I haven’t run into him, but have confirmed from at least ten local programmers and angel investors that Eduardo Saverin– the Brazilian-born estranged Facebook co-founder who helped Ben Mezrich write a devastating revenge book of his ouster before taking a settlement and disappearing from the face of the US tech scene– has been hiding out in Singapore for the better part of the last year-and-a-half. I’m told he lives in the penthouse of the tallest building of the city, and is a regular at Singapore’s club hot spots, especially a place called The Butter Factory.

Rolling with the city’s socialites aside, locals say that Saverin is pretty low-key. No one I spoke with had ever heard him refer to himself as the “co-founder” of Facebook. It either goes unsaid or, on one occassion, he told someone who’d never heard of him he was merely a “programmer of Facebook games.” I don’t know how much coding he’s doing, but he’s reportedly using that Facebook settlement money to fund a variety of Facebook game developers from his perch in Singapore. He may be hiding out from the limelight and attention, but he’s certainly not trying to get away from Facebook itself.

By many accounts Saverin is well liked here and people are protective of him. In everyday conversation, people refer to Saverin’s role creating Facebook, not Mark Zuckerberg’s, which let’s just say, you don’t hear a lot in the Valley. One source did a deal with him and wanted to make sure I said he was “the most honorable guy I’ve ever dealt with in business.”

Given TechCrunch’s experience with Singaporean businessmen, I could make a catty comment about that being a low bar. But I’ve met a lot of honorable people this week in Singapore, and it seems like Saverin is keeping his head down, trying to build something on his own and avoid the film limelight his tell all account helped create. I give him credit for that. It’ll exciting to see what games he winds up funding for the platform that seems to have caused him a lot of pain and made him a billionaire household name. With any luck, his games will do well enough that Aaron Sorkin can fictionalize a sequel.

Where in the World Is Eduardo Saverin? In Singapore Funding Facebook Games.

This probably isn’t too surprising. The Social Network, which had received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, topped the box office opening weekend with $23 million in ticket sales (some of which was contributed by Facebook itself in a screening for employees on Friday).

While some analysts predicted that the film would open at $25 million, the movie’s performance is impressive. Of course, Sony’s relentless marketing campaigns and the Oscar-buzz surround the movie probably helped drive consumers to the box office.

The movie’s budget was rumored to be in range of $45 million to $52 million, and Sony is expecting The Social Network to bring in a total of $100 million.

Just for a basis of comparison, one of the largest box office opening weekends was The Dark Knight, which brought in $158 million in sales in its first weekend.

You can read our review of The Social Network here.

Photo Credit/Flickr/Eclectic

Opening Weekend: The Social Network Tops Box Office With $23 Million In Ticket Sales

Several years ago, it seems like just about everyone saw the film Titanic. This past year, it seems the same was true for Avatar. And this past Summer, it seems as if everyone is seeing Inception. All three films share something in common: their use of Autodesk Maya, a piece of visual effects software. Now that technology has been ported to the iPhone and iPad.

Obviously, Autodesk Fluid FX isn’t going to be as powerful as Maya running on a hardcore system. But Fluid FX is nonetheless impressive. And it’s pretty amazing that these kind of effects can be done on these relatively cheap consumer devices, whereas a just a few years ago systems costing thousands of dollars were required to render this stuff.

The best way to describe what the app can do is to show it to you. For that, watch the video below. But basically, it’s an app that lets you manipulate pictures with a range of effects. And it has other natural elements like smoke and fire that you can manipulate on your iPad or iPhone.

The use of these devices’ multi-touch capabilities is the key to all of this. The app can recognize up to 10 simultaneous multi-touch inputs, we’re told.

The resulting work you make can saved to your devices. Or you can output any of this to a larger screen, like a television. There’s also a way to cycle through various effects and put them on display. But to me Fluid FX is just as interesting as a technological demonstration of what these devices are now capable of. And perhaps even more so, as a way to show was the other software Autodesk offers is capable of.

Autodesk’s Joe Stam, who has won two Oscars for his work effect work on films, created this app. Previously, Autodesk has released Sketchbook Mobile for the iPhone and iPad, which was a top-selling app.

Autodesk Fluid FX will be out in the App Store tomorrow. It will cost $1.99.

Some Tech Behind Inception And Avatar Becomes A Reality On Your iPad And iPhone

Matt’s Blog – Toy Story 3