Tech News: New Facebook changes

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September 21, 2011, 9:11 am

Judging from the early reaction, it appears difficult to find many Facebook users who like the latest changes rolled out by the social network. New FB Tweaks
Facebook unveiled signifcant tweaks to user pages, adding "Top Stories" based on how often a user logs in, and adding a news ticker with instant status updates from friends. Instead of choosing between "Top Stories" and "Most Recent" posts, users have a selection of Top Stories from a select timeframe, then scroll down for fresher updates.

The layout also condenses information on events and invites. Clicking on that brings up additional details, such as friends' upcoming birthdays or other notable occassions.
Feedback to the changes on the Facebook blog have been overwhelmingly negative. Facebook is about to launch video sharing and a music service in the next two weeks.

What goes up, must come down
So NASA officials predict 6.2 tons of defunct satellite will make a fiery re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere sometime from Thursday to Saturday.

Falling debris from the space agency's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) poses a 1-in-3,200 risk of hitting someone, according to a space agency analysis.

Depending on the exact altitude at which the satellite's final plunge starts, most likely on Friday, the debris could scatter anywhere from Siberia to South America. If the satellite enters over a populated part of the world, "people should see quite a show," resembling a shooting star, even in the daytime,

iPad to take your order
Uh, waitresses, here’s one more job that is going over to computers. Restaurants are now using ipads to serve customers. Steakhouses in San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago use tablets to let customers make wine and steak selections. At 12 locations in Boston customers choose ingredients for their sandwiches using an iPad.

The rise of tablets couldn't come at a more opportune time for the $604 billion restaurant industry. Traffic has been flat since 2007, largely as a result of the sluggish economy .

And top trending video today on You Tube

“Dad, I’m gay.”

With those three emotion-drenched words, a 21-year-old U.S. soldier stationed in Germany reveals in a phone call to his father in Alabama what he had long kept secret but could now finally share with Tuesday's official repeal of the military's 17-year "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

The soldier, who goes by the online moniker "areyousurprised," captures himself on video telling his father something he says he's "known since forever" but was afraid to share. He posted the video to YouTube, and it quickly went viral.

The soldier was among numerous U.S. military members who "came out" on Tuesday, guaranteed that they will no longer be punished or booted out of the service because of their sexual orientation.

The soldier doesn't give his name, and in previous YouTube videos chronicling his experience as a gay man in the military is careful not to show his face. But in the latest video, titled "Telling my dad that I am gay," he faces the camera directly, sitting in a room with a world map draped on a wall behind him.

The Washington Post identified him as Randy Phillips <http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dont-ask-dont-tell-ends-in-quiet-personal-ways/2011/09/20/gIQAn69uiK_story.html> and said the video was recorded with his web camera in his bedroom at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

The soldier fidgets nervously as he tells viewers it's early Tuesday morning and he hasn't been able to sleep. He then calls home on his mobile phone. In the captivating five-minute conversation that follows, he reveals his sexual orientation to his father.