Online Game Cheaters Start Out Young?

First, let me introduce Club Penguin to you. According to Wikipedia, Club Penguin is

an online game primarily designed for children ages eight to fourteen, although you can be older, developed by New Horizon Interactive and bought by Disney. Using cartoon penguin avatars, players can waddle around, converse, play minigames, and participate in other activities with one another in a snow-covered virtual world.

which sounds like Second Life for kids. Obviously I don't participate in Club Penguin at all, so why am I even posting this?

Well like other games, there are cheaters or hackers if you will. And I didn't think kids' games had hackers. Looks like I was wrong.

Recently, a Youtube user posted a video walkthrough of hacking club penguin. Testmssg (testmsg), the person who posted the video, even helpfully states that "The packet that you are looking for will say the amount of coins at the end of it." And lots of kids seem to be searching it.



Looking deeper, I even found a forum dedicated to Club Penguin cheats (presumably by testmssg), though I don't get the rationale of hacking a free game. Or maybe I do.

As you may have guessed, all the trouble is simply to gain more money aka coins in the game. Which could get a player banned. Which would probably lead to complains, whining on forums and elsewhere.

Sounds familiar? Guess they had to start somewhere.

Internet People - A Tribute to Internet Celebs!

An animated tribute to the internet people of the world, wherever you may be. Animated by Dan Meth, with music by Dan Meth and Micah Frank.

More about Meth Minute 39 >

Have fun remembering internet memes such as The Star Wars kid, Ok GO!, diet coke and mentos! For the list of memes featured in this video (to relive the good times or if you're just curious), visit Channel Federator or MetaFilter.

Afterthought: Hmm... will this video about internet memes become a meme? Just something to think about.

Never Try To Beat A Train

A mother driving a minivan full of kids tried to beat a passing train, but instead, ended up being hit by 2 trains.

In the surveillance video below, the minivan races through a carpark while a train is passing through. At first, it looks like the minivan is going to make it but another train is approaching in the background.

Before you know it, the vehicle is hit by trains on both sides and the result is disastrous. Her two daughters were killed in the crash, while she remains in a critical condition in hospital. Luckily, her sons seem to have escaped with minor injuries as they have been released from hospital.

By releasing this video, it is hoped that other drivers would think twice before trying to beat a train.



[Source: NBC]

You're Too Sexy To Fly!

Two months ago, a 23-year-old college student, Kyla (Kayla) Ebbert, was told to change her clothes by Southwest Airlines because she was deemed to be too hot to fly! According to her, the guy at Southwest thought her entire outfit was inappropriate.

Because she was flying light, she didn't have anything to change into. Other than the very public lecture she received, she also had to endure the embarrassment of covering up her legs with a blanket the whole flight.

In the MSNBC photo on the left, the miniskirt doesn't look very short. I bet you could find shorter skirts on the streets. That is until you watch the video where she wears the same dress as she did that day (link below). That's when you notice the host looking slightly uncomfortable and as the MSNBC article notes, she flashes the audience.

And with this highly publicized incident, questions are brought up about Southwest Airlines dress code and possibly those of other airlines. Where should the line be drawn? Who decides when is too much (or in this case too little)?

In this case though, I think it was a bad call by the people at Southwest. She was definitely dressed in a sexy outfit, but it could have been handled better and with discretion. Something I would have suggested at the time would be to swap seats with someone else. Maybe Southwest should take lessons from Steve Jobs.

Edit: A thread at fark has more pictures of her.

[Video of interview]
[Source: MSNBC]

$100 Credit is Worth More to Apple than You

Recently at 'The Beat Goes On' event, Apple announced a $200 price cut for iPhones and the phasing out of the "older" 4GB iPhone. Now if you didn't know that the iPhone was just released 2 months ago, you could be forgiven for thinking, "Well, that's life", or more bluntly, "Haha, suckers".

However, armed with the knowledge that the iPhone is a new product, would you have bought an 8GB iPhone if you knew that the price would drop by 33% (200/599 * 100%)? In fact, would you buy any product that would depreciate that quickly (a rate of 0.55% a day)? Repeat this simple procedure with the 4GB iPhone and you're looking at a 40% drop.

What's worse it that the iPhone you bought isn't even worth that much anymore, since it's a 2nd hand item. Assuming a secondhand 8Gb is worth $349 (based on refurb iPhone prices), your iPhone value has just dropped 42% in a few weeks (I don't even need to whip out my calculator, since Apple has kindly done the calculations and states "Save 42% off the original price").

Granted, no one can predict the future, but surely Apple had made plans for an event that was only 2 months away from the iPhone launch?

With these figures, you can see why iPhone customers were fuming. Some called it the "iPhone early adopter tax". Others decided to take matters into their own hands and storm Apple outlets to demand refunds (I may be exaggerating but you get the idea).

Which is why Apple responded with an open letter to their loyal customers. In it, the CEO, Steve Jobs, notes that people weren't too happy and justifies the decision to lower the iPhone price in order to target the holiday season, which I'm sure is well received by potential iPhoners.

There's also a paragraph about how technology prices are constantly in flux and suggests how early adopters will probably lose out one way or another. And then he offers a $100 store credit to iPhone users who aren't getting any kind of refund.

That's when you realize Apple may actually be doing something nice for their customers. You think so? Think again. A $100 store credit is not the same as $100 back in your pocket. When Apple sells something for $100, it costs them less than $100 to make it. That's how they stay in business.

Giving out $100 credit encourages people to check out their store and splurge cash on items that they may not have bought if it were $100 more. And there are quite a number of items (hint: new iPods) that may just catch the attention of iPhone users. Which means more business for Apple.

Even if none of them bought anything above $100, the loss to Apple would be less than giving out $100 handouts. Plus, the publicity from this open letter is certainly worth something.

This is a good example of how Apple took a few bad apples and made them good, which shows how shrewd a businessman Steve Jobs is. Anyone who plans on becoming the next Steve Jobs should take note.

And just in case anyone forgot, the price reduction was $200.