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Facebooking It

Recently I finished reading “The Facebook Effect” by David Kirkpatrick and “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich.  I became interested in Facebook after watching “The Social Network” by David Fincher.  I found the movie a bit tabloidy, but still felt there was something really interesting at play.

So a some quick keystrokes with Google turned up two books that I loaded to my Kindle.

I found “The Facebook Effect” more polished and professional of the two.  It had a very business like tone.  It jumped quickly over the controversy explored by “The Social Network” movie.  It almost felt like it was crafted by a PR firm that was focused on making Facebook look good for potential investors, employees and customers.  In fact there are several passages that allude to this as the underlying goal for the book.  All that said I still felt the book was very good, even though we never really get to know Mark Zuckerberg.  Which is quite ironic when the book stresses on several occasions that Mark is all about transparency.  The book implies that some of the founding members of Facebook left because they could not handle Mark’s lack of openness or collaboration to the ideas they felt were important.  An example is Dustin Moskovitz who left in 2008 partly because he was frustrated that his vision of taking Facebook into corporations was not gaining traction with Zuckerberg.

I found “The Accidental Billionaires” not far from tabloid trash.  The book spent WAY too much time describing scenes.  I think the author only had about 45 pages of real material so he had to “create” filler.  The author admitted that the book took certain liberties with the story at times.  Anyway the movie got enough attention to spinoff “The Social Network” movie so I have to give it a slight hat tip.

While I do not know, nor have any plans of knowing, the main characters from both books I am left with a deep respect for Facebook and its founders.  They took some big chances, worked their asses off and chased a dream.  On top of that I have to admit that there is something about Mark Zuckerberg’s conviction that is very inspiring.  Mark could have easily cashed in several times, but he keeps working with Facebook to make it something very meaningful.  I have to respect that dedication and perseverance.

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone I know Happy Holidays for the 2011 season.  I hope 2012 is a great year for you and your loved ones.

Who was your first?

I was listening to a podcast today and it made me think about my very first days of programming.  My first computer was a Commodore 64.  It was an 8-bit processor with integrated color and sound boards which made it great for running computer games and doing simple programming.  I got the Commodore 64 as a Christmas present in December of 1982.  

I remember they bought it at Service Merchandise in Gastonia, NC.  Service Merchandise had a catalog showroom which meant you got to shop around with an order form and tiny pencil.  Once you had finished your shopping you would go to the service desk and hope that they had the goods in house.  Once the order was placed you went to a long hallway and got to watch your order come out on a conveyer belt.   When I was a kid I thought this was the coolest thing in the world, now that I am an adult I would find it annoying. ;-)

Anyway the Commodore 64 cost almost $300 USD.  Since we didn’t have much money it was a BIG deal that my parents forked out that much money.  So I knew if I took it home and let it collect dust my butt would get tanned.  

I can still remember opening up the box.  It had that strange “electronics” smell that used to permeate from old school TVs, CB radios and recording devices.  I remember it was swaddled in a custom fit styrofoam clam shell container.  This was the old school styrofoam that used to make your fingers feel funny and make a distinct crackling noise when you would break it apart. 

Since the Commodore 64 worked with an RF modulator I could hook it up in just a few seconds.  I just needed to swap the cable to my Atari 2800 with the cable to the Commodore 64.  Plug in the Commodore to the power adapter and hit the on button.

I can remember being really disappointed when I turned it on.  Up came a blue screen with a little white box blinking.  I swear it was blinking F.U. in morse code.  Actually this was the Commodore BASIC 2.0 environment which loaded up by default.  I can remember typing HELLO and the computer replying with some sort of error message.  What a BUMMER!

Anyway I dug into the BASIC manual and started writing some simple games.  Sadly I did not have a cassette recorder so I could save my programs off to physical media.  This meant that as soon as I turned off the computer I lost all my work.  :-(  I remember my uncle hacked together a small converter box that let me connect a standard tape recorder to the C64 cassette connector.  The hack only worked about half the time because of the crappy tape recorder we had at the time. :-\

One of my favorite places to get BASIC programs and inspiration was the old BYTE magazine.  

When I think of BYTE magazine I think of the issue where they covered the Macintosh.  I remember the magazine was as thick as a modern day GQ magazine.  Just packed with ads, product reviews and conde samples.  The BASIC code samples where what I wanted.  I sort of remember writing a program that would allow me to simulate flying a hot air ballon with varying wind currents.  Most of that code was ripped from BYTE magazine.

Anyway thanks for taking this trip with me down memory lane.  My question still stands, “Who was your first?”.