Avenue A/Razorfish Using Facebook Groups to Track Project Status

After doin a little creepin' on Facebook, I came across this new group. Avenue A/Razorfish has started using Facebook groups to post news and track the status of inter-office projects. The idea is that offices in say Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago, and Austin can all be on the same page when working on regionally shared projects. More so though, employees can track company news like the Microsoft merger and stay current with the status of the take-over.

Pretty much one of the lamest ideas I've ever seen. Why would the largest interactive marketing and technology services firm in the U.S. be using a social networking site like Facebook to communicate between offices? It doesn't make any sense. Dave Friedman, president for the Central region, must have wanted to create an excuse so he could check friends' mini-feeds all day. What happened to creating a micro-site or company emails? Or how 'bout a blog?

I want to believe Friedman has his head at least 1/4 of the way out of his ass, so my theory would be this decision came in correlation with the Microsoft merger. Microsoft buys a little of Facebook and Avenue A, and then puts some pressure to have everything start assimilating into one indomitable powerhouse. In about 6 months however, this will fade away when everyone realizes how dumb this idea is. Utterly retarded.

Make Dave Friedman your Facebook Friend!

Microsoft Buys 1.6% of Facebook... for $240 Million

The Seattle Times reported that Microsoft just made a deal with Facebook to become the exclusive, global provider of banner advertising sales until 2011. Microsoft purchased a 1.6% share of the company for $240 million, which makes Facebook worth $15 billion. Seattle Times also notes that even though it's a $15 billion dollar dot-com, it has yet to turn a profit. The deal appears to be another step in Microsoft's recent takeover of online advertising, which includes their recent acquisition of AQuantive (Ave.A-Razorfish). Well, let the games begin cause who did Microsoft beat out for the share? Good ol' Google.

I guess since Google got beat, they'll probably just make their own networking site that will rule them all! Since MySpace is held by Murdoch, and now Facebook is teaming up with Microsoft, the only place Google can really go is on their own. I know there are a lot of other social-networking sites, but they suck, which is why I can't name any of them here. But, I think this might work to Google's advantage, cause MySpace is on it's way out, so Facebook will be top-dog, but it's already getting crowded over there, so... Google can sweep up on people jumping the Facebook ship. We'll see I guess.

I also have to note that Microsoft has it's own social-networking site called Windows Live Spaces, which is about 1/6th the size of Facebook. I guess they don't have much faith in their own site, or they're too lazy to make it better. Here's the approximated breakdown of size by users:

Win Live - 6 million
Facebook - 30 million
MySpace - 60 million

Parents and Moore's Law - Generation Divide with Technology

I'm 22 years old now and I think people in my generation would agree that most of our parents don't really get the whole technology thing. My mom checks her email and what not, but she can barely use Microsoft Office. The one thing she is good at is saving crap and taking real good care of the things she owns. Now, I don't know if those are things that are common with other parents, but I'm gonna try to make a case for why I don't take care of things like my mom does, and why she shouldn't get on my back for it.

So, when my mom was young, her parents saved everything cause they might need that item or whatever sometime in the future and the 25 cents they saved for hording it for 10 years would pay off. Also, they took good care of their stuff because it HAD to last and they weren't going to buy something that wasn't made to last (that would be un-American). My mom grew up on these principles and practiced them too. This is why she has empty cardboard boxes filling up her garage along with glass bottles and containers.

She always has got on me when I haven't taken good care of something. She tells me to always clean stuff and keep it polished and what not. I know that you should take care of things that you want to last, but it's hard these days. Here's the explanation.


Why would I take care of something that I know is going to go out of style or become obsolete in 2 years when I can treat it however I want and it will still last me 5 years? With Moore's Law, I can buy a computer and in 2 years It will be obsolete. I can't sell that machine to anyone and make any good money off it, but I don't want to really throw it away cause I've had it just long enough that I have a personal relationship with it and would hate to see it go. Wait, no, I just don't want to believe the computer I bought two years ago won't be able to run the latest programs.

This got me to thinking that if Moore's Law continues for a long time, hardware and machines will become obsolete in months or even weeks. How will Moore's Law affect the economy?

Whatever the future holds, I know that Moore's Law has taught me to not take good care of my personal property and in turn I should not be lectured to by my mom. She should lecture the technology geeks out there that make my wallet empty with all their developments and upgrades. Hope you read this mom.

*Note that I use Moore's Law to represent technology in general and not just transistor technology as was originally theorized by Moore.