Facebook Launches Personal URLs (Finally)

Facebook, in what seems like a long overdue gesture, will finally roll out vanity URLs for its users this Saturday. After a semi-dramatic countdown, the social networking site will start letting members set user names, instead of random numbers, to show up in their pages' URLs.
If you're a relative newcomer to Facebook, though, you should keep your shirt on, according to the Facebook Blog. In order to protect URLs from spammers and squatters, Facebook administrators are instituting a temporary ban from registration against anybody who has created a Facebook Page since May 31st or a regular profile since 3 p.m. EST Tuesday. That ban will be lifted at an as-of-yet unspecified time. If you're a long-standing Facebooker, though, you should have no problem in signing up a minute after the stroke of midnight (Eastern time) this coming Saturday.
Facebook claims that more will be done with user names in the future, which sounds just about right; the idea of having unique URLs -- which Myspace has featured for years -- is one that Facebook should have had a long time ago. So get ready for June 13th, at 12:01 a.m. [From: Facebook Blog, via DownloadSquad]
Busted... by Technology
Always Turn Off Stolen GPS Units
It was only a matter of time before some numbskull criminal stole a GPS-equipped car or phone, but we didn't expect someone to steal live GPS units. A group of crooks in Lindenhurst, NY swiped 14 functioning GPS devices from the Town of Babylon Public Works. Understandably, authorities had no trouble tracking them down.
Security Cam Catches Tattooed Thief
We're not going to pass judgement on the type of tattoo you get, but you might want to think about what it says before you start getting into crime. Aaron Evans, a 21-year-old U.K. repeat offender, was caught stealing a car's GPS unit because the nearby CCTV captured the tattoo on his neck. It revealed his birthday and name...
Laptop Auto-Uploads Photo of Thief to the Web
This guy may be the unluckiest thief ever. Several laptops disappeared from a Vancouver, BC company; fortunately, one particular laptop was loaded with software that snapped photos when opened. The images of this guy were uploaded to Flickr. As a result, the man became a mini-Internet sensation, and he turned himself in, claiming he bought the laptop from a friend, at a local police station.
Things Not to Do After Stealing a Cell Phone
Gary Walker, an Ohio resident, stole a woman's phone while she had temporarily stepped out of her car to check a street sign. He proceeded to snap a shot of himself with the hot phone's camera. Later, when the victim went online and downloaded her data to transfer it to a new phone, Gary's mug popped up. The rest, as they say, is history.
HighTube
This 25-year-old Brit cultivator of cannabis decided to post videos -- under his real name -- of his cash crop on YouTube. English police saw the clips and he was soon tracked down and arrested.
Girl Recovers Stolen Mac By Remotely Activating Its Webcam
A White Plains, New York girl was the victim of burglary; over $5,000 worth of electronics, including iPods, a flatscreen TV, and a new Macintosh computer were stolen. A few days later, a friend noticed that the burglary victim appeared to be online, but called her to make sure. Because the stolen Mac was running Back to My Mac, the victim was able to log into the computer remotely and snap a picture of the thief. Turns out the thieves were "friends" who had visited the victim's apartment several weeks earlier.
Teen Arrested After Bragging About Arson on Security Cameras
A pregnant Los Angeles teen was arrested earlier after allegedly starting seven fires near her home. 19-year-old Amanda Gessner was caught after convenience store cameras caught her chanting, "The fire company is gonna be
mad at me!" She was certainly right about that!
Would-Be Voyeur Puts Spy Cam in Restroom, Leaves Video of Himself
An upstate New York man installed a camera in a unisex bathroom. The camera was discovered soon after installation, and police found he'd left a video of himself on the camera. Police are still looking for the man.
Forklift Tricks on YouTube
If you're going to show off your sweet forklift driving skills to your buddies, it's probably best to just do it in person. 20-year-old Australian Matthew Garry Ward uploaded a video of safety-violating forklift tricks to YouTube, and was reported to authorities after a coworker passed the video along to the boss.
Laser Pointer Shenanigans
Remember those time-sucking high school pep rallies where some loser would whip out a laser pointer and temporarily blind people in the bleachers? This 15-year-old genius from California, was arrested after shining his laser beam at a police helicopter.





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Comments
65
Subscribe to commentsjendouglass23Jun 12th 2009 7:49PM
TRY MYYEARBOOK!!!! I had a myspace for a brief couple of months. That was 3 or so years ago. Never had a facebook, but from what I've just read, I don't want one. What you need to try is called myYearbook. It is packed with things to do....possibilities are endless. One interesting feature is based on what's called Lunch Money. Users earn Lunch Money for loggin in, putting their picture up for bids, receiving high fives and gold stars from other users, or playing online games. This fake $ can be donated to "Causes" within the myYearbook site that turns the fake $ into real money due to company sponsors. One can send gifts, stickers, and more to "friends" using Lunch Money. Posting "autographs" are free, of course, but the recipient of the autograph gets $LM$ for them. There are official "flirts" too that cost fake money, but once again, the recipient gets $LM$ for receiving them. You can watch TV on there, create music playlists, totally custom home pages, and SO SO SO much more! I've been hooked since I started. TRY myYEARBOOK! it's www.myyearbook.com
carolynbrogJun 12th 2009 7:55PM
Why the negative comments. I love that face book is free and good for them that they keep adding new features. I beats classmates.com and all the other sites that want money!!!!
carolynbrogJun 12th 2009 7:58PM
Why the negative comments. I love that face book is free and good for them that they keep adding new features. It makes classmates.com look like KMART along with all the other sites that want money.
helonwlzJun 12th 2009 8:26PM
If YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook decided to merge, the new name would be YOUTWITFACE. LOL!
Aeromel78Jun 13th 2009 12:31AM
What I really hope is that they don't start offering backgrounds and allowing slide shows and music players and those ridiculous sparkly things (what IS the point of those?) ON the profile page, because that stuff is the main reason I got rid of myspace.
People load up their pages with that crap and it got to the point where I couldn't even get some of my friend's pages to load, because they had too much on them. I'm not 16, I don't need a sparkly banner that says "Baby Girl" or any other nonsense. Facebook is definitely more friendly towards a more mature crowd, but if it insists on becoming more like myspace, I'll be getting rid of it as well!