World AIDS Day 2010

On Wednesday, December 1, 2010, World AIDS Day, close to 1,000 people will descend on Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors to remember those we have lost to HIV/AIDS, give hope to those currently living with the disease worldwide, and for a look towards the future.

The "Our Memories Burn Bright" candlelight walk and rally is not a fundraiser, nor is it affiliated with any other events that may take place that same evening.

Beginning three years ago, the "Our Memories Burn Bright" candlelight vigil and rally has steadily increased in size each year with last year having over 950 participants. This year the event is sponsored and underwritten by Broward House, The Pride Factory, Broward Health Department, Walgreens, Geovax Pharmaceuticals and Commcare Pharmacy.

"The response so far this year leads us to believe the event will be even larger than in years past," said Terry DeCarlo, the event's producer and public relations and marketing director for Broward House. "We put out a blanket email this year asking for community partners to join us in presenting the event and the response has been overwhelming with some of the most concerned and most active Fort Lauderdale community organizations, including: The Pride Center, Tuesday's Angels, The SMART Ride, Sunserve, The Pals Project, The MProject, The Pet Project, The AIDS memorial quilt, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Women In Networking, Broward Health Department, Fusion, Minority Development & Empowerment, Children's Diagnostic and Treatment Center, SMen, The Sunshine Cathedral and The Church of the Holy Spirit Song. Supportive businesses, include Bill's Filling Station, Georgie's Alibi, Hotspots Magazine, Latino Boys Magazine, the Rainbow Business Coalition, Mark's List, Mark's Magazine, South Florida Gay News, the Agenda Newspaper, the City of Wilton Manors, the City of Oakland Park, the Broward Sheriff's Office, Sidelines Sports Bar, Chic Optique and Island City Health and Fitness all answered the call. In the past too, we have had problems with so many people showing up to the rally that people could not hear or see what was happening; we have resolved that problem this year by bringing in a large stage donated by the City of Oakland Park and having a professional light and sound system."

Beginning at 7:30 pm the candlelight procession will step off from Hagen Park (2020 Wilton Drive, behind Wilton Manors City Hall) and proceed east on Wilton Drive ending in the parking lot of the Shoppes of Wilton Manors (Georgie's Alibi) where a celebration of life will be held; the event should end at approximately 9:00 pm. For more information on the event or on Broward House, please visit BrowardHouse.org

The "Our Memories Burn Bright" candlelight walk and rally is not a fundraiser, nor is it affiliated with any other events that may take place that same evening.

Source: HotSpots Magazine

The new Facebook Messenging/Email System

Here's the Associated Press Report on the new Facebook Messenging/Email System.

Facebook is betting that one day soon, we'll all be acting like young students -- more texting and instant-messaging, at the expense of e-mail.

Facebook unveiled a new messaging system Monday, and while CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn't go as far as declaring e-mail dead, he clearly sees the four-decade-old technology being eclipsed by more real-time ways of communicating."We don't think a modern messaging system is going to be e-mail," Zuckerberg said.

Right now, Facebook's Messages section is a lot like an e-mail inbox. The overhauled version, which will be rolled out to users by invitation in coming months, brings in cell phone texts, IM chats and e-mails from non-Facebook accounts.

All the messages stack up in one inbox, and they're organized by the person sending them rather than the type of technology they use. For those who want one, Facebook will hand out facebook.com e-mail addresses -- mostly to make it easier to communicate with people who aren't on Facebook.

"If we do a good job, some people will say this is the way that the future will work," Zuckerberg said.

By making e-mail part of its communications hub, Facebook escalates its duel with Internet search leader Google Inc., which shook up online communications 6½ years ago with its Gmail service. Google has said it will roll out more social networking features to counter Facebook's growing popularity, and within Gmail it already lets people chat, e-mail and make phone calls.

What Facebook has that Gmail and others don't have, however, is people's real identities, plus a map of their real-life relationships and online interactions -- something Facebook likes to refer to as the "social graph."

Facebook will use what it knows of these relationships to build a social inbox that not only filters out spam but messages it deems less important from strangers or overly chatty friends, and impersonal messages such as the phone bill. Those lower-priority messages will be tossed in a separate folder labeled "Other." Users can also tell Facebook to automatically block messages that don't come from friends.

To communicate with a friend, a Facebook user would click on the friend's name rather than hunt for a phone number or an e-mail address. If that friend prefers to get text messages, that's how the message will be seen. If the friend likes e-mail, e-mail it will be.

The messaging system, however, isn't e-mail. It doesn't use subject lines or "Cc" fields.

Facebook says it will store every missive sent between two people for eternity, unless they choose to delete it; the company likens it to this generation's equivalent of a box filled with years of love letters.

Zuckerberg dismissed notions that the Facebook service, code-named "Project Titan," is a "Gmail killer," as portrayed in the media. At the same time, he said he thinks more people will forgo lengthy e-mail conversations in favor of shorter, more immediate chats.

That could lessen the need for people to use communications tools other than Facebook, said Altimeter Group analyst Charlene Li.

"It may not be a Gmail killer, but it could be nibbler," she predicted.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt welcomed Facebook's expanded role in online communications. "More competition is always good because competition makes the market larger," Schmidt said in a meeting with reporters at the Web 2.0 technology summit. "We are all well served by having everybody online."

Facebook sees its messaging service as a way to deepen its connection with the more than 500 million users of its network. If it can persuade its vast audience to become faithful users of its e-mail service, Facebook conceivably will have more opportunities to sell advertising that caters to their likes and dislikes.

That ambition also could heighten the privacy issues surrounding Facebook as it becomes more deeply ingrained in people's lives and its computers become a treasure trove of personal information.

Privacy, to be sure, has been a thorn in 6-year-old Facebook's side since it was born in Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room.

Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy watchdog group, called Facebook's move into e-mail "deeply disturbing." He said that under the guise of giving users a new utility, the company "opens up another door that allows it to closely track how their members communicate."

Privacy concerns aside, Wedbush Morgan analyst Lou Kerner, who follows social media, sees the feature expanding the site's appeal.

"It's going to bring some of the remaining holdouts to the Facebook platform," Kerner said.

Facebook has scheduled a huge announcement for tomorrow

Facebook has scheduled a huge announcement for tomorrow.

It is expected to announced a new email program that would immediately CRUSH gmail and hotmail with number of users.

PLUS...

If you can read your email while you are on Facebook, it's going to render old fashioned email obsolete.

Now when you add this to the fact that Microsoft and Facebook are working together on search, it leads to just one simple conclusion.

Google is about to get a serious thrashing.

So tomorrow is going to be a huge day.

FL Incoming Teabaggers Cells and emails

The Tea Party Patriots have published the cells and emails of incoming Tea Party favorites so I thought I will do the a favor and send them out to you
Florida Tea Party Freshmen

FL-02 Steve Southerland - (850) 258-9082 - steve@southerlandforcongress.com
FL-05 Richard Nugent - (352) 428-0924 - Richard_Nugent1@msn.com
FL-08 Daniel Webster - (407) 947-5376 - senator_webster@yahoo.com
FL-12 Dennis Ross - (863) 255-1048 - Dross71803@aol.com
FL-22 Allen West - (954) 288-6934 - gowest@allenwestforcongress.com
FL-24 Sandy Adams - (321) 303-9214 - sadams4flhr33@aol.com
FL-25 David Rivera - (786) 258-2222 - Rivera2004@comcast.net