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Sandy knocks snark out of Twitter -- for a day

That awkward moment when your Twitter feed shifts from hurricane booze sarcasm to genuine fear. #sandy

— Ben Rossen (@benrossen) October 29, 2012

As someone writing on the West Coast, it's easy to feel at once a bit detached about Hurricane Sandy and deeply concerned for friends and family -- and everyone else -- stuck in the path of that once-in-a-generation natural disaster bearing down on the East Coast.

But for those hunkering down in places like New York City, Sandy represents real personal consequences -- and it would be natural to assume that those who've spent days nervously waiting to see if the hurricane is for real aren't laughing about it now that they're in the thick of it.

Yet, a quick look at Twitter today reveals that at least as many people have been tweeting quips about the storm as have been expressing real worry. The real question, though, seemed to be: How might the mood change once Sandy hit land and anticipation was replaced by the reality of being in the middle of a major natural disaster that's actively wreaking havoc? … Read more

Facebook backer Jim Breyer sells $81.1M in stock

Jim Breyer, the venture capitalist whose firm Accel Partners made an early bet on Facebook, last week sold shares of Facebook worth more than $81.1 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

More specifically, Breyer, who sits on Facebook's board, sold 3,563,387 shares at prices ranging from $22.48 to $23.29 per share. The sales occurred last Thursday.

While those prices are a far cry from the $38 a share that Facebook went public at in May, Breyer still hit a high point of late. The stock had just rallied following … Read more

Sandy is a disaster, but these photos are ridiculous

As almost everyone knows, Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the East Coast, and when all is said and done, its likely to leave a wide, expensive, and potentially fatal path of destruction in its wake. Yet despite a massive number of legitimate photos of the storm being uploaded to every social network you can think of -- including 10 a second to Instagram -- a number of sensational photos seem to be dominating the conversation.

The photos show incredible images like the eye of the hurricane floating over the top of the Statue of Liberty. Or of a very … Read more

Facebook sued over social-gaming currency

Kickflip has sued Facebook, claiming the social-networking giant broke antitrust laws in the social gaming currency market, according to a report.

The company, operating as virtual currency and payment-processing provider Gambit, said Facebook's decision in 2009 to offer its own similar services to developers killed a "vibrant and competitive market," according to federal court papers examined by Bloomberg.

Such a service allows gaming providers to issue currency to players in exchange for real money or advertising offers.

Kickflip's complaint says that Facebook marginalized its competitors by "blacklisting" Gambit and forcing developers to use only … Read more

Teacher suspended for alleged 'shoot 'em up' Facebook post

I don't know how kindergarten teachers put up with 5-year-olds screeching all day, but they do.

Well, mostly.

Some hit the bottle. And some hit Facebook.

Tameka Gatewood, who plies her trade at Rainshaven Elementary School in Memphis, Tenn., apparently chose the latter, more modern option.

As WMCTV reports, Gatewood was a tad frustrated when two of her little ones said unkind things to each other.

So she allegedly posted:

How bout I blasted both of them. The girl in my class hair is nappy almost every day and the boy wears dirty clothes, face nasty and can't … Read more

Sandy claims Facebook events as latest hurricane cancellations

Event cancellations due to Hurricane Sandy keep blowing in.

This time it's Facebook calling off a couple of get-togethers it had scheduled for this week in New York.

The social networking giant was holding an open house Tuesday at its New York office to give reporters the chance to chat with some of its engineers. The company notified the press that it canceled the event because of the storm.

It also has postponed a "Facebook Gifts" event scheduled for Thursday at New York's famed toy store, FAO Schwartz.

While Facebook provided few details about Thursday's … Read more

Your Facebook profile pic, shown in the Louvre

Seeking to modernize the staid "Baron Von Sitting Down" and "Madame Miss No Emotion" portrait genre of yore, a couple of London creatives have launched an initiative to get as many Facebook profile pics as possible into the world's leading museums.

"Each one of our profile pics is a statement about who we are," says the video for The Profile Picture Exhibition project, which I won't embed here due to its generous use of a word that starts with the same letter as Facebook does. "It's finally time we claimed our space in art history." … Read more

Facebook reminds developers to keep spamming to a minimum

Facebook is reminding developers that a spammy app is an ignored app. The social network announced a change in its developer guidelines today to make sure the number of notifications app developers send to app users stay at a minimum.

The two new guidelines -- not sending notifications to inactive users and maintaining a 17 percent click-to-impression ratio -- go into effect on November 9.

This means apps can only send notifications to users who have visited their apps within 28 days and apps sending a lot of notifications need to make sure that users are clicking the notifications they … Read more

Citi fires Internet analysts, pays $2 million fine

Earlier today, Massachusetts fined Citigroup Global Markets $2 million for illegally disclosing nonpublic information. In the aftermath of the report, Citi was reported to have fired Internet analyst Mark Mahaney. Also, I can confirm that Mahaney is no longer with the firm.

Citigroup also fired an unnamed junior analyst reporting to Mahaney last month. The state's investigation did not implicate Mahaney in the leaks.

The report, issued today by William Galvin, Secretary of Massachusetts, does not mention Mahaney by name. It instead refers to a "senior research analyst at the company who had been covering the technology industry&… Read more