Month: January 2010

SarcMark: Sarcasm punctuation is a great idea – Odd News | newslite.tv

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A US company has launched a new punctuation mark which is intended to express sarcasm in written form.

They claim the sarcasm mark, or SarcMark – an open circle with a dot in the centre – is needed for sarcasm to work on the web, or in print.

After being downloaded (for $1.99) it can be installed on computers and mobile phones – allowing people to use it in text messages or emails.

A spokesperson said that using the SarcMark means never again waste a good sarcastic line on someone who doesn’t get it and could make some websites make a lot more sense.

We think it’s a wonderful idea. <–See, we could have added one just there.
The spokesperson added: “With the spoken word, we use our tone, inflection and volume to question, exclaim and convey our feelings.

“The written word has question marks and exclamation points to document those thoughts, but sarcasm has nothing.

“In today’s world with increasing commentary, debate and rhetoric, what better time could there be than now, to ensure that no sarcastic message, comment or opinion is left behind.

“When you see the newest punctuation mark for sarcasm, you’ll know the writer of that sentence doesn’t literally mean what they’re writing; they’re being sarcastic.”

[From SarcMark: Sarcasm punctuation is a great idea – Odd News | newslite.tv]

Traffic halted as hackers replace roadside video adverts with porn – Tech Products & Geek News | Geek.com

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As the cost of display technology comes down and the size of displays increases the popularity of public video billboards has also increased. Such displays allow for TV-like adverts to be displayed in shopping malls, at the side of the road, and generally anywhere there is a lot of faces to look at them.

In Moscow video billboards are positioned alongside some of the busiest highways showing advertising
and information 24 hours a day. But on Thursday night the video being played on two of these displays wasn’t an advert and it brought traffic to a halt; blocking the roads while drivers stopped to watch in amazement.

Some enterprising hacker/s had managed to take control of these two billboards located on Moscow’s Garden Ring Road. The video they chose to upload or stream was X-rated pornography.

The owner of the hacked displays is an advertising company
called Panno.ru. It was notified of the “problem” three minutes after the porn had started playing, but it took them a further fifteen minutes to co-ordinate and switch off the displays.

Pennu.ru do not know who or how the display was accessed and aren’t ruling out a competing advertising company being involved in this eye-opening event.

[From Traffic halted as hackers replace roadside video adverts with porn – Tech Products & Geek News | Geek.com]

Topless Robot – 9 Strange Things Found While Searching for Waldo

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?Martin Handford’s Where’s Waldo books have been adored by kids the world over since the absent minded candy striped hitchhiker first made his debut in 1987. That being said, this is not an effort to defame the Waldo (or “Wally” depending on where you’re reading this) books because frankly, life would be much less cool without them. Instead, our ambition is to point out some of their most noteworthy peculiarities — things that we didn’t necessarily find mentioned on the scrolls and postcards adorning each map, or on the checklists in the back of each book. No, these are the images and concepts that stayed with us long after we found Waldo, and for probably the wrong reasons. Whether amusing, horrifying, bizarre, or simply too historically accurate for our own good, Waldo’s journeys took us down some interesting paths by way of subject matter that Handford has all but wiped from the most recent Waldonian adventures, possibly thanks to pressure from his publisher. Of all the things found while searching for Waldo, here are the 9 strangest.

[From Topless Robot – 9 Strange Things Found While Searching for Waldo]

(Pic) Natural Humidifier Works Without Power – PSFK

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The Mast Humidifier by Shin Okada is a stunning example of simple, functional design. The Mast is crafted out of Japanese cypress, known for its lemon-scented straight grain and resistance to rotting. Thin slices of cypress absorb water from the device’s base and diffuse moisture and a natural non-intrusive aroma into the air.

[From (Pic) Natural Humidifier Works Without Power – PSFK]

Obama confidant’s spine-chilling proposal

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(updated below – Update II – Update III)

Cass Sunstein has long been one of Barack Obama’s closest confidants.  Often mentioned as a likely Obama nominee to the Supreme Court, Sunstein is currently Obama’s head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs where, among other things, he is responsible for “overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs.” In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-“independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites — as well as other activist groups — which advocate views that Sunstein deems “false conspiracy theories” about the Government. This would be designed to increase citizens’ faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists. The paper’s abstract can be read, and the full paper downloaded, here.

[From Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com]

Move Your Money

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Are you angry about Wall Street’s reckless excesses? Are you disappointed with President Obama’s limp approach to reform? You can change this, acting individually and collectively. Withdraw your deposit and savings accounts from the large banks that brought the system to ruin and were subsequently rescued with billions in government bailouts. Put your money instead in smaller, safer banks or credit unions closer to home–the thousands of community institutions that do not harvest their profits from greed and recklessness.

[From Move Your Money]

George Bush Heckled In A Pizza Restaurant (VIDEO) – Really – Air America

Say you walk in to your favorite pizza joint, only to find president George H.W. Bush surrounded by Secret Service agents, waiting for his slice of cheese. What do you do? Naturally, you go back to your car, get your camera and start cussing him out about the his murderous, Zionist, New World Order. I mean, duh, it’s a no-brainer.

[From Dorsey Shaw: George Bush Heckled In A Pizza Restaurant (VIDEO) – Really – Air America]

Malware designed to steal bank information pops up in Google’s Android app store

First Tech Credit Union reports:

We recently learned that a fraudster developed a rogue Android Smartphone app. It creates a shell of mobile banking apps that tries to gain access to a consumer’s financial information.

Droid09 launched this phishing attack from the Android Marketplace and it’s since been removed. It’s called phishing because scammers go fishing for information about you or your financial account that may be used for identity theft.

Please note that this attack didn’t target First Tech accounts. Accessing your First Tech account from your phone’s web browser is completely secure.

If you did download the Droid09 app, please remove it from your phone and take it to your mobile provider to ensure it’s completely removed.

[From MacDailyNews – Malware designed to steal bank information pops up in Google’s Android app store]