I’m not sure that some people are aware of exactly how much consolidation there is in the wired high speed market. For example, my DSL appears to be coming from Qwest, but in actuality, they are outsourcing it to Time Warner (Road Runner). I’m only aware of this because I noticed that this is how I show up in the traffic reports for my own sites – the service is never branded as Time Warner or Road Runner.

Sadly, in at least this particular case, it’s a good thing that Road Runner is handling the DSL. I can’t imagine how bad Qwest could $%^@ it up if given the chance – they certainly manage to mess up every other aspect of their service.

I haven’t seen The Social Network – but it’s worth noting that there is a notice at the very end of the movie indicating that certain events have been “invented”. Apparently, one of the invented scenes involves Zuckerberg engaging in sex with an underage girl.

I’m not really sure how good the user experience would be if users were splintered across a bunch of social networks. As you mention, the very fact that all my friends are on Facebook is the reason I use it. That’s different than, say, ESPN.com vs CNNSI.com, where it really doesn’t matter what my friends are watching.

Am I happy with my cell phone service? Sure, for the most part. I have AT&T and usually have pretty good coverage. US Cellular was a bit better, but also a bit more expensive (for some reason, they don’t have an employee discount for my company). Is there much differentiation in products? Not really.