Check out the first 10 members and how they knew Zuck >>
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*A source close to the matter tells us user IDs were somewhat
sequential but they were chunked up into per-school blocks up to 100,000
IDs. Harvard was the first chunk (0-99,999). My number is about
5,600,000, so its likely that Syracuse was roughly the 56th school on Facebook.
It's unclear when Zuckerberg opened up Facebook to the second
school, so beyond those initial Harvard registrations, the number string
following URLs may not be precise signup numbers, especially if a user
joined Facebook outside of a college network.
1. Mark Zuckerberg
Original Profile ID:
http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=4 (IDs 1-3 may have been
associated with Zuckerberg but the profile pages no longer exist)
How he knew about Facebook: Zuckerberg founded Facebook.
2. Chris Hughes
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=5
How he knew about Facebook: Hughes cofounded Facebook and was college roommates with Zuckerberg.
3. Dustin Moskovitz
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=6How he knew about Facebook: Moskovitz cofounded Facebook and was college roommates with Zuckerberg.
4. Arie Hasit
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=7How he knew about Facebook: Hasit was the first
non-founder to sign up for Facebook. He was friends with early members
David Hammer and Colin Jackson. Hammer knew Facebook cofounder Chris
Hughes directly so its likely all three were friends.
5. Marcel Georgés Laverdet II*
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=10 (IDs 8 and 9 do not exist)
How he knew about Facebook: *While Laverdet has one
of the earliest IDs, it's not certain that he was one of the first 20 to
sign up for the site. Some engineers who worked at Facebook saw some
early IDs were open and snagged them for themselves.
Since Laverdet didn't go to Harvard, that's presumably what happened
here. Laverdet is, however, friends with early Facebookers Chris Putnam,
Soleio Cuervo, Kang-Xing Jin, Chris Hughes, Mark Zuckerberg, and his
buddies Adam D'Angelo and Aaron Sittig.
Putnam and Marcel both got jobs at Facebook by
creating hacks and pranks on the social site. These hacks caught the
attention of cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, who contacted Putnam. The two
kept in touch and when Putnam moved to Silicon Valley, Moskovitz offered
him an interview at Facebook. When Putnam was hired, he encouraged
Marcel to join the company too.
*He did not go to Harvard as originally stated. He went to LSU.
6. Soleio Cuervo
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=11
How he knew about Facebook: Cuervo was friends with early Facebook members Kang-Xing Jin (16) and Marcel George Laverdet (5).
He later worked at Facebook and was responsible for the "Like" Button.
7. Chris Putnam*
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=13 (ID 12 does not exist)
How he knew about Facebook: *While Putnam has one of
the earliest IDs, it's not certain that he was one of the first 20 to
sign up for the site. Some engineers who worked at Facebook saw some
early IDs were open and snagged them for themselves. Since Putnam didn't
go to Harvard, that's presumably what happened here.Putnam was, however, friends with early Facebookers Kang-Xing Jin and Marcel George Laverdet. Putnam
and Marcel both got jobs at Facebook by creating hacks and pranks on
the social site. These hacks caught the attention of cofounder Dustin
Moskovitz, who contacted Putnam. The two kept in touch and when Putnam
moved to Silicon Valley, Moskovitz offered him an interview at Facebook.
8. Andrew McCollum
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=26 (IDs 14-25 do not exist)
How he knew about Facebook: McCollum was a Harvard
student who was in Mark Zuckerberg's CS161: Operating Systems class. He
was also friends with early Facebook member David Hammer.
9. Colin Kelly
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=27
How he knew about Facebook: Kelly was a Harvard
student who was friends with David Hammer and Colin Jackson. Both knew
many early Facebookers and it's likely all of them were acquaintances.
10. Mark Kaganovich
Original Profile ID: http://www.facebook.com /profile.php?id=28
How he knew about Facebook: Kaganovich was a Harvard
student who was also friends with early Facebooker David Hammer.
Although Hammer joined Facebook after Kaganovich, Hammer knew at least 7
of the earliest Facebook members, and it's likely Kaganovich was
acquaintances with many of them too.
Some of the first members were also the first employees. Check out:
The First 10 Facebook Employees: Where Are They Now????
Eleven-year-old Indian girl rated with highest IQ in the world
On the face of it, she is no different from other children her age –
she loves riding her bicycle, watching cartoons and playing her
favourite games. But K. Vishalini of Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli isn’t
your average 11-year-old.
Blessed with exceptional IQ, the Standard 8 student is an IT whiz kid
who can come up with solutions to the trickiest of technical problems.
Yes, she spends three hours a day learning about computers. But that is
no big deal.
 |
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Vishalini has the highest IQ in the world, but she will be eligible
for an entry in the Guinness only after she turns 14 (Photo: The Sunday
Indian)
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Vishalini has just returned home from an international seminar held at
the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Mangalore, where
she was a special guest. Such invitations are pretty routine for her
these days.
Her syllabus has been wrapped up well in advance. So this child prodigy
has the time to visit engineering colleges to deliver lectures to B.E.
and B.Tech students on the intricacies of computer science.
At seminars, many an IT expert has been foxed by this chit of a girl who has answers to complex questions.
Her amazing achievements include cracking the Microsoft Certified
Professional and Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) courses with
ease.
Vishalini’s IQ is around 225. It is higher than that of the Guinness record holder, Kim Ung-Yong, whose IQ is around 210.
“She did not find a place in the Guinness Book because the minimum age
requirement is 14 years,” says her electrician-father, Kumarasamy.
Vishalini’s mother, Ragamaliga, and the girl herself had to struggle to
tide over a speech impairment that the latter suffered from as a small
child. Today, Vishalini is a wonder girl that her parents can be
immensely proud of.
An anchor with All India Radio at Tirunelveli, Ragamaliga says: "Vishalini’s speech impairment caused us great consternation.”
The irony was that the mother spoke incessantly on radio while the
daughter had difficulty in articulating herself. “People would point
that out to me all the time,” says Ragamaliga.
A local doctor came to her aid. “Dr Rajesh advised me to talk
continuously to Vishalini in order to help her improve her speech
ability,” says Ragamaliga.
She was preparing for her Group-1 exams at that point. So she began
reciting questions and answers of the syllabus in front of her.
“Moreover, I used to recite religious verses as well,” she adds.
“All this might have looked a little pointless but I persisted.
Suddenly one fine morning, after nine months, Vishalini started
speaking."
The girl’s parents heard of a boy who had secured admission in an engineering college after his Standard 8 exams.
"We approached Kalasalingam Engineering College. They asked us to bring
a certificate from CCNA. Vishalini took the exam and got 90 per cent
marks. It was a world record. She was only 10 years old. Earlier the
youngest student to pass this exam was a 12-year-old boy from Pakistan,
Irtaza Haider,” says Kumarasamy.
Both NITK of Mangalore and Kalasalingam Engineering College are now
more than ready to welcome Vishalini. But her parents want the girl to
enjoy her childhood for the next three years before thinking of entering
a college campus.
Their only disappointment now is that the state and central governments
have failed to recognise and appreciate Vishalini's extraordinary
achievements.
Twitter Plan to Upgrade by developing Instagram-style photo filters for its mobile apps
Twitter's planning to introduce a set of Instagram-style photo filters to its mobile apps in the coming months, according to a report from The New York Times.
While Twitter hasn't gone on record about this forthcoming feature, it sounds like a direct response to Facebook's purchase of Instagram
earlier this year, a service that has quickly become the de-facto
social network for sharing images.
While Twitter and Instagram remain
tightly integrated, Twitter would likely prefer its users to stay on its
own platform for taking and sharing photos rather than using a
Facebook-owned product for all of their photo-sharing needs. Facebook
hasn't given any indication that it would start restricting the services
that Instagram can plug into, but we'd imagine Twitter wouldn't be
happy if it found itself cut off from the many millions of people using
the service. While this is far from confirmed yet, it's a move that fits
in with the ever-increasing amount of control Twitter wants over its
platform.
After Sandy Storm Power slowly coming back to Lower Manhattan after four day blackout
100,000 in East Village, Lower East Side, and Chelsea see lights come back on
During sandy storm in LOWER MANHATTAN People LIVING without power. Power has been restored to parts of the East Village and the Lower East Side, and the power company later confirmed 65,000 have power back. The area that's been restored was connected to the Cooper Square network, which is bounded by Canal Street on the south, Broadway on the west, 14th street on the north, and all the way to the East River. That still leaves many in Manhattan, as well as millions more in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the suburbs without power, but, considering the circumstances, it's a fairly quick recovery nonetheless.
Power was first taken offline in Lower Manhattan on Monday evening, after an approximately 14-foot storm surge flooded the southern part of the city, knocking out a few substations, including one on 14th Street. That substation was the site of a massive explosion after a circuit breaker failed, but the blackout was not caused by that incident — Con Ed says that higher than expected water levels rushing into the facility were to blame. The utility first estimated power would return to all of Lower Manhattan by Saturday evening, but current estimates say that all but 230,000 downtown will have power restored before tonight. Manhattan — which has all of its power lines underground — has only suffered four major blackouts since 1965.
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Microsoft rips a page from Spotify's playbook to take on iTunes
Xbox Music joins a growing list of streaming services that should have Apple worried
Apple has been the king of the digital music world for most of the last decade, and its iTunes Store continues to dominate
the online music industry despite recent challenges from Amazon and
Google. The combination of a tightly-integrated storefront and killer
hardware gave Apple a combination that other competitors were unable to
match — but just as consumers started shifting from physical to digital
media a decade ago, we're at the beginning of another sea change in
music. Companies like Spotify, MOG, and Rdio have emerged over the last
few years, offering the promise of all the music you can handle anywhere
you go, for the same price each month that you'd pay iTunes for a mere
ten songs.
While Apple hasn't yet mustered a response to this growing trend,
sticking with its hugely successful virtual record store model,
Microsoft just announced it's ready to take on the streaming
competition. The new Xbox Music
is an all-in-one service that's equal parts iTunes and Spotify — while
Microsoft is keeping the same a la carte store that it has offered for
years, it's augmenting that with an updated version of its Zune Pass
streaming service. For the first time, Microsoft will offer free,
ad-supported streaming to anyone using a Windows 8 PC — just like
Spotify — or a Windows 8 or RT tablet. There's also a Pandora-style
Smart DJ feature for making artist-specific "stations," and for $9.99 a
month, users can access also sync music to their Windows Phone 8 device
and Xbox 360.
We're at the beginning of another sea change in music
With this new service, Microsoft isn't directly trying to beat Apple
— it's going after Spotify, Rdio, and all the rest of the streaming
players out there. If Microsoft can be successful, Apple will be in the
unfamiliar position of having to play catch-up in the digital music
space for the first time. Success for Microsoft is far from assured —
the company hasn't made much of a dent in the music world thus far — but
it's hoping to use the strength of the Xbox brand, the ubiquity of the
Xbox 360 console, and the wave of interest in its massive Windows 8
redesign to carve out a place of strength in the streaming world.
"We really wanted to build something from the ground up that solved a
consumer problem," says Jerry Johnson, GM of Xbox Music. "It was clear
to us that rebranding Zune doesn't solve the problem." Chief among the
issues Johnson's team identified was the fragmented music experience
many consumers have to deal with. Many music listeners have legacy
collections of MP3s and also now use streaming services, sometimes more
than one — Microsoft hopes to offer them a single experience that
encompasses all listening options. Easier discovery and sharing of new
music is another area that the company hopes to improve upon. "We wanted
to do this with an all-in-one solution — music shouldn't be work, it
should just work," Johnson says.
"Music shouldn't be work, it should just work."
Even though Microsoft hasn't met with much success selling songs and
albums a la carte, the company still sees it as an important part of its
offering. As Johnson told The Verge, the whole concept of Xbox Music is
"consumer choice." With both streaming and purchase options, Johnson
gave the example of users either shelling out cash to hear a new album
immediately, or waiting a few days for it to show up as a streaming
option. He rhetorically asked me whether the average consumer "should
have to understand what a specific band or label decided to with how
they released the music?" Answering his own question, Johnson says, "no —
they should just be able to go and find it."
With Xbox Music's free streaming option, the company is adopting nearly
all of the main features Spotify offers. All of the major streaming
services offer a free option where listeners are tethered to their
desktop and must deal with ads or a limited quantity of music each
month. Paid users can access that music pretty much anywhere they are,
through desktop apps, the browser (in the case of Rdio, MOG, and
eventually Xbox Music), and — most crucially — on a mobile phone. It
doesn't hurt that many of these services plug right into Facebook, the
dominant social platform of our age — it's now exceedingly easy to
actively share music with your friends as well as see an ongoing stream
of what those friends are listening to.
Social has long been an Achilles' heel for Apple
Social has long been an Achilles' heel for Apple, and iTunes
continues to be no exception. As the software and store are based off an
ownership model, users are not permitted to share songs with each other
— the only built-in option is sharing links to songs in the iTunes
Store via Facebook, Twitter, or email. Ping, Apple's recently-shuttered,
first-party attempt at a social music service, was one of the company's
most uninspired products and a perfect example of how out-of-touch
Apple can be when it comes to the web. Sooner or later, that's going to
have to change — if Apple ever launches a music service that isn't based
on a la carte purchasing, social integration and easy sharing of music
will need to be at the forefront, and the company hasn't yet really
proved it's up to the task.
For its part, Microsoft is certainly not downplaying social, but nor
is it going overboard at launch. "Sharing of music is very important,"
Johnson says, "and it's something we believe needs to be done in a
measured and careful way." Specifically, Johnson's referring to
"passive" sharing via the social graph and Facebook — "the hardcore
group will like it if their friends are very much music enthusiasts, but
you'll also hear a big group say they get very annoyed at the volume of
things that flow through there." Xbox Music allows for active sharing
via the Windows 8 charm bar, but passive sharing won't be implemented
until next year. In addition to the "overshare," Johnson also wants to
protect users who might not want to share their "guilty pleasure"
listening habits to all of their friends on Facebook — though Johnson
wasn't able to share how it'll overcome these pitfalls.
As important as those social hooks are, it's the integration with
smartphones and tablets that really makes this generation of streaming,
subscription services a viable option compared to their predecessors
from the mid-2000s. For years, the vertically integrated iTunes and iPod
combo was untouched by competition, but the launch of Apple's App Store
in 2008 helped to break up this stranglehold. Finally, competing
services had a way into Apple's hardware, which was previously locked
down as tight as a bank. As iOS users now have a wide variety of music
services to choose from, it seemed that Apple would have to offer
streaming services of its own — but Apple's only move into the cloud has
been iTunes Match.
Microsoft is gunning for all users, regardless of platform preference
Meanwhile, Microsoft already has plans to go after iOS and Android
users as well as its Windows base with the planned launch of dedicated
apps next year. "The feature sets aren't locked in those clients right
now," Johnson says, but offering a quality, full-featured experience
across all platforms is going to be important for Xbox Music's long-term
success." While he couldn't commit to feature parity, Johnson says,
"how we extend that experience out to iOS and Android is critical for
our business." After using its free service to get a user "engaged in
music," Johnson told us the next step is to let users take their music
with them anywhere — and the focus on Android and iOS clients seems like
a tacit admission that Microsoft isn't assuming everyone will be doing
that with a Windows Phone device.
As important as the all-in-one service and Microsoft's cross-platform
plans are, Johnson also repeatedly stressed the importance of
international to Xbox Music — it's launching in 22 countries, with free
streaming available in 15 of them. Streaming will be particularly
important internationally — while streaming may not yet rule the US,
there are a lot of countries where consumers have zero interest in
buying music a la carte but have no issue with signing up for Spotify.
Apple doesn't have an answer for those countries yet — but Microsoft
does.
At the end of the day, Apple isn't ignoring this shift — reports are surfacing
that Apple will have a new, streaming radio-style service ready in
early 2013. And while people have expected Apple to tackle streaming for
nearly three years, since its purchase of Lala in late 2009, it's
obviously not a simple undertaking. "Building this type of all-in-one
service with hundreds of deals in place was not a small task," says
Johnson. He says it took Microsoft about 12 to 18 months of intense
focus on building a brand new, integrated service, but he was also quick
to mention that the company heavily leveraged its experience with Xbox
Live and Zune. "The [Xbox Live] service components started in 2002, and
Zune launched in 2008," Johnson says. "There's aspects of this related
to building relationships with labels, creating content ingestion
processes and things like that which started back with that.
Apple's most ancient rival has a bold new plan to outdo it
Apple certainly has similar experiences to draw from in creating its
own streaming, all-in-one service of the future — the iTunes Store has
been open for business since 2003. It also has much of the
infrastructure that it needs, with last year's launch of iTunes
purchases in the cloud and iTunes Match. And yet, Apple's faithful
customers are still stuck with files and album purchases. In fact, it's
entirely possible that the music industry is actively working against an
Apple streaming service at this point. The company wielded
unprecedented power for the better part of the 2000s as Apple drove the
move towards paid, digital music — something the music labels
desperately needed. Because of that desperation, the labels became a bit
beholden to Apple, a situation that the labels are likely eager to
avoid as the industry moves towards streaming. However, Apple's now at
the mercy of those labels as it works to negotiate streaming rights, and
it's likely that the labels are holding out for more control (or more
money) this time around.
Regardless of the reasoning, there was no "one more thing"-style surprise relating to iTunes at Apple's iPad mini event
last week; iTunes 11 still isn't available a month and a half after
being announced. Apple had enough of a challenge on its hands fend off
the Spotifys and Rdios of the world — but now, Apple's most ancient
rival has a bold new plan to outdo it in the one space where the company
was essentially unchallenged for so many years. The question now is
whether or not Apple can muster up a response in the time it has before
Windows 8 users are able to install Microsoft's Xbox Music app on their
iPhones and iPads. The clock is officially ticking.
Apple iOS 6.0.1 Update Now Available
Apple released an update to iOS 6.0, a fix that quashes a few bugs and gives the iPhone 5 the ability to receive wireless software updates.
To install the update to iOS 6.0.1, you can either launch iTunes and update your iPhone
there, or update wireless. To do that, go to the Settings menu and
tap “Software Update,” where iPhone 5 users will first be asked to
download an updater for iPhone 5. This enables the wireless updates to
be installed.
iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users who are already using iOS 6 can get
the update by going to Settings, then General, then “Software Update.”
If you tap “Learn More” on either phone, a screen appears with the following text describing the bugs that have been fixed:
This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:
Fixes a bug that prevents iPhone 5 from installing software updates wirelessly over the air
Fixes a bug where horizontal lines may be displayed across the keyboard
Fixes an issue that could cause camera flash to not go off
Improves reliability of iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation) when connected to encrypted WPA2 Wi-Fi networks
Resolves an issue that prevents iPhone from using the cellular network in some instances
Consolidated the Use Cellular Data switch for iTunes Match
Fixes a Passcode Lock bug which sometimes allowed access to Passbook pass details from lock screen
Fixes a bug affecting Exchange meetings
When you want to download and install the update, after a quick user
agreement confirmation, the update begins. We especially like the
animated gears turning while the update downloads.
The most noticeable of these bugs for us is the one that causes
strange static and horizontal lines going across the screen when we’ve
downloaded a new app and are asked to type our Apple password.
For me, this is a relief. I thought that static going across the
keyboard might have something to do with the fact that I’ve dropped my
iPhone 5 three times already (and yes, the iPhone is now safely
ensconced in a case).
How about you? Have you noticed any of the above bugs?
Bonus Gallery: iPhone 5 cases
1. Rokshield v3
Available in six different colors, the Rokshield is a one of a kind protective case for your iPhone 5.
The Rokshield offers non-slip grip and a rubber protective outer bumper.
One thing that sets this case apart is the RMS, or remote mounting system, that allows you to mount your phone most anywhere.
Halo 4′ Soundtrack Has Record-Setting Debut
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The soundtrack to the highly-anticipated Halo 4 debuted at number 50 on the Billboard chart this week — the highest spot ever for a video game soundtrack.
The Halo 4 soundtrack sold 9,000 copies in its first week, putting it at number 50
on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts. It also debuted at number three on
the Billboard Soundtracks chart and number nine on the independent
albums chart.
Halo 4‘s soundtrack was produced by Neil Davidge, co-producer of electronic group Massive Attack.
Just as Halo moved to a new developer, from Bungie to 343 Industries, this was Davidge’s first time working on Halo‘s scor
It was an honor to compose and produce the ‘Halo 4’ score,” said
Davidge. “I am so proud of the way the OST has turned out and to have
had the opportunity to evolve the great legacy of ‘Halo’ music.”
It comes out a week before the newest tale in the Halo saga, which has already sold 1.17 million copies just through preorder.
Previous Halo soundtracks also performed well on the Billboard charts; Halo 2
reached number 12 on the Soundtracks chart in 2004. That soundtrack
also holds the sales record for a game for copies sold in one week.
Previously, the only game soundtrack to make it on the Billboard 200 was Guitar Hero III
