Nerd News: Amazon's Farewell to February Sale on Games

Amazon is running a big sale, called Farewell to February, with up 75% off a lot of games, worth checking out to see if any games you have been looking for are on sale.

You can use code CAGROCKS at checkout for an extra 25% off a single purchase.

They have deals on games for PC, Mac, Playstation 3, & Xbox 360.

They have War of the Roses for $4.99, my friend Kavik did the Basic Combat Guide for War of the Roses VOD below.

His Youtube channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/KavikTV his Crossbow Guide for War of the Roses & "Barbarian" Tutorial for War of the Roses are real good.

Nerd News: Update on Amazon Kindle owned by Linn in Norway that was Wiped

Link to full story, which I strongly urge everyone to read, for some reason the correct details and updates to this story are not getting much attention http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm

Still not clear about the details about why a problem occurred in the first place, but Simon Phipps covers in the article on Computerworld UK, linked above, some of the possible reasons it might have occurred.

But the two highlights, that I will quote, indicate the issue has been resolved, again this information is from Simon Phipps' article at Computerworld UK, I would also like to note the article was published at 19:34 (BST I assume) on October 22, 2012 (ie Monday) and the updates happened late Monday Night/early Tuesday Morning:

Update @ 23:55 - Linn just contacted me to say her account has been mysteriously re-activated and she's busily downloading her books. Hopefully Amazon will have more news for us all soon. Even positive arbitrary actions disclose how much Kindle customers read only with the grace of Amazon, of course...

Update @ 00:30 - Amazon PR just wrote to say: "We would like to clarify our policy on this topic. Account status should not affect any customer's ability to access their library. If any customer has trouble accessing their content, he or she should contact customer service for help. Thank you for your interest in Kindle."

Note the response from Amazon's PR department, about Account status ability should not prevent you from reading your library!

For those not aware Amazon went through a mess with deleting a book from customers' Kindles, because Amazon actually didn't have the rights to sell digital copy of that title or something like that, see Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com_controversies#Kindle_content_removal 

Important thing to get from that, is Amazon learned it's lesson then, they apologized and offered everyone affected small amount of compensation.

IME Amazon responds to customer complaints, both on individual level and on bigger issues when brought to their attention.

Not saying they are perfect, they still use DRM which I hate, and personally think is pointless, as we all know locks only keep honest people out.

Security & Hacking: "ID Theft Service Tied to Payday Loan Sites"

Article at http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/09/id-theft-service-tied-to-payday-loan-sites/

Everyone who isn't fully aware of the sad, frightening realities of Hacking, should really read Brian Krebs' article linked above, for those that don't know Brian was a reporter for The Washington Post for several years, he knows his topic very well.

This reminds me of the Mat Honan hack or Social Engineering attack that happen not that long ago, I hope a lot of people read Brian Krebs' article, and start making noise to their Banks, Schools, Legislators, etc.

If your not familiar with Mat Honan case see Mat Honan Targeted, and click this link for response by Apple & Amazon.

There really isn't any information about you a motivated criminal Hacker can't find out, so those elements should not be used to give control of accounts to someone over the phone or net.

There is no perfect solution yet that I am aware of, best thing for institutions like banks, that I know, is to make people come in to a Brick & Mortar location, and provide current picture ID from Government/Military, not just asking them over phone or Net for SSN or Mother's Maiden name.

For more blog posts on similar topics, click either label Security or Hacking, those labels can be found in Label cloud at left side of blog.

Labels can also be found at bottom left of every post.

Stay Safe,

Cliff