Guy Fieri’s “Cheesecake Challenge” Looks Like Half A Cake Was Stabbed By Chips, Pretzels

That wacky, backwards-sunglasses-wearing, frost-tipped celebuchef Guy Fieri is at it again, and this time he seems to be intent on murdering cheesecake and serving it up to the masses. If half a cheesecake stabbed with potato chips and pretzels and bleeding chocolate drizzle in an apparent food-on-food crime can be called a “Cheesecake Challenge,” well, we’re not sure if the cake itself was challenged and lost, or if it’s your mortal body at stake here.

The “huge mountain” of cake is enough to inspire fear in even the strongest-hearted out there — just check out the leering skull on the plate with that huge knife casually sticking out of the thing:

(kennejima)

Brave soul Andrew Kiraly at KNPR (h/t to Eater.com) experienced this terrifying dessert behemoth at Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen & Bar, which opened back in April.

Without bothering to detail how the thing actually tasted — or reveal whether or not he accepted the apparent challenge of ingesting it, Kiraly nonetheless doesn’t mince words about its appearance. And it’s pretty darn funny:

Instead of sitting flat — commonsense, quotidian, even jejune — the cheesecake is set on its edge like a wheel, so it presents itself as a sort of runaway half of a dirty and broken Thundarr the Barbarian moon that’s been ripped out of orbit by cosmic forces beyond our reckoning. And, by now calorie-drunk, swooning with surfeit, I imagined Guy Fieri straddling that ragged crescent cake-moon like a motorcycle, riding into a cold and inscrutable universe, crying for an answer, a connection, somebody, anybody, with his painted flames and chocolate-sauced potato chips, his pepperoni armor and outsized burgers: Is anybody out there? I’ve got cheesecaaaaake!

Note to cheesecakes: Do not walk into dark kitchens alone. We still don’t know what happened to the other half of the one above, but it likely met a similar fate at the hands of this madman and his snack henchmen.

Notes From My Dinner At Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen & Bar [KNPR]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

RoadNinja Wants Only Five-Star Reviews, Isn’t Subtle About It

Ray likes Roadninja, a free mobile app that tells users what amenities and gas prices are available at the next highway exit. He doesn’t think it’s perfect, though. That’s why he was kind of annoyed when it prompted him to leave a review…and his options were limited.

“I like the app but it does have some issues that, to me, would keep it from getting a 5 star rating,” Ray writes. “Allowing only 5 star ratings gives me a further incentive to rate it lower that I otherwise would because of the not completely forthright way in which it is soliciting its rating.”

Users probably can adjust their rating once the app sends them to the review page and the ratings for the current version of RoadNinja make it clear that reviews with less than five stars are still getting through.

Still, it might make someone who isn’t inclined to give a good review but didn’t think this all the way through to dismiss the review prompt because they don’t want to post a five-star review.

Companies want perfect scores or not to hear from users at all, since various systems reward only perfect reviews. This reminds us of the feedback survey paradox: businesses from car dealerships to chain pizzerias do their best to keep customers from giving them anything but a perfect rating on feedback forms.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

El móvil arrasa al ordenador en consumo digital #infografia #infographic

Hola:

Una infografía que nos dice que 2l móvil arrasa al ordenador en consumo digital.

Un saludo

You will find more statistics at Statista

Archivado en: Infografía, Sociedad de la información Tagged: Infografía, internet, Telefonía, tic



from TICs y Formación http://ift.tt/1qQZaEM

via Alfredo Vela Posteado por www.bscformacion.com

Verizon Wireless Confirms Many Customers Are Having Problems Accessing Its Online Portal

This message is greeting lots of people and making them mad.

After customers started reporting a barrage of problems accessing Verizon Wireless’ online system — including account services like bill payments — mainly, that it’s been unavailable for as long as 24 hours, the company confirmed this afternoon that there are major problems.

The disruption complaints have spilled onto social media, with users reporting they can’t upgrade or activate phones online or at many retail locations, The Verge reports. No calling or texting services appear to have been affected, at least.

Customers throughout the northeast, midwest and certain souther states trying to use the My Verizon online portal are apparently getting a message saying that “some account actions are temporarily unavailable while we upgrade our systems,” an issue that a spokesperson says Verizon is aware of.

The company says it’s working on resolving the issue, which would appear to be more than just scheduled maintenance, based on the length of the outage.

A spokesperson tells Mashable that it’s “unfortunately experiencing issues with our billing system, affecting customer accounts mostly in Northeast, Midwestern and some southern states. We are working on a fix.”

*Thanks for the tip, KC!

Widespread outages leave Verizon customers without upgrades and online payments [The Verge]

Can’t Access Verizon Billing? You’re Not Alone [Mashable]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Former Chick-fil-A Worker Accused Of Robbing KFC Driv-Thru Window At Gunpoint

(Alan Rappa)

Either something’s afoot in the world of chicken fast food restaurants, or it’s just a coincidence that a man accused of robbing a KFC at gunpoint happened to be an ex-employee of another chicken joint, Chick-fil-A.

According to police, the suspect pulled up to the drive-thru window and pointed a gun at workers at a KFC this week in South Carolina, demanding money. He made off with $516, reports The Rock Hill Herald Online.

Cops caught sight of his car the next day and tried to apprehend him using sirens and lights, but he allegedly led them on a high-speed chase, crashing into another car in the process.

When police eventually caught up with him by using stop sticks and arrested him, he said happened to work 40 hours a week at Chick-fil-A. But his now former employers apparently want nothing to do with this chicken crime, saying he was fired back on June 18 when he didn’t show up for work for two days.

Cops say they found the cash drawer still in his car, as well as less than a gram of methamphetamine. He’s been charged with armed robbery, possession of a firearm during a violent crime, possession of methamphetamine and failure to stop for a blue light.

He’s also been forbidden from stepping foot into any KFC or speaking with anyone who works there. So if he wants to eat fast food chicken in the future, he’s likely going to have to go back to Chick-fil-A.

Bond denied for ex-Chick-fil-A employee accused of robbing Rock Hill KFC [Rock Hill Herald]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Porn Copyright Trolls Trying To Use “Six Strikes” Warning System To ID Pirates

(jpmarth)

After years of outrageous lawsuits with 6- and 7- figure penalties thrown at people who illegally shared some music or movies online, the cable industry’s Copyright Alert System (better known as “Six Strikes”) was supposed to represent a happy middle ground, where Internet Service Providers sternly warn alleged violators that they’re onto your file-sharing ways and could you please stop so this doesn’t have to go to court? But folks who make a lot of money off of the threat of copyright lawsuits are hoping to use Six Strikes info to identify pirates.

See, copyright trolls — mostly porn companies and associated lawyers who threaten to sue alleged violators and use that threat to get potential defendants to settle out of court — have ways of figuring out the IP address attached to people believed to be involved in piracy. But the IP address alone doesn’t really make for a good defendant, as anyone who has tried to shake down a string of numbers can attest.

So the trolls have repeatedly tried to subpoena info from the cable companies and other ISPs that would put a name and address to those IP addresses, thus allowing the trolls to contact those purported pirates and say things like “We know you BitTorrented ‘Anal Heartbreak 12′ last June. Pay us several thousand dollars to avoid a lawsuit so that the entire world isn’t made aware of your penchant for pornography.”

Companies like Comcast and Verizon have generally been successful in getting the courts to quash these subpoenas, so the trolls need another way in. That’s where Six Strikes may become a problem.

When the system — which sends a series of increasingly serious alerts to alleged infringers — finally launched in 2013, it left open the door that its co-creators, the evil subgeniuses at the MPAA and RIAA “or any other member of the Participating Content Owners Group may use such reports or data as the basis for seeking a Subscriber’s identity through a subpoena or order or other lawful process.”

And so notorious porn copyright troll Malibu Media — who recently argued that an anti-troll website is a “fanatical Internet hate group” — is trying to use that legal backdoor in its lawsuit against a defendant in Indiana, even though it is not one of the participating content owners whose videos and songs are tracked by the system.

TorrentFreak.com reports that Malibu asked a federal court in Indianapolis to order Comcast to turn over its Six Strikes data. While Malibu is not part of the program, this data may show that the Internet connection was used to share pirated content on more occasions.

The company argues that Six Strikes data “may prove a pattern of infringement or notice that infringement is occurring or both.”

So it’s a stab in the dark, hoping that the defendant will also show up as having received a Six Strikes notice from Comcast. Seems like a bit of an overreach, right?

Apparently not to the District Court Judge who recently sided with Malibu, giving the company the green light to serve a third party subpoena on Comcast and telling Comcast that it should comply with said subpoena.

Comcast has yet to respond to the subpoena, but given its history with previous porn trolls — Comcast has called such lawyers “shakedown artists” in past legal filings — we’d hope that the Kabletown Krew would put up a fight before turning over info.

The evidentiary worth of Six Strikes notices is also debatable, as one of the underlying ideas of the system is that users may be falsely identified as pirates. That’s why there is a built-in appeals process with Six Strikes. The mere listing of an account as having received a strike is not a definitive indicator that he or she actually pirated any content.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Company Vows To Fight San Francisco Over App That Auctions Off Public Parking Spots

(MonkeyParking)

Last week, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent a cease-and-desist letter to mobile app company MonkeyParking, telling to quit allowing users to auction off their public park spots. But now the company’s CEO is all, “Bring it, because we’re not quitting without a fight,” if I might paraphrase his response.

He’s pledged to fight Herrera, who said the city would sue if MonkeyParking doesn’t pull its iOS app by July 11.

“We will fight this,” CEO Paolo Dobrowolny told VentureBeat, adding that the brouhaha “floored him.” “Just to be clear, I want to tell him [Herrera], we’re not selling parking spots. We’d actually like to be regulated in what we do. We’re hoping the politicians see the truth.”

That might be a tough position to sell — the app works by connecting people who are looking for a parking spot with those who are about to leave a public parking space, with users bidding on who gets the right to park.

Herrera wrote in his letter that while technology has produced many “laudable innovations in how we live and work,” MonkeyParking “is not one of them.”

“It’s illegal, it puts drivers on the hook for $300 fines, and it creates a predatory private market for public parking spaces that San Franciscans will not tolerate,” his letter reads. “Worst of all, it encourages drivers to use their mobile devices unsafely — to engage in online bidding wars while driving.”

Dobrowlny and his team insist, however, that their technology is simply a social sharing app that’s about communication, with the app pinging drivers when there are spots open in their desired location.

In an official statement from MonkeyParking, the company says it’s not selling spots, it’s trading on information — a line that seems awfully skinny.

The statement reads in part:

“We are very surprised that the City of San Francisco, which prides itself of being a liberal and tolerating city, does not see that their cease and desist letter is an open violation of free speech, contrary to the First Amendment of the US Constitution (“I have the right to tell people if I am about to leave a parking spot and they have the right to pay me for such information”).

The company adds that it’s consulting with legal counsel, and is confident that we would prevail [against] any such legal challenge against our service.”

MonkeyParking chief vows to fight San Francisco with every banana in its arsenal [Venture Beat]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Man Accused Of Stealing Bird Costume, Wearing It To Bar’s “Wing Night”

(Coyoty)

It was “Wing Night” at a bar in Kansas City last night, but we’re pretty sure that doesn’t mean that wings were mandatory. That’s what we would have assumed, anyway, but one bar patron acquired a bird costume before stopping in. Because…well, it’s not all that clear why. What is clear is that he didn’t have permission to borrow the feathered hat and cape.

The Kansas City Star has photos taken by a bar patron, because most people would take a picture of a guy in a bird costume who walked into the bar they were patronizing. Police say that the man started his night by breaking into a costume shop. “He got into the costume shop, took the costume and then walked down the street to the bar,” a police spokesperson told the Star.

The man was arrested, and we can only hope that Harvey Birdman, Esq. steps up as his public defender.

Man wears bird outfit at bar after allegedly burglarizing KC costume shop [Kansas City Star]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Contempt Threat Gets Facebook To Turn Over Full Info For 381 Users

(SarahMcGowen)

While Facebook loves sharing incredibly detailed information about users’ interests and web-browsing habits with marketers, the social media network isn’t so keen on making massive amounts of user info available to prosecutors, presumably because the district attorney’s office isn’t looking to buy ads. Facebook announced last night that it’s currently fighting warrants from authorities in New York who are looking to get data on a group of 381 users.

The company says that the warrants, which represent the largest single demand for user info from the site, seek “nearly all data” from the accounts in question, “including photos, private messages and other information.”

Facebook believes the warrants, all involving a large investigation into allegations of disability fraud, violate Constitutional protections against illegal searches.

“We fought forcefully against these 381 requests and were told by a lower court that as an online service provider we didn’t even have the legal standing to contest the warrants. We complied only after the appeals court denied our application to stay this ruling, and after the prosecutor filed a motion to find us in criminal contempt,” explained Facebook’s deputy general counsel, who says the company was under a gag order for several months that prohibited it from speaking publicly about the warrants, or to notify those affected.

The lower court held that, when looking at a large-scale investigation “the relevance or irrelevance of items seized within the scope of a search warrant may be unclear and require further investigatory steps.”

In an attempt to undo the damage, Facebook took its case to an appellate court last week, arguing that the “vast scope of the government’s search and seizure here would be unthinkable in the physical world.”

While the appeal is still pending, the warrants were subsequently unsealed and Facebook says it has since alerted those users whose information was gathered using the warrants.

Prosecutors defend the warrants, which have thus far resulted in 62 indictments.

“This was a massive scheme involving as many as 1,000 people who defrauded the federal government of more than $400 million in benefits,” a rep for the Manhattan DA’s office tells Ars Technica about the warrants. “The defendants in this case repeatedly lied to the government about their mental, physical, and social capabilities. Their Facebook accounts told a different story. A judge found there was probable cause to execute search warrants, and two courts have already found Facebook’s claims without merit.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

How To Slice A Dozen Cherry Tomatoes Or Grapes At Once

(You As A Machine)

Arguably, single grapes and cherry or grape tomatoes are already perfect, bite-sized foods. There are reasons why you might want to slice them in half, though: so you can include them in a chicken salad, to make them easier to catch with a fork in a fruit salad, or because you’re serving them to small, choking-prone children. Here’s a method to chop a dozen or more at the same time.

The technique is simple: all you need are two plates or large, flat lids, a knife, and those small, round foodstuffs. Put the grapes or tomatoes on one plate, cover them with the other plate, and cut through the middle.

The grape method went viral after one woman, Laura Mullins Goodhue, posted a video to Facebook of her husband using the method to slice a plateful of grapes in one stroke. Some people have trouble with the Facebook embed, so you can go check it out on Facebook here.

(via Scary Mommy – thanks, Briana!)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist