Miami journalist Hacked by Mitt Romney

I found this interesting Tweet from Hannah Sampson, business writer for the Miami Herald:

Hannah Sampson ?@hannahbsampson

@mkramer I like no candidate on Facebook (per my newspaper’s policy) but someone decided I liked Mitt Romney and hacked my page to say so.

Journalists are often prohibited by their media employers from publicly displaying their political beliefs in order to maintain nonpartiality (or the illusion of it, anyway). That Sampson would have made herself a fan of Mitt Romney’s Facebook page is quite unlikely indeed.

Tech guru Fred Langa gets Hacked by Mitt Romney


Veteran tech journalist and Windows expert Fred Langa found himself Hacked by Mitt Romney:

It happened to me about a week ago, when Facebook told me — and all my contacts — that I’d “liked” Romney.

I’d done no such thing.

Fess up, Facebook. You think he made a mistake with Facebook Mobile, don’t you?

via Fred Langa: "What comes next?": It's spreading: Facebook name-harvesting for fake Romney 'likes'.

Tightening the belt

I took my watch to the mall’s watch store Friday to get the battery changed. As I was walking away, I thought to ask if the watch person could remove a link from my watch band. Now my watch band is more snug than its ever been, and that’s because I’ve lost weight.

I’ve also returned to wearing slacks I haven’t warn in more than ten years. All but one of my belts are secured at their skinniest notches.
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N&O paywall goes up December 19th

Here it goes. The N&O announced yesterday that it will be putting up a paywall on December 19th:

The News & Observer announced this week that it will begin charging for digital content starting Dec. 19.

The newspaper’s e-edition, which looks the same as the print paper; all content on the N&O’s website, newsobserver.com; and content on its mobile site and iPhone and Android smartphone apps will move behind a pay wall.

This will further distance the newspaper from the news-reading public, which has largely migrated to online sources. It will also stop bloggers like me from linking to N&O articles, because I don’t like including links in my blog that are time-limited or go nowhere.

I’ve said before how paywalls don’t work but it bears repeating.
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Boston Globe weighs in on Romney Facebook Hacking


Bobby Calvan of the Boston Globe interviewed me this afternoon and wrote an excellent story on the Romney Facebook Hacking phenomenon. Hopefully this will bring out more information!

Visit Mitt Romney’s page on Facebook and you’ll see 11.6 million “likes.” Lee Wolf, a self-described liberal who likes nothing about Romney’s politics, was stunned to hear from friends on the online social network that his name had popped up as an apparent supporter of the Republican presidential candidate.

“I don’t believe in anything he says. He’s not somebody I’d be voting for,” said Wolf, who owns the Lobster Shanty, a restaurant in downtown Salem. “I’m still wondering how it happened.”

Others are wondering, too.

Why Do Obama Supporters Appear In Facebook Ads As Romney Fans? – Forbes


Forbes contributor Robert Hof wrote about the Romney Facebook Hacking phenomenon, though he was reluctant to contribute it to “skulduggery,” pointing instead to Facebook’s quickie diagnosis of fat-fingered mobile users. I’ve already shown that, in my case at least, it could not have happened from Facebook Mobile. I’ve also heard from other victims who don’t even own smartphones.

But what on Earth was the name of a friend, who I know is a vocal Obama supporter, doing on a Romney ad? The answer raises questions about how effective, or at least how accurate, these ads are–not necessarily due to a particular fault by Facebook but thanks to the byzantine rules and privacy features that have developed over years of user outrage and resulting Facebook accommodations.

via Why Do Obama Supporters Appear In Facebook Ads As Romney Fans? – Forbes.

Raleigh zoning busts startup

By Takaai Iwabu for the News & Observer


I cringed when I read how a local startup company was busted by Raleigh’s zoning inspectors Tuesday after being featured in Monday’s N&O. This doesn’t look good for a city that is attempting to show it’s startup-friendly.

Then I looked at Takaaki Iwabu’s photo of the group, showing thirteen employees working in the founder’s basement.

Thirteen? Thirteen? Dude, come on! There’s rarely even a dozen people in my company’s RTP office suite and we have thousands of square feet!

This is not a case where a guy and a few close friends are working out of a home office. I think once the company reached 4 employees, tops, it should have found a real space. Either that, or let your employees work out of their own homes using telecommuting. I can imagine how the neighbors must feel about thirteen extra cars in their neighborhood.
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More Dead People for Romney


An inspired wag created a Change.Org petition to have Mitt Romney’s Facebook account suspended. While there’s of course no chance of this actually happening, I did find the following comment from the petition to be interesting:

Terren Braen EASTHAMPTON, MA 1 day ago Liked 0

THEY MADE MY GREAT UNCLE LIKE MITT ROMNEY THE DAY HE DIED. THERE’S NO WAY HE SIGNED ONTO FACEBOOK AND LIKE MITT ROMNEY AS HE WAS DYING. THAT’S JUST SO SO SO RUDE AND ABUSIVE! WHO EVER IS RESPONSIBLE SHOULD PAY THE PRICE FOR THEIR LACK OF RESPECT.

Bank of America Alert: Important Message Alert!

Well, aren’t the folks at Bank of America so helpful to send me this poorly-written email, alerting me to “fraudulent purpose.”

Funny how this particular email wasn’t sent from a Bank of America server. Hmm.

Received: from www-data by famas.airsoftarms.com with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1TTF2F-0008Qr-4q for me; Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:51:27 -0400
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:51:27 -0400
To: me
From: Bank of America < ealerts@bankofamerica.com >
Subject: Bank of America Alert: Important Message Alert !

Bank of America Online Banker

Our Valued Customer,
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Cheap Thoughts: a new role for the U.S. Postal Service?

Speaking of antiquated ways of doing things, I’ve often wondered if the U.S. Postal Service might be better off transitioning to more of an IT role. Perhaps it could rebrand itself as a Information Delivery or Information Directory service and deliver both hardcopy (i.e., mail) and softcopy (i.e., email,fax,etc.) materials to Americans. I’ve often wondered if it should play the role similar to IANA in routing traffic on the Internet.

I’ve also thought before that the postal service missed an opportunity to take on the directory role by providing each American with a free .us email address.

The postal service has long been an information delivery service, it’s just that now an increasing amount of this delivery is taking place on the Internet. Could the USPS one day deliver packets the way it now delivers packages?