On the matter of the new Facebook News/Live feed static (A rational approach?)

I've been seeing a lot of static, chatter if you will, on the recent Facebook News/Live feed change. Following are my thoughts on the matter.

This change simply wasn't necessary. The way it took form has caused an out-roar. But why? Is it because the ideas are fundamentally bad? Not necessarily, but the implementation was definitively poorly conceived; and the mistakes are as such.

Firstly, from a business perspective, DO NOT unilaterally replace a feature that works and people appear to be happy wit with a new set of features. This is folly in its greatest. Second, assuming you've already made the first mistake on the road to virtual riots, at least provide a way to configure the default setting of which shows up, News or Live. If there is a way its configuration is clearly currently too convoluted for the average web savvy user. Third, don't get rid of the old style or make it too difficult to get back to as the default.

From a UI and design perspective the greatest mistakes were not adding these as alternative views to the existing News feed, using the name News for the "New News" feed instead of something more indicative of the intent. Highlights perhaps? Consider the top bar of the 'News' view as:

[::] News Feed View Highlights Feed View Live Feed [] Make this your default view

(It's a mock up, you get the point right?)

Public outrage problem solved! Seriously, ta-da! See how easy that was? By making this change as a feature addition everyone could be happy and try out the new views without feeling like their existing functionality had been violated!

Most importantly when hundreds of thousands of users (those people that make you relevant) cry foul in a matter of days listen!

As you may have guessed, I'm not a personal fan of the new 'improvement.' What do you think of my assertion that the mistake is taking away a feature vs. my proposed approach of making them a set of configurable alternative options?

Personally I'd really have preferred to see @names in comments and replies more than a big change to the News feed!

-db (software engineer/architect, web designer, occasional social media guy, blah blah blah)

Facebook app woes

Seriously, do these guys test before they push fundamental API changes live!?! When the simplest of app tosses off because of a change in the API it's time to re-think pushing the change. FB uses the concept of ref handles to reduce the number of transactions when pushing universal/static content to all the users. Good idea guys, no really! But if that's a performance feature, breaking the method that set the handle is *really* bad! No, *REALLY!* Come on guys, just a little unit testing against current apps would be nice.

ticked off

-db

5 Iterformunny what?

I find my self scrolling through a thread on Slashdot, a dismal past-time I know. I remember when Slashdot was full of pertinent information. Well thought out articles. Stuff that matters. Not so anymore. All things are 5 something. No! They are not! I came across (one of too many) a comment that had been modded to 5 Informative. What is this brilliant comment you ask?

"It's not a devil, it's a daemon."

This kind of thing happens when dumb people mod comments by smart people. Comments that are jokes for smart people. Was it funny? Sure. Was it a 5? No, absolutely not, a 2 maybe. Any other gems? Oh yes, a good old fashioned 5 Funny.

"Butterflies!!!"

Okay I admit that there is some context missing, but I don't care how hard you try 'Butterflies!!!' does not warrant a 5 anything.

"How about multiple desktops?! Native...that don't suck!"

Insightful? Maybe. Interesting? Not really. Funny? Sort of. Informative? No. Troll? Probably (but that covers most of Slashdot's current readers). 4? Umm.... no! I'm done ranting for now, besides there are so many 4 and 5 comments (at the time I started this there was nothing less than a 4) I absolutely must read!

*pfft!* 5 that!

> $250,000!!!!

Just a quick note because I got an update from the chair of Relay for Life. The final counts haven't been completed but the current tally places the event at over $250,000 with David's Dragons at (presently) $8167.11!!!!! That's simply amazing, over 250,000 chances to fight back!

Good show all!!

Be sure to come back next year!

Campbell Cancer Relay for Life

Cheers all,

I've been forwarding this around to people at work, friends, social networking Interweb and now my tiny alcove of the Blogosphere.

Here's the gist of it, The Campbell Cancer Relay for Life could use some help on the 11-13th of July 2008. Anything, anything at all, would be graciously and humbly appreciated, a donation if you can, a bit of time to help the relay (hand out water, help with sign up, etc), even a shout-out of support would be great! If you can help that's great please contact myself (morgan.lake@gmail.com) or George (georgebc@gmail.com) directly. If not, that's fine too. We're all busy, it's short notice and even the most noble people can't champion every cause that comes their way. We get it. Please, do me/us a favor though. You know people, they know people and they know people, please pass this message along to one friend, relative, co-worker who might be able to help.

If you read the quoted message below (contact information and other details to be found here) you'll see that the team you'd be supporting was started by Joey when (a little math tells us) he was seven after his family was tragically affected.

Subject: Campbell Cancer relay for Life volunteer and donation info
To: morgan.lake@gmail.com

We are in need of volunteers as well as donations for this years Campbell relay for life. If you have time or your company give you time off work to volunteer we could use your help.

The event is 24 hr relay on the Campbell track on the 12th and 13th of July starting at 10am. We also need help on Friday the 11th of July to set up starting form about 1pm. If you can help or have questions e-mail me at georgebc@gmail.com. If you would just like to donate ($5 is fine) send it here http://main.acsevents.org/goto/joey_carney

For more information about the relay or to form a team go to campbellrelay.org

The following is from my 9 year old god son and his mom.
----------------------

Fwd: Letter from Joey
----
Hi,

Would you please help me fight cancer? I am walking in this year's Relay For Life on a team for my dad called David's Dragons. We have someone on the track for 24 hours and raise money to fight cancer. Would you please help sponsor me?
Thank you.

Joey
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/joey_carney
----------------------
Hi all. This is Kim Carney helping Joey out. Each year we walk in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life of Campbell and raise money for cancer research and education. Joey is the co-captain of our team. It is at his insistence that we started a team in the first place.

We were driving in the car a few months after David passed away and saw the ACS Relay for Life at our local Community Center. Joey asked me what it was and I told him, those were people raising money to fight cancer. He was quiet for about a block and then said. "We should do that Mom. We should do that." I told him it was too late to do it this year but maybe next year. I figured he would forget all about it.

The holidays came and went and mid January Joey asked me when we were starting our team for the Relay. I was so shocked. We created our team David's Dragon that week.

In the past two years we have raised over 10K towards finding a cure. Relay is our chance to strike back at cancer. It has struck our family twice in three years. We've had enough. Please join us. Join our team. Create your own team. Come to our fund raisers. Sponsor Joey. Think good thoughts. Be healthy. Enjoy every minute you have.

Sincerely,
Kim Carney
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/davidsdragons

I'm doing this this year for:

• Joey because he's a hero.
• Kim because she's a fighter and a survivor.
• My uncle Matthew and Grandmother because I miss them and wish I'd gotten the opportunity to really know them.

Thanks so much all!

I can haz...

... a dead LOLCat? Oh, yes please! Yes I may you say? Fabulous! And there's not a damn thing Ceiling Cat can do about it!! I hate these little bastards. If they could constrain themselves to 'tu Interweb' I'd be okay with it but I have friends (who may have to become acquaintances if this keeps up) that use 'I can haz' as a spoken-word construct. Saying this makes me cross, or that it rubs me the wrong way is a huge understatement. I have a love of the English language (something that I allow myself to be a little lax with while blogging, though I often don't complete a post because I'm 'editing'), doubtless instilled by my mother and father, and casually brutalizing it torques me off.

My carpool is reminding me that I happen to be pressed for time but that's not going to stop me from ordering one of these magnificent shirts. While I'm at it, I'll likely order a Gamercize as well, for my lazy ass while I'm at work. 

And now off to Starbucks and then home with my carpool.

Cheers, you can haz gramr back? I know you can. And you may, I'll allow (even encourage) it.

iPhone Cry-Babies

I just read an article on the BBC regarding the iPhone announcements. As I skimmed over the comments I was dismayed at how utterly whiney these users are! Here are my "favorite" cry-babies:

This is absolutely disgusting, I had to dish out about $399 for the iPhone 1.0. I got a sub-par phone which incidentally I had to replace two times because of quality control issues at Apple. Now they release a 3G version that is substantially cheaper, I am more anti-Apple than ever. 

and

Two weeks ago I paid $299 for an iPhone and now the 3G will be available for $100 less. There is something wrong with this picture, Apple!

Here's what I have to say to this general attitude: If you want to be a Technology Whore and turn all the tricks don't be too upset when your pimp slaps you around a bit!

When the iPhone first came out, and even up until very recently, I wanted one so badly I could almost taste it. I decided to hold off because:

1. The price point was high, though I'd have payed it if not for
2. I've been happy with Verizon and my friends that made the leap are unhappy with ATT
3. I knew damn well that Apple would release a v2.0 iPhone that was notably improved

So folks, if you didn't see this coming you're a tool and deserve to be burned a bit. Suck it up, take it, and STFU you whiney (eh hems).

After my Google I/O experience I'm currently inclined to wait it out for an Android phone, but the new price point and 3G has got my taste buds tingling again. A little market review time, some feed back from trusted sources (they'll replace their v1.0 with v2.0 iPhones, guaranteed) and a look at the upcoming phones (next couple months?) that I think will be the compelling competitors for the iPhone will likely tell the tale.

Kudos to Apple, great improvements! If it weren't for the ATT lockdown I'd be there already!

Everyone else saw this kind of update coming right? Everyone that's not a tool that is.

Stupidly... I ate lunch

Instead of starving myself I decided I should eat the reasonably tasty catered lunch. Fajitas. Yum. Unfortunately all the sessions that I was interested in are now being policed by little event coordinator (eh hem) personnel, because the rooms are beyond capacity. Chairs are full, walls are packed, floor is covered. So sad, no large scale apps or anatomy of an Android app for me. Next up, hopefully will be getting started with Google Apps. It will mean cutting things short, no spell checking, no grammar checking, no editing at all. Which appears to be the norm so far today. I hate that! My current hope is just that I get a little bit more power in the sad event that 1) They don't have power in the code session (if I make it), which IMO would be silly. 2) I don't get there in time and have to go somewhere else which almost certainly (thus far) will not have power.

Off to the coding session, Getting Started With Google App Engine. Here's hoping!

Android session

I just got out of the Introduction to Android session in room three. A fabulous presentation about the state and goals of Android as a platform. Discussion included licencing, goals, features and the constant allusion to actual handsets. When? When? When? According to the Open Handset Alliance they will start to be available in the second half of this year. Vague. :-( The first Android developer challenge with a 5M$ purse has wrapped itself up with over 1700 submisions and the second will start sometime after the ephirieal release of real hardware.

Meanwhile we can use the Android emulator which they assure us provides identical functionality as a device will. I'm a little sceptical, having developed in virtual devices (Palm) in the past with mixed results, but oh so hopeful. In stream of consiousness, and between sessions, I don't really feel I can do justice to the presentation but it reenfources my need to refresh my Java programming. And it seems move on from my beloved Vim to Eclipse which, given that all Google toolkits have Eclipse plugins, seems to be the favored environment at Google, and in particular the Android team.

Regardless, my battery is back to 40% (which I'm sure to grind through bits of in the next session) and 'Leveraging Web 2.0 Design Patterns For Enhanced Accessibility' has already started, so I'm off. I'm sure I'll be standing/sitting on the floor again. Ah well such is life, but my back still doesn't have to like life.

Wrapping up (sort of)

As the keynote continues people are starting to file out and, presumably, they are getting off the network which has been suffering terribly from the number of people connected. But good stuff continues. Currently the iLike.com people are talking about OpenSocial enabling them to easily integrate into Orkut, MySpace, hi5, et al.

OpenSocial is adding (in the near future) some RESTful features.

FYI, the short blog posts are only for larger(ish) thoughts than can really be expressed on the twitter.

My poor battery

The signal strength of the open WAP is a little on the weak side so I'm having to run in performance mode to get the range. Down side? I'm killing my battery. There are power strips strewn about in the "lobby" and I hope that the rooms that aren't the keynote have power too or I'll be offline in a very short period of time. Count down currently at: 1 hour 6 min.

Keynote, some live thoughts

There are hardly words to describe how packed the keynote is and how much good stuff is being talked about in such a short time. I'm sitting on the floor leaning over to try to get a view of the screen right now and wow! Gears, App Engine, GWT, Android and more!! They have opened up the App Engine so that anyone can use it and are announcing that the new GWT (release candidate 1.5) is available today. With the new GWT is Java 5 support and performance updates.

Vic is currently talking about the OpenSocial initiative and Google's participation. "You kind of have to be blind to have missed the explosion" of social networking apps.

.....

I simply can't keep up...

Google I/O

I arrived at ~8:15 and at 9:20 I was finally registered (note, I was a pre-reg and only had to pick up my badge.) The view (there'd be a picture but I forgot both my MSPro => MS converter and mini-usb cable) is/was insane! Standing room only on the first floor and serpentine lines to stand in. I discovered also the failing of learning Dvorak, it's impractical to 'hunt-and-peck', while standing in line, on a keyboard that hasn't had the key-caps switched (or there would have been an earlier attempt at a post).

The objective now? Grab a snack and look at the schedule again to figure out where to go first, which may be dictated by where there is still space. I say snack because 'breakfast provided' is more than a little overstatement. 'Continental breakfast' provided is far more accurate, and I'm happy for it. I'll be attempting to post occationally, stay tunned!

OMG! WTF?! Twitter fell down! bbq?

What will tu interweb do, its quintessential web 2.0 micro blogging system is DOA? Trundle on I suspect. Are we surprised though? No. Not really, Twitter does this. Some people out there are going through withdraws right now. They can't talk, can't communicate! OMG, they are deaf and mute all because a web site is down! How sad.

Twitter has it's problems to be sure, mostly that it goes down all to often IMO (and when it does the badge breaks things *eh hem*). On the other hand it's fun, and that makes it cool. Amazingly millions of users continue to use Twitter despite its' annoying habit of choking on itself. Or is it? Twitter personifies the "Social Web", facilitating 'real-time' communication with hundreds of people at a time. People who care!!! .... That you are currently taking a shower and singing badly??

Regardless there were millions of users when I started this that all let out a resounding scream because their "friends" couldn't hear them. They Tweeted, then realized, "OMG!!! I'm disconnected!!!" When Twitter comes back, could be already, I'm sure the same group will let out a great resounding sigh of relief. They can continue their lives. Their friends will here them, know that they are okay, and care! Me? I'm getting ready for a meeting...

sigh...