Chart reveals unusual patterns in Romney’s Facebook popularity


I discovered a company called Inside Facebook which has been tracking the popularity of the Presidential candidates’ Facebook pages.

Take a look at the graph above. Obama’s growth has been extremely predictable and steady, while Romney’s has been all over the place. It shows extreme swings. Now, I don’t know if waves of actual Romney supporters are getting on board his train or if someone’s padding his numbers on his behalf but the stark difference in the two candidates’ patterns does raise questions.

Little Raleigh Radio planning downtown broadcasts

Little Raleigh Radio grew up a little bit more today when the News and Observer covered its successful Kickstarter campaign. I hope we see many new volunteers at tomorrow’s open house at Kings!

Downtown is on its way to having its own radio station – and the community is invited to be part of the broadcast.

Volunteers are starting an internet broadcast called Little Raleigh Radio, and they hope to launch in October with an eclectic mix of music and talk, all produced by locals. Starting a radio station from scratch in 2012 might seem like a long shot, but the group has plenty of support. Within weeks, they raised more than $10,000 on the Kickstarter grassroots funding website.

via Little Raleigh Radio planning downtown broadcasts – Local/State – NewsObserver.com.

Profile slamming

I was thinking that there isn’t much out there that describes what I believe Mitt Romney’s campaign (or one of its allies) is doing to surreptitiously set Facebook accounts to like the campaign’s page. Is it account hijacking? Hacking? Vandalism? What do you call it?

Then I recalled telephone slamming, the practice where unscrupulous telephone companies steals the customer of another telephone company by switching that customer’s long distance provider without their knowledge or consent. This happened to a company I once worked for and stunned me in its audacity.

I think that manipulating someone’s social media profile without their permission is similar in some ways to telephone slamming. Since no one else seems to have come up with a name for this practice, I will call it “profile slamming.”

Godspeed, Neil Armstrong

The first man on the moon was here


Travis and I were at Durham’s excellent Museum of Life and Science yesterday for his friend Patrick’s birthday party. I had just finished playing with one exhibit where the museum visitor aims a satellite dish to various audio sources, one of which was from July 21st 1969.

“That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind,” crackled the voice of Neil Armstrong from a distance of 43 years and 239,000 miles.

Moments later I learned from my smartphone that Armstrong has rejoined the heavens, having passed away at 82 from complications arising from his recent heart surgery.

I never met the man and wouldn’t know what to do if I had. I probably would’ve been too excited to speak. Armstrong was a “recluse’s recluse” as Dave Garrett, a former NASA spokesman, says. Still, I’ll long remember the thrill I got just by viewing the signature I saw in the guest book of the Lowell Observatory during our visit to Arizona two years ago.

The man who first left his mark on the moon also left it here. Pretty cool.

Twitter Updates for 2012-08-26

  • Is the Mitt Romney campaign hacking Facebook accounts? http://t.co/p8ImCbO8 #
  • @declanm Is Mitt Romney hacking Facebook accounts? http://t.co/p8ImCbO8 #
  • Yup. RT @chrisod Apple is evil with a nicer UI. #
  • A lawsuit too far? RT @aspyker picked up nexus 7 16gb last night. so ready to be so done with the ipad and itunes and apple. #
  • The kids and I are learning how to check the water quality of Raleigh's streams. http://t.co/AtLzro8C #
  • @rd_morgan yes, but FB will record that click, whether I was tricked or not. FB never showed a like. That's why I suspect a hack. in reply to rd_morgan #
  • I was just listening to Neil Armstrong's voice at Durham's science museum minutes before I learned of his death. Godspeed, sir. #

Twitter Updates for 2012-08-26

  • Is the Mitt Romney campaign hacking Facebook accounts? http://t.co/p8ImCbO8 #
  • @declanm Is Mitt Romney hacking Facebook accounts? http://t.co/p8ImCbO8 #
  • Yup. RT @chrisod Apple is evil with a nicer UI. #
  • A lawsuit too far? RT @aspyker picked up nexus 7 16gb last night. so ready to be so done with the ipad and itunes and apple. #
  • The kids and I are learning how to check the water quality of Raleigh's streams. http://t.co/AtLzro8C #
  • @rd_morgan yes, but FB will record that click, whether I was tricked or not. FB never showed a like. That's why I suspect a hack. in reply to rd_morgan #
  • I was just listening to Neil Armstrong's voice at Durham's science museum minutes before I learned of his death. Godspeed, sir. #

Barracuda Labs looks at Romney’s Twitter numbers

From Barracuda Labs


Barracuda Labs, the highly-respected spam-filtering company, wrote up a superb analysis of Mitt Romney’s Twitter numbers. You should read the whole thing, but here are some highlights:

Most interestingly, during our investigation, Republican nominee for US President Mitt Romney has been scrutinized recently for his abnormal increase in new followers (@mittromney), indicating that these followers had been purchased in the same way as the Dealers/Abuser scenario from our study. We do note that these followers could have been purchased by either himself, his associates or by his opponents. Particularly, on July 21st, 2012, his follower number went from 673,002 to 789,924, representing a gain of 116,922 or 17%.

In one day – boom! – his follower numbers grow an astounding 17 percent!
Continue reading →

More stories of Romney fudging social media

FastCompany recently warned against the temptation of buying fake Twitter followers, pointing to a service called StatusPeople which can ferret out fakes. Says the article:

Do a quick Google search for “Mitt Romney Twitter Followers” and you’ll find dozens of articles discussing how his follower numbers grew suspiciously. Security firm Barracuda Labs created an infographic based on its research breaking down Romney’s newfound Twitter fame, sharing that one in four of Romney’s new Twitter accounts had never sent a single tweet. No matter how the presidential candidate got these new followers, it doesn’t look good from the outside (although his Faker Score is currently sitting pretty at just 12% of 839,719 followers).

Continue reading →