But in Star Wars: The Old Republic, it seems that your best defense is a good sense of rhythm, at least for the moment. As spotted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, entering the /getdown social command – which sends your character into a dancing frenzy – while in battle with render your avatar practically invincible, as your adversary’s attacks will be continuously interrupted while your show off your otherworldly dance moves.

So, what we have here is a story about a massive political war that takes place on a galactic level, and the entire time, the secret to winning has been to simply dance without reservation. Quite frankly, this is one of the more hilarious exploits we’ve ever encountered, but you might to reconsider before you begin busting a move on the battlefield. BioWare seems to be a little trigger happy with the Old Republic bans and suspensions lately, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see BioWare suspend some folks for dancing their way to victory (though apparently BioWare was careful to avoid any use of the b-word while speaking to forum users posting the exploit).

Obviously, this exploit will be fixed shortly, so for those of you who are shaking it instead of fighting, enjoy it while it lasts. This exploit works on pretty much anything that targets you, be it a single enemy or a nigh unbeatable boss, so you can understand why BioWare needs to wipe it from the Star Wars: The Old Republic as soon as it can.

You can check out a video of this exploit below, and once you’re done watching, jump down to the comments section and tell us what you think of this game-breaking (yet still pretty funny) glitch!

John Kubiatowicz, a computer scientist from University of California’s Berkeley campus says that the more data you put into your notebook computer, netbook, tablet, smartphone, ebook reader or any other electronic device, the heavier it gets. That’s right, even as you download that 4.4 megabyte Steve Jobs biography, your iPad, iPod, iPhone, Kindle or Android device becomes a tad bit heavier.

It’s a matter of energy vs. matter. While downloading software and apps does not really increase the amount of matter in your device, it changes the amount of energy stored on your tablet, smartphone or e-reader, particularly the level of energy in its electrons. And given Einstein’s theory of relativity stating that Energy equals the mass multiplied by the speed of light squared — E=mc², simplified, of course — then the difference in weight between a full Kindle ebook reader and an empty one is about 10^-18 of a gram, or what scientists call an attogram.

In the same light, a similar effect is gained when you charge the battery, due to the higher amount of energy stored in the battery cells. Granted, this will not necessarily add weight that is noticeable. Studies say that dust that gathers on your iPad’s touchscreen will weigh more than loading thousands of e-books on your device.

This is an odd fact, of course, as devices will not individually weigh more, with more data. But consider the amount of data being transmitted around the world, such as through broadband cables, datacenters and ISPs. Does this make the world substantially heavier?

In Steve Jobs’ official biography, Walter Isaacson often made references to Jobs preferring finely-crafted automobiles like Porsches, Mercedes-Benzes and BMW motorcycles. But with his rebellious nature and love for great design, Jobs didn’t want to ruin his car’s look with a license plate. But how he managed to pull this off without having his car towed or impounded or going to jail himself may be due to a loophole in California law.

In gist, California DMV’s VC 4456 allows newly bought vehicles a six month period to display an official license plate. Steve Jobs was able to work around this by leasing a new Mercedes Benz every six months. While most photos of Jobs with his cars were from the back, it can be assumed that his cars do have temporary windshield stickers at the front in lieu of a license plate.

With this small loophole, Jobs was able to drive his Mercedes Benz SL55 AMG (pictured above) without license plates and without actually breaking the law. Of course, having a lot of money to lease (or maybe even buy) a Mercedes Benz every six months helps, too. It just goes to show that a bit of rebelliousness and knowledge of the laws that matter can help one get away with just about anything.

While this story is a little more tame than burrowing through a wall and less disgusting that stealing from sick kids, it’s still pretty amazing. First Coast News out of Jacksonville, Florida, is reporting a story about a man who ripped off a staggering 54 copies of Madden 2012 from an Orange Park, Florida Walmart store.

The video below shows the man walking up to a Madden 2012 display in Walmart and shoveling handfuls of copies of Madden 2012 into his cart. He walks away from the display but then decides that the copies hidden under his coat aren’t enough, finally heading back to the display to swipe more.

But it doesn’t stop there. Oh no, this crook was just getting warmed up. After taking a few games from display in the center of the store, the man heads to the hardware department, grabs some tools, and then goes back to the display. Once there, he proceeds to relieve all 54 copies of their security devices before leaving the store with $3,287.84 in Madden 2012 copies hidden on his person.

Apparently, no one was watching the surveillance cameras at the time, because the empty display was discovered by a Walmart worker and a manager after he had left the store. Upon checking the store’s inventory and realizing that the missing copies hadn’t been sold, they went and checked the security footage in the store’s loss prevention department. They were greeted with footage of the sticky-fingered man carrying out his theft.

I have to say, even though this is video game theft on a huge scale, I’m impressed that the man was able to get this far without being caught. That’s the thing too – even though they caught the man on surveillance footage, nearly a month after the theft the Orange Park sheriff’s department still hasn’t been able to find him. What the man is planning on doing with 54 copies of the same game is anyone’s guess, but you have to give credit where credit is due: this crook has some balls, and his risk seems to have paid off – at least for the moment.

History has a way with bringing about exceptional individuals to the spotlight. Steve Jobs, the “greatest second act in history,” may not have turned out to be what he is today if things had gone differently with his biological parents. 56 years ago, Jandali and then-girlfriend Joanne Simpson were at a crossroads whether to marry or not, with Jandali’s Syrian descent being the biggest hindrance, especially with Simpson’s father.

When Simpson gave birth to the baby, she decided to give it up for adoption without anyone’s knowledge. That baby turned out to be Steve Jobs, who would later on live to change the world forever. Jandali and Simpson eventually married and had a daughter. But they had never met their son.

If we had just held off for a few months, then we would have been able to raise Steve as our own, but sadly, that was not the case. We often spoke of our son and how we both wished he was with us, especially when Joanne gave birth to Steve’s sister, Mona. But nothing to do with Joanne and I was ever meant to be.

Both Jobs and Jandali seem to be unwilling to speak to each other, due to pride or some reason. Jandali has only recently learned of his relationship with Jobs, but would not want the latter to think he is making contact just because of Jobs’ fortune. Steve seems to be a chip off the old block, though. Jandali is himself a successful executive, and a workaholic at that. They even share similarities in appearance.

But the big difference is that the elder Jandali is fit as a fiddle in his 80′s. Jobs has been battling serious health issues having been battling bouts of cancer for years.

For now, people are likely to wait for who will make the first move. Jandali has been regularly sending emails to his son, greeting him on birthdays, but never signing as “dad.” And to show support to Steve and his work, Jandali says he has bought a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad, but says he  ”honestly look[s] at these things and cannot believe Steve created them.”

Yeah, you heard me: Kanye West. If you didn’t associate Call of Duty with the super-famous rapper before, you soon will, because he’s going to be performing live at next week’s Call of Duty XP fan event.

He’ll be headlining the show’s finale, so after a couple of days of stuffing your face with burgers from a fully-realized Burger Town, playing paintball on one of Activision‘s full scale multiplayer maps, and checking out Modern Warfare 3, you can sit back and enjoy Kanye’s first live performance since the release of his fifth album, Watch the Throne.

Frankly, I find myself indifferent toward Kanye’s appearance at Call of Duty XP, but hey, the man is super-famous for a reason, so I’m sure there will be plenty of people attending the event that are excited to see him perform. Call of Duty XP kicks off next Friday, September 2nd, and you can be sure that we’ll have all the news to come out of the convention right here at TFTS.

But lawyers and court rooms and legal fees are so 1990s, and Notch is a man that understands this. So, in order to settle this dispute, Notch has challenged the folks at Bethesda to a good ol’ trial by duel. It won’t be decided with rapiers or dueling pistols (though we can assume there was still a white glove involved), but rather with a game of Quake 3. Notch has called on Bethesda to pick three of their best “warriors,” to meet Mojang’s three chosen participants in front of the TV for an old-fashioned frag fest, winner-take-all:

I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3. Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors. We select one level, you select the other, we randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team across both levels wins. If we win, you drop the lawsuit. If you win, we will change the name of Scrolls to something you’re fine with.

So, what will it be Bethesda? Are you gamers, or are you just a bunch of suits? It pains me to have to pick sides in this battle, because I love both Minecraft and The Elder Scrolls, but Notch challenged you to a duel, and back in the old days, your name was shamed for life if you were too much of a pansy to defend your honor. I see no reason why it has to be any different here. Don’t think Notch is serious, do you?

“I am serious, by the way.”

I guess that settles that then. I’m looking forward to Bethesda’s response (if they issue one at all) with bated breath.

We hate to break it to our more opulent readers here in TFTS, though – membership applications are closed for the moment. And if you’re from any of the countries listed below, we’re afraid your buddies from the local country club were way ahead of you. Why don’t you try out its sister site instead? Elite5000, the “E-mail address for the business elite,” costs significantly lower — $225 to sign up and $75 per month to maintain. Probably because it’s available to 5,000 members.

Sadly, neither site provides a tour of their email services. But from what’s listed on Elite750′s Services section, it doesn’t seem any different from the usual email address service aside from providing an “emergency hotline” and a member area (or virtual rich people’s lounge, if you insist). Unfortunately, we don’t have seven and a half grand lying around so we can take a tour of the service for you. But at that price point, all we can say is that they better be providing their members with a dedicated virtual butler.

Ceglia has submitted transcripts of supposed email conversations, in which he the New Yorker says he initially hired Zuckerberg to help build a website, and then gives the latter $1,000 as investment on what was then The Face Book. In the supposed email transcripts, the two allegedly had a disagreement with regard to the site’s business model. Zuckerberg wanted to focus on development, but Ceglia wanted to monetize the site. Ceglia says the contract was for 50% of Facebook, plus 1% for each day of delay after January 1, 2004.

Ceglia has filed his lawsuit with the US District Court in mid 2010, and has recently provided updates, including the supposed email exchanges between 2003 and 2004. In response, Facebook has said Ceglia’s lawsuit was fraudulent, and has claimed that the complainant has had a history of fraud. While Zuckerberg did provide code for Ceglia’s StreetFax.com back then, he says he has not signed any agreement as claimed.

Does the case sound familiar? It’s probably similar to the case the Winklevoss brothers set against Mark Zuckerberg. We suppose that if you’ve made billions of dollars from making hundreds of millions of friends (at least online), you’re bound to have a few enemies.

Lawyer Larry Klayman is known for obtaining a court ruling that alleges Bill Clinton committed a crime. Klayman has also sued Hillary Clinton for invasion of privacy and has sued his own mother. He is described as a “litigation explosion,” and is said to have a tendency to sue just anyone. Does this mean that the Facebook lawsuit has no merit?

Facebook was allegedly negligent in failing to take down the “Third Intifada” page, which was allegedly inciting violence against the Jews. Facebook says the case has no merit, as it is not responsible for each and every piece of content that is published on the site. However, the question here is how to strike a balance between freedom of speech, security, and legality. Facebook allegedly held back from taking down the fan page in question when things started to escalate, only acceding when Isareli diplomats made a formal request.

Klayman’s lawsuit accuses Facebook of negligence, ”including willful and wanton conduct, gross negligence and recklessness on the part of the Defendants, as it has put Mr. Klayman’s life at risk, as well as other similarly situated Jews who are prominent public figures and otherwise.” Is Facebook liable for $1 billion? We’re pretty sure Facebook has had its share of lawsuits and $1 billion is just small change compared to what Facebook has probably paid in settlements before.

Lt. DeVirgilio told the Dayton Daily News that his monthly cable bill is usually about $80 and that is automatically charged from his credit card. But, he received a letter saying that his credit card was declined and he needed to pay the balance. But, the balance was the aforementioned $16,409,107. Uh, what? DeVirgilio told the paper he called customer support who was “flummoxed”. Understandably, DeVirgilio was worried that this could affect his credit score, or possibly cause an interruption in his cable.

TWC finally did correct the issue. Turns out that they blamed it on “human error” and said that DeVirgilio was sent the letter by mistake. The $16 million never showed up on any bill or statement he was sent (just the letter) and (thankfully) Time Warner Cable never tried to charge his credit card for the huge amount.

DeVirgilio seems pretty upbeat about the whole situation. He is quoted by the Daily News as saying: “Had I known this I would have bought Showtime. Five bucks more for Showtime is a bit much, but heck — $16,409,112. Who cares?”

Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram is reporting that 20-year-old Jamal Ibrahim is going to name his new baby daughter Facebook Ibrahim. No word on what Ms. Ibrahim thinks about this. Al-Ahram wrote about this:

The girl’s family, friends, and neighbors in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook. ‘Facebook’ received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name-a name that shocked the entire world.

About 5 million of Egypt’s 97 million people have activate Facebook accounts. Early during the protests, President Mubarak “shut off” the country’s internet connections to the outside world, which surely backfired on the regime.

In what’s definitely a sign of the times, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – the military junta currently ruling Egypt in the transition from Mubarak, has set up a Facebook page to further communication between the people of Egypt and the government.

No reports yet on anybody naming their child “Twitter,” though as PC Magazine pointed out in their coverage of this event, a kid named “Quora” would be kinda awesome.

Would TFTS make a good first name? Hmmmm…

The Gun O’ Clock offers the solution to throwing your alarm clock across the room (and thus probably destroying it) by attaching a target to the top of clock. The target springs into position when your alarm goes off, and you have you shoot it down with the provided pistol before the alarm will shut off. How many times you have to shoot the bulls eye depends on what setting you’ve chosen – normal mode only requires one hit, while hard mode requires five.

There’s also a challenge mode that doesn’t include an alarm and just tallies how many hits you can rack up, in case feel the need to shoot at your clock more than once per day.

[Source: Geeky Gadgets]

Yeah, you read that right: he tunneled his way into the store. Police say that Chuckey, TN resident Steven Paul Archer, 33, broke into a Greeneville GameStop store on January 4 by tunneling through the wall of a vacant adjacent suite. The arrest warrant said that Archer made off $288.55 in cash and $5,342 in merchandise.

While I can understand Archer’s train of thought (“If I go through the wall, I won’t set off the alarm!”), it would seem that he forgot about the security cameras set up in the store, which last time I checked were still capable of detecting you even if you came through the wall instead of the front door.

Given that most families have relatives or kin living in faraway places, sometimes the only option for being together during the holidays would be going online for a video-chat. However, an Amsterdam company goes the extra mile, by building robots with screens displaying your correspondent instead of heads.

This way, you can have a virtual dinner with pals abroad via Skype, and they can even send visual cues that act as commands to their avatar. The custom built mechanical dolls will then do corresponding head or hand movements.

I’d rather fly or drive several hours to meet loved ones, but if virtual meet-ups are your thing, you can go ahead and book your 15 minutes with friends and family across the globe.

Since Skype has been having troubles lately, though, you might want to book your virtual dinner a bit later after the holidays, to ensure you have service by that time.

Prosectors allege that Johnson did this as apart of a group of 9 other teens. It isn’t clear if those other 9 teens were his bandmates. It also isn’t clear how much royalties they’d normally make from those sales, but considering that they’re not signed to a record label (again, per the MySpace page), you’ve got to imagine it would be a healthy cut.

Johnson plead guilty, as mentioned, but the young man is already in a bit of trouble. He’s currently serving a five-year prison sentence for grievous bodily harm (the English law version of assault and battery, I believe). He admitted to being responsible of 2,000 of the downloads.

No idea if this is what bands are resorting to these days with everybody downloading their music for free. I’m a bit of a dance music myself but wasn’t blown away by his music, either. This isn’t a music blog, so I’ll leave the music commentary to somebody else.

Apple fanboys and pundits are probably poring over every possibility that this image implies, what with the “What’s been on my mind lately” heading. Is Bill doing further investment in Apple (MS is, after all, an Apple shareholder)? Is Microsoft developing more apps for the Mac or iOS?

Gates’ posting is about improving college completion in the US, and the idea is that technology can improve the chances of a college student in completing his or her program.

And so we’d have to agree that improving the quality of education should be platform-agnostic. Buy a Mac, PC or whatever gadget, as long as the end is achieved. Perhaps Bill Gates has long transcended that Mac-vs-PC rhetoric, being into philanthropy these days. After all, if you’re the richest person in the world, you should probably worry about bigger problems than which laptop or phone to buy.

We told you last month about the Galaxy Tab being sold in Russia. It was being sold contract-free for a heavy price – 36,990 Rubles ($1,187) – via carrier Svyaznoy. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was apparently among those who picked the device up.

On his Twitter feed, he posted the above picture with the following opinion on the Galaxy Tab’s camera:

Winter comes to Moscow. Picture taken with a Samsung Galaxy Tab. It’s convenient, but the quality isn’t great :(

Yeah, he isn’t keen on the Galaxy Tab’s camera. Wonder why? Tech blog Engadget went through his previous Tweets and found that the President prefers the Leica M9 – the German-made 18.5-megapixel beauty with a retro styling and a Kodak-made censor. Yeah, Mr. Medvedev, I can see how the Galaxy Tab’s 3-megapixel camera might not stand up to that.

As mentioned earlier, look for the official TFTS review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab to arrive sometime soon on the site. Keep us in your RSS readers.

In the wake of recent bomb scares in shipments from Yemen to the US, the House of Commons has passed legislation further tightening security in air freight and air travel. Printer cartridges bigger than 500 grams (about 17.6 oz) are now banned from hand-carried luggage in flights departing from the UK. Cartridges will also be banned from cargo shipments, unless they are from trusted shippers with security clearance.

This stems from a recent tip-off by an Al Qaeda operative about FedEx and UPS shipments from Yemen to the US containing bombs. Explosives were then found stuffed into printer cartridges. The explosive material contained a substance called PETN, which is usually undetectable by X-ray machines, hence the package in question went through undetected prior to the tip.

Given this development, expect airport authorities to be stricter with regard to gadgets, which may extend far beyond printer cartridges.

Back at the “PAX East” show in Boston in May, May (see what I did there?) allegedly went into the booth of developer Atomic Games and plugged his flash drive into one of their laptop computers. Atomic Games was showing off their modern military shooter game ‘Breach’ and had it on display, and when May was confronted by Atomic Games employees, he allegedly told them that he was trying to take a copy of the game.

The developers attempted to stop him, and he ran off before being apprehended by police. He allegedly only got off with just 14MB of data, but Atomic Games wanted to see justice served, especially since they said that they also do private work with security and military organizations and who knows what he made off with. They valued the unfinished game code that May stole at $5 million dollars, rich enough to make what May (allegedly) did felony theft.

May, who I should say is only 20 years old, then blew off his court hearing in Boston and headed back to his home in Delaware. He even was spotted on Xbox Live and even communicated with gaming blog Joystiq. It’s worth saying that May isn’t exactly an angel. Software for pirating Xbox 360 games was found on his software and he admitted to Microsoft employees earlier in the day at PAX that his Xbox Live account had been banned because he had pirated games before.

Eventually, he found a lawyer and returned to court. Now, he’s reached a pre-trail probationary agreement with the Suffolk County District Attorney. Suffolk County Press Secretary Jake Wark talked to gaming blog Joystiq, saying that May must “stay in school, not reoffend, stay off of Xbox Live web sites, and forfeit his computer, which was seized at the time of his arrest,” and if he does that for 18 months, he’ll be off the hook. If he renegs on any of those conditions, and he’ll head back to court.

What do you think? Fair punishment? Or should he do jail time? Give us your take on this justice in the comments section.

SPA!, the Japanese tabloid in question, reports that Jobs was going through security at Kansai International Airport as he and his family prepared to board his private jet (which I dub, iAir One). Airport security found ninja stars in his carry-on luggage and apparently made him leave them behind. Jobs allegedly said things like ‘Why would I want to hijack my own plane’ and ‘I’ll never visit Japan again’.

SPA! apparently learned about it from an unnamed airport official. When asked about the incident, the airport confirmed that something like that did happen, but they were unable to legally disclose who the passenger was that was trying to get the ninja stars through airport security.

Apple issued a statement denying the incident happened. They did confirm that Jobs was in Japan for a family vacation. Here’s Apple’s full statement:

Steve did visit Japan this summer for a vacation in Kyoto, but the incidents described at the airport are pure fiction. Steve had a great time and hopes to visit Japan again soon.

What do you think? Did Mr. Jobs get upset at Airport Security? Or is this all made up by SPA! and further spread by the Apple-hungry tech blog racket? Tell us about it in the comments section.

(Image Credit: Business Insider)

Unlike other 16-year olds that are millionaires already, he didn’t inherit his wealth but created it from scratch. That’s very impressive and shows you exactly what out-of-the-box thinking combined with modern tech will let you do.

Christian Owens started his business when he was 14. Inspired by the success of Steve Jobs and Apple, he taught himself web design using his Mac computer and created Mac Bundle Box. Does that name sound familiar? You might have been one of his clients buying one of those special $50 bundles that contained Mac OS software worth well over $400. That idea alone netted him $1 million in two years but he didn’t stop there.

He then created Branchr, an ad-serving platform that currently offers 250 million adverts to 11,000 websites every single month and nets him $800,000 per year. What’s more interesting is that, among the grown-ups working for him we find his 43-year old mom, which is not something you see every day. Who says being an Apple fanboy won’t pay up on the long run?

But while his role model is Steve Jobs, the kid might come to fight Apple, and Google, in the advertising world. Branchr offers adds within iOS and Android apps too, and that’s where his endeavor might come in conflict with the two giant corporations, but most importantly with Cupertino of course.

Christian says he won’t stop until Branchr reaches £100 million so it will be interesting to follow him in the upcoming years. One think, Christian, don’t turn into a Mark Zuckerberg in the following decade, okay?

So what about you, folks, remember what you were doing at 16? You know, back in the day where the Walkman and video cassette players where the coolest things in town?

Remember the Google-China hacking drama earlier this year? Following that, the Germany government told everybody not to use Internet Explorer. After that, some English citizens started a petition to try to convince the English government to move off of Internet Explorer 6 on government PCs. Over 6,000 people signed it. Following that, the UK Government issued an official response.

First, they admit that Microsoft has committed to continue to support Internet Explorer 6, so they feel it’s okay to use. And as Ars Technica points out, yes, Microsoft has committed to supporting IE6, but only until 2014 and that’s only because they don’t want to lose big enterprise customers by not supporting the archaic web browser that so many of them are using.

The truth is that Microsoft has strongly encouraged everybody to update to IE8 – despite continuing to support IE6. But Microsoft’s continued support isn’t the real reason that they’re not updating. In the statement, they reveal that they don’t want to spend the money

They write:

It is not straightforward for HMG departments to upgrade IE versions on their systems. Upgrading these systems to IE8 can be a very large operation, taking weeks to test and roll out to all users. To test all the web applications currently used by HMG departments can take months at significant potential cost to the taxpayer. It is therefore more cost effective in many cases to continue to use IE6 and rely on other measures, such as firewalls and malware scanning software, to further protect public sector internet users.

Yikes! Not the answer that Brits likely wanted to hear.

Do you feel that firewalls and virus scanners can protect the English? Or do they need to upgrade? Sound off in the comments below.

According to MG Siegler at TechCrunch, Gates went on and on about the future of latrines. One quote from Gates:

Latrines are fascinating. No one wants to read about it — it’s one of the greatest under-investments.

In Gates’ opinion, according to TechCrunch, he sees the current flushable toilet as ‘the gold standard’, but it isn’t efficient in terms of water consumption. He thinks that the tech sector needs to focus more energy and money on toilets.

Gates added that since not a lot of venture funding or elsewhere has gone into toilets, you “end up with the low IQ guy on the toilets”. Really, Bill. On the toilets.

Gates is right – even though the modern flushable toilet was invented around the 1830s – it really hasn’t changed much. But, I’d argue that some companies as Kohler have created some really cutting edge bathroom fixtures, toilets included. In fact, I’d be Kohler would be offended if they knew Gates said that the ‘low IQ’ guy was on the topic of toilets.

Is Gates right? Do we need a tech revolution regarding toilets?

Goldman Sachs was once considered the gold standard for Wall Street firms. A subprime mortgage crisis later, they’ve been tarnished a bit but they’re still a big presence on the ‘Street with their 34,000 employees. Their employees won’t be allowed to swear in e-mails, though. That includes e-mails and text messages sent from company-issued cell phones, too.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the catalyst for this was some internal e-mails written by executive Thomas Montag. Montag had his e-mail read aloud during a US Senate hearing. He wrote:

Boy, that Timberwolf was one s**t deal.

Quite – as GS was embarrassed by the profanity being showcased in a public light.

GS isn’t taking this embargo lightly. They’ve got software in place to actually block profanity-filled e-mails.

Depending on how severe the profanity is, the e-mail will either be redirected to human resources or just bounced back to the sender. But either way, it’s a no go. No direct punishment was laid out – but managers will be informed if their employees have the mouth of a sailor.

According to the WSJ, GS employees wonder if they’ll be allowed to internet-isms like WTF. Or, they’re wondering if they’ll be allowed to use words that sound like the profane words. I have a feeling that “ph” may be substituted for “f” in a lot of e-mails at the GS offices now.

But don’t get alarmed, that’s the data you’re sharing with friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, and weird stalkers. So it was out there anyway, no need to push the panic button.

Today however, the whole story got a lot more interesting. It looks like a bunch of giant corporations decided to go for the torrent file and download it. I guess it’s only a logical move and any marketing department out there figured that 100 extra million Facebook profiles that are simply available out there for FREE would not hurt business. So here’s a list of all the companies (brace yourselves!) that got the file and will now befriend you on Facebook, or try to sell you even more stuff you don’t need:

• A.C. Nielsen
• Agilent Technologies
• Apple Computer
• AT&T – Possible Macrovision
• Baker & McKenzie
• BBC
• Bertelsmann Media
• Boeing
• Church of Scientology
• Cisco Systems
• Cox Enterprises
• Davis Polk & Wardwell
• Deutsche Telekom
• Disney
• Duracell
• Ernst & Young
• Fujitsu
• Goldman Sachs
• Halliburton
• HBO & Company
• Hilton Hospitality
• Hitachi
• HP
• IBM
• Intel
• Intuit
• Levi Strauss & Co.
• Lockheed-Martin Corp
• Lucasfilm
• Lucent
• Lucent Technologies
• Matsushita Electric Industrial Co
• Mcafee
• MetLife
• Mitsubishi
• Motorola
• Northrop Grumman
• Novell
• Nvidia
• O’Melveny & Myers
• Oracle Corp
• Pepsi Cola
• Procter and Gamble
• Random House
• Raytheon
• Road Runner RRWE
• Seagate
• Sega
• Siemens AG
• SONY CORPORATION
• Sprint
• Sun Microsystems
• Symantec
• The Hague
• Time Warner Telecom
• Turner Broadcasting system
• Ubisoft Entertainment
• Unisys
• United Nations
• Univision
• USPS
• Viacom
• Vodafone
• Wells Fargo
• Xerox PARC

How was this list obtained you ask? Well some clever guy realized that Peer Block will tell you what other users are also downloading the file and by that I mean that it will really tell you who’s downloading the file. Hence the list above!

Pretty sure this part will be left out of the movie, but I can’t wait to hear official statements from Facebook or any of the companies above.

The folks at Guinness have the record for most gaming set at 40 hours, which sounds a bit low to us, considering all the stories about Korean MMOG gamers dying after days of gaming. At any rate, the Vogel’s press release says the record is 40 hours, and CEO Gerdi Vogels will set off the recording breaking attempt.

Six ‘championship’ gamers will be competing to break the record. I’m assuming that it will be a “The Long Walk”-style competition where whoever lasts the longest will win the prize. What’s the prize? €1,000 ($1,275) and a Vogels PS3 TwistDock charging station to take home. It’s worth noting that all gamers will be using the Vogels TwistDeck to “[provide] non-stop play by keeping their PS3 controllers continuously charged.” Yep, this whole thing is get the word out about these TwistDock charging stations. (pictured above)

They’ll be playing Red Dead Redemption on the PS3 as their game of choice to break the 40 hour record – so if you’re going to be breaking the record, might as well do it with a decent game, although in forty hours, they’ll probably have beaten it a few times over by then.

Albert Zeeman, Vogel’s Vice President, seems to think he’s talking about the 24 Hours of LeMans or something. In the press release, he writes:

“During this attempt to break the record, it’s all about stamina and perseverance.  The current gaming Guinness World Record in the racing category is 40 hours,” said Albert Zeeman, VP of Innovations, Vogel’s and the inspiration for the record breaking attempt.  “Of course, we want to beat this record. And we’ll find out if we do on July 18th.  Exciting!”

At any rate, the competition is being held this weekend, July 18th, at department store Dixons. If any Dutch readers want to hop down there and take some pictures for us of this great spectacle of electronic entertainment – we’ll publish them.

The Willow Garage folks, developers of the Robot Operating System (the ROS mentioned in the headline) developed the PR2 to play as much like a human would as possible. Where other robots used overhead cameras to line up and calculate their shots, the PR2 uses cameras that are, roughly, eye-level on a similarly-sized human being.

That’s right–the PR2 has the same issues of depth perception and attempting workarounds that any regular pool player would have. This basically makes the PR2 one of the most realistic pool players in existence. Not surprisingly, though, the robot does shoot a good game. More surprisingly is that it’s not the perfect game that some would have imagined.

Even better, the PR2 apparently took right around one week to build and operate. Makes me wonder if we’ll be seeing these in pool halls hustling the unwary for a Pennzoil and Lime any time soon.

So he made arrangements with the guys at Paul Young Chocolates to do something amazing–Stefan effectively made the first ever chocolate iPad.

Okay, that’s a bit of a misnomer. What he did was pick up an iPad in London and had it frozen inside a giant bar of chocolate. His wife, upon opening the gift, thought she’d landed a huge bar of chocolate, an awesome gift for most any lady, but when she started munching on the chocolate, she discovered the surprise in the middle…a big fat Apple…iPad.

By all reports she was amazed.Thankfully she didn’t end up taking a bite out of it like Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And to refer back to the above, the iPad survived the freezing process and emerged from its chocolaty ordeal just fine.

With all those deaths surrounding Apple products, it really makes us wonder whether the Apple devices we play with have been touched or not by any of those Foxconn employees that died lately. Ultimately it’s all bad publicity for Apple, a company that’s charging premium products for its premium products. While Apple is making lots of money and turning in profits after profits, those people working long shifts in Foxconn factories can’t say they have similar profitable lives.

Earlier today we’ve shown you a few videos from The Wall Street Journal’s D8 conference in which Steve Jobs was expressing his views on various Apple-related issues but we left out the video below on the whole Foxconn situation on purpose in order to couple it with this particular story.

Steve Jobs says that Foxconn is not a sweatshop and we want to believe that. He also says that Apple is observing and trying to understand what’s happening and we also want to believe that. But the fact is that people are dying there and although the percentage of suicides might be lower than in the USA, that’s still very disturbing.

This time around it wasn’t a suicide. A 28-year-old man is reported to have died of exhaustion after working a 34-hour shift. That’s definitely something Apple can’t be okay with and we’ll be interested to hear some responses to that both from Foxconn and Apple.

The guy was apparently just married and he must have had some good reasons for working that long. Naturally none of it is confirmed just yet, but the fact remains that he did die and he was working for Foxconn. Let’s hear your thoughts on the matter!

Gates is being blasted for his predictions in the book, mainly because he barely mentioned the internet, and called it “The Information Superhighway”, an archaic term that even by then, we all had agreed not to use. I’d argue that Gates was spot on with his comments on the internet, but let’s go through them, shall we?

From The Atlantic’s story:

The Internet and the Web

Prediction: Gates’s 286-page book mentions the World Wide Web on only four of its pages, and portrays the Internet as a subset of a much a larger “Information Superhighway.” The Internet, wrote Gates, is one of “the important precursors of the information highway,” along with PCs, CD-ROMs, phone networks, and cable systems, but “none represents the actual information highway. … today’s Internet is not the information highway I imagine, although you can think of it as the beginning of the highway.”

The Atlantic calls this a miss, although Gates was spot on. The internet of 1995, frankly, sucked with static HTML webpages, the dreaded “Marquee” tag, iFrames, all of it. Gates’ idea of the hypertext-enabled ‘Information Superhighway’ is exactly what the internet is today, it’s just not coming via CD-ROM and phone networks.

However, today’s criticism from The Atlantic and Gizmodo regarding Gates’ predictions isn’t anything new. After the book came out in 1995, Time Magazine bashed Gates’ view on the internet, saying,

Gates is as fearful as he is feared, and these days he worries most about the Internet, Usenet and the World Wide Web, which threaten his software monopoly by shifting the nexus of control from stand-alone computers to the network that connects them.

Interestingly enough, 15 years later, that’s still a concern for Microsoft. Netbooks running Chrome, the iPad, and services like Google Docs, all attached to the Cloud, make us question our dependency on proper computers and desktop operating systems.

The Internet aside, Gates did get a few things right with almost scary accuracy. He predicted today’s smartphone, but instead called them “Wallet PCs”. He predicted video conferencing accurately, as well. A few misses by Bill? He said that we would have the ability to watch online retailers fulfill our online orders. As the Atlantic points out, “technologically possible but socially and economically impractical.” Bill predicted e-mail would help create a paperless office and improve office productivity, something that most office monkeys would disagree with.

Stop me if you’ve heard the story before, but in 1997, Sega’s Saturn console couldn’t compete with the original PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. They decided to jump the gun on the next console generation, and came out with the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. In 2002, Sega canned the console in order to focus on game publishing.

Now, what you may not know – the Dreamcast was way ahead of it’s time. It came built in with a 56k modem for internet gaming. It had a built-in web browser, too (something the Xbox 360 still doesn’t have).

Anyway, Sega ended production of the console in 2002, but in Japan, games continued to be published for it in 2007, and we’ve seen a few homebrew games come out for it elsewhere. Websites like ThinkGeek and Amazon have occasionally found an old shipping crate somewhere and decided to sell them off. That must be what’s going on right now, since Amazon is selling a very limited amount of them right now.

They’re asking price ($104) seems a bit high to me, specially considering you can get a Nintendo GameCube for less, but I’m told that the price is comparable to new Dreamcasts on eBay.

He made ‘hundreds’ of prank phone calls to the local police station via 999, including 50 in one hour. The Telegraph, who reported the story, didn’t say exactly what his problem was – a few prank calls is one thing, but this almost sounds like some kind of mental disorder.

Anyway, he’s been hit with a ASBO (anti-social behavior order)  that bans him from buying a phone for five years, or even handling a device with a SIM card (so he can’t make prank calls from a friend’s phone). He was jailed several times for his prank calls to 999, and if he violates his ASBO, be can be jailed again.

Hope he wasn’t keen on getting an iPad 3G then, as that will definitely have a SIM card. According to various Brits, the ASBOs aren’t actively enforced, so unless he’s caught for something else with a phone in his possession, he probably won’t get in trouble for it. He definitely shouldn’t make any more prank calls, though, but considering his track record, he may have an issue with that.

Mr. Williams spoke at a conference on Monday and talked in depth about paper. He said that there is an “appropriate use for paper.” He went on to say that we should “feel comfortable” using paper and that there wasn’t a “environmental negative” whee we used it. He went on to say that the idea that printing had an environmental impact was “just bull”.

Domtar is going to attempt to market to kids more. Hot Hardware says that they’re going after the YouTube and Facebook crowd. Williams explained, “Young people are really not printers. When was the last time your children demanded a printer? They want the electronic device.”

Hot Hardware found an ‘article’ on Domtar’s website written by a Domtar VP, Lewis Fix, that waxes poetically on paper. Mr. Fix writes:

Great ideas are started on paper. The world is educated on paper. Businesses are founded on paper. Love is declared on paper. Important news is spread on paper. Justice is rendered on paper. Rights are guaranteed on paper. Freedoms are declared on paper.

Strong words, but as Hot Hardware writes, he’s getting the message mixed up with the medium. I feel for Domtar, they’re in a rough spot, but I don’t imagine many of the Facebook/YouTube crowd suddenly going crazy for printers and paper.

And, I couldn’t help think of “The Office” when thinking about a paper company.

Ronald Wayne worked at Atari with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. He co-founded the company with them, and was given a 10% ownership stake. During his short tenure at Apple (still located in a Palo Alto garage), he wrote the Apple I user manual, drew the first Apple logo and had the honor of writing up the original ownership agreement between the two Steves and himself.

Two weeks after the company was founded, Mr. Wayne learned that as a partner, he was liable for any debts the company had. “Jobs had borrowed $15,000 to buy the materials to make computers. He said he was in debt for $1,500 and I had no idea where I would get that money. I had enough stress in my life and I couldn’t take any more. I was looking for a quiet life,” Wayne said. He said the stress would have killed him eventually.

Unwilling to raise $1,500, he sold his 10% share in the growing company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800 ($2,981 in 2009 dollars). Of course, Apple would bring on former Intel executive Mike Markkula, who would restructure the company, incorporate it, and help it become the giant that it is today.

Some have estimated that Wayne’s steak in Apple would have been worth $1.5 billion today. But Mr. Wayne has no regrets today. He’s now 75 and retired, and lives off his government pension. He told the press that he had no idea how big Apple would have become, but he isn’t dwelling on all the money he could have made. He said that has his family and his health, “and that is the best fortune you could ask for.”

And I’m sure Mr. Wayne has a clear conscious. After all, as far as we know he never lost anything in a bar while he worked at Apple.

To start the recruiting process, the potential employee was contacted by his future would-be boss. While the man – Tony – was almost positive he didn’t want to work for Microsoft, he decided to see what it was like there. He would of worked in their mobile phone division (Windows Mobile).

“Tony” lived four hours from Seattle and wanted to drive to Redmond for the interview. Microsoft paid for a rental car, giving him a choice of any car he wanted (he picked a big SUV, and said that most corporate HR departments gave him a compact car, if a car at all) along with a $175 stipend for the trip to Seattle, which he used for a dinner out.

The next morning at Microsoft, he begun the interview processor. He was interviewed by several people, and if the person interviewing him liked his answers, they sent him on to the next person. If they didn’t like what he said, they sent him home with some excuse and the hiring processor answers. The questions were results-focused questions, like “How would you improve Microsoft?” and since he was in the running for a job in the mobile divison, he was asked things like “How would you improve Windows Mobile?”

One of the interviews reportedly takes place during lunch – so Microsoft can see how you handle yourself during a lunch meeting. One of “Tony’s” friend casually mentioned something about his old company was working on that was under NDA – and his interview was over. Microsoft, Tony says, takes their NDA’s very seriously.

This took place before Windows Phone 7 was unveiled, and Tony was led to a secure development lab (they took away his phones and had him go through a metal detector) where they showed him Windows Phone 7 before it was announced to the general public.

Ultimately, Tony didn’t accept the job. While the job offered an incredible health insurance policy, Tony said the salaries were a bit disappointing. Even after he declined, Microsoft called him back and offered to take him out for a night on Seattle. He described it as being “love bombed” by Microsoft.

Props to Gizmodo’s Business Insider for this awesome story.

The Wall Street Journal reports 10 iPads have been taken from their owners at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and are in holding until their traveling owners leave. They’re being charged a ‘storage fee’ too, for every day that the iPads are being held.

Israel’s official reason for the banning was that the iPad’s American WiFi standards aren’t the same as the Israeli ones. They say that once a European iPad has been released, they’ll allow that into the country. However, according to Robert Doherty, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group, that doesn’t make sense.

American cell phones and laptops have been brought into Israel for years, including iPhones, without any problem. Mr. Doherty says that “If they’re paranoid about the iPad then they should be paranoid about BlackBerrys and the iPhone.” He went so far as to tell the Wall Street Journal that the decision to ban iPad “seems to have no technical reason.”

Envisioneering ran tests on the hot new Apple Tablet. They say that the WiFi transmitter and receiver are weaker than what you’d expect in devices that size. Their tests also showed that the aluminum unibody construction of the iPad blocks most of the radio signals. The signals instead are forced out through the black Apple logo on the back of the device.

The WSJ contacted the Israeli government on the ban, and a spokesperson said that any device in the past (BlackBerries, iPhones, American laptops) should have been taken too. It’s possible, I suppose, that these guards are just noticing the iPad because they’re so noticeable and are a US-exclusive right now.

The Israeli tech community is allegedly pretty upset right now. Israel has tried to establish itself as a leader in the high-tech space (I know they grant a lot of tax credits to high-tech companies, and Intel has a number of engineering labs and chip fabs there) – and some see this bizarre iPad ban as ruining that reputation.

In their website’s terms of service, deep in the fine print, the company added the clause that by accepting the TOS and purchasing from their online store, you granted them “a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul.” The company reports that 7,500 customers accepted the TOS and purchased something from the website on April 1st.

People who discovered the link were sent to a page congratulating them on reading the fine print, and awarded them a £5 ($8) coupon along with entering them in a giveaway for a goody-bag of video games. For those who granted GameStation the option for the soul, the company has been so kind as to legally rescind the claims to their souls forever.

It’s a great April Fools gag and a great marketing play (we’re talking about it, aren’t we?) but it brings up the bigger issue of EULA and TOS agreements. They’ve become textbooks of legalese that I’d estimate 99% of people accept without reading or browsing. We complain when they’re the kind you have to scroll to the bottom to accept.

Some people have questioned the legality of these convoluted EULAs for years. The EULA in the installer for the Windows version of iTunes warns, “Licensee also agrees that Licensee will not use the Apple Software for any purpose prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.” And that isn’t an April Fools prank.

Not that GameStation went as far as to legally rescind their right to claim your soul, which sort of implies that they might of actually had the right to do so with this joke clause (or they believed they did, or their lawyers did it just to avoid any trouble).

Something for you to ponder the next time you’re hitting ‘accept’ on that EULA. You may just be making a deal with the devil….. (who works behind the counter at GameStation).

Three of the more popular MMOG games in the country, ‘Maple Story’, ‘Mabinogi’ and ‘Barameui Nara’ will be the ones affected by such a ban. Underage gamers will have their connections to these games shutoff at midnight, and it will stay off for a period of 8 hours.

The ban is being imposed by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The underaged gamers will be given a choice of when their six-hour ban starts (midnight to 6am, 1am to 7am, 2am to 8am). I imagine quite a few will pick the 2am one.

In addition to this midnight ban program (which only affects those three games), the Ministry is also unveiling a “slowdown” program which will affect 19 RPG games. This program is a bit more wide reaching, as those 19 games make up 79% of South Korea’s total online gaming time.

The ‘slowdown’ program will involve monitoring of your gaming time. If an underaged gamer exceeds too many hours of gaming in a single session, the government will throttle the internet connection. It won’t be completely shut off, but will be cut back. I’m assuming that they’ll throttle it back so you can’t play online games but can surf the web (you know, in case they have school work to finish or something).

South Korea is notable for their love of technology and online games. Reports of people spending weeks at a time on their favorite games are common – and one newborn baby even died due to neglect while his parents were away at a 10-hour gaming session at an internet cafe.

How do you feel about this ‘midnight ban’?

Recently, the director general of MI5, Jonathan Evans, told a Parliamentary committee that he was worried over his agency’s overall IT skills. “I think some of the staff perhaps aren’t quite the ones that we will want for the future,” he told the committee. Shortly thereafter, MI5 is introducing a program (or programme as they’d say) of lay-offs to many employees, some voluntary, some compulsory. Although those laid off will make up a small percentage of total MI5 staff – it is being done across all divisions and departments, not just the agencies IT tech support department.

According to the Daily Telegraph, government workers have joked among themselves about the “James Bond generation of elderly spies” being put out for a lack of computer skills. That may not be far off, as in 2008, MI6 warned that if the English government raised the retirement age for its employees, the older intelligence officers overseas would work beyond their prime.

Overall, the English intelligence community has been moving towards a younger workforce. As we reported last November, the GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) has been targeting gamers on Xbox Live for employment. As for MI5, the Telegraph reports that they’re trying to push their agency as the “employer of choice” by targeting young potential employees with radio commercials and a heavy media campaign.

As for the older staff being let go, MI5 should handle it delicately, as anybody who’s see the 1960′s TV show “The Prisoner” can tell you (I kid).