Duplicate accounts, attempts to login to my FB. WTF?

After my discovery of 18 duplicate dummy accounts of in Facebook last month, I now get emails about attempts to login to my account.

First of all, I never knew that there are many Perry Hugos in the world. God really knows what He's doing.

Some of these Perry Hugos have Facebook accounts. A number appear to be legitimate. There are European Perry Hugos (French, Italians), some are Latinos (Puerto Rico, etc). They really use FB as a social media platform. They post status updates and photos. These are also the good-looking Perry Hugos. 

But there are dummy accounts. These accounts have email addresses with numerical suffixes, almost a giveaway that they are fakes. These accounts are ashamed of their faces, they do not have profile pictures.

So, just like the many others who discovered about their dummy accounts, I reported them to Facebook.

At around the same time, I received emails that there are attempts to login to my FB. It's good that FB confirms with me new attempts to login from unusual sources. 

Who wants to hack into my account? Maybe it's time to forget about FB.

White hair chronicles LXVI - Taga UP Diliman ka kung...

More than a week after the UPCAT brought down a flood of memories, the reminiscences continue to pour. thanks to the Facebook page Taga UP Diliman ka kung... that has gone viral. Less than a week old, its members has doubled to over 17k over the weekend.

Nostalgic former UP students posted their memories of their Diliman days on topics ranging from their student numbers to their favorite professors. The hottest topic continues to be the one started by Bibeth Orteza. Her post 'E paano namang nabububuko kung matanda ka nang taga-UP Diliman?' elicited close to 2k comments so far.

A very funny post, to UP students at least, is about the acronyms of other schools. To my friends from other schools, please don't take this against UP people. After all, you may say UP stands for Useless People.

Anyway, the newest favorite FB page of UP Diliman people jokes that the acronyms stand for:

ADMU - Ang Daming Mali sa UPCAT;  
DLSU – Di Lumusot Sa UPCAT; 
UST – UP Sana Tayo; 
FEU – Failed Exam sa UP; 
MAPUA – Meron Akong Panaginip: UP Ako; 
PUP – Pekeng UP; 
CEU – Cannot Enter UP; 
St. PAUL – Sana Talaga Pumasa Ako sa UPCAT, Lord; 
    and my favorite, 
UE - UP ng mga ngongo.

White hair chronicles XXXVII - Kenkoy

The Facebook campaign to change one's profile picture to a cartoon character from his childhood caught on among many of my FB pals. The campaign says it is an invasion of memories and aims to stop violence against children. Though I still don't know how that helps, I changed my profile picture to Kenkoy.

I remember Kenkoy from Liwayway magazine back in my grade shool days. Today not many knows who he is. Perhaps even some remember Kenkoy as the character in Mike Hanopol's Mr. Kenkoy. But Kenkoy came way before that. In Pinoy idiom kenkoy connotes a funny man.

Turning to the trusty web for the roots of Kenkoy, we stumble to this blog. The blog says Kenkoy "was a debonnair, bombastic, irreverent, hilarious, and best-loved ... "' Kenkoy's outfit kept up with the times but his trademark hairstyle, slicked back and reflecting a four-paneled window, remained. I think Kenkoy best personifies Juan dela Cruz.

Facebook and Twitter in the PNoy government

With his presidential campaign successfully fueled by social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, PNoy will now try to tap those tools in his good governance campaigns. The first government unit to try to use them was the Supreme Court. It was also the first to deactivate its use. The Supreme Court is not giving up though on Twitter. It says it's still tweaking its account.

The Department of Finance today announced it will soon launch its own social media accounts. The department hopes to receive from the public some leads in its anti-tax evasion and smuggling campaigns.

These departments are definitely not the first to use social networking media to reach out to the public. It has been tried before but the rigid bureaucracy nipped it in the bud. Mid level bureaucrats are unable to explain to their superiors the utility of the social media in disseminating information although many of them use them personally. It is only now in PNoy's time, with new blood being infused in the top, that social media gets a second look. With the mid level bureaucrats' Malabanan mentality, expect many to suddenly like those tools now and suggest their use to management.

Didn't they know resistance is futile?

Aling Banang meets Facebook

I blogged about Aling Banang (the eatery) last year because its specialties remain in taste buds of longtime San Juan residents. There is also a healthy dose of Aling Banang references in the world wide web as many bloggers likewise post entries about their Aling Banang experience. The Aling Banang branch in N. Domingo is even used as a landmark by Google maps.

Now Aling Banang has a Facebook fan page. As of tonight, there are 1,400+ fans. May the tribe increase.

White hair chronicles XX - death and reunion

This past weekend I met old friends from two different chapters in my life. The two vastly different reasons for the occasions are becoming recurring themes for my white hair chronicles. They always remind me of my graying hair.

An office mate from my first job lost her year long battle with cancer. She was a comadre, a very close friend, a confidante. She was a vibrant, colorful personality, definitely a character that you will never forget. When we learned about her diagnosed condition last year, friends and colleagues immediately offered prayers for her quick and full recovery. For a good part of the year, the prayers seemed to work. She regained her strength, her hair and her zest for life. But cancer is such a traitorous disease. It came back to attack her other organs. In the end, her illness may have claimed her mortal body but we, her friends who had a sort of reunion at her funeral wake, know her faith and spirit are unbowed.

Still on reunions - Facebook has brought together my elementary school classmates. A classmate who had lived in Texas for more than half of her life flew into town. She isn't the shy, innocent, prepubescent girl that we knew anymore. She metamorphosed into a sophisticated, articulate, tennis playing mom who can fix flood soaked homes DIY style. Another classmate, who we remember to be another shy girl, has a rather winsome smile and intriguingly fairer complexion in her profile photo. Facebook updates, however, can never be enough. We had to meet in person. And so we did. And we're glad we did.

Thirty plus years may add white hairs and 60 pounds (kilos to some). It may ravage our bodies. But we, my comadre and my batchmates, no matter what, will always stay forever young.

Cerge Remonde's last Facebook entry

Now this comes as a shock. Cerge Remonde, a friend of a friend, an ever loyal supporter to his boss despite the public's collective hatred against her, suddenly died today of a suspected heart attack. What makes his death eerie is his last post, actually a prayer, on Facebook.

Unfriended

Early last year they said that the 35-54 age group is the fastest growing age group in Facebook. That has since been replaced by an older group, the 55+, but my age group still remains 2nd fastest. It's no surprise then that I manage to see many of my long lost friends and relatives in social networking sites. And as we continue to use technology to try to reconnect bonds, we conjure up new words to describe the experience.

Wow! This could really be a warning!?@#$%^&*()

I woke up at the usual time, started to cook breakfast for the kids, opened the PC and tried to eke out a blog post about the Hayden Kho sex video scandal. It is not earth-shaking no matter how Hayden tries. But a childhood friend thinks the issue had died down. Then I suddenly noticed that quite a few readers are reading the earthquake prediction post made last month (June 24). Aha, I thought, July 18 nears. And I realized that Twitterfeed re-fed the post to Twitter and then Facebook picked up the tweet, while I was sleeping. Wow, what, why, and how! This could be something big indeed.

Google yourself

Do you google yourself? I do. This practice may seem narcissistic, though I just want to know what pops up when others google me. Sometime ago, when I google my name, some events/seminars that I have been part of show up. But two years ago my name wrongly appeared in a news item about raps filed against some NGO. And ever since I realized some elementary school classmates search for me in their attempts to reconnect with former batchmates, I wanted 'better' Google results for me.

A Google study says that people search for themselves because of their curiousity about what other people see when they search for their name.  But the problem is we don't have any control over the search results.
To give people a bit more control over search results, Google introduced a feature it calls a "Google profile," which users can create. Once users create a Google profile, their name, job and location (photo is optional) appears in a box on the first page of the search results for their name. Next to the thumbnail info, there's a link to a full Google profile page that resembles a Facebook page.

Google maybe jealous of the inroads made by Facebook. It fears it will suffer the same decline experience by e-Bay because of Facebook. By giving users a some control over the results that appear on a search for their name, Google hopes to take on Facebook and MySpace.

The Google profile lets you set up a personalized page on which you can include links to your blog, photos, videos, and personal website. You can include a brief bio, list your current interests, places you've lived and schools you've attended. There's also a space where you can list your "superpower", a curious attempt to be cute.

Unlike Facebook there is no feature that lets you "friend" another user. There is a "Send a message" where others with a Gmail account can send you e-mail without knowing your e-mail address. It's tight integration with Google maps enables your profile to locate you on a map, approximately.

Google says the more information you add to your profile, the higher your page is likely to be ranked on a Google search for your name and associated keywords, such as the name of your hometown, your job title or where you work or go to school. So I think my elementary school mates can find me easier on Google now and the I hope the results about the syndicated estafa raps filed against a client will be deep down in the results pages.

There may be a downside to this, however. The more richly detailed your Google profile is, the more Google knows about you. Already, Google has my photos, email, videos, blog, etc. What happens when Google suddenly goes down? It is possible, could be a problem when that happens. But I'll ponder about that later. So go and create your own profile. Meanwhile my Google profile is here.

Facebook simplifies relationships

My wife is new on Facebook. When she accepted my invite to FB, she immediately became an FB friend. But FB made an entry on my wall that "Perry and Josephine Hugo are now friends". Wtf? She's my wife. Before some flipped up friend thinks otherwise, I clicked on the Info tab->Edit Information->Relationship Status dropdown combobox, and chose married. I typed my wife's name on the box. Hmm, good, it filters my friends' names based on the characters I type. So I passed on Joel, then a Josephine (not her), then to Josephine Hugo. But before it accepts my wife's name, it says "We will notify Josephine Hugo, who will have to confirm that you are in a relationship."

Somehow I find this absurd so I decided to cancel the status update. But FB already has already posted on my wall that my "Perry went from being 'single' to 'married'". I checked that my married status, while still awaiting 'confirmation' from my wife, has stuck despite my cancel of the update. I, then, edited my personal info again. I 'canceled' my relationship with my wife. FB then posted another update on my wall - "Perry went from being 'married' to 'single'.". Hahaha. I just deleted the misleading wall updates.

I have friends who are in complicated relationships. They can benefit from such facility in real life. If FB can do that - change relationship status in a flash - then it is definitely the all-time best application. Imagine the possibilities.

Use Facebook, Get low grades?

There's a new reason to stay away from Facebook, if a new study from Ohio PhD candidates is to be believed. According to the study, college students who use the social network have significantly lower grade-point averages  than those who do not. The study surveyed undergraduate and graduate students and found that GPAs of Facebook users typically ranged a full grade point lower than those of nonusers. But the study also says that most of Facebook members did not believe there was any link between their GPA and their networking habits.

The authors clarify that the study does not suggest that Facebook directly causes lower grades, merely that there's some relationship between the two factors. "Maybe [Facebook users] are just prone to distraction. Maybe they are just procrastinators," said one of the authors.

Hmm, does the study indicate that I, and my 90 friends, are less intelligent? Or if not, are we procrastinators? Or are we easily distracted?

Other earlier studies have warned that social networks were "infantilizing the brain into the state of small children" by shortening the attention span and providing constant instant gratification. A new book, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, warns of desensitizing effects of social networks and other modern technology to reading real-life facial expressions and understanding the emotional context of subtle gestures.

The study may have its flaws and there are definitely other distractions aside from the social network sites. Facebook tries to defend itself by pointing out a study released earlier this month showing that personal Internet use at work can help focus workers' concentration and increase productivity. Facebook also said that "it's in the hands of students, in consultation with their parents, to define priorities and decide how to spend their time." That is equally true with the workforce and management. Facebook is saying don't blame us, blame the users.

People do spend a lot of time logged onto Facebook. A Nielsen report earlier revealed that social networks are the fastest rising segment of the Internet. Educators are iked with students who post messages more than listen to lectures. Management is equally up in arms. Offices have banned Facebook, etal., on their corporate computer networks. But there's no stopping this surge.

I found a lot of former classmates through the social networks, particularly Facebook. We are now happily reminiscing, catching up, and once again sharing heartaches, pleasures, ideas. Facebook did its function famously, it connected me with my past friends. It is the educators' and management's turn to find ways to do their jobs amidst these technological innovations.