Cyber Beat Daily: Google Punks the Internet + The Weekend's Top Tech Stories

The weekend’s top stories in social media and technology for 3/30 and 3/31 include: Google plays an April Fool’s Day prank, an entire town’s ban on social media (or is it?), the resignation of the Chicago Mayor office’s social media director, felons and paroled sex offenders disabling their GPS monitors, another anatomy of the internet’s “biggest attack ever” (this one in pretty pictures), Wikileaks’ Julian Assange unveils a project, a daunting number of unsolicited messages for victims of iMessage DDoS attacks, the next court date fast approaches in the Prenda copyright trolls case, NASA will show its trailer during ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’ movie previews, ex-NASA employees turned game developers, and the mind-bending Bioshock Infinite ending explained.

Read below for these stories and more.

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Featured Story
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Google punks the internet!  (Maybe it’s just me, but I thought the point of making an April Fool’s joke funny was to trick people by doing it on April Fool’s Day, and not giving away the joke before then).

Google declares end of YouTube in April Fool’s prank

(While you’re at it, check out Google Nose).

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Social Media/Tech Trends, Happenings and Faux Pas.
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Be sure to read past the headline of this one!  This is a local story that likely won’t get much mainstream play, but I think it should.  I love the story.  Creative town officials use humor – and a special date on the calendar – to get a useful message across.

Ely, Minnesota Social Media Ban: Town Announces Mandatory Unplugging

 How ever will Chicagoans find their snow plow locations now?  (Sarcasm aside, I will grant him that the “Plow Tracker” was a creative and useful application of social media).

Emanuel Administration Loses Social Media Guru

This is one unfortunate negative side of technology…

Thousands of paroled CA sex offenders, felons easily disable GPS monitors

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Hoaxes, Harassment and Hacking.
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Another anatomy of what was called the “biggest attack ever” on the internet last week – this one in pictures.

How the Cyberattack on Spamhaus Unfolded

 Julian Assange is up to something new.  Or something.  It’s not entirely clear what exactly.

WikiLeaks set to unveil ‘Project K’

A never-ending stream of “We Are Anonymous…” messages would probably concern me, too.

iMessage DDoS attacks foreshadow a bigger threat

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Law and Order.
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Tuesday, April 2nd is fast approaching for the latest in the infamous case of the Prenda Law copyright trolls…

As Prenda’s Next Big Day Approaches, What Could Judge Wright Do?

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Gamer-land.
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OK, so this is technically more movies than gaming, but this is just cool and I needed a place to put it for fellow geeks…

NASA trailer reaches crowdfunding goal, will be shown before ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’

And keeping in line with the NASA – gaming connection…

Gaming Matters: Ex-NASA employees now enjoying life as game developers

Since so many have been playing Bioshock Infinite this week, it’s time to shed some light on the mind-bending ending.  Spoiler alert:  DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE IF YOU HAVE NOT YET PLAYED AND FINISHED THIS GAME.

Understanding Bioshock Infinite’s Ending – Ending Explanation

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