offensive

Facebook grapples with pages exploiting Newtown victims

Government officials and family members of victims from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have asked Facebook to delete several offensive posts or tribute pages related to the massacre, according to the Associated Press.

Authorities have said that many of the Facebook pages are being used to berate survivors and victims' families, while others are fraudulently asking for funeral fund donations.

"Certainly there have been many, too many, of these pages that are intimidating or harassing or exploitive," U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal told the Associated Press.

Facebook has responded saying that it will work to remove the … Read more

Samsung goes on the offense against Apple next week

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Apple today said it plans to run through the rest of its major witnesses perhaps as soon as the end of the day, after which it will hand control of the case over to Samsung.

Apple's attorneys said in court this morning that they would get through another handful of its witnesses, picking up the pace from earlier in the week, when the company focused strongly on just a few design and marketing experts.

So far Apple has brought out two of its key executives, marketing chief Phil Schiller and iOS chief Scott Forstall, as … Read more

Social Engineering 101 (Q&A)

One of the more interesting events at this year's Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas late last month was a social-engineering contest that targeted big companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple. Participants pretending to be headhunters and survey takers were able to trick employees at the companies into giving out information over the phone that if it landed in the wrong hands could be used to sneak malware onto machines at the company or otherwise get access to the company's data.

The contest proved a number of things. That it is easy for strangers to get potentially sensitive … Read more

The 404 150: Where Justin apologizes profusely to Sarah Tew

We finally get CNET photographer Sarah Tew into The 404 lair and I screw it all up in the preshow. 'Twas totally unintentional, Ms. Tew, I promise! Ahh, this big, dumb mouth of mine. Anyway, Sarah was dragged in by Corinne Shulze, another CNET shooter visiting from the City by the Bay. In nothing short of a miracle, they still agree to do the show and we get right into it.

Wait, not quite...we have to talk about medical ailments and weekend buffoonery, right? Corinne tells us about her fight with a MUNI rail (you should've seen the … Read more

Self-destruct button should be blown to bits

The first self-destruction button was mildly amusing when it came out last year, and it actually served a useful purpose as a USB hub. But a miniature successor, a phone charm seen on Akihabara News, is just plain silly--all it does is flash a red light and play a recording that sounds like an explosion. Even that we could live with, but its $27 price tag is nothing short of offensive. We're tempted to buy one and use it for target practice with a .44 magnum, then post it on YouTube as an instructional video.