Futurepower(R) - Slashdot User

An anonymous reader writes: The inspiration for this article comes from a study written in 2014 by John Cannarella and Joshua Spechler, both Princeton researchers, who likened use of social networks to the spread of the bubonic plague.

The researchers concluded that 'Facebook will undergo a rapid decline in the coming years, losing 80% of its peak user base between 2015 and 2017', and based this prediction on the number of times Facebook is typed into Google as a search term. They found that Facebook searches peaked in December 2012 and have begun to tail off ever since (see below).

They then cited Myspace as an example of a social network which had declined in popularity inline with their expectations using the method, conveniently failing to mention that Facebook itself was probably the chief culprit in killing it off.

Soon a press desperate for new stories to write about on a boring Tuesday afternoon descended on it, weighing in on whether there was any substance to the premise and gleefully splashing 'Facebook to lose 80% of users by 2017' all over their front pages.

Even Facebook itself got involved as Mike Develin, one of their data scientists, tore it to shreds with a few choice quips:

'Using the same robust methodology featured in the paper, we attempted to find out more about this 'Princeton University' – and you won’t believe what we found! In keeping with the scientific principle 'correlation equals causation,' our research unequivocally demonstrated that Princeton may be in danger of disappearing entirely.

This trend suggests that Princeton will have only half its current enrolment by 2018, and by 2021 it will have no students at all, agreeing with the previous graph of scholarly scholarliness. Based on our robust scientific analysis, future generations will only be able to imagine this now-rubble institution that once walked this earth.'

In fact perhaps the biggest accomplishment the Princeton research achieved was that by packaging it as an academic study it managed to encourage everyone to describe it as research rather than what it actually was, which was nonsense — and in doing so achieved its core aim of getting everybody to talk about and share it.

Still, it does pose an interesting question — when will we stop using Facebook?

- See more at: http://www.thepinchandzoom.com...

Submission + - New flights from SpaceShipTwo will likely not happen for years

Submitted by schwit1 on Sunday May 31, 2015 @03:17PM

Submission + - The Tricky Business of Being a Male Advocate for CS Gender Equality

Submitted by theodp on Sunday May 31, 2015 @02:27PM

Submission + - Cybersecurity and the Tylenol Murders

Submitted by HughPickens.com on Sunday May 31, 2015 @02:22PM

HughPickens.com writes: Cindy Cohn writes at EFF that when a criminal started lacing Tylenol capsules with cyanide in 1982, Johnson & Johnson quickly sprang into action to ensure consumer safety. It increased its internal production controls, recalled the capsules, offered an exchange for tablets, and within two months started using triple-seal tamper-resistant packaging. Congress ultimately passed an anti-tampering law but the focus of the response from both the private and the public sector was on ensuring that consumers remained safe and secure, rather than on catching the perpetrator. Indeed, the person who did the tampering was never caught.

According to Cohn the story of the Tylenol murders comes to mind as Congress considers the latest cybersecurity and data breach bills. To folks who understand computer security and networks, it's plain that the key problem are our vulnerable infrastructure and weak computer security, much like the vulnerabilities in Johnson & Johnson’s supply chain in the 1980s. As then, the failure to secure our networks, the services we rely upon, and our individual computers makes it easy for bad actors to step in and “poison” our information. The way forward is clear: We need better incentives for companies who store our data to keep it secure. "Yet none of the proposals now in Congress are aimed at actually increasing the safety of our data. Instead, the focus is on “information sharing,” a euphemism for more surveillance of users and networks," writes Cohn. "These bills are not only wrongheaded, they seem to be a cynical ploy to use the very real problems of cybersecurity to advance a surveillance agenda, rather than to actually take steps to make people safer." Congress could step in and encourage real security for users—by creating incentives for greater security, a greater downside for companies that fail to do so and by rewarding those companies who make the effort to develop stronger security. "It's as if the answer for Americans after the Tylenol incident was not to put on tamper-evident seals, or increase the security of the supply chain, but only to require Tylenol to “share” its customer lists with the government and with the folks over at Bayer aspirin," concludes Cohn. "We wouldn’t have stood for such a wrongheaded response in 1982, and we shouldn’t do so now."

Submission + - SourceForge Joins the Bundle Wagon

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31, 2015 @12:43PM

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