Irony
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Russia's head of censorship ***** after being censored on ********
An aide to Vladimir Putin has told Russians to leave Facebook after the head of the country's telecommunications regulator was censored by the social network. As the Moscow Times reports, Maxim Ksensov was given a 24-hour time out after posting an ethnic slur for Ukranians on his personal page. The paper believes that the word has now been blacklisted by the service and will be instantly deleted if it's found. In response, Putin aide Igor Shchegolev has instructed locals to abandon Facebook in favor of Vkontakte, its homegrown alternative.
Makers of controversial government surveillance software hacked
When you call your enterprise "Hacking Team" you'd like to think you're pretty on top of that whole, well, hacking thing. Yet here we are, telling you about how the aforementioned organization has just seen 400GB of data pilfered from its servers, and put onto BitTorrent for all to see. Hacking Team is known for its controversial "Da Vinci" software that allows governments and law enforcement agencies to monitor encrypted communications such as email and Skype conversations, and collect evidence on citizens. It's fair to say it's not popular with journalists and privacy advocates.
Politician against violent games pleads guilty in gun-running case
Oh, the irony. Disgraced former senator Leland Yee has pleaded guilty to charges of taking bribes in exchange for votes, racketeering and promising to smuggle guns into the US from the Philippines. Of course, like so many beautiful twists of fate, Yee was a prominent moral crusader who led a campaign against violent video games. The senator authored AB-1179, legislation that would have outlawed the sale of said titles to California's teens, which was defeated by the Supreme Court. Way to keep our kids safe, Leels.
Search engine turns the tables on hackers by exposing their info
Want to see a textbook definition of irony? Look no further than Indexeus, a search engine that primarily exposes the info of malicious hackers caught up in the very sort of data breaches that they inflict on others. As it was originally structured, people had to "donate" $1 for every record they wanted to purge from the engine's index; in other words, they had to pay to avoid the wrath of their fellow thieves. This was ostensibly to create "awareness" of susceptibility to attacks, but critics have complained that it amounts to extortion.
The definition of karma: PayPal president's credit card gets hacked
If you've ever lost access to your PayPal holdings through no fault of your own -- say, following a shady money transfer -- you may be tempted to enjoy a little schadenfreude today. PayPal president David Marcus reports that someone used a skimming device to clone his credit card while he was in the UK, letting the perpetrator make a "ton" of fraudulent purchases. It's virtually the embodiment of karmic payback, isn't it? In fairness, the executive is right when he notes that the incident wouldn't have happened if the merchant accepted PayPal; the company would have masked the card number and rendered the skimmer useless. And we sincerely hope that Marcus' finances are back in order. All the same, the affair shows just why business leaders should be sympathetic to their customers' problems -- one day, they may be stuck in the same boat.
Best Buy takes 2012 Amazon Kindle pre-orders for those that hate online shopping, appreciate irony
There's a certain amount of self-contradiction going on if you're visiting a brick-and-mortar store to pre-order a device that's all about e-commerce. If you relish the irony, Best Buy will gladly let you reserve Amazon's $69 Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, upgraded Kindle Fire and both sizes of the Kindle Fire HD (including the LTE model) at both regular locations and Best Buy Mobile. The retailer isn't as specific with its in-stock dates as Amazon: beyond the $69 Kindle's September 14th date, we're only promised a generic October release for the Paperwhite and 7-inch Kindle Fires, while the 8.9-inch tablets will be available "before Christmas." Not the quickest path to getting a new Kindle in your hands, then, but it may be the best way to get a hands-on before clinching the deal.
RedPad brings Chinese patriotism to Android, costs each comrade just $1,590
Well, it was only a matter of time. Hongpaiyihao (literally meaning "red group number one"), a Beijing-based pro-government new media company, has launched a 9.7-inch Tegra 2 tablet that's "tailor-made for government officials" and patriotic consumers. Well, we're not sure whether the government's even aware of this Android 3.2 device's existence, but it's certainly preloaded with a bunch of pro-China apps (including one for the state-approved microblogging service), electronic subscription to a handful of newspapers (state-controlled, of course) and "exclusive" access to daily updates on some government strategic decisions. The damage? 9,999 yuan ($1,590) per unit, or 7,100 yuan ($1,120) each if you buy in bulk. As pointed out by Penn Olson, this RedPad is about two to three times as expensive as the iPad in China.To be honest, having dug around Hongpaiyihao's unbelievably shoddy product pages, this reeks of a desperate company trying to squeeze money out of overly patriotic folks in China. Even the screen resolution and battery capacity are inconsistent across the site: it's either 1,024 x 768 and 8,000mAh, or 1,280 x 800 and 7,600mAh, respectively. Judging by the render, the former combination is more likely the real deal; yet the screenshots in the owner manual suggest the latter. Oh, and just so you know, there's no sign of the above interface in the manual at all. If you still care, other features include a five megapixel main camera, a two megapixel front-facing camera, 3G connectivity, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. We'll stick to our diet of regular Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, thank you very much -- they'll keep our wallets healthier.
Even SWTOR's website has a queue! [Updated]
If you've tried to log in to your Star Wars: The Old Republic account today, you may find yourself faced with an unpleasant note stating: "There is currently no active subscription on this account." This is followed by, "Activate your account here," which would all be fine and dandy except SWTOR's website itself is currently offline due to the high volume of traffic. The irony of launching a game in tiers only to have a forced bottleneck at this point isn't lost on us, but BioWare reassures its players that relief is coming soon: "Due to the high volume of new game codes being redeemed on SWTOR.com, some users may currently be seeing a waiting page. We are intentionally controlling the flow of traffic and letting as many people through as possible." So if you can't play the game because you can't access your account (or read the forums for updates and more info...), you're not alone. As annoying as this may be to players, it's a good problem for BioWare to have. [Update: BioWare set up more info on its Facebook page since their main site is down.]
Storyboard: Flawed premise
If there's one major element I've been coming back to over the course of this year (which isn't quite a year of this column, but close enough for government work), it's character creation. This is not by coincidence -- a lot of roleplaying consists of just throwing the right mix of characters in a closed space to encourage interaction and then letting them play off one another. So it seems fitting to close off the year by talking about what I consider one of the most vital elements in creation: making your character an incompetent mess with severe emotional issues. Yes, I'm talking about flaws, which are one of the best ways to add definition to a character that might otherwise be lackluster. Like sculpting from marble, flaws cut away the edges of a character and help bring everything into greater definition. But it's a delicate balance between making an interestingly flawed character and making an execrable lump of flesh useful only as monster bait (or a virtual infallible deity whose flaws are all non-starters such as "well, he can't play the oboe"). You want a character just flawed enough to be interesting, but not so flawed as to drag others down.
Segway Inc. owner rides over cliff to his death
UK businessman Jimi Heselden, the man who believed in the Segway so much that he went ahead and bought the company, has died after reportedly driving a ruggedized version of the scooter off a cliff and into a river. He was found early on Sunday morning in the River Wharfe, having earlier been touring his estate in the personal transporter. The cause of the accident is not yet known. Mr. Heselden was 62 years old and, true to our geeky hearts, generated his fortune by coming up with an innovative design for wire cage walls that has since become standard equipment for NATO, American, and British forces. Our thoughts are with the good gent's family, and please, behave yourselves in comments. [Thanks, David]
No fair: Gizmodo editor leaves his phone in a restaurant, gets it back right away
Stop me if you've heard this one: a geek leaves his phone in a bar, and... oh, you have heard that one? It turns out that Brian Lam, the Gizmodo editor involved in the iPhone 4 "bar heist" saga and one of the biggest tech scandals of 2010, left his cell phone in a restaurant the other day. How did the aftermath play out? Lam, apparently blind to the irony, posted about it on Twitter: "left my phone at lunch, lady turned it in. good thing we were nice, earlier, and gave her the chair she asked for #karma" Lam couldn't have been blind to the irony for long, because he's now locked his Twitter account. And apparently, he also doesn't understand how karma works. This would have been real karma: the lady who found his phone would have realized what she'd got her hands on, then offered his phone to the highest-bidding (and least scrupulous) media outlet willing to pay for it. After the transaction, whoever paid out the most for Lam's phone would have dissected it, then posted photos and videos of the aftermath online. Next, they would have posted all of Lam's contact info on their site, opening him to ridicule and jeopardizing his career. As a final indignity, they then would have sent a letter to Lam's lawyer assuring that he'd get the (now broken) phone back as long as he publicly admitted it was his phone. That would have been karma. P.S. I know at least one person will be tempted to call me out on my use of the word "irony." Please read this Oatmeal comic on irony first, then we'll talk. [via Daring Fireball]
Facebook app developer rejects App Store, irony ensues
We always said that if Apple's arbitrary, inconsistent, and quite frankly baffling approval process didn't get straightened out soon, the defections were going to pick up pace -- and what do we have here? Joe Hewitt, the developer of the well-loved and highly regarded Facebook iPhone app, has flipped the script and rejected the App Store. And, as you'd expect, our man is not mincing his words, stating that his "decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple's policies," and that he's "philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process." While Hewitt can't comment on specific future projects (he's still at Facebook, but the app itself has been handed off to another developer) he has mentioned that he'll be devoting his time to web development for mobile devices. As you know, there is no approval process for the world wide web (which is apparent if you've spent any time on Geocities back in the day). Way to give 'em hell, Joe! [Via TUAW]
Keepin' it real fake, part CLXXXVI: the Vaino not-so-ultraportable
You know, it was just another busy Wednesday here in the Engadget compound until this guy came across our screens and greatly brightened our day. Bearing the appellation that the Vaio P's highly fashionable media campaign has thus far only hinted at, the "Vaino" is a 10.2-inch, 1.6GHz Atom-powered ultraportable also-ran that, sadly, will not be making it to these shores any time soon.[Via Slash Gear]%Gallery-46721%
Forum post of the day: Murphy's Law
Sometimes it's just not your day. Some people consider themselves to be just plain unlucky. Gainus of Icecrown posted a thread on "Murphy's Law," as it applies to World of Warcraft. Murphy's law states "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way." This particular adage is regularly applied in situations of irony and coincidence, in much of Western Culture. The original poster noted "Every time I get to that point in 2v2 arena where a psychic scream will let me get off 2-3 mana burns, my fear makes my target run in a perfect L, away from me and behind a pillar before I can even get off 1 cast. It's like that's the exact path they would have taken if they weren't feared."
HD DVD booklet from CES explodes with irony
"Hang on" is right. [Thanks, Rye C.]
zomg u has stick?
First of all, I will point out that I do understand why, from a balance and game mechanics perspective, no class can use every weapon. That being said, when you consider it from an RP angle, it begins to get a bit silly. Perhaps it's not fixable, but it is at least good for a (sometimes bitter) laugh. So the orc warlock can handle the big sticks, the small pointy sticks, but combine the two and somehow, thar be probs. Sure, if this lock can hold it in one hand, then that's doable. But two? Tiny blood elf pallies can totally handle that monster, but there's something about warlockery that changes even the big orcs into weaklings. Why can't my holy pally hold a dagger? Come on, I promise, she won't even use it; just leech all its stats. I guess pallies just aren't subtle. At all. Attempts to teach stabby stabby by the great gurus resulted in furrowed brows, a few injuries, and several panic attacks. They're going to stick with the elaborate swinging motions, thank ya. On that note, why can't she hold a staff? Pointy staff, no problem. But stickz = idk.
