Today’s top stories in social media and technology for 3/28 include: BioShock Infinite creator doesn’t believe in Utopias, the inside story on the ‘biggest attack ever’ on the internet, Greta Van Susteren’s tale of her real life stalker, updates on the Spamhaus attack, divers try to hack through undersea cables, ‘Pant Snakes’ roadsign hackers, Prenda copyright trolls update, Google’s questionable Glass winners, Amazon’s purchase of Goodreads, Facebook’s “Home on Android” event, NJ wants to fine video game retailers (for no good reason), and new upcoming Xbox options.
Read below for these stories and more.
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Featured Story
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Best quote from the article at TechCrunch, which features an interview with Ken Levine: “What I was trying to do with BioShock
was to say, ‘Okay, well, [in Atlas Shrugged] that’s a utopia where Ayn
Rand, who made the philosophy, made all the rules, and all the
characters were under her control. What if things weren’t under
everybody’s control?’ And I think that’s the problem with utopias — we
bring ourselves to it, you know? We think we’re leaving our problems
behind but – I don’t mean this in a cynical way – we are the problem.
Like whatever social problems that occur come out of us. It’s not like
they fall out of the sky. I think people think they’re going to go to a
utopian society, and I think it’s not really possible.”
BioShock Infinite Creator Ken Levine Says He Doesn’t Believe In Utopias (Including Peter Thiel’s)
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Social Media/Tech Trends, Happenings and Faux Pas.
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‘Google makes questionable choices for Glass winners, starts rescinding invites.’
Proposal to “cut a bitch” gets selected for Google Glass program
“Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike”
Amazon Acquires Publishing-Oriented Social Media Site Goodreads
Is the Facebook Phone coming?
Facebook To Reveal “Home On Android” Sources Say Is A Modified OS On HTC At 4/4 Event
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Hoaxes, Harassment and Hacking.
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Greta Van Susteren tells the tale of her stalker, and how she felt bad upon discovering he had passed away.
This is weird…and even weirder, I confess I felt bad when I read it
Eli Lake talks to Sven Olaf Kamphuis, co-owner of Cyberbunker, which at one time hosted The Pirate Bay, about the attack on Spamhaus.
Yeah, We Broke the Internet: The Inside Story of the Biggest Attack Ever
An excellent anatomy from Ars Technica of yesterday’s retaliatory attack on Spamhaus.
How Spamhaus’ attackers turned DNS into a weapon of mass destruction
It is not yet known whether or not reports of other attempts in weeks prior to this incident are related.
Oh, this is way better than Zombies.
Hackers Put Weird Messages on Route 25 Electronic Road Sign
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Law and Order.
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For those of you following the Prenda copyright trolls case, here’s today’s update.
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Gamer-land.
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Given that the FTC just gave the gaming industry high marks for its excellent policing of sales of Rated “M” games to underage customers, this belongs in the “completely unnecessary solutions” department.
NJ Assemblyman Proposes Bill to Fine Video Game Retailers
New options include Xbox SmartGlass for Game of Thrones Season 3, MLB.TV Refresh, IndieFlix, video game and tech channel Revision 3, free movie service PopcornFlix, and Toys “R” Us Movies.
Microsoft Deploys New Entertainment Options on Xbox Live This Week