diner21.com

Or, in some cases, even more.

According to the Mail’s report, the defendant originally claimed the Facebook threat was written while drunk. However, police discovered that the threats remained on her Facebook page for 24 hours.

The young defendant allegedly wrote on her Facebook page that she would kill another young woman, the Daily Mail said. The two had been at school together, where the defendant’s bullying of the victim allegedly began.

In Worcester Magistrates Court of England, an 18-year-old woman was allegedly sent to three months in a young-offenders institute after being found guilty of posting death threats on Facebook, according to the Daily Mail. It’s thought to be the country’s first jail sentence for cyberbullying.

F may be for Facebook, but not always for friendly.

In a week in which Google was ordered to reveal the identity of the “Skanks in NYC” blogger who may have defamed model Liskula Cohen, a landmark judgment was also reportedly reached in the United Kingdom.

It is tempting to think of this case as an isolated and extreme incident. But, as has become increasingly clear, people tend to use social-networking sites to reveal just as much of their persona as they do in person.

The defendant already had two previous convictions stemming from her bullying of the victim, one for assault and one for criminal damage.

(Credit: CC Benstein/Flickr)

How cool is that?

(Credit:
Electronic Arts/Maxis)

For those of us eagerly awaiting the release of Spore, from The Sims creator Will Wright and his Maxis studio, Tuesday was a day for whetting the appetite.

Not so many. In fact, just this one.

And it’s clear that one of the reasons people like myself are so excited about Spore is because, one, how often do you get to play a brand-new game from Wright? And two, how many games do you get to play that let you work your way all the way up the evolutionary chain from nearly meaningless microscopic ooze to galaxy-conquering demi-god?

One of the other cool things coming down the pike in the Spore-osphere is the June 17 release of the creature creator. This will be a piece of free software that will allow people to create creatures for the game, even before they own Spore. And that’s really smart because, having played with this tool before, I know that it is a lot of fun. And people will be able to save their creatures, share them with others, and then use them when the game comes out.

With Spore, the innovators at Maxis have created what they’re calling a massively single-player game. This is a way of explaining that though the game is for one player only, it allows people to create all kinds of content–creatures, spaceships, odd buildings, and so forth–and then upload that content into the larger Spore universe. And that means that everyone gets to share in the entire community’s content creation, even if you can only play the game by yourself.

So what is the cell stage? Well, I could explain it. Or, I could let Maxis give you the goods: “Cell stage is your introduction to the fundamentals of Spore. You play a simple organism which is dropped onto your planet by way of meteor. The stage takes place in a top-down 2-D environment and you can play as an herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. You earn DNA and collect parts to improve your creature’s abilities…Avoid larger, carnivorous organisms while feeding on smaller organisms or algae–all while being tossed around in strong ocean currents. Eventually you will grow large enough to sprout legs and crawl out of the water and up onto land.”

In the cell stage of Spore, players can try to evolve from simple little spore-like creatures into more significant, larger and stronger beings.

On June 10, Geek Gestalt hits the highways for Road Trip 2008. I’ll start in Orlando, Fla., and visit many of the South’s most interesting destinations. Stay tuned, and be sure to keep up, both now and during the trip, with what I’m doing on Twitter.

That’s because Maxis, an Electronic Arts studio, released a little crumb for us, a video from the cell-stage of Spore.

Now, with the cell-level video, Maxis is letting the public see a little bit more detail about the game, which is slated for a September 7 release.

The game, as you may already know, is an evolution game: It tasks players with growing their characters from little spore-level creatures step-by-step up the ladder to the tribe level and then on to cities, whole civilizations, and eventually on to the galactic level.

A million search queries have been “poisoned” at dozens of well-known Web sites over the past several weeks, according to security analyst Dancho Danchev.

“This means that a Web user would need to do a search query using one of the terms picked by the attacker to hit a poisoned page,” Evers said. “This is in contrast to previously seen attacks where just visiting a site would launch an attack. This reduces the severity (of the most recent attack) somewhat.”

Evers added that the Web is quickly becoming one of the most popular means to attack users. This is due in part to improvements made to e-mail security and filtering and also because Web vulnerabilities are a new frontier, he said.

Attackers are using programming errors to hijack keyword searches by automatically attaching malicious HTML code to specific search queries. Unwitting visitors who type in the selected key words while performing a search at the affected sites are then redirected to booby-trapped Web sites.

Among some of the Web sites that have been attacked are USAToday.com, Target.com, ABCNews.com, Walmart.com, and several sites owned by CNET Networks, the publisher of News.com. A CNET employee confirmed that the attack had occurred but did not know to what extent it had affected site visitors.

Updated at 11:22 a.m. PDT Saturday to include a comment from Wal-Mart.

Representatives of CNET and USAToday could not be reached on Friday night. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Colella on Saturday said the matter “has not impacted our site in any way,” adding, “We take these matters very seriously at Walmart.com, and continuously use measures to protect our customers from any fraudulent online activity.”

This is where the attackers attempt to install malware onto the victims’ computers.

The attack differs from other IFrame injection attacks in that the traps are being set in the search results and not on a Web site’s main pages, said Joris Evers, a spokesman for security firm McAfee.

You try to do the right thing by setting your PC to update Windows automatically, only to be stopped in your tracks by some error message or–more likely–a hung browser. Usually there’s a simple explanation for the update hiccup. But not always. The steps below for resuscitating a stalled Windows update begin with the simplest solution and end with the trickiest.

Make sure you’re logged in an administrator account. To find out if your current account has administrator privileges, click Start > Control Panel > User Accounts (in Vista’s standard Control Panel view, click User Accounts and Family Safety, and then choose User Accounts). If the account you’re currently using isn’t labeled “Computer administrator” in XP, or “Administrator” in Vista, log into an administrator account and try the automatic update again.

If Windows won't update, check the User Accounts Control Panel applet to make sure you're logged on as an administrator.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

Temporarily disable your security software. Overzealous firewalls and antivirus programs may inadvertently block Windows Update from downloading and installing necessary OS patches. Right-click the program’s icon in your system tray and choose Exit or Disable (you may have to open the program’s management console and close it from there).

Unfortunately, the only way to disable some security programs, such as Symantec’s Norton 360, is to open Task Manager and disable them there. To do so, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, click the Processes tab, find and select the process for the program (it likely uses a variation of the product’s name), and click End Process. The process will restart automatically the next time Windows loads, or restart it manually by clicking its Start menu shortcut to reopen it.

Check Microsoft’s update-troubleshooting site. The first time I visited the Windows Update Troubleshooter, I expected to find a great tool that automatically scanned my PC and fixed whatever was blocking Windows from updating. Instead I opened a page with a long list of links to articles intended to help you figure out the problem on your own. You can find much the same information by copying the error code that appears when Windows Update fails and pasting it into your favorite Web search engine to discover information about it, and possible a solution.

Run the Windows Update Fix batch file. The CastleCopsWiki offers a downloadable batch file that automatically addresses many of the causes for a stalled update. Use it by unzipping the download file and double-clicking the file named WUFix.bat. This is far from a guaranteed fix for update woes, but if everything else has failed to resolve the problem, it’s worth a try.

Tomorrow: the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat.

U.K. residents with iPhones can do a little rejoicing after yesterday. Amid the wave of announcements surrounding the release of the SDK, the BBC quietly launched
iPhone and
iPod Touch support for its iPlayer TV service. We’ve blogged about this being a feature after footage of the iPlayer working on the iPhone was shown off in a promotional video made more than 10 months ago, but the videos on the streaming service use Adobe’s Flash, which is not a part of the iPhone’s built-in software.

Unlike the software iteration of the iPlayer, shows can’t be downloaded, but users have access to a limited selection of streaming content that’s been formatted to work on the handset. Instead of featuring the beautiful Coverflow-approach seen in the video, the service uses a system similar to what’s been seen on Apple.com and Break.com, with little blue play buttons to indicate the videos that can be played on the portable device when connected to a Wi-Fi connection.

The BBC has been a little late to the game with putting television content online for its viewers; however, in comparison to content providers in the U.S., it’s the first to make its content readily viewable on the mobile device without any special subscriptions through the carriers. In the U.S., Verizon is currently one of the only major players in providing recently released television shows (in their entirety) over the air to its subscribers through its VCast Mobile TV service. Sprint and AT&T will also have initiatives to bring TV and movie content to phones over the air.

It’s worth noting the service only works to residents of the U.K., who pay for the programming with their tax dollars. No mention of whether a paid version of the service for residents outside of the region is on the way. See more on the BBC’s iPlayer blog.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

commentary

Jack Aboutboul at Red Hat clued me into an interesting open-source ecommerce platform today. Called Magento, it’s built by Varien and is “a feature-rich, professional open-source eCommerce solution offering merchants complete flexibility and control over the look, content, and functionality of their online store.”

Put in English, Magento is an open-source solution for setting up and managing an online store. The product appears to be pretty robust already, but the roadmap looks even better.

If you need to set up an online store, why pay the six- to seven-figures to do so when you can use Magento for free and then pay when you want support going into production?

Those open sourcerors. Why won’t they stay in the limited boxes/categories where the 20th-century proprietary vendors want them to remain? Marketcetera, OpenAds, etc. Darned pesky open source kids!

(Credit:
Dylan Kehde Roelofs)

(Credit:
Dylan Kehde Roelofs )

OK, I admit Dylan Kehde Roelofs works of art have absolutely nothing to do with audio, but they remind me of vacuum tubes. They’re incandescent light bulb sculptures, but it turns out Roelofs is contemplating a move to also do audio related pieces, “I’m a bit of an audiophile myself - wait ’till you see the homemade triodes (tubes) I’ve been working on. Might make a nice amp someday, or just a horrible, distorted Theremin.”

His current works that combine glass blowing, electrical and lighting design are incredibly beautiful. They’re produced in limited editions and Roelofs’ prices seem very reasonable.

The remaining presidential candidates–Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards, and Republicans John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani–have been invited but have not yet confirmed whether they will attend. McCain, Edwards, and Obama have already participated in previous MySpace-MTV dialogues.

As with past installments of the presidential dialogue series, questions for the candidates will be gathered not only from the live audience (this time it will be in MTV’s Times Square studio), the Choose or Lose Web site, and MySpace’s MySpaceIM instant messaging client. Real-time polling will be conducted through Flektor, the social-media start-up that MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media purchased last year.

The Viacom-owned MTV and the News Corp.-owned MySpace aim to make this the “most publicly accessible and interactive presidential candidate event in history,” according to a release from the two companies. The event will be broadcast live on MTV, MTV2, and the Latino-geared MTV Tres, as well as shown in part on the college network MTVU, streamed live on MTV Mobile, MySpace’s election site, MTV’s Choose or Lose politics site, and the Associated Press Online Video Network. It will be translated into Spanish for La Vibra, and broadcast on XM Satellite Radio, AP Radio, and MTV Radio. In addition, the event will be broadcast on MTV’s giant high-definition TV screen in New York’s Times Square.

Both MTV and MySpace have been particularly visible in youth voting initiatives for the 2008 campaign season. MTV has launched a citizen journalism campaign, and MySpace has been polling young voters as a way to gather data and spread awareness.

As “Super Tuesday” on February 5 approaches, MTV and MySpace.com have announced the final installment of their ongoing “presidential dialogue” series. Co-presented by the Associated Press, the event will take place at 6 p.m. EST on Saturday, February 2; all candidates from both parties have been invited to participate, and so far, Democratic contender Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Mike Huckabee have confirmed that they will be part of it.

Below you’ll find the settings we found best for viewing the LG 50PG30 in a completely dark room via the HDMI input with a 1080p, film-based source. Your settings may very depending on source, room conditions and personal preference. Check out the Picture settings and calibration FAQ for more information.

When we first checked out LG’s entry-level 50-inch plasma with 1080p resolution, model 50PG30, we thought it looked pretty good, especially for less than $2,000. The classy gloss-black styling and long list of features, including plenty of picture controls, boded well for this model’s chances on paper. We’d also had positive experiences with two other 50-inch LG plasmas we reviewed earlier, the THX-certified 50PG60 and the entry-level 50PG20, a 720p display that’s enough of a bargain to occupy second place on our Best budget HDTVs list.

White balance: Warm
Red contrast: 10
Green contrast: -9
Blue contrast: 9
Red brightness: 0
Green brightness: 1
Blue brightness: 4

(Credit:
CNET)

Color management system
Red color: 0
Red tint: 6
Green color: 0
Green tint: 15
Blue color: 0
Blue tint: -6
Yellow color: 0
Yellow tint: -2
Cyan color: 0
Cyan tint: 11
Magenta color: 0
Magenta tint: 1

In person, however, the 50PG30 was a bit less impressive. Our main gripe has to do with color accuracy; despite a plethora of adjustments, including a full color management system that allows tweaking of primary and secondary colors, we couldn’t get color to look quite right. Just-average black levels didn’t help, and while video processing was solid, it couldn’t make up the gap between the LG and other entry-level 1080p plasmas.

One more note: Longtime readers of my reviews have come to expect them to be accompanied by picture settings that enable viewers to set up their TVs as I did for the review. Unfortunately, a (hopefully temporary) glitch prevents the publication of settings for the 50PG30 I reviewed. So, I’m including my picture settings below instead, and hopefully we’ll get that glitch cleared up soon.

For the complete scoop check out our full review of the LG 50PG30.

CNET reviews LG's entry-level 50-inch 1080p plasma, the 50PG30.

Expert control menu
Fresh contrast: Off
Noise reduction: Medium
Gamma: High Black level: High
Film Mode: On
Color Standard: [grayed out]

Picture menu
Aspect Ratio: Just Scan
Picture Mode: Expert 1
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 34
Sharpness: 20
Color: 48
Tint: 0

Get your Ning network started by entering basic information about it.

Why use Ning rather than one of the big-name social networks? The service lets you start quickly using its prefab tools, or add your own CSS and HTML to customize your network’s look and functionality. You have to put up with text ads along the right side of the screen if you sign up for the free service, but $20 a month lets a group or business run its own ads, or go ad-less entirely. If you need more than the 10GB of storage and 100GB of bandwidth available from the free version, pay $10 a month for each additional 10GB/100GB. You can use your own domain name for $5 a month.

Why was I exhibiting such antisocial tendencies on the Internet? Was I doomed to be a Web wallflower? Just when I thought all hope for an online social life was lost, I found Ning, a do-it-yourself social-network service that has been around since 2004, but that had a major facelift early last year.

Start by creating a profile: You need only provide an e-mail address, a name, and a password. Then you give your network a name, assign a domain that will end in “ning.com” (unless you pay to use your own domain name), and click Create Your Network to open the “About Your Network” page. Choose to make it public or private, enter a tagline and description, assign some keywords, pick a language, and upload an image to serve as the network’s icon.

My initial foray into the world of custom social networks wasn’t particularly productivity-enhancing, but it sure was fun. That doesn’t mean there’s not a place for this type of service in the business world. The most obvious is using Ning to add a social-network component to a small-business or workgroup site. Anyone who’s playing catch-up with the social-networking phenomenon (like me) will get a leg up at Ning.

There’s much you can do with the service besides create a social network, but all I was interested in was making it easy for family members spread across the country to see pictures of our grandson. If I wasn’t having so much fun uploading and annotating the pictures, I could’ve had the network up and running in less than an hour.

I thought the social-network train had left me at the station. Sure, I’ve had a Facebook page for a couple of years, but I rarely use it. Same with the MySpace page I created back in 2006 as part of a story I was editing on how to get started with the service. I’m more active on LinkedIn because of the business focus of that network, though I usually visit the site only when I get an alert via e-mail about some new connection.

Tomorrow: use Word and Excel to construct simple forms.

Create your Ning network from scratch by dragging and dropping components, or choose one of the service's network templates.

You can prompt network members to answer one or more questions to fill out their profile, and you can even make the questions mandatory, though their answers can be kept private from other members. By default, Ning asks their relationship status, “About Me,” and a Web site. After you view a summary of your network, click the Launch! button to get started. You’re prompted to enter and confirm a personal ID number, and then you’re ready to send out your invitations. You can do this singly, or in bulk by importing from your address book in Outlook or another client e-mail app, or from Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, or AOL Mail. You can also send the invitations via a link placed in a message sent from your client mail app.

The Features page lets you add RSS feeds, forums, videos, photos, and other components to your network, or you can skip this step and choose one of the service’s templates. Since I was looking for the simplest approach, I opted for one of the themes listed on the Appearance page. I could’ve customized the header, navigation, text, and other elements of the page, and developers can add their own CSS code by clicking the Advanced tab in the Customize section.