Summary
After a disappointing night of drinking, Mark decides to put his plan into action. He burns through the night hacking into each of Harvard's house's facebook. He effortlessly makes his way into the unprotected systems and downloads every single picture of the students. While doing so, he is updating his blog about all the things he's doing. His plan was to create a website to allow people to compare two girls and pick the more attractive one. The original idea was to compare them to farm animals. The name of the site was facemash.com.
For the houses he couldn't get into, Mark sneaks in after the janitor leaves. He discovers a couple doing...things couples do and hides behind a couch until they leave, before hacking into the system and downloading the rest of the pictures to his laptop. As he is downloading the pictures, he goes over legal rights over his head and justifies it by saying it's information to share and "for the greater good". A few days later, thinking about all the feedback he would get after he officially launched facemash, he comes home to his dorm and sees that his laptop is frozen and it is acting as a server for facemash. He knew he was in trouble after the site hit over 22,000 hits in 20 minutes.
News got out and facemash even made it onto the Crimson, the school newspaper. Divya brings this to the attention of the Winklevosses and they plan to approach Mark later to ask if "he wanted to be part of history".
Mark's punishment was not met with any less than 3 deans. Though, his punishment was not in case, severe, because apparently they knew from Mark's awkwardness that he meant no harm. And for that, he sent off with a warning that if he ever did it again, he would be in big trouble. After his punishment, he meets up with Eduardo and shows him an email he received from Divya, that asked him to join their team to write the code and program for the Harvard Connection. The next day, the team meets him in person and he volunteers to do the job. His facial expressions did not show any excitement, but Mark was very interested in doing this for the thrill of being in control again.
Quote
"Were we let in for our looks? No. Will we be judged on them? Yes." (Mezrich 49)
Reaction
Up to what I read, I never really imagined Mark Zuckerberg as someone who would write a website for socializing or a social network in general. Sure, he wasn't exactly a social butterfly or really expressed any emotions, but he did have a more of a voice while blogging. It's also very interesting how an antisocial person would create the biggest social network.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook (Pg. 1-40)
Summary
There are these super exclusive clubs at Harvard University. They are for the elite and those with money or come from families with money. Eduardo seems to be out of place because although he does from a wealthy family, his family has no legacy other than a successful company his father started a few years before Eduardo was born.
He is at a party hosted by the prestigious club, Phoenix because Eduardo had a hedge fund and the club members were interested in the Eduardo's business methods. He knows he has to impress the members not only with social traits but also his view on business. He manages to entertain some of them but feels awkward and out of place. Then he sees another person that also looks out of place and has a weird aura about him. Eduardo would introduce himself to Mark Zuckerberg and their friendship was going to start from there.
Mark Zuckerberg is supposed to be a "master hacker" from where he came from and almost got himself in trouble with the FBI by breaking into computers. He also wrote a program, Synapse, that Microsoft offered to buy for $1-2 million but Mark refused. He was a computer genius. His blank and almost emotionless expressions contributed to his awkwardness.
Eduardo and Mark make their way out to Harvard Yard. Eduardo knows he and Mark were never going to party or be the most popular kids around so Eduardo focuses his attention to the Alpha Pi party coming up. It is another party hosted by various clubs and required you to bring a date. Eduardo gets lucky and manages to find one.
In the meantime, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, twin brothers, and star rowing champions, are working their way to success at Harvard. They both lead busy lives, rowing and balancing schoolwork, leaving them no time to socialize. They're also both part of another Final Club, the Porcellian. With the help of Divya, a friend they are collaborating with to create the Harvard Connection, a social networking site for Harvard students. But with the absence of the programmer, Victor, they aren't really getting anywhere. So now they scouting for and recruiting literally a computer genius to help them write the code.
Aside from that, Eduardo is trying to pass his final initiations to the Phoenix. Which happens to be keeping a chicken alive and healthy and always having it with you. He also met an Asian girl who is suppose to accompany him to the party and hooks Mark up with her friend. In his endeavors of keeping the chicken alive, he feeds it fried chicken one day. Members from the Porcellian notice this and reports forced cannibalism of the chicken to an animal rights group. The Phoenix get themselves out of that situation and Eduardo is safe.
Quote
"Eduardo felt that they had a similar spirit-and he'd begun to notice an almost strange feeling that they were supposed to be friends, even before they were." (Mexrich 35)
Reaction
This foreshadows an end to their friendship eventually because with Winklevoss and Divya looking for a new programmer, Mark is going to have to choose between being with his friend or become business parters with Winklevoss. Also, Eduardo is also a business major so that might come into play if there is going to be a rivalry between him and the Winklevoss.
There are these super exclusive clubs at Harvard University. They are for the elite and those with money or come from families with money. Eduardo seems to be out of place because although he does from a wealthy family, his family has no legacy other than a successful company his father started a few years before Eduardo was born.
He is at a party hosted by the prestigious club, Phoenix because Eduardo had a hedge fund and the club members were interested in the Eduardo's business methods. He knows he has to impress the members not only with social traits but also his view on business. He manages to entertain some of them but feels awkward and out of place. Then he sees another person that also looks out of place and has a weird aura about him. Eduardo would introduce himself to Mark Zuckerberg and their friendship was going to start from there.
Mark Zuckerberg is supposed to be a "master hacker" from where he came from and almost got himself in trouble with the FBI by breaking into computers. He also wrote a program, Synapse, that Microsoft offered to buy for $1-2 million but Mark refused. He was a computer genius. His blank and almost emotionless expressions contributed to his awkwardness.
Eduardo and Mark make their way out to Harvard Yard. Eduardo knows he and Mark were never going to party or be the most popular kids around so Eduardo focuses his attention to the Alpha Pi party coming up. It is another party hosted by various clubs and required you to bring a date. Eduardo gets lucky and manages to find one.
In the meantime, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, twin brothers, and star rowing champions, are working their way to success at Harvard. They both lead busy lives, rowing and balancing schoolwork, leaving them no time to socialize. They're also both part of another Final Club, the Porcellian. With the help of Divya, a friend they are collaborating with to create the Harvard Connection, a social networking site for Harvard students. But with the absence of the programmer, Victor, they aren't really getting anywhere. So now they scouting for and recruiting literally a computer genius to help them write the code.
Aside from that, Eduardo is trying to pass his final initiations to the Phoenix. Which happens to be keeping a chicken alive and healthy and always having it with you. He also met an Asian girl who is suppose to accompany him to the party and hooks Mark up with her friend. In his endeavors of keeping the chicken alive, he feeds it fried chicken one day. Members from the Porcellian notice this and reports forced cannibalism of the chicken to an animal rights group. The Phoenix get themselves out of that situation and Eduardo is safe.
Quote
"Eduardo felt that they had a similar spirit-and he'd begun to notice an almost strange feeling that they were supposed to be friends, even before they were." (Mexrich 35)
Reaction
This foreshadows an end to their friendship eventually because with Winklevoss and Divya looking for a new programmer, Mark is going to have to choose between being with his friend or become business parters with Winklevoss. Also, Eduardo is also a business major so that might come into play if there is going to be a rivalry between him and the Winklevoss.
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