October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month

We do not talk about the issue of domestic violence much, but that does not mean it does not exist or small.It is called the silent epidemic for reasons. These statistics that will make you realize why.

One in four women will be a victim of domestic violence.

One in nine men will be a victim of domestic violence.

One in three teens will be a victim of domestic violence.

According to some studies, less that 1 percent of domestic violence cases are reported to the police.

Be A Hero, Speak out! Speak to someone, like the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-SAFE (1-800-799-7233) or Verizon Wireless customers can quickly reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline by dialing #HOPE.

"MONSTERS" portrays the alarming impact of domestic violence on families and children, as seen through the eyes of a young girl. Studies suggest that between 3.3 million and 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence each year. The video notes that girls who witness abuse are more likely to be abused later in life, and boys are twice as likely to abuse their own partners -- "because that's the world they know." MONSTERS is produced and funded by the Verizon Foundation and supported by the National Domestic Violence Hotline

The Art Of Saying NO, Steve Jobs At Apple’s developer conference in 1997

“Focus is about saying, “No. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum if the parts.”

The complete video 1 hour 11 min;

President Obama On Steve Jobs Passing.

President Barak Obama posted a message on Whitehouse blog. Just like the winter, it is setting down with the cold knowledge, how much Steve Jobs meant to the USA, how much it meant to the world.
I think the best tribute was that I read about his passing on an iPad2, that he put his beliefs and love behind.
President Obama's message, please follow the link to read the complete message on White House Blog.

"Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
................
The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him."

Yes, That is Steve Jobs.
White House Blog.

Steve Jobs, The way I will Remember Him!

A Photo from a photobooth testing session!

Google+ (Public Beta) Hangouts now supports 9 active participants and live streaming via YouTube.

Even though Google+ is a 90 day old private beta, Google is telling us that they have made more than 90 improvements to the Google's Social wunderbar since it's release.
One of the best things on GooglePlus is the Google Hangouts, Hangouts allows to collaborate, face-to-face-to-face, as Google says, via live video.
And as usual, the GooglePlus users have maximized the usage with Music concerts, Game shows and for those hungry ones. cooking classes.
So it is no wonder the next improvements to the Google+, 9 of them revolves around Hangout.

92. Hangouts on your phone
93. Hangouts On Air
94, 95, 96, 97. Hangouts with extras
98. Hangouts APIs

• If field trial has taught us anything about Hangouts, it’s that the community is overflowing with creative individuals. So in the wake of last week’s Google+ API launch, we’re also releasing a basic set of Hangouts APIs. If you're a developer who wants to build new kinds of apps and games (and who-knows-what-else), then you can find more details on the Google+ platform blog.

99. Search in Google+
100. Anyone can sign up for Google+

Great! Read more at

Official Google Blog: Google+: 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99... 100.

Google Moving Mountains!

Looks like Google can do more than searching and advertising. Apparently it has moved a few mountains.
Gelatobaby who loves California, as much as me (May be a tad less than me) found Mt. Whitney moving around and

Google Helps Restoring Oldest "Search Engine", Bletchley Park, Block C!

After helping out last year with the bid to buy the papers of the British computer scientist and wartime codebreaker Alan Turing and return them to their rightful home at Bletchley Park. This February.the papers came to it's rightful place.

Google is going still further by kicking off a campaign to help restore and preserve Block C at Bletchley Park;

"Today, Block C is derelict. We hope to help restore it to serve as a visitor and learning centre for both Bletchley Park and the UK’s National Museum of Computing. The fund-raising campaign kicked off this week with a Google-supported garden party in the Bletchley Park grounds, at which over £10,000 was raised. We still have a long way to go, though, so if you’d like to contribute, please donate at the Bletchley Park website."

Please visit the links to learn more about the place, Turing and others as well as Colossus—the world’s first electronic programmable computer.

Official Google Blog: Restoring Bletchley Park, birthplace of modern computing

We See Alan Turing

Backing Up Tumblr On PCs and MACs

With a few people, OK a lot of people having doubts about their tumblr with this weeks outage, would normally look for ways to backup their favorite and own tumble.
Tumblr officially provides a MAC application Tumblr Backup, which is simple and to the point. You do not need instructions for using this app as it is a self explanatory application. See the image above.
But the sad part of it, there is no official windows version or Linux version for that matter. But do not despair, you can save your Tumble.
Chris of of Bout Of Context fame has written an equally easy web based Tumblr backup, Backup Jammy. So all your tumbles are safe now.

Backup Jammy
Tumblr Backup application for Mac OS X

Be Proud And Part Of Those Celebrating Pride 2011,

Do you see any difference?

Sometimes I really wonder why all this animosity against the LGBT people all over the world. In the height and midst of these emotions, we fail to see that there are equally large number of people who support and accept the LGBT community. Largely we all fail to see how proud the people are of themselves.
Having grown up in the Netherlands, I never felt that the LGBT were different. In fact there was two couples in the same faculty where my father taught. So I grew up knowing, and feeling that they were no different from me. These couples had children and they were my classmates. I did not feel any difference in them either. I played, fought, laughed with them, the children and never knew any difference. So...
So when I landed in San Francisco, I did not mind the fun and bright people of Castro Street. I went to watch some of those parades, to celebrate the freedom they were seeking.
I feel we all should step up and support LGBT community because it is true part and parcel of the greater community. It does not matter if you are straight, I am and I have no problem what so ever, for being with, supporting LGBT.
So when I saw Googlers were celebrating their Gayglers and others all over the world, I felt that it is the path thee most of us should be taking.

In addition to our external efforts, we’re also working from within. Recently, we extended domestic partner benefits in regions such as China and Hong Kong. Last year, Google adopted a policy promoting benefits equality through a gross-up on imputed taxes for health insurance. We provided the equivalent of the Family and Medical Leave Act for same-sex domestic partners and updated the definition of infertility. Happily, over the last year we’ve been approached by many organizations looking to do the same.

Gayglers
Official Google Blog: Celebrating Pride 2011

California : Take a look at all 70 state parks slated for closure!

We visit at least two or may be three national parks and countless state parks and recreational areas a year.

With new budget cuts, there are 70 state parks in California slated to close as of September 1. It looked like nothing but once I saw this slide show, it reminded me of the places I have visited and want to keep on visiting. We have marked Mount Shasta, Monolake, (and two National Parks) to visit this year. We have visited the two state parks, multiple times and I am sure I will never have enough.

It is sad that these places will be inaccessible to us and countless other people. Specially the children. We always take one or two children from our community with us when we visit national or state parks. Our last visit was to Redwood Parks belt in northern California with a bunch of children that lasted almost a week. (Oops sorry it was actually our last trip was to Death Valley but we did not take any children!)

Please watch this show, if possible in it's entirety and perhaps you too can donate, like we did so we might be able to save some of the parks.

Take a look at all 70 state parks slated for closure

Random Hacks of Kindness By "hackers for good" Build Applications For Humanity!

These days the news is full of all negative vibes and it really good to hear when people do good, not for themselves but for others, to be specific, for the mankind in general.
Started earlier this month, hackers from all over the world participated in RHoK, Random Hacks of Kindness, to build applications for humanity.
RHoK was founded by Google in 2009 with support from other industry luminaries and Governmental organizations like NASA, Yahoo, Microsoft, World Bank to build and support Open Source technology for crisis management. These crisis and the crisis spots are the exact reasons for negative news that I mentioned earlier.
Of all the RHoK efforts that are coming to fruition, according to Google;

"The UN, in partnership with the Colombia government, is considering adopting the shelter management system developed at RHoK Bogota to aid the 3 million victims of winter flooding in South America. Of the nine hacks submitted for judging at RHoK Sao Paulo, two are already in use and two others may be further developed and incorporated into the restructuring of the National Weather Service. The winning application at RHoK Philadelphia, developed in response to a problem proposed by the World Bank Water group, is set for further development at the WaterHackathon, RHoK's first community-sponsored event, later this year."

The RHoK Silicon Valley, One closest to us, also celebrating three winners;

• SMS Person Finder enables anyone with a phone to interact with Person Finder, a software application that Google built to help people connect with their loved ones following a disaster. The Google Crisis Response team is working with this group to integrate their application into future Google Person Finder deployments
• Hey Cycle makes it easier for people to reuse and recycle items by setting up email alerts when free items that they’re looking for are entered on freecycle.org
• FoodMovr connects people with excess food to others who need it through a simple live application

So let us see what people can do and what others are already doing, please visit RHoK.org.


Official Google Blog: Thousands of “hackers for good” build applications for humanity

The Elders : Seeking An End To Child Marriage

Mary Robinson asked a young woman what she remembers about her wedding day. She replied, “It was the day I left school”.

This month Gro Brundtland, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu, visited Ethiopia to bring together Child Marriage experts, activists and of course the communities which are affected by the Child Marriage.
In Ethiopia it is common for a 12 year girl to get married! It just does not compute in my head. How could a child of 12 know anything about life, let along a married life. The domino effects of child marriage will run long and far. First of all it affects the girl, her health, development, and her education.
Sometimes it is easier to get lost in our facebook chats, tweets, while a innocent 12 year girl is married off some where in the world.

Graça Machel : Why we are building an alliance to end child marriage
Gro Brundtland : Meeting child brides in Ethiopia
Via The Elders

Facebook To Lazy Developpers, Fix Authentication Leaks Or Else.

Facebook is serious about autentication leaks that Symantec discovered last week. Facebook also had a blog post on Oauth 2.0 requirement that will go in to effect on September 1 this year. Oauth 2.0 is supposed to be more secure.
But Facebook is not letting those leaky apps that Symantec exposed, sit idle till September 1, 2011. Those developers have received the following email from facebook;

Our automated systems have detected that you may be inadvertently allowing authentication data to be passed to 3rd parties. Allowing user ids and access tokens to be passed to 3rd parties, even inadvertently, could allow these 3rd parties to access the data the user made available to your site. This violates our policies and undermines user trust in your site and Facebook Platform.

In every case that we have examined, this information is passed via the HTTP Referer Header by the user’s browser. This can happen when using our legacy authentication system and including

Would you “Like” the name Like?

After hearing some people naming their babies with likes of "facebook", and other dumb things, it is less painfull to hear about the Israeli couple who named their baby "Like" after facebook's like button.At least it is more likable than the rest!
I am sure Google must be waiting for someone to name their child "Googlie" or Twitter looking for "Tweetie". In any case I feel these are insane decisions made without thinking about the child it self.
I always wondered why most kids say that they hate their parents because I did not. I think now I am begining to understand.
Via Mashable

Google Bloggers Get Buzzed With Dynamic Templates And Views

Most our blogs on Blogger are boring by design :) not because we lack the capabilities to make the more attractive and beautiful. But you don't have to, because Google Blogger is introducing five new dynamic blogger templates that will allow a greater degree of customization.
The new templates uses the latest in the technology like AJAX, HTML5, CSS3 and delivers following benefits to you and your readers;

• Infinite scrolling: read more posts without having to reload or click to a second page
• New layouts: different views suited to different types of blogs
• Speed: download images as you view them, not all at once in advance
• Interactivity: there are now more ways to experience and engage with blog content

You can also view these dynamic views by following these links to some blogs, Flipcard, Mosaic, Sidebar, Snapshot and Timeslide.
Get to work and let people see you and in turn say WeSeePeople.
 

Blogger Buzz: Fresh new perspectives for your blog

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Google Services For New Zealand, Christchurch earthquake resources, maps, news + Person Finder

Google Map

On February 22, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurred very close to Christchurch, New Zealand causing extensive damage. We will continue to update this page with maps, links, and other useful resources.


Emergency assistance number: 0800 779 997
For local emergencies, call: 111
For missing people: Google Person Finder or 0800 733 276

Google Resources 

Google Social Search Updated To Include Your Social Associations .

Updates to Google Social Search, that rolled out new improvements enable you to get even more information from people you are connected to. If they're publishing on Twitter, Flickr, Blogger or other publicly available sites, their results will appear in your results. When you sign in to your Google Account, you can get ideas and recommendations from people you trust, right in your search results. If unwanted results from spam showing up in your search results, you can use this chrome extension Personal Blocklist to fight those spam sites.
Official Google Blog: An update to Google Social Search

IBM Supercomputer WATSON Will Take On Jeopardy Champs.

Watson, a supercomputer named for IBM founder Thomas Watson, will take on two human champions of the long-running Jeopardy! television quiz show in two games over three days next week, starting from February 14th, the Valentine day. Watson, An IBM Power7 computer, a work-load optimized system that can answer questions posed in natural language over a nearly unlimited range of knowledge. Watson, which is not connected to the Internet, plays the game by crunching through multiple algorithms at dizzying speed and attaching a percentage score to what it believes is the correct response.

Like Kasparov, who lost a six-game match to IBM's "Deep Blue" in 1997, Ken Jennings, who holds the Jeopardy! record of 74 straight wins, and Brad Rutter, winner of $3.25 million on the show, are expected to have their hands full.

In a practice match at IBM Research headquarters in upstate New York last month, Watson came out on top in terms of prize money, although the computer and the two human contestants correctly answered all of the 15 questions.

Jeopardy!, which first aired on US television in 1964, tests a player's knowledge of trivia in a range of categories, from geography to politics to history to sports and entertainment.

In a twist on traditional game play, contestants are provided with answers and need to supply the questions.

During the practice match, for example, one of the clues was: "The film Gigi gave him his signature song 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls.'"

Watson, represented by a large computer monitor, sounded the buzzer a split second ahead of Jennings and Rutter and answered correctly in its artificial voice "Who is Maurice Chevalier?"

Bangkok Post

Google Weddings Makes Wedding Planning A Piece Of Cake!

When I saw the Google news yesterday, I did not think much of "Google Weddings" as a wedding is not even in the horizon for me! But it was not the case for some friends of mine, actually a FoF, friend of a Friend.
So I told them about the Google weddings and went about my work. This morning I got an email from the bride to be of FoF, thanking me profusely for the information. Apparently she found it very useful. So I visited the blog and the Google weddings site today.
Then only I realized how well Google has put together all the necessary things for a couple to start their journey together. From a unique introduction of "Our Story" to "wedding Events", Location, RSVP and Guest boo, Photo gallery and of course, the registry.
It is all there. Too bad I am not getting married next year, other wise I would have entered for a chance to win $25,000 and have a dream wedding (see Official Rules). Plus, Michelle Rago, a renowned wedding planner, and her team would have advised me / us on location, flowers, food and other design elements to create a day that is uniquely their own. So go ahead and enter.
You will find all the information at google.com/weddings
Official Google Blog: More “I do”s, less “to-do”s: wedding planning simplified

TinyUmbrella For Verizon iPhone 4.

TinyUmbrella has been updated to support iPhone 4 CDMA aka Verizon.

Selling Democracy, "Hey Arianna, Can You Spare a Dime?"

"Hey Arianna, Can You Spare a Dime?" Looks like Ariana forgot the ideals she speaks of!
New Facebook page: "Hey Arianna, Can You Spare a Dime?" http://on.fb.me/ex44Df
‎"My share of the Huffington Post sale, zero dollars, was a little disappointing," tweeted comedian Andy Borowitz

20,000 leagues under the sea, Jules Verne, Honored By Google Doodle

Update: Use the controls on the right (On Google Home Page)  to dive!
One of the people I will not forget is Jules Verne, I think I read and reread most of his books, including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, 1870) that was honored by Google with a doodle today. I think Verne set off millions of people into the center of the earth or 20000 leagues under water and around the moon and back. It is good to read about the man at anytime. When I saw the Google Doodle, I saw right away, myself in that submarine, Nautilus. I was also glad to find a post on Google blog about it, not many times that you read a blog post from a Google Doodler, with this commemoration of Verne’s 183rd birthday, Jennifer Hom, Google Doodler, did,

Thanks Jennifer, for sending me back to my own child hood and reminding me of the great writer, Jules Gabriel Verne.
Official Google Blog: Happy birthday from 20,000 leagues under the sea

Google Summer of Code 2011, It Is On, Student People, Apply Now!

GSOC or Google Summer Of Code is an event we get to see inventive and innovative people, or students from all over the world. These students, guided by their mentors and supported by Google have brought us new tools and programs over the years. This introduction to Open Source community and to programming itself with stipend from Google (One thing I relally like about Google is their Dollar is a Dollar in USA, India, China or Timbuktu, leveling the playing field.) Over the past 6 years Google Summer of Code has had 4,500 students from over 85 countries complete the program.Some student participants gone into becoming entrepreneurs and other continued their education supported by Google stipend.
"Spread the word to your friends! If you know of a university student that would be interested in working on open source projects this summer, or if you know of an organization that might want to mentor students to work on their open source projects, please direct them to our Google Summer of Code 2011 website where they can find our timeline along with the FAQs. And stay tuned for more details coming soon!"

Google Summer of Code Announced at LCA - Google Open Source Blog

Family, How Zach Wahls Sees His, Which Has Two Mothers.

I do not have any problem saying Sach is right and voting his way. I am surprised that we even argue about these issues any longer. Discrimination is not acceptable. Accept people for what they are. I actually love my mother very very much, and I am jealous that Zach can give and receive, twice what I have;)

Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student spoke about the strength of his family during a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wahls has two mothers, and came to oppose House Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.

The fight to to keep marriage equality in Iowa continues, help support Iowans like Zach.

Egyptians Can Tweet Via Landline, Mobile Phone With Call2Tweet From Google and Twitter

WeseePeople like to see hear from all people, but at the moment we would love to hear from Egyptians. The Last Internet connection to the country has gone dark but the mobile and landline phones are still up.
Google and Saynow (a Google Company) together with Twitter has come with a new solution, to provide people in Egypt with capability to Tweet, just with a phone call and leaving a a voice mail. It will be tweeted with #Egypt and a link to listen to the Voicemail. Tweets could be checked out at twitter.com/speak2tweet
It will also be good if someone who knows Egyptian language, translate those messages.
We want to hear you Egypt!


Official Google Blog: Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard

T-Pain Gets A Facebook "Like" Tatto!

Looks like people do all sort of things to with for facebook, other than spending working studying and free time on it.

Singer / rapper T-Pain has got a new tatto, "I DON’T HAVE TO [Like] ME"
T-Pain Tweeted;

I get a tatt every time I come to Hawaii. I think this ones pretty sweet, unless facebook shuts down soon 0_o 

Yep it is your right T-Pain and as  Techcrunch's Wauters said, I DON’T HAVE TO [Like] IT

LinkedIn InMaps, Analytical In A Beautiful Way!

LinkedIn which announced about LinkedIn IPO today, is deploying a lot of new features.like LinkedIn Swarm, LinkedIn text ads and my favorite, LinkedIn InMaps from LinkedIn Labs.
The maps allows you to discover your your connections, professional relationships visually in a color coded map. It also let you find out about professional hubs in your network, something which is hard to see textually. There are many other things to be discovered or analyzed using the InMaps. Two conditions govern your use of the maps, You need to have at least 50 connections and 75% of your profile need to be completed. Go travel your InMaps.

read
Your Maps are at http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com

French President Sarkozy's Facebook Account Hacked

A hacker has got hold of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Facebook account and has issued a false statement about the future election plans. The message whicn now has been removed statted;

"Dear compatriots, given the exceptional circumstances our country is experiencing, I have decided in my spirit and conscience not to run for office again at the end of my mandate in 2012"

The spoof message has since been removed, indicating the French President has regained the control of the account.

"My Facebook account was hacked into this evening, perhaps to remind me that no system is infallible, I have noted the writing and spelling lesson, but do not subscribe to the rather hasty conclusions of the message"

ABC News Australia

7 Billion Reasons To Think About Population Growth, Hint: Strike Out Living Space.

It is expected that the world population will exceed seven billion in 2011. With this in mind National Geographic magazine offers a 7-part series examining specific challenges and solutions to the issues associated with population growth we will be facing now and in the future.
Space will not be a problem because we can fit all 7 billion, standing shoulder to shoulder, in to the greater Los Angeles 
The magazine introduces the series with its January cover story "7 Billion," offering a broad overview of demographic trends that got us to today and will impact us all tomorrow. The first in-depth story will appear in the March issue, focusing on humans' impact on the planet's geology. Other stories will follow throughout 2011.
Via CitizenTube

Iranian People Gets Google Earth, Picasa, Chrome Downloads, But Not The Iranian Government.

We all know how hard people in Iran tried to get their news out when Iranian government blocked any news from flowing out by deporting foreign journalists, shutting down media outlets and even blocking cell phone communications.
But people were able to use services like Twitter, Youtube and other means to get news out. But those same people were unable to use new software like Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome that we have come to rely in day to day use. due to export restrictions.
Some of those restrictions have been lifted and today, Iranian people, but not the Iranian government (Google will continue to block IP addresses associated with the Iranian government) will be able to download Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome
Keep up the communications and openness.
Official Google Blog: Software downloads for Iran: "Google Earth, Picasa, Chrome Downloads to Iran"

"You guys in AZ are life savers." CDCR Undersecretary Scott Kernan

It is too sick even to imagine how these people think of taking someones life, convicted murderer or otherwise.  The American Civil Liberties Union obtained and released the documents, showing the desperation of  California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials  to secure some sodium thiopental to execute convicted murderer.

You guys in AZ are life savers," Kernan e-mailed Charles Flanagan, Arizona Department of Corrections deputy director. "Buy you a beer next time I get that way."

Via  Gawker

Americans Are More Social, And Civilly Engaged On The Internet.

The thinking that internet users were bunch of people who were isolated and lacking social skills are fast fading as many of us know and the fact has been confirmed by a study "The Social Side of the Internet" by PEW Internet and American Life Project. The study was based on a survey among American Adults 18 years and older and was conducted in both English and Spanish.
As for social life of people engaged in groups, at a personal level, say the internet has had varying influence over their connection to groups:

    * 53% of the online Americans who are active in groups say the internet has had a major impact on their ability to keep up with news and information about their groups; 30% say the internet has had a minor impact on that.
    * 41% of these internet-using active group members say the internet has had a major impact on their ability to organize activities for their groups; 33% say the internet has had a minor impact on that.
    * 35% of these internet-using active group members say the internet has had a major impact on their ability to invite friends to join their groups; 36% say the internet has had a minor impact on that.
    * 33% of these internet-using active group members say the internet has had a major impact on their ability to find groups that match their interests; 28% say the internet has had a minor impact on that.
    * 28% of these internet-using active group members say the internet has had a major impact on their ability to create their own groups; 28% say the internet has had a minor impact on that.
    * 24% of these internet-using active group members say the internet has had a major impact on their ability to volunteer their time to groups; 40% say the internet has had a minor impact on that.
    * 24% of these internet-using active group members say the internet has had a major impact on their ability to contribute money to groups; 34% say the internet has had a minor impact on that.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has found that 75% of all American adults are active in some kind of voluntary group or organization and internet users are more likely than others to be active: 80% of internet users participate in groups, compared with 56% of non-internet users. And social media users are even more likely to be active: 82% of social network users and 85% of Twitter users are group participants.

Read, Dream & Recycle, Book Origami From Book of Art.

Isaac Salazar

it’s also my way of recycling a book that might otherwise end up in a landfill.  The words or symbols I use are drawn from anything that invokes inspiration or encouragement, such as “Read”, “Dream” and the Recycle symbol.  If my work also makes people look at a book and even art in a new light then the piece has done its job“
Book of Art on FlickR via Recyclart

The Ghost Of Plagiarism

Ever thought of Plagiarizing? Watch this funny video. Press "CC" (access via up arrow next to resolution) button to get subtitles;

The Ghost Of Plagiarism

Facebook Valued At 50 Billion As Goldman Sachs Invests $500 Million

Godman Sachs ($450 Million) and Digital Sky Technologies (50 Million) have investedon the ever changing facebook driving the valuation of the firm to whopping $50 Billion. With this valuation, facebook surfaces eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner in value!
The new infusion will allow facebook to steal away from it's rivals in many fields like developing new products, hiring and possibly new acquisitions.
The SEC is showing interest in companies like facebook, twitter and zinga and their lucrative private markets and if they are using the private market to avoid public disclosure requirements.
On the otherhand, experts belive the new money inflow might force facebook to go public just like Google or Microsoft. Also all these companies are making the market change as well;

“When you think back to the early days of Google, they were kind of ignored by Wall Street investors, until it was time to go public,” said Chris Sacca, an angel investor in Silicon Valley who is a former Google employee and an investor in Twitter. “This time, the Street is smartening up. They realize there are true growth businesses out here. Facebook has become a real business, and investors are coming out here and saying, ‘We want a piece of it.’”

NYTimes