Hey Mark, what are we doing tonight?

Mark Zuckerburg has it all. He has money. He has a super successful site. He has an island with dinosaurs, lasers and a volcano full of soda.

Now he wants the web!

It’s thought that in April at a developers conference Facebook will announce big plans for off the site.

Yes, they want to make every page on the web more like Facebook.

The Open Graph API will allow any page on the Web to have all the features of a Facebook Page – users will be able to become a Fan of the page, it will show up on that user’s profile and in search results, and that page will be able to publish stories to the stream of its fans.

Facebook also provides the following “details”:

The Open Graph API will allow any page on the Web to have all the features of a Facebook Page. Once implemented, developers can include a number of Facebook Widgets, like the Fan Box, or leverage any API, which enable the transformation of any Web page so it functions similar to a Facebook Page.

For example, AwesomeTees might decide that strategically they would like to locate their brand identity at www.awesometees.com. AwesomeTees will install the Fan Box widget, which will allow any Facebook user to “Become a Fan” of AwesomeTees, thereby establishing an official connection to AwesomeTees. The user will then have AwesomeTees listed in their list of connections on their profile as Pages are represented today. Additionally, any content that AwesomeTees publishes on AwesomeTees.com will show up in the stream on Facebook like it normally would. And, any time the user searches on Facebook, AwesomeTees will show up in the typeaheads and prominently in search results.

Business Insider

Obviously this will be a huge step for Facebook growth. It’ll also be handy for those not so net savvy to be able to take baby steps away from social networks and check out the wonders the web has to offer.

Recently, there has been lots of hype surrounding sites like Foursquare. So in a predictable move, Facebook has decided to add a similar service to their site.

After concerns over user safety and even insurance companies wagging fingers at such services, Facebook has decided to make the service optional, letting users opt in if they wish. A lesson well learned from their terrible handling of new privacy updates on the site, opening up lots of peoples pages to the world. They also probably took note of the controversy surround Googles Buzz service and its beginnings.

Techcrunch has also reported this evening that Twitter, not to be outdone, has turned on its geo location features.

It will be interesting to see how both sites, both big players on the web, will devour and mutate this idea.

The upcoming 2012 Olympics in London is set to give police ridiculous powers to act as a private army for Olympic sponsors.

They will be able to enter homes and confiscate posters or stop people having non-sponsor products attending sporting events.

“I think there will be lots of people doing things completely innocently who are going to be caught by this, and some people will be prosecuted, while others will be so angry about it that they will start complaining about civil liberties issues,”

Yahoo News

Also on the “Coleman at Large” show was Brian Whelan, journalist for the Sunday Mirror.

Whelan has been covering stories about the far right in Ireland. Racists, neo-nazis and all sorts of other bad folk have been exposed via his investigations. He continues these investigations despite failed attempts at intimidation and threatening posts on sites such as Stormfront.

You can pop over to his site (find it in our links section) to see the screencapture of Barrett’s anti Semitic Facebook comment.

Videos posted on Youtube of the show are posted below:

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The substances to be removed from the head shops shelves include synthetic cannabinoids, better known as ‘Spice’ products, BZP derivatives, mephedrone — the fourth most popular club drug — which is better known as ‘Snow’ or ‘Blow, methlyone and related cathinones.

Ketamine, which is also used as a horse tranquiliser, will be banned too, as will GBL, better known as liquid ecstasy. Tapentadol and “certain narcotic and psychotropic substances” will also be illegal. The latest ban follows moves last summer to make BZP itself illegal.

The Independent

Spokesman for Mary Harney (Who has never been inside a headshop) denied the government had been slow to do anything about the issue and pointed to their ban on the likes of Magic Mushrooms.

The excuse that it takes three months to notify the E.U was wheeled out.

Nothing to do with the fact it’s a minefield of debate?

Drugs Minister John Curran cannot completely ban Headshops, but will be trying to slow down their spread throughout Ireland.

Mary Harney’s spokesman also said that some Headshop products have other legitimate uses other than getting you spaced out off your brain high as a kite, so that also slows down the process of banning them.

Controversial T.D  Jim McDaid said back in February that the ban of legal highs would only go on to benefit those involved in the illegal drug trade.

I know it may shock you all, but the Fianna Fail T.D is correct. Mr Fonnen has been in contact with some of the more, how shall we put this, less law abiding citizens and they confirm that with the rise in legal highs being sold in Headshops their trade has been hit and profits lost.

We also pointed out recently that former drug dealers had left that trade and are now trafficking black market cigarettes.

Sad news came to us yesterday that will disappoint many Irish wildlife lovers. An Irish bred Eagle chick that was only ten months old was found dead. The Eagle is believed to have died after ingesting poison from a dead sheep.

Lorcan O’Toole, from the Golden Eagle Trust, believes the reintroduction of many beautiful birds of prey will fail if Irish farmers don’t stop using illegal poisons.

The bird, named Connal, was born and reared in a Donegal eyrie last year and spent the last four months on mountains above Glencar waterfall, Lough Gill and Gleniff near the Sligo-Leitrim border. It was found dead on Truskmore Mountain last weekend.

Project chiefs said 10 per cent of the golden eagle population has been killed, putting the entire project at risk.

In total, nine white tailed eagles, golden eagles and red kites have been poisoned in the last two- and-a-half years.

The Times

Goldeneagle.ie reports that many backwards farmers are still illegally using poisons like that believed to have killed the Eagle chick.

We are genuinely despondent that 10 years of active awareness measures, liaison with farmers and schoolchildren and the production of a poisoning advice leaflet for farmers, agreed with the main farming representative bodies, has been effectively destroyed by a recent edition of the Irish Farmers Journal. The Sheep Section, within the Irish Farmers Journal, advised sheep farmers that “Alphachloralose placed in a dead lamb or the afterbirth can help trap foxes.” [Farmers Journal, 6th February 2010, see here]. This appalling advice on the unlawful use of fallen poisoned livestock, is indicative of a glaring disregard for regulations within a small sector of the Agricultural community and more crucially within the main weekly voice of Irish farming.

GoldenEagle.ie

Before the usual cries come from rural Ireland complaining about “cityslickers” poking their noses into country life, this article is written by a country boy, born and reared.

And before urban folk start comparing country people to Neanderthals, don’t.

Not all country people approve of this kind of disregard for nature. It’s better for everyone in Ireland, no matter their background or location to join together and protest these kinds of terrible actions.

If people don’t start coming down hard on farmers doing this, the couple of hundred foolish farmers that are killing our country’s natural beauty will continue to poison and publications like the farmers journal will keep giving them terrible advice like the linked to article.

With Ireland in such an awful state, we should be protecting the rare seen glimmers of joy, instead of cruelly destroying them.

According to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) open source is bad.

Yes, they even go so far as to generating a list of countries that promote and use open source programs. The Special 301 watchlist may include Brazil, India, and Indonesia to name but a few. This has nothing to do with piracy mind you (even though the IIPA are part of a similar grouping of folks like Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA)).

It’s because in using open source you aren’t paying (sometimes ridiculous money) to the big software companies, thus you are not being a capitalist and therefore you’re a stinking Commie.

Funnily enough, The Whitehouse used open source Drupal to build their site. They aren’t on the list though.

Since we like free things here and also like pissing off assholes like the IIPA, here’s a list of great free software:

Mozilla Firefox

Yes, it’s my browser of choice. There are alternatives but its one that I’m used to and feel is a damn good browser. It’s also extremely customizable, so you can make it as complex or minimalist as you want.

Open Office

Ehhhhhhhh NO.

It used to be that folk had to pay MS lots of money for their office suite. That or become a filthy pirate. Open Office is a free alternative that will suit those who want a simple day to day office suite.

VLC Media Player

If I ever get roped in to work on someone’s computer and it involves media files, I always install this beauty on it.

Vlc is great and can play nearly any file out there.

7-Zip

Getting zip files extracted can be a pain, especially when you go to extract and find that the unzipper is a trial version and is now demanding money.

7zip is a great program once you get used to it.

Paint.net

Photoshop is great. It took me a while, but finally I got the hang of photoshop and was working away on all sorts of simple image programs.

The problem is the price tag of US$699.

Paint.net does pretty much all you need. Special mention also goes to Gimp, another open source image editor, that can be customized to look like photoshop.

Audacity

I was very annoyed when doing Boardscasts and looking for a feature heavy audio editor. There are a lot of pretty looking programs out there but they are charging silly amounts of cash. This is where Audacity came in. Like a lot of Open Source stuff it wasn’t pretty, but once you get used to it you’ll be able to do whatever you want.

Core FTP lite

Being a complete noob to the world of website management was a real setback when I started this site, but as always Axwell saved the day. Core FTP lite is a nice little program for uploading to your web hosting.

There are literally hundreds of great open source programs out there for you to check out. If you’ve anymore that you want to pimp, leave a comment or post in the Tech forums.

Le Blurb:

Win more than 10.000 € in Cash Prize Money!!

The World Game Cup’s goal is to bring together the best fighting game players in the world for 5 days of intense competition.

It is held in the world renowned Palais des Festivals in Cannes, during the “Festival International des Jeux” (The International Games Festival).

This international event will feature solo tournaments, team tournaments, and exhibition matches.

As it is also intended to be a public event, all the tournaments will be open - for free - to the festival’s general audience.

Fight Your Way Up in MANY Tournaments:

BlazBlue, Capcom vs SNK 2, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +, Hokuto no Ken, The King Of Fighters ‘98: Ultimate Match, The King Of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, The King Of Fighters XI, The King Of Fighters XII, Soulcalibur IV, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6

See our website for more details: http://www.worldgamecup.com

Doom will be heading over to Cannes with the Boards.ie Fighting Games forum and hopefully make a name for the Irish there.

They leave on the 4th of March. Wish them luck!

From opening up for Ice Cube to hosting a 2000 person Mustache Party on the banks of the River Shannon,
the Rubber Bandits have via prank phone calls, songs and riotous live shows emerged as the country’s surrealists
beyond compare. Straddling the comedy and music worlds like a tracksuit wearing collosus, Blind Boy Boat Club and Mr. Chrome
have manipulated and bullied their way to a level far beyond either their talent and intellect.

Filmed and edited by Dryadsaddle

The Rubberbandits Facebook page.

I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone, and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.

Neo, “The Matrix”

Latvian officials are struggling to come to terms with a cyber “criminal” group that stole documents containing information about the countries waste of money.

They’d also love to find a member of the group known as Neo, who has been leaking the documents onto the web and showing the world where the money has been going.

Earlier this week “Neo” released data showing that the CEO of Riga’s heating company, Aris Zigurs, paid himself a 16,000 lat ($32,000) bonus last year - a hefty sum for a city-owned utility, especially at a time when many municipal workers have had their salaries slashed. Zigurs confirmed to Latvian media the data was accurate.

Apnews

Neo also urged the police union to look into documents he leaked showing police salaries. In comments he posted via Twitter, Neo says:

“I call on the police union to analyze the data and determine whether the salary reform is fair and to continue the fight against crime.”

The government has of course called Neo and his groups motives into question, but they are gaining support. “Behind Neo’s mask is something more than flesh, behind this mask is an idea that hopefully no one in power can stop.”

Given the low security around these important documents, their theft can hardly be called a cyber attack, but the government and police are still desperate to catch the modern day Robin Hood.