The Nerdy Address Of Facebook’s New Headquarters? 1 Hacker Way

 

Apple has 1 Infinite Loop, Genentech has 1 DNA Way, and now Facebook has its own vanity headquarters address: 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, 94025. Seen here on a brand new business card of a Facebook employee, the address epitomizes the company’s internal motto “Move Fast and Break Things”. 1 Hacker Way should help Facebook project the image that it is an engineering company where coders can experiment and find autonomy rather than bureaucracy.

Facebook is slowly transitioning from its existing buildings in Palo Alto to the new Menlo Park headquarters which you can see photos of here. Back in February, Facebook formally announced its plans to move into the former Sun Microsystems campus at 1 Network Drive, which can house up to 3600 employees. The relatively remote location was derided with the name “Sun Quentin” because employees are effectively imprisoned there due to the lack of nearby restaurants and businesses. Hopefully the playful address will make it seem more fun to commute to.

1 Hacker Way is the central address for the campus, though specific buildings have their own addresses. For example, 18 Hacker Way is the legal department. An employee tells us that the campus was originally slated to be addressed 1 Social Circle, but Google+ and its Circles friend lists led that named to be scrapped.

We’ve compiled a list of some technology companies with vanity addresses, but hit us up in the comments with any we missed. Thankfully Facebook chose a less boring and narcissistic one than Dell, though the American Physical Society gets my vote as it even made the street name (or odonym) something nerdy.

AOL – 22000 AOL Way

American Physical Society – 1 Physics Ellipse

Apple – 1 Infinite Loop

Dell – 1 Dell Way

Facebook – 1 Hacker Way

Genentech – 1 DNA Way

Microsoft – 1 Microsoft Way

Oracle – 500 Oracle Way

Sun Microsystems (now relocated) – 1 Network Drive

TRW (now Lockheed Martin) – 1 Space Way

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Two dozen super cars crash in Japanese pile-up

In what could be the most expensive pile-up in history, crumpled Ferraris and other supercars littered a Japanese expressway after a huge crash on Sunday.

 

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With Growing Cell Phone Use, ‘Butt Dials’ To 911 Also Rising

 

If you’ve ever received a call because someone you know “butt-dialed” you, you know how annoying it can be. But when someone “butt-dials” 911, it’s not just an inconvenience, it’s a public safety issue.

As CBS 2’s Vince Gerasole reports, officials in Evanston say that nearly 20 percent of the wireless calls they get each month are “unintentional” or “abandoned” calls; and they believe the vast majority of those unintentional cell phone calls are butt dials.

Emergency workers said those kinds of calls waste valuable time and could put people at risk.

About 500 times each month, someone mistakenly dials the Evanston 911 center from their cell phone and that’s only part of the story.

“I don’t think the public realizes how often this happens,” Evanston 911 Coordinator Perry Polinski said.

He said about 90 percent of those unintentional calls are the result of someone fumbling around in their purse or sitting on their cell phone and accidentally speed dialing 911.

“When you consider the number of these types of calls that we receive, it really taxes our resources,” Polinski said.

Operators have to stay on the line until the call drops, then call back the number to see if there’s a real emergency. Since cell phones can only be tracked by general location, in extreme cases officers are dispatched to find whoever might be in distress.

“The chances of that happening are slim, but we’ve – a couple times probably, over the past few years – have had to basically launch a search party to locate somebody,” Polinski said.

Each time, it turned out to be either a misdial or a child making a prank call, Polinski said.

Speed dialing is a convenience marketed by cell phone makers, many pre-programming one-touch 911 emergency service, even when the phone is locked.

Evanston resident Blair Parkinson said, “If I type my lock code wrong, it’ll go to, like, the emergency screen; so … that’s the only number you can call from there, so sometimes it will … you could press a button and it will call it.”

National emergency management agencies have said the problem is cropping up across the country. Law enforcement officials, like those in Evanston, have said it could be reduced if cell phone users were just a little more careful.

Polinski said if a misdial comes in at the same time as an actual emergency when several legitimate calls might be coming in at the same time, “then you have to devote the time that you would otherwise be using to field the rest of the phone calls to make sure that … everything’s okay with that one call.”

What can cell phone users do to avoid mistakenly calling 911? They should cover the touch pads or keyboards of their phones when they’re not in use and, if you realize you have mistakenly dialed 911, stay on the line and let the operator know it was a mistake.

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Petition To Correct Siri's Apparent Anti-Abortion Bias Collects Nearly 30,000 Signatures 

 

In the past 24 hours, more than 27,000 people have signed a petition asking Apple to stop iPhone voice assistant Siri from directing women to anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers" when they ask where to get an abortion.

The Raw Story reported on Tuesday that Siri does not turn up results for any abortion clinics in Washington, D.C. or New York City. Instead, the iPhone 4 assistant either suggests out-of-state crisis pregnancy centers, which have the stated purpose of convincing women not to get abortions, or says "I didn't find any abortion clinics."

The petition to Apple, organized by social activists Nita Chaudhary and Shaunna Thomas through MoveOn.org, states: "Apple: Stop promoting anti-choice extremists. If a user asks for family planning services, they should be directed to a group that offers full services, like Planned Parenthood--not to a hard-right clinic with an extremist agenda." It had collected 27,294 signatures by the time this story was written and will be sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook when it reaches 30,000.

"What's so surprising is that Apple would put a product on the marketplace that is so discriminatory and antiquated," Thomas said Thursday. "Apple needs to correct and update Siri's query data. Apple has this reputation of being innovative and progressive, and this oversight seems out of step with who we know them to be."

NARAL Pro-Choice America also sent a letter to Cook on Wednesday demanding that Siri recognize abortion clinics.
"Siri is a great tool that mixes humor and sarcasm in responding to questions--and it is another example of how your company is on the cutting edge of demonstrating how technology can transform the way we share and access information," wrote Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL. "Thus, it is disappointing to read that a tool like Siri is missing the mark when it comes to providing information about such personal health issues as abortion care and contraception.

Apple responded to the uproar by saying that the Siri glitch is unintentional and will be fixed.

"Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn't always find what you want," Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, told The New York Times on Wednesday. "These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks."

Chaudhary told HuffPost it doesn't matter to her why the problem is happening.

"The issue is that it is and it's actively hurting women who're seeking information on family planning services," she said. "This needs to get fixed--quickly."

ALSO SEE;

Apple Says Siri’s Abortion Answers Are a Glitch

http://todaysdailypoop.blogspot.com/2011/11/normal-0-microsoftinternetexplorer4_30.html

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Urine-controlled video games 

in the UK and Japan

The Exhibit Bar in London installed some video games in the mens' restroom, where your urine stream is your controller. A sensor in the urinal senses you approaching, then tracks the heat and movement of the stream. There are several games available and also in development. One is a skiing game where you veer left and right to steer down the slope. There is a trivia game too, called Clever Dick. And another is Artsplash, where you create splashes of color on a canvas. And then you can save your work and email it to your girlfriend!!

But guess what? It's like every other cool new thing, THE JAPANESE ALREADY HAVE IT! Sega Toylet was on display at expos last year, and right now are being tested out in Tokyo metro stations. Their games, of course, are crazier.




One has a little statue boy going into a cup. If you don't fill the cup, you fail. Another puts you in a competition with the guy who went last time. The harder you go, the more milk shoots out your nose. That looks painful. And there is a naughty version, where you are a pervy cloud that is trying to blow up a girl's skirt.

I think these games are a good idea for several reasons, the first being that some guys are terrible at aiming, or just don't care. The monitors display ads when not in game mode. This is a painless way to make advertising money. And it's proven to increase drink sales at bars! But think of how it could change the whole bar experience.

And it's not fair that they don't have this for girls. If they did, what would those games be like? Well, first of all it would be more about pressure and quantity than aim. And the game would need to have feminine appeal to please the majority. These games for kids would definitely help with potty training! but don't let them get TOO spoiled, or they won't go without it! And I know why they wouldn't have one that tests your alcohol level. That would be way too practical for a fun night of drinking.

 

http://www.youtube.com/NMAtv#p/u/6/UxOJLE_vfvo

ALSO SEE;

http://todaysdailypoop.blogspot.com/2011/11/normal-0-microsoftinternetexplorer4_8854.html

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Cuba Launches Copycat Facebook Site, 'Red Social', Despite Internet Restrictions 

 

It certainly looks and sounds like Facebook. Even its name, "RedSocial," the Social Network, would make Mark Zuckerberg's lawyers squirm.

Cuba, a nation where just 2 percent of the population has an internet connection, has quietly launched a Facebook wannabe, a "virtual meeting place for Cuban universities," according to a screenshot of site on the Cuban blog "La Chiringa de Cuba." The site even contains the word "Facebook" in its domain: facebook.ismm.edu.cu.

In Cuba, internet usage is largely limited to academics, students and state workers. The cost of internet access at tourist hotels is prohibitive for ordinary Cubans who earn about $20 a month.

Univision called the new site the Cuban government's "latest attempt to squeeze the information flow in Cuba."

"The site mimics the look and feel of Facebook, replacing the ... famous depiction of all continents linked by its service with an illustration of the island, with Cubans only connecting with fellow Cubans," Univision reported.

In "Chiringa de Cuba," Carlos Alberto Perez Benitez wrote that he was quite moved by Communist Cuba's version of Zuckerberg's brainchild. His blog was republished on the state-run CubaDebate website.

"It appears to be an idea of the Ministry of Education, but what is clear is that a light bulb has gone off for someone who didn't want to miss out on the social network revolution by creating an almost perfect copy of Facebook, only that this one is very Cuban and accessible via the national intranet," he wrote in Spanish.

Perez Benitez added: "If this works or not remains to be seen."

Cuba, which tightly controls information on the grounds of its longstanding political feud with the United States, launched its answer to Wikipedia last year with an encyclopedic site called EcuRed in which posts are updated by users.

Many Cubans rely on normal mail, telephone and word-of-mouth, or as Cubans say, "la bola," for information. In fact, the state recently announced a restructuring of its antiquated postal service to boost efficiency, the Associated Press reported:

In Cuba, things like Internet usage, email access and financial infrastructure lag behind much of the developed world, and many rely on the postal service for everything from mail to money transfers. Letters to the editor in state-controlled media routinely complain about slow delivery, poor customer service and packages being opened en route, with their contents vanishing.

"This is excellent news. I use the postal service often and have lost count of how many letters have been stolen from me by Correos de Cuba. ... And don't even mention their handling of claims," said a comment left on the government website Cubadebate by a reader who identified himself as Raul.

"They say, 'Better the devil you know than the one you don't,'" it continued. "But in my case I'm dying to meet the new one because the one we have is up in flames."

The Cuban state, notorious for its secrecy, might have reason for concern about the reach of the internet.

A Spanish-language website CubaalDescubierto -- Cuba Uncovered -- has been posting inside information such as the home address of president Raul Castro's daughter and the home and cell phone numbers of two of the country's most powerful men, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and Ramiro Valdes, according to the Miami Herald:

The leak of such personal details, out of a communist-ruled country where secrecy has long been paramount, reflects the Castro government's growing inability to control the flow of information in the age of the Internet.

"Technology is going to destroy them," said one post on the website CubaalDescubierto — Cuba Uncovered — where the details are being posted by FUEGO, or "fire," a group that claims to be made up of Cubans in Cuba and on the outside.

The site already has published what it says are the home addresses, phone numbers and other personal information of more than 20 top Cubans since it started posting those kinds of details about six weeks ago.

Cuba has one of the world's lowest levels of computer ownership at 3.3 per 100 inhabitants, the same rate as Togo, according to Reporters Without Borders.

"With less than 2 percent of the population online, Cuba is one of the world's most backward countries as regards Internet usage. The worst off by far in Latin America and with a thirteenth of Costa Rica’s usage, it is down there with Uganda or Sri Lanka," the report said. "This is quite surprising in a country that boasts one of the highest levels of education in the world. The authorities blame this disastrous situation on the US trade embargo, which supposedly prevents them from getting the equipment they need for Internet development."

In 2007, Valdes, the minister of communications who once fought alongside the Castro brothers in the revolution that ousted the Batista dictatorship, spoke of the rapidly advancing tide of new technology, including the internet.

"The wild colt of the new technologies [could] and [should] be tamed and infocommunications put at the service of peace and development," Valdes said.

But he added: "The Internet is not only allowing sectors silenced by the big media to express themselves, but also spreads important messages in favor of crucial issues for humanity such as peace, protection of the planet and justice, to name only three."

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Pirate leader says Twitter bitching divisive

 

The leader of Germany’s latest political sensation, the Pirate party, has told members to stop airing their differences on Twitter, saying public arguments are divisive.

Sebastian Nerz, the Pirates’ national chairman, criticized his party for its habit of bickering openly on the Internet, pleading with members to develop a new style of doing politics and to stop arguing over the social media service Twitter.

“Insults in 140 characters are not transparency. You can’t resolve a dispute over Twitter or Facebook, you only escalate them,” Nerz said.

“The first successes are also the time of the first mistakes – and these mistakes could split the party,” he said.

He was addressing the Pirates' first party conference since their unexpectedly strong performance in the Berlin state election in September.

On Saturday 1,250 members gathered in the city of Offenbach for the conference, as the party faced the challenge of building on their success in the capital, in which it won an unprecedented 8.9 percent of the vote.

“We have left behind an eventful and tough period, and we face an even more difficult one,” Nerz told the assembled pirates at the opening of the conference.

Christoph Lauer, one of the 14 Pirates elected to the Berlin state parliament in September, said he didn’t see any danger of divisions. “The fact that 1,200 people have come together here alone shows that we have an active and lively discussion culture,” he told the DPA news agency.

In his speech Nerz also criticized the German government, accusing it of pushing a process of de-democratization in its handling of the euro crisis.

When the Pirates first formed a party in 2006, their focus was on Internet issues and digital rights. They have since widened their program to include a variety of issues, including citizen rights and more transparency in politics. However, the party has been accused of not having policies on many issues, including foreign policy and the economy.

Over the course of the two-day gathering, members are expected to expand the party program to include more economic and social policies. One of the more controversial issues is the proposal to introduce a basic minimum income for all citizens.

The party has seen its membership soar since the Berlin elections on September 18 to almost 19,000. Every member is entitled to attend the conference as the party rejects the idea of delegates.

Opinion polls indicate that the Pirate Party currently attracts around 7 percent support across Germany, which would be enough to allow it to enter the federal parliament should this popularity be reflected in votes at the 2013 general election.

 

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