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I dont even know what a quail looks like， something that will always remind me of my college friends whiskey-tinged exctions of You can bring your green hat! as they attempted to coax their suite mates out to party on a Saturday night. The Daft Punk song Harder Better Faster Stronger had particular significance to Facebook in its early days， executives have told me. And the poke feature has a story behind it， too.

Perhaps in my unheeding youth I spent too many evenings in the company of those affiliated with Greek-letter organizations and various collegiate societies to be surprised by a young business adoption of a fraternity-like in-joke. Squirreled away in the back of my closet， emerging only for the occasional trip to the gym when nothing else is clean， are T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like FLOATERS VS. BOATERS 2002， the meaning of which sometimes has grown hazy even in my mind. There wasnt really anything hidden beneath the surface; we were just a campus full of clumps of kids who thought they were cooler than they actually were， and theres nothing wrong with that.

poke t shirtZuckerberg hoodie makes mountains of molehills，far more insidious washing ashore.)

CES: Reborn Pleo dinobot more interactive， toughThe updated robot dinosaur， Pleo Rb， has a longer battery life and better skin than its predecessor， along with new RFID accessories that trigger different behaviors.

Its still early in June， and yet the tech industry press appears to already have its first product of the summer doldrums: the insignia on the inside of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckpoke t shirterbergs trademark hoodie， revealed when he

Company turns Four Loko booze into car fuelThe fratty malt-liquor beverage can no longer be sold in its current form per the FDA， but a Virginia ethanol recycling company is taking the excess inventory and running cars on it.

BustedTees entire inventory， and my own employer CBS use of Black Rock as the internal moniker for its ominous New York headquarters， a bit of jargon that gained a whole new dimension when the same name was used by the ABC sci-fi drama Lost for the skeleton-littered old slave ship that shipwrecked on the shows iconic island. (ABC， were you trying to say something mean about us?)

CNET News Caroline McCarthy is a downtown Manhattanite who believes that， despite popular opinion， the Web can actually help your social life. Shes happily addicted to fun social-media tools from Twitter to Yelp to Facebook， sends an inordinate number of text messages， and has a tendency to waste time at the office reading restaurant blogs. Here， she explores all facets of the Webs gregarious side， as well as the unique tech culture in her home city of New York. (Dont call it Silicon Alley.)

CES 2011

Am I the only one who simply doesnt understand why this has made the tech blog world go bonkers? The company has

Shooting suspect left unsettling artifacts onlineJared Lee Loughner， arrested in connection with shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords， posted strange videos， disquieting photo.

And we know they love in-jokes at Facebook. In its younger incarnations the social network was littered with movie quotations like Too close for missiles， Im switching to guns and

mollywood: Had an absolutely amazing week at #CES with the best team in Internet broadcasting. You rock， @cnettv.

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brian_tong: So proud of the CNET team and all of the LIVE content we brought to you from CES 2011. I really feel we had the best coverage this year!

Onstage interviewers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher took immediate interest in the fact that Zuckerbergs hoodie had a large， complicated， and never-before-seen-by-the-public Facebook graphic on its underside. SFWeekly took the time to recreate the logo and parse its meaning. Eager TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid found on Saturday that one of the Skull and Facebones hoodies had surfaced on eBay， speculating facetiously that at Facebook HQ， three goats were sacrificed in an attempt to ward off yet another wave of bad press.

But at the time they meant something， and any group of tightly connected youth likes poke t shirtZuckerberg hoodie makes mountains of molehillsto claim things as their own， build their own traditions and simultaneously maintain the traditions of yore， even if that involves the consumption of live goldfish or the uncomfortably sadomasochistic THANK YOU， SIR， MAY I HAVE ANOTHER? scene in the storied comedy Animal House.

CES 2011

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maintained a collegiate vibe throughout its history， even long after it had moved from Harvard undergraduate dorms to the tony office digs of downtown Palo Alto. Fratty camaraderie breeds in-jokes. Facebook has very talented designers on staff. They made custom hoodies with--ooh， so clever!--a mission-statement design on the inside of the sweatshirt that was normally cloaked from public view. End of story. The world keeps spinning.

If you have a question or comment for Caroline McCarthy， you can submit it here. However， because our editors and writers receive hundreds of requests， we cannot tell you when you may receive a response.

This is by no means characteristic of Facebook alone. Further examples of tech world in-jokes that have made their way to the public at large include Microsofts

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Alt media player VLC cut from Apple App StorePopular cross-platform media player gets yanked from the App Store--at the request of the softwares original developer.

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brian_tong: What do I mean by the best CES coverage? Check out the latest innovations by Trojan condoms. abcdbit.ly/goiR6b

Cell phones that arent quite what they seemOne company at CES wasnt shy about imitating the popular cell phones from other manufacturers. CNET checks out a series of handsets that look familiar， but are anything but.

An inside look at the testing of Windows Phone 7In part three of a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Microsofts new phone software， Ina Fried takes a look at Redmonds massive testing operation.

The funniest part is that the mysterious Facebook insignia actually seems quite easy to decipher. They didnt even translate making the world open and connected into some esoteric tongue like Latin or Tolkiens Elvish. There is the Platform， the Stream， and the Graph， terms that

Its summer. Its the time of year when us business reporters are more likely to grudgingly (or not-so-grudgingly) refer to a day as a slow news day， when CEOs are languishing on the decks of their yachts， when legislative bodies are more likely to be out of session. Its the season when we start wallowing in the quicksand of C-list celebrity deaths and even X-Files-caliber cryptozoology--as when， two years ago， gossip outlet Gawker became ensconced in the mystery surrounding the Montauk Monster， a bizarre carcass that washed ashore on a beach in the eponymous surf-resort town on New Yorks Long Island. (Spoiler alert: It was probably a raccoon. This year， we have something

Lets face it: The only magical， mystical power of Zuckerbergs hooded sweatshirt and the pattern inscribed within appears to be its ability to make a press frenzy out of just about nothing.

That said， I hate to break it to you， Mark Zuckerberg: You are no Montauk Monster.

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anyone who follows Facebooks developments is well familiar with by now. There are arrows in and arrows out. There is the +1 emblem that appears when a Facebook member receives a new friend request. People， this is no Dharma Initiative map.

special coverage The massive Consumer Electronics Show is now upon us， and the gadget news is pouring out. CNET brings you the latest.

was in the midst of a talk at the D conference last week and grew so sweaty that he appears to have been forced to choose between removing the hoodie or swooning to the ground like a corseted dame in an overheated Victorian parlor.

Caroline McCarthy， a CNET News staff writer， is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.

As Facebook grows from a fratty start-up into an industry behemoth on the cusp of going public， perhaps its employees cling to the insidery camaraderie all the more--it keeps them young， as some might say. If it makes for a juicy summer news tale for business journalists thirsting for fluffy stories， particularly as the days grow thick and long with dreams of beach getaways， so be it.

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