Really? Because, you know, multiple other sources say that Zuckerberg started the prototype in September of 2003, and what we know as Facebook was launched in February of 2004.

If I recall rightIy, my vt.edu email address allowed me to register sometime in late 2004 or early 2005. On campus, it was starting to generate a lot of buzz as a great tool to bring lots of people together on short notice.

Your response is typical of what I was talking about though -- memory is a strange and elastic thing. You've been on Facebook for so long it feels like it's been 8 years, but it hasn't, and it really couldn't possibly have been.

Well, to play devil's advocate (to AC, sigh):

He could have been on Facebook in 2004, provided (as you mention) that he was in an Ivy League school. I am fairly certain that by the end of 2004, he could have had a Facebook with just a .edu address. However, the quote you reference doesn't explicitly say that he met his first wife on Facebook, it just says they met in 2003 and they met online. Heck: that could have been on AC2 or EQ or a MUD or etc etc.

Then again, people could have their dates all screwed up. The word "reportedly" plays strong in the sentence you quote. How many people have you met in, for example, December of 2007 that if asked you'd say you've known for at least four years? Similarly "not long after" is rather ambiguous. Depending on what your perception is of "a long time" that could be a few days, months, or even right at or a little over a year.

Control scheme change is even more apparent in the GTA3 series. GTA3 itself was obviously made for the PC first and then for console; the control scheme is pretty evenly matched whichever platform you choose. But then when you get into VC, everything on the PC side is ok until you hit the first mission for Avery Carrington (flying the toy helicopter) rather early in the game. Missing that right analog stick to control your clockwise/counterclockwise motion makes that mission incredibly difficult to pull off on a PC, and despite many frustrating hours of effort I could not satisfactorily configure a Xbox 360 controller for the PC to replicate the console controls. Lastly, when you get to SA you are practically stopped at the first Cesar mission (where you have to compete in the hydraulic car hop) because the numkeys don't map like the right analog stick does. Similarly, riding a motorcycle in VC or SA loses some finesse because you can't lean forward or back like you can via the left analog stick using just the keyboard. Considering these games span from ~2001 through to ~2004 I'd say it was a rather rapid sea change.

For those of you who have found otherwise, please let me know where you got your controller bindings (preferably for the 360 controller), because my laptop can outperform the heck out of my 360 visually.

I came to say this, too. I love the scrobbling end of things.
Discovery has been so-so, but definite big winners when it got it dead on.

My stuff

This.
I knew I wasn't the only one to feel like this.
Everything that's accomplished by MySpace and Facebook could be accomplished on a stand-alone personal site, and if it was interesting enough and your friends were really friends, they'd come and visit it. Hell, they're your friends, right? If you send them a link to your website with photo albums from your last trip abroad, is it really that much less likely that they won't visit because it isn't FaceSpace? What sort of friend finds clicking away from FaceSpace a deterring factor? I imagine there's some pretty good chat modules you could build in, too. Heck, I could even post content that FaceSpace find offensive! I could set my own terms and conditions! If I wanted to change the layout, I could! etc etc etc.

So, I repeat:
Facebook and MySpace are HTML for dummies.

When I had a Facebook account, I'd click the person in the picture and then type a name in the input field. If it didn't come up as one of your friends, you could still tag them in the picture but without the typically-associated hyperlink. As for searching for someone, speaking as someone who has had to deal with Facebook drama in the workplace, I am here to tell you more often than not these things are handed in as printouts instead of being shown online to someone in authority (anecdotal evidence is, however, anecdotal).

The point remains the same though: a picture of a somewhat drunk girl hanging over a bathtub looking rather... icky. With enough recognizable facial features combined with a name or a caption, you can draw all the conclusions you want.

I know you're trolling, but I'll bite:

You tell this to your 19 year old daughter when her good friends post & tag a picture of her on Facebook. You know -- the one where she's puking in a toilet bowl. Oh but she can untag herself, eh? Not if she doesn't have a Facebook account or if they don't use her Facebook name.

/facebook should fall off the earth //so evil, it burns

Make your own website. Of course, that might be too much like work and you'll have a little harder time getting people to visit it (unless it's interesting). I have always regarded social networking sites (FB, MS, Linkedin, etc) to be little more than HTML for people without HTML abilities. Sure, you can go one place and access 500,000 people, but when all those people are doing is basically a great big attentionwhorefest, what's the point?

Oh yeah, Farmville. *groan*

You are absolutely right in your assessment. Still, you have to pay those fees if you are anything approaching a pro. What I call "fees" should be interpreted as your ASCAP dues & any royalty percentage due.

Like I said, lack of caffeine does dangerously stupid things to me :)

You know, I think I misinterpreted your 1st post. Too early in the morning. You don't need permission to do a cover tune, but if you start playing that song on the radio without paying your fees then I hope your lawyer is cheap.

Alan Parsons, engineer of DSotM, would like a word with you ...

Her Majesty was actually a throw-away track that got left on accidentally. It is supposed to go in between Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam (reprogram your CD player and you'll see).

That's called "San Tropez." I was actually hoping for "Point Me At The Sky" in there somewhere.

Well, you know wrongly then. There's even what might be an urban legend about Ted Nugent becoming a controlling stock holder of Muzak simply to avoid ever having any of his music done by them. Parodies on the other hand...

How to "get" DSotM:
Side 1 (Breathe through Great Gig in the Sky) is about the cycle of life.
Side 2 (Money through Eclipse) is about what happens during the cycle of life.