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

OkCupid, This Caviar Has Been Eaten Before

Many, many years ago, when I worked as a tour guide, somebody told me a joke that goes kind of like this:

A Western tourist is on a tour of the Soviet Union. At the hotel restaurant, he asks for ikra (Russian for "caviar"; pronounced eek-rAh). 

"Excellent choice, sir," says the waiter and leaves the guest to salivate alone in anticipation of something like... this:

Soon, the waiter comes back and brings... this:

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).

Thank God, These Guys Are Not Surgeons

I don't spend much time on social networking sites, including LinkedIn, but, whenever I visit them, within the first couple of minutes, I always stumble on some bugs. Here is one I found today on LinkedIn (in order to actually see what's going on, watch the video in HD and full screen; it's a raw screen recording):


If you are familiar with how LinkedIn works, the video should be self-explanatory. If it isn't, continue reading.

LinkedIn "Experts"

About twice a month, I look at the "Answers" section on LinkedIn. If I come across a question I think I am qualified to answer and if I have time, I answer it. Over the past 15 months or so, I have answered 18 questions, of which four were selected "best" and two more - "good".

Today, I noticed that LinkedIn actually lists five most prolific "answerers" of the week (it's called "This Week’s Top Experts"). Ready for this? The #1 expert this week answered 560 questions! In one week! The second best - 513! And he appears to have a full-time job!

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):