Customer: I’ve been having some issues with my droid’s camera
Verizon Rep: [with a small wave of his hand] These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
Customer: Wtf are you talking about…that makes no sense
Verizon Rep: [with another small wave of his hand] AT&T has inferior 3G coverage.
Customer: Dude, are you going to help me with my camera issue or no?
Verizon Rep: [with another small wave of his hand] You have no camera problem.
Customer: I have….no….camera…problem
Verizon Rep: You can leave now. Move along.

Wow. A firmware update without your knowledge or permission. Imagine the shit-storm if Apple or Microsoft did that…

[Quote:]

What if you saw the world with your ears? Inspired by M.C. Escher’s classic optical illusion and the echolocation of dolphins, Devil’s Tuning Fork challenges you to explore a new mode of perception through sound visualization.

This is gameplay footage from Devil’s Tuning Fork, a game created by the DePaul Game Elites team at DePaul University’s College of Computing & Digital Media in Chicago.

[Quote:]

Every year the New Oxford American Dictionary prepares for the holidays by making its biggest announcement of the year.  This announcement is usually applauded by some and derided by others and the ongoing conversation it sparks is always a lot of fun, so I encourage you to let us know what you think in the comments.

Without further ado, the 2009 Word of the Year is: unfriend.

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

Teabagger was one of the runner-ups, and would have been a funnier choice…

[Quote:]

The teabaggers are getting ready for the next round of wingnuttery against the Obama administration. It sure looks like they lost on health-care reform, but they have already been organized for a long time around the issue of immigration, so they are ready and rarin’ to go careening off the far-right cliff.

This weekend, the nativist right-wingers at ALIPAC and the National Policy Institute organized a series of “Tea Parties Against Amnesty.

However, at the rally in Minneapolis, the demonstrators got punk’d by a young man who called himself “Robert Erickson”.

“Erickson” got up and delivered a rant against European immigration. At first the crowd was whooping and hollering as he talked about the rights of “real Americans” — but then it gradually tapered off as he went on and they realized they’d been had.

[Quote:]

It’s hard to ignore some of the projects going on in China. One of the more impressive is a $200b high-speed rail network.

Efficient public transportation is a no-brainer for China. Combine rising energy costs with 1.3 billion citizens in need of transportation, and you have a socialist’s dream-project. If well-executed, it will provide superior transportation options and a lower cost of living for hundreds of millions.

[..]

I can’t resist noting that America has spent nearly the same amount bailing out AIG ($170b), as China will on this huge rail project.

[Quote:]

[Quote:]

Sure, Verizon’s doubled down on the 3G map ads in response to AT&T’s false advertising lawsuit, but eventually the company’s lawyers had to file a response and, well, ain’t nobody backing down in this one. Here’s the freaking introduction:

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.

Let me get some popcorn, this’ll be fun…