Want to scale a system which can handle over 300 million monthly users, approximately half of which are logging in daily? It’s not an easy task however Facebook has managed to pull off an impressive feat but as many users are noticing: not everything is working as it should. The primary problems exist for the minority, yet rapidly growing population, of hyper-connected individuals who have thousands of contacts. So what’s going wrong?

Facebook Scales Horizontally
Facebook has been the most effective platform so far for attracting a large volume of users on a global scale. In an interview with Fast…

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Want to make the above yourself? [Sprite_tm] did a thorough job documenting the build step by step (complete with pics, schematics, graphs, and links to the parts used). In summary, [Sprite_tm] busted open an Ikea CFL bulb to reuse the housing. Inside, he installed a scavenged power supply, ATtiny44, RGB LED module, and a radio receiver. A remote control allows [Sprite_tm] to change the lighting of his room to nearly any color. The cost of the project is a little under $30. The price tag isn’t so steep when one considers the insanely long lifetime of LEDs.

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The friendly robotic bartender we’ve covered a couple of times before hit the airwaves last week. [Jamie], the inventor of Bar2d2 sent in a link to video of the barkeeper in action. The story runs from 0:30-4:40 and covers a bit about the build, the conversion to automatic drink mixing, and plenty of happy liquor-guzzling party goers.
We get a good look at the drink ordering interface called Lazy Drinker. It runs on a laptop and communicates wirelessly with Bar2d2. Looks like you can get your hands on the software for free but the hardware, either in kit form…

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With Google Earth you can explore the earth from above Want to know more about a specific location Dive right in Google Earth combines satellite imagery maps and the power of Google Search to put the world 39 s geographic information at your fingertips Google Earth puts a planet 39 s worth of imagery and other geographic information right on your desktop View exotic locales like Maui and Paris as well as points of interest such as local restaurants hospitals schools and more

Want to track how many clicks you are getting on those news stories being posted to your Facebook Page? While Facebook hasn’t provided any tool to track clicks yet, there’s one in the works as buzzmarketing daily notes. For now, Facebook will only be providing page administrators with estimated click through rates. While not as useful as tracking every single stream post’s activity, many administrators will be happy to see the new feature.

Facebook describes the new service as follows:

Stream CTR / ETR: This graph is a measure of the Click Through Rate and Engagement Rate for your content…

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Next week, August 31 through September 4, is Ubuntu Developer Week. If you’ve always wanted to help out with an open source project but didn’t know how to get into it, this is your chance. The week consists of 25 one-hour sessions held interactively through IRC and led by some of the best of the Ubuntu development team. Participate in as many or as few sessions as you want. Check out the Ubuntu Developer Week page or their fancy brochure (PDF) for more information.
Want to see what it’s all about before committing to a live session? You can…

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This is Day 12 of the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program. You can learn more about the program here.
So you’ve listened to my sales pitch about Facebook advertising and you’ve taken the time to define your company’s target market. Hopefully this wasn’t the first time that you’ve defined your target market, otherwise you are in serious trouble So the first thing you want to do is head over to the ads creation page. If you haven’t already created your page then you most definitely want to have it set up by now since we will be integrating our…

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This is Day 9 of the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program. You can learn more about the program here.
Remember the viral Facebook note about “25 things about me”? If you don’t then you probably haven’t been on Facebook for long. The 25 things about me note spread through Facebook and touched millions of users before it eventually died out. The main ideas behind the note was similar to a chain letter. You write 25 things people don’t know about you and then tag your friends and ask them to write the note as well. The end result was…

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