Facebook – Page 4 – Geoff Fox: My Permanent Record

A Little Poker Talk

I am playing to win against big league pitching though the amount won or lost is really inconsequential. I’m not betting my 401-K here.

If you read my tweets on Twitter or follow me on Facebook you’ve seen a bunch of quick messages about playing poker. It is an understatement to say I enjoy the game.

I’m OK at it. Not bad. Not great. There are plenty who play better than I do.

Playing poker in Las Vegas has always been enjoyable because the best players are here&#185. I am playing to win against big league pitching.

The amount won or lost is really unimportant. I’m not betting my 401-K here. This is not a life changing experience. I like the action and play at stakes that are interesting without being dangerous.

My goal for this trip was to play ‘tight aggressive.’ That means I only play quality hands and play them for what they are. I do very little sneaking around–very little bluffing. If I’ve got a hand I raise it. If I don’t or the value of the hand I’m holding diminishes I fold.

These are cards, not children. I have no mortal bond to support them!

My goal is to prevent folks with bad cards from seeing a cheap flop (poker talk–don’t worry) and catching cards to beat me. That’s where the aggression comes in. Good hands are raised aggressively.

And like I said, if my cards have been counterfeited (other cards showing to make mine worth less) I’m outta there.

I have played six cash game sessions on this trip. So far I have come out ahead all six times.

There’s certainly some luck there, but I’m playing well. In poker playing well means playing disciplined. I am proud of keeping to my plan.

Staying disciplined is easier said than done. After all, any time you fold you’re sitting doing nothing, just watching. I must resist the temptation.

Though I’ve won six cash sessions I did bust out in a tournament my first day. I’ll be playing that same tourney in just a few minutes.

Tournament action is different than cash. You’re less able to sit and wait because the cost of just sitting (blinds) is continually rising. On top of that only the top 10% or so get paid. The vast majority playing tonight will lose.

My aim tonight is to play tough and survive.

&#185 – The best players are here, but Internet play on average is probably a little better than Vegas live play.

A Thanksgiving Travel Tip

This will be a flight totally staffed by people without enough seniority to get Thanksgiving off. Please don’t take your anger out on me!

As we kick off Googlepalooza ’09 I have a Thanksgiving travel tip. Travel on Thanksgiving! The main terminal at Bradley International is empty. The flight should begin boarding in less than a half hour. There will be plenty of open seats.

Today the TSA agents were so bored they were frisking each other! OK, I made that up. They still had little to do.

I’m on the floor right now, plugged in at deserted and unmarked Gate 5. We leave from Southwest’s Gate 6, across the hall.

The pilot and copilot just wheeled their bags down the jetway to the plane. The pilot’s in his late 40s, graying, built like a linebacker. The co-pilot is youngvand doesn’t have nearly enough seniority to be off on Thanksgiving.

I mentioned this before on Facebook, but it bears repeating. This will be a flight totally staffed by people without enough seniority to get Thanksgiving off. Please don’t take your anger out on me!

It’s a different vibe at the airport today. There are no business travelers. There’s no one around with that smug frequent flier attitude feigning indifference There are fewer chin held BlackBerrys.

Before we got here we dropped the pup off in Higganum with the couple who bred her. Roxie will be well taken care of and have a lot of new friends by the time her vacation is over.

Stef and Helaine were both worried about their own high emotions, which is why we all went, but everything was OK.

They asked if they could call and check on the dog… every day.

We are substantial travelers. Our suitcases are packed full. They were weighed at home to assure compliance with the 50 pound limit. They still got the striped “HEAVY” tag. The planeside crew will know the “Schleping Foxes” are taking to the skies.

Especially in the cold months flight times vary with the weather. At the moment this flight is forecast to arrive nearly an hour early. We’ll be up at 40,000 feet. Head winds must be very light.

It’s only 49&#176 in Las Vegas now. That will change quickly. The desert sees wild temperature swings. It will be sunny and in the upper 60&#176s upon our arrival.

I’ve got a movie to watch and plenty of tunes on the iPod portion of the iPhone. I’m also carrying a set of Bluetooth headphones. Mostly I’d like to sleep.

Given half the chance I’d fall asleep right now. With only three hours of rest last night I’m really tired.

Confessions From An iPhone App Slut

They do a lot, but I suspect they would do more if there wasn’t such a stringent approval process from Apple–the controlling psychotic girlfriend of computing.

After a few weeks with my new ~~toy~~ cellphone I am an iPhone app slut. There, I’ve said it. It’s out in the open now.

Apps are the little plug-in programs that extend the functionality of the iPhone. They do a lot, but I suspect they would do more if there wasn’t such a stringent approval process from Apple–the controlling psychotic girlfriend of computing.

Most paid apps cost $.99, though they do go higher. There are thousands of free apps too. In my role as an app slut I hardly ever pay. Of the dozens I’ve installed my total expenditure is still around $5.

Many of the apps take websites and customize their content for the phone’s smaller screen. We’ve got one (a very good one–no BS) at the TV station. The Times, Huffington and lots of other publishers have them too. I also have a few for weather data.

Oh–speaking of that the iPhone has no Flash or Java plug-in. That’s a major deal. There are a few weather applications I use daily which need Java&#185. I am suspicious this too has a lot to do with Apple’s control freak mentality.

Apple also prevents apps from running in the background. That means a GPS logger only logs when it’s the only thing running! Answer a call or look at an email and you have to restart the app. Maybe there’s a technical reason for this, but we’ve all come to expect multitasking and Verizon is heavily promoting it’s Droid’s ability to do that.

When the Google Map product just announced for Verizon’s Droid phone gets ported to the iPhone it will surely need to be downloaded as an app. This will happen. It probably won’t happen until the Droid has received the full benefit of its exclusivity and coolness.

I was playing with using the iPhone as a radio in the car, bringing in the NPR shows I like without the static I now get. My idea was flawed because NPR’s app is horrendously flawed (after using it a minute or two the buttons become extremely unresponsive) and Internet reception can sometimes be spotty.

Even if you lose the signal for just a second or two the NPR stations’ software sees this as a new connection and gives you a pre-recorded underwriting spiel before restarting the program. Sheesh!

On the other hand I’ve taken photos with the iPhone’s reasonably good camera (using an app called Tripod to steady the shot in low light) and had them posted on Facebook (using its app) seconds later. Very cool.

I downloaded the Joost app last night. It’s a video service claiming 46,000+ videos.

Don’t let the numbers fool you–that’s not a lot.

I watched a black and white Lone Ranger episode I’d watched as a kid. Even then I recognized very distinctive rock formations that amazingly showed up in every town the Ranger and Tonto visited. They were there last night! Now, with the Internet, I understand most of the episodes were shot in LA’s Griffith Park.

Joost suffers from what every video site suffers from–bad search. There’s just no good way to search video yet. That’s not an iPhone specific problem. Netflix and Hulu and, to a lesser extent, Youtube haven’t figured this one out.

The iPhone is a very good video player. It’s large enough, with a display dense enough, to make viewing a full show a reasonably enjoyable experience.

My secret friend from the San Fernando Valley said last night, “It’s the best toy I’ve ever had.” That’s a defensible position. This is a lot of fun and a lot of function.

I’m curious if Verizon/Motorola/Google’s entry into the market will force Apple to loosen up a little? I believe there’s a lot of potential being held under wraps, because even though I’m an app slut, Apple isn’t!

&#185 – Java is not javascript nor are they similar (One upper case, the other lowercase). The iPhone does javascript.

About My Friend Harold’s Infection

We changed his Facebook password which stopped the varmint in its tracks–but not before it had sent over a dozen invitations on Harold’s behalf.

My poor friend Harold got bitten by a virus this morning. What happened speaks volumes to the real threat facing PC owners.

Harold is a bright guy–a technical guy. His computer has virus protection.

The criminals (that’s what they are) who wanted to infect his computer took that into account. They weren’t thinking about Harold in particular, but computer users in general who have become much more wary.

They used social engineering to convince Harold to install the virus himself!

Harold’s confidence was gained when he received a Facebook message from a trusted friend. Look at this video, the friend’s email implored. Harold did.

He was brought to a legitimate looking page with a legitimate looking demand for him to update his Flash player. Clicking there brought in the executable file that took over his PC.

I can’t be sure what this virus wanted to do (probably zombify Harold’s machine to send spam or denial-of-service attacks), but I do know one of its dastardly deeds was procreation! It sent similar video ‘invitations’ to all Harold’s friends gaining entrée to the Facebook account it knew Harold had.

We changed his Facebook password which stopped the varmint in its tracks–but not before it had sent over a dozen invitations on Harold’s behalf.

Now Harold has an infected computer which needs cleansing. In the end the only real solution might be save the data and reload the operating system to its original purchase state.

This is nuts. Attacks like this cost individuals and businesses lots of money. The criminal’s cost is minimal.

We need law enforcement to stop this just as we stop bank robbery or muggings or any other crime.

Solving these sophisticated crimes is difficult. Even though it’s not as sexy as perp walking some thug it’s worth the effort. Computer crime has been given a pass for too long.

To My New Facebook Friends

You are all the shades in the rainbow, both sexes, married and single. You are widely scattered in age. You are more often heavy than light. Right back ‘atcha.

Earlier today I had around 350 friend requests pending on Facebook. That wasn’t good. Guilt was taking over my online life.

Tonight I friended the lot of them, trying to undo the damage. Some were waiting since early summer. I was definitely not worth the wait!

This is a subject that came up before when I ‘ignored’ a boatload of people. It seemed the only option for me at the time, but I didn’t like it.

I have a strategy so I don’t go nuts with over 700 on my list now. That’s a bit daunting. I suspect you’ll be a chatty bunch.

I’ve read your bios and checked your photos. You are all the shades in the rainbow, both sexes, married and single. You are widely scattered in age. You are more often heavy than light. Right back ‘atcha.

A word of warning. I hate those games and tests that float through Facebook. “Geoff knows which Supreme Court Justice he’s most like! Are you Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Samuel Alito? Maybe you’re the late Earl Warren. Play Sequestered Supremes.”

Don’t. Just don’t.

Don’t poke me either… whatever that means. I really don’t know. Anyway, my life has enough poking already.

After all the clicking I was surprised not to see any obviously “self-shot’ portraits. You know what I mean? These are shots taken at the end of an outstretched arm. It’s a shot that didn’t exist until the advent of digital photography!

Are there too many permanent connections now? Is it to easy to find or be found? Is Facebook a force for good or evil?

If you’re reading this and I blew you off on Facebook once upon a time, please try again with my apologies.

There Are Too Many Places To Receive Messages

Can’t we go back to messaging by email or at least messaging in one place?

In the beginning when there was online communications but little Internet connection each online computer service had its own email within its own little community. If you were on The Source and I was a CompuServe member (71310,71) we couldn’t email each other!

I know. That sounds ridiculous today. Over time the web was born, everyone got interconnected and things were better.

Most people who’ve been on the ‘net any length of time have more than one email address. I’m not quite sure why this is nearly universal–but it is. We all have our favorite or most used address. There are always others.

Through GMail I have been able to consolidate all my email accounts so they’re received in one place. Write me at geofffox.com or my work email or any number of URLs I own and I’ll see your message via Gmail.

This was a very good system and I was very happy. But now it’s all changing. Once again we’re heading to numerous discreet messaging systems that don’t see each other.

Every day I have to check for messages on Facebook and replies on Twitter. I also get text messages and BlackBerry Messenger messages on my phone. I even use AOL IM a little. None of these interface (or do so easily) with plain old email.

Too many places to check, It’s just not productive. Wasn’t the goal to connect?

J’Accuse–Some Of You Probably Know My Evil Stalker

The Internet isn’t anonymous. In order for data to be sent to a computer the server must know its IP address. So, when this person spewed on my website it was in my logs.

Someone doesn’t like me. OK–that’s an understatement. Of those who don’t like me someone is being pretty mean about it sending me a stream of vile emails and blog comments. It’s been going on for a while.

Not only have I been the target, so has a co-worker and some other people (more on them later).

I know who it is. It’s pretty obvious. I just don’t know why–what I ever did to this person to deserve his wrath?

I suspect some of you reading this know who it is too. You connect the dots.

This weekend he sent comments to my blog from a McDonalds on Mansfield Avenue in Norton, MA. That’s right by I-495. Today it was from a Barnes and Noble in Farmington, CT. That’s what you’d expect if someone in Maine was coming here for a visit or vacation.

Most of the time his stuff has come from the Bangor area of Maine.

How do I know? The Internet isn’t anonymous. In order for data to be sent to a computer the server must know its IP address. So, when this person spewed on my website it was in my logs.

Facebook is a little more problematic. Well, it was until I found out the originating IP address in Facebook mail is hashed within the message and it can be pulled out. With that little tidbit I found a mean and nasty email sent to a co-worker via Facebook came from a RoadRunner account serviced from Warren, ME, between Portland and Bangor.

Earlier web comments came from another Maine RoadRunner account and from a business account serviced by MidMaine.net

Our miscreant has a variety of pen names he uses, creating and discarding Gmail accounts at will. The most interesting to me are: Fishers4, Dick Fishamajig and JackHammer1968.

Fishers4 and Fishamajig would imply this is someone who knows something about fishing. The 1968 might be his birth year.

One of these pseudonyms appears on a bulletin board sending the same “good wishes” to a former KC-101, Country 92, disk jockey. Maybe our boy has a radio connection?

I know who this is. I have all the pieces except why. I’d rather not go to the police and lodge a case for harassment, but I’m getting to the point where I have no choice.

As I said in the beginning–some of you know this person. Maybe it’s time to put a hand across his shoulder and give him some wise advice. You’ve been caught. Stop.

Hurricane Bill–Wide Right!

The surf will be angry. The beaches will be empty of bathers.

Hurricane Bill is down to Category 1 at the moment. I can see that in the satellite shot. The eye has become ratty. Convection is missing from much of the western side. Most importantly, it looks like dry air is getting in toward the center.

LARGE SWELLS GENERATED BY BILL ARE STILL AFFECTING THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. THESE SWELLS WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD NORTHWARD INTO THE CANADIAN MARITIMES ON SUNDAY…CAUSING EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SURF AND LIFE-THREATENING RIP CURRENTS. – National Hurricane Center technical forecast discussion

Earlier tonight on Facebook Craig Allen posted some personal observations from Jones Beach on Long Island&#185 which was disappearing under the tidal surge.

Just got back from Jones. Not Jones Beach; Jones Ocean. THERE WAS NO BEACH! All the sand was COMPLETELY submerged under the ocean from West End to Field 6. The ocean continued under the boardwalk, splashing up from between the slats and flooded the g…olf course. Only the top 2 feet of the basketball hoops were visible. The bandshell was under 3 feet of water. Only the dunes prevented it from flooding the parkway. – Craig Allen, meteorologist

Without Long Island we’d be susceptible to all that Bill’s got. Of course that’s academic. Thanks for taking one for the team Long Island!

Offshore, NOAA’s buoys continue to see large swells even in areas without strong winds!

There will be plenty of video later today from Massachusetts. The surf will be angry. The beaches will be empty of bathers.

Close but no cigar for Bill. Connecticut gets a pass. He will be Canada’s problem now. We are happy to see him depart.

&#185 – Actually Jones Beach is south of Long Island on a barrier island called Jones Beach Island. This is one of those cases where what is true and what is commonly believed are at odds.

The New Twitter Plugin I Just Installed

It’s officially a digitally incestuous world!

I just stumbled upon this little plugin which will tweet all my blog postings to my Twitter account… which then dumps it into my Facebook account.

It’s officially a digitally incestuous world!

How Does Connection Change The Equation?

How will our society change if you never have to let go of old friends? Will there be sufficient room for new friends?

It is no longer possible to be disconnected.

OK–too strong.

The only way to be disconnected today is by choosing to be disconnected. That’s a huge change begun about twenty years ago, but only now picking up a head of steam. My cellphone (maybe yours too) is a multifaceted, facile, comms device.

My sister called me from the car this afternoon. The her daughter’s ultrasound has been seen. It’s going to be a boy when my niece Jessie gives birth. I knew about it a few minutes after she did in Milwaukee.

My friend Wendie is raving about her trip to South Africa, from South Africa.

it’s nighttime in cape town, which is an amazingly beautiful city…

okay, we don’t have a whole lot to go on, because we’ve only been

here 3 hours, but the grilled prawns are FANTASTIC.. so that’s good

enough for us.

She commented on the photos of Roxie at the dog park. Communications are two-way.

My daughter is in constant contact with her friends from college, though she’s graduated and now working&#185. Her contact is instantaneous and multiplatform: Facebook, text messages and BlackBerry Messenger.

She doesn’t think about cost (nor did my sister or Wendie half way around the world) because the cost of communicating is minimal and trending lower!

I have friends from high school and college I haven’t spoken to in 40 years (maybe they’re no longer really friends). How would my life have been different had I the opportunity to chat-it-up with them through the years?

Long distance phone calls were once expensive. Mail was slow. No longer.

How will our society change if you never have to let go of old friends? Will there be sufficient room for new friends? Are childhood friends really meant to be lifetime friends?

I’m not sure this is a good thing-though it might be. It’s all so foreign and yet it’s such a major game changer.

Actually, that’s my point. It’s a huge game changer though we have no idea what the implications will be except to say it will make a very big difference. How can it not?

&#185 – Stef is working as a production assistant on “Deal or No Deal,” which is taping its 2009 daytime season at Sonlyst Studios in Waterford. Helaine and I are very proud. Stef is very tired.

Alas, over time work only gets more tiring! She’ll see.

Facebook’s Security–Unacceptable

This would be like the fire department refusing to take your call because you only saw a house on fire–but it wasn’t your house!

I logged onto Facebook today to find two friends with hacked accounts. Each had sent an email to a long list of friends. The email contained a single URL. Of course the URL didn’t come from my friends and the purpose of sending it was nefarious. This has happened before… it has happened many times before.

There were telltale signs. The destination URL led to what looked like Facebook’s login page though it had a Russian URL. The text was obviously written by a non-native English speaker confused about when to use helps versus help. Not every phishing attempt is so easily spotted.

There will always be bad operators. However, I find Facebook’s response to this type of problem inadequate to the point of being irresponsible. If you as a user spend the time to get to the help page that covers this situation Facebook says:

“It is possible that malicious software was downloaded to your friend’s computer or that their login information was phished in an attempt to send spam from their profile. We would like to investigate this issue further, but unfortunately, we cannot release information regarding a user’s account to anyone but the account holder. Please tell your friend to visit the Facebook Help Center and contact us.”

This would be like the fire department refusing to take your call because you only saw a house on fire–but it wasn’t your house!

So, on this beautiful holiday afternoon when Facebook users are unlikely to be online the problem will fester. Other innocents won’t notice it’s a scam and give up their user info too. The problem will spread.

Facebook has an obligation to take a more active role. This is not some after school project, but a business now valued in the billions!

Twitter and Facebook

I am often followed and have no idea why! Is it OK to ask what they see in me… in 140 characters?

I am active on both Twitter and Facebook. Yesterday my friend Jon Wolfert added this note below a photo I’d posted:

Re: relentless Facebook and Twitter posters… I don’t understand how you’re supposed to live your own life if you spend all the time you have reading about what someone else is doing with theirs. Does anyone actually have time to read all this stuff every day? Do they do anything else?”

I think this is why I’ve tried to limit my Facebook friends to real friends. When you are Facebook friendly with 3,000 or 4,000 people (Yes–I work with someone who has 4,000 friends on Facebook!) how do you see anything but noise. My 300 is more than optimum. Facebook allows you to secretly silence some… and I have, though not yet enough.

I’ve about had it with the “Top-5” and other lists on Facebook. I’m with Jon on that.

The discourse on Twitter, though limited to 140 characters at a time, is much smarter than what I read on Facebook. Maybe it’s because the people I read on Twitter don’t have to approve of me! Seriously–I mean that.

Recently both services have seen the amount of spam or other miscreant content rise rapidly. This morning a Facebook friend ‘s account was hacked and everyone on her list got an email sending them to a site which asks you to download a Flash plug-in which is really a trojan!

With Twitter its emails from people following you who turn out to have nothing but a URL for a spammy product on their profile page.

Speakng of Twitter, I am often followed and have no idea why! Is it OK to ask what they see in me… in 140 characters?

Writing

If Markoff really is the Craigslist killer, said the technology blog AppScout, he may have been “fingered by his own Crackberry addiction

I wonder if I’m spreading my writing too thin. I post here and on Appscout and Gearlog. I tweet on Twitter and write on Facebook. Do I really have that much to say?

I try not to replicate material. It’s unavoidable sometimes.

I like when I turn a phrase–when the words become more powerful because of their choice and order. It doesn’t happen all the time. It never happens on a first draft. Everything is rewritten (though errors still get through).

If Markoff really is the Craigslist killer, said the technology blog AppScout, he may have been “fingered by his own Crackberry addiction.”

That’s from the website TheWeek. They’re quoting me. I like that.

No figures seen, but I’ll bet more people are reading than ever before because of the Internet. Certainly more people are reading me.

A Night With Farrell and Vered

Farrell is the person who gave me my first fulltime job on television We have been friends nearly 30 years.

It’s 11:52 PM. I just realized–nothing posted. Uh oh. I’ve prided myself on blogging every day, really, I just forgot! Missing today could have been forgiven. As I tweeted earlier (replicated on Facebook) “I assume if I drank this is what a hangover would feel like.”

My own gluttony was rejected by my body!

My friend Farrell and his wife Vered were in from Palm Springs to visit his mom. They invited me to join them for dinner at Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse.

Considering everything I’ve heard about revenues being down I was surprised to see the restaurant was plenty busy, but we went right in with our 7:30 reservation.

Farrell is the person who gave me my first fulltime job on television We have been friends nearly 30 years. In that intervening time he has lived all over the world. Vered is from Israel and very ‘international’ as well.

This was a huge meal! I had the Lobster Chowder (Applewood Smoked Bacon, Maine Lobster, Brandy Cream) followed by MJ’S Delmonico Steak with Balsamic-Ginger Jus and then split a dessert with Farrell–23 Layer Chocolate Cake.

Maybe I should stop eating for the rest of the week!

I was surprised on leaving the complex to be stopped while leaving the garage. Police were stopping cars, checking seat belts and alcohol. Saying “I don’t drink” always works in this situation. Having the officer then call you by your first name doesn’t hurt either.

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