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I think this is_fb_employee variable is to check if they should be running the internal testing version of Facebook. Facebook has a subdomain which, in their offices everyone is redirected to. It's something like 'preview.facebook.com'. It houses the latest testing build of Facebook. This way all the employees are testing Facebook just by being on it, and they have other people testing their new builds for short periods of time (~2 weeks). Chances are, the server checks if the user is at an IP of a Facebook office, and that's the only condition where this is true. This would make sense because if they just redirect users to Facebook.com in their offices to preview.facebook.com, then nearly anyone could do it. This would also help prevent leaking of new features as well, because employees wouldn't be able to access them outside of Facebook.

They mention this in the Facebook Effect (http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connect...). Or, at least the part about an subdomain for testing their website in-house. Everything else was me analyzing that.

⬐ mitchty

Why not just setup a proxy.pac file and proxy all internal ip's to the test domain?

⬐ spiantino

not sure what a .pac file is, but yes, this is how it works.

⬐ mitchty

Just a javascript script file that tests for where ip-wise the user originates from and determines if you use a proxy for the site or connect directly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_auto-config

⬐ drivebyacct2

I don't understand. If they're proxying requests, what would this variable ever be used for? This is at an endpoint for a client or their javascript to consume (or just as a recruiting-marketing tool). That would be redundant if they're proxying requests and insanely silly if it's the only way (instead of proxying) that they flex new features on... as they'd be visible in the javascript and it would be trivial to spoof the response to be "yes".

I have no doubt that their internal employees or a subset of them are using a different build of Facebook, and maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand how this is related.

⬐ dearmash

Perhaps an iphone / ipad / android client that makes this request to decide what skin to wear. Just sayin'

⬐ Jarred

I might not know enough about this to say anything, but that would make sense for the Facebook iPad app because I would assume people rarely use their iPads while working (http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/25/facebook-ipad-app-pictures/)

⬐ bbillings

Actually, we do know when you are on the Facebook corp network and can filter by that, but we rarely gate on that. We have a system we call gatekeeper for controlling the launch of new features. If I'm coding up something new I'll usually just add my own user ID (we call GUIs in Facebook FBIDs) first. The gatekeeper system is a very full featured roll-out system. I can launch to just employees, 1% of users world wide, Facebook users in Peru, viral growth mechanism, etc..

We also maintain a robust employee list that is cached in APC on every web host that you can always call an is_employee style function for any user ID on. The careers site in particular has some employee only functionality that this endpoint is probably checking.

FWIW, there's already a thread on this topic:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2026716

But to answer the question: I started out with a goal of integrating Apache Shindig[1] into Quoddy[2] to enable OpenSocial[3] support. A very basic version of that is up and working, so now I'm working on refining the account / profile "stuff" in Quoddy and factoring out some common code for use in another project[4].

I'm also trying to get in a fair bit of reading. I had started Googled[5] before the break, and I finished that earlier today. I'd also started Simply Complexity[6], which I finished sometime in the last 24 hours or so (time is starting to become a fuzzy concept to me here). Then I read The Facebook Effect[7] which I just finished up a few minutes ago, and now I'm starting to re-read Bill Gates' Business @ The Speed of Thought[8]. Once I finish that, I'm hoping to find time to squeeze in The Art of Enterprise Information Architecture[9] and - if things go smashingly well - Complexity - A Guided Tour[10].

1: http://shindig.apache.org

2: https://github.com/fogbeam/Quoddy

3: http://www.opensocial.org

4: https://github.com/fogbeam/Neddick

5: http://www.amazon.com/Googled-End-World-As-Know/dp/014311804...

6: http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Complexity-Clear-Guide-Theory/d...

7: http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connect...

8: http://www.amazon.com/Business-Speed-Thought-Succeeding-Digi...

9: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Enterprise-Information-Architectur...

10: http://www.amazon.com/Complexity-Guided-Tour-Melanie-Mitchel...

⬐ pshapiro

"FWIW, there's already a thread on this topic:"

Thanks for pointing that out. Had no idea.

You've quite an impressive list there!

⬐ mindcrime

Well, I don't go back to work at my $DAYJOB until the 4th of Jan., so I still have quite a bit of time for reading / hacking in front of me. :-)

"... I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect that once Facebook had about 5-10 universities they were unstoppable. Once you have 5-10 universities, you're going to get all the rest. ..."

It wasn't that easy according to "The Facebook Effect" ~ http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connect... Competitors existed but Facebook had 2 things going for them that the others did not - a) A fast school addition tool allowing Facebook to quickly add new universities & b) A strategic thinking founder who realised if you added universities around existing sites (friends, associates of the target university) you could pull in enough of the users of their competitors sites to render them ineffective. Such is the power of the "social graph" and relentless determination.

Google is missing the thing that Facebook does well here, "identifying real people". [0] When I looked at the "Friends" google identified it was really just connections I'd made with Twitter, flickr and various other services. Very few I'd met or consider a friend. Parsing data to find friends isn't as good as being sucked into the human "social graph".

Identifying real people is a core concept at Facebook. and something they have got right (identity) and google will find difficult to replicate.

[0] I wouldn't have realised this point as quickly had I not read "The Facebook Effect" ~ http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connect... which despite its flaws gives some useful insights. Excerpt: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/06/facebook-david-kirkpatrick/

⬐ txxxxd

The title of this post probably mislead you, but identifying friends is just a subset of what Google is trying to do here.

If I'm searching for a good online backup service I care more about the opinions of people I follow on twitter than those of my non-technical friends and family, etc.

⬐ bootload

Good point I hadn't considered the real purpose of the service. But one thing I can't understand is why google - the kings of simple - want to include such messy data? When I see "do more" I smell failure.

⬐ bkudria

Google doesn't mind messy data at all. Their goal is to get more data, even if it's not perfect. If they can get massive amounts of data, their statistical accuracy will improve.

Some books I've read this summer, which I can recommend:

- The Facebook Effect -- well-written insider's account of the history of Facebook and its ambitions. http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connect...

- The Quantum Enigma -- an accessible digest of quantum mechanics and its philosophical consequences. http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Enigma-Physics-Encounters-Cons...

- Flesh & Machines -- a lightweight history of robotics and some wacky speculations by MIT's Rodney Brooks. http://www.amazon.com/Flesh-Machines-Robots-Will-Change/dp/0...

- The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution of Personalized Medecine -- a well-backed account of what is or will be possible in medicine thanks to a better understanding of the genome and increase use of DNA sequencing for prevention, diagnostic, and treatment. http://www.amazon.com/Language-Life-Revolution-Personalized-...

- ... by David Sedaris -- Funny short stories. Perhaps The Santaland Diaries for something light but really amusing, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames for something darker and more well-known. Also, if you like short stories, I heartily recommend Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules, a varied collection of short stories selected by Sedaris. http://www.amazon.com/David-Sedaris/e/B000AQ3YUW/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0349119759 http://www.amazon.com/When-You-Are-Engulfed-Flames/dp/031615... http://www.amazon.com/Children-Playing-Before-Statue-Hercule...

- Dreams of My Father -- Barack Obama writes candidly and beautifully about his childhood and early adulthood; it's not a political book, and it's worth reading for the writing alone. http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-My-Father-Story-Inheritance/dp/...

- Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty: a chatty history of mathematics, and its perception. http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Loss-Certainty-Galaxy-Book...

⬐ tptacek

Regarding Sedaris, I highly, highly recommend consuming him in audiobook format.

David Foster Wallace's "Consider The Lobster" is also an excellent audiobook; he figured out a way to do the footnotes via audio.

Part 2 of extract from an upcoming book, "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick ~ http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connect... The first part is here ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1325071