Diablo III Announced – The Long Awaited Diablo III to Rule Them All
Diablo III was finally announced today, after days of frantic speculations on gaming sites and throughout the gaming community. If you don't understand why all the excitement, then you haven’t been party to the brethren of Diablo. But if you are a gamer, and previous Diablo issues are anything to go by, you are in for a treat.
The Blizzard website today, after the release announcement
Diablo III, was described by Blizzard as a true continuation of the Diablo series, and it pre-empted user questions with the following information:
What is Diablo III?
We’re developing Diablo III to be the definitive action role-playing game, and a true continuation of the Diablo series. Players will create a hero from one of five distinct classes, such as barbarian or witch doctor, each equipped with an array of spells and abilities. As these heroes adventure through rich and varied settings, unravelling an epic storyline and engaging in combat with hordes of monsters and challenging bosses, they’ll grow in experience and ability and acquire items of incredible power.
The game takes place on Sanctuary, a world of dark fantasy. Unbeknownst to most of its inhabitants, Sanctuary was saved some twenty years ago from the demonic forces of the underworld by a few brave and powerful heroes. Most of those warriors who directly faced the armies of the Burning Hells -- and were fortunate enough to survive -- went mad from their experiences. And most of the others have buried their haunted memories and pushed the horrors from their thoughts. In Diablo III, players will return to Sanctuary to confront evil in its many forms once again.
Diablo III will be a fitting sequel to Diablo II, with the easy interface, fast-paced action, and visceral gameplay that Diablo players have come to expect and enjoy. It will also include many new features that will take the Diablo action-RPG experience to the next level. We look forward to going into much more detail on our plans for Diablo III as development on the game progresses.
What’s new about Diablo III compared to the previous Diablo games?
Exciting new classes like the witch doctor bring new gameplay options to the table. Returning classes, like the barbarian, have been completely redone with new skills to give them a feel unique to Diablo III. New customization options will provide for an even greater level of character specialization than the previous Diablo games, allowing the player to create unique characters brimming with power.
Diablo III is powered by a new graphics engine that can display characters and hordes of monsters in lush, fully 3D environments. Powerful special-effects systems and Havok-powered physics allow the player to lay waste to the Hells' minions in spectacular ways.
Also, Diablo III builds on the random environments of the previous Diablo games by introducing a host of new ways to create random scripted events throughout the game. This creates a dense and exciting world alive with quests, NPCs, dynamic encounters, and viciously challenging new monsters and bosses. Diablo III's environments add a great deal of interactivity to the game, including destructible elements and environmental obstacles that can be turned against your enemies.
In addition, Diablo III will benefit from Battle.net upgrades that will provide some exciting new features for players. Cooperative online play remains a primary focus, with multiple enhancements being planned to make connecting with your friends easier and cooperative gameplay even more fun. We'll have more details on all these aspects as well as other exciting new features at a later date.
Can you give an overview of Diablo III's storyline?
It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain.
Will there be any other familiar faces in Diablo III (other than Deckard Cain)?
Yes. Players will encounter several new characters as well as a number of characters from the previous games.
Will players be visiting any familiar locations in Diablo III, such as Tristram?
Yes, definitely. Players will return to Tristram and certain other locations from the previous games, and they'll be exploring new areas of Sanctuary as well.
How many character classes are included in Diablo III? What are they?
Five character classes will be included in the game, two of which, the barbarian and witch doctor, were revealed when the game was announced at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational. The other classes will be announced at a later date.
Will players be able to choose the gender of their character, regardless of class?
Yes. Players will be able to create male and female characters for all five classes.
Will Diablo III be playable over Battle.net? What new features can we expect?
Yes, Diablo III will be playable over Battle.net, and Battle.net will offer some exciting new features to enhance players' Diablo III experience. We'll announce specifics and go into much more detail at a later date.
Will there be a single-player component in addition to multiplayer?
Yes. In addition to battling the hordes of the Burning Hells cooperatively with friends over Battle.net, players will be able to adventure through the world of Diablo III solo. More details on both the single-player and multiplayer experience will be revealed at a later date.
What will questing be like in Diablo III? Will it be similar to Diablo II?
Our plans for the story and quest mechanics are still under wraps. We'll go into detail on those elements of the game at a later date. We can say, however, that we expect to have class-based quests in addition to the main story-line quests.
WHERE CAN I GET DIABLO III?
Blizzard announced the following in their Release plans:
When will Diablo III be released?
It's too early to estimate Diablo III's release date. As with all Blizzard Entertainment games, our goal is to create a game that is as fun, balanced, and polished as possible. We intend to take as much time developing Diablo III as is necessary to ensure the game meets our own high expectations and those of our players.
Will the game be released in multiple countries? Will the release be simultaneous? Which countries and what languages will Diablo III be localized in?
As with all of our games, our goal with Diablo III is to release the game simultaneously in as many regions as possible, and to localize the game in several languages. We'll have more details to share about countries, languages, and specific dates as we get closer to release.
Will Diablo III be available on Windows and Mac simultaneously?
Yes. As with all of Blizzard Entertainment's recent releases, Diablo III will ship for both Windows and Mac simultaneously.
How much will Diablo III cost? Where can I buy this game?
Pricing and availability for Diablo III will be determined and announced closer to the release of the game.
The official press release read as follows:
PARIS, France -- June 28, 2008 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today revealed Diablo® III, the newest entry in its critically acclaimed action role-playing-game franchise. The announcement was made during the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment® Worldwide Invitational at the Porte de Versailles Convention Centre in Paris, France. A cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay demonstration with commentary from the development team introduced the game to the thousands of players in attendance.
"We've wanted to expand on the epic story and gameplay elements of the Diablo universe for some time now," stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We know that players have also been long awaiting a return to the series, so we're very excited to be sharing this announcement with Blizzard gamers here in Paris and around the world today."
Diablo III will pick up the story twenty years after the events of Diablo II. Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal have been defeated, but the Worldstone, which once shielded the inhabitants of the world of Sanctuary from the forces of both the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, has been destroyed, and evil once again stirs in Tristram. Playing as a hero from one of five distinct character classes, players will acquire powerful items, spells, and abilities as they explore new and familiar areas of Sanctuary and battle hordes of demons to safeguard the world from the horrors that have arisen. The first two characters classes -- the barbarian and the witch doctor -- were shown as part of the announcement at the event today in Paris.
Diablo III will feature a custom 3D-graphics engine to render lush indoor and outdoor areas of Sanctuary with a high level of detail and vivid special effects. The game's physics-enhanced environments will be interactive and destructible, offering traps and obstacles that create added danger for players and monsters alike. These elements, along with a new quest system and random scripted events, will be integrated into the game's random-level generator, giving Diablo III the ultimate combination of dynamic gameplay and replayability. Cooperative and competitive play will be available online through an upgraded version of Blizzard Entertainment's renowned online gaming service, Battle.net®.
Blizzard Entertainment is developing Diablo III for simultaneous release on the Windows® and Macintosh® PC platforms. Further information about the game, including details on the other character classes, major new features for the single-player and multiplayer components, system requirements, pricing, and availability, will be announced as development progresses. To learn more about Diablo III, please visit the official website at eu.blizzard.com/diablo3. With multiple games in development, Blizzard Entertainment has numerous positions currently available. Visit http://eu.blizzard.com/en/jobopp/ for more information and to learn how to apply.
About the Diablo Series
Launched at the end of 1996, the original Diablo helped popularize the action role-playing-game genre, earning widespread critical and commercial success. The game's sequel, Diablo II, shipped in 2000 to similar acclaim, winning several Game of the Year awards and at the time becoming the fastest-selling computer game ever. Diablo II's award-winning expansion set, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction™, debuted in 2001, becoming Blizzard Entertainment's sixth-consecutive #1-selling game. To date, the franchise has sold more than 18.5 million copies worldwide.* Diablo's gothic horror theme has also inspired a number of licensed products, including novels and action figures.
About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft® and the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard-europe.com), a division of Vivendi Games, is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry's most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard's track record includes ten #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company's online-gaming service, Battle.net, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.
You can find the new Diablo III microsite here.
Affiliate Marketing for Locals and Affiliate Marketing for Globals – Isn’t it About Time the Two Became One?
Affiliate marketing for smaller players is still too focused on local markets. If, for example, you are the owner of a website in the UK, and you want to sell advertising or even books on your site, the majority of affiliate programmes on offer will ask you to decide: are you selling to a UK audience, to a US audience or to different European countries?
You can't do them all through one affiliate site. This is a distinctly web 1.0 approach to what is potentially a huge revenue stream.
You see, when it comes to affiliate marketing, there's real money and real opportunity here at the Long Tail, where small sites and bloggers earn their crust.
Take thatdanny.com as an example. It is a relatively young blog (launched in May), but it is picking up traffic quickly. As is the pattern with most varied websites, my traffic is quite international. My Entela Hysko story is still getting significant traffic from the Balkans and South West Europe, some of my stories get distinctly American traffic, while others are more UK or more international (for example the Photobucket story).
So I I get a good mix, but then what happens when I start looking at affiliate marketing? If I sign up with TradeDoubler (UK), I can sell Dell computers, or British Airways flights or iTunes downloads, but only to UK users. If I sign up with Amazon.com, I have to sign up separately to Amazon in each country, and if I show products from the US site, it is unlikely that a European will buy them. You get the gist.
In each of these programmes you have to dig deep to find the companies that trade internationally, and then you find yourself with an extremely narrow product list to promote to all your visitors. For example, on ShareResults you can promote Ipsos polls, or Mate1 dating. On TradeDoubler you can promote Paddy Power Bingo, who are happy to take users from any country and pay the affiliate for any user. But with such a short list of possibilities I can't really offer much to my users - and here I am, ready to put those banners on my site...
Why British Airways, an airline with an international site, will only allow you to sell to UK customers is the kind of backward thinking that ignores the huge potential of Long Tail affiliate marketing. And why would iTunes, part of a global company, only allow UK affiliates to sell to the UK, unless they sign up separately to each of the other programmes? This boggles the mind; It just doesn't make sense.
Affiliate marketing naysayers will immediately counter that there are lots of reasons why this is, for example:
- American affiliate marketing sites are often focussed solely on the American market and are therefore less interested in international markets, or
- Of course, you could geo-target your visitors with your two dozen affiliate programme based on where they come from (if you expect a blogger to do this, you're kidding yourself), or
- Perhaps I am forgetting that in many cases the local market company is not a subsidiary, but a completely separate legal entity (aren't there technical solutions that distribute customers to the correct site, so that you can get the sale? Of course there are), and finally,
- Cross border technicalities, tax and currency issues make this sort of affiliate management very difficult, or not profitable enough.
And to that I say: yes, but. Yes, there are all sorts of reasons why affiliate marketing is currently focussed on local markets, but those who will manage to become truly international - will reap the jackpot, not just from the big guys, but from me and all the billions of little worker bees, here on the long tail. Ignore us at your peril!
Total Eclipse of the Sun – Where Can I Watch the Next Solar Eclipse?
This article covers the next total eclipse of the Sun and the dates for those to come until 2010. The next total eclipse of the Sun is predicted for 1 August 2008, and to view it you'll have to travel to northern Canada, Russia or, for best viewing chances, to northwest China (details below).
A total eclipse of the sun is one of those events that you are meant to see at least once in your lifetime. When a total eclipse hit mainland Britain in 1927, special trains were scheduled and thousands lined the eclipse path, peering through stubborn cloud cover to get a view of the totality.
The day before the 1927 eclipse (28 June), The Manchester Guardian wrote in its leader: "We may confidently assume that this will be the first total eclipse in England which has not struck terror into quite a number of people. Although the Chaldeans had established by the eighth century B.C. a considerable and accurate astronomical science by which some correct calculations of eclipses appear to have been made, there has never been until quite recent times a widespread popular understanding of what was happening when the darkness came." After watching the 1927 eclipse, Virginia Woolf famously commented: ''I had very strongly the feeling as the light went out of some vast obeisance; something kneeling down and suddenly raised up when the colours came... [then when the sun came out again she wrote -TD] It was like recovery... We had seen the world dead.''
TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 1 AUGUST 2008
Where can I watch it?
The eclipse path starts in Northern Canada, in the territory of Nunavut, and then travels north east along icy territories to Greenland. The instant of greatest eclipse when totality reaches its maximum duration of 2 min 27 s, will be visible near (~14 km from) the Russian city of Nadym (population ~46,000). Then Novosibirsk, Russia’s third most populous city, will get 2 min 18 s totality.
But if you don't like the cold, and you want a better chance of catching good eclipse viewing weather, without clouds to obscure it, the most promising destination is northwest China, and the small oasis town of Hami, which will get 1 min 25 s of eclipse or Yiwu (140KM east of Hami, 1 min 56 s totality). To get to Hami, you would have to fly to the desert city of Dunhuang, and take a 6-7 hour drive north. If you ever wanted to visit Tatooine, this is as close as you will get, with a glimpse of life in the Gobi desert and the Silk Road. When I visited Dunhuang in 2007, it had a Wild West edge to it, although dollar-tourism was very much gearing up, and one hotel's claim to fame was a visit by Bill Gates, whose pictures appear in the lobby with the hotel's manager and province governor.
A few important tips, if you are planning to travel to northwest china for the eclipse:
a. Most travel agents will recommend you fly via Beijing. But beware! Because of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, flights to Beijing may be very expensive, as will any other service in the city. One option would be to fly to Hong Kong, cross overland into Shenzhen and fly from there to Dunhuang, either direct, if there are flights, or through a connection (e.g. Urumqi). Don't forget to arrange your Chinese visa, before you leave home.
b. To get from Dunhuang to Hami or Yiwu you will need wheels. In China, foreigners are not allowed to rent a car, so you will need to hire a driver and car. Normally this should not be a problem, but as there are likely to be lots of other eclipse tourists in Dunhuang at the time, you may want to pre-book. Try your hotel, and get them to book it, for a fixed, pre-agreed price.
c. Allow plenty of time for the road journey from Dunhuang. Journey times can only be estimated, and in areas where roads are less reliable can delay you significantly. If you can get to where you need to be a day in advance, all the better. Be prepared to rough it though. Small Chinese towns can get overwhelmed if a swarm of tourists suddenly arrives. Hotel rooms may be limited, and the more remote the location, the less likely it is that local facilities will be geared up to receive tourists.
If you can book an organised tour for this one, do it. You'll be happy you did.
TOTAL ECLIPSES IN FOLLOWING YEARS
22 July 2009 - You can see an interactive map of the solar eclipse path here.
11 July 2010 - You can see an interactive map of the solar eclipse path here.
ANNULAR ECLIPSES IN FOLLOWING YEARS
There are also a couple of "annular eclipses" in this period. An annular eclipse is a solar eclipse where the Moon is too distant to completely cover the Sun, resulting in a thin ring of sunlight around the Moon. During an annular eclipse, the Sun looks like an "annulus" or ring.
26 January 2009 - You can see an interactive map of the annular solar eclipse path here.
15 January 2010 - You can see an interactive map of the annular solar eclipse path here.
For further reading go to NASA’s eclipse website.
Is Aspartame safe? An unbiased review of Aspartame Information
Is Aspartame safe for you? Can Aspartame cause cancer? Or brain damage? Can Aspartame cause blindness? Is it poisonous? Or are all the above nonsense and Aspartame is actually very safe?
Which research should I believe?
These sort of questions are asked by consumers of the NutraSweet product every day. I am a great fan of Diet Coke, which is sweetened by Aspartame, and I often wonder: is it bad for me? Am I foolish to drink it? Or should I ignore the scaremongering. After all we consume so many different chemicals and ‘E numbers’. Perhaps Aspartame is just another one of those (E951, to be precise).
So I turned to the web in search of answers, and what I found was quite disturbing.
Put broadly, most of the information you find about Aspartame online is clearly propaganda, both for and against it. In fact, the battle of words, research papers, credit-and-discredit is so prevalent, the only clear conclusion is that you cannot draw a clear conclusion.
The Pro Aspartame camp - what is worrying about the "pro-Aspartame camp" is that it is clearly waging an organised, well funded, propaganda war, where nothing is sacred. There are several prominent websites that appear to be un-affiliated to anyone, until you dig deeper and discover that under the non-partisan exterior is a site funded by the Aspartame and sweetener industry. For example the Aspartame Information Centre says on its site that it is published by The Calorie Control Council, which " seeks to provide an objective channel of scientific-based communications about low-calorie foods and beverages, to assure that scientific and consumer research and information is made available to all interested parties." If you follow the trail long enough, you realise that The Calorie Control Council actually "represents 60 manufacturers and suppliers of low-calorie, low-fat and light foods and beverages, including the manufacturers and suppliers of more than a dozen different dietary sweeteners, fat replacers and other low-calorie ingredients."
This is plain deception and makes you wonder why, if the industry believed it has nothing to hide, it is using these devious marketing tactics.
You could of course argue, and indeed you would if you were an Aspartame manufacturer, that the marketing campaigns of the anti-Aspartame camp are not playing by any rules either, and sweetener manufacturers need to protect their business. If it was found in 30 year's time that Aspartame was indeed safe all along, then they would be vindicated for protecting their business against what they consider a vicious campaign. But bear with me...
The Anti Aspartame Camp - There are many sites that promote research to back the risks of Aspartame, for example the Aspartame Toxicity Info Center. There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence out there, about the health risks of Aspartame. The problem with the story of the woman who went blind when she drank Aspartame-sweetened cocoa was that the cause of her symptoms could have been any of a number of other reasons, and the same applies when it comes to other anecdotes: they are simply not science, not even in great numbers. Then there is research that did find that Aspartame is risky, and judging by the material on the Net, there's plenty of it.
The anti-Aspartame campaign and the public it vows to represent are still reeling from the (now admitted) deception around the safety of Tobacco. A good example is the oft quoted Tobacco Institute memorandum from Fred Panzer (VP) to TI President Horace R. Kornegay in 1972. Panzer describes the industry's strategy for defending itself in litigation, politics, and public opinion as "brilliantly conceived and executed over the years" in order to "cast doubt about the health charge" by using "variations on the theme that, `the case is not proved.'" The public certainly had cause for suspicion back then, that big business was muscling in on decision makers, politicians and government agencies. If you view the sweeteners industry in that light, it doesn't help its case that a significant number of research papers on the safety of Aspartame is funded by the industry.
So you see my problem? Between the Aspartame industry’s claims and the many anti-Aspartame claims, I can't really judge what is true and what isn't.
In fact, my issue with both camps is that I simply don't know if the line I am fed is true. They are both campaigning, and although my gut instinct tells me not to trust big corporations, my media experience teaches me that conspiracy theories are the lifeblood of ideological campaigns. I simply don't know who to trust. Supposed unaffiliated experts appear left-right and centre, and you never know if you should believe that they are non-partisan.
So where does this leave us? squarely with the FDA in the US, The FSA in the UK, the European Food Safety Authority and similar agencies worldwide. They are here to protect us against harmful foods - and, at the moment, public opinion does not trust them when it comes to Aspartame.
It seems plain to me that these agencies need to gain our trust on this one, and appear whiter than white, and completely trustworthy. Judging by the war waged on the Net they are not even close. If Aspartame is dangerous, than it needs to come off the shelves, and fast. If it is safe, then we need to know that this is the case, and we need to be convinced of it. Completely. In the age of information, you cannot patronise the people. You have to win their trust.
Until then the jury's out.
Dear Danny – What to do with an Internet Stalker?
Internet Stalkers and what to do with them, today on Dear Danny.
Background: I get messages from time to time from people who remember me from "Dear Danny" on My Sun. I can't promise to answer them all, but if they are interesting, and I'm in a good mood...
Dear Danny,
My name is Helen, I am 27, pretty normal, my ex is 25, pretty freaky: he is an internet stalker. We went out for a year and split up when I ended it with him. This was almost 4 years ago when we were at Uni in Cardiff, but now he keeps sending me messages on Facebook, and it freaks me out. Sometimes I think he will never let me go! Help! It was 4 years ago! I have an internet stalker! What can I do?
Helen, I am sorry to hear that you are freaked out by this guy. These days. it is much easier to find people by using the Net, and so you are much more likely to hear from exes who you'd much rather stayed where they belong - in the past.
I hear more and more of these stories, and even I have been on the receiving end of a Facebook ex: we dated briefly 15 years ago, saw each other very rarely since, and yet out of the blue I got a scathing missive telling me I was a rat (for the record, I wasn't a rat, just very very young and inexperienced at the time).
We need to be careful with the term "stalker". If he is making threats (direct or implied), constantly shading your actions, is obsessed with you, wishing West Nile Virus on you and boiling your bunny, then he may warrant the title, but more often than not, we ourselves freak out when someone from our past suddenly reappears in our life, and we make it worse by engaging in old arguments.
If, however, he is an Internet Stalker, you should not put up with it, and make sure you put an end to things right away.
In both cases, your initial course of action should be as follows:
1. Don't take the bait. If he's bitter, then anything negative you say will just add fuel to the fire. Remember you loved him once. Now, don't feed any negativity in you or him.
2. Send him a polite note saying that you would prefer that you two would not stay in touch. Advise him to add you to his "Block list" on Facebook and that you'll do the same.
3. Make sure he is no longer on your friends list (If he still was. I hope you had him removed as soon as trouble brewed).
4. Now block him on Facebook: click on the "privacy" link on the top right-hand side, and you'll see the Block List box: enter his name and confirm:
5. Finally, and for good measure, ensure only your approved friends can send you private messages. This will ensure that your ex - and any new ones you create along the way - do not sign up with new accounts and send you messages from those. The default setting on Facebook is that ANYONE can send you a message. You can control this setting under "Privacy" --> "Search".
Of course, if he is determined, he will find out your email address and other contact details. If this happens, make it clear again that you do not want to stay in touch and that you will contact the police.
If you feel threatened at any time, do contact the police right away.
Martha Stewart Refused Entry to Britain
Martha Stewart, America's best known TV lifestyle guru was refused an entry visa to the UK.
Martha Stewart, 66, a self-made TV personality, who made millions selling her brand of "homemaking" to US audiences, was found guilty of conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of agency proceedings - all relating to her sale of stock in biotech company ImClone Systems Inc. in 2001. Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of house arrest.
The Home Office's refusal to grant Martha Stewart a visa may result in some raised eyebrows. Although the Home Office can refuse a visa to anyone at its discretion, it does have fairly comprehensive and detailed guidelines on refusals. The two reasons which could potentially apply to Ms Stewart are on somewhat shaky grounds:
1. Refusal on grounds of criminal conviction - The rules state that an application should normally be refused if that person has been convicted of an offence in any country which, if committed in the UK, would be punishable by imprisonment of 12 months or more.
-> Interestingly, Martha Stewart's sentence was ten months, of which five months we're house arrest. I may be wrong, but I think it unlikely that the Home Office could consider that the sentence would have been longer in the UK, and even if they did, this would be pure speculation.
2. Refusal on grounds that exclusion is conducive to the public good
-> Stewart's trip to the UK was for a speaking engagement at the Royal Academy and some business meetings. How the Home Office or embassy officials thought her visit would be any risk is difficult to explain.
Both of the above are discretionary and depend on the official's assessment of the visa application.
The UK's Independent newspaper speculated that "Lying to government agencies is a federal crime in the United States and could easily be considered a serious enough crime in Britain to warrant exclusion from the country." Another possible reason was that the UK wanted to send out a message that celebrities are subject to the same restrictions as everybody else, although based on its own rules, it could have just as well approved Martha Stewart's application.
Then again, the workings of visa regulations in both the US and Britain are somewhat difficult to predict, and tend to be somewhat arbitrary and often unreasonable. For example, since 1993 the US government has denied visa waiver to people with HIV or AIDS and made the obtaining of any visa very difficult and laden with conditions. This has been subject of quite a lot of campaigning, but to no avail.
The good news for Martha Stewart is that the UK Home Office is in fact much more forgiving than the US when it considers visas for ex-offenders. Whereas in the US your crimes will most likely exclude you forever, in the UK her sentence would be considered as "spent" and therefore no longer relevant after ten years. Even if Stewart is refused an appeal now, it is very likely that she will be granted a visa if she applies in three year's time.
UPDATE (25 June 08, Midnight GMT): And... Boy George was refused an entry visa to the US today, because of "ongoing legal proceedings relating to a charge that he assaulted and falsely imprisoned a male escort who was allegedly chained to the wall of his east London home in April last year, a charge he denies". Of course the two stories are unrelated. But you can't help but put them next to each other. Can you?
Photobucket Hacked – Latest Updates
MOST CURRENT - 20 June 08 14.15 GMT:
Things seem to have stabilised as the corrected dns settings filtered out across the web. There are still a small number of users accessing the instructions on what to do to get onto Photobucket, of which some would be due to local caches.
So I guess it's almost situation normal! Have a good weekend, and keep your images safe...
PREVIOUS UPDATE:
19 June 08, 22.15 GMT: There are still quite a few reports from all over the globe of Photobucket not working. Some users are reporting that they are still getting a holding page. The search volumes of people coming to this blog to try and resolve the problem have not diminished since yesterday.
It's interesting that I can actually tell from the logs to this website users of which ISP's still can't access Photobucket.
For example, the article about what to do if you still don't have access to Photobucket is frequented the most by users from two US ISPs:
Comcast (USA), and
Road Runner (USA)
I'm also getting visitors to this article from other places like:
Speedy Net (Peru)
AT&T/SBC (USA)
Centurytel (USA)
Wanadoo (Holland)
Planet (Holland)
Direct-adsl (Holland)
Bredbandsbolaget (Sweden)
SCRTC (USA)
Time Warner Telecom (USA)
Opticon (Hungary)
BCC Net (Delta, British Columbia, Canada)
Dodo (Australia)
== many others ==
But Comcast and Road Runner are miles ahead of everyone else in the numbers of users suffering from this problem. If you are their users - talk to them. Explain that they need to force a dns refresh.
Apparently the (alleged) Turkish hackers group used an account on the servers of Bulgarian Hosting company Zettahost, causing all affected Photobucket traffic to redirect to it. Zettahost took the hackers' page down, and put up an explanation instead. And, indeed, some users are still reporting that they are getting the Zettahost page, when trying to access Photobucket.
Two things have compounded the problem:
a. Photobucket has not been posting any updates on their site, so users don't know what's going on. Their latest corporate blog entry is from June 12 and is entitled: "We're the best photo sharing site, so vote for us!" The latest press release is from May 14th. As of now there is still no official information from Photobucket about the incident.
b. Although it was very thoughtful of Zettahost to put up an explanatory message on the website that users were redirected to (the website that users got instead of Photobucket), the message was obviously written by someone who is a non-native speaker of English. As a result of the awkward grammar, some users thought it couldn’t have been written by a real company, and that this was still a site controlled by hackers.
The message goes:
================================================
IMPORTANT! Photobucket.com problem read here:
Last night Photobucket.com DNS at register.com was hacked by malicious people that are trying to compromise our business!
We are in no way affiliated with such bad deeds and cooperate with photobucket in capturing these individuals.
They have pointed the domain photobucket.com to an account hosted on our systems!
We have blocked that and photobucked techs have restored the domain pointing to its original location!
ALL account information and pictures on photobucket.com are OK, please have patience!
Unfortunately the complete DNS replication usually takes 24-48 hours and during this time caches DNS records might still point to us!
The normal operation of Photobucket is restored and as soon as the replication is complete there should be no further such issues!
We would like to emphasize that we are in now way responsible for what happens with photobucket and all users bumping across our systems!
We are a legitimate web hosting company operating since 2003 and in no way tolerate such hacking attempts!
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at abuse@zettahost.com!
Thanks for your patience and understanding!
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It looks like a waiting game now…
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MORE PHOTOBUCKET INFORMATION:
For the background to this story - go here.
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How Do I Flush a DNS cache?
This article was written originally to help those who could not access Photobucket after a DNS attack, but is retained here, to help anyone who needs to flush their DNS cache.
Because of the nature of dns, a dns problem (due to a technical glitch or hacking), can take up to 48 hours to resolve, and resolution relies on your Internet Service Provider (ISP) fixing things on their end, so your first course of action is to speak to them.
Then, you may wish to ensure that things are clear on your end, by flushing your DNS cache:
How do I flush my dns cache?
- Click on Start--> Programs --> Accessories --> Command Prompt.
- A little black command prompt opens. In it type: ipconfig /flushdns
- Hit return. You should see the lines: Windows IP Configuration. Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.
- Try accessing Photobucket again.
- You might try to restart your computer, just in case.
Mac users (except Leopard): Finder windows Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal and type in lookupd -flushcache, then hit return.
Leopard users: Open a terminal window and type in dscacheutil -flushcache, then hit return.
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For the background to the Photobucket story - go here.
THE ORIGINAL COMMENTS THAT WERE LEFT HERE AT THE TIME OF THE PHOTOBUCKET PROBLEM APPEAR AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE, WITH THANKS TO THOSE WHO CONTRIBUTED.
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