Wires Crossed #37 – May 20th
Stringer Goes on Offensive
Stringer Goes on Offensive
Sony CEO and chair Sir Howard Stringer didn’t become the top dog of one of the biggest consumer electronics companies in the world by being a shrinking violet. While the Japanese members of his executive have been very contrite about the PS Network being hacked and apologised profusely, Stringer is having none of it. In fact, he says the week it took the company to respond to the outage was timely, and even better than most other companies. Way to go Sir Howard. I’d suggest that the title of your autobiography be How to Win Friends and Influence People, but that that title is already taken by a self-improvement guru whose book Stringer might find a good read.
Twitter Helps Recover Stolen MacBook – 800km Away!
A tale of how the power of the internet helped return a stolen MacBook Pro to its rightful owner 800km away has to be read to be believed. Canadian web consultant Sean Power got his laptop stolen on a recent visit to New York. Realising trying to retrieve it would be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, Power left for home without it. However, Power had installed the free tracking software Prey on the desktop, and when the theft started up the laptop, not only did Power know its location, but it also automatically turned on the camera so he could see the culprit. What happened next is too detailed to divulge in Wires Crossed, but if you click on the link you’ll get the full story. Well worth a read.
How Online Is Affecting the Abortion Debate
Abortion is a huge issue in American politics where there are no prisoners taken on either side of the issue. Now pro-choice advocates are crying foul over the tactics of a Texas-based pro-life group and its online strategy. Online for Life is buying ad space on Google that misdirecst women seeking information about getting an abortion onto sites that do the exact opposite – give them reasons not to have one. And Google’s take on the proceding? Nada…
Why We Have Paypal: Exhibit A
We’ve many stories of rip-offs, fraud, cons and fleecing online over the years, but this one caught our eye for a different reason than most. A punter is claiming that they paid for a DS Light over Ebay, only for the item that turned up to be a fake. This has happened before of course, but what made this curious was the fake worked. Sure, the assembly and workmanship of the device was suspect, but it still ran the games fine. Seems like a lot of effort to put into an item to get a mediocre reward.
