Follow-Up

There are 521 posts filed in Follow-Up (this is page 27 of 53).

Centrist Word: Mitt Romney Campaign Busted Buying Hundreds of Thousands of Facebook LIKES and Twitter Followers

Romney Facebook likes (courtesy Centrist Word)


The Centrist Word blog has uncovered evidence of social media manipulation by the Mitt Romney campaign.

While the blog accuses the campaign of buying Facebook followers, the article doesn’t provide answers about how this manipulation is being done. It’s quite possible that Romney’s campaign or someone acting on its behalf has been exploiting a Facebook vulnerability to secretly register likes on the accounts of not just fake users but real users as well.

The same thing happened at the same time. As you can see in the chart above, Mitt had seen a steady rise in the number of Facebook likes, then, magically on August 1st a spike. At the same time, Romney set the lofty goal of reaching 3 million Facebook likes. Propaganda for the digital age – purchased popularity.

Again, all you need to do is google “buy facebook followers” and you will see dozens of companies ready to help. In most cases, these services are used by companies in order to give them an initial ‘boost’ when first setting up a Facebook fan page for their business.

via Mitt Romney Campaign Busted Buying Hundreds of Thousands of Facebook LIKES and Twitter Followers |.

More Mitt Romney Facebook hijacks

A few other Facebook users are reporting that their accounts were used to like Mitt Romney’s page without their permission.

One person replied to my post to the Facebook help forum with this comment:

“The same thing happened to me and a few other people I know.”

Then there is this comment:
Continue reading →

Email to Facebook

I posted this in Facebook’s Help forum tonight. I don’t know if it will do any good but I thought I’d use Facebook’s meager feedback channels to at least attempt to alert them to this.

It seems that sometime today I unknowingly became a “fan” of the Mitt Romney page. I never clicked like on Romney’s page, nor does my Facebook activity log show any likes for Romney’s page for at least as far back as October 14, 2011.

I strongly suspect that someone has manipulated Facebook’s database to set this like status without Facebook properly logging it as it would’ve with any other likes I have chosen. Please research this and tell me when I became a fan of Mitt Romney’s page and, if you CAN’T tell me when I became a fan, please explain WHY you can’t tell.

I suspect a hack or virus is to blame. Or a breach of Facebook security.

Thanks much!

Mark Turner
Sysadmin and network security geek
Raleigh

The Cheapest Generation

Here’s another look at the dramatically changing demographics taking place in America. Raleigh leaders, take note.

In 2009, Ford brought its new supermini, the Fiesta, over from Europe in a brave attempt to attract the attention of young Americans. It passed out 100 of the cars to influential bloggers for a free six-month test-drive, with just one condition: document your experience online, whether you love the Fiesta or hate it.

Young bloggers loved the car. Young drivers? Not so much. After a brief burst of excitement, in which Ford sold more than 90,000 units over 18 months, Fiesta sales plummeted. As of April 2012, they were down 30 percent from 2011.

Don’t blame Ford. The company is trying to solve a puzzle that’s bewildering every automaker in America: How do you sell cars to Millennials (a?k?a Generation Y)? The fact is, today’s young people simply don’t drive like their predecessors did. In 2010, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 bought just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, down from the peak of 38 percent in 1985. Miles driven are down, too. Even the proportion of teenagers with a license fell, by 28 percent, between 1998 and 2008.

via The Cheapest Generation – Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissmann – The Atlantic.

Update 1:38 PM: The authors cite the same thing I did back in March: that technology is making travel less necessary than it was before.

Smartphones compete against cars for young people’s big-ticket dollars, since the cost of a good phone and data plan can exceed $1,000 a year. But they also provide some of the same psychic benefits—opening new vistas and carrying us far from the physical space in which we reside.

“You no longer need to feel connected to your friends with a car when you have this technology that’s so ubiquitous, it transcends time and space,” Connelly said.

In other words, mobile technology has empowered more than just car-sharing. It has empowered friendships that can be maintained from a distance. The upshot could be a continuing shift from automobiles to mobile technology, and a big reduction in spending.

Raleigh will soon have its own business startup ‘Hub’

HUB Raleigh


It looks like Raleigh may have a place for startups to get started after all, about a year after I mentioned it here. I’m looking forward to learning more about HUB Raleigh!

Frustrated by lack of respectable, low-cost office space and support of other new and emerging business owners, a team of entrepreneurs in Raleigh is launching an equivalent of Durham’s “American Underground.”

Led by Brooks Bell, owner of her own rapidly growing high-tech integration business, and Christopher Gergen, who launched the Bull City Forward business program in Durham, “HUB Raleigh” is set to open on Sept. 15 at 711 Hillsborough Street.

via Raleigh will soon have its own business startup 'Hub' :: WRAL Tech Wire.

After acrimony, Wade CAC chairs seek smoother relations

I like the N&O’s Matt Garfield. He works hard and has sat through marathon meetings when even I wanted to jump out of my chair and disapppear. When my friend wrote about this past week’s Wade CAC election, though, he didn’t tell even half of the story.

I suppose someday soon I will fill in the blanks here on MT.Net, and there’s also value in simply moving on. For now I’m happy that Citizens Advisory Councils (CACs) are getting the attention they deserve.

Mike Rieder and Mary Jane Clark have a lot of work to do.

The newly elected Wade CAC chairman and vice-chairwoman take office following a contentious election to succeed longtime predecessors Bill Padgett and Louise Griffith.

Rieder defeated Seth Hollar and Craig Ralph in a vote that attracted an overflow crowd of 170 people to the Jaycee Community Center. Clark was unopposed.

The pair will try to restore a sense of cooperation to the Wade CAC, a community advisory council that encompasses some of the city’s most historic and politically active neighborhoods.Created in the 1970s, CACs weigh in on issues ranging from zoning to mass transit.

“This process was damaging to the community,” Clark said. “We have a lot of healing that needs to take place.”

via After acrimony, Wade CAC chairs seek smoother relations – Raleigh – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did – Forbes

Here’s an eye-opening look at how closely (and eerily) Target tracks its customers’ purchases.

This isn’t the half of what stores can do, though. Before I got my current gig, I did a telephone interview with a company which made recognition software for in-store video systems. Supposedly this software could track customers as they made their way around the store, including how long a customer lingered on a particular aisle. It was Big Brother to the extreme and while I needed the work, I’m glad I didn’t have to get into that spooky stuff.

MyBillJohnsonStory.com

The N&O’s John Murawski covers a Bill Johnson fan site, http://www.mybilljohnsonstory.com So now we won’t get just Jim Rogers’s and Bill Johnson’s version of events, but the people who worked with Johnson, too.

Call it the unofficial Bill Johnson Fan Club.

Current and former employees of Progress Energy and Duke Energy are posting their testimonials about the deposed utility chief executive on a web site created by a former Progress PR handler who considers Johnson a personal friend and mentor.

The site — http://mybilljohnsonstory.com/ — is reminiscent of a virtual memorial wall funeral homes create for the deceased, suggesting the sorrow Johnson’s firing from Duke Energy has engendered among his admirers.

Aaron Perlut, the architect behind the site, wanted to provide legions of Johnson admirers an outlet for their emotions.

via .biz – Bill Johnson admirers fill up virtual wall with testimonials | newsobserver.com blogs.

Great coverage of the Duke Energy – Progress coup

I’ve really been impressed with the coverage of the Duke Energy merger fiasco done by the N&O’s John Murawski, such as today’s story on Jim Rogers’s talk with Progress employees. Murawski’s been churning out story after story on this and has even managed to write an especially colorful feature on the Eno River festival in between.

I also enjoyed today’s commentary by N&O editor Dan Barkin, who all-but-laughs at the lame excuses Duke CEO Jim Rogers gave to the N.C. Utilities Commission on Tuesday. If after all the merger’s due diligence Duke was somehow surprised by Bill Johnson’s leadership style and the sad shape of the Crystal River plant then it ain’t Johnson who needs to needs to be shown the door. No, the only ones who got taken for a ride here are the ratepayers and the justifiably-angry commissioners at the NCUC.

This is why I still subscribe to newspapers. Keep it up, boys!