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This or this one.

But lets not forget their current and insightful E3 coverage.

Is it just me or do articles starting with copies of letters from lawyers always turn out to be good?

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s= &threadid=1553110&perpage=40&pagenumber=1/

I'm not sure if I agree with the "Google is the new Microsoft" sentiments, but thinking before you install new software is always a good idea.

What's the difference between this and your ISP?
your ISP could do the same stuff people claim google can do (as far as tracking). I would like to know how the hell someone got logged in as someone else.

It's pretty simple, really.

1) Bob installs Google Web Accelerator.

2) Bob visits (let's say) Slashdot, and logs in as username "Bob."

3) Bob loads a couple of pages, maybe posts a message or two, then he goes to sleep. Meanwhile, Google caches all of the pages he visits.

4) George, who also uses Google Web Accelerator, visits the same page a few minutes after Bob did.

5) No new stories have been posted since Bob visited, so as far as Google is concerned, there's no need to update the cache.

6) George sees "Bob's version" of the page, complete with "You are signed in as: Bob" type link, and other customizations.

This hit SomethingAwful pretty hard the other day when GWA first went public. Google was caching a lot of pages that admins were viewing; then regular non-admin users with GWA were getting the admin versions of pages from the cache. People were able to see each others' private messages, etc. Quite the mess.

I'm going to repost something that I posted here last night. I believe it's relevant to the discussion. Repost as blockquote.

Aside from the privacy issue, I have a few major hangups with GWA. One is that it's going to skew web stats; too early to tell by how much, but it's a given that it will happen. If all of a sudden, 20% of a site's traffic appears to be coming from Google, that throws off the webmaster's ability to accurately judge who comprises their userbase. I at least hope that Google will pass through the correct (well, at least the user-reported) User-Agent and Referer.

Another problem is geotargeting, especially as it relates to fraud prevention. A lot of online credit card processors will reject transactions when the purchaser's IP address doesn't match the area they've used for the billing address. For example, if you enter in credit card details for somebody in Vermont, but your IP address says you're on SBC DSL in Reno, they aren't going to accept the charge. In my case, even if the processor lets one of these through, if I'm suspicious that the IP doesn't match the billing info, I cancel the order and refund the txn.

How is Google's proxy going to factor in? Giving them carte blanche is too great a risk, but prevent all of those users from making purchases as "possible fraud and I can't track down who's really making the order" and you're going to lose money. I generally don't accept any purchases from AOL users, because it's impossible to track down fraud after the fact (AOL, like GWA, uses caching proxies). It's primarily been a non-issue because there aren't many AOL users who are the least bit interested in anything I'm selling, but there are a lot of geeks who love Google. I wonder how GWA will play out in terms of CC fraud.

Further, there are possible copyright and trade secret implications. Let's say that you're browsing LexisNexis. Is Google going to cache the LexisNexis data (which is only supposed to be available to paying members)? Will it wind up in the search index? Maybe you're logged into your company's extranet browsing the latest product plans, not the sort of thing I'd want Google seeing. Well I don't want them seeing any of my non-google.com web traffic, but the things they could theoretically have access to via GWA users, yikes.

It's already been proven that GWA is caching things that it shouldn't be caching. In SomethingAwful's case, normal users were seeing admin pages, even seeing other people's private messages. GWA would cache someone's logged-in instance of a page, then redisplay that copy (complete w

What's the difference between this and your ISP?
your ISP could do the same stuff people claim google can do (as far as tracking). I would like to know how the hell someone got logged in as someone else.

It's pretty simple, really.

1) Bob installs Google Web Accelerator.

2) Bob visits (let's say) Slashdot, and logs in as username "Bob."

3) Bob loads a couple of pages, maybe posts a message or two, then he goes to sleep. Meanwhile, Google caches all of the pages he visits.

4) George, who also uses Google Web Accelerator, visits the same page a few minutes after Bob did.

5) No new stories have been posted since Bob visited, so as far as Google is concerned, there's no need to update the cache.

6) George sees "Bob's version" of the page, complete with "You are signed in as: Bob" type link, and other customizations.

This hit SomethingAwful pretty hard the other day when GWA first went public. Google was caching a lot of pages that admins were viewing; then regular non-admin users with GWA were getting the admin versions of pages from the cache. People were able to see each others' private messages, etc. Quite the mess.

I'm going to repost something that I posted here last night. I believe it's relevant to the discussion. Repost as blockquote.

Aside from the privacy issue, I have a few major hangups with GWA. One is that it's going to skew web stats; too early to tell by how much, but it's a given that it will happen. If all of a sudden, 20% of a site's traffic appears to be coming from Google, that throws off the webmaster's ability to accurately judge who comprises their userbase. I at least hope that Google will pass through the correct (well, at least the user-reported) User-Agent and Referer.

Another problem is geotargeting, especially as it relates to fraud prevention. A lot of online credit card processors will reject transactions when the purchaser's IP address doesn't match the area they've used for the billing address. For example, if you enter in credit card details for somebody in Vermont, but your IP address says you're on SBC DSL in Reno, they aren't going to accept the charge. In my case, even if the processor lets one of these through, if I'm suspicious that the IP doesn't match the billing info, I cancel the order and refund the txn.

How is Google's proxy going to factor in? Giving them carte blanche is too great a risk, but prevent all of those users from making purchases as "possible fraud and I can't track down who's really making the order" and you're going to lose money. I generally don't accept any purchases from AOL users, because it's impossible to track down fraud after the fact (AOL, like GWA, uses caching proxies). It's primarily been a non-issue because there aren't many AOL users who are the least bit interested in anything I'm selling, but there are a lot of geeks who love Google. I wonder how GWA will play out in terms of CC fraud.

Further, there are possible copyright and trade secret implications. Let's say that you're browsing LexisNexis. Is Google going to cache the LexisNexis data (which is only supposed to be available to paying members)? Will it wind up in the search index? Maybe you're logged into your company's extranet browsing the latest product plans, not the sort of thing I'd want Google seeing. Well I don't want them seeing any of my non-google.com web traffic, but the things they could theoretically have access to via GWA users, yikes.

It's already been proven that GWA is caching things that it shouldn't be caching. In SomethingAwful's case, normal users were seeing admin pages, even seeing other people's private messages. GWA would cache someone's logged-in instance of a page, then redisplay that copy (complete w

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2858

Really insightful.

SA Article on Web Accelerator Flaw

I love Google as much as anyone else here, but this definately points out that even the geniuses at Google can make mistakes, and this is just a tiny look at what can happen with those mistakes.

I hope Google is able to fix this or pulls the web accelerator.

~Rebecca

The SA goons server admins seem to have discovered some serious flaws in the program. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s= &threadid=1550986

I think I've heard of this robot somewhere before.

And, of course, the original work that inspired that.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/02/22 15203&tid=98&tid=95&tid=17

Once again, something that Something Awful (at least their forum archives) has already been doing. Nothing new here.

Of course these wires cost nearly as much as the DVD player itself, even more if you include the Monster-brand power filtration adapting converter unit which instantly converts your cash into lines of high grade Columbian cocaine for the company's CEO.

grandma's gonna have a hard time figuring out what the "Shu..." button does on her large-text setup
It starts a game of shuffleboard, of course.

What I'd like to know is, have they done anything to make the actual shutdown dialog more useful? The button icons completely fail to depict what they're supposed to be. I had to use a Spanish computer one time and couldn't figure out how to turn it off. I'd never used Windows XP before, and those buttons are absolutely meaningless without the text underneath them.

grandma's gonna have a hard time figuring out what the "Shu..." button does on her large-text setup
It starts a game of shuffleboard, of course.

What I'd like to know is, have they done anything to make the actual shutdown dialog more useful? The button icons completely fail to depict what they're supposed to be. I had to use a Spanish computer one time and couldn't figure out how to turn it off. I'd never used Windows XP before, and those buttons are absolutely meaningless without the text underneath them.

grandma's gonna have a hard time figuring out what the "Shu..." button does on her large-text setup
It starts a game of shuffleboard, of course.

What I'd like to know is, have they done anything to make the actual shutdown dialog more useful? The button icons completely fail to depict what they're supposed to be. I had to use a Spanish computer one time and couldn't figure out how to turn it off. I'd never used Windows XP before, and those buttons are absolutely meaningless without the text underneath them.

The Internet Makes You Stupid.

for George to pass the Star Wars torch to someone else

Not if you have Leonard "J." Crabs on your side!

Err, it's a joke stolen from Something Awful (http://www.somethingawful.com/)

Jesus Christ, does Slashdot get all their links from the Awful Forums? First the Best Buy $2 arrest, now this.

This reminds me of a hilarious review I saw on AO a few years back; had me in tears the first time!

Besides, drawn/written child-porn is already allowed in the US and Canada as long as its creator puts a little disclaimer on it saying that "All characters are 18 or older"... even if other parts of the work mention a character who's just turned 18 lusting after her younger brother (an actual example from a hentai game sold on j-list.com). Somehow, the way the laws work, you can sell graphic hentai starring a character who looks 8 or 9 as long as you claim she's 18 (See: this review of Jewel Knights Crusaders), but if you draw a character who looks 18 and say she's 15, that's OMG CHILD PORN! and will get you in serious trouble.

There are no tentacles in Hentai games. A hentai game is just a dating sim with "money shots."

You call this a "dating sim with money shots"?!

(Link probably not safe for work; definitely not safe for anyone with a concept of "good taste")

Cannot find intelligence. http://www.somethingawful.com/nointelligence/index .htm

Make Trek History.

(It's part of this series of Photoshop Phridays, and is a parody of a rather badly designed advertisement against poverty. Open question: Can there be a well designed advertisement against poverty?)

Side note, huge Trek fan, finally got into Enterprise this season.

Make Trek History.

(It's part of this series of Photoshop Phridays, and is a parody of a rather badly designed advertisement against poverty. Open question: Can there be a well designed advertisement against poverty?)

Side note, huge Trek fan, finally got into Enterprise this season.

No. http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2559

You can get japanese H games in the US legally, though not at any retailers that I know of. There are cute little animal games where your cute little animal takes cute little turds, but not on anybody. There is a webgame version of Puyo Puyo where your special attack is throwing up on your opponent. There were a few games in the 80's where birds would poo on you, though those weren't very good games. There's the 7 sins, where the point is to try to have sex with as many people as possible. There is, of course a PS2 version.

There are a lot of bad games out there. But then, there are millions of games out there. By the same token, I don't have anything morally against making parents come in and buy games for their kids if they want them to have them. I've known far too many people in the retail sector who have told kids no, and been yelled at by the parent for stopping their kid from buying, say, Manslaughter. Inevitably, the parent then comes back the following day and freaks out on the poor underpaid associate for selling such filth to their kid.

I think the generation which preceeded ours has certain expectations about cartoons and videogames which ours does not. To them, more mature cartoons or videogames is like Jack Daniels flavored breastmilk. Or black leather studded diapers. In exactly the same way that movies were seen as kid's stuff at the turn of the century, so too is videogames the realm of kids. And therefore anything that gets released in a videogame is marketed at kids, and all of that stuff that you see in videogames is people trying to mess up your children.

It's a different perspective. While I don't disagree with the idea of restricting the sale of certain videogames to minors, I do disagree with the perspective.

a biography of Jeff K?

One hundred stairs de-scended!

We are the su-perior being!

We have e-merged victorious!

EX-TERM-I-aaw, FUCK..

(Not my photoshop. Original at bottom of http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1419. And as my desktop wallpaper.)

One hundred stairs de-scended!

We are the su-perior being!

We have e-merged victorious!

EX-TERM-I-aaw, FUCK..

(Not my photoshop. Original at bottom of http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1419. And as my desktop wallpaper.)

Case in point : teh intarweb

"PEARPC IS LICENSED UNDER THE GPL. WITH ALL GPL'ED SOFTWARE, YOU MUST MENTION THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND INCLUDE THE SOURCE CODE. TURNING GPL'ED CODE INTO COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE IS NOT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. TURNING GPL'ED CODE INTO COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE WITHOUT GIVING CREDIT TO THE ORIGINAL AUTHORS OR INCLUDING A COPY OF THE SOURCE CODE IS COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT."

no kidding, thats what i said with "if they had just said they were making a comercial product based on pearpc there wouldnt have been so much trouble;" i may have only implied that they should have followed the GPL, but i thought that most /.ers were smart enough to pick up on that implication. based on your post im guessing your not from the usa because we americans got this thing called inocent until proven guilty. the internet isnt a court of law, but i believe that people should be considered inocent until they are proven guilty; whether their accused of stealing code or manslaughter makes no difference to me.

yes i realize im talking to a brick wall

A lot sites get cease and desist letters. Must don't even bother to respond or if they do, it can be quite humerous.

McAfee Virus Admin users, of course.

Perhaps Ipod will predict when Hewy Lewis and the news will make a mainstream comeback?

NASA already has some extremely sophisticated machinery to do just that. That's how they found out that Huey Lewis will save rock 'n' roll.

...here is the last image published on the web.

Is located here.

This is the funniest review I've ever read.

Awful Link of the Day

Everquest II Pizza (thanks OMGWTFBBQ) - Great news for those of you too lazy to actually use a telephone while playing Everquest II; you can now order a pizza from inside the game. Blue faggot needs food badly.

[Image of Everquest Guy Holding a Pizza Here]

Corn_Boy - where is my friend robot!

Lowtax - PAK CHOOIE UNF

HE CANNOT CANNOT USE ICQ NOW HE HAS GONE DOWN THE STAIRS

PAK CHOOIE UNF

Corn_Boy - nonono is he alright robot!

Lowtax - PAK CHOOIE UNF

I AM NOT A ROBOT OF THAT TYPE TO EXAMINE

DATA: TO PROTECT FROM THE TERRIBLE SECRET OF SPACE

DATA: SHOVE

PAK CHOOIE UNF

See screenshot: here

HTH.

Here is an example of what amateur photoshoppers can do. Only difference being this is SA not Fark =)

I mostly hate Fark and SA, but I actually get a laugh out of this akbar joke

Without starting a vicous flamewar I think the SA Forum goons would do a much better job.

Oh freddled gruntbuggly
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.

Game companies need to stop thinking about making money because if the game is crap I'm probably just going to pirate it anyway....

Or you might consider, you know, not playing it at all?

I'm not saying this as an anti-pirate screed. I'm saying, don't you have better things to do than play crappy games? (Unless it's a springboard for other projects, but that's a rare case.)

Please don't let him stop with the above post; it's far too entertaining.

So where were we... oh yeah, how about that DNF on the Phantom?

ATTENTION ALL! A collaboration between the might of Fark and Something Awful is pushing for a write-in video to get to #1...and what better song than Whip It, by the almighty Devo! So what the hell are you waiting for? It's easy and takes only a few minutes. Go to TRL's online voting thing and go to the write-in portion, and vote for Whip It by Devo. That's it! If you can, call in to MTV to request it over the phone (the number and info is in the Something Awful thread linked above), as to phone votes count for more. Perhaps if the whole anti-MTV internet community works together, we call all make history!

Oooh, my karma's gonna burn for this one.

tetris animated gif

tetris rl

-- gid