Nerd Notes: A free Smart Car, Subway sandwich thieves and the pope resigning, again

New Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer

Editor’s Note: Nerd Notes is GeekWire’s roundup of random geekiness from around the globe. Want a free Smart Car? If you refer a developer or designer to Seattle startup EnergySavvy and he or she gets hired, you’ll receive a Smart Car or a $14,000 cash prize. But hurry, there’s only a week and a half left. To… Read More…

Zuckerberg leads list of most-liked CEOs; Bezos’ approval rating soars and Ballmer is a no-show in top 50

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Do you like the job your boss is doing? If you work at Facebook, Amazon.com, Salesforce.com, EMC, SAP, Apple or Google, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. The CEOs of those tech titans each scored approval ratings above 90 percent in Glassdoor’s annual ranking of the top highest-rated CEOs. (Glassdoor bases its… Read More…

Netflix & Facebook, together at last — for better or worse

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Netflix this morning launched its long-awaited “Netflix Social” feature, letting its customers connect their Netflix accounts to Facebook to share what they’ve been watching, and to see what their friends have been watching. The Video Privacy Protection Act, dating back to the days of VHS, had prevented the company from enabling this feature, but new amendments… Read More…

Nerd Notes: An elevator murder prank and Steve Ballmer starring in a Taylor Swift song

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Editor’s Note: Nerd Notes is GeekWire’s roundup of random geekiness from around the globe. Not-so-funny elevator prank: The marketing team for the new film Dead Man Down, which was released in theaters Friday, thought it’d be funny to trick innocent New Yorkers into thinking they were witnessing a real elevator murder. Did they cross the line?… Read More…

Baby pictures on Facebook: Audience, nuance and joy

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I didn’t believe it at first. One second my husband was filming our son with my phone, the next second he stopped. Our baby was just getting started, pushing himself against the sofa like he was standing his own. I was smiling so much it made my face hurt. I thought it could happen, but… Read More…

A LinkedIn rival: InternMatch expands to entry-level jobs

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Things are moving fast for the folks over at InternMatch. They raised $1.2 million in January, are averaging five million page views a month, and now they’re expanding in a big way. Originally designed to help college students find high-quality internships, InternMatch announced Tuesday that it is now offering entry-level positions with hopes of becoming the… Read More…

Nerd Notes: Gay marriage and sushi, printable guns, and a 5-year-old’s $2,500 iPad spending spree

National Day of Unplugging

Editor’s Note: Nerd Notes is GeekWire’s roundup of random geekiness from around the globe. National Day of Unplugging (NDU): Beginning tonight at sunset, and ending 24 hours later, citizens across the nation are encouraged to unplug from all media. Even GeekWire’s John Cook is giving it a shot. Participants are asked to share their reasons for… Read More…

It’s official: Facebook buying Atlas ad system from Microsoft

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Microsoft is selling its Atlas Advertising Suite to Facebook, the companies confirmed this afternoon. Financial terms of the purchase weren’t disclosed. The deal makes Facebook a bigger player in online advertising, while salvaging a small portion of Microsoft’s ill-fated acquisition of Seattle-based digital advertising company aQuantive, which included the Atlas tools. Facebook’s Brian Boland says in a blog… Read More…

GameHouse launches new Facebook casino, expands slots to iPhone and iPad

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GameHouse is placing a bigger bet on casino-style social gaming starting today— moving beyond its existing Facebook slots game to launch a larger casino on the social network, with more than a dozen games. GameHouse also is expanding its original slots game to iPhone and iPad with the release of a new iOS app. It’s… Read More…

Instagram hits 100M user mark 28 months after launch

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Instagram, welcome to the 100 million club. The Facebook-owned photo sharing social network announced today that two-and-a-half years after launch, Instagram has surpassed the 100 million user mark. Co-founder Kevin Systrom penned a blog post on the milestone, thanking users and writing about Instagram’s early days inside a frigid San Francisco office when he and… Read More…