It is 1977, hypothetically, and as a programmer of a third generation computer capable of only 12k memory, with no display (screen) nor keyboard, using punched cards as data entry, I have been told to write a program to analyse data from a file already stored in a cartridge disk of 5MG, a giant storage considering the age we are, that is almost a decade before Mark Zuckerberg was born, forty-two years before Facebook became what it is nowadays. How would I accomplish it?
For the majority of you, readers, with no knowledge of computer language and methodology of programming and systems, would be useless to answer my own question but trust me, it would take a dozen programmes to analyse data and produce a report (printed in this case because in the time we are, does not exist screen, just yet). But I assure you, the principles would be the same as in our present time. So let´s keep it simple, re-start up from right here when and where our personal data is exposed to the general public via an online, supposedly free platform, and just recently its owner declared publicly that our data information has been sold to third parties, for marketing purpose and who knows what else. I did not get a penny. Did you?
Ok, let´s believe what we do and take from Facebook, for free (only paying to access the internet) worth to let it be. Use me, I am an exhibitionist, the whole world will know me and my intimacy, the reason why I published personal photos, opinion, where I go, what I do and like and so on. But, wait: I need a computer to perform this show-off or a cell phone I bought with my money. Now, a computer needs an operating system and a number of applications to allow me to satisfy my vanities and each one of them charges me, somehow.
Right, you already know where I am coming from. So what we are going to do about it?
Despite that the encounter of Mr. Zuck with the American Congressmen and it was visible a gap of generation and knowledge between the two parties, at one side a 34-year-old kid, at the other a bunch of knuckle old heads or that bombing of questions was meant to be a comedy entertainment?
The fact that Facebook allows me to download my info stored in its system from far it shows how and “whether or not” Facebook uses it. Yet, how Advertisers uses it, how much it cost them to access my info and so on. One thing I can assure you: it is easy and yummy to program heuristics subroutines in many ways to recommend decision making, from what color to use in the next packaging to what candidate to push towards the crowd; how a certain salable candidate must be advertised. People will simply buy him/her by impulse. Sir Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, already said that in the turning of the XX century. It is so easy.
Bellow all the companies-buyers of my info from Facebook. Would each of them at least buy a copy of my Alvidia, Yet Another Horizon?
This is an IBM System/3 third generation computer this observer worked with (1977/82)
Advertisers who uploaded a contact (short) list with my info
BoatUS - Centauro - Smiles - Netflix - Extra - Photobox - TransferWise - Johnnie Walker - Inversa - Wix - Strong Black Lead - AdExchanger - Locaweb - Netflix Family - Airbnb - Queer Eye - Trulia - Netpoints - TIM Brasil - Black Mirror - SmartBrief, Inc. - ACLU - Expedia - Disjointed - Netshoes -
Amazon.com - Dropbox - Facebook - Vistaprint - Zillow - Uber Eats - Quora - Instagram - LinkedIn - ProFinder - Vivo - StartSe - EDHA - Nace / Global Talent Network - EvolueMed - The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary - WeWork - Amazon Web Services - Sony Brasil - Visa - Empiricus Research - Mike Pence - Yahoo Mail - Wells Fargo Advisors - Shutterstock - El Chapo - Travel and Share - MetaTrader - Menulog - Altered Carbon - Bright - Donald J. Trump - InterNations - HubSpot - Canva - Washington Post - Topwatch - Airbnb - LATAM Airlines
Now, on the companiy´s web page Facebook says:
“Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.”
We can absolutely agree that Facebook delivers exactly that. So why we are mad at?
Then who does not agree that our friend Zuck won 10 to nil before the congressmen? I personally was impressed by his thinking speed and perfection at answering the questions, tied to what was questioned towards him not to what the congressmen should have asked which in turn Zuck could him self-produce both ways, Q&As to simplify.
In the era that “leak” is good, a “like” to Zuck and a “no like” to congressmen this time.
This is an IBM System/3 third generation computer I worked with (1977/82). The pictures below are of books I needed to translate before use them to learn (self-taught) how to program RPG II.
