Popular music torrent site OiNK.cd has been shut down by the IFPI and other organizations with acronyms. It seems as though these private sites are going down a lot lately. OiNK.cd was a massively popular site for music and applications but was pretty hard to get an invite to, being strict about ratios. The shut down has lead to the arrest of a 24 year old man in England and a major ripple in the bittorrent community. Any OiNK users reading? Anyone have ideas about what could happen to users? According to the site now:

A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site’s
users

When Suprnova shut down, was it a private site? Did anything ever happen to any users? I’m sure people want to know.

Read More

We already talked about potential trouble that Creative Commons can cause when it comes to your images and appearing in ads without permission given. Well here is another story, where an image of someone’s child was just taken “off the internet” and we get an idea how much trouble fighting something like this people can face. The story is a pretty interesting and infuriating one considering people treat it as thought it’s nothing at all.

Read More

For some, social networking sites like LinkedIn aren’t that important – for others, finding your Facebook account deleted could mean disaster, especially if you’re not the type of person out to cause trouble. This site that deals in customer satisfaction with products shows popular reasons people have found their Facebook accounts deleted. If you’re on Facebook and value it as a good way to keep in contact with people, like I do, then take a read. You may be surprised at the way people can get banned. Joining over 200 groups can get you banned, imagine that!

Read More

The online search giant has updated their popular desktop search tool for Linux computers, and in typical Google fashion it is released in beta form.

We signaled a commitment to the Linux community: to develop for the platform and to support our Linux users. Since then, we have been hard at work to improve and refine our product. Today, we’d like to share what we’ve created by releasing Google Desktop for Linux 1.1 Beta.

I wonder how many Linux users would bite?

Read More

Google has purchased micro blogging site/service Jaiku. The “presence sharing service” is a competitor to Twitter and to some extent Pownce which all sort of do the same thing, though Pownce does not have mobile features. While it’s great that the Jaiku guys at least get peace of mind knowing they’re part of an actual company and need not worry about funds, I have to ask if anyone uses this service or twitter or Pownce other than for the reason that it’s there to be used. Jaiku seems to be the gummy bears of web right now. It’s cool, it’s pretty sweet, but I’m only eating it because it’s there.

Of course, with talk that Google is making it’s own mobile phone Operating System, it’s inevitable that this will have some part to play in that.

Read More

A typical relationship is love-hate: you love to hate the network. Well, that seems to be the case with most people. What can we say? People liked them some TechTV. Some time ago G4 made it a big deal that they had their biggest news ever, teasing people and actually getting me excited for this announcement. Then the moment came and they jumped the gun, saying the suits made them hold back on the announcement. Well, on October 11th they finally made the big announcement and it was…Heroes is coming to G4. But wait, they’re new episodes! Well, sorta.

There’s now way G4 could manage to get Heroes as in they’re the only place to show it, but they are going to be showing new episodes the same week they debut on NBC. Will this be enough to cover for the loud amount of money I assume was paid? Who knows? 2 things to note about this – They’re deliberately confusing people by saying new episodes, it just wasn’t clear from the get go that you could still see the show on NBC as usual.The second thing is they’re only talking about season 1 an 2 of the show. Sure, typically talk of shows past the current season never happens since a show can get the axe at any time, but I’m lead to believe this whole situation may not continue with Season 3 onward.

While I never watched the show, I think I’ll start. G4 did get me hooked on Ninja Warrior, Cops(I don’t get FOX in my country), Arrested Development and Fastlane. Yes, I love me some Fastlane.

The weekend of October 27th and 28th will be a Season 1 marathon to catch you up.

Was this really big news or was this just way over-hyped?

Read More

Watch the above video. If you can tell me you don’t want some of that foam you’re lying. I’m thinking of putting it all over my body and hiring people to “jump” me in public around some beautiful women there to look on and see me taking a beating, able to brush it off as nothing. Wait, that won’t really help me beat people up now, will it? It would only protect me from being beaten… I obviously have not thought this through very well, so let’s just say this thing is still pretty cool and should come in handy to save lives, ok?

MSNBC has purchased Newsvine, one of the most personalized news websites out there for an undisclosed sum. MSNBC is a private organization run by both Microsoft and NBC. The idea of the purchase would be to integrate aspects of both sites but they will remain separate entities. The site will also benefit from having more staff, a more reliable site and more news overall. Newsvine has been also benefited from having exclusives in the past from it’s users, such as an interview with Dave Chappelle meaning this news will bring more citizen journalism to wider audiences.

Read More

The FAA has gone on record by stating that the current ban on blocking in-flight cell phone calls will stay in place for the “foreseeable future”. The FAA’s reasoning? It isn’t technical, the FAA said there was strong public outcry against the idea.

Personally I think it is wonderful news. Knowing my luck the person I would always sit next tow would blab away forever on his phone with inane dribble that numb my brain. Now hopefully the FAA will work hard to promote inter onboard planes as a silent alternative for ground communication.

Read More

Before I start, let me say that I’m sure Google Transit– which tells you how to get from point A to point B using public transportation– works very well for people living in bumfuck Idaho or one of the other under-populated cities supported by the new service, but I assert that it nonetheless continues to suck.

It’s all very nice and all that Google is making an effort to support traditionally under-served localities, but is it really possible to take this kind of service seriously when it doesn’t support the places where people actually use public transport.

Trying to get from Brooklyn to Times Square? You’re out of luck. The Embarcadero to the Golden Gate Bridge? Try again. Sure, there is support for BART, but to really get around San Francisco, you’re going to have to hop on MUNI eventually. [via]

Hackers have been doing this kind of thing for ages, so what’s keeping big G from catching up?