

My book (about school, Harvard and Facebook) is now free to read on-line. - thinkcomp
http://www.thinkpress.com/authoritas/index.html?page=5

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hristov
Wow, I did not know anyone could make me have warm feelings towards Larry
Summers.

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dane
Thoroughly enjoyed the print edition, great to see you offering it for free
online.

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araneae
I'm on page 73, and I don't think this guy has said one positive thing about a
single person so far (except his parents, who always take his side). What an
anger-filled rant.

~~~
thinkcomp
Malka Weil, Dianne Derrick, Joseph Kocian, Robert Morgan, Carl
Sjogreen...positive things are said about all of them in that range of the
book. (None are relatives.)

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araneae
"Ms. Derrick" lied to the other teachers about asking him to install software
on her computer. She apologized to him, but she's still portrayed in a bad
light and used as an example throughout the book as the proof that "all adults
lie." I don't remember the others except for Carl, but they certainly don't
stand out.

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thinkcomp
(I wrote the book.) I think you exaggerate my criticism in your comments.

I tried very hard to portray my teachers accurately. Many of them gave me what
I believe to be legitimate reasons to be upset, and in some cases, angry.

In this case, on page 60 I wrote, "Mrs. Derrick had been no aberration.
Teachers lied, even when they told students not to." I didn't say (as you
state), "all adults lie." Her name actually doesn't come up again until page
334, which is "Acknowledgments," where I praise her and other teachers by
stating, "May the world’s teachers aspire to your example."

Perhaps I'm too critical, but on the other hand, none of these stories were
embellished. I think a teacher lying in a disciplinary context is justifiable
cause for a student to be at least temporarily unhappy.

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Raphael
If you call grainy JPGs reading.

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pak
They are actually GIF's. I agree they are kind of small, but this is a free
online copy of a book, no?

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paulgb
The method of having the user prove they own the book makes me nostalgic for
the Microprose games of the early 1990's. It's easily defeated, though, by
going to the appropriate page in the e-book.

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thinkcomp
Good point. :) I'll get rid of the authentication code eventually, but for now
at least people can read it if they want to.

And yes, I may have had Spectrum Holobyte Tetris for the Apple IIGS on my mind
when I was deciding how to enforce purchases before.

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prakash
is there a pdf version to download and read? do you have plans to do this?

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thinkcomp
I might put one up eventually, but I'll probably charge for it the way some
other authors have. In the meantime there's a version on the Kindle (which
apparently you'll be able to also read on the iPad as of tomorrow).

~~~
nvasilak
You could also do pick your price via Anjuno.com

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PG-13
First those brothers start working on their Facebook in 2002, get nothing done
for 2 years. Go up to Zuckerberg, and say, "hey, you wanna code this thing for
us that's like a Myspace but for like colleges and stuff?" He agrees, but then
is like "wait, why am I working for these clowns? I'm gonna make my own
Facbeook". The brothers then claim the code was really meant for them and
later win millions just for knowing Zuckerberg.

Now, you claim that because Mark talked about Facebook with you and (gasp)
went to your website to look at it, that you somehow deserve credit for
Facebook even though, as you admit, your own website didn't have any traction.
So if you ever discuss ideas with someone, and they go on to turn that idea
into a success, you will then claim credit for their execution.

~~~
electromagnetic
The work is irrelevant it should just be the ideas that matter. The judge
should have been asking himself two things 'did these two brothers come up
with the majority of the ideas and designs that make facebook what it is?' and
'did Zuckerberg maliciously take these ideas?'

If I came up with the vehicle designs for a new low-mpg hatchback and show it
to a few people at Ford and then magically Ford has a car being released that
fits my designs to a T then yes I'm fully entitled to compensation for it
regardless of my ability to implement it. Someone else is _always_ better
posed to implement an idea, if we reinforced that attitude then we wouldn't
have anti-monopoly laws and anti-trust cases going.

Copyright doesn't protect ideas, so obviously these two brothers had design
documents and other corroborating evidence otherwise a judge would have never
heard their case. Obviously the judge thought that beyond a doubt that
Zuckerberg's relationship with these two brothers suggests beyond doubt that
he took their ideas and plans for implementation to form his own website.

Essentially the judge looked at it like "If Zuckerberg hadn't defrauded these
two gentlemen, they would have been the founders of Facebook." This is why
they were awarded not only money but a minority stake in the company (I
believe they have to go back to court to agree upon how much their stake is
worth, which will be their ability to implement vs Zuckerberg's).

When you look at cases like this you have to realise that a million crackpots
claim to have come up with the great idea before someone else did. These two
brothers likely not only have documents proving it, but their relation to
Zuckerberg and the fact they allegedly hired him eliminate the majority of the
crackpot criteria. Judge's rarely waste their time on cases like this, so the
brothers must have had a really good initial case to begin with to even get
the Judge to look.

