Webware

(Credit: Topherchris.com)

Some nasty pranksters, likely associated with Web forum 4Chan, have hacked into Apple gossip mainstay MacRumors' live-blog coverage of Tuesday's Macworld keynote. Hosted on a separate domain, MacRumorsLive.com, the site was plagued by offensive messages about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' health and general inanity (i.e. "SEX ME") before finally succumbing to "technical difficulties."

It remains uncertain whether the pranksters actually brought down the site, or whether MacRumors voluntarily took it down to keep things under control.

It's pretty clear, however, that this was the work of 4Chan, which has gained both respect and notoriety (depending on who you ask) over the past year for its persistent protests against the controversial Scientology sect in the form of an offshoot group called "Anonymous."

Over on 4Chan's labyrinthine forums, a couple of threads (warning: contains explicit language) hint at members' collusion to take down MacRumors Live, and the hacked live blog was peppered with declarations of "4CHAN FTW" (that's "for the win," for those who stepped in late).

This year's Macworld Expo has gained particular attention because Apple has announced that it's the last in which it will have a presence. Additionally, iconic CEO Steve Jobs bowed out of the keynote presentation. took his place.

The 4Chan skulduggery appears to have first been noticed by Twitter users and independent blogs like Topherchris.com, which took the screenshot above.

One Twitter user pointed to rumors on social-news site Digg that 4Chan members had been circulating MacRumors passwords on Monday night.

It's a silly prank, yes. But it could have a big impact on MacRumors: this is likely the site's biggest day of the year, and the event could have an impact on both ad revenues and server costs.

UPDATE: It's not totally clear who's actually responsible for this attack. We've been getting a handful of e-mails indicating that it may have been a non-4chan group called Myg0t that was using the 4chan forums to organize, and another e-mail claimed credit on behalf of another forum community, Ebaumsworld. Indeed, screenshots show that one of the hacker messages read, "We are from Ebaumsworld. We are hackers on steroids."

Honestly? The world may never know.

This post was updated at 2:13 p.m. PT.

Earlier this year artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley teamed up with Google to create what might be the oddest thing caught on Street View, Google Maps' virtual man-on-the-street service. Hewlett and Kinsley managed to get a large group of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, locals together to participate in a variety of activities on-camera, including organized jogging, a sword fight, and a parade--complete with band instruments and uniforms. All the while Google's Street View car captured every moment.

The result is a few square blocks of the zaniness that will be forever preserved for others to see--that is, until Google updates the imagery with newer shots. Hewlett and Kinsley have documented the entire project on their site, along with a "making of" documentary that captures the scope of how many people were involved:

What will remain far more interesting to most are all the unintentionally peculiar things caught in Street View's cameras, which continued to be chronicled by eagle-eyed individuals. On that front, worth checking out is StreetViewGallery, which has a Reddit-like system for promoting funny found Street View shots to the top.

[via Google Blogoscoped]

I've been playing with the most wonderful and devious service this morning. It's called Hoax Call, and it lets you prank call people right from your browser. If you're familiar with soundboards, the Flash-powered array of links that play small sound clips from popular movies, you'll feel right at home with Hoax Call. It offers three of these boards that can control, then use to connect you to any number in the U.S., Canada, or the U.K.

To play one of these lines you just click on it. The caller on the other end will hear it, and so will you.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Each soundboard scenario has a different theme. The site has launched with just three, one that fakes a radio call, a standard wrong number, and an "annoying eBay buyer" who is attempting to return a computer they got off the auction site. What's neat is that it combines your standard soundboard with VoIP calling, so you can hear your phone call through the computer speakers, then send over each audio clip in near real-time. You can also tweak specific details like your name and the person you're trying to reach so that it can be personalized, lessening the chances of the person hanging up.

All of this is something you were able to do before, although not without a fair bit of effort and some equipment. To do this you'd need a good VoIP application with some sort of proxy, as well as a pair of split headphones to be able to hear what was happening on the other side of the call. This service also provides complete anonymity--there is no special sign-up required; you just need to know the person's number.

To protect call recipients from getting blasted over and over, any number that's been used is barred from being used again for 21 days. These numbers are saved in a temporary database during that time, then cleared until used again. You can also add your number to the service's block list which will keep it from being used entirely.

Hoax Call is completely free, although the creators say they're adding a premium service later on that will add additional scenarios. If they're smart they'll add a recording tool that lets users share their calls, too.

[via Guardian.co.uk]

Cold calls from telemarketers and other companies that ignore the do-not-call list are one of the banes of modern day civilization.

A simple Google search for a mystery number you've received usually lets you know who's on the other end before you have to pick it up. The problem is that cell phones don't have the same quality of caller ID landlines get (numbers not names); so that call you're getting could be something important like an overdue library book, or a pushy desk jockey trying to sell you a heavily discounted hafnium-forged non-stick pan set.

In most cases the telemarketers don't leave messages and will simply call you back, resulting in an endless cycle of you not knowing who's calling and having to call back to find out--something you're unlikely to do. To avoid this, there's Caller Complaints, a crowd-sourced index of the phone numbers of law breaking companies that have called folks on the do-not-call list. Users come together to list these numbers, what was being pitched--and the frequency of the calls. If you find someone else has already listed the number and shared their negative experience, you can pile on and leave your experience, which votes it up.

The most popular (or in this case unpopular) companies rise to the top and are tracked on leaderboards. Users can also browse by area code and what type of call it was, from political phone spam to prank calls and debt collectors. The idea is that there will be enough resources to help you get to the bottom of who's calling to either leave a complaint with your carrier or simply blacklist the number from calling again.

So far the site has amassed nearly 200,000 number searches from curious call recipients. If you're adding a number to the database you also have the option to do a little quick research on ReversePhoneDetective, which will tell you where the call originated from and give you the option to pay for a full report.

Related:
Reverse Mobile helps track down mystery callers
SlyDial lets you call straight to voice mail

You can browse bad numbers by how many folks have complained about it, which area code it's from, or how often it's searched for.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

While caller ID is great for landlines, cell phones don't get such a luxury. Unless the contact is in your phonebook, all you've got is an incoming number to guess who's calling. I often simply type the number into Google to get the answer, but if that's coming up short, you can give Reverse Mobile a try.

The service lets you do a reverse lookup on any number free of charge. If you want some more advanced information such as the caller name, address, and phone carrier, it'll cost you a one-time fee of $30, or you can get an all-you-can eat annual subscription to look up as many numbers as you want for $10 more.

In addition to phone records, the same company does civil records and background checks, both of which aren't nearly as useful on a day-to-day basis.

Normally I stay away from gag sites like this, but Gizmoz is a guilty pleasure that caught my attention with its eccentric sense of humor. Gizmoz is a "Talking Heads" video creator that lets you make your own gag videos to send via e-mail or embed on your site.

There are a variety of characters to choose from, primarily celebrities and political figureheads, all with matching voice banks and caricature-like faces, many of which are slightly offensive. You also get the option to pick a slightly cheesy animated background. The real clincher for the service is the ability to use a microphone to record your message, or you can simply type in some text to be spoken by the computer. When you're all done, Gizmoz puts it all together in an animated video with a talking and moving 3D character. What amazed me about the service is how good the text-to-voice handled some of the words I fed it. The actual voice inflection and sentence structure--not so much.

Gizmoz lacks some handy features, such as being able to use the service without registering, and non-Windows Media Player save options (for Mac folks). I'd also like to see an option to turn the autoplay off on the embeds, something sure to drive your site or blog visitors nuts. We used Splashcast (read our earlier coverage) to embed this video and avoid the autoplay. Other than that, Gizmoz is a great deal of silly fun.

[Found on SomewhatFrank]