Author: Josh Wolford

Bing’s “Scroogled” campaign, the one that not-so-subtly claims that you’re getting screwed by Google on a everyday basis (Bing says that it’s not Screw-gled, but Scrooge-led, like Ebenezer). is on the way out.

According to KQED, the TV, newspaper, and social media ad campaign is about to cease.

“That part is about finished,” said Stefan Weitz, Microsoft senior director of online services.

The Scroogled website is still up and running, and there’s no word on whether Bing will abandon the campaign entirely. But it looks like the actual advertisements are about to be phased out.

Originally targeted at Google Shopping results, Bing eventually morphed the Scroogled campaign into an attack on Google for purported Gmail privacy violations.

“Think Google respects your privacy? Think again. Google goes through every Gmail that’s sent or received, looking for keywords so they can target Gmail users with paid ads. And there’s no way to opt out of this invasion of your privacy,” says the Scroogled site.

That claim, which correctly points out the Google does (algorithmically) scan message content to serve ads, is a bit misleading (in-depth on that here).

Check here for more coverage of Microsoft’s Scroogled campaign.

25-year-old Baltimore native Andrew Fink works for Google at their offices in NYC. He is also an aspiring rapper.

Given those two facts, it makes perfect sense that he would release a rap about Google.

“Welcome to google, this is the googleplex / The home of where the futures kept.” Fink lets us know that Google is more than search, maps or earth, Google+, Gmail, and Google Wallet. And that they never settle, even when they’re in first.

[via Gizmodo]

According to one Australian mining outfit, doing the Harlem Shake on the job is a fireable offense.

ABC News is reporting that at least 15 miners at the Agnew Gold mine in Western Australia were canned after posting their own version of the Harlem Shake to YouTube. The 15 fired miners include participants in the video as well as those who simply watched it take place.

According to Barminco, the company that runs the mine, the Harlem Shake constituted at safety hazard and did not represent the company’s “core values of safety, integrity and excellence.”

You can watch the totally innocuous underground Harlem Shake below and decide if you think it deserved this kind of response:

Not only were the miners fired from their current gig, but Barminco also banned the workers from being “subcontracted by Barminco at any site domestically and globally.”

All of this for 30 seconds of (admittedly ridiculous) fun.

If you think that the firing was a little over the top, you can express your support for the miners on the Reinstate the sacked WA Harlem Shake Miners Facebook page.

A deacon at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Fullerton, a suburb of Baltimore, has been arrested and charged with multiple child pornography counts after Verizon tipped authorities to materials stored on the company’s online cloud backup system.

67-year-old William Albaugh was arrested and released on $75,000 bond after police found underage porn images and videos on his Verizon cloud backup as well as on numerous thumb drives in his home. Police confiscated two storage units, a laptop, and an iPad as well.

According to police, there is no evidence that any children at St. Joseph’s church were victims.

Albaugh reportedly told police that he has been viewing child pornography since the 1970s, but was in no way involved with any of the porn’s creation.

Albaugh had been a deacon at the church since 1996, but the archdiocese has confirmed that he has been suspended.

The police were first tipped to Albaugh’s child pornography collection when Verizon notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Verizon said that they had detected the images and videos stored on his Verizon Online Backup and Sharing account.

[Baltimore Sun via Ars Technica]

March 31st, March 31st, March 31st. Only a few more weeks, only a few more weeks, only a few more weeks. Keep repeating that to yourself and maybe you’ll be able to make it through Monday after watching the awesome new Game of Thrones season three extended trailer.

Facebook CEO Mark Zurckerberg is not sending out privacy notices, requesting that users verify their accounts. That’s because no such messages would ever come from the Facebook CEO. There’s also that pesky little detail that the CEO of Facebook is not Mark Zurckerberg.

This one should immediately throw up some red flags, considering that the scammers can’t even spell “Zuckerberg” correctly. A new phishing scam making its way around Facebook is just a new riff on a classic ruse.

Hoax Slayer is reporting a message hitting some users’ inboxes claims to be from “Mark Zurckerberg” and states that…

Mark Zurckerberg

Dear Facebook user, After reviewing your page activity, it was determined that you were in violation of our Terms of service.Your account might be permanently suspended.

If you think this is a mistake,please verify your account on the link below.This would indicate that your Page does not have a violation on our Terms of Service.

We will immediately review your account activity,and we will notify you again via email.
Verify your account at the link below:

Clicking on the link will direct users to a fake Facebook login page. Although made to look like the real Facebook login page, this malicious site will simply steal your info once you enter it in.

This type account verification scam is old, but persistent. Most claim that the user has violated some Facebook terms and must verify their account in order to keep it from being suspended. In the past couple of months, we’ve seen a couple variations of this scam hit Facebook. One version purported to come from the Facebook Security Team. Another scam message claimed that users had been “annoying or insulting” to other users and that they face account suspension. Both of those scams, like this “Zurckerberg” one, asked for personal info to “verify” the accounts.

On Sunday, New Rochelle high school beat Mount Vernon in the New York Section 1 Class AA championship.

But that’s only half the story.

What makes it extra special is the incredible way that it all went down. Good lord, what a scene.

Every week, it seems like somebody is making the news for forgetting that Facebook is a public forum and that people can actually see the things they post. A lot of the time, this lesson is learned in the form of a questionable photo that either gets the poster fired, arrested, or otherwise seriously embarrassed.

This story takes that formula and adds “totally unnerving” to the mix.

A Swiss nurse has run afoul of investigators after posting photos on Facebook showing her posing next to dead people – presumably people formerly under her care.

In captions posted alongside the photos, the nurse refers to herself as the “soul thief”:

“Guess she is asleep or is she dead? Hint: I’m the soul thief,” read one caption.

“Yeah, your time is over. Send them to hell, where some of them belong. The rest goes into the hole for compost fertilizer, hehehe,” read another. Both are Google Translated from German, but you get the picture.

According to reports, the nurse’s Facebook page was also full of “Satanic” imagery – “devilish images” and such.

Officials in the town of St. Gallen, Switzerland said that they are looking into possible criminal charges. The Swiss nurses federation said that they were “shocked and saddened” by the nurse’s actions.

Facebookers have been known to post photos of their deceased relatives at funerals and such (RIP GRANNY LOVE YOU #YOLO). But posting photos of dead people in your nursing care, well, that’s a whole other animal. Yikes.

[20min via France 24 via Jezebel]

Pulp, a british indie “comedy about comics,” debuts today as the first-ever Xbox 360-exclusive film.

As streaming and downloading options continue to expand, this is a first for the popular console. The film’s creators cite the growing cost of theatrical distribution as a motivator for the unusual release strategy.

“Theatrical distribution, nowadays, costs on average about £2 million per movie for marketing, prints and advertising…For a film like Pulp, that doesn’t have bankable stars with a track record, it’s a challenge for any distributor to take that gamble,” says director Adam Hamdy.

Here’s your official summary:

Thunder Racers, Infinite Finity, Rat Warriors. Junk Comics’ titles have been referred to as ‘the worst printed material since Mein Kampf’. Tony Leary, the nice-guy owner of Junk Comics, is gearing up for one last roll of the dice. His new superhero title, The Sodomizer, launches at the British International Comic Show, and nothing will stop Tony from making it a success. Nothing except a gang of Geordie criminals who are using a comic company to launder their dirty money. Tony is drafted by the police to identify the culprits and bring them to justice. Aided by his trusty geek sidekicks, Rick and Keith, Tony must defy the odds if he is to become a real life hero.

Pulp is available today, March 4th, for 1120 Microsoft points or 1420 Microsoft points if you want to splurge and watch it in HD.

You can expect more films like this – Microsoft says that they will be distributing more films via the Xbox console in the future.

[BBC via The Verge]

Today, Google is celebrating South African singer and political activist Miriam Makeba.

Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her professional career began in 1950 as part of the jazz group the Manhattan Brothers. Shortly after that, Makeba joined an all-female group called the Skylarks. In 1956, she scored her first hit “Pata Pata.”

After visiting the United States, Makeba was denied entry back into South Africa in 1960. For thirty years, Makeba lived in exile. She returned to her home country in 1990, shortly after Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

In her long career, Makeba won a Grammy award, sang for President John F. Kennedy, and became a “citizen of the world.” In her lifetime, Makeba held nine different passports and honorary citizenship in ten different countries. Throughout her exile, Makeba was a strong anti-apartheid activist.

Makeba died in 2008 after suffering a heart attack performing her first hit, “Pata Pata.” Today would have been her 81st birthday.

In today’s Google Doodle, the famed singer serves at the second “g” in the refashioned logo.

Remember earlier this week when that awesome physicist with that awesome mustache built that incredibly complicated machine to separate the Oreo cookie from the Oreo creme? Because he hated the creme?

Well, these two guys did the same thing, in a different (and cooler) way. And at least one of them is sensible enough to appreciate the creme.

[Oreo]

Yeah, I know. I KNOW, OK? But it’s the Heat and it’s a pretty good one…

Ah hell, you can send me hate email. Fine.

[MiamiHeat]

Mobile payments startup Square has apparently run afoul of the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation.

In a cease and desist order sent to Square, the Illinois department says that Square is “engaged in the business of transmitting money in Illinois, as defined by the Act, without the required license.”

The “act” that they refer to is the state’s “Transmitters of Money Act,” which says that:

No person may engage in this State in the business of selling or issuing payment instruments, transmitting money, or exchanging, for compensation, payment instruments or money of the United States government or a foreign government to or from money of another government without first obtaining a license under this Act.

The act clarifies that transmitting money means “the transmission of money by any means, including transmissions to or from locations within the United States or to and from locations outside of the United States by payment instrument, facsimile or electronic transfer, or otherwise, and includes bill payment services.”

Square has responded, saying,

“We’ve been in close contact with the Illinois Division of Financial Institutions for several months and are addressing their concerns.”

Far from an expert in legal affairs, I won’t attempt to make any additional comments about the order other than the fact that it looks like Square simply needs to obtain a license.

[TechCrunch]

In yet another example of what-happens-on-Facebook-happens-in-front-of-everyone-in-the-world-please-stop-posting-private-crap-on-Facebook-it’s-going-to-get-you-fired-or-arrested news, a Confluence, Pennsylvania police chief has resigned after a questionable photo made its way on the site.

The photo seen above of chief Tom Keller and a woman packing serious heat popped up on Facebook.

In his defense, Keller claims to have been the victim of a hacker that’s “just trying to embarrass him.” That would explain the fact that photo wound up on Facebook, I guess. But explaining the photo itself, well, that’s a different task.

According to Somerset County’s the Daily American, Keller has resigned his position after being suspended without pay.

“This photo was meant to be private,” he said. “It is a propped photo, a family photo of me and my wife just having fun.”

In response to the situation, town mayor Allen Gyorko said,

“In the winter, people get a little, what you call, cabin fever, you know. And they do goofy things..We’re a little distraught about it.”

[CBS Pittsburgh via CNET]

Facebook has just sent out press invites for an event to take place on Thursday, March 7th, at 10am PST.

The event invitation, no surprises here, is pretty vague. All that it says is “Come see a new look for News Feed.”

Although Facebook is constantly tweaking their products, the last time that the News Feed went through a major change was back in September of 2011 when they reconfigured the feed to include top news and most recent – plus they added the ticker to the right-hand side.

The most recent Facebook event took place in mid-January when the company unveiled Graph Search.

As always, we’ll be covering the event.

Kickstarter has just updated their iOS app for the first time since launching it two weeks ago, and according to the crowdfunding company v1.1 is “better, faster, and stronger.”

First off, users now have a new “messages view” which sorts messages in the app by inbox and sent.

Next, creator now have “better” push notifications. The Kickstarter app provides basic project analytics for creators, and they are notified on activity concerning each and every pledge they receive.

Also, video loading performance has received an update. Kickstart says that some people were having trouble with full-screen video (especially international users), and that problem has been fixed.

Here’s the full list of what’s new in v1.1:

• New Messages View: Messages in the app are now sorted by inbox and sent
• Better Notifications: Creators get better push notifications
• App Banner Fix: App now opens to just the right spot when you click Open from the website banner.
• Facebook + Signup Fixes: Some Facebook logins were failing and some new user signups saying “Name is required” even though you entered a name. It’s all fixed, it wasn’t you, it was us.
• Faster Video + Fixes: Some people were having problems with full screen video, you are now in the clear! International users should see much better performance loading a video.

“The app is a whole new way to experience Kickstarter. We took things we’ve learned from the past three years of building the site, and applied them to a total redesign for the iPhone. We redesigned the project page, browse pages, and others. And we focused on making three things really useful and fun: finding new projects, keeping up to date with projects you’ve backed, and offering great tools for creators,” said Kickstarter when they first launched the app a couple of weeks ago.

You can grab the update in the App Store today.

Easter egg time!

Go to YouTube and search “Do the Harlem Shake” and wait for the drop.

As popular as the Harlem Shake has been on YouTube in the last few weeks, I can’t say that I’m shocked that the team would give it a shoutout.

Google, of course, is known for its many wacky and wonderful easter eggs

Ok, now you can go back to trying to forget about this whole thing.

[via reddit]

After the death or resignation of a pope, the Sancta Sedes (Holy See) becomes vacant. Today, the Twitter account of former pope Benedict reflects this reality and has gone “Sede Vacante,” or latin for vacant seat.

As such, all of the former pope’s 39 tweets that he made since joining Twitter on December 12th, 2012 are gone. In the world of Twitter, @Pontifex hasn’t tweeted yet.

Yes, all of pope Benedict XVI’s tweets have been removed from Twitter – but they aren’t completely wiped out. The Vatican has archived all 39 on their news site and you can read all of them in nine different languages there.

The last tweet ever sent out by pope Benedict read “Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.”

Reports from last week based on Vatican radio claimed that the @Pontifex account would be shuttered following Benedict’s resignation. Yesterday, we learned that that wasn’t entirely accurate. Rather than be deleted, the account will lie dormant while the Conclave selects a new pope. At that time, it’ll be up to the new pope to decide whether or not he/she wants to continue the social media outreach.

“Obviously we leave all decisions to the new man. But we would hope that he might continue to use @pontifex, which would maintain continuity,” said Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications Paul Tighe.

Is Whose Line Is It Anyway, the popular improv show that made its debut in the U.K. and eventually moved on to a successful run in the U.S., returning to TV?

Whose Line MVP Colin Mochrie just tweeted this:

Oh, by the way, Whose Line is coming back. More details later.

— Colin Mochrie (@colinmochrie) March 1, 2013

Whose Line hit the States in 1998 and ceased production in 2007.

That’s all we have at the moment. Could mean a return to TV, or maybe an internet series. Who knows? I hope this has made your day significantly better. Carry on.

UPDATE 1: Ryan Stiles is in, as is Aisha Tyler as the new host. Apparently, “the Warner Bros channel plans to revive the show in April.”

Talk about your ultimate party trick. Ladies, control yourselves.

[SteveBerkeComedy]