service to help them learn SAT and ACT vocabulary words. Read more