Thousands of people are planning viewing parties for the upcoming annular solar eclipse, a rare event in which the sun will appear as a thin ring behind the moon.
The eclipse will begin over Asia on Monday morning, when it will be visible in southern Japan and southern China.
In the United States, the eclipse will be visible on a path from northwestern Texas through New Mexico, northeastern Arizona, southern Utah, Nevada, northern California and southwestern Oregon late Sunday.
“I recommend anyone who has the chance to see this, because while they do …

Shares of Facebook jumped 13% to $43 on a frenzied first day of trading on May 18, as investors stormed Wall Street to grab shares of the world’s leading social networking company.
he stock rose $5 from its initial price of $38 a share, indicating just how strong demand is for the company, especially from individual investors who largely couldn’t buy shares at the initial public offering price. The stock’s initial price was set on May 17 after the market closed at the high end of its expected range.
At its current …

Social network to honour requests from users who do not want online behaviour recorded – unlike Google and fFacebook
Twitter says it will honour requests from users who do not want their online behaviour tracked, the company said on Thursday, in contrast with web companies such Google and Facebook whose business models rely heavily on collecting user data.
Twitter announced that it will officially support “Do Not Track,” a standardised privacy initiative that has been heavily promoted by the US Federal Trade Commission, online privacy advocates and Mozilla, the non-profit developer of …

The good: The Sony Alpha NEX-F3 produces very nice low- to midrange sensitivity pictures, plus you can configure it for streamlined shooting, and delivers solid overall performance. The new automated self-portrait is also a boon for people who like to put themselves in the picture.
The bad: The LCD can be difficult to view in bright light and the SD card slot is in a bad spot for tripod users.
The bottom line: Though it doesn’t wow us for any particular aspect, the Sony Alpha NEX-F3 is a nice overall package for …

It’s entirely possible to create a list of reasons why you and I should be trying to buy stock in the Facebook IPO. There might well be a price pop given the interest in the issue. The company looks as if it might well become part of the basic infrastructure of the modern world. It’s got near 1 billion users, revenues are growing fast, as I say, there’s quite a list.
There’s also a similar list that could be written with reasons not to buy into it. The company has decided …