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commentary The ephemeral messaging service's new "Stories" feature is a game-changer for social networking behavior. Here's how it will make our digital personas more genuine.

Before yesterday, I had sent less than five messages using the Snapchat app. To be honest, I didn't even know that a photo or video sent through the app and equipped with its risk-encouraging countdown clock was called a "snap."

But with the introduction of the Stories feature Thursday -- the ability to collect viewable moments in a personal timeline that sticks around for that day only -- Snapchat has become an overnight fascination of mine. It is, in my eyes, one of the most pivotal social-networking additions in recent memory.

While Instagram preps its network for the introduction of photo and video ads and Facebook sits pretty -- having figured out the mobile conundrum plaguing its stock price -- Snapchat went ahead and introduced a truly game-changing feature into the mix.

It may not seem like much on the surface, but Stories is important. It bundles the off-the-cuff, genuine, and downright more honest ways in which we capture and share moments that we know will not last with an easier, less direct delivery mechanism. In essence, it combined the medium of Instagram with a stripped down Facebook profile, providing an ever-changing window into somebody's life that's not about chasing likes, bragging about accomplishments, or capturing sunsets and silhouettes.

It's a lifecasting tool with none of the usual shame or social stigma.

Snapchat's growing up moment Prior to Stories, Snapchat was an app I looked at once a month, save for the few instances when someone texted me with, "Do you use Snapchat?" I would typically respond with a "nah not really," open up the app, remember that I did indeed friend Taco Bell for a promotional perk, and look at my backlog of "snaps." There would be a slew of selfies, shoddy video where I could barely discern what was happening, and a torrent of grainy photos with crude finger doodles smeared all over them.

In about 10 seconds, each one would disappear forever (well, sort of). Needless to say, I just didn't get it. Sure, it was great for the sexting crowd. But I wasn't one of the cynical types to write off the service as one exclusively designed for shameless teenagers.

To me, it always seemed as if Snapchat was on the cusp of something greater, something more true to life than the Facebook status or Instagram photo but was never quite there by simply offering impermanence. Founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy didn't set out to change the world, but they aren't exactly in it for the money or else they would have designed something more advertiser-friendly.

And while they're not armchair philosophers trying to influence the behavioral landscape of humanity, they are really smart guys who knew that there was a gaping hole in our social network use. With Stories, I feel like the Stanford-born company on its way to a $1 billion valuation has finally hit the mark.

Read more:
How Snapchat will make us more honest

Shimla, Oct 4 (IANS): Can the competing social media campaigns by Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi influence the hearts and minds of youth?

Like the US presidential elections, will the 2014 general elections in India be won or lost on the basis of performance on television and social networking sites?

These were some issues discussed by students of the department of journalism and mass communication at the Himachal Pradesh University here at a two-day seminar which concluded Friday.

N.A.K. Durrani, professor at Aligarh Muslim University, asserted that social media presents many opportunities and challenges to the youth today.

He said, "One cannot undermine the fact that the social media has emerged as an important tool in the communication matrix. There is no denying the fact that the social media is being misused at times by unscrupulous people. But the day is not far when the social media channels will have to regulate the content."

Talking about the opportunities presented by social media for the evolution of the public sphere, Himachal Pradesh University department of journalism chairperson Vir Bala Aggarwal explained how coffee houses and public meeting places in earlier times acted as platforms for discussing various issues.

"With the advent of the mass media, as the people were reduced to audiences at the receiving end, the public sphere suffered a set-back." However, she hoped that with the advent of the social media, the public sphere will get strengthened.

Vikas Dogra, assistant professor in the same department, said as a tool for communication, the social media, including social networking sites, is still in its nascent stage.

See more here:
Do Modi, Rahul's social media campaigns influence youth?

Facebooks head of network operations has great expectations for software defined networking (SDN), though he may not be relying on commercial hardware vendors to bring SDN to the social networking giants own infrastructure.

SDN is the way things are going to be. It is not a fad. This will be the way the networks will be built going forward, said Najam Ahmad, director of technical operations at Facebook, who oversees Facebooks production and corporate network. Prior to joining Facebook, Ahmad worked as general manager of global networking services at Microsoft.

Ahmad was part of a panel about SDN at the New York Interop New York conference, held this week. He spoke with the IDG News Service afterward.

SDN has generated a lot of discussion at this years Interop. Many wondered if it is just this years buzz phrase, or as others believe, the future of networking.

For Ahmad, SDN solves an important problemmaking Facebooks network as flexible as the rest of its IT stack. We want to deploy, manage, monitor, and fix the network using software, Ahmad said.

Todays switches, routers and other network equipment stymies Facebook from making the most efficient use of its network and the Internet, he said. The company needs to reduce its network latency as much as possible, simply in order to remain responsive to its billion users scattered around the globe.

Admittedly, Facebook doesnt manage its network with typical network operation center (NOC)-styled operations, in which network administrators monitor screens for alerts and then fix problems as they arise.

Instead, the company aggressively automates network management as much as possible, by writing scripts that can anticipate and mitigate issues before they come up, as well as to maximize network performance.

Facebook has been limited, however, by its networking equipment. With traditional networking, you buy a box. You get command line interface, and protocols, but that is all you get, Ahmad said.

Ahmad has felt frustrated, for instance, when finding a certain issue in some networking gear could only be addressed by the vendor dialing directly into the equipment itself and issuing secret commands to an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), commands not available to customers through the standard command line interface (CLI).

Read this article:
Facebook networking chief: No more secret ASIC commands

At a time when the mosquito-borne West Nile virus is still a potential killer, health officials are worried that a reorganization plan by the Morris County Freeholders will cut mosquito control efforts.

The freeholders plan to eliminate the all-volunteer Morris County Mosquito Extermination Commission, and fold the paid mosquito control staff that the commission oversees into the countys Department of Planning and Public Works.

The proposed reorganization is expected to go into effect after the freeholders January reorganization.

The plan comes not long after a 92-year-old Morris County resident died Aug. 31 after contracting West Nile.

This past summers first detection of infected mosquitoes in Morris County was on Aug. 1 at Donatoni Community Park on West Main Street in Rockaway. A week later, the park and surrounding woods, path and access road were treated by the mosquito commission.

As of Sept. 27, mosquitoes carrying West Nile have been found in 44 pools in Morris County, according to the N.J. Department of Health.

Morris County Freeholder David Scapicchio, former mayor of Mount Olive Township, maintained the reorganization wont affect mosquito control programs, but it will save money.

Nothing is changing other than were folding the office responsibilities into Public Works, Scapicchio said.

Scapicchio said that as part of the savings, the county will have to complete just one audit for both the mosquito control commission and the public works department.

Other potential savings are expected through centralized purchasing, vehicle inspection and licensing.

The rest is here:
Health officials worry county freeholders could bite into mosquito control program

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) October 03, 2013

Payroll and tax software developer, Real Business Solutions is pleased to announce that their 2014 Payroll Mate payroll software is available at a discounted price of $90 until October 31, 2013. For $90 only, small business owners and tax professionals can process payroll for up to 10 companies, with up to 75 employees per company for all the 2014 tax year. Payroll Mate offers free technical support by phone, email and chat.

Payroll Mate makes switching from other payroll applications as simple as counting from one to three. With the powerful import feature for employee data and payroll setup, users can move tens of employees from other payroll systems into Payroll Mate within minutes.

Free small business payroll software trial available at http://www.PayrollMate.com/ .

For users wanting to import (push) payroll information into their accounting software, Payroll Mate has the right tools just for that. Payroll Mate can export payroll data to Intuit QuickBooks, Sage Peachtree, Sage 50, Microsoft accounting and Intuit Quicken. Payroll Mate also provides a general ledger export feature for sending data to any accounting solution that accepts importing GL transactions.

"Large U.S businesses can afford to have full time payroll management staff dedicated to paying employees, issuing payroll checks as well as keeping up to date with the ever-changing payroll tax regulations. This is almost never the case for small business owners. This is why we built Payroll Mate, state-of-the-art payroll management software that is easy to use, affordable and always up to date." says Payroll Mate product manager Nancy Walters.

Payroll Mate is loved by thousands of small businesses, accounting firms and tax professionals. Below is a short list of what this payroll solution can do:

Give the payroll software from PayrollMate.com a test drive and see for yourself how easy managing payroll can be. Visit Payroll Mate software page.

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Payroll Software: Payroll Mate® 2014 Now on Sale for $90 Only