So, Microsoft had that contest where it would feature one user’s picture on Bing for an entire day — you know, the one I was mad about because you couldn’t submit keg stand pictures. The idea behind the contest was to have users submit their best summer vacation photos to a special Facebook group, where they could then be voted on. Well, now we have a winner. And it doesn’t exactly reek of summer.

The winning image (below), was one of 9,400 picture submissions. You’d think out of all of those, users would have found a more perfect summer vacation image than a giant lightning storm, but whatever, it is a good picture.

The contest apparently attracted more than 13,000 unique voters. And the pictures garnered nearly 28,000 wall posts on the Facebook page. But the stat I’m really interested in is that there were over 10,000 submissions, and only 9,400 were accepted. I’d love to see those other 600+ pictures. Keg stands?

The image will be featured on Bing on August 3, for the entire day.

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The Linux Foundation, the non-profit that supports the growth of the Linux kernel, is today announcing an affinity Visa Platinum credit card for people who want to contribute to advancing the OS through the organization’s initiatives. Reading the press release announcing the new credit card made me raise my eyebrows, but after giving it a bit of thought I think that this is actually not that bad an idea.

Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation in a statement says people can contribute to Linux in a variety of ways (writing code, marketing, etc.) but now have a convenient way of identifying themselves as supporters of the community “by carrying Tux in their pocket”. And then of course there’s the financial incentive.

The Linux Foundation is partnering with CardPartner to offer the credit card through UMB Bank. The organization will receive $50 for every activated card as well as a percentage of every purchase made with the credit card. The Linux Foundation also says 100% of the proceeds from the Visa card program will go directly towards providing community technical events and travel grants for open source community members in order to accelerate Linux innovation.

Initially, the custom Linux Foundation Visa Platinum card is only available to U.S. residents, but the organization expects to expand in the coming months. You can apply here.

Linus must be glowing with pride.

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You know what frustrates us? Someone with their hands on a totally sweet piece of gadgetry who clearly doesn't know what to do with it. Such is the case in the video below, which seems to depict a gentlemen fondling Sony Ericsson's next XPERIA installment, the X2. While there's not much to see of the device itself, the phone is apparently running a fairly recent version of Windows Mobile 6.5, and the company has clearly taken its skinning team to parts of the OS, as the user in the video manages to stumble past some pretty magnificent looking UI trickery. It doesn't seem as dressed up as the X1's Panel interface does, though this likely isn't the final product. Truck on after the break to see the X2 in action, and try to quell your anger as the phone is repeatedly put to sleep during the demo.

[Thanks, David]

Continue reading Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X2 demoed on video

Filed under: Cellphones

Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X2 demoed on video originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T has made even more people than usual angry when it started blocking/filtering parts of 4chan late last night. The popular message board, famous for being able to brew online (and offline) shitstorms like no other web property could, saw portions of its publication - including /r9k/ and the infamous /b/ - blocked for AT&T customers across the United States. Quickly enough, there was a lot of rallying going on, with 4chan members and fans virtually gathering to plot digital riots and all-round mayhem.

An update on the situation as of 8 AM Eastern Time: access to 4chan has apparently been restored, with AT&T reportedly confirming the hours-long block of portions of the site, “following the practices of their policy department.”

AT&T went on to say that they contacted (or at least attempted to contact) the owners of 4chan, which Moot vehemently denies. AT&T told CentralGadget that they have specific reasons why they blocked these parts of the site, but they would not disclose them, further stating that they have requested specific things and changes from 4chan’s owners to which they have failed to comply.

Meanwhile, 4chan is apparently under DDoS attack, supposedly because of the attention the site has been getting for the past 12 hours. The site is sometimes down, sometimes up but very slow, according to various reports. Note that this is not AT&T’s responsibility and quite possibly even the reason for the company to have made the dangerous decision of restricting access to the message board in the first place.

Updates coming, including some of the actions taken by 4chan members and friends to retaliate.

Update 1: this thread on Digg (760 votes and counting) pointed to a now-removed fake article at CNN’s iReport about the death of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

Update 2: there’s pledge up at ThePoint to boycott AT&T and cancel the Internet service with them.

Update 3: YouTube alert

Update 4: an announcement on the Project AT&T forum reads: “All rioting/’war’/protests have been suspended for the time being.”

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