“Will’s here,” says an assistant.

No kidding. His laugh —familiar from 100 episodes of “Fresh Prince” — booms across the Hollywood soundstage, as he arrives to meet me. Despite being the single biggest star on the planet, with a net worth of $200 milion, Smith still comes off as happy-go-lucky — and happy to laugh at his own jokes.

His son, Jaden, follows behind, serious, yet gracious. A box-office draw in his own right, after “The Karate Kid,” the 14-year-old toplines their new film “After Earth,” set 1,000 years into the future. In it, his trainee braves a planet overgrown by wild creatures, to save his injured father, played by Smith.

The film’s eco-message made them the perfect Special Guests for our Earth Day edition. In an intimate, hour-long chat, the two discussed working together, how to fix the planet, and the inevitable: life with mom. That very week, Jada Pinkett Smith posted a Facebook missive, clarifying earlier statements about her and Will’s “open relationship,” calling it instead a “grown relationship.”

Smith talked about that as best he could, given that his young son was sitting right there with him.

You guys work together, live together — but online, I see videos of Jaden skateboarding, talking about girls—

Jaden: Um-hmm. Um-hmm.

So I wondered—

Will: Wait. [To Jaden] You be talking about girls a whole lot?

J: In interviews, Dad. About them. I’m not online, like, “Hey, girls, hello!” [Mimes taking a photo of himself] Tweet!

Will, how aware are you of what Jaden’s doing?

W: Not much at all. Not much at all. That’s what I like him to think. [Laughs] I have a group of Men in Black that keep up pretty good.

J: This is what I’ve realized: No matter what I do or how I do it, he knows 100 percent of what’s going on.

W: [Laughs]

J: There’s no point in hiding anything because he knows. Whether he acts on it or not, he knows.

How do you know he knows?

J: I just know that he knows. [Both laugh]

W: I heard Jaden’s friend one time, they were sitting around, talking about something and I came in the room and said, “Hi” and walked out of the room and paused for a second and I hear the friend saying, “Dude, I’m telling you, he knows! He knows!” [Both laugh uproariously]

J: He knows, bro.

When was the last time you were punished, Jaden?

W: We don’t do punishment. The way that we deal with our kids is, they are responsible for their lives. Our concept is, as young as possible, give them as much control over their lives as possible and the concept of punishment, our experience has been — it has a little too much of a negative quality. So when they do things — and you know, Jaden, he’s done things — you can do anything you want as long as you can explain to me why that was the right thing to do for your life.

J: It works pretty well.

But most teenagers aren’t naturally introspective. Jaden, do you find yourself asking yourself deep questions about your behavior and acting accordingly?

J: Yeah. Other teenagers go to parties and sometimes I be like, “Why am I here right now?” And most of the time, I just leave right then and there. Some things I don’t like to do, that other teenagers do. Everyone thinks that since you make movies, you go to parties, and I like to party, but not normal teenage parties.

Are you missing out on a good ol’ fashioned American childhood?

J: Not at all. I go out and skate every night. Hang out with people, skate, hang out with more people, skate to their house.

W: [To Jaden] What do you see as the purpose and point? So you’re not going out and partying — what’s the purpose, what’s the point, what are you doing?

J: It’s not like I don’t want to go to parties because I need to study and go to college; I just don’t wanna go. If they’re gonna play house music, I’m maybe interested, but if it’s some random place and they’re playing Waka Flocka Flame….

You’re anti-generic.

J: Exactly.

Will, how and when did you and Jada decide Jaden could handle a full-fledged movie career?

W: You can never be certain. You have an idea, you can feel your kids, but until the things in their lives start to unfold and the things they cause begin to have effects, you can never totally see. But we felt that because they were choosing a business that we were both successful in, then at a minimum, we could give good advice.

You used the phrase “they were choosing” but did they choose? Jaden, you were going to the red carpet when you were in diapers.

J: It was not going to the red carpet so people could see us, it was going to the red carpet because we had free tickets.

W: [Laughs] That’s what our life was. The family has a movie so they’re going.

J: It started with our mom is going to the red carpet, she doesn’t want to leave us with somebody so she’s going to bring us. Then it got to us walking. And then it got to us starring in movies.

Jaden, your music is trippy. It’s far from Will’s feel-good beats. Is that consciously your own thing?

J: I mean, people are already telling me I look like him, that I talk and walk like him. If I rapped like him too, people would be like, “Let’s go on the Fresh Prince Tour.”

Fresh Prince and Fresh Prince Jr. — I would go to that tour.

J: I had to go way left with it because if I came out with a song with me and a bunch of girls in a car with sunglasses on [the Pacific Coast Highway] going ,”Yeah!”, they’d go, “That’s the average thing to do.” Instead I came out with the video for “The Coolest” and people were like, “Whoa! The camera’s going upside down.”

Will, can you even connect to his music, at your age?

W: At 14, his mind is so much deeper and more complex than my mind was at 14 years old. Lyrically, where he goes and what he creates and how the things are conceptually is beyond what I could create at 14 years old.

Or even later in your career: “Miami” is not telling a complex story.

W: Right. Poetically, he’s beyond where I ever go to with my music. My strength is ideas. And record structure. I knew how to make records in the way you get to the hook when the crowd wants it.

J: That’s what you’re really good at. You could go anywhere and be like, “When I say hip, you say hop,” and they’ll all say it! If I go up there, I’ll say, “All right guys, I’m gonna read you a Shakespearean sonnet real quick, here I go.” [Both laugh]

The funniest part to me is the music, the old school sound of the music that I have in some of my songs is like what his old school beats used to sound like. It’s just different. We’re the opposite, but similar in some ways.

The DNA.

W: That’s my seed. Remember where you came from.

Jaden, would you produce Will’s album?

J: If you decided, like, “All right Jaden, I’m serious, I want to make an album”…

W: Oh, if I was serious?

J: I mean, you have movies to make. Businesses you want to start. You’re a busy man.

W: I see how it is.

Jaden may be too big for you, Will.

W: I know, I know. He’s very serious and very focused and has a very rare combination of talent, desire, willingness and means. Which verrrrry, very rarely do those things come together and converge in the proper timing. So I’m excited to see what he decides to do with his life.

Jaden, what happens when you’re 18 and Will kicks you out of the house.

J: We’ll probably work together ‘till he retires and he probably won’t retire.

W: [Laughs] No we’ve been talking about, he’s been thinking about becoming an emancipated minor.

J: Just thoughts that pop into my head.

They made a movie about that — a girl divorced her parents.

J: Really!

Rent that, get some tips.

W: [Laughs] No, it’s not like that. More the idea that, I want him to have as much command and freedom if he is willing to accept responsibility. Those are two concepts that are inexorably bound. So he’s a very responsible young man so he’s entitled to the maximum freedom. [To Jaden] I said “inexorably.” You heard that? Someone Google that for Jaden.

Justin Bieber, who you’re both friends with, has been in the press for some growing pains. Did you learn anything from his last six months?

W: I talk to Justin once a week and Justin is suffering from immature adulthood in the media and surrounding world. Justin’s not doing anything that a normal 19-year-old wouldn’t want to do and wouldn’t need to do to become a man. The transition from boyhood to manhood is a very difficult transition that he’s handling on a world stage better than 95 percent of the people who talk s— about him.

Bieber’s on Twitter. Jaden, you’re on Twitter. Will, what’s up?

J: He doesn’t have one. Usually there’ll be people who have a Twitter. He doesn’t have one. He likes Facebook.

W: I got 44 million people on Facebook. I’m just saying. I don’t know how many people you got on Twitter.

J: I knew you were going to say that.

W: I’m just saying, I don’t know how many people you got. How many people?

J: Four million.

W: Four million. Yeah. I got that after my first number.

J: I feel like people on Facebook will just randomly follow just anybody.

W: [Laughs hysterically]

Jada’s on Facebook.

W: Oh!

J: Oh!

Will + Jaden: Ohhhhhh!

W: Oh, Mommy be going in!

J: My mom goes in on Facebook! She goes in!

Is she aware other people can read what she writes?

[Both laugh loudly]

J: She’ll be like—

W: She’ll call a family meeting.

Will + Jaden: [Doing Jada impression] “I’m posting this on Facebook!”

J: [continuing impression] “I don’t care what people say. If we get hit for this, this is what the truth of the world is.’”Uh, okkkkay mom. She’ll be on the phone with a manager, “I don’t care what they said, I’m posting this on Facebook.” I think she should write a book.

W: Jada is very serious and opinionated and she loves Facebook because it’s the only place she’s ever had where she’s felt like all of her can be received. She’s struggled her whole life where only a part of her is OK.

In her posts, she can take a generality and break it down into a truth. She posted recently about you having a “grown relationship.”

W: A “grown relationship.” [Looks down]

Anything to add?

W: She put some serious, hardcore truth out there. [Pauses] And I think, the five minutes we have left, aren’t gonna be enough to cover it. [Laughs]

OK, onto the Earth Day issue then?

W: Yes! Earth Day! Please!

Click to read Will and Jaden Smith’s take on what the world will be like in 2043, when Jaden is Will’s age.

Click to read ’1,000 years in the future: Melting point’

• 
  View Video

  Two Smiths, One Big Issue: Will Smith & Jaden Smith to curate Metro

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After two members of the FDNY were recently disciplined for posting racist slurs on Twitter, and a group of cops last year posted offensive comments on Facebook about the West Indian Day Parade, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has issued a set of regulations detailing what cops can and cannot post on social media sites.

According to the memo, cops cannot identify themselves as members of the Police Department on their social media profiles, The Daily News reports.

They also cannot create profiles for their units or precincts, and they are prohibited from posting pictures of themselves in uniform, except at official ceremonies.

“Members of the service utilizing personal social media sites are to exercise good judgement and demonstrate the same degree of professionalism expected of them while performing their official duties,” the memo reads.

Anyone who violates these rules is subject to disciplinary action, including termination. The rules apply to Facebook, Twitter and any other public social media sites.

The order explains that some activity on personal profiles can undermine the credibility of officers, the News reports.

Seventeen officers were disciplined last August after it was discovered that they posted to a Facebook page about the West Indian Day Parade, using offensive and racist terms to describe parade goers.

An FDNY spokesman said the fire department is in the process of amending its code of conduct to include social media guidelines, the News reports.

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Police are looking for a suspect who took an iPhone from a 15-year-old, then taunted the teen on Facebook.

According to police, on Jan. 26 around 5 p.m., two suspects approached the teenager, who was exiting a bus at the corner of Grand Concourse and East 175th Street in the Bronx.

One suspect demanded the teen’s phone, while the other displayed a knife and took his coat. Then they both fled.

According to a law enforcement source, one suspect then sent the victim a message on Facebook asking him how it felt not to have his phone.

That suspect is described as male, Hispanic, 17, 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds. Police released his photo.

The second suspect is described as a male Hispanic teenager.

Anyone with information should call 800-577-TIPS.

Danielle Tcholakian contributed reporting.

 Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter: @reporteralison

Follow Metro New York on Twitter: @MetroNewYork

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Apple Inc computers were attacked by the same hackers who targeted Facebook Inc, but no data appeared to have been stolen, the company said on Tuesday in an unprecedented admission of a widespread cyber-security breach.

Facebook revealed on Friday that unidentified hackers traced to China had staged a sophisticated attack by infiltrating its employees’ laptops, but no user information was compromised.

Apple, which is working with law enforcement to track down the hackers, told Reuters that only a small number of its employees’ Macintosh computers were breached, but “there was no evidence that any data left Apple.”

The iPhone and iPad maker said it would release a software tool later on Tuesday to protect customers against the malicious software used in the attacks.

Cyber-security attacks have been on the rise. In last week’s State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order seeking better protection of the country’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks.

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Thompson arrived at the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville with his lawyer, mother and a clergyman, according to The New York Post.

He had allegedly threatened and harassed NYPD Deputy Inspector Joseph Gulotta using the precinct’s Facebook page. Thompson ordered the cop’s death, describing Gulotta’s car and work schedule.

Thompson has been charged with making a terrorist threat and aggravated harassment as a hate crime. The Brooklyn teen is a member of the local gang, the Hood Stars, and has a criminal record for such crimes as pot possession and disorderly conduct.

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Speaking to reporters at its Menlo Park, California headquarters, Zuckerberg described what he called “graph search,” which allows users to sort through content that has been shared with them.

Critics have long deemed the social network’s current search capabilities inadequate.

Available as a “beta” or early version now, the new feature – dubbed “graph search” because Facebook refers to its growing content, data and membership as the “social graph” – will initially let users sort through mainly photographs, people, places and members’ interests, he added.

“You need to be able to ask the query, like, who are my friends in San Francisco,” Zuckerberg said.

The world’s largest online social network, Facebook is moving to regain Wall Street’s confidence in the wake of a rocky IPO and concerns about its long-term money-making prospects.

Speculation had approached fever pitch over the past week about what Facebook planned to reveal in its highest-profile news briefing since its market debut. Guesses had ranged from a long-rumored smartphone to a full Web-search product.

That anticipation, as well as expectations of strong fourth-quarter financial results, have helped drive up Facebook’s stock. Its shares are up more than 15 percent since the start of the year.

On Tuesday, its stock was off 0.3 percent at $30.84.

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Dr. Janis Abrahms Spring, a renowned clinical psychologist and author of the popular book, “After the Affair,” recently released a second edition of the self-help book for couples. The updated edition features a section based on what she calls the “new” infidelity, which refers to online affairs.

Dr. Spring believes that the number of affairs taking place in America is “enormous” and she predicts that the issue is only going to get worse due to the amount of time people are spending online.

“The landscape has changed dramatically, people are spending hours chatting with others,” Dr. Spring says, “Partners can feel very, very betrayed by these relationships, because affairs at their core are not necessarily about sex but about secrets and the violation of trust.”

Dr. Spring suggests that couples should talk about what they’re comfortable with in terms of how they can communicate with others online.

“They have got to be explicit about what constitutes an affair,” she says. “If your partner was in the room looking over your shoulder watching what you’re watching or reading what you’re writing and they’re feeling uncomfortable, you know you’re doing something wrong.”

But what is it exactly that makes people want to have an online affair?

“You can be anyone you dream of being,” Dr. Spring says. “This experience of transcending your ordinary self, its very powerful … it’s not complicated by reality.”

 She adds that many unfaithful partners are not necessarily attracted to the person they’re communicating with, but rather how the experience makes them feel.

“It’s a great rush for the person who’s corresponding that way because it allows them to go outside of their normal self.”

But is it okay for someone to check their partners Facebook or their emails in order to uncover the truth and put a stop to the issue?

“I understand why people check, it’s human nature to check,” she says. “People want the truth and they believe they can’t get the truth from their partner.”

The post Taking cheating to the internet: The signs of online infidelity appeared first on Metro.us.

Lisa Weiss went public in June 2011, revealing an extensive online exchange of sexual messages with Weiner beginning in August 2010, just a month after he married his wife Huma Abedin. Weiss and Weiner exchanged more than 220 racy texts and Facebook messages, including one conversation made public where they discussed the “bulge” in his pants.

The revelation led to Weiner’s swift political downfall, as several other women stepped forward to say that they, too, were regular sexting pals. Abedin, who was pregnant when the scandal broke, stayed by Weiner’s side, but the couple stepped out of the public spotlight where they proceeded to live a quiet life below the radar, and welcome their son months later.

On a family photo that Weiner posted in September 2012 on his Facebook page, showing him with his wife and young son, Weiss left a rather interesting comment that seems to be the talk of the town today:

So great to see you back! Your wife and son are beautiful! Please let me apologize again for any pain I caused your (sic) or the beautiful Huma… it was unintentional… I still think you are our liberal hero and we need you back in politics!!

The most questionable element to it all, though, is why Weiner and Weiss are still Facebook friends.

Weiner also recently made a quiet comeback to Twitter, lighting up his dormant account with a plea to support the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

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A photo of NYPD Officer Larry DePrimo offering boots and socks to a homeless man in Midtown has gone viral, with nearly 80,000 shares from the department’s Facebook page.

The image was snapped on the night of Nov. 14 by tourist Jennifer Foster who was visiting from Arizona when she was struck by the sight of DePrimo kneeling beside the man, offering him the boots and socks and even putting them on his feet.

“Right when I was about to approach, one of your officers came up behind him,” Foster said, according to the NYPD’s Facebook page. “The officer said, ‘I have these size 12 boots for you, they are all-weather. Let’s put them on and take care of you.’”

The photo was shared 79,270 times by Thursday morning and garnered more than 324,000 “likes.”

“You, Mr. Officer, are amazing & show compassion beyond your call of duty. I hope you & your family are blessed ten-fold,” one Facebook user said. “By this simple act, you exemplified what we all should strive to be – compassionate humans who care.”

“An officer AND a gentleman,” another user added. 

The department is encouraging other citizens to send in their NYPD snapshots.

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The social media giant has rolled out a brand new feature that now puts your Facebook relationship on full display in the form of a “couples page.” It’s essentially the same feature as the “see friendship” option that lets you look at shared photos, wall posts, comments and other Facebook history between you and a friend. The “couples page” just chronicles all the same things for you and your love bug specifically.

Except it comes with its own nifty little link: Facebook.com/us

Relax, this page is for the couple’s eyes only — only you and your Facebook significant other can see your own “couples page.”

The new feature, which has only been active for a few days, prompted shock and bewilderment among those clicking on the link for the first time and seeing the automatically-generated page, chronicling every interaction between the couple on Facebook.

Creepy at first for many, but the potential is there to spend hours strolling down the digital memory lane, browsing all your birthday wishes to each other, and those funny photos from Halloween senior year. And look — remember how many people “liked” your status when you announced your engagement?

If the new feature is just too invasive to bear, unfortunately there isn’t much you can do about it. The pages cannot be deleted, but you can and should adjust your privacy settings to control who sees your posts and photos on your individual walls. If certain stories are hidden from your own timeline, they will not appear on your couples page.

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Facebook has faced a rough debut since its May initial public offering. Investors and analysts have fretted about a sharp slowdown in its revenue growth. Shares of Facebook remain well below the $38 debut price.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, hit the 1 billion milestone on September 14 at 12:45 p.m. Pacific time, the company said on its website. It added that it had 600 million mobile users, according to a fact sheet posted on its website.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show broadcast on Thursday, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was asked by co-anchor Matt Lauer about how, with 1 billion users, the company wasn’t “killing it,” making money.

“I think it depends on your definition of ‘killing it.’ I mean we are making billions of dollars,” Zuckerberg said. Facebook reported that revenue increased by 32 percent to $1.18 billion in the second quarter.

The 28-year-old CEO talked about the growth potential from mobile users. “There’s 5 billion people in the world who have phones, so we should be able to serve many more people and grow the user base there,” he said.

The 1 billion user count is up from the end of June, when it had 955 million active monthly users.

The company also said it has seen 1.13 trillion “likes,” or endorsements by users, since the company launched the feature in February 2009. Many advertising campaigns that companies conduct on Facebook are designed to garner “likes.”

It said 219 billion photos were uploaded as of September. Excluding deleted photos, about 265 billion photos have been uploaded since 2005.

About 17 billion location-tagged posts were made on the website, Facebook said, and 62.6 million songs have been played 22 billion times since September 2011.

The median age of a Facebook user was 22, it said, and the top five user countries were Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States.

The new data came a day after the company said it was letting U.S. users pay a fee to boost the visibility of their postings – its latest effort to look beyond advertising for revenue.

Advertising accounted for roughly 84 percent of the total revenue in the second quarter.

With Facebook’s revenue growth rate slowing sharply in recent quarters, analysts and investors believe it needs to find new ways to make money.

Shares of Facebook rose 1.8 percent to $22.23 in premarket trading on Thursday.

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A Facebook user who identified himself as a Muslim posted a question on the page for Wilcoxson’s Ice Cream on September 21, asking whether or not its products contain any gelatin with pork.

That user’s location — Sheridan, WY — was posted right next to his name. However, that didn’t stop Wilcoxson’s president, Matt Schaeffer, from hastily responding, “We don’t deliver outside of Montana, certainly not Pakistan.”

The user fired back, “What are you talking about?? I think your comment is rude to assume I live in Pakistan.”

“I live in Sheridan but just because of your ignorance, I won’t buy your ice cream and definitely won’t recommend it,” he added.

It wasn’t long before the exchange ignited a firestorm across the Internet. The Yelp page for Wilcoxson’s Ice Cream was bombarded with one star reviews by people accusing the company of bigotry.

“People of all religions and backgrounds love to eat ice cream – but people of all religions and background don’t support Wilcoxson’s asinine bigotry and discrimination,” one review stated.

Schaeffer told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle the comment was a misunderstanding, claiming the user’s location said “Pakistan” and not Wyoming.
 
“I thought he was making this comment from Pakistan,” Schaeffer said. “It wasn’t a racist comment… It was just an honest mistake.”

Schaeffer has since deleted the company’s Facebook page after a barrage of inflammatory criticism.

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After his recent trip to Vegas, racy photos of the Prince — who apparently lost in a game of strip billiards — surfaced online showing him completely naked in the company of at least one topless woman in a hotel room. Now, rumors are circulating that there is also a video being shopped around that shows much, much more of the prince’s nude adventures in Vegas.

While his father, Prince Charles, brother, Prince William, and grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, are reportedly furious with Harry over the scandal, he has garnered quite the following of Facebook fans who are showing support by taking his lead — and stripping down.

The Facebook page “Support Prince Harry with a naked salute!” calls on people to, well, salute — nakedly:

If you have served or are serving in the military I want to see a naked salute in support of Prince Harry uploaded on this group at some stage this bank holiday weekend *NOW OPEN TO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO SHOW SUPPORT*, please cover your crown jewels, tag yourself in your photo as proof of your support to the nations favourite Royal!

Hundreds of people obliged, uploading photos of themselves saluting in the buff, along with messages of support for Prince Harry, who is undoubtedly snickering about the page, sprawled out on a leather couch behind a laptop somewhere.

Here are some of his loyal supporters:

(Photos via Facebook)

(via Daily Dot)

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The review is not considered a formal investigation at this point, but entails briefings among the committee staff and regulators, Facebook and other stakeholders.

The announcement by the committee comes on the heels of reports by Reuters that an analyst for lead underwriter Morgan Stanley cut his revenue forecasts for Facebook in the days before the offering. That information was not disclosed to the market before the stock was listed.

The IPO also suffered setbacks following a technology glitch on the Nasdaq exchange, and staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission are reviewing the incident.

The Senate Banking aide did not provide details about what issues the committee planned to explore, but its plans to review the matter adds to mounting pressure on Facebook, Morgan Stanley and Nasdaq.

On Tuesday, two top U.S. financial market regulators both said they would explore the circumstances surrounding Facebook’s IPO.

Richard Ketchum, the head of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, said he was concerned about whether or not there was selective disclosure about the negative forecast to investors.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro also said her agency wanted to explore “issues” surrounding the Facebook IPO as well, but she did not provide any specifics.

Morgan Stanley has previously said it has complied with all of the applicable regulations.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts state securities regulators have already issued a subpoena to Morgan Stanley seeking information about its analyst’s discussions with investors about Facebook.

Facebook Inc, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, and several banks led by Morgan Stanley were sued by shareholders, who claimed the defendants hid the social networking leader’s weakened growth forecasts ahead of its $16 billion initial public offering.

The defendants were accused of concealing from investors during the IPO marketing process “a severe and pronounced reduction” in Facebook revenue growth forecasts, resulting from increased use of its app or website through mobile devices.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, according to a lawyer for the plaintiff.

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Chan, 27, and Zuckerberg, 28, were married in Palo Alto after guests thought they were attending a party for Chan to celebrate her graduation from medical school. Instead, Chan walked down the aisle and became the wife of one of the world’s youngest billionaires.

So, who is Priscilla Chan? What kind of woman does it take to be the long-time girlfriend and now wife of the world’s most famous nerd? Their road to newlyweds was long and one that began when they met in college. Our new-found fascination with Chan led us to some in-depth research into the past of the tech world’s newest blushing bride. Here are  five facts about Priscilla Chan that you didn’t know:

1. Chan met Zuckerberg at a Harvard frat party and thought he was a nerd. The two bumped into each other while she was waiting in line for the restroom.

“He was this nerdy guy who was just a little bit out there. I remember he had these beer glasses that said ‘pound include beer dot H.’ It’s a tag for C++. It’s like college humor but with a nerdy, computer-science appeal,” she told The New Yorker in 2010.

Little did she know years later, this nerd would be a household name and one she would marry.

2. Though she had been his girlfriend for seven years, Chan and Zuckerberg weren’t “Facebook official” until 2011 when they both finally changed their profile statuses to read “in a relationship.”

And as the old saying goes, “First comes love, then comes marriage,” their Facebook timelines proved to be a precursor to a bigger commitment.

3. She speaks three languages. Chan is fluent in English, Spanish and Cantonese. She also encouraged Zuckerberg to learn Mandarin in preparation for a trip they took together to China. Zuckerberg studied each morning for a year and was able to carry on a conversation with Chan’s Chinese grandmother.

4. She made Zuckerberg sign a “relationship contract.” Chan agreed to move to Palo Alto to be closer to the Facebook mogul, but only after she negotiated a set of terms for their relationship. Most of the contract has been kept under wraps, but one thing we do know is that time together was one of the big sticking points.

“One date per week, a minimum of a hundred minutes of alone time, not in his apartment and definitely not at Facebook,” was one of Chan’s stipulations.  

5. Mark Zuckerberg personally designed her ring, according to a source close to the couple.
Instead of a multi-carat diamond, its focal point is “a very simple
ruby.”

Chan wore a sheer-backed gown with ivory embroidery called “Sky Between the Branches” by designer Claire Pettibone, who is known for her
whimsical, vintage-inspired creations. Chan’s gown is priced at $4,700.

Their wedding details were some of the best kept secrets in “celebrity” history. Less than 100 guests saw the couple exchange vows in the backyard of their home. Zuckerberg announced their nuptials on his Facebook timeline the next day.

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The 28-year-old billionaire’s wedding took place a day after Facebook’s initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday.

More than 280,000 people “liked” Zuckerberg’s status change, which was accompanied by a photo of the smiling couple in wedding attire in a small, verdant outdoor setting with a string of lights behind them.

In the photo, the famously casual Zuckerberg is wearing a dark blue suit and tie, a departure from his trademark “hoodie,” while Chan has on a sleeveless white dress with lace overlay.

The pair wed in an intimate backyard ceremony in Palo Alto, California, according to People magazine. The couple had planned the exchange of vows for four months, but surprised their guests, who thought they were to celebrate Chan’s recent graduation from medical school, the magazine reported.

Zuckerberg’s sister, Arielle Zuckerberg, posted, “Balls. Now I’m the only unmarried Zuckerberg…” on her Facebook page. She is listed by Chan as a family member on the site.

Zuckerberg designed a simple ruby wedding ring for Chan himself, People reported. Guests dined on food from the couple’s favorite restaurants, and nibbled on mouse-shaped chocolates that the pair ate on their first date nine years ago.

Tim Carvell, lead writer for “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, reacted to the news on Twitter, writing: “Congratulations, Mark Zuckerberg! As a gift, I got you the names of all my friends, a list of my favorite movies, and some photos of me!”

OPENING BELL TO WEDDING BELLS

Zuckerberg, whose shares are worth nearly $20 billion and who retains voting control of Facebook, marked the debut of his company’s stock at Facebook’s Silicon Valley campus on Friday, symbolically ringing the opening bell for stock trading.

The IPO did not go as well as the social networking company had hoped, with shares closing just above the offering price of $38 a share after trading glitches and a last-minute, 25 percent increase in the number of shares being sold.

More than 576 million shares changed hands, setting a trading volume record for U.S. market debuts. Facebook posted $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011 and $1 billion in profit. The site boasts 900 million global users.

Facebook’s emergence as a cultural phenomenon was depicted in the fictionalized 2010 film “The Social Network.”

Zuckerberg, Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2010, started Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room eight years ago, before dropping out of the Ivy League school. Chan just graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. The couple met while at Harvard.

Neither Zuckerberg nor Chan commented further about their marriage on their Facebook pages, and Facebook representatives did not immediately respond to e-mailed requests for comment on the wedding.

The couple adopted a Hungarian sheepdog named Beast a year ago, and live together in Palo Alto.

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Valued at $104 billion, Facebook is larger than Starbucks Corp and Hewlett-Packard combined, sparking intense speculation on how much higher its valuation will rise once shares start trading.

“A 15 to 20 percent pop is in the realm of possibility,” said Tim Loughran, a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame. “Given they already moved their IPO range up and increased the size, that’s bullish to begin with.”

Facebook priced its offering at $38 a share on Thursday, but the price could be higher when shares begin trading under the FB symbol on the Nasdaq at around 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

Some expect shares could rise 30 percent or more on Friday, despite ongoing concerns about Facebook’s long-term money-making potential. An average of Morningstar analyst estimates puts the closing price for Facebook shares tomorrow at $50.

The IPO, expected to mint more than a thousand paper millionaires at the company, has received wall-to-wall media coverage and sparked hopes of a boom in sales of everything from San Francisco Bay Area real estate to automobiles.

Facebook employees marked the event with an all-night “hackathon” at the company’s Menlo Park, California headquarters starting on Thursday evening, a tradition in which programmers work on side projects that sometimes turn into mainstream offerings.

Facebook’s 28-year-old founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was expected to ring a bell at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters on Friday morning to kick off trading on the Nasdaq.

Founded in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, Facebook has grown into the world’s dominant social network with 900 million users.

At $38 a share, Facebook would trade at over 100 times historical earnings versus Apple Inc’s 14 times and Google Inc’s 19 times.

For all the high expectations surrounding Facebook, the company faces challenges maintaining its growth momentum.

Some investors worry the company has not yet figured out a way to make money from the growing number of users who access Facebook on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Meanwhile, revenue growth from Facebook’s online advertising business, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue, has slowed in recent months.

“With mobile usage growth exceeding desktop, monetization in the near term could be reduced given little-to-no ad coverage on mobile, challenged by limited screen sizes,” said a report last week from Susquehanna Financial Group.

GM said on Tuesday it would stop placing ads on Facebook, raising questions about whether display ads on the site are as effective as traditional media.

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The offering puts the eight-year-old company, founded in a Harvard dorm room, a valuation akin to that of Amazon.com Inc, and exceeding that of Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc combined.

Predictions on how much the stock will rise on the first day of trading vary greatly, with some experts saying anything short of a 50 percent jump would be disappointing. Other IPO watchers say the large size of the float, coupled with a raised price range, could reduce first-day gains to as little as 10 percent.

“I think anything over 50 percent will be considered a successful offering — anything under that would be underwhelming,” said Jim Krapfel, analyst at Morningstar. “A lot of retail investors are not concerned about valuation. That’s what is going to drive the first day pop.”

Lee Simmons, industry specialist at Dun & Bradstreet, had a more modest forecast.

“You’ve got a large offering at an increased price, so a huge pop may be difficult to achieve. I’d think a 10 to 20 percent pop over the offer price is expected,” Simmons said. “When you’re talking about doubling or a pop the size of LinkedIn, it’s more difficult to achieve because Facebook is just offering more shares … The others were smaller floats, under 10 percent, so you had this artificial feeding frenzy.”

Shares of professional networking company LinkedIn Corp’s doubled on their first day of trading.

On Wednesday, Facebook increased the size of the IPO by almost 25 percent to 421 million shares, a 15 percent float.

Another social media company, Zynga Inc, an online games developer that makes lots of games for Facebook users, fizzled in its debut and ended down 5 percent on its first day of trading. No one Reuters spoke with said they were expecting a fall in Facebook’s stock on Friday.

Facebook, with some 900 million users, raised the target IPO price range on Tuesday to between $34 and $38 per share, from between $28 and $35.

The company could raise north of $18.4 billion if a greenshoe option for underwriters is exercised.

Facebook will celebrate its Wall Street debut with an all-night “hackathon” at Facebook’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters starting on Thursday evening, a company tradition in which Facebook’s computer programmers work on side projects that sometimes become part of the main product offering.

SPORTS BOOKS AND ODDSMAKERS

Despite the high expectations, Facebook faces challenges maintaining its growth momentum.

Some investors worry the company has not yet figured out a way to make money from the growing number of users who access Facebook on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Meanwhile, revenue growth from Facebook’s online advertising business, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue, has slowed in recent months.

Sports betting firms had varying estimates of where Facebook would end up at the close of its first day of trading. Spreadex Limited in the UK said clients are speculating shares could end up trading above $56 a share in the first day, having come down a bit in price since the number of shares slated for sale was increased.

Betting on Intrade, a popular online betting site for political events, was limited, with only about 750 shares changing hands in contracts that bet on a closing price anywhere from $25 to $60. By contrast, more than 200,000 trades have been made on President Barack Obama’s chances for re-election.

“Hundreds of millions of people are extremely passionate about this product. A lot of those people want to be a part of this event, of this company that they have an affinity for. That’s creating a level of excitement for the stock that you don’t normally see,” said Steve Weinstein, an analyst with ITG Research.

Some financial advisers have warned their clients against jumping into Facebook right away, but the well-known brand could still attract enough interest to exceed the 458 million shares traded the day General Motors went public after emerging from bankruptcy in 2010.

One UBS adviser initially received calls from 12 clients clamoring to buy shares of Facebook, but over the past couple of

weeks, two have changed their minds.

“A lot of people are thrown off by the recent negative stories in the press,” the adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “One guy was worried about General Motors stopping its advertising on Facebook.”

GM said on Tuesday it would stop placing ads on Facebook, raising questions about whether the display ads on the site are as effective in reaching consumers as traditional media.

Overall financial advisers are struggling to manage clients’ expectations about what the stock will do and in some cases, if they will be able to get any stock for them.

“People want to just own it because they think it’s the next Google and they missed out on that,” said a financial adviser from Wells Fargo Advisors, the brokerage division of Wells Fargo & Co, which is part of the syndicate underwriting the deal.

Facebook has 33 underwriters for the IPO, led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.

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Well, if you’re asking the question today, you can pretty much forget about it. The little guys (that’s us) won’t be riding the social network IPO cash train.

That’s because, at a target price range of $34-$38 a share, the big wig investment banks that are underwriting the IPO get the first crack. Their high profile (and extremely rich clients) get dibs on the shares.

Next (and last) in line come retail investors. E-Trade, TDAmeritrade and Charles Schwab will have some shares to sell, but even those opportunities are reserved for their top-notch clients, as explained by the LA Times.

Think you might just be top-notch? According to TDAmeritrade’s policies, any client looking to bid on any IPO must have an account worth $250,000 or have made at least 30 trades in the last three months. The average client, however, has an account worth about $67,400 and only makes an average of two trades per month. Charles Schwab customers face similar restrictions.

While E-Trade doesn’t set guidelines like that in writing, it does alert its interested clients they must undergo a “subjective review” of their accounts and trading history. That likely means, in fewer words, that only the biggest and best clients will get a shot (at a minimum order of 50 shares, by the way).

Before you get too bummed out about missing the Facebook gravy train, some financial experts are saying it’s probably a good thing not to buy shares. A Forbes article claims GM’s recent decision to pull advertising from Facebook is just the first indication that the social network is going to suffer in the ad department. Facebook is also facing challenges turning its mobile traffic into dollars — another bad sign.  There’s plenty of debate over whether the company has the same potential as, say, Google or Amazon for long-term growth.

If you’re still set on buying shares, it might just take some patience. Facebook has already increased its initial IPO offer by 25 percent after strong demand. There are also companies, such as OneShare and Give A Share, that are poised to offer single shares, primarily for novelty purposes.

And if you don’t emerge as an stockholder of Facebook, at least you don’t have to worry about its lavish spending on employee perks and beautiful work environments, as the Wall Street Journal illustrates in this slideshow.

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“Girls Around Me” used public APIs from Google Maps, Facebook and Foursquare to show app users who is near them and exactly where they were last seen. If someone who has public privacy settings on their Facebook then uses Foursquare to check-in somewhere, they could pop up in “Girls Around Me” without even knowing it. You don’t need to grant permission or even use the app yourself to have your photo and profile information pop up on a map.

An article by Cult of Mac pointed out that most social networking sites have default settings that make a profile public when it is first created. It’s up to the user, whether he or she knows it or not, to change the settings to make their profile private. If a user hasn’t done that, he or she is at risk for popping up in the arguably creepy app “Girls Around Me.”

Following that article, Foursquare cut the app’s API access to its data and the app was pulled from the iOS app store. The app’s developer, i-Free, defended the tool in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.

“We follow the geo-social trend for mobile devices that is supported by numerous location sharing services, networks and apps. Many other mobile apps provide the same or more extended functionality using location data provided by APIs of major social networks, i.e. Ban.jo or Sonar,” the company said.

“Girls Around Me does not allow anonymous usage of the app. It is impossible to search for a particular person in this app, or track his|her location. The app just allows the user to browse the venues nearby, as if you passed by and looked in the window,” it added.

While true, the app still raises questions about online security in a number of popular social networks. Every user has the power the customize privacy settings on profiles, but not everyone realizes how exposed their information can be if precautions are not taken.

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As Gawker reports, the hacker posted Martin’s alleged Facebook messages on a 4chan “pol” message board on Tuesday, with the comment, “Today /pol/, tomorrow CNN.”  One post was titled “Trayvon Martin Used Marijuana Habitually.” It included a conversation between Martin and a friend about smoking weed. In another entry called “Trayvon Martin was a Drug Dealer,” Martin is pictured with a large amount of cash.

Klanklannon also posted log-in information and passwords for Martin’s Gmail, Yahoo, MySpace, and Twitter. The passwords, which were likely changed by the hacker, were racial slurs. Gawker reports that a “source” tried the username and password for the Gmail account and was able to log in to what appeared to be Martin’s email. The source deleted the account after noticing that other people had also logged in and sent messages from the account, posing as Martin, according to Gawker.

It wasn’t long before Martin’s private messages and photos spread to white supremacist websites. They were posted on Stormfront.org, a site that boats “white pride, world wide,” under the header “A fellow white-nationalist at 4chan’s /pol/ has hacked Trayvon Martin’s online accounts, and has uncovered further evidence that Trayvon was drug dealer, a thug, and possibly even an identity thief. Here are the images that he posted.”

George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch caption who admitted to shooting the unarmed teen, has still not been charged. However, the investigation has been handed to a special prosecutor and witnesses are reportedly being re-interviewed.

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26-year-old Helian Williams of Newark, who has since been fired from CareOne in Livingston, is accused of snapping the below-the-belt photo and then sending it to 21-year-old Michele Walker. Prosecutors then say Walker posted the photo on her Facebook page.

Ironically, CareOne’s mission statement says, “We treat residents, their families and each other with respect, dignity and compassion,” as Gawker points out.

“No one should be made to suffer humiliation, particularly at the hands of someone responsible for his or her care,” said Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi, according to NBC.

Williams and Walker are both facing third-degree invasion of privacy and third-degree conspiracy charges.

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Netbase, a company that monitors social networking, has designed an info graphic compiled from information that men and women share on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Now we know exactly what’s on the minds of both sexes and, believe it or not — it’s not sex.

After analyzing about 27 billion internet conversations, Netbase found that women crave ice cream, while men want cars.

It gets more specific than that, though. Women prefer Dairy Queen over other types of their favorite frozen treat. Men mostly fantasize about Fords, much more than they do about Mercedes’ or Ferraris.

Men and women both want pizza. In fact, pizza, ice creams and cars are the top three things wanted by both sexes — just in different orders.

Other things women want: chocolate, cake, cookies, coffee, a phone, sushi and pancakes.

Men prefer: beer, cookies, cake, phones, pancakes, chicken and bacon (shocker).

About 80 percent of the things both men and women want are food-related. Sex didn’t even make the top 10!

(via Mashable)

More adventures in psuedoscience:

• 
  A walk a day can keep obesity away.

• Scientists find human-like fossils in Chinese caves.

• Food-borne diseases on the rise from important fish, spices.

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Since inception, the company has wanted to dive head-first into the world’s largest archive of pictures on Earth. Perfecting the process to turn typically low-resolution Facebook pictures into smooth, large-format prints took more than two years, co-founder of CanvasPop Adrian Salamunovic told Mashable.
“We want to tap into that market,” he says. “This is where people keep images that are more important to them personally.”

When the company started printing digital pictures, customers would come in with low-resolution Facebook pictures they wanted to print after being turned away from other companies. CanvasPop welcomed them with open arms. The company claims to be the first to print enlarged Facebook photos of any size on canvas.

“We took that on as a challenge to develop something that will work with these images, all these images that our competitors can’t,” he says. “We will be able to take up all the business that our competitors can’t — that is really the root of this idea.”

How it works

When a small, low-resolution picture is enlarged, its pixels, or the little squares making up the picture, get distorted. CanvasPop created PicturePerfect technology, which is a process called “micro-vectorization.” The technology turns pixels into little lines that can be enlarged to any size without loosing smoothness of the image. This is only a small part of the secret sauce, Salamunovic says.

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But since it’s an election year, tis the season for political rants on social networks, which can definitely also get you unfriended, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

It turns out, most people will just disagree without comment, but 9 percent of social network users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone because they posted something about politics or issues that they disagreed with or found offensive. But people don’t necessarily have to disagree with you to want to defriend you — 10 percent of users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone simply because that person posted too frequently about political subjects.

Like so many of the elements shared through Facebook, political views often prompt shock among fellow users. The study found that 38 percent of people have discovered through a friend’s posts that his/her political beliefs were different than they originally thought.

Not surprisingly, the people who most frequently make political comments on Facebook tend to sit at opposite ends of the political spectrum, hence putting themselves at higher risk for the dreaded unfriend.

So before you share that rant on Facebook, ask yourself: What’s more important — your right to rant or having Facebook friends to read your rant?  

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Companies that get users to follow you in exchange for a price are increasingly popular. Appropriately named websites like BuyRealTwitterFollowers promise up to 100,000 Twitter followers for a price between $77 and $247. BuyRealFansAndLikes will get you as many as 100,000 “likes” on Facebook for somewhere between $27 and $1597. Similar sites exist for just about every platform, including YouTube, Tumblr and Vimeo.

The concept behind “buying” followers is to boost your standing in the world of social media by appearing more popular. Authors, wannabe celebrities or new companies will often buy followers to seem more established in the hopes that it will translate into a real following.  

“It’s common with anyone who wants to present themselves to the public in a certain way,” said Eric Yaverbaum, associate publisher of SocialMediaMags.com.  “The more popular you look, more popular you become.”

The rules of the game are simple. The companies that provide followers set up a mutual agreement with their users. If you pay for 1,000 followers, you have to follow those users, too. The followers aren’t always real people — they can sometimes be accounts programmed to follow any users who follow them. And if you stop following them at any time, you’ll lose them as a follower, too.  

But is it worth it to buy followers or “likes” just to seem more popular? Yaverbaum says no, comparing social media to the no-rules era of the Wild West. The concept also doesn’t do much for your Klout, which is your measurable influence on social media. While you’re getting plenty of followers, they’re not interacting with you through comments, “likes,” or retweets. 

“It’s like building a reputation on quicksand,” Yaverbaum said of buying followers. “If you want to be viral, it’s got to be pure.”

While buying followers is a quick way to appear more embedded in the world of social media, it’s no substitute for garnering an audience that is genuinely interested in interacting with you, Yaverbaum says.

“You’re only worth following if you’re putting out interesting information every solitary day,” he said. “I think if you want influence, you want it from people who actually want to hear what you have to say.”

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Well, get ready for your profile to say a whole lot more about you than your favorite books and what you ate on vacation.

The Wall Street Journal reports Facebook could help bosses predict job performances in a new study conducted by Northern Illinois University, the University of Evansville and Auburn University.

The experiment had three raters look at the Facebook pages of 56 working college students and ask questions such like “Is this person dependable?” and “How emotionally stable is this person?”

The students’ personalities were also rated through their photos, wall posts, comments, educations and hobbies.

After six months, researchers compared job evaluations to the ratings and found strong connections between a student’s job performance and the Facebook scores for traits such as conscientiousness, agreeability and intellectual curiosity.

For example, students who had traveled, had lots of Facebook friends and had a wide range of hobbies and interests received favorable evaluations. Raters found that students with partying pics tended to be extroverted and friendly.

Who knew those embarrassing Mardi Gras pics could actually improve your standing with a future employer?

Facebook might just be the new lie detector for employers — your college albums, YouTube shares and over-eager tendency to “like” could make you or break you in the eyes of your future boss.

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“There was a time a few years ago where I was having students add me as a friend, but when I saw pictures of them binge drinking, passed out next to kegs, I decided maybe that wasn’t such a wise decision,” says Charles Wankel, who teaches management at St. John’s College and is the author of “Cutting-edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education.” “But I imagine an instructor could adjust the privacy setting, so they could share classroom items and not inadvertently see the other stuff.”

Wankel still assigns a number of Facebook-based assignments, but now uses LinkedIn to connect students to each other and networking opportunities.
 
“I don’t think it’s a good thing to require students to be on Facebook. But it can be helpful if the population of students is already there,” says Steven L. Johnson, professor of management systems at Temple University. “I find master’s students just aren’t interested in communicating on Facebook. But so many undergrads live in a post-e-mail world, so Facebook definitely helps reinforce things.”

Meeting today’s students in their world

Both Wankel and Johnson use a number of other online connectors with their students, and they say blogging sites like WordPress and Blogspot are more effective for posting core class information, like syllabuses and assigned reading.
   
“As educators, we can take the stance that students are going to do what we tell them. Or we can take a stance that says we want every student to do as well as possible, and we’ll meet them where they are,” says Johnson. “If we take the second approach, part of that is recognizing that students — just like any person — have different preferences about what communication channels they want to use.”

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The page, called Shame on the NY Post, was created in protest of the Post’s decision to publish the accuser’s name and photo with the headline “Shady Lady” after the Manhattan DA declined to press charges against Kelly.

The woman’s twin has posted several comments on the page, insisting that many of the details reported are untrue and that the media “publicized a story full of holes.”

“If anyone was to read the report the DA has, you would all be shocked at how the media has completely chewed the facts up and spit them out the way they want the case to sound to protect Kelly. There’s so much more you all aren’t allowed to see,” the sister wrote.

“But in due time, [she] will speak and the truth will be known. I can promise that,” she added. 

The twin also implied that media coverage of the investigation was slanted, due to Kelly’s employment with FOX 5, which is owned by NewsCorp — the same media company that owns the Post.

“Well, not all of us have Ken Sunshine in one pocket and News Corp in the other,” she wrote.

Ken Sunshine’s public relations firm, Sunshine Sachs, was hired to represent Kelly’s lawyer during the investigation.

“You guys as the public did not get an OUNCE of the truth of what actually happened,” she added. “And it’s been horrendous to see something that I experienced, by supporting my sister these past 4 months, to be completely mangled by the press.”

The twin grappled with other Facebook users who questioned whether her sister made the rape accusation simply because she was “caught” by her boyfriend.

“She did not get caught. She told him the day after it happened. I was there. Tell me something else you read from the papers?” her twin said.

She also denied that her sister continued to text Kelly about getting together again after October 8, the night she said he raped her.

“A victim doesn’t text her rapist to “hook up” again – and neither did [she],” her sister said.

The Manhattan DA’s office sent a letter to Kelly’s lawyer last week informing him that he would not be charged.

“After reviewing all the evidence, we have determined that the facts established during our investigation do not fit the definitions of sexual assault crimes under New York criminal law,” Assistant District Attorney Martha Bashford wrote.

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