Terrence O'Brien
Staten Island - http://www.terrence-obrien.com
Father Spoke Only Klingon to His Infant Son
That's right, Speers decided to put his computational linguistics Ph.D. to use by trying to ensure his son would never be able to communicate with anyone outside of the nerdiest members of a Star Trek convention. Worst of all, Speers claims he isn't even a huge 'Star Trek' fan, according to City Pages, a Minneapolis/St. Paul news blog. So was he was doing this just for fun? Apparently so, since Speers grew bored of his experiment after three years when he decided that his son was, "definitely starting to learn it." Now a teenager, his son doesn't speak a word of Klingon, and is able to converse fluently in English, something we're very happy to hear.
Post-Purchase Scams Coming Under Fire From Senate
We're sure that you've all experienced the annoying post-purchase push to get you to subscribe to, sign up for, or buy something after hitting the check-out button at your (not so) friendly online retailer. Well, those often shady offers for rebates and big discounts are now the subject of a Senate Commerce Committee investigation.
These post-purchase scams often subscribe you to discount or rewards clubs without your knowledge. After confirming a purchase, you're often presented with a series of pop-ups promising $10 off, or cash back. Often, those screens only offer one obvious way to exit, and clicking on it quietly passes your billing information on to another site. And you'll be none-the-wiser until three months down the road, when you see an unidentified charge on your card that turns out to be a "membership fee" paid to a "rewards club." The worst part of such scams is that they're often included in the check-out processes of many major Web retailers -- including Barnes & Noble, 1800flowers, Buy.com, Expedia, and Fandango.
The investigation produced a report titled "Aggressive Sales Tactics on the Internet and Their Impact on American Consumers," unveiled by the Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller this week. "The companies we are investigating have figured out very clever ways to manipulate consumers' buying habits," Senator Rockefeller said in a statement introducing the report. The report names three companies -- Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty -- that have collectively earned $1.4 billion through these misleading tactics and through their enlisted partner sites, 88 of which have earned more than $1 million apiece. The notoriously shady Classmates.com alone netted more than $70 million in profit. You can see the full list of these sketchy sites above in the "Post Transaction Marketing Wall-of-Shame," assembled by TechCrunch.
Senator Rockefeller said in the hearing, "[This] Committee needs to start thinking about the legislative steps we can take to end these practices." Fortunately, the public shame of the investigation and the threat of government action seems to have pushed some of the companies to preemptively change their practices.
You can find out more by reading the staff report here (Warning: PDF), and by checking out the incredibly thorough analysis at Ars Technica here. [From: U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, TechCrunch, and Ars Technica, via: Huffington Post]
300K Bangladeshis Sign Up for English Classes via Cell
The BBC World Service Trust, the charity arm of the international broadcast company, is preparing to launch a service in Bangladesh that will offer lessons in English via cell phone. Called Janala, the service, slated to go live Thursday, started accepting subscriptions this weekend, and the BBC was surprised by the rush of customers. Sara Chamberlain, the manager of the service, told the Financial Times, "25,000 people would have been a good response on the first day." To her delight, or possibly terror, Janala has instead seen over 300,000 sign-ups to date. The sheer volume could bring the service to its knees before it's even had a chance to launch.
Learning English is considered a key to economic mobility both within Bangladesh and to Bangladeshis seeking work abroad. According to the Financial Times, 70-percent of employers in Bangladesh are looking for workers with "communicative English" skills.
Elaborate Heist Nets Thieves 3,000 Unusable iPhones
The firm was the victim, in what appears to be an inside job, of an elaborate heist that resulted in the loss of at least 3,000 iPhones. The phones, which retail for between €575 and €675, were snatched by thieves who scaled the wall of the warehouse with a ladder then cut a whole in the roof directly above where the iPhones were being stored.
YouTube Kid Throws Fit Over 'Modern Warfare 2'
Thankfully, YouTube user Jono1170 has no such shame, and has posted his sobbing, sniffling, wall-punching tirade against 'Modern Warfare 2' for all the world to see. The only reasonable reaction to the video (after the break), subtly titled 'MODERN WARFARE 2 SUCKS!!!!!,' is a giant "WTF?!" We can barely understand what this kid is crying about, what with his slurred British accent and attempts to suck back tears and snot.
Facebook Displays Couple Photos When They Get Engaged
The latest Facebook redesign has been begrudgingly accepted by the whiny masses, and now that everyone has stopped complaining and started actually paying attention, some interesting new features are being revealed. One of those tweaks, caught by Nick O'Neill at All Facebook, is how relationships now appear in the news feed. Specifically, when friends get engaged, the corresponding update is ...Sarah Palin: Not a 'Maverick' When It Comes to E-Politicking
Matthew Continetti, associate editor of the conservative political rag the Weekly Standard, has an interesting editorial on CNN.com, in which he argues that Sarah Palin is "a pioneer in the political use of new social media." He claims that Palin is leading a quiet revolution based on Facebook and that she hasn't received any credit for it.
Party affiliation aside, there are gaping holes in ...Spam Gangs Make Millions by Targeting Swine Flu Fears
Usually when we're getting spammed and scammed by fake online pharmacies, we're being offered steep discounts on Viagra. But Russian gangs are turning their attention from 79-percent Pfizer discounts to offers for Tamiflu, the antiviral medication used to combat both the seasonal and swine flu.
Security firm Sophos claims to have intercepted hundreds of millions of fake flu-related spam ...Dressed as Pokémon, Man Proposes to His Pikachu in Public
Between the hacked versions of 'Chrono Trigger,' the hidden messages in Google Street View, and the adorably lame Twitter messages, we figured the battle for geekiest marriage proposal would never end. But then we came across this video (after the jump) of Chris Herbert proposing to his girlfriend, Belle Starenchak... while at an anime convention... dressed as Pokémon. Check and mate.
...Google Could Double Web Speeds With SPDY Protocol
digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/11/14/google-looks-to-boost-web-speeds-with-spdy/';
Slowly but surely, we're getting an idea of what Google's Chrome OS will look like. We know that it will be Linux-based and that the primary interface will likely be the Chrome browser. Still, the search giant was not content to simply turn a Web browser into an operating system. Soon Google was ...
