People like doing stupid fake shit on e-bay too much. This is obviously fake if you look at the history but it’s just crazy that people would put all this effort in to having something that isn’t real so the can have a little bit of internet fame.

Insertion Fees
Starting or Reserve Price Insertion Fee
$0.01 – $0.99 $0.25
$1.00 – $9.99 $0.35
$10.00 – $24.99 $0.60
$25.00 – $49.99 $1.20
$50.00 – $199.99 $2.40
$200.00 – $499.99 $3.60
$500.00 or more $4.80

Final Value Fees
Closing Price Final Value Fee
Item not sold No Fee
$0.01 – $25.00 5.25% of the closing value
$25.01 – $1,000.00 5.25% of the initial $25.00 ($1.31), plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 to $1,000.00)
Over $1,000.01 5.25% of the initial $25.00 ($1.31), plus 2.75% of the initial $25.00 - $1,000.00 ($26.81), plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value)

1) Seller files an Unpaid Item dispute

Sellers can report an Unpaid Item up to 45 days after the transaction date (i.e. the date when the buyer commits to buying the item and the seller commits to selling it). Usually the seller must wait 7 days after a listing closes to file an Unpaid Item dispute. However, in the following exceptional cases, the seller can file a dispute immediately:
at the time of the filing the buyer is no longer a registered user of eBay, or
the buyer is from a country to which the seller has indicated they will not ship, in the "shipping and payment details" section of the listing. (regions to which the seller will ship are listed on the View Item page for the item in question), or
the seller and buyer both wish to mutually withdraw from the transaction.
In the first two cases the buyer will receive an Unpaid Item strike and the seller will receive a Final Value Fee credit without any additional steps. In the third case the seller must file the dispute for mutual withdrawal reasons first, and if the buyer responds to the dispute and agrees the seller will receive a Final Value Fee credit and no strike will be given to the buyer. If the buyer fails to respond, the seller can still close the dispute to receive a Final Value Fee credit, but the buyer will not receive an Unpaid Item strike.

Pretty easy to fake list something and not pay for anything.

Last week a deadly virtual plague broke out in the online game World of Warcraft. Although limited to only a few of the game's servers the numbers of characters that have fallen victim is thought to be in the thousands. Originally it was thought that the deadly digital disease was the result of a programming bug in a location only recently added to the Warcraft game. However, it now appears that players kicked off the plague and then kept it spreading after the first outbreak. Recently added was the Zul'Gurub dungeon which gave players a chance to confront and kill the fearsome Hakkar - the god of Blood. In his death throes Hakkar hits foes with a "corrupted blood" infection that can instantly kill weaker characters. The infection was only supposed to affect those in the immediate vicinity of Hakkar's corpse but some players found a way to transfer it to other areas of the game by infecting an in-game virtual pet with it. This pet was then unleashed in the orc capital city of Ogrimmar and proved hugely effective as the Corrupted Blood plague spread from player to player. Although computer controlled characters did not contract the plague, they are said to have acted as "carriers" and infected player-controlled characters they encountered.

When we begin to take human conditions and then apply them to internet idea it’s amazing how quickly things can spread. So we really should watch things like this if we start to apply more person al and private things in such situations and we might begin to have internet pick pockets that can just grab our information and run as we are walking around the internet.

In an effort to get there name out they made a rather nice website showing everyone how to get hooked up. Nintendo recently launched the Nintendo WiFi portal which is the way for all Nintendo DS owners who want to play online. Many regions do not yet have a full completed site but the United States one is up. On the site you’ll be able to see the status of the service and find a list of games that go online. By registering an account there will be special features available for download. At the moment it says the service is full operational even though most games aren’t out yet.
At the moment, these are the games that go online:
• Mario Kart DS
• Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land
• Animal Crossing: Wild World
• Metroid Prime Hunters
It’s very interesting to see that Nintendo has already set up this wireless linked community even before Google. Even though Google has been trying to set up various networks around the country it seems the Nintendo slipper right past them and has created this network all by themselves to connect all the Nintendo DS players. So it will be interesting to see if Google will now run even faster before the Nintendo network begins to extent to computers.

Some golden clips:

Short clip of a Lebanese cleric insisting the intellectuals among Native Americans spoke Arabic with Columbus
http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ClipMediaID=90981&ak=null

Ten-minute cartoon from Iranian TV promoting suicide bombing
http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ClipMediaID=87439&ak=null

And loads more that we haven't gotten the chance to watch yet. There are more cartoons if you go to the search area and choose Iran as the country. Amazing stuff.

It’s just amazing how different the world is out there. I mean we wonder why people there go and do suicide bombing it’s because little children see the heroes of their cartoons slaughtered. For the amount of communication and technology there is that allows for the sharing of information it’s amazing the people who make this aren’t found out about and told to stop. I mean this is on their public television and is broadcast all over the country. Plus what they are saying is utterly crazy. They just ramble on with no really idea of what is true and what is false they just want their silly nationalistic ideas all over the place.

The article talks about the Xbox 360’s launch in comparison to the Dreamcast launch and how poorly Dreamcast did. I really think the Microsoft botched their second system and that it will fail miserably. However because Microsoft is rich and intends on taking over the world through the Microsoft network I highly doubt it will phase them in their undertakings into the video game world.

I just think that it's not going to do too good cause it was released too early, I still feel that both console's PS2 and XBOX are still in there prime's, more so XBOX then PS2. While I also think that the 360 won't drop off like the Dreamcast did because obviously MS wouldn't let it, I just think that the PS3 will come out on way on top again.

I do have a few questions as to why the Xbox 360 seems to have been released so quickly. It was kind of like the bad taste that was left in your mouth after eating something bad, something just didn't feel like it was time yet. I mean Microsoft cut out the HD-DVD support about a month before the launch.

For every reason stated in that 1up.com report the Xbox 360 seems to parallel a lot of things that the Dreamcast did, in fact mirroring them very closely. With this system, however, it really feels rushed, and they've been having a few problems with their systems (I think it was 14% of machines had something very wrong). PS2 had a few problems at launch, but they weren't as widespread as the Xbox 360.

I mean, Nintendo has the controller, PS3 has got loads of new hardware specs that haven't been seen, and the Xbox has only a reinforced online structure as its offering to the next-gen crowd. I was expecting a lot more than just high definition.

Xbox is doing nothing more than hoping everyone will cave and buy and Xbox 360 and then have no money for the PS3 and the Revolution. The simple fact is that it's just like how the Xbox is now - they have some hard core gamers that will just die for their Halo competitions but other than that it's a waste of money. If you want an actual variety of games that are well made on a system that had a lot of time put into it look to the PS3 and the Revolution.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9706825/
LA MIRADA, Calif. - What would Jesus blog?
That and other pressing questions drew dozens of Christians to a Southern California university this weekend for what was billed as the first-ever national conference for "God bloggers," a growing community of online writers who exchange information and analyze current events from a Christian perspective.
The three-day conference at Biola University marked an important organizational benchmark for Christian bloggers, who have worked behind the scenes for several years to spread the Gospel and infuse politics with religion. It was the first time many of the 135 bloggers met face-to-face, and organizers took the opportunity to address sometimes controversial questions surrounding the future of the Christian blogosphere.
Topics included God bloggers' relationship with the traditional church, their growing influence on mainstream politics and how to manage outsiders' perceptions.
Many bloggers are now putting less emphasis on hot-button issues such as abortion, homosexuality and assisted suicide and are instead writing about religious oppression, poverty and world hunger, said Andrew Jackson, a seminary professor and pastor at the Word of Grace Church in Mesa, Ariz., who blogs daily at smartchristian.com.
"I think there is more and more a voice in the blogosphere against partisan politics and a voice toward public policy, social action issues and justice issues," said Jackson, who was a panelist at Biola, a small Christian university about 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
That change is in part because bloggers are realizing the tremendous influence they can have — and how that influence can be misdirected and misunderstood, he said.
"There is a voice of caution — and that is even coming from those who would self-identify as Republicans. Partisan politics is not what informs our faith, the Bible is what informs our faith."
Bloggers are beginning to take on more unifying issues such as religious persecution, human trafficking and oppressive poverty, said Joe Carter, a panelist and author of evangelicaloutpost.com who came from Deerfield, Ill., for the conference.
"With blogging you tend to break out of those circles and you see other points of view," said Carter, 36. "There's a bigger world out there than gay marriage and abortion."
Bloggers at the conference stressed, however, that they don't want religious people to put aside their beliefs to appease non-Christians.
During one well-attended workshop entitled "When Non-Christians Read Your Blog," Biola University professor Timothy Muehlhoff instructed people on how to write about their faith without alienating nonbelievers.
He stressed that God blogging has the potential to be a "train wreck" because done wrong it can reinforce stereotypes of evangelical Christians as angry and close-minded "pit bulls of the culture wars."
"We need to write in such a way that people can see themselves presented as ... complex people who aren't monsters," said Muehlhoff, who studied conflict between homosexual students and conservative Christians at his previous post at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
"As Christians today we are embroiled in the argument culture and we have forgotten this one thing: 'Blessed are the peacemakers.' Wouldn't it be nice if we could say we brought a level of civility back to the conversation?"
Other conference participants said they were concerned with the lack of interaction between the Christian online community and the traditional church and worried that someday the online church would replace physical congregations.
Still others predicted that would never happen, but said bloggers could play a role in reforming the modern church by keeping televangelists and other high-profile Christian leaders honest.
Carter compared blogging to the 95 Theses posted by Martin Luther nearly 500 years ago that launched the Protestant Reformation.
"It's like putting 95 blogs out there," said Carter, who said in an earlier interview that God bloggers offer an "uncensored and unadulterated" view of contemporary Christian thought on politics and organized religion that isn't reflected in the mainstream media.
Jackson, of smartchristian.com, said he wasn't as sure what long-term influence blogging would have on evangelical Christians — but he knew it would have an important one.
"We are just at the beginning of what is going on. We need to start thinking about how we can harness and focus the Christian blogosphere for greater impact," he said. "What we do and how that takes shape is up for discussion."

I found this article to be very refreshing. For once there was a conference of Christian issues that actually focused on helping people rather than just blind attack of several groups. It seems that the internet bloggers have recognized that for the greater good of Christianity that we need to take a step back and look at the main idea of Christianity. Their focus wasn’t “keep the homosexuals from getting married” or “stop abortion” but rather help people. They want to focus on more pressing topics such as religious oppression in other countries and world hunger. They understand that traditional churches have become close minded and therefore have a tendency to alienate non believers. If Christianity wants to grow more we need to appeal to people from all walks of life rather than focusing on the good and the pure and doing everything in out power to cast out the sinners with out a second look. As they say “Carter compared blogging to the 95 Theses posted by Martin Luther nearly 500 years ago that launched the Protestant Reformation”. I’m Lutheran so this had particular appeal to me. Sometimes that the church as a whole needs to take a step back and see what they are really advocating and take the advice from an on looker that they are heading down the wrong path.

On the note of illegal sharing I believe it has its pros and cons. I would happily pay any artist money for any song of theirs I download. However artists see very little of what we pay for cd’s. Most of it goes to the recording company and the managers. This is what I don’t agree with. I believe that recording artist need to be able to market themselves and not go through bug recording companies because that is whey they make no money. No one likes to pay the outrageous prices for cd’s either. Everyone loves their music and specific songs but if we had to buy all the cd’s we would never have any money. Most of the time we have all the music digitized for easy listening on our computers or mp3 players. What artist need to do is set up their own websites that fans can but their music directly off of so that we can support them fully and not have to pay the recording companies so much. Then even though illegal downloading will still happen the people who actually do care will be able to give their support for their favorite artists.

Something I found that’s a bit off topic but still kind of neat is this.

A new security vulnerability has been discovered: the clickety clack of the keyboard.
An audio recording of an individual's typing can be transposed into a transcript of what was typed, according to researchers with the University of California, Berkeley. The technique works because each key makes a distinct sound when hit, and users, who typically type about 300 characters a minute, leave enough time between keystrokes for a computer to isolate the individual sounds.
The researchers were able to take several 10-minute sound recordings of users typing at a keyboard, feed the audio into a computer, and use an algorithm to recover up to 96 percent of the characters entered
The technique worked when music or cell phone ringing jangled in the background--and even on so-called quiet keyboards with off-the-shelf recording equipment.
While any sort of typed documents could be pilfered through this technique, the study underscores the vulnerability of passwords, said Doug Tygar, a UC Berkeley professor of computer science and information management, and a principal investigator of the study.
"Passwords are a mechanism for authentication that really need to be rethought," he said. "This is not an esoteric attack. It requires some knowledge of computer science, but it can be done using many components that are freely available...We used $10 microphones."
The work builds on research conducted by IBM's Dmitri Asonov and Rakesh Agrawal that showed how 80 percent of text typed could be recovered from keyboard recordings. Those experiments, however, were tightly controlled.
The results of their findings will be presented Nov. 10 at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference in Alexandria, Va.
The UC Berkeley technique relies on probabilistic computing techniques that underlie search engines. The computer categorizes the sound of each key and takes an educated guess about the character or word that was written. The computer uses both the sound of the keystroke and linguistic conventions to interpret a keystroke as an E after TH rather than a Q when the sound is similar--to come to a conclusion.
The first pass is right about 60 percent of the time for characters and 20 percent of the time for entire words. The transcript is then run through spelling and grammar checks, which increased character accuracy to 70 percent and the word accuracy to 50 percent.
The results are then fed back through the computer to refine future results. After three feedback cycles, the accuracy rate rose to 88 percent for words and 96 percent for characters.
Further experiments will take place. The researchers didn't examine what happens when the Shift, Control, Delete or Caps Lock keys are hit. Mouse actions also raise a major problem.

Apparently it’s now possible to be able to hear what people are typing and very cheaply. It’s actually kind of scary because it’s a whole new kind of spying if you had advanced listening technology. Anyone will be able to hear your im conversations with an eavesdropping device and a computer with the software.

~Fin~