Web Trends

5 Fascinating Things We Learned From Reddit This Week

1. What Your PC Is Doing During Shutdown This in-depth explanation of what the computer does when it shuts down is fascinating. For many in the tech world, this may seem like a no-brainer, but there are a lot of people who may believe the PC simply turns off and remains dead until the user turns the power back on. The discussion leads to why hard reboots and stopping software installations half-way are not good for your computer -- something basic users might not realize. Originally, the user posted his question on Google, but could only find information...

Microsoft Launches So.Cl Network Amid Facebook Hubbub

Microsoft’s So.Cl quietly launched out of beta. The social website was tested by a handful of students at select universities since late last year. The site combines search and sharing for research purposes — making students the perfect group for testing the site. It’s similar to Pinterest in that users can create boards. And just like the early days of Facebook, the network is only for college students right now. Pronounced “social,” the site was developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs to encourage collaboration and enhance social search for learning...

Facebook Has Gone Public in More Ways Than You Might Think

Facebook has just become a publicly traded company — and almost all of its privacy settings are being switched to “public,” too, in a trade-off that Facebook is making for access to the stock market and potential windfall profits for its biggest shareholders. As a private company, Facebook was free to keep plenty of secrets from the general public. It could hide away, for example, how much CEO Mark Zuckerberg took home in annual pay ($1.5 million in 2011) or the intriguing details of the Instragram acquisition — both of which have become known only from the company...

Anonymous Hackers Claim to Take Down Chicago Police Website

The Chicago Police Department website is down, and “hactivists” from the group Anonymous are taking credit. It’s part of a protest in Chicago against the NATO summit, where U.S. President Barack Obama is meeting with world leaders. Activists are protesting NATO’s policies, holding signs such as “War (equals) Debt,” and “NATO, Go Home.” Members of the hacker group Anonymous, calling themselves “AntiS3curityOPS,” posted a video on YouTube with an ominous message to the Chicago Police Department, but that video has since been made...

Who is Zuckerberg’s Bride, Priscilla Chan? [PICS]

The Facebook founder married his girlfriend of nine years on Saturday, May 19, just one day after the the company’s stock went public. On Sunday, the interwebs were asking “who is the woman now married to the 28-year-old billionaire?” Her Facebook profile provides some details: Chan was born in Braintree, Massachusetts and graduated from Quincy High School in 2003. Chan graduated from Harvard in 2007 with a degree in biology. It was at Harvard where she met Mark. She worked as a fourth- and fifth-grade science teacher for about a year, from 2007-2008, until she left to...