Updated at 5:08 p.m. PDT with quotes from former Nationale Suisse employee.
CNET previously reported that Facebook users risk having a lower GPA. Now, according to Reuters and other sources, using the social-networking site could have another unpleasant side effect: getting you fired. At least that's what happened to a Swiss insurance worker who lost her job after surfing Facebook while out sick, her employer said Friday.
The unnamed woman said she had to be away from her monitor lying in the dark, but was then seen to be active on Facebook. Insurance company Nationale Suisse said in a statement that behavior had destroyed its trust in the employee.
"This abuse of trust, rather than the activity on Facebook, led to the ending of the work contract," a spokesman for the firm said.
The woman admitted to having used Facebooked on her iPhone, but accused the insurance company of spying on her by sending a mysterious friend request that made the company see her activities. The company denied the accusation and said a colleague stumbled over her activity, before Nationale Suisse banned use of the popular site in the company.
But she said she is not suing the company and that she is happy to have gotten a neutral termination letter and doesn't want to go back. "My trust for this employer is gone," the 31-year-old woman told Swiss daily newspaper 20 Minuten.
"Facebook is dead for me," she added.
This isn't the first time we've heard a discussion about losing a job due to Facebook use. Those scared of that destiny might want to watch this CNET TV video: Don't let Facebook get you fired.
Google Australia engineers have created a Flash map to keep track of the deadly bushfires ravaging the southeastern part of the country and help reduce the traffic burden to the official sites coordinating emergency services.
The fires, which have reportedly claimed more than 100 lives, are being tracked in real-time with information provided by the State of Victoria's Country Fire Authority via an RSS feed. The numbers on the map markers indicate the number of fires at that location and the colors represent the current containment status of that site (green represents safe, yellow for controlled, orange for contained, and red going).
"We hope that it's of some use to people who may be affected, to emergency services personnel, and that it takes some load off other websites which are being inundated," the team wrote in a blog posting. "The map certainly makes the scale of this disaster immediately apparent."
The team says it is working to incorporate additional information into the map and also offers tips for Web site operators who want to embed the map on their sites.
Additionally, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has posted a Google-powered map on its site.
The blog Liako.Biz has posted an examination of how data portability allows for these maps to be created.
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