Wires Crossed #129 – August 21
By Mike Wheeler
Google Fail Cause Geeks To Go Into Meltdown
Going by the traffic on the twittersphere, and the amount of news it generated, you would think the end was nigh when Google crashed last Saturday morning. Most of its services including gmail, YouTube and the search engine were all down…for a whole five minutes! Five minutes is hardly something to get to upset about, yet you wouldn’t think so with some of the reactions it garnered around the world. But what we found surprising about the incident, is that there are (unconfirmed) reports that worldwide internet traffic dipped by a whopping 40 percent when it happened. Google must be quietly smirking to itself on how much we rely on it when surfing the internet.
Rioters Nabbed By Police After Showing Off On Social Media
You have to ask yourself, “how dumb can some people be?” Plenty it seems. Take 18 year old Luis Rodriguez of Anaheim, California. He was a visitor to the US Open of Surfing and Huntington Beach, also situated in California, when a riot erupted. He participated by tagging a police car. And how did the police know he did this? They caught him red handed? No. A bystander detained him? Nope. He handed himself in? Nada. They posted his picture on their Facebook page, and then Rodriguez decided to ‘like’ the picture. This was like a red rag to a bull as several friends of the Facebook page recognised him and told the cops. Don’t give up your day job Luis.
Huge Payout If Blackberry Sold
Smartphone pioneer Blackberry is on the lookout for a new buyer and one of the beneficiaries of a sale would be CEO Thorsten Heins to the tune of US$50+ million. It seems that his contract has a ‘change of controls’ provision, which means they would have to pay him out to the tune of $48 million in equity awards and $7 million in salary compensation. What we’re wondering is, how much say does he have in the sale? We know it would have to be approved at board level, but to say he has an interest in the outcome is an understatement.
F1 Star Mocked Over Pooch Tweet
Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton has been mocked after posting a tweet of his bulldog Roscoe. Why the derision? Reports claim that Hamilton said that his dog was looking poorly so he took the animal to acupuncturist and the picture shows the dog with needles sticking out of him. Some of his followers thought it was an uncool thing to do and let him know. However, what we find a little perplexing is how Hamilton knows how his dog is feeling just by looking at him, and why a vet wasn’t the first course of action. That aside, acupuncture for a dog? Really?
