Wires Crossed #60 – November 11

Apple Breach One Too Many For Security Chief
It’s rumoured that Apple’s head of security, John Theriault, has been ‘forced’ into retirement after the latest gaffe involving one of the company’s iPhone prototypes.  In August 2010, a prototype of the then unreleased iPhone 4 was left in a bar and found its way into the hands of a technology journalist. Then, in July this year the same thing happened with another sample. While Apple will not confirm the demise of its security chief, if they have let him go, it goes some way to scotching thoughts that maybe these incidents were nothing more than viral marketing campaigns.

Carr Stuffs Up After Motorway Tragedy
In comedy, it’s said that timing is everything. British comedian Jimmy Carr needs to work on his. Not long after seven people were killed in a car pile-up on Britain’s M5 motorway, Carr tweeted the following “An (sic) couple married for 66 yrs died within 3 days of each other. That's nothing. My grandparents died on exactly the same day…. car crash.” He claims that the tweet was unrelated to the accident. Yeah, sure Jimmy, we believe you – if only you didn’t have a track record of telling such sick jokes at inappropriate times we might even believe you!

Kinect Offers Up Medicinal Remedies
Microsoft’s Kinect was originally developed as a way to play games whereby your limbs were used as controllers, and therefore gave a new dimension to gameplay. Now, Microsoft is touting new uses for the device that fall outside the sphere of gaming. Some hospitals in Britain are using the Kinect system to help rehabilitate stroke patients, children with autism, and even as a way for surgeons to check out Xrays without having to worry about getting their hands contaminated. That’s just cool.

Fake Facebook Threat From NZ Causes Ripples In Texas
A youth from Rangiora in New Zealand’s South Island made threats on a Facebook page that he was going to “go to school and shoot everyone in sight”, claiming he was a victim of bullying. The only problem was he made out that he was from Cherokee, a small town in the state of Texas, USA. Authorities in America contacted Facebook, who found that the IP address was in Auckland, and was then traced to Rangiora. As it turned out, the kid was a victim of bullying and is now receiving counselling. Yet another example of how something that was posted on the internet can have repercussions thousands of kilometres away.