UPDATE: China H4X0RZ Google
It appears the Peoples Republic of China is displeased with Google.
The LA Time reports that the Google corporate executive site on some servers redirects to a Chinese webpage.
Other Google properties that seem to be affected include the guest-facing side of Google Analytics.
I guess it makes sense because. It was just this sort of shenanigans that got Google mad in the first place.
Oh, China! You think you’re soooooo tough, don’t you?
(In case you can’t tell I’m rooting for Stanford on this one).
UPDATE:
The official news outlet of the Communist Party of China is doing its best to counter with a little PR attack. They are pointing out that Google can’t complain about complying with censorship requests of its host government because it willing does so when it filters out neo-Nazi results from its German sites.
Obviously, this is a little different from colluding with an oppressive regime to expose political dissidents.
NY Park Ave. Bank CEO Arrested
You can bet a bank CEO is going down when he tries to rip off New York’s upper crust.
When FDIC shuts down a bank they do it at the end of business on a Friday. This is what happened to Park Avenue Bank two Fridays back. Since then the regulatory body has discovered that the bank had phony CDs on record.
Since this is the first time criminal charges have been filed against someone for TARP infractions, the court and Antonucci himself are maneuvering in unchartered waters. The Park Avenue Bank was seized on Friday, March 12, making it one of three banks taken over by bank regulators. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation estimates its loss at $50.7 million for the Park Avenue Bank failure. The special inspector general assigned to oversee TARP says, “The charges today should send a powerful message to those who have tried to steal from the TARP, those who have stolen from the TARP and those who are contemplating similar fraudulent action.”
Dot Com Hubris: Yelp Emulating a Greek Tragedy
First they screwed up getting bought by Google. Then I started hearing first-hand accounts of Yelp sales people extorting money from small-business owners.
Now this:
Yelp has crossed Philip Greenspun, known for his pioneering work publishing long-form Web content and for starting, more than 15 years ago, a large and technically sophisticated community website — the sort of place Yelp could be if the startup spent less time organizing bacchanals and more time refining code.
via Yelp Is Now Disappointing Internet Pioneers – yelp – Gawker.
Santa Monica Seeking Ultra High-Speed Internet from Google
Keeping my fingers crossed. There is fiber outside my window, but Verizon uses a terminal that requires an entire structure be wired up at once. Basically, they need to pull all the copper POTS for the entire building at once. You can’t do a mixed mode.
And, the building owner is paranoid about any new “electronics” going into the building.
Sucks.
City officials announced on Monday that Santa Monica is entering a competition to be part of a trial program for a Google broadband network promising Internet speeds of 1GB per second, a rate the company says is more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today.
Verizon vs. 4Chan – I’ve Heard This One Before
There are few websites that can accurately be described as “dangerous,” and Verizon just fucked with one of them. For reasons that are sure to become clear in the next few days, Verizon’s decided to block 4chan. If you’re unfamiliar, 4chan’s the digital cesspool responsible, in equal parts, for the proliferation of LOLcats and child pornography across the world wide web. They also have a fairly hilarious war with the Church of Scientology.
DETROIT HIGH SCHOOLS TRAIN FOR WALMART – ALEX DUNBAR | VBS.TV Blog
Oh God. Say your prayers for the America of yore; we’re officially a full-fledged corporatocracy. Motherfucking Walmart, the prototypical, chthonic tyrant of the American economic landscape is teaming up with Detroit high schools to train students with job skills they’ll really get to use, like greeting customers, stocking shelves, and sobbing deeply in the break room. Students enrolled in the program get 11 weeks of “job-readiness training” during the day and an after school gig at Walmart.
via DETROIT HIGH SCHOOLS TRAIN FOR WALMART – ALEX DUNBAR | VBS.TV Blog.
Google Zombie Invasion Contingency Plan
Pittsburgh Metropolitan Zombie Invasion Contingency Plan.
No, seriously. You have to see it.
via Pittsburgh Metropolitan Zombie Invasion Contingency Plan – Google Maps.
Aspartame on VBS.TV
I’ve read crazy accounts of workers in the aspartame “factories” taking off their respirators and keeling over instantly.
If you’ve had soda, candy, coffee sweetener, or pretty much anything sweet in the last two decades, chances are you’ve consumed aspartame. It’s a low-calorie artificial sweetener at the center of one huge conspiracy theory, and, if the theory is to be believed, aspartame fucks you up all sorts of ways.
via VBS.TV Blog.
Android 2.1 Now Has Live Wallpaper
With the introduction of live wallpapers in Android 2.1, users can now enjoy richer, animated, interactive backgrounds on their home screen. A live wallpaper is very similar to a normal Android application and has access to all the facilities of the platform: SGL (2D drawing), OpenGL (3D drawing), GPS, accelerometers, network access, etc. The live wallpapers included on Nexus One demonstrate the use of some of these APIs to create fun and interesting user experiences. For instance, the Grass wallpaper uses the phone’s location to compute sunrise and sunset times in order to display the appropriate sky.
Hack the Planet. Literally.
With Darpa’s ‘Transparent Earth,’ Underground Doesn’t Mean Out of Sight
This year, military science has more of an “all-encompassing” goal for global mastery. As part of its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Pentagon extreme research agency Darpa is launching the “Transparent Earth” project. They’ll invest $4 million into the creation of real-time, 3-D maps that display “the physical, chemical and dynamic properties of the earth down to 5 kilometer depth.”
via With Darpa’s ‘Transparent Earth,’ Underground Doesn’t Mean Out of Sight | Danger Room | Wired.com.