Aren't You Glad Facebook Doesn't Make Software for Nukes? You Should be!

Facebook Psychology Study Scandal: BS Science to Prop BS Technology

I've got better things to do than write about Facebook's questionable practices (or Facebook in general, or any other social networking site for that matter). So, this is going to be a short rant.

The Weakest Link

The other day, I heard this piece about social engineering How One Hack Got to Engineers with Security Clearances by Queena Kim on Marketplace.

There are no eye-opening revelations there, but it is quite interesting in that it shows how human weaknesses (or, rather, the weakness of being human) may be exploited on social networks (including the so-called professional social networks).

Ungraceful Degradation

Today, I was messing with the ubiquitous "Like", "+1", "InShare", and "Tweet" buttons. The "Tweet" button is the only one that degrades gracefully to a hyperlink if JavaScript is disabled. The others just disappear.

I wonder if Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn have even tested their buttons under those conditions. Or, maybe, they are "crappy by design". Either way, Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn got a "minus one" from me today.

Facebook Photo Sharing is BAD

It is up to you to decide how bad this is for you, but to me it looks like a typical case of BAD (Broken As Designed):