Australian Facebook killer gets life (AFP)

MELBOURNE (AFP) – A vengeful Australian man who wrote on his Facebook page he was "bout to kill ma kid" minutes before stabbing his two-year-old daughter to death was jailed for life on Friday.

Consumed by hatred and a desire to punish his ex-partner Rachelle D'Argent, Ramazan Acar, 24, kidnapped daughter Yazmina from her Melbourne home last November.

The Victorian Supreme Court heard that as well as posting the disturbing Facebook message, Acar sent taunting text messages to D'Argent before killing his daughter.

At the time, he was serving a suspended sentence for assaulting his ex-partner and Justice Elizabeth Curtain said it was a chilling murder and a fundamental breach of trust.

"The victim was your innocent daughter. She was killed by the one man in the world whose (role) was to love, nurture and protect her," Curtain said.

"You committed this murder for the worst possible motive -- revenge and spite. You killed your daughter to get back at her mother."

Acar was jailed for life with a 33-year non-parole period.

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Unborn Child Racks Up More Than 260 Facebook Friends (Time.com)

If you're a Facebook user of a certain age, your news feed is undoubtedly clogged with ultrasound photos from parents-to-be you haven't seen for years.

The traditional grainy ultrasound is somewhat acceptable as a profile pic, but incessant updates about every kick and bout with morning sickness can take it too far.

(PHOTOS: Around the World with Facebook.)

But for Ellie and Matt Greene of Texas, those were the perfect to post on Facebook - not for their pages, but for their unborn daughter's. The popular Facebook page of Marriah Greene, their soon-to-be-born child, was created so that the parents could post photos and information about life in the third trimester. In days, Marriah acquired more than 260 friends - and was covered by media outlets including CNN.

Comments for Marriah spoke directly to her ("Can't wait to see you and hold you.") and responses were written from the fetus's point of view ("IKEA is fun, mom is doing the shopping thing again. What is she going to get me now?"). Further, the parents-to-be took the liberty of adding their daughter's interests for her, which included swimming, Lady Gaga and sucking her thumb. What will be posted next? Her early acceptance to Harvard - by a whopping 17 years? Oh never mind, she already attends Tummy University.

The page, however, is no longer active on Facebook. The Blaze, Glenn Beck's news and opinion website, reached out to Ellie Greene and asked if the social networking site had deleted the profile. Ellie's response: "I think so." Facebook has a strict age policy that requires all users - including the prenatal - are at least 13, which could explain the profile's mysterious disappearance. (via CNN)

(PHOTOS: A Mark Zuckerberg Family Album.)

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Facebook is Building a Desktop Software Team, Despite Lack of iPad App (PC Magazine)

Need a job? Give Facebook a call. The company is seeking engineers for a new desktop software team.

TechCrunch pointed out a posting on the jobs page titled "Software Engineer, Desktop Software" at Facebook's recently-opened Seattle office

The description reads: "The desktop software team is a new team at Facebook based out of Seattle, WA. We will be working on new products that we expect to deliver to millions of users' computers to help make their entire computing experience more social. Facebook is seeking experienced software engineers in Seattle to join this team."

The page says the other responsibilities of the job are to "create desktop applications for Mac and/or Windows, work closely with our product and design teams to define feature specifications, work closely with our Platform team to build server-side APIs and interfaces in support of these applications, [and] conduct design and code reviews."

Interestingly enough, Facebook is building this team for the desktop before it even has an iPad app. The lack of the iPad app is also curious considering Facebook's iPhone app is the most downloaded application of all time.

Could Facebook be building a desktop app? Possibly, but TechCrunch notes that it "doesn't seem to make a lot of sense given their stated (over and over again) commitment to HTML5 and that being the key driver for why they don't have an iPad app."

Last fall, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the absence of an iPad app.

"iPad's not mobile," he said. "I don't mean to be rude to Apple. iPad just isn't mobile in the same way [an iPhone] is."

It's unclear whether or not Facebook will eventually cave and build an official iPad app. For now it seems we might see an increased emphasis on the desktop.

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Google, Facebook lose social network patent ruling (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Google Inc and Facebook Inc failed to win dismissal of a lawsuit by a New York company related to software designed to let people take part on social networks through their mobile phones.

Wireless Ink Corp, which runs the Winksite service, may pursue claims that Google Buzz and Facebook Mobile infringed its October 2009 patent, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan wrote in a ruling made public on Friday.

The patent related to a method to help novice mobile phone users create mobile websites that other phone users can see. Wireless Ink is seeking a halt to the alleged infringement, and compensatory and triple damages.

Jeremy Pitcock, a lawyer for Wireless Ink, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Facebook and Google did not immediately return requests for comment.

According to an amended complaint filed in December, Wireless Ink's application for its so-called '983 patent became public in January 2004.

It said this was three years before Facebook, the world's most popular social networking website, launched its first mobile website, and six years before Google launched Buzz to compete with Facebook.

"If two of the most resource-rich, patent-savvy and technologically advanced companies leading the Internet were not aware of the '983 patent, despite its potential ramifications upon a major segment of the defendants' business," Wireless Ink wrote, "this was solely due to a deliberate indifference on the part of defendants."

Wireless Ink said Winksite had more than 75,000 registered users, while Facebook Mobile has tens of millions of users, and Google said tens of millions of people had "checked Buzz out" in the service's first two days.

In his ruling, Castel said Wireless Ink "does not allege any facts that are inconsistent with the existence of a viable claim." He also dismissed counterclaims seeking to invalidate the Wireless Ink patent.

Facebook is based in Palo Alto, California, and Google in Mountain View, California.

Analysts now generally consider Google Buzz a failure. Google raised privacy concerns when it at first used email lists from users' Gmail accounts to build social networks of Buzz contacts. It later changed the settings so that Gmail contacts are kept private by default.

The case is Wireless Ink Corp v. Facebook Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-01841.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Editing by Richard Chang)

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"Margaritaville" going 3D as Buffett launches Facebook game (Reuters)

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Billboard) – Jimmy Buffett has partnered with THQ to bring "Margaritaville Online" to Facebook and iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) this fall, but attendees of E3 in Los Angeles will get a first look at the game. The casual online video game is targeting Buffett's devoted followers, known as Parrotheads, along with the 45 million Facebook gamers who play FarmVille.

Buffett, who is currently touring, will be at E3 at the THQ booth to promote the new game. "The Margaritaville laid back state of mind is inherently social, and THQ has captured the spirit of that lifestyle in this game," said Buffett. "With Margaritaville Online, fans across the globe can party together any time and any place."

Developed by Exploding Barrel Games, the 3D open world features tropical environments and a full catalog of Buffett's music. Players will be able to create their own island resort, play mini-games and interact with characters from Buffett's songs and literary works including Captain Tony and Joe Merchant. They'll even be able to create their own band.

Hollywood producer Frank Marshall is responsible for bringing Margaritaville to gamers, according to Danny Bilson, THQ's executive vice president of core games. While THQ was developing games based on M. Night Shyamalin's "The Last Airbender," Marshall, who is close with Buffett, explained the vision of what has become "Margaritaville Online" to the game publisher.

"Frank Marshall is essentially one of the producers on the game," said Bilson. "He and Jimmy work very closely with us on every element in the game. Everything in the game is based on ideas from the songs and books." Bilson said this Facebook game will stand out from games like Zynga's CityVille because Margaritaville Online is an immersive 3D world. At the same time, it has all the great core tenets of a Facebook social game where players can build a unique island resort, embark on adventures and socialize with friends.

This is the second social game from THQ, which released UFC Undisputed Fight Nation last year. Bilson said a third social game will be announced after E3.

"We think social games are a big part of our future," said Bilson. "In the social gaming space it's important to have an ecosystem of games to make the whole thing work, so that people can share and go from one world to the next. You're going to see THQ focusing some energies around that in the next year."

Buffett is the first musician to completely embrace the booming casual online gaming space. Artists like Lady Gaga and Dr. Dre have partnered with Zynga to connect with fans in games like CityVille and Mafia Wars, but those have focused on promoting music. Just as he has with his Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain, Margaritaville Online will allow fans to connect with Buffett in a unique way.

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Facebook, Zuckerberg say ownership suit a "fraud" (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Calling the case a "brazen and outrageous fraud," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg urged a federal court on Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit by a New York man claiming he owns a huge stake in the social networking website.

In a filing with the U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, Facebook and Zuckerberg said the lawsuit by Paul Ceglia is based on a "doctored contract and fabricated evidence." They also called the plaintiff "an inveterate scam artist whose misconduct extends across decades and borders."

Ceglia, a wood pellet salesman from Wellsville, New York, has contended that he contracted in 2003 for 50 percent of Zuckerberg's interest in what became Facebook.

Facebook is privately held, but analysts have said it could be worth $70 billion should it go public. Forbes magazine in March estimated Zuckerberg's net worth at $13.5 billion.

Ceglia originally sued last July, saying he had contracted with Zuckerberg for an 84 percent Facebook stake. In an amended complaint Ceglia outlined what he called emails between himself and Zuckerberg to support his case.

In their response, Facebook and Zuckerberg said they "specifically deny any liability" to Ceglia, and called the lawsuit "a brazen and outrageous fraud on the court."

They also questioned why Ceglia waited seven years to sue, saying he had long been "utterly silent" as Facebook "grew into one of the world's best-known companies."

A lawyer representing Ceglia declined immediate comment.

According to published reports, Ceglia pleaded guilty in 1997 to possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Texas. In 2009, he was accused of fraud and had his business shut down.

In a separate case, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a court ruling that upheld their $65 million cash-and-stock settlement with Facebook.

The twin brothers have accused Facebook and Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for the website.

The battle between the Winklevoss twins and Zuckerberg was dramatized in the 2010 Oscar-nominated movie "The Social Network".

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Chicago; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Phil Berlowitz)

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Facebook, Zuckerberg say ownership suit a "fraud" (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Calling the case a "brazen and outrageous fraud," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg urged a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit by a New York man claiming he owns a huge stake in the social networking website.

In a filing Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, Facebook Inc and Zuckerberg said the lawsuit by Paul Ceglia is based on a "doctored contract and fabricated evidence." They also called the plaintiff "an inveterate scam artist whose misconduct extends across decades and borders."

Ceglia, a wood pellet salesman from Wellsville, New York, has contended that he contracted in 2003 for 50 percent of Zuckerberg's interest in what became Facebook.

Facebook is privately held, but analysts have said it could be worth $70 billion should it go public, perhaps in 2012. Forbes magazine in March estimated Zuckerberg's net worth at $13.5 billion.

Christopher "Kip" Hall, a lawyer representing Ceglia, declined immediate comment.

Ceglia originally sued last July, saying he had contracted with Zuckerberg for an 84 percent Facebook stake. But after a setback over a jurisdictional issue, Ceglia dropped his lawyer and retained a large global law firm, DLA Piper.

The amended complaint outlined what Ceglia called emails between himself and Zuckerberg to support his case. In one, Zuckerberg appeared to resist a clause that could have given Ceglia a stake greater than 80 percent.

"I'd like to suggest that you drop the penalty completely and that we officially return to 50/50 ownership," Zuckerberg was said to have written on February 2, 2004.

In their response, Facebook and Zuckerberg said they "specifically deny any liability" to Ceglia, and called the lawsuit "a brazen and outrageous fraud on the court."

They also questioned why Ceglia waited seven years to sue, saying he had long been "utterly silent" as Facebook "grew into one of the world's best-known companies."

According to published reports, Ceglia pleaded guilty in 1997 to possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Texas. In 2009, he was accused of fraud and had his business shut down by Andrew Cuomo, then New York's attorney general.

In a separate case, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a court ruling that upheld their $65 million cash-and-stock settlement with Facebook.

The twin brothers had accused Facebook and Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for the website. They complained that the 2008 accord was fraudulent because Facebook hid information from them, and that they deserved more Facebook stock.

The case is Ceglia v. Zuckerberg et al, U.S. District Court, Western District of New York, No. 10-00569.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Chicago; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Phil Berlowitz)

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Facebook hires 2 former Bush aides as lobbyists (AP)

NEW YORK – Facebook said Thursday that it hired two aides of former President George W. Bush as lobbyists. The world's largest online social network is stepping up efforts to friend Washington as it grows.

Facebook hired Joel Kaplan as vice president of U.S. public policy in a newly created position. Kaplan will oversee the company's public policy strategy and interactions with federal and state policymakers. He was previously deputy chief of staff in the Bush White House.

The other hire, Myriah Jordan, will be Facebook's policy manager, focusing on congressional relations. Jordan most recently served as general counsel to Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina. She also worked in the Bush White House in the office of the Chief of Staff.

Facebook now has four registered lobbyists. The new Republican hires join Democrats Tim Sparapani and Adam Conner. Facebook has 12 staffers in its Washington office, including administrative support.

"At Facebook, we're committed to explaining how our service works; the important actions we take to protect the more than 500 million people who use our service; and the value of innovation to our economy," spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement. "This work occurs daily in Washington, at the state level, and with policymakers around the world."

The company spent $230,000 lobbying in the first quarter, according to a recent filing with the House clerk's office.

Cathie Martin, who has been managing Facebook's congressional relations, is taking a leave of absence beginning in early June to take care of personal matters. In the meantime, Sparapani and Jordan will be responsible for congressional relations.

Kaplan begins his post on June 13 and Jordan on June 6.

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Google, Facebook warn on Internet rules at e-G8 (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) – Google Inc Chairman Eric Schmidt and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg warned governments to tread lightly on Internet regulation because moves to tame its rough edges risked hurting its virtues.

At the conclusion of a two-day forum in Paris, their comments exposed deep rifts between tech titans, academics and policy makers even as they tried to agree on a message to take to world leaders at the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting on Thursday in Deauville, France.

With the forum, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was seeking to put his stamp on the debate over regulating the Internet and encouraging the digital economy during his one-year term as president for the G8.

Despite a glittering guest list, the event dubbed the eG8 ended up with few concrete policy recommendations and mostly vague conclusions that the delegation of six technology chief executives, including Schmidt and Zuckerberg, will present to leaders in Deauville on Thursday.

The outcome highlights the difficulty of finding a way to regulate the Internet that is acceptable to both governments and industry.

Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old entrepreneur who created the social network with 500 million users around the world, was greeted like a rock star during a question-and-answer session on Wednesday and praised for creating a tool that helped touch off democracy movements in the Arab world.

"People tell me on the one hand 'it's great you played such a big role in the Arab spring, but it's also kind of scary because you enable all this sharing and collect information on people'," said Zuckerberg, who was clad in a T-shirt and jeans.

"But it's hard to have one without the other .... You can't isolate some things you like about the Internet and control other things that you don't."

Schmidt sounded a similar note earlier when he told the assembly: "Technology will move faster than governments, so don't legislate before you understand the consequences."

The divisions on copyright proved too large to be bridged, as well as the question of how the burden of investing in telecommunications networks should be shared among telecom operators and the Web giants that rely on them.

At the final panel intended to finalize the message to the G8 leaders, Schmidt squared off with Vivendi CEO Jean Bernard Levy over copyright issues.

Levy, whose company puts out music and video games that are often pirated, said: "I don't think you can compromise on copyright. It's the right of the artist to decide how his work is used."

Schmidt shot back: "I would be opposed to any absolute statements. Copyright is not an absolute right; it is a shared right. Copyright in one form or another is a balance of interests."

Maurice Levy, chief executive of advertising firm Publicis, which is hosting the conference, said they didn't have to resolve the many debates over the Internet's future.

"We are not going to Deauville with a list of grievances or requirements," said Levy at the close of the forum. "We are going with the idea of sharing our points of view and to have an exchange with leaders."

(Additional reporting by Marie Mawad and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Yahoo Mail taps into Facebook, Twitter, and more (Digital Trends)

Internet giant Yahoo is rolling out a new version of Yahoo Mail to its 284 million users in the next few weeks, hoping to make Yahoo Mail the central hub of their online and social lives by integrating a raft of new social features, improved security, and mobile access, along with cloud-based technology that Yahoo says makes the service up to two times faster. The changes include a major facelift for the familiar service, and the company hopes the new social and sharing capabilities will help Yahoo Mail keep its edge over Gmail in terms of overall number of users.

Chief among Yahoo Mail’s new features is the ability to tap into user’s existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter: users can immediately respond to Facebook messages as well as view and share notices from the likes of Twitter, and Zynga within a new Updates tab. Yahoo Mail also doesn’t limit conversations just to email: the system tries to prioritize contacts and messages that matter to users most, whether they’re via instant messaging, SMS, or email, messages from most-frequent contacts get pushed to the top. Users can also chat with Facebook contacts right alongside Windows Live and Yahoo Messenger contacts, and tap into archives IM conversations right within Yahoo Mail.

Yahoo says it has revamped its email search to more precisely locate what users want when they look through their email, and users can view photo slideshows, inline videos, and other enclosures right within their inboxes. Yahoo says its new Advanced SpamGuard and anti-phishing technologies have reduced spam by 60 percent, and even helps block unwanted IM conversations—Yahoo says it now blocks more than half a trillion spam messages a month. Yahoo also says new cloud technology makes the new Yahoo Mail up to two times faster than the existing version, despite the overhead of all the new capabilities.

Yahoo began testing the new mail technologies seven months ago, but has finally deemed them ready to be rolled out to their broad user base. Yahoo remains a huge player in the Web-based mail market, with some 284 million users worldwide compared to Gmail’s 220 million or so users—although Microsoft’s Hotmail remains the champion with over 320 million users. Email users are considered premium customers for Internet companies, because they tend to access services frequently and stay logged in to services for an extended period of time: this not only provides more opportunities to serve up advertisements to users, but also get more precious profile information about users likes, dislikes, and online activity.

The Yahoo Mail update should roll out gradually to users over the coming weeks, but users who want to jump on board now can upgrade their accounts at overview.mail.yahoo.com.

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Facebook, Apple pressed on kids' mobile privacy (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A high-tech Wild West where location data, including some gleaned from teenagers' mobile devices, is scooped up and sold without consumers' consent needs to end, lawmakers told a panel of tech companies on Thursday.

While lawmakers noted extraordinary technical innovation by Apple Inc, Google Inc, Facebook and others in Silicon Valley, they also showed irritation at data collection and sale without consent. Much of the ire was aimed at smartphone applications and the collection of teenagers' data.

"A teenager accessing an application may not realize that her address book is being accessed and shared with a third party. That is not meant to happen in this country without the permission of an adult," said Senator John Rockefeller, chairman of the Commerce Committee.

Twenty percent of children aged 11 or younger had a cell phone in 2009 while 66 percent had one by age 14, and just under 75 percent of high schoolers have one, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project report.

The revelation last month that Apple's iPhones collected location data and stored it for up to a year -- even when location software was supposedly turned off -- has prompted renewed scrutiny of the nexus between location and privacy.

Google, which has had privacy battles of its own with controversy over Buzz and Street View among others, has been dragged in because it provides the guts of the Android phones.

But Google's Alan Davidson warned lawmakers against focusing on headline issues and said they should instead hone in on establishing principles. "Otherwise, this committee and others will be returning term after term to address the latest new technology fad," he warned.

Senator Pat Toomey, the ranking Republican on the Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Internet subcommittee, noted that he was the father of two young children and was "very concerned," while adding: "As a general matter, I prefer to see the market self-regulate."

LOTS OF LEGISLATION

Rockefeller also pressed Facebook, which says it bars children under age 13 from the website, to explain why 7.5 million children aged 12 or less have accounts.

Facebook Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor said it only shuts down the accounts of children when someone else reports that a child is on the website. Children 12 and under get special privacy protection by law, which means that many web sites prefer not to cater to them.

Apple also said that it bars children under age 13 from its iTunes store and does not sell apps that target minors for data collection. "If we learn that we have inadvertently received the personal information of a child under 13, we take immediate steps to delete that information," said Apple's Catherine Novelli.

Democratic Senator John Kerry called for changes to "modernize our privacy laws."

"We want ... legislation to work for both the consumer and entrepreneur. I reject the notion ... that privacy protection is the enemy of innovation. It absolutely doesn't have to be," said Kerry, who has introduced a privacy bill with Republican Senator John McCain.

In addition to the Rockefeller and the Kerry-McCain bill, there are online privacy bills introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Bobby Rush and Jackie Speier. Representatives Ed Markey and Joe Barton are mulling an update to the children's online privacy protection laws. It is too early to tell whether any will become law.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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Facebook 'planking' craze claims life in Australia (AFP)

BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) – A new craze sweeping the Internet known as "planking" claimed a life in Australia Sunday and police fear the tragedy may not be the last.

Planking involves someone lying flat on their stomach with their arms against their bodies in unusual and sometimes dangerous situations, with photographs of their exploits shared through social media sites.

It has gone viral in recent weeks with Facebook page Planking Australia boasting over 55,000 fans and hundreds of photos of people lying on train tracks, escalators, fire hydrants, motorbikes and other objects.

Police last week warned "plankers" of the dangers and their fears have been realised with the death of a man in Brisbane who plummeted from a seventh-storey balcony and died at the scene.

"This morning we have seen a young man take this activity a step further and attempt to plank on a balcony. Unfortunately he has tragically fallen to his death," Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett said.

The man, who has not been named, and another person had been out during the night and were planking in various locations on their way home.

"It is what we've been fearing," added Barnett, but could not say whether it was Australia's first death from the craze.

Barnett said he was worried that more injuries would occur as people try to out-do each other by planking in increasingly precarious positions to get the ultimate photo.

"Police fear that as planking gains popularity there may be more injuries and potentially further deaths," he said, adding that it may appear to be light-hearted fun but can quickly turn to tragedy.

"Accepting a risk of injury for yourself is one thing, but the potential is there for others to be injured as a result of your behaviour."

Last week, a 20-year-old, also in Queensland state, was arrested after being allegedly found "planking" on a police car. He was charged with being on police equipment without lawful excuse.

Police issued warnings of the dangers at the time but the publicity only seemed to fuel the fad.

"If other people break the law during this activity they will be charged as well," warned Barnett.

"But no penalty will ever return this young man to his family and friends. This is a tragedy and our condolences go to the family."

Facebook tributes immediately started pouring in for the dead man.

"R.I.P Fellow planker," said one posting on the Australian Planking page.

"I didn't know him, but he was a planker like the rest of us."

Another wrote: "Stay safe dudes, plank carefully."

But not everyone was sympathetic.

"Seriously, people are so dumb. Get over this stupid planking thing," another post said.

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Nicole Seah Facebook Friends Record

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In less than two days since she announced her candidacy in coming General Election, the number of Singaporeans who joined Nicole Seah’s Facebook increased from about a hundred to 2,400, exceeding that of PAP candidate Tin Pei Ling whose Facebook has been in existence for quite some time.

Ms Nicole Seah will be contesting in Marine Parade GRC as part of the National Solidarity Party’s five-member team.

The warm welcome given to 24 year old Ms Nicole Seah’s candidacy by netizens contrasted that of Ms Tin who was flamed mercilessly for her young age and apparent lack of substance in the preceding two weeks. It also demolished PAP minister without portfolio Ms Lim Hwee Hua’s earlier assertions that Ms Tin was

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Facebook accidentally turns on all e-mail notifications for some users

Facebook says it's working to fix a glitch after some users began getting e-mail notifications for settings they had turned off. STORY HIGHLIGHTS It's unclear how many Facebook users were affected by this apparent glitch
Some users are getting e-mails that they had tried to block
Facebook fixed the problem as of about noon on WednesdayRELATED TOPICSFacebook Inc.InternetTechnology (CNN) -- If you let it, Facebook will e-mail you with just about any trivial bit of news: You just got a friend request! A friend just tagged you in a photo! A friend commented on a photo album after you did! Someone changed the name of one of your groups!

Many users choose to turn these e-mail alerts off -- because, if you have more than about five Facebook friends, you might get e-mails from Facebook robots more often than from humans.

Late Tuesday, however, some Facebook users apparently had all of these potentially irritating notifications turned back on -- even if they'd tried to block them.

"Some people are suddenly receiving email notifications for settings they had turned off, and the checkboxes are now checked," Facebook wrote in a post on its "Known Issues on Facebook" page.

The company said it had fixed the problem as of about 11:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

"Yesterday evening, we discovered a bug that caused a small number of people to start receiving notifications they had previously turned off. We have since resolved the issue and apologize for any inconvenience," the company wrote in an e-mail to CNN.

As some chipper commenters on that Facebook post point out, however, there was a pretty easy fix for the problem.

To change your e-mail notifications settings, click the "Account" tab in the top right corner of your Facebook home screen. Choose "Account Settings" and then "Notifications," from a tab at the top of the page.

You'll find a list of 73 scenarios in which Facebook could send you an e-mail notification. Uncheck all the boxes if you don't want Facebook to send you e-mails, or leave some boxes checked for things you'd like to be notified about.

Not everyone is happy to have to make those fixes, however.

One Facebook user wrote on the company's "Known Issues" page, "really angry to see all that s--- in my inbox today and then to have to go carpal tunnel clicking EVERY SINGLE BOX opting out. FB- I am marking you as a spammer and every thing you ever send me from now on gets dumped into my email doo-doo heap."

Others were demanding a quick fix.

"So, just because fb is free we shouldn't want to get the issues fixed??? Pu-leeze! If it weren't free, they wouldn't even have a quarter of the users that they have now. Free or not, fix it!" another user wrote on that page.

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Obama to Be First Head of State to Tour Facebook Headquarters

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SAN FRANCISCO -- When President Barack Obama arrives at Facebook headquarters this week, he will be the first sitting head of state to visit the brick-and-mortar home of the social media powerhouse.

He will also be partaking in a unique pilgrimage to this area in Northern California that has become a cradle for social media, a trip that is all but obligatory for politicians like presidential hopefuls, celebrities like Lady Gaga and dignitaries from around the world like Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

Such visits to the hottest tech companies in Northern California's Silicon Valley offer a traditional chance to connect face-to-face with new-media users, voters, fans and potential donors. But the A-listers of entertainment and government also gain important cachet that comes from fusing their personal images with the technology brands the world sees as the future.

For politicians especially, this moment in the history of technology must feel like it did for their counterparts a half-century ago, when leaders knew they had to get wise to this new thing called television.

And as the 1960 televised presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy showed, some politicians turn out to be better than others at commanding a new mass medium.

Obama was the first president to take office after social media became commonplace. His campaign earned praise for its skill at using the Web to organize grass-roots fundraising and voting efforts.

Today, the president's official Facebook page has more than 19 million fans and his Twitter account nearly 7.5 million followers (still fewer than Lady Gaga, who has nearly 9.5 million followers). During his visit to Facebook, Obama's appearance will be broadcast live online as he takes questions from among the site's 500 million users worldwide.

Andrew Noyes, a public policy communications manager for Facebook, confirmed Tuesday that Obama's stop there would be the first time a sitting head of state takes questions at its headquarters.

These new versions of the traditional town hall give politicians the opportunity to appear as if they are interacting with the public in a more unfiltered way. But staffers are often behind the online profiles, composing Twitter and Facebook posts for their busy bosses.

As a result, the value of genuine face time still holds sway.

Obama's embrace of technology has coincided with his embrace of the tech industry, which in the liberal San Francisco Bay area tends to lean Democratic.

In February, the president came to Silicon Valley for dinner with the tech industry's biggest stars, raising a glass at venture capitalist John Doerr's Woodside home with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Steve Jobs, Google's then-chief executive Eric Schmidt and Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.

The event was closed to the press, but publicity photos handed out afterward showed the president mingling with the industry leaders whose faces have become nearly as famous as those of the celebrities whose attention they command.

Obama praised the tech industry at the time as an economic bright spot and a jobs engine for the country. Employment will also be the topic of the Facebook town hall, even as the president's own job and those of his Democratic colleagues will be on his mind when he lands in San Francisco.

Obama will host four fundraising events while in the Bay Area, including a private dinner for 60 at the home of Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The event has sold out at $35,800 a seat, the newspaper reported.

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Facebook Users Cancel Protest to Dump Trash at Boehner's Residence

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A group of Facebook users in Washington, D.C. have cancelled a protest planned for Saturday to dump their trash outside of House Speaker John Boehner's residence after Congress struck a budget deal averting a government shutdown.

Democratic activists Jonah Goodman and Nolan Treadway, who were angry that a shutdown would have halted trash collection in Washington, had organized the protest.

"We want to thank the 8,700

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