GM pulls $10 million worth of ads from Facebook

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Well this is just weird: General Motors has decided to pull their ads from Facebook, saying they don’t work.

Forbes is reporting that GM was spending $40 million on Facebook, $10 million of which was spent on paid advertisements. Where did the other $30 million go?

Most of what gets posted on Facebook is stupid. Any idiot can have a Facebook account and most do. The only reason I have a Facebook account is so that I can easily find out what my high school friends had for breakfast. I also “like” to play Bejeweled Blitz. Perhaps that’s an understatement. Saying I like to play Bejeweled Blitz is like saying bears like to eat picnic baskets.

For a while now, I’ve thought Facebook was about five minutes away from being just like MySpace. Is MySpace even still around?

United States Postal Service pays claim on damaged comic book

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The United States Postal Service (USPS) approved the insurance claim on the formerly mint condition copy of The Walking Dead #19 I sold on eBay. As I wrote about earlier, the comic arrived to the buyer’s house damaged. It looked as though someone took the package and bent it in half across their knee.

When I shipped the comic to the buyer, I paid $4.85 to insure it for the purchase price. I am so glad that I did. As it turns out, it was the smartest $4.85 I’ve ever spent.

As it turned out, submitting the claim couldn’t have been easier. The entire process took place online. I submitted the form along with pics of both the comic and the packaging taken by the buyer on April 27. On May 1, they approved the claim and cut the buyer a check. The buyer didn’t even have to take the comic in to his local Post Office for inspection. They approved the claim merely by looking at the form.

I was pretty ticked off at the USPS when this first happened. Now that they’ve paid for the damage without being jerks about it, I’ve got nothing but good things to say about the USPS.

Former Murdoch editor Rebekah Brooks to be charged with crimes

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Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive for Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper division, News International, will be facing criminal charges stemming from Britain’s tabloid phone hacking scandal. Prosecutors allege that Brooks, along with five others who will also be charged, helped to conceal evidence of wrong doing.

One of the five to also be charged is her husband.

If this had happened in the United States, not only would Brooks not be facing charges, she would still have her job. Evidently the government in the UK is less influenced by Rupert Murdoch than it is in the United States. Must be nice.

Diablo III releases today

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The much-anticipated computer video game Diablo III goes live today, hitting store shelves everywhere. The standard game goes for $59.99. There’s also a special limited edition collector’s edition that not only comes with the basic game, but a book on the art featured throughout the game, plus a bunch of other special trinkets and doodads. I’m not sure how much that goes for. My guess is somewhere over a hundred bucks.

Blizzard, the maker of the Diablo series of games as well as the ever popular World of Warcraft series, took a lot of grief when it was announced that unlike the other Diablo games, Diablo III players would have to log on to Blizzard’s servers before game play can begin. The reason for this was to combat piracy. If players were forced to log in each time they play, Blizzard can check the copy of their game to make sure it’s legit. Blizzard does this with World of Warcraft, but unlike Diablo, World of Warcraft is solely an online game. The actual single-player campaign in Diablo takes place off-line.

Because so many people are all logging on to Blizzard to play Diablo III for the first time today, the servers are starting to wilt. Instead of being able to log on and begin their game, players are getting an “error37″ message which means, Blizzard doesn’t care that you paid $60 and called out sick from work, you aren’t playing today.

I’ll probably give Diablo III a try, but not for a while. I’ll wait till the hubbub dies down and the game goes on sale at Target or Best Buy. I may even end up buying the special collector’s edition because I love trinkets.

The Homecoming by Mike Resnick

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I listened to The Homecoming by Mike Resnick, yesterday on the Escape Pod science fiction story podcast. The story is masterfully read by Patrick Bazile. I really enjoyed it.

The story was originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. It a heartwarming story about a son who left home to study on an alien planet and what he sacrificed for his life’s work. He returned to Earth years later after finding out his mother is suffering from dementia.

The story has been nominated for the Hugo, and rightfully so. You can read it in PDF form, but I recommend downloading the episode from Escape Pod and listening to it.