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Posts Tagged “

Harvard

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aaron greenspan

Where Facebook's features came from -- not the mind of Mark Zuckerberg, says Harvard classmate

In this excerpt from Harvard alumnus Aaron Greenspan's book, Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era, Greenspan gives an example of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg copying a feature idea from Greenspan's own Harvard project, HouseSystem. More »

3:40 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,251 views, 7 comments

Latest by Gstein: @sample032: agreed... first day reading valleywag (brought over from consumerist) and it already seems helplessly repetitive. although i'd be interested in reading the book, i have no interest in paying Greenspan. more »

mark zuckerberg

How Mark Zuckerberg allegedly nicked the idea of an online facebook

Aaron Greenspan's Authoritas, a self-published history of his time at Harvard with Mark Zuckerberg, is full of passages the Facebook founder would rather you not read. In this excerpt, Greenspan recounts the moment when, as a member of Harvard's Student Entrepreneurship Council and creator of the
HouseSystem Face Book, he met a supersecretive wantrepreneur named Mark Zuckerberg. More »

3:00 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,419 views, 6 comments

Latest by Paul Boutin: @Owen Thomas: I just presumed it was the same post I'd already read, so I skipped it. Then a reader emailed me to say hey, you guys have the same picture on two posts, WTF. more »

aaron greenspan

Harvard classmate claims Zuckerberg stole Facebook's name

Facebook lawyers want to bar Aaron Greenspan, a Harvard chum of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, from marketing his new book, Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era. Their rationale: It uses the company's trademarked name improperly in the title. But their real goal is surely quashing Greenspan's story. In this excerpt from Greenspan's tell-all, the author argues that Zuckerberg stole the name Facebook from Greenspan's creation, HouseSystem. More »

2:20 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,046 views, 10 comments

Latest by Dror Poleg: @Fake Jimbo Wales: Public property does not qualify as OPP. more »

social networks

Facebook chat beta required a 1500 SAT score, or at least a legacy

Facebook Chat launched in beta earlier this week, available first to students at Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Berkeley, Brown, Dartmouth and MIT— schools known for their brilliant graduates who go out and change the world. Or at least make a lot of money. Or write nasty things about the people who do. Also: Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Berkeley, Brown, Dartmouth and MIT were the first schools to make Facebook popular, having been the first networks allowed access Mark Zuckerberg's creation. So we have that to thank them for too. Harvard's Alexander Konrad begins to earn our forgiveness, panning the new feature in the Crimson.

9:20 AM on Wed Apr 9 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,202 views, 12 comments

Latest by n/a: I'm from NYU, and I saw the feature come live at 4-5AM on Sunday. Basically the early Facebook schools (those with 6 digits for user numbers back in 2005) got the chat feature first. The headline sounds sexy, but it's more »

your privacy is an illusion

Harvard student data hacked and posted on BitTorrent

Harvard University had data on 10,000 graduate-school applicants stolen from a hacked server and posted on BitTorrent. 6,600 students had their birthdates, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and more released. Don't worry, though. The university is paying for identity theft protection for all affected students. "Protecting personal information is something Harvard takes seriously, and we are truly sorry for the inconvenience and concern this incident may cause." Not serious enough to keep from getting hacked, though. Whatever. The University of Chicago would never let this crap happen. Even better? The file was posted on The Pirate Bay in February. What took you so long to make a statement, guv'nors?

2:48 PM on Thu Mar 13 2008
By Jordan Golson
1,009 views, 11 comments

Latest by Rick: @Jordan Golson: wow not bad, that's me exactly more »

followup

FCC chief says no new hearing "planned" after Comcast debacle

Freakishly boyish FCC chairman Kevin Martin isn't exactly denying our earlier report that his commission was considering a "do-over" hearing on net neutrality. The first hearing, held at Harvard, dealt with regulations on what Internet service providers can do to privilege some kinds of Net traffic over others. It was marred by a seat-packing scandal: Comcast paid people to hold spots in line for Comcast employees who never showed up. A FCC representative gave News.com this unhelpful quote on the subject of a new hearing, which we've heard could be held at Stanford: More »

10:40 AM on Wed Mar 5 2008
By Jordan Golson
282 views, 1 comment

Latest by Vulture: A young Judge Reinhold more »

exclusive

FCC contemplating do-over Comcast hearing at Stanford

The FCC is considering holding a fresh hearing on net neutrality, with Comcast and Verizon again in attendance — and this time it may be at Stanford. The do-over comes after a mini-scandal erupted over the first hearing, held at Harvard; Comcast flacks confessed they'd paid people off the street to act as seatwarmers. Let this be a lesson to you all: If you're going to meddle in politics, do it skillfully enough not to get caught. More »

12:45 PM on Wed Feb 27 2008
By Jordan Golson
8,631 views, 9 comments

Latest by Dweezil: @wordsmithy: I believe the accurate tag would either be Harvard: The Oxford of America, or Harvard: The less wordy University of Chicago of the East. more »

mark zuckerberg

Facebook founder's sordid college days

02138, an independent magazine for Harvard alumni, has done an in-depth profile of Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg and the on-campus origins of Facebook. There's plenty on the lawsuit filed by the Winklevoss twins and ConnectU, the Facebook rival for which Zuckerberg did some programming work. But the magazine digs deeper and gets some tantalizing details. Did you know that Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Zuckerberg sparred over money, and Saverin is suing Zuckerberg for squeezing him out of the company? Or that fellow Harvard alums Sanjay Mavinkurve, Joe Jackson, and Victor Gao also did programming for ConnectU — and thereby might have a claim to the title of wannabe Facebook founders? Aaron Greenspan, whose HouseSystem social network may have inspired Zuckerberg, also makes an appearance. Zuckerberg didn't speak to the magazine for the story, but his response to Harvard's Administrative Board still rings true today. More »

4:26 PM on Mon Nov 26 2007
By Owen Thomas
3,151 views, Comment

facebook

Stanford joins the Facebook application frenzy

Stanford has hopped aboard the Facebook application bandwagon with a new class: noted developer BJ Fogg and Facebook fanboy Dave McClure (who may not be employed by for Facebook but is awfully busy flacking the company) will be teaching "Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook." Although offered through the computer science department, the course appears more geared to business students. Pupils will be graded based on the number of users they can garner rather than quality of code, and there will be an event at the end of the course to pitch the applications to investors. Is it any surprise Facebook moved to the west coast and that Stanford leads Harvard in incubating technology companies? As VentureBeat notes, while Stanford jumps on the latest tech fad and offers students a chance to strike it rich, Harvard ironically had admonished Facebook's creator Mark Zuckerberg and shut down a precursor to the popular Facebook for privacy violations and political correctness concerns while he was a student.

11:22 AM on Tue Sep 11 2007
By Tim Faulkner
1,125 views, 6 comments

Latest by n/a: I'm Dan, the head Course Assistant for the Stanford Facebook class. We've had two great classes so far, and in two weeks, our students will launch their first versions of their apps. A clarification: grading will not be based solely more »

larry ellison

Larry Ellison, world's biggest hypothetical philanthropist

Larry Ellison recently told a reporter, "I think after a certain amount, I'm going to give almost everything I have to charity because what else can you do with it?" For the Oracle CEO, "everything" means over $18 billion. "What else can you do with it" means: More »

11:06 AM on Mon Jul 10 2006
By Nick Douglas
1,506 views, Comment

larry ellison

Ellison stiffed Harvard because girls stink at math

Larry Ellison released a messenger falcon from his castle turrets to officially announce why he stiffed Harvard for a promised $115 million donation. Without Harvard prez Larry Summers on board, Ellison's minions said, he just didn't feel the gift was right. More »

7:00 AM on Wed Jun 28 2006
By Nick Douglas
395 views, 2 comments

larry ellison

Remainders: Ellison officially gives Harvard the finger

  • Apple's iPod maker says the sweatshop story isn't true, and they've vaguely threatened a lawsuit over the claim, made by the UK's Daily Mail. Can we resolve this peacefully so the slaves can crank out more toys? [Apple Insider]
  • Props to Gnomedex organizer Chris Pirillo for designing conference tees that we'd pay good cash for (pictured). [Pirillo.com]
  • I was utterly remiss not to show you this classic 1998 rant about writing for Wired Magazine. [Boing Boing]
  • The "Coolz0r" blog has so far catalogued 54 services using "Flickr"-style names. If anyone wants to use this as a hitlist, the blogger will not be held responsible. [Coolz0r]
  • AOL knew it was shady back in 2000. Then again, so did everyone else. [CNNMoney]
  • Larry Ellison officially admits — it's not about the sick kids, it's about his buddy at Harvard. Those expecting the Oracle founder's $115 million donation can suck it. More on this tomorrow. [SFGate]

8:28 PM on Tue Jun 27 2006
By Nick Douglas
127 views, Comment

larry ellison

Perks of being Ellison: Saying "fuck you" with a safari

Oracle's high-rolling CEO may not actually be the Almighty, but he's pulled off a miraculous deal with his latest lawsuit settlement. More »

11:49 AM on Tue Jun 27 2006
By Nick Douglas
148 views, Comment

larry ellison

Larry Ellison doesn't care about sick people

Today in rich people not helping poor people news, Larry Ellison stiffed Harvard for $115 million. Oh, Harvard's not poor, but the Ellison Institute for World Health — where the Oracle CEO's money was headed — probably would have made life a little easier for some of the little people. More »

7:00 AM on Wed Jun 21 2006
By Nick Douglas
108 views, Comment

myspace

MySpace goes shopping at MIT and Harvard

MIT and Harvard grads, sick of Stanford kids getting all the offers? Polish the CV, says a reader, and keep an eye out for Tom's goons. Getting picked up on MySpace never felt so good. More »

11:37 AM on Wed Apr 26 2006
By ndouglas
130 views, Comment