I'm cutting the cord on Facebook

I've been a Facebook user since my senior year of highschool. I got fed up with the debacle that was MySpace and (at the time) Facebook, a newly created social media network founded by Mark Zuckerberg seemed really clean, and was filled with features that actually worked. Over the years, as Facebook began to gain exponential amounts of social media market share, I kept using it. I remember when they first started to allow users to post status updates that didn't require one to have the word "is" appended before it. Then the company started allowing you to tag friends in photos. Facebook chat came out shortly after. Then apps.

All of these "innovations" were largely borrowed by other services, however they all seemingly worked pretty well, and it was fun to interact with everybody I knew, simply because the majority of everybody I knew was also a Facebook user. Overtime however, I discovered other services on the internet that offered (for me) a much more enriching and intuitive experience. 

• Google Talk: Let's be honest for a second, anybody who has ever used Facebook chat knows how buggy it can be. Google Talk also has complete chat history (a feature I really love)
• Twitter: A lot of people initially, and I was one of them, takes one look at Twitter and thinks out loud, "What the hell is this?" However, if you take a little time and actually set it up the way you like it, it's an amazing experience. I for one have created lists for my actual friends, news for the Madison area where I live, and for topics that I like to follow (breaking news, sports, technology, economics, and Epic Mealtime). It's actually really intuitive and addictive once you tweak it to fit your personal preferences.
• Picasa: A desktop application which implements intuitive editing features and allows you to tag your friends/family in photos and videos. There is also Picasa Web Albums which allows you to share photos with your friends.
• zakshesky.com: I spent BOTH time AND money to build this stupid website. It only makes sense to use it.

I truly have nothing really AGAINST Facebook, but over the years a number of reasons have come up that have irritated me beyond comprehension. One being simply that I'm an admitted Google fanboy and it bothers me that I'm using sub-par features from the competition. In recent months, Google has had their own FCC run-ins, and have taken a few actions that have even angered me. In spite of all this, I still prefer them over the PR fiasco that is Facebook and their "privacy" policies. I also recently received my invite to Google+, a social media project that I'm really excited about.

However, I do realize that, for whatever reason, you people have taken quite the liking to the idiotic statuses that I post, and the random photos that I upload. I still don't understand why, but because of this, I'm not deleting my Facebook account. I literally just linked my Twitter feed to my Facebook, and I will still reply to messages and wall posts. I also will continue to share links (only to selfishly plug my own website though.) Bear in mind however that I tweet approximately five times a day; if this bothers you, I strongly recommend either hiding me from your newsfeed or deleting me from your friends list ASAP. I probably will continue to upload pictures to Facebook, but I will be uploading them to Picasa as well, largely because of the fact that they offer high resolution photo and video uploads (resolutions that Facebook doesn't even come close to at this time.)

If you still wish to follow my internet adventures, I suggest you do the following:

1. Follow me on Twitter: @zaksheskyman
2. Add me on Google Talk: zaksheskymanATgmail.com (AT=@)
3. Email me at jzaksheskyATzakshesky.com (AT = @)

It's been real.

Oh, I almost forgot. The MAIN reason I'm keeping my Facebook account is because I want to awkwardly creep on the photos from my female friends after Halloween and spring break. 

At least Mark Zuckerberg isn't as big a douchebag as Tom Anderson.

Update on Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 10:54PM by Jesse Zakshesky

After 3.5 hours of reflection after I posted this article, I find myself currently downloading all my data from Facebook and officially deleting my account.

Here's why:

• I have 300 friends on Facebook. I don't have 300 friends in real life. I don't need to get invites to parties from people I don't know. I don't need to waste time looking at the comments of people who I only see once or twice a year. The 40 or so people I actually care about already talk to me via phone, IM, email, or Twitter.
• I don't need to receive emails from a service I'll never use again.
• I don't like Facebook anymore.

I'm done.

IT adventures (Volume One)

I recently got hired as a Computer Systems Administration intern at a school district. I generally enjoy my job and am learning quite a bit about the ins and outs of running a large-scale network. However, one week into my job there, and I have already formulated the following question about a number of my coworkers:

How did these people graduate with a degree from college?

Okay, I understand that not everyone is tech-savvy, or competent with computers, and frankly, that means job security for me. However, a somewhat computer literate staff makes the roles of the IT department much, much easier. Ultimately, it's my job to keep the school-operated computers up to date (which is a challenge because of school board funding, or lack thereof) and connected to vital network resources such as file and print servers.

Keyword on MY job.

A typical staff member I work with.My first tale took place last week when a woman who teaches science had the "brilliant" idea of installing video software that would allow her kids to see interactive videos of birds or some such nonsense. That normally would be fine, because my boss or me would install the software in her free period and that would be that, no problem at all. She however insisted she was able to do it herself and decided to install the software on all the machines in the science lab. Again, whatever, not a huge deal I guess, because normally when something goes horribly wrong, we'll just reimage the machines to their previous state. However, to do that, we usually need network access and the ability to type a few simple commands. What she instead installed was a virus infested conglomeration the likes of which I've never seen before in my entire life and it actually rendered keyboards inoperable. By having to completely reinstall Windows on every computer in that lab to simply be able to reimage those machines took approxiamately 6 hours instead of the normal ONE that is usually required in such situations.

Lets just say that she no longer has access to install programs anymore.

Another humorous incident that I may have told a few of you was last Wednesday, when the Spanish teacher decided to install Roseta Stone software so the kids could have access to video clips and language tutorials. I would like to take this oppurtunity to raise a question to my American audience (this website is actually HUGE in Africa):

Q: What country do you live in, and what is the primary language that is spoken in said country?

A: I live in the United States of America, and the majority of its residents speak English.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. So one would assume that when she placed the order for the program, she would order the software package that is written in English WHICH TEACHES Spanish. But no, as you may be guessing right now, she actually ordered software that is based in Spanish and teaches English.

She should actually teach a class about clever and exciting ways to waste money.

I only will be working here for a few months, but I can already tell that this will not be the only volume of IT Adventues. May God have mercy on my soul.