Gizmodo: exploitation

Custom Star Wars Clock Preys On Innocent Dorks

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:45:00 EST

Star Wars dorks are second to none in spending crazy amounts of money on anything branded with their obsession, but at what point does it become exploitative? I'll just throw it out there: this clock.

Etsy seller YOUgNeek created this $90 custom-made clock out of vintage Star Wars spaceships attached to a Sterling and Noble clock. The specific choice of vehicles is left to the whim of the buyer, but exactly what warrants the price is a mystery. Wouldn't anybody considering this clock already have a stockpile of little spaceships? And don't most people own glue? Here, I'll give my own instructions for creating this exact same clock for about 1/10th the price.

1. Find clock.
2. Find tiny figurines.
3. Find glue.
4. Glue result of Step 2 to result of Step 1, using result of Step 3.
5. Thank me for my help in saving you so much money by sending me half of your profit. [Geekologie]

Want an iPhone: Pay a Bum to Wait In Line

blongo3 — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:38:31 EDT

Ever since we waited in line for a PSP only to find out you could still get them the next morning, we haven't exactly been thrilled about camping out. But being the gadget freaks that we are, we still want them. What's a geek to do? Pay someone else to do it of course!

There are already Craigslist posts in NYC and San Francisco for "Professional Line Waiters". Yeah that's right, you pay these day laborers around $250, and in exchange you've got yourself a guaranteed place in line without ever touching the concrete.

And for you cheapskates who think $250 is too much. You could always just take a page from the PS3 launch. Go around the corner of an Apple store, grab Homeless Joe and pay him to sit there for a fraction of the price. Hell, he was probably going to sit there anyway.

Professional Line Waiters [SF Craigslist]
Professional Line Waiters [NYC Craigslist]
Homeless People Line Up In America For a PS3 [Kotaku]

Blue-Jacking—No, Not That Kind of Jacking

Travis Hudson — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 10:20:17 EST

Smurf masturbation jokes aside—this is a real thing, and somebody could hit you for a lot of money doing so. According to these bloody Brits, a recent Bluetooth exploitation is hitting the pocketbooks of folks all over. Blue-jacking involved taking control of—including making expensive phone calls—another's cellphone via a Bluetooth exploitation. Watch this Brit call his favorite shemale phone sex line with other people's phones. – Travis Hudson

[Via Digg]