The Four-eyed Journal » Internet

Path: Social network that limits your friends to 50 - Would 50 friends be enough?

jhay — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 03:07:06 +0000

How many friends are on your Facebook account? At present I have 1,013 friends. It is an aggregate of the following social circles: family and blood relatives, classmates and friends from grade school, high school and college, acquaintances from organizations, interest groups, political parties and the blogosphere.

I am proud to say that 80% of them I know of personally, as I’ve always stuck to my rule that only personal acquaintances would be added and invitations from the same will be accepted in my Facebook account.

It helps to keep the network authentic, organic and meaningful.

But to be honest, it can be daunting to organize and manage 1,013 connections.

Making the social, personal

A new social networking hub aims to solve this particular problem. It’s called Path.com and behind it is a former Facebook executive Dave Morin. The unique thing about Path is that it limits you to having only 50 friends on the service. It’s photo-centric and an iPhone app is now available.

Morin explains:

Facebook set out to be a social network of the real world full of friends and acquaintances together.

Facebook is about society and I think the need we are seeing at Path is that people still want to share more and share more openly with the people they trust the most and that is why we put this 50 limit on the service.

The idea of limiting friends to just 50 was inspired by the research Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford University¹ .

According to him, the maximum number of social relationships that a human brain can sustain at a given time is 150, while 50 is roughly the outer boundary of our personal networks.

Looking back at my 1,013 friends on Facebook, the idea of joining Path and inviting up to 50 of my most trusted friends seems attractuve. But I only said keeping tabs and maintaining those relationships is daunting but not impossible.

The main issue I think is the question of what I want to share online and with whom? It’s simply a matter of trust.

A Path not for everyone

Professor Dunbar’s research means that about 50 is the number of relationships we can maintain that are on the most trusted level. If that were so, then I’d just create a group on Facebook of the “50 friends I trust the most.”

It would save me the trouble of setting up a new account on another social networking hub and invite my friends over. Which in itself is no easy feat. Some may not warm up to the idea of joining another social network. Those whom I may not invite over may become jealous all of a sudden knowing that he or she is not in my most trusted friends. Well this is just my take on it. I’m sure Path will be of some use to other people, some may be even at home using it.

What about you? Is the so-called threshold of 50 friends in your “inner-circle” enough?

Footnotes:

Social gets personal as new network limits friends. BBC

Globe Tattoo Broadband speed test: DLSU Dasmariñas

jhay — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:45:36 +0000

When I first saw the TV ad about the speed tests of Smart Bro plugin and Globe Tattoo Broadband I got curious as to what results would I get if I were to conduct the tests myself. We all know how not to believe everything we see on TV so a little hands-on experiment would give a whole new perspective that will either confirm or rebuke what’s been claimed on TV ads.

Good thing that I bought a Globe Tattoo Broadband prepaid kit last November for my girlfriend so that she’d have some access to the net because telephone lines have not yet reached their part of Gen. Trias, Cavite so there’s no way for her to subscribe to a wired broadband account.

Curiosity got the better of me so I borrowed the USB dongle in order to do a speed test at DLSU-D because even WiFi access if offered, the school’s firewall are blocking a lot of popular sites like Facebook and Twitter and I’m too lazy to find a new proxy service.

Just like in the TV ad, I used Speedtest.net in gauging the speed of Globe Tattoo Broadband when used inside DLSU-D. Here’s the result:

Globe Tattoo Broadband DLSUD speedtest using a server in Albuqurque, New Mexico, USA

The speed was at dial-up connection speeds but at least I was able to load my CafeWorld in about two minutes. Unfortunately, there’s no 3G/HSDPA coverage in DLSU-D.

Here’s another run using a server in Makati City, Philippines:

Globe Tattoo Broadband DLSUD speedtest using a server in Makati City, Philippines

Practically the same speeds because there’s no 3G/HSDPA coverage in DLSU-D. A big disappointment but what’s encouraging is that the connection is stable and it works. Students may not be able to watch YouTube videos but it gives a connection that will allow for regular research or sending those late papers and projects.

New Year wish: Improved Globe Broadband services

jhay — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:05:55 +0000

As Ms Connie Veneracion reminds us that with a new year, a chance for a fresh start comes, I’d like to break this blogging hiatus with a positive view that hopefully, the coming new year would be the year when one of my wishes would come true; that Globe would improve their broadband services in our area.

For the past three months, starting last October up to this last day of 2009, my broadband internet connection has been intermittent, every 40 minutes or so, the connection would be cut off and I had to restart my modem several times in order to get online again.

It was tolerable for just one day, but experiencing such horrible connection for most of the week throughout the last three months have become unbearable. I’ve called up their customer service center and they’ve sent their technical teams (contractors) to check up and “repair” my connection four times and they’ve all come to the conclusion that there’s nothing wrong with the lines that run from my house to their cabinet of ports and switches located a few blocks away.

The problem lies with that cabinet of theirs which according to their technical teams, is already old and thus riddled with damaged ports. Unfortunately for me, I am one of the few Globe subscribers in Silang, Cavite, whose physical connection have been assigned to a damaged port.

Accordingly, I have made three or four calls to Globe’s Customer Services Center specifically requesting that said damaged port/cabinet be repaired or have my physical connection switched to a non-damaged one. In each of the requests I’ve made, I was given the assurance that my request would be attended to and complied with the soonest possible time.

Unfortunately, and much to my suffering despite the fact that I’ve been a loyal Globe subscriber for more than three years now, no action has been taken to address my request/concern.

At present, I’m contemplating on the following plan, send a formal letter to Globe about this concern and hear their response. If it’s acceptable to me as a paying customer then well and good. If not, then I’d elevate the matter to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in the form of a formal complaint.

I’ll share my letter on this blog once I’ve sent it to Globe and hopefully, things will turn out alright. 2009 has been a not-so-good year for me and my online experience, all because of Globe’s crappy broadband services and their inept technical support. Come 2010, tomorrow, I only pray that it would be a better year compared to this one.

This post has been inspired by Ms Noemi’s billing problems with Globe’s iPhone 3G. For those with similar problems you can get in touch with her to help in documenting more cases and getting some action from Globe. It’s time we consumers stand up for our rights.

The Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 – A few reservations

jhay — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:00:17 +0000

It’s a welcome development that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed into law R.A. 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 last November 17, 2009. Under this new law, child pornography is now referred to as:

xxx “any public or private representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes.” xxx

The form of child pornography has been expanded from the traditional forms like videos or photos of real children but also digitally-created images and it also includes audio recordings or representations of a child engaged in explicit sexual activity.

The law was created in the context of today’s inter-connected world of computers, the Internet and mobile phones because the mere possession of child pornography is now illegal and would land you in jail.

Aside from creating the Inter-Agency Council against Child Pornography, the new law somehow deputizes Internet Service Providers or ISPs by giving them additional duties under Section 5 of the Act:

xxx

SEC. 5. Duties of an Internet Service Provider (ISP). – An ISP shall:

(a) Prevent access or transmittal of child pornography materials by any person and shall install a blocking system to prevent access to such materials;

(b) Within seven (7) days, report the presence thereof, as well as the particulars of the person maintaining, hosting, distributing or in any manner contributing to the Internet address, to the proper authorities; and

(c) Preserve such evidence for purposes of investigation and prosecution by relevant authorities.

An ISP shall, upon the request of proper authorities, furnish the particulars of users who gained or attempted to gain access to an Internet address which contains child pornography materials.

An ISP who shall knowingly, willfully and intentionally violate this provision shall be subject to the penalty provided under Section 13(e) of this Act.

xxx

Privacy and net neutrality issues

And here is where my reservations come from, ISPs are now mandated to install a blocking system to prevent access to and transmittal of child pornography materials, how would they know which data in their networks are such materials or not? It provides in effect, some filtering mechanism at the ISP level, just like what is going in China today. Imagine the threat to our freedom of access to information and to our privacies as individuals.

The government and ISPs should be transparent and allow for participatory consultations in crafting the implementing guidelines for this new law.

Redundant laws

Also, there’s already a law that provides for special protection to children against exploitation of any kind, R.A. 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act. Perhaps our lawmakers should’ve amended it instead with the provisions of R.A. 9775 to cover the context of fast production and distribution of child pornography materials via the Internet and mobile phones so prevalent today.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally in favor of this new law and I am against child pornography, but any good law becomes a bad one when the implementation becomes a way to trample upon the rights of others.

Faster broadband internet speeds with PLDT’s upcoming FTTH

jhay — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:40:47 +0000

Yesterday, I spent the whole morning trying to figure out why my Globe broadband connection was being slow and intermittent again. After trying to troubleshoot the problem myself and three phone calls to their customer services, I gave up, went to watch TV instead and hoped that this problem wouldn’t last another week.

Thankfully it did not, but the incident yesterday once more brought up the idea of switching ISPs for a better internet and customer services experience.

The news that PLDT is will be launching a more advanced broadband delivery platform called Fiber-To-The-Home, certainly makes the idea even brighter.

Fibert-To-The-Home or FTTH is a broadband internet delivery platform that uses fiber-optic cables to transmit data using light signals sent through hair-thin strands of pure glass.

The result is a much faster broadband internet connection, something like having download speeds of up to 94.86 megabits per second (mbps) and upload rates of 69.39 mbps as demonstrated by PLDT.

While this service is aimed for residential customers, Lloyd Lopez mentions a report that it will be initially made available to high-income subdivisions and condominiums. Initial launch areas include Bonifacio Global City, Forbes Park, Urdaneta Village, Ayala Alabang, Dasmarinas Village, Wack Wack, Ayala Heights, Valle Verde and certain areas covered by PLDT Subictel and PLDT Clarktel.

It seems a little unfair, but this strategy will allow the new system to be tested extensively. Hopefully, by the time PLDT makes it available to lower-income households or the general public, it will come at a more affordable price and better technical and customer services support.

Let’s just hope that the fiber-optic cables would not attract line thieves that are a common problem especially in provincial areas. If this new platform would deliver on its promises, I’d be glad to jump ship and switch over to PLDT once it becomes available here in Cavite.

I wonder how Globe would respond to this one?