I really enjoyed writing this post for Above The Law:

The following tale of legal technology took place in our nation’s capital, although it seemed to draw more attention overseas.

Last December, as winter’s grip began to take hold over Washington, D.C., Rodney Knight Jr. found himself in serious need of a heavy jacket. So he did what any of us would have done in these circumstances: he broke into someone’s house and took one. Knight kicked down the back door to the home of Marc Fisher, a metro columnist for the Washington Post, where he found his new winter jacket. In addition, being in a proactive mood, Knight decided to swipe two laptops and a bunch of cash.

Knight was so proud of his little heist that he felt the need to do a little bragging. Check out what one of the greatest criminal masterminds of the early 21st century did next….

Continue reading at Above The Law…

Interesting tidbit from betanews.com:

During 2009, nearly 13 billion of these status updates were posted, and Facebook has released its “Top Status trends of 2009,” indicating just what was on people’s minds.

The top status update trend was “Facebook Applications,” which includes automatic posts made by the hugely annoying Farmville game from Xynga. This game proved to be extremely popular this year, and has 72 million monthly active users. This application prompts users to post numerous status updates which aid other players of the game, and helps them progress faster.

But because this isn’t exactly an active post made by users, it’s the second place that is most interesting: FML.

FML is a shorthand expression for “F*** my Life” which is usually tacked onto the end of a description of something bad that has happened to the speaker. It is most effectively employed in situations with ironic or ridiculous outcomes.

And Gawker says it’s EVIL:

Facebook’s privacy pullback isn’t just outrageous; it’s a landmark turning point for the social network. Facebook has blundered before, but the latest changes are far more calculated. The company has, in short, turned evil.

Its new privacy policy have turned the social network inside out: millions of people have signed up because Facebook offers a sense of safety. For the last five years — as long as you’re relatively careful about who you accept as your friends — what you do and say on Facebook for the most part stays on Facebook. Katie Couric’s daughter first posted pictures of her famous mom dancing silly in 2006, but it took three years for them to leak to us. (Thank you tipsters!) But virtually overnight and without a clear warning, Facebook has completely reversed those user expectations. Their new privacy settings amount to making anything you post on Facebook to be public, unless you go to great lengths to keep your info private…

Hat Tip: RG

From the NYTimes, Hat Tip, Integreon:

The message on Rodney Bradford’s Facebook page, posted at 11:49 a.m. on Oct. 17, asked where his pancakes were. The words were typed from a computer in his father’s apartment in Harlem.

At the time, the sentence, written in street slang, was just another navel-gazing, cryptic Facebook status update — meaningless to anyone besides Mr. Bradford. But when Mr. Bradford, 19, was arrested the next day as a suspect in a robbery at the Farragut Houses in Brooklyn, where he lives, the words took on greater importance. They became his alibi…

The growing relationship of e-discovery and social media continues…

From Reuters:

Mark S. Howitson, deputy general counsel of Facebook, will deliver the day two keynote address at ALM`s upcoming LegalTech New York 2010, the nation`s largest and most prestigious legal technology conference and trade show. LegalTech New York will take place February 1-3 at the Hilton Hotel in New York City. Complete conference information is available atwww.legaltechshow.com…