scandal

Cuckold dresses down wife's lover on Twitter, gets sued

Lovers are jealous beings. They become very upset when the object of their affections is stolen by another.

I wasn't aware, however, that the same applied to married people.

A case currently playing in the theater of a London court is, however, enlightening me. For it is alleged that Ian Puddick, a plumber who seems to be a star of a TV show called "Bricking It," raised arms against his wife's alleged lover.

He allegedly raised them, then lowered them to his computer keyboard, whereupon he tweeted and created Web sites that railed against his rival.… Read more

How Apple's announcement enables more Weiners

Modern technology is not designed to make you think. It's designed to make you do.

There's nothing wrong with doing. Unfortunately, though, as Rep. Anthony Weiner's pained, painful press conference showed today, instant doing can be your undoing.

In Weiner's case, it seems that all it took was clicking in the wrong box. Instead of sending his sweet boxer-briefs tweet by Direct Message he simply clicked the reply button. That would be the reply button that allows everyone to see everything.

Naturally, it took some highly enterprising political opponent to click on the yfrog link and … Read more

This Day in Tech: Groupon IPO, Sony sites hacked, Twitter sex scandal

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET News for Thursday, June 2.

At D9, Windows 8 makes debut, and more (roundup) The gathering of tech CEOs and other bigwigs also puts the spotlight on Twitter's new photo-sharing service, Google's social-networking efforts, HP's WebOS ambitions, and then some. More

Zuckerberg calls Facebook contract a 'fraud' New York man's alleged contract and e-mails that supposedly give him 50 percent ownership of the social network are forgeries, new court filing from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims. More… Read more

Twitter--too many cooks could spoil this bird

Over at Twitter, they like metaphors that involve birds. Maybe a little too much. So here's one for them: Right now, according to a couple of in-depth reports about Twitter's past and present executive structure, the whole company sure looks like a flock of birds that can't quite tell which among them is the leader. And as a result, they're all crashing into one another.

These reports run the gamut from well-researched to wildly speculative, from a Fortune profile of the company's current management turmoil--co-founder Evan Williams is out, ex-CEO Jack Dorsey is back, … Read more

Reports show HP was right to dump Hurd

commentary Mark Hurd is now a Silicon Valley symbol for self-destructive behavior.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine published detailed reports on what prompted the HP board to ask then-CEO Hurd to resign in August. The stories paint a picture of a reckless man who was given the trust and support of HP's board only to repay that trust with betrayal.

The reports should finally silence the critics who slammed HP's board after Hurd was forced out of HP, after five years as CEO. Up to now, we knew few details about what led up … Read more

The 404 Podcast 528: Where we leap back into...Y2K...10?

Ten years after Y2K, the folks over at Sony still can't seem to remember to set their clocks right. The major firmware bug that shut down (almost) everyone's PlayStation 3s over the weekend turned out to a glitch in the "clock functionality incorporated in the system," according to Patrick Seybold, Sony's senior director of corporate communications and social media.

Despite the company's claims that the glitch has been fixed, we're still harboring some serious doubts that Sony did anything to fix it and probably just waited until March 1 in hopes that the bug would fix itself, which thankfully it did. So go ahead and stop caressing your consoles and return the drums of apple sauce you bought to survive the Armageddon, and...turns out the Mayan calendar ended two years earlier, and much less severely than predicted.

In less serious news, a new iPhone app called TigerText will hopefully help you succeed where Tiger failed. The application acts as a third-party call center for your text messages and erases your texts after a given period of time that you specify. Your options for lifespan go from 30 days all the way down to just one minute, depending on the NSFW-ness of your texts.

Both parties must pay for the service ($2.49 per month), and the app is only available for the iPhone for now (BlackBerry and Android support coming soon), but that's a small price to pay for the freedom to send those "Hey...you awake?" texts at 3 a.m. on a Saturday night.

Finally, we're happy to report that despite accusations of child labor abuse, Wilson G. Tang is still happily riding the Apple train, except that this time we're actually right there with him.

Apple recently released a report that exposed three facilities in China that employed underage workers to build its products. Apple subsequently terminated all of its contracts with that factory, but certain outlets continues to blow the story out of proportion, when in fact Apple independently investigated a situation that they had no legal responsibility to address, which deserves commendation in our book. You win this round, Tang...

All this plus a face-melting psychoanalysis Calls From the Public segment you won't want to miss on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast!

EPISODE 528 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 Podcast 522: Where we don't really blame Tiger Woods

CNET Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg joins The 404 for an extra long and extra random episode that includes an exciting contest--listen to hear your chance to win a pair of Monster Turbine Pro In-Ear Speakers!

We're never entirely sure what will happen when CNET Audiophiliac Steven Guttenberg gets on the mic, but Lil Saint Steve always brings toys when he comes to town, and today he drops knowledge on vacuum-tube amplifiers and how a certain Panasonic Blu-ray player uses a Digital Tube Sound Simulator to enhance its audio qualities.

All this home theater talk gives us the perfect outlet for our rage against NBC's tape-delay of the 2010 Olympics. In our digital age of Twitter, Facebook, smartphones, and a million other gadgets that quench our thirst for instant gratification, everyone already knows the Olympic results before the network finally airs them on television! As a result, the sports tickers on ESPN continue to spoil ratings for browsers who just want to find out what time the events are on, which does not make Jeff a happy guy. Could Twitter, aka the world's collective unconscious, be the source to blame?

Steve is also on the show to give us a preview of a new contest in collaboration with The 404! It won't officially start until next week, but The Audiophillie Music Awards For Excellence In Recorded Sound will ask for high-quality demo recordings of you or your unsigned band, which Steve will judge and choose six winners based on what he thinks sounds the best from a technical standpoint.

Each winner will receive a pair of high-end Monster Turbine Pro In-Ear Speakers valued at $300-$400! Keep in mind that this won't be a judgment on the songwriting or composition, but rather an analysis of the recording itself. Check out more details after the break, and we'll officially announce the contest a week from today with all the information on how you can enter--so stay tuned!

EPISODE 522 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Oracle exec's paramour gets revenge with billboards

This is the sort of thing that you'd never expect to happen in real life: the long-term mistress of a married Oracle executive allegedly spent in the neighborhood of $250,000 in billboards in New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco to out their affair when she heard that he was patching things up with his wife.

Yikes.

According to widespread reports in the likes of the New York Daily News and the New York Post, Oracle President Charles Phillips had an 8-and-a-half year affair with an actress-writer named YaVaughnie Wilkins.

In 2008, Phillips' wife filed for divorce, though details … Read more

The 404 Podcast 484: Where we text message Tiger Woods

Welcome to Justin's penultimate episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast! Tomorrow will be our last show as a team, but there's plenty of special Yuletide episodes, contests, 404 merchandise, and CES shows to look forward to in 2010.

I know we swore this story wouldn't get discussed on our show, but we finally cave in and say a couple quick words about the recent Tiger Woods sex scandal. As the story unfolds, Wilson tells us Tiger is in even hotter water for sending a racy text message to his lady on the side.

We all make mistakes, so we're not hating on the guy, even though these accidents are most common among teenagers.

Next, Jeff gives us an insider's look into the glitz and glamor of a professional video game reviewer with an overview of Sony's upcoming PS3 game lineup. One of the more unique titles is Heavy Rain, described by the director as "a very dark film-noir thriller with mature themes." Jeff describes the format as a graphic version of "Choose Your Own Adventure," where the decisions you make in the game help to route you through the levels and the storyline. Take a look at Jeff's PS3-exclusive gaming rundown for the full story and more previews.

Finally, virtual daps to Nicholas and Props Guy Jim for using their Photoshop skills to make a few special holiday images for the show. Be sure to subscribe to our iTunes or RSS feed to get the updated holiday album cover art! Also, we're saving Props Guy Jim's picture for the holiday blog, which will go live on Christmas Eve--thanks again, Nicholas and Jim!

EPISODE 484 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more