The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page D2

Time: 10-04-2010 19:35 User: velmore PubDate: 10-05-2010 Zone: KY Edition: 1 Page Name: D2 Color: Bftapbnta D2 I TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2010 I THE COURIER-JOURNAL FEATURES I FACEBOOK Zuckerberg remains intensely private as life hits the big screen i 1 T-IKr-- ii cern. "Ideas are cheap. It's the execution that matters. And if you look at where Facebook is now compared to where it started, it's a very difficult comparison. I wouldn't give a whole lot of credence to people who are showing up and claiming credit." In the summer after his sophomore year, Zuckerberg left Harvard for a rented house in Silicon Valley to build Facebook, expanding it to other campuses and then across the globe with venture funding from Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal.

Each time it seemed to plateau, Zuckerberg revamped it to create new utility and sources of entertainment. He turned down an offer from Yahoo! to buy the company for $1 billion. The privacy priority As it has grown into a phenomenon, Facebook has repeatedly sparked privacy concerns from critics concerned about its push to get users to reveal more personal information. But Zuckerberg, the face of Facebook, has offered up relatively little about himself. The bubble was breached in 2007 when a now defunct magazine for Harvard alumni called 02138 published a lengthy story about the dispute over Facebook's beginnings.

The magazine obtained court files that were supposed to be sealed and posted documents on its website, including Zuckerberg's application to Harvard and long-ago postings from his online journal. Facebook sued, seeking a court order to have the documents removed. "They shed some insight into Zuckerberg which he clearly did not want people to see," said Richard Bradley, who was the executive editor of the magazine. "Our lawyer conveyed to us the strong sense from his communication with Facebook's law firm that Facebook's Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated $100 million to help system, Newark, on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Associated Press file photo New Jersey's largest school Continued from Dl On Friday, Hollywood laid out its version of his story in "The Social Network." The script by Aaron Sorkin West depicts Zuckerberg as a socially inept and intellectually corrupt genius, fighting wars with both friends and rivals for the right to call Facebook his own. The movie entered widespread distribution a week after Zuckerberg, in the last chance to shape his image independently, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to announce a $100 million donation to the long-troubled Newark, N.J., school system, casting himself as the nation's brightest young face of philanthropy.

"When you look at the gift to Newark, what it demonstrates is his recognizing that he can't leave it to the movie to define his image to the general public because he has no image," says David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect," a book chronicling Zuckerberg's story that was written with the cooperation of the man and his company. Do as I say, not as I do Central to this tale: the contradiction between the blank slate that is Zuckerberg, and his campaign to get people to bare their souls via Facebook. A Facebook spokesman, Larry Yu, said Zuckerberg would not agree to an interview to talk about himself. That reluctance, he acknowledges, contributes to the vacuum that is the CEO's public persona. "He is a shy guy, no question about it," Yu said.

"He does not like doing press stuff. What excites him is building things." Yu said Zuckerberg was not trying to control his image with the donation to Newark. Company public relations staff had warned him to delay the announcement because it would be seen as a ploy, he said. Zuckerberg decided to go ahead despite that concern, because the timing suited city and state officials and the producers of "Oprah," Yu said. Zuckerberg, who grew up in the New York suburb of Dobbs Ferry, NY, in a hilltop house where his father still runs a first-floor dental practice, was a programming prodigy.

He began writing code at 10 on an Atari computer his dad bought, devising games and having friends do the graphics. As a senior at Phillips Exeter Academy, he and a friend created a web tool called Synapse that built personalized music playlists by automatically determining listeners' preferences. Micro- tation that I would be included in the overall development of the project but found that I was being subjected to demands on my time without truly being made a part of the development team," Zuckerberg wrote Cameron Winklevoss in a February 2004 e-mail at the time, later quoted in a lawsuit filed by the trio. The dispute over Face-book's beginnings which the company settled by paying the trio $65 million is far from unique. Inventors have been fighting to take credit for technology's biggest ideas since at least the telephone, says Paul Saffo, a longtime Silicon Valley forecaster.

"Being first is heavily overrated in the technology space because all really good ideas end up being collaborative," says Saffo, of the San Francisco analysis firm Dis soft reportedly offered the pair nearly $1 million, but they turned it down. Exactly what happened after he got to Harvard in 2003 depends on who's doing the recounting. Soon after he arrived, Zuckerberg created a site called Course-match that allowed students to choose classes by showing what their classmates were doing. Then, in the fall of his sophomore year, he hacked into the online "face-books" of Harvard's residential halls to create Facemash. "The Kirkland facebook is open on my computer desktop and some of these people have pretty horrendous facebook pics.

I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive," Zuckerberg wrote at the time, in his online journal. Harvard's Administrative Board called him in for a hearing, but let him remain at the school. Zuckerberg told the Harvard Crimson student newspaper that criticism of the site had made him rethink its viability. "Issues about violating people's privacy don't seem to be surmountable," he said in an e-mail to the Crimson. "I'm not willing to risk insulting anyone." In early 2004, former classmates say, the normally sociable Zuckerberg all but vanished for a week, emerging from his room to urge his friends to join a new creation called The Facebook.

Stephanie Camaglia Rez-nick, then a freshman at Harvard who was the 92nd to sign up, says Zuckerberg fast lawyers were not entirely enthusiastic about pursuing this litigation, but that Zuckerberg himself was livid." Facebook's request was denied and the documents circulated on the Web, with little other information available to counter their portrait of Zuckerberg. Some of those who know him say the perceptions are misguided. He had plenty of friends at Harvard and was a regular at parties, former classmates said. Rather than being some kind of evil genius, his success was based on the fact that he liked people and was well liked, helping him understand what online tools would appeal to fellow students. Kirkpatrick, who wrote the book on Facebook, said first impressions of Zuckerberg can be misleading.

He recalled the first time they met in the fall of 2006 at mid-town Manhattan restaurant II Gattopardo where the menu includes a $44 entree of grilled Piedmontese strip loin. Zuckerberg walked in wearing sandals and a T-shirt. He offered little in the way of Smalltalk. But when Zuckerberg started laying out his ideas about Facebook and his determination to keep reinventing it, Kirkpatrick said his brilliance was undeniable. "His motivation is to change the world," Kirkpatrick says.

Still, it's not clear that describes the entirety of the man. The movie presents Zuckerberg not just as ultra-intelligent, but as motivated largely by personal insecurities. For two hours in a dark theater, it offers an adrenaline-charged journey with a warped computer-age Aladdin driven to keep releasing new genies from a bottle. "Well, you can't deny it's a good movie," Kirkpatrick said, as the lights came up recently in a screening room. Maybe.

But is the man on the screen the real Zuckerberg? "It wasn't even close." The Programmable Digital Hearing Aid of the IS HERE TODAY! 0 Financing Available for 12 Months Sears 1 BBB Hearing Aid Centers Losing your HEARING or are your ears just plugged with EARWAX? FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF! You are invited for a FREE ear inspection using the latest video technology. Extended due to popular demand! Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday October 5th, 6th 7th rail MstiAi ft yi i I lAiswitivtrrf gained notoriety. When she arrived for the first day of a discussion group for an introductory psychology class, eyebrows went up when Zuckerberg's turn came to introduce himself. "Someone said, 'Great, you're the Facebook And he was so embarrassed," says Reznick, now a medical student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "He really played it down." The smartest person Classmate James Oliver recalls a conversation in the dorm soon after, when Zuckerberg he and others still refer to him as "Zuck" explained that he had worked to launch Facebook quickly to show up a Harvard administrator who had said a university-wide online directory would take two years to create.

By the end of the semester, Facebook had nearly 160,000 users. Oliver, who now lives in Los Angeles, calls Zuckerberg the smartest person he met at Harvard. "People were making jokes in freshman and sophomore years that all the humanities majors were going to ask to be Zuck's gardeners when he became rich and famous," he said. But three fellow Harvard students quickly took issue with Zuckerberg's creation. Identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and friend Divya Narendra said they had hired Zuckerberg to write computer code for their own social networking site in November 2003, and that he had stolen their idea.

"I worked with the expec- comeback placed by Al Collins and Pontus Snibb, the band's current run of dates completes an unlikely return to form for a band that most credit with kick-starting the alternative-country movement. "Halcyon Times" proves they still do it best, with a reckless charm and a love for the magic that happens when country gets loud. "I don't quite know how we did it," Ringenberg said, laughing. "I'm as surprised as anybody." Reporter Jeffrey Lee Puckett can be reached at (502) 582-4160. It's All FREE SCORCHERS Making a FREE Complete Electronic Hearing Test This Audiometric evaluation will precisely show what you've been missing FREE Video Otoscope Ear Canal Inspection This show-all Picture of your ear canal is displayed on a color TV monitor, so you'll see exactly what we see.

FREE Package of Hearing Aid Batteries If you now wear a hearing aid, you will receive one free package of hearing aid batteries. If we test your hearing you will receive another free package. FREE In-Office Repairs All in-office hearing aid repairs shall be and factory repairs, regardless of make or model shall be 50 off. All-In-The-Ear $995 Offer Valid On Model AudioChoice 7021 100 digital Valid at participating Miracle-Ear locations. Limit one coupon per purchase.

May not be combined with other offers and does not apply to prior sales. Cash value 120 cent. Offer expires 100910. All-In-The-Canal $995 Offer Valid On Model AudioChoice 702C 100 digital Valid at participating Miracle-Ear locations. Limit one coupon per purchase.

May not be combined with other offers and does not apply to prior sales. Cash value 120 cent. Offer expires 100910. Jason and the Scorchers will perform at Phoenix Hill. Continued from Dl to make it harder rock, and it was this constant, severe tension between us," Rin-genberg said.

"But around five years ago, something changed in Warner and he started falling in love with music again and rediscovered what makes Warner Hodges brilliant. "Warner is the only guitarist in the world who can really bridge the gap between James Burton and Angus Young he's the only guy and over the years he had lost the James Burton side of that. He rediscovered what made him cool." By the time Ringenberg agreed to make "Halcyon Times," he was actually a little worried that Hodges would hold back too much. So Ringenberg, long the advocate for toning it down, went in with guns blazing. He and Hodges had finally found their sweet spot, and making the record was an endlessly creative experience, Ringenberg said.

Songs rained down and their performances thundered. "Right from the start, it was like, 'Oh, there's something pulling this along bigger than It just had an Maybe you want our tiny completely-in-the canal hearing aids. No manual volume controls for you to adjust. Just slip it into your ear and it adjusts itself automatically as you listen! 1,000 OFF energy," Ringenberg said. "The first songs we wrote were 'Twang Town Blues' and 'Beat on the Mountain' and, wow, they were both just monsters." Although the band has performed sporadic gigs over the years while officially still retired, including a couple of brief European tours, the Scorchers' comeback only became official when "Halcyon Times" was finished and an American tour planned.

Although the classic Scorchers rhythm section of Jeff Johnson and Perry Baggs has been expertly re the list price purchase of a set of digital hearing aids: Solution 1, 2 3 CALL NOW (502) 653-4989 FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT! Miracle-Ear Hearing Center Jefferson Mall inside Sears "Hearing aids do not restore natural hearing. Individual experiences vary depending on severity of hearing loss, accuracy of evaluation, proper fit and ability to adapt to amplification. Only your Miracle-Ear representative can determine which model and options may be right for you. See store for financing details. "Our hearing test and video otoscope inspection always free.

Hearing test an audiometric test to determine proper amplification needs only. These are not medical exams or diagnoses, nor are they intended to replace a physician's care. If you suspect a medical problem, please seek treatment from your doctor. 2010 Hearing Services LLC CJ-N0000293480.