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TED: Michael Anti (aka Jing Zhao) - S.I.C.K.


Michael Anti: Behind the Great Firewall of China

Forbes objašnjava gde se sve Zuckerberg zajebao u svom izlasku na berzu. Šteta što nije imao nekog konsultanta da mu to sve kaže PRE nego što je napravio greške. Doduše, kako kažu, posle bitke su svi generali...

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In the last two months, Mark Zuckerberg has had a rude introduction to the capital markets. The founder of Facebook has always seemed fearful of the stock market and tried to avoid the trading hordes as long as possible, but that has turned out to be a huge mistake.
Before taking Facebook public in May, the 28-year-old Zuckerberg had led something of a charmed life. The roadblocks he faced in building the world's biggest social-networking company were tiny, like an overdramatized civil lawsuit. Now, with Facebook's stock in free-fall, down more than 40% from its IPO price, Zuckerberg has a big problem.
Zuckerberg did not want to deal with the pressures of being a public company. Like many entrepreneurs these days he viewed the capital markets with suspicion. The view in Silicon Valley, as recently described by Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, is that laws that Congress passed in response to the first Internet bubble, like Sarbanes-Oxley, make it "incredibly difficult to be public today." So Zuckerberg made a fateful decision, he decided to keep Facebook a privately-held company for much longer than other success stories like Google or Amazon.

But Zuckerberg still needed money. He needed financing for his plans and to compete with the likes of Google or the next dorm room dreamer to come along. He also needed to attract and retain talent. Issuing stock options, or, in this case, restricted stock units, that don't turn into cash money for years was not enough. To solve this problem, Zuckerberg turned to venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, even a Russian oligarch. But those investors also expected to cash-out and those pesky securities regulation also limited the number of shareholders Facebook could have and still remain a private company. By May 2012, Zuckerberg had no choice but to launch an IPO.
Waiting eight years to conduct an IPO, however, has turned out to be an impossible problem to manage.  The hype associated with the hottest company in Silicon Valley had created massive expectations and lots of shareholders with tons of stock looking for an exit. The bankers at Morgan Stanley applied all the lessons of the last 15 years and priced the IPO at $38, which was very aggressive, in an attempt to avoid leaving any money on the table and the embarrassment that a huge IPO pop would represent. David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, increased the size of the offering at the last minute to try to mitigate future selling of shares from early investors and employees.
With such a big valuation at IPO time, Facebook had to show some results. But the numbers that Facebook announced on Thursday in its first quarterly earnings report were underwhelming. Zuckerberg, Ebersman and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg did not inspire much confidence about their business model in a conference call. The trading hordes drove Facebook's stock down by 15% in Friday morning trading. "We're disappointed about how the stock is traded but the important thing for us is to stay focused on the fact that we're the same company now as we were before," Ebersman said.
But that is going to be very hard to do. Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., is not a kibbutz. The employees that joined the company are like all the other creatures in Silicon Valley; they want to get rich. It's hard to imagine morale at Facebook won't take a hit that correlates with the loss in value of the shares belonging to the employees. And things don't look promising for the stock short-term given that the employees, ex-employees, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists and Russian oligarchs that held pre-IPO Facebook stock will be freed from their post-IPO stock lock-ups starting in August. Make no mistake: the early institutional investors are heading for the exits.
The lesson of the Facebook fiasco for Silicon Valley is clear. Start-up entrepreneurs cannot evade the discipline of the capital markets any more than can the prime ministers of Spain and Italy.  The markets have a way of focusing the mind. Zuckerberg & Co., might have not been so late to embrace mobile or might have had more urgency to develop a monetizing strategy had Facebook faced the trading hordes earlier. As New York hedge fund manager Dan Loeb recently demonstrated with his intervention at Yahoo!, Wall Street and Silicon Valley need each other. Zuckerberg thought shielding himself from guys like Loeb would help him build a better company, but that is not what tech entrepreneurs will take away from his example.

Nije o Fejsbuku nego o Instagramu, al da ne otvaramo sad topik za svaku socijalnu mrežu, bili bismo ovde do jutra. Dakle, evo kako izgleda kurčenje u dobu digitalnne komunikacije, kamera na telefonima i socijalnih mreža baziranih na fotografijama:

'Rich Kids of Instagram': Overserved and Oversharing 

Primer:

Nego, kad smo kod feeejjjsssbuuka, igra li iko song pop?

Inače ne igram te fejsbuk novotarije u poslednje vreme, ali ovo mi je kul. Fora je pogoditi pesme nakon nekoliko sekundi

sve fb igre o'ma blokiram. strogo moderiranje

http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/25/5-design-tricks-facebook-uses-to-affect-your-privacy-decisions/

Heh heh, 51% Amerikanaca misli da kad je oblačno ili pada kiša, to remeti cloud computing servise 

World Map of Dominating Websites

- In terms of websites (as a whole), google is the world leader.
- In terms of social networks, Facebook is the world leader.
- Baidu is undoubtedly the Chinese leader.
- Yandex is the most active website in Russia.
- Twitter is nowhere in picture.

Detaljna istorija golgote i spasa jednog čoveka koja je započela time što je na tviteru napisao "Jebiga, aerodrom je zatvoren, imate nedelju dana da ga sredite inače ću da ga dignem u vazduh"

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/376645/twitter-jokes-free-speech-on-trial

 

TO JE GUGL PLUS!!!

ОНО ТВОЈЕ ЈЕ TINYPIC! 

skinula se sa fejsbuka (iako će mi nedostajati dopisivanje sa nekima). možda se pojavim ponekad, ako mi ustreba ko. 

 

fejsbuk je zlo. ispada da ipak ja moram da ažuriram stranicu firme. 

Smrznuo sam se malopre, FB ima novog, neočekivanog ZS člana! 
A ja sam mislio da su poslednja vremena već došla i prošla...

pa daaaa, ali meni nikako da prihvati prijateljstvo! 

Možda bira društvo? Evo i mene ignoriše već čitavih 15 minuta. Da nije zaspao 

onda spava dva dana. 

Jao što kasnim... Pa tek sad mi ga je FB ponudio za drugara. Ili sam nepažljiv. 

ma neeee, samo nisi špijunčina kao ja. 

Zabezeknut sam! Napraviću neki prestup da me isključe sa Fejsbuka! Sad me nudi naokolo!


Prevari me Poliksena! Moja zaturena sestra od strica, koju je ovekovečio u jedinoj priči na Radionici Džek Rejnolds (Ne znam šta mu bi, valjda se još kaje.), pozvala me je da budemo prijatelji na Fejsbuku. Ja potegnem njen e-mail - jadac! Tu se nekako zabrinem, pa se u naletu emocija predam Fejsbuku, ne bih li je se domogao. I, jedino nje nema da mi se javi!


Zaista ne razumem zašto svi sa kojima već komuniciram traže od mene da budemo prijatelji na Fejsbuku? Priznajem, jesam u zbunjenosti potvrđivao ta traženja i odjednom mi je gotovo ceo ZS bio u ambaru. Zaustavio sam se, ali kasno. Sad mi se puni g-mail, a ako slučajno kliknem na Fejsbuk vidim viđeno ili ono šta me ne zanima. Sam se skroluje.


Dakle, izvinjavam se svima kojima nisam potvrdio "vezu", imaju me i bez Fejsbuka, što na e-mejl, što na Skajpu, što na ZS. Bolje je tako. Poradiću da nekako pobrišem i ostale i sebe ako to bude moguće. Debilniju pojavu na internetu nisam video.


A, sestri Polikseni ću krvi da se napijem kad je nađem. Jebene porodične veze!

Jednom na fejsu, zauvek na fejsu, Scallope...

Buttbook!

Now Facebook wants YOU to grass-up friends not using their real name

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Freedom to go under a pseudonym is, miraculously, one freedom to survive the security lock-down of the previous decade. Now Facebook wants to change this.Published 12:29, 21 September 12      My friend and IT, IP and Media Law researcher specialising in privacy and autonomy Paul Bernal has a very good blog on what seems at first glance to be a crazy move from Facebook in their ongoing war on pseudonyms.
Facebook has, from multiple independent reports, started asking friends to snitch on friends not using their real names on Facebook:


Now I know when it comes to privacy storms we're all getting a little jaded. 
In a world where anything and everything is reported to threaten our privacy there comes a point when we are forced to don blinkers and carry on regardless, hoping it will all turn out right in the wash.
There are now so many privacy worries that we'd end up living a pretty futile existence if we tried to avoid each and every threat.
But this move, which Facebook are reported to be calling a 'limited test' (source - in German), is an outright assault on an ancient British right to go by any name we choose; with the exception, of course, of official documentation.
Yes, our right to go under a pseudonym survived numerous wars and even the terror-driven clampdown on our freedom over the last decade. It's still perfectly legal to assume any name you choose, so long as you don't want a bank account - for that you'll need to submit a deed poll.
But the right to connect with your friends without using your full real name is more than an amorphous civil right useful only to protesters, authors and actresses (etc, etc).
It's a vital tool for those escaping tricky domestic situations.  I know one case of a lady hounded by another convinced that she'd had an affair with her husband.  Another is in the process of escaping an abusive marriage.  Both set up new profiles under pseudonyms.
Should I snitch on "Nurse Helen" (pseudonym changed to protect the innocent!) if asked?
Are these people really doing anything wrong? 
Well yes, they're breaking Facebook's terms of service, points out Paul.  But does that really matter?
Facebook is desperate to squeeze every ounce of juice out the "value proposition" of holding a rich data set on all our lives.
But with big data comes big responsibility; and pseudonymous users are still valuable to Facebook.
They still see and click on Facebook ads.
They still leave digital footprints that Facebook can track to work out whether they prefer chicken or beef, drive a Ford or Ferrari, read James Patterson or James Joyce; so Facebook is still able to [attempt to] select the most relevant adverts for them.
In fact I can only think of two things Facebook can't do easily for pseudonymous users: (1) link to their credit score; and (2) prevent "review fraud", where users create multiple accounts to unfairly influence product reviews.
Of these, (1) causes me concern anyway. It puts an immense amount of power into the hands of a small number of credit scoring companies. 
Imagine being prevented from using a Facebook app or receiving a discount voucher because your credit rating is not high enough.  We shouldn't encourage discrimination based on the output of a rough algorithm designed to assess our ability to manage debt.
And for (2), yes it's useful to have a system to prevent online vote rigging.  But banning pseudonyms isn't the only method.  It isn't even a fool-proof method. 
And it certainly shouldn't usurp the right of a hounded woman to enjoy social media free from the attentions of a slightly deranged individual.

ima li kraja ovom zlu? 

Ima u Bobanovom zadatku za priču ovog meseca. Ukine ti neko svu elektroniku na 24h. Moglo bi i duže, ali Boban je srca milostva.

ja bih teško preživela, moram da priznam.

Ma, daj. Fiziologija kaže da jedino bez vazduha ne možemo da preživimo 24h.

Odvratno. Nijedan privatan podatak nisam ostavila na fejsu, osim nekih fotki i otvorenog fan pejdža firme.

"...won't affect your friends account."
Na isti način kao što i zaokruživanje odgovora "da" na pitanje da li ste se bavili terorističkim aktivnostima neće uticati na proceduru dobijanja američke vize
FB ima moje podatke, ništa više od onoga što bi se moglo naći i na Google-u. Ne patim od toga šta će da rade sa njima, ne pridajem sebi toliki značaj.

Quote from: scallop on 16-09-2012, 08:48:52
Dakle, izvinjavam se svima kojima nisam potvrdio "vezu", imaju me i bez Fejsbuka, što na e-mejl, što na Skajpu, što na ZS. Bolje je tako. Poradiću da nekako pobrišem i ostale i sebe ako to bude moguće. Debilniju pojavu na internetu nisam video.

Debilna ili ne, vi ste tu ispali najveći licemer. Fejsbuk jeste zlo, najčešće zato što odaje pravo lice ljudi. Otvorili ste nalog i sada javno selektujete one koji žele da vam budu prijatelji i delite ih na one koji su podobni da vam budu na fejsu i one koji nisu. Budite svesni da to ima posledice. Na primer, ja se više neću (javno) pitati gde ste kada vas nema na forumu. Ima onih koje ste selektovali kao podobne prijatelje, oni će brinuti o vama. 


Gle, šest je sati, vreme je da legnem. I ostavim sve ostale na miru. 

Od svih mogućih odgovora koji su mi pali na pamet dobar je samo jedan. Dobro.

Nezgodan taj fejsbuk, otežava koncept prijateljstva, čak i kad ga pojednostavljuje!!!!

Nego, Džeri Braun i ekipa barem rade na tome da zaštite ljude u Kaliforniji od sad već infamozne prakse da vam na razgovoru za posao potencijalni poslodavac traži login pasvord za fejsbuk nalog, ne bi li vas proverio, oh, iznutra:

Calif. governor signs bills banning employers, colleges from demanding access to social media

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a pair of privacy bills making it illegal for employers and colleges to demand access to social media accounts.

Brown announced on Thursday that he signed AB1844 by Assemblywoman Nora Campos, a Democrat from San Jose. The bill prohibits employers from demanding user names and passwords from employees and job applicants.The restriction does not apply to passwords or information used on employer-issued electronic devices.

The governor also signed SB1349 by Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco. The companion bill makes it illegal for colleges and universities to demand social media user names and passwords from students and prospective students.

Brown announced the bills via Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. He says the legislation will protect Californians from "unwarranted invasions."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Zvuči kao solidan plan... dok se ne setite da neki poslodavci automatski odbijaju da razgovaraju sa vama ako nemate fejsbuk nalog:

Beware, Tech Abandoners. People Without Facebook Accounts Are 'Suspicious.'

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The term "Crackberry" seems silly today — and not just because consumers OD'ed on Blackberry and moved on to iDealers. The term arose in an earlier "aughts" time when Blackberry dominated the smartphone market and lawyers and execs were nearly the only ones who had them, due to their need to be able to respond to email immediately. Things have changed. Now we all need to be able to respond to email immediately. And to tweet. And to instantly share our photos on Facebook. We're all addicted to technology now, and not just to the Blackberry. We're "addicted" to our iPhones, and Facebook, and Twitter, and Android, and Pinterest, and iPads, and Word with Friends, and fill-in-the-blank-with-your-digital-dope-of-choice.
The sudden and dramatic advent of social-media-enabling technologies into our lives seems to be causing some mid-digital-life crises. Not only has Silicon Valley developed a guilty conscience about addicting us to screens, we the users are starting to question how technology is changing us: making us fat, making us unhealthy, making us depressed, making us lonely, making us narcissistic, and making us waste time worrying about whether it's making us fat, unhealthy, depressed, narcissistic and/or lonely. That's leading some users to consider abandoning the whole enterprise. My colleague Haydn Shaughnessy gave up his smartphone last year. Now, inspired by the example of former Facebooker Katherine Losse, he's considering giving up Facebook.
I am writing with some words of caution. I used to say that "if you're not on Facebook, it's possible you don't actually exist." I think it's time to update that, courtesy of Slashdot: Facebook abstainers will be labeled suspicious.
Slashdot flagged a German news story in which an expert noted that mass murderers Anders Breivik and James Holmes both lacked much of a social media presence, leading to the conclusion, in Slashdot's phrasing, that "not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer."
That's a tad extreme, but I'm seeing the suggestion more and more often that a missing Facebook account raises red flags. After a woman found out via Facebook that a man who'd 'poked' her in real life had a long term girlfriend, she turned to digital manners advice givers Farhad Manjoo and Emily Yoffe of Slate to ask whether she should tell the girlfriend. They said she should and then went on a digression about transparent romances in the age of Facebook:
Farhad: I think we've mentioned it before that if you are going out with someone and they don't have a Facebook profile, you should be suspicious.
Emily: Wait a minute. You may have mentioned that.
Farhad: I think I've recommended that. You know why, though? Imagine if this guy didn't have a Facebook profile. That's why. You should be suspicious of someone who is not making your relationship known publicly on a site like Facebook. I'm going to go on record with that.
Emily: I'm fine with people not having a Facebook page if they don't want one. However, I think you're right. If you're of a certain age and you meet someone who you are about to go to bed with, and that person doesn't have a Facebook page, you may be getting a false name. It could be some kind of red flag.
via Transcript: Facebook stalker: Should I tell a cheating guy's girlfriend that we hooked up? – Slate Magazine.It's not just love seekers who worry about what the lack of a Facebook account means. Anecdotally, I've heard both job seekers and employers wonder aloud about what it means if a job candidate doesn't have a Facebook account. Does it mean they deactivated it because it was full of red flags? Are they hiding something?
The idea that a Facebook resister is a potential mass murderer, flaky employee, and/or person who struggles with fidelity is obviously flawed. There are people who choose not to be Facebookers for myriad non-psychopathic reasons: because they find it too addictive, or because they hold their privacy dear, or because they don't actually want to know what their old high school buddies are up to. My own boyfriend isn't on Facebook and I don't hold it against him (too much).
But it does seem that increasingly, it's expected that everyone is on Facebook in some capacity, and that a negative assumption is starting to arise about those who reject the Big Blue Giant's siren call. Continuing to navigate life without having this digital form of identification may be like trying to get into a bar without a driver's license.

Case in point: Katherine Losse, the ex-Facebook employee that quit the company and the social network after cashing in her stock options, and who inspired my colleague to consider UnFacebooking, couldn't stay off Facebook for long. She wound up opening a new account.
"You can't get away from it. It's everything. It's everywhere," she told the Washington Post. "The moment we're in now is about trying to deal with all this technology rather than rejecting it, because obviously we can't reject it entirely."
Well, you can, but it might lead to your being rejected down the line too.
* Updated August 7 to include some reasons why a person might choose not to be on Facebook, beyond being too busy planning commando attacks.
* Another update: Haydn responds (and critiques)!
* And another update: A follow-up story from me, "You Don't Need A Facebook Account To Be Considered 'Normal' (But It Helps)"

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 30-09-2012, 10:53:52
Džeri Braun

А ја брзоплето пожурио да сам нађем песму.

Него, што се тиче ових прича о послодавцима који су сумњичави према одметницима од "Фејсбука", оне о потенцијалним терористима... Размишљам, колико маркетиншка екипа ФБ има утицаја на то, да је у питању модификована smear кампања. Јер негативне кампање су досад биле усмераване јасно, на појединце или групу, али да је сад то промењено и усмерено на недефинисану групу која не користи одређени производ, апликацију, услугу, штавећ. Можда су просто тутнули који долар новинарима да трубе о таквим појавама, јер иду на карту тога да је модерни слаби човек заправо плашљив и да ће подлећи "потенцијалној" претњи. Потенцијалној, наглашавам, јер већина некорисника највероватније нема никакве проблеме што "нема фејс", па чак им ФБ и не треба. Овако се лажно ствара атмосфера не да треба, већ је неопходан.

Друга прича би била о ФБ као испостави америчких обавештајних служби, јер сву конспиратологију на страну, то није без ђавла јер ФБ је обавештајни рај.

Da, zaboravio sam da linkujem pesmu odmah 

A ovo o potpirivanju priče nije bez vraga, Amerika je ipak zemlja lobiranja. No, imajmo na umu da tekst govori o još uvek slučajevima i incidentima, ne o preovlađujućem trendu, tako da je moguće da neki novinari pišu jer su plaćeni, ali i da pišu jer im je zanimljiv ovaj ili onaj slučaj koji možda pokazuje taj neki sign of the times itd.

Па да, ја и кажем да није тренд. Не тврдим да ФБ агенти потплаћују послодавце већ новинаре. Нађу пример или два, а онда то спинују тако да само они који пажљиво читају виде да није реч о тренду.

Jasno, jasno, isto govorimo.

У ствари, то само ми који "немамо фејс" паметујемо у безнадежној нади да једнога дана нећемо робијати због тога. 

Eh, da sam se ja uzdržao od fejsa. Upropasti me naša Poliksena!

Ali nisi!!! I sad si deo stada, baš kao i ja.

I ja imam svoju "Poliksenu", ako ćemo iskreno...

Nemaš, jer moja Poliksena ima 67 godina. I nisam deo stada, jer ima sve "prijatelje" da izbrišem čim se javi.

Pa dobro, moja je malo mlađa, al' me je isto tako navukla zbunjenog i nespremnog.

Samo..

Prijatelje možeš masakrirati, ali svoje podatke sa fejsa nikad.

Da znaš.   Postoji samo moje ime i datum rođenja.

Možeš ti da brišeš kol'ko oćeš, meni FB odavno nudi tvoju Poliksenu za drugara 

Ako ti se javi reci joj da se javi meni. Onda ćemo sve da brišemo.

Šta biva sa vašim digitalnim identitetom nakon što umrete? Ovim pitanjem se bavi i jedan član američke akademske zajednice:

  Facebook's Afterlife Accepted Paper Series

Upravo ovih dana mi fejs sugeriše da čestitam rođendan čoveku koji je umro pre nepunih mesec dana...

Poučna priča o internet maltretiranju

The day I confronted my troll

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He drove me off Twitter, hacked my Facebook, and abused and terrified my family. Yet the biggest shock of all was meeting him

  I'm back on Twitter.

I can imagine the cries of "I knew he wouldn't last!" from the Twitterati.
But give me a few minutes of your time and I'll tell you why I'm back and the real truth about exactly why I left in the first place.

In my blog of 12 August entitled Walking, Not Running, I talked about my time on Twitter and my basic reasons for leaving. I stand over a lot of what I said. The atmosphere there has changed and there have been negative stories in the media about trolling, etc, for months now. The brand has been damaged and Twitter needs to act fairly swiftly to repair it. At the time of writing that blog, for reasons that will become obvious, I was very sketchy about my own personal experience.

When I left Twitter numerous people thought it was as a result of an overreaction on my behalf. That my departure was a kneejerk reaction to a couple of "trolling" or "flaming" incidents or that I was attention seeking. The reality of the situation is that my wife and I were targeted for over three years.

It started in July 2009. I'd been on Twitter for over two years at that point, having joined in May 2007, and I'd never had a problem. My account was followed by a fairly innocuous looking one which I followed back and within 10 minutes I had received a direct message (DM) calling me a "Dirty fucking Jewish scumbag". I blocked the account and reported it as spam. The following week it happened again in an identical manner. A new follower, I followed back, received a string of abusive DMs, blocked and reported for spam. Two or three times a week. Sometimes two or three times a day. An almost daily cycle of blocking and reporting and intense verbal abuse. So I made my account private and the problem went away for a short while. There were no problems on Twitter but my Facebook account was hacked, my blog was spammed and my email address was flooded with foulmouthed and disgusting comments and images. Images of corpses and concentration camps and dismembered bodies.
Again, it eased off for a couple of weeks. I relaxed. Thought they'd finally tired of failing to get a reaction from me. Boy, was I wrong.

I didn't mention it to my wife. Didn't see the point of worrying her. But then she joined Twitter to see what it was like and grew to enjoy it. It wouldn't have been immediately obvious to outsiders that we were man and wife. She made the mistake, though, of changing her profile to state that she was "The long suffering wife of @LeoTraynor". Not a good idea. She received a DM stating: "Your husband is scum. A rotten bastard and you're a whore." She laughed it off. Blocked and reported and then the pattern started again. We got to the point of not accepting new followers at all and then one day my wife received a torrent of abuse via DM and on the timeline that was so vile she's never been on Twitter since – which is a real shame as she has so much to share and is far more interesting than I am.

People kept asking me, "Why you? Why would these guys want to have a go at you?" I couldn't answer them other than it was a couple of random idiots who didn't appreciate my political views or ethnic origins. Or even someone who couldn't solve my cryptic crosswords!

The whole thing escalated in June, July and August this year. I received more and more abuse on the timeline and via DMs. A crossword clue account I'd started (@Leo'sClue) was inundated with abuse too.
Then one day something happened that truly frightened me. I don't scare easily but this was vile.

I received a parcel at my home address. Nothing unusual there – I get lots of post. I ripped it open and there was a Tupperware lunchbox inside full of ashes. There was a note included, saying, "Say hello to your relatives from Auschwitz". I was physically sick.

I was petrified. They had my address. I reported it to the authorities and hoped for the best.
Two days later I opened my front door and there was a bunch of dead flowers with my wife's old Twitter username on it. Then that night I received a DM. "You'll get home some day & ur bitches throat will be cut & ur son will be gone."
I got on to the authorities again but, polite and sympathetic as they were, there didn't seem much that could be done.
Every night for weeks I lost sleep over it. Listening for noises. Opening the door everyday with trepidation. Trying to maintain a semblance of normality and not let my wife or son see that I was dying on the inside. Mortified that they might be in danger because of my big mouth or ancestry.

Then the last straw. I received another tweet, on the public timeline this time. "I hope you die screaming but not until you see me piss on ur wife."

I closed my account immediately and swore I'd never go back, in spite of the friends I have there.
I made it clear that I would pursue the troll or trolls and that I would take action. What I didn't say though was that I'd already been pursuing them for weeks and had a very good idea where, if not who, they were.

In July I was approached by a friend who's basically an IT genius, and he offered some help. He said that he could trace the hackers and trolls for me using perfectly legal technology, which would lead to their IP addresses. I said yes. Then I baited them – I was deliberately more provocative toward them than ever I'd been before.

Holidays intervened. My Twitter account was deactivated but before doing so I posted links to my Google+ account, blog and invited people to contact me on Facebook. I'm delighted that a lot of my lovely friends did. I'm also delighted that The Troll did too.

It transpired that the abuse had emanated from three separate IP addresses in different corners of Ireland. Two of them were public wifi locations but the third ... The third location was the interesting one.

The third location was a friend's house.

The Troll was his son. His 17-year-old son.

I was gobsmacked.

I spoke to my friend at length. He told me how his son was always glued to his laptop, tablet or smartphone. How he couldn't watch a TV show without tweeting about it simultaneously. About how he'd become engrossed in conspiracy sites. It also became clear that the other two IP addresses had been used by his son.

He was horrified at what his son had done. Horrified, but not surprised. He wanted to call the authorities there and then and turn him in. But I said no.

A couple of days after that conversation I met my friend, his wife and their son in a quiet and discreet location. The son, The Troll who'd almost driven me mad, was totally unaware that I'd be joining them.

I sat down and ordered a big pot of tea. "Do you still like choc chip cookies?" I asked The Troll and he nodded eagerly, a shadow of the little boy that was flickering across his face.

We had a chat. I told them about my wife and son. I told them about my recent illnesses and bereavements and about the builders having been in. I asked after their business and asked The Troll how college is going. All bright and breezy and a trip down memory lane. Then The Troll's dad tipped me the wink and I opened my bag and took out my manila folder.

I showed The Troll's mother and father screengrabs and printouts of his handiwork.

I showed them pictures of ashes and dead flowers.

I pointed out that one of the messages my wife received wishing me dead had arrived when I actually was gravely ill.

I told them of how I'd become so paranoid that I genuinely didn't know who to trust anymore.

I told them of nights when I'd walked the rooms, jumping at shadows and crying over the sleeping forms of my family for fear that they would suffer because of me.

Then it happened ...

The Troll burst into tears. His dad gently restraining him from leaving the table.

I put my hand on his shoulder and asked him: "Why?"

The Troll sat there for a moment and said "I don't know. I don't know. I'm sorry. It was like a game thing."

A game thing.

So, that's what it was ...

The Troll's mother said: "If you want to call the garda we'll support you in that. I'm ashamed of him."

I responded: "I'm not criminalising a 17-year-old kid and ruining his future. But I will write about it – and you must all guarantee me that he'll go and see a counsellor about this or I will go legal on you."

Then I got up to leave. I looked The Troll in the eye and said: "Stand up."

He stood. I said: "Look at me. I'm a middle-aged man with a limp and a wheeze and a son and a wife that I love. I'm not just a little avatar of an eye. You're better than this. You have a name of your own. Be proud of it. Don't hide it again and I won't ruin it if you play ball with your parents. Now shake hands."

"I'm sorry," he said, and looked like he meant it. "Thanks for giving me a break dude."

Then we shook on it.

And that is how I came to shake the hand of a troll.

• This article originally appeared on traynorseye.com and is republished with permission. The author has asked us to make clear he does not want to be paid a fee 

Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100 Million dollar lesson) 

Quote
I'm TIRED of answering this question so I'd rather write it out and just point people to this post.
Let me start in reverse.
I can tell you every detail of the day I got fired aka "let go" aka "down-sized" aka "shit-canned."
I thought I was going to a routine coffee with my boss and randomly saw Matt Cohler sitting at the table inside (surprising)!
I knew something was amiss. Matt broke the news quickly and I was in dead-shock as the words came out of his mouth. They walked me back to the office and removed my laptop and my cell phone.
Then I proceeded to the Verizon store to use their phone, called my gf (at the time) and drove to the house I shared with 6 other FB guys.
Packed up all my stuff in my CRX, smoked a 1/2 pack of cigarettes on the balcony and drove to my friend Johnny's place. It took me a bit to let my mom know and I slept on Johnny's couch for a few days, thanks J!
Later that night we had a bbq at this place and everyone was asking me how the job was going....#awkward
I kept drinking that night to pass out and pray this was all a bad dream.
At that time, here's the order of what was important in my life:
1- Facebook
2- Myself
3- Food / Shelter
4- My gf
5- Family
6- Friends
To spell it out. Facebook was my entire life.
My social circle, my validation, my identity and everything was tied to this company.
How the fuck could have ended up like this?
WTF! I just got a promotion and a raise 2 months before!
This was my first time being fired and it took me 1 year to get over the depression.
—————————————————————————————
After running AppSumo for over 2 years I've finally understood that Facebook made the right decision to let me go.
When you hire people there are three types of employees:
1- Grower. Someone who starts when the company is small and improves / adapts their skills as the company scales.
2- Show-er. Someone who can be good for the company where they are now but NOT where they are going.
3- Veteran. They've done it before and it's second nature for them to teach you how to do it in your company.
I was a show-er at Facebook. I dealt with chaos of a 30 person company extremely well. (Did I mention my boss got fired on my first day and my next boss got fired 2 months after me?)
Most decisions were me walking over to Mark's desk for approval, but at 150 people it was a group meeting of 30 people or me having to schedule time via Mark's secretary.
I was a bit annoyed with the situation even though our memories always deceive us. Ever recall how you thought all the times with your ex-girl/boy friend were great but in reality there were a lot of shitty times...
The specific reasons I wasn't able to adapt are as follows:
1- Selfish. I wanted attention, I put myself before Facebook. I hosted events at the office, published things on this blog to get attention and used the brand more than I added to it.
Lesson learned: The BEST way to get famous is make amazing stuff. That's it. Not blogging, networking, etc.
2- Marketing. The marketing team's plan was not to do anything and the night before we opened Facebook to the professional market (anyone with a @microsoft.com, @dell.com, etc...) I emailed TechCrunch to let Michael Arrington know to publish it in the morning. He ended up publishing it that night (I was at Coachella and will never again attend) before the actual product was released in the morning. I immediately notified the e-team and assumed full responsibility.
Lesson learned: I don't think what I did was that wrong since the marketing team did not do anything to promote our new features. My lesson learned was more I should have involved them instead of just going around them.
3- Skills. As I said above when things needed to get done. I was there and shit got done. As we progressed to needing to organize massive spreadsheets and big group collaboration meetings, I zoned the F out and was then shortly out of the company.
Lesson learned: Go see if your weaknesses are hindering you at your job. Ie. I wasn't great at planning or product management at this time. Fix them or move to another position. Also, constantly ask yourself how can I make the company more valuable. You do that and you will never get fired*. *unless you do something really stupid or the company goes out of business.
Each human on Earth has super powers. I've realized mine are execution, sales, marketing, eating tacos and throwing in occasional jokes.
As I've gotten older I'm more patient, a bit better at planning and able to work better with larger groups. Would I be a great fit for product management at Facebook now, likely; would I ever work there again, Frick No.
Ultimately, when I'm hiring now I'm looking for people who have gone to the promised land and can come back and teach us. They've built certain things, done the marketing we need to know, etc...
Matt Cohler (early LinkedIn, FB and now Partner at Benchmark) called me a "liability" as they let me go that day in the coffee shop on University Avenue.
This has scarred me and I've worked hard to be an asset to the companies I start and people I'm involved with. Thanks Matt!
A few key things I've learned after letting people go from AppSumo:
1- It stings the person WAY more than the company. I thought every day that the company missed me but I've learned they just keep going on with business. AND (UN)FORTUNATELY most businesses get better. So be stern when letting someone go but be reasonable and thoughtful to how it must feel. I encourage everyone to get fired once so they know that feeling. It's unbelievable and something to definitely learn from.
2- EVERYONE is replaceable. You are NOT special and there is guaranteed someone better than you on this planet. So be the opposite, find the way to be invaluable where you work. This doesn't mean locking things into you but opening things up so you are trusted and subsequently valued more.
3- Most people when they get let go, they know it's time. They may not want to accept what their subconscious tells them but they know it's right and it opens them up to something better. Instead of throwing them away, help guide / work with them to see what is their true calling and better suited for them.
People hear me speak or see my resume as awesome experiences but the details / depth of them is the interesting / meaty part.
Being at Facebook is where I grew the most professionally. I've NEVER been around such smart people. I've never felt so consistent like I wasn't the smartest person in the room.
So all this combined ended up costing me around $100,000,000. It is what it is. Ultimately, I appreciate where I am now and all the experiences I got from NOT being there.
A true measure of an entrepreneur / successful-person is how they deal with adversity.
As my high school drama teacher told me the day I ran crying off the stage, "it's not the outcome but learning from the experience that really counts...."
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