Facebook has made news and headlines many times before and it is doing it again – albeit for somewhat different reasons. Facebook is filing to become a publicly traded company and will allow people to buy shares on the stock market as of Wednesday. Since Facebook literally represents the social network for this era, its initial public offering(IPO) will be historical and astonishing to say the least.

With the FB symbol as its identifying mark for the stock market, Facebook will have more than 845 million users and, some say, is looking to get at least $5 billion during this initial offer. There are other reports that are claiming Facebook is seeking a much higher amount: between $75-$100 billion in fact!  If Facebook were to receive that high of an amount it would put it well above many other companies that have been around for many years – companies such as Ford Motor, Kraft Foods, Goldman Sachs, and more.

The company makes a large portion of its profits off of the advertising and selling that goes on throughout the Facebook network and last year it made $3.7 billion in revenue (increasing 88% from the year before).  The ads on Facebook are highly targeted towards individual users since Facebook utilizes the information and recorded actions of users to collect data. Much like a data processor, Facebook archives everything – from interests, locations, articles, links, and “likes”. This data is then used to help better target and understand users so that more efficient ads can be displayed.

Facebook has changed not only how advertisers work, but it has also led to the rise of a variety of other companies such as Spotify and Zynga – Facebook actually is responsible for 90% of the profits Zynga gets. Having this in mind, the next logical step for Facebook was this historical IPO.

Despite all of the current profits Facebook is making off of advertising, it actually is a meager amount compared to what it should be making. For example, last year Facebook only made about $1 per user which is such a small amount especially since Facebook has the capacity to utilize all of that user information and display targeted ads.

Indeed, Facebook is still seeking to learn how to properly use all of that user data and generate more profits without damaging the sensitive social ecosystem. If Facebook moves too quickly or makes too many drastic changes to its structure then users protest however Facebook is gradually making more and more changes. For instance, Facebook recently introduced the new Timeline which allows users to scroll through and see an overview of people’s activity in a timeline format. On top of that there are also reports that Facebook is designing its own mobile phone which will give it even more of a foothold into people’s lives.

Unfortunately as Facebook’s presence in people’s lives continues to grow, so does the ever mounting scrutiny that is being directed at it from Washington. With privacy issue concerns and more, Washington is doing its best to protect user’s private data from being misused by the social giant.

Facebook is still young, however its part in millions of lives worldwide. As it continues to grow and develop innovative new ways to connect with other users, its value to both advertisers and consumers grows exponentially as well. There are only estimations at how much Facebook will get during its historical IPO, however it is amazing to see this Internet phenomenon, developed from such humble roots, expand and grow with each and every year.

Back in 2009 a federal prisoner by the name of David Whitaker was the lead actor in an investigation of Google’s advertising operations. The United States government took action against the internet giant and had David Whitaker (an experienced con artist) pose as an agent for online drug dealers. Mr. Whitaker then spent over four months contacting Google (and being contacted in return) about advertising narcotics, steroids, and other illegal and controlled substances.

Along with having David pose as an agent, the government meticulously created aliases, false companies, and even used around $200,000 in their operation. David then contacted employees and executives regarding advertising the illegal substances and made it clear on several occasions that the operations were illegal – despite everything, both Google employees and executives continued working with David as their eyes were only on his money.

David Whitaker stated that he felt bad about the whole operation especially since he had grown to like several of the people he was dealing with but “I took ease in knowing they…knew it was wrong.”

Despite actively assisting someone advertise illegal products Google only got a slap on the hand and had to pay a mere $500 million dollar fine (nothing compared to their 40+billion dollars in cash). However this isn’t the only time Google’s had problems with advertising illegal products.

The lead prosecutor against Google in this case is Peter Neronha who stated that the settlement was incredibly important and “signals that, where evidence can be developed that a search engine knowingly and actively assisted advertisers to promote improper conduct, the search engine can be held accountable as an accomplice.”

On top of the evidence gained from David Whitaker the government also had some highly embarrassing allegations against some of Google’s top executives including Larry Page. Page is Google’s co-founder and apparently these executives were notified about the issues surrounding drug ads but that nothing was done about it.

The case against Google was held in a secret Grand Jury and not much else is known about it nor will the head prosecutor reveal more information regarding the evidence gained against Google. Unfortunately no Google executives agreed to comment on the situation either.

After the operation was ceased by the government and the evidence gained from Google Mr. Whitaker, who faced a hefty prison term of max 65 years, was sentenced to only six years however now he is due to release in just two. Google, on the other hand, has six private shareholder lawsuits against their executives and will hopefully change their advertising policies so that illegal actions are prohibited rather than encouranged.

IPv6 was announced and then disappeared. Today it is back again, but is not going anywhere this time. The Internet Society gave a public announcement Tuesday of the “World IPv6 Launch Day”. It is the beginning of the last stage of transitioning out of IPv4 and into IPv6. This launch day is still a little more than five months off, due June 6, but it is quite nearly a year following a 24-hour test run of the IP protocol. At that time quite a number of high profile businesses activated IPv6 AAAA record resolution on the domain for their main websites.

This IPv6 Day, last year, served as a confirmation about the hypotheses regarding interoperability across the Internet with already deployed computer systems. However, not everything went as expected. There were access difficulties, but they amounted to only a fraction of 1%. Most of those companies who participated in the event turned off IPv6, though a handful kept it operating. Those who turned it off reverted to the IPv4 legacy setup.

The dating period is finished. We are into the engagement period of our relationship with our newly beloved IPv6. Quite a few troubles that were connected to the operating systems of PC’s and portable devices, as well as those related to network devices, such as routers, have been adequately addressed and implemented. Now many of the same business who participated in the test last year have switched back on IPv6 and will run it even up to June 6^th.

Typically, you might expect IPv6 to affect those utilizing universities, or international and the small, advanced thinking tech companies. On June 6^th, though, we are talking about something much bigger. The major ISP companies will be activating IPv6, not only at their root servers, but along the line down to the customer level. About one percent of you will have IPv6 addresses after June 6^th.

Here is the catch. They are only applying it to a mere dribble of customers in order to test it again. As customers complain and problems arise in these customers’ connection issues, the ISP’s will try to adapt to the situations and create solutions. Then, as they can solve more of the problems, they will apply IPv6 to more customers and fix further issues as they present themselves.

I do not think ISP’s should be congratulated for this approach, because it means those customers will suffer for us all. This should be a voluntary program with incentives. However, with the major ISP’s getting onboard, it will motivate smaller ones to just in order to stay competitive. They will not want to be labeled inadequate because they refused to adopt a technology all the major players activated, and which was easily accessible to them. Every company will have to follow suit.

In the protest on the 18^th several of the largest websites in the world blacked out to show their opposition to SOPA and PIPA and also encourage others (especially Americans) to let congress and their representatives know that they disapprove of these acts.  Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, Flickr as well as others did a blackout and the results were astounding. Thousands of people flooded the Whitehouse and their representatives with phone calls, emails, and more protesting. After all was said and done, those opposing SOPA and PIPA thought that they had won….but they were wrong.

The United States had a pocket ace up their sleeve and the overwhelming opposition to SOPA and PIPA forced them to show their hand early. Their display of power took the form of a seizure of one of the largest file sharing sites on the Internet: Megaupload.

Megaupload is….was a celebrity endorsed website that enabled users to upload and download files that were simply too big for email transfers. This site was created by Kim Schmitz (known as Kim Dotcom) and became an internationally loved site for everyone (except the Music Industry).

One day after the global protest against SOPA and PIPA the United States government flexed their muscles and not only took down Megaupload, but had Kim Schmitz and three others arrested on several charges dealing with copyright infringement. Despite being endorsed by several well-known actors and singers, those only arrested were Kim and the other higher executives – it is still unknown if more will be charged as well.

Megaupload received tens of thousands of visitors each day and the seizure of this site marks the largest one yet by the United States Justice Department. To justify their takedown of Megaupload the United States Justice Department claimed that Megaupload alone was solely responsible for “more than half a billion dollars’ worth of damage to copyright owners”.

The United States clearly sidestepped all aspects of the law and went out of their way to take down Megaupload. Executing twenty different warrants in over eight countries the United States FBI seized more than $50 million in assets as well as taking down Megaupload’s servers. Megaupload didn’t even get the chance to be tried in court before the fatal damage was already done.

The United States government is completely overstepping their boundaries and becoming a big brother government. What was the reason behind the SOPA and PIPA acts if the United States government had the power all along to take down the sites? Where those acts just a failed attempt to justify their actions for a later period of time?

Lastly, why did the United States wait to take down Megaupload? They obviously had the warrants and “approved legal justifications” to take down Megaupload prior to the incident however they waited till right after the blackout before showing their true colors.

There will always be a need for PC’s in certain industries, but that has little relevance to the consumer world of computing devices as a whole. It is thought that the iPhone started the plummet of the popularity of the PC, but the iPhone was created because of the shift; it did not create the shift. Steve Jobs made the decision in light of the shift that was already happening. The iPhone simply gave the shove that gave it momentum.

Since Apple introduced the iPhone, it has maintined its portion of sales in the area of computing devices, while it has sold a larger ratio of iOS devices and WinTel has lost its footing. The WinTell fall has been quite dramatic only in the last two years.

If you still do not believe, consider the latest news that about 350 million PC’s were sold in 2011. Now compare that to Samsung’s estimates of 300 million handsets sold. These are all mobile devices, most of which can access the Internet and run applications.

The ARM architecture may not be as powerful as the x86 or x86-64, but it may be enough for most people’s needs. While it suffers for not being able to handle CAD, 3-D movies, or 3-D graphics, a simple cloud connection might solve some of these shortcomings. Consider Amazon’s 750 hours of no-cost Windows Server instances as an example of this shift. In the areas of price, performance, and power, the traditional PC is clearly more than required.

When you toss in the economic struggles, the explanation of the shift away from PC’s is supported. But in reality, we will see whether this is a factor as Intel watches how its Unltrabooks fair at $1,000 and more. Nevertheless, the drop in sales of low-end netbooks, from $200-$400, over the past two years lends credence to the argument. Those who cannot afford to shell out cash for a PC will give it up for a smartphone or tablet. After all, even the higher end handsets have dramatically lowered their prices. Ok, so the price is not so sweet when the monthly service fee is considered, but for those with a tight budget, this is the only way to manage obtaining a computing device.

The startup investment is lower for mobile devices, so the swirling economy sucks people in. The availability of an increasing number of cloud services and the matching of capability of the PC is stealing the sales away. Microsoft wanted at one time to create a computer on every surface, but could not figure out how. Apple did it by putting it in the phone, which not only sits on surfaces. Now your computer goes with you everywhere, and often travels in your pocket. Thank you, Apple! Thank you, Steve!

Source: Horace Dediu

The Wikipedia blackout will be in effect on Wednesday the 18^th and will last all day. The blackout will be on the English version of Wikipedia however Wikipedia states that the other languages will also put up protest banners and may follow suit in order to further spread the word about SOPA and PIPA.

Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales Tweeted the other day that the “emerging consensus of the community seems to be for a global blackout of English Wikipedia”. Wikipedia had apparently considered a softer approach to the blackout but apparently a full blackout was decided on.

For those who don’t know why Wikipedia is protesting SOPA and PIPA you can read more here however a short overview is that SOPA and PIPA take drastic and unnecessary measures in an attempt to stomp out online piracy. Some of these harsh measures include punishing and holding other websites liable for linking to those pirating sites. Innocent site owners will be punished unjustly and the manner in which the United States Government is approaching online piracy is detrimental to free speech.

The SOPA and PIPA acts have both been considered by the government for some time now and Wikipedia has been also considering how best to display their views. This blackout has been considered for several weeks now and Wikipedia wants to use it as a way to send a BIG message to the White House.

So what’s going to happen on Wednesday on the big blackout from Wikipedia? Well, instead of the usual plethora of information that is available on Wikipedia, everything will be directed towards one page – a page with a call to action. This page will explain why Wikipedia feels the way it does about SOPA and PIPA, and it will ask those viewing the page to stand up and either phone or write to the US congress and explain their views as well.

Mr. Wales stated: “I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday,” and if all goes as Wikipedia plans, then it will. It is likely that over a hundred million people will see the Wikipedia call to action page during the blackout. If half, or even a quarter of them follow the directions then it will send a huge message to Congress.

Wikipedia is one of the top five most popular websites in the world and it has millions of visitors to its English version every single day. The blackout will begin on midnight EST and will remain there for a full 24hrs. Hopefully Congress gets the message, hopefully Wikipedia succeeds in creating a movement across the States that will inspire people to make their voice heard.

Watch out for the blackout tomorrow and, if you oppose SOPA, don’t sit idly by thinking that others will take up the call for action in your stead – take just a few minutes of your time and be a part of something that will actually make a difference!

January 8:

- Acer (Press Conference): 01.30 PM

- CES Unveiled (Official Press Event): 04.00 PM

- Toshiba (CES Party): 06.30 PM

January 9:

- LG (Press Conference): 8:00 AM

- AT&T (Developer Summit): 9:00 AM

- Samsung (Press Conference): 2:00 PM

- Nokia (Press Conference): 3:00 PM

- NVIDIA (Press Conference): 4:00 PM

- Sony (Press Conference): 5:00 PM

- Microsoft (Steve Ballmer, keynote): 6:30 PM

- Pepcom (Digital Experience): 7:00 PM

January 10:

- Qualcomm (Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, keynote): 8:30 AM

- Intel (Paul Otellini, keynote): 4:30 PM