Yes, it’s true, there is a Hello Kitty Anti Virus product! Symantec should be worried for Kitty has set its sight on that market too!

From the description it looks to be a standard Anti Virus software with apparent emphasis on being really easy to use, it’s also just plain cute! Antivirus and Firewall service all in one. It appears to be using the Custodia backend according to the description which is the actually the first time I have heard of this company so it is an interesting attempt to differentiate. It’s currently only available in chinese.

The service comes complete with all the pink that is Kitty! Some more screenshots attached.

Thank you to sidekick for the link post, that’s how I found it, as a random comment on one of my blog entries!

Kowk Chun-wai changed his plea yesterday and admitted publishing 84 pictures of female stars in sex acts with entertainer Edison Chen Koon-hei by posting hyperlinks to them.

He was warned he would probably go to jail.

Kwok Chun-wai, 24, is one of three people charged in relation to the celebrity nude pictures scandal that gripped the city early this year.

With the support of his parents and friends, Kwok appeared calm when he pleaded guilty in Kowloon City Court to three counts of publishing an obscene article by posting the internet links on January 29 and February 6.

He originally denied the charges in another court on June 3.

Principal Magistrate Andrew Ma Hon-cheung said he would likely impose a jail sentence, noting the offences were serious and had occurred on several occasions.

They can attract a maximum fine of HK$1 million and up to three years’ jail. Kwok was remanded to July 24 for sentencing, pending a background report.

The court was told Kwok had first downloaded the celebrity sex pictures from the internet and saved them to a file storage server, http://w13.easy-share.com, and later posted 25 hyperlinks on the Hong Kong-based adult discussion forum http://new-3lunch.net to direct Net users to the site and allow them to download the images.

Prosecutor Hayson Tse Ka-sze said that of all the posted hyperlinks, police found that only five led to celebrity sex pictures, Of the pictures, 84 ruled obscene by the Obscene Articles Tribunal on April 23 were cited in the charges. Some of the images showed oral sex.

Police arrested Kwok on February 10 at his Ngau Tau Kok home.

Barrister Ody Lai said her client had not realised the seriousness of his actions. What had motivated his offence was the community interest that had already been sparked [many similar pictures had already been posted on the internet] and a statement relating to them published in a Chinese newspaper by the Emperor Entertainment Group on January 28.

The group claimed the pictures were fake, the court heard.

The court was told Kwok was a hard-working employee with a good work record who had started a logistics degree at Caritas Francis Hsu College in January.

He was very remorseful over what he had done, Ms Lai said.

The celebrity sex photos sparked a huge controversy in February when hundreds of explicit pictures of Edison Chen and female celebrities were distributed by e-mail and messaging systems.

The photographs were of Chen with purportedly Canto-pop star Gillian Chung Yan-tung, actress Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi, former actress Bobo Chan Man-woon, model-actress Rachel Ngan Wing-sze, former singer Candice Chan Si-wai, 2001 Miss Chinese International contestant Mandy Chen Yu-ju and Vincy Yeung Wing-ching, niece of entertainment tycoon Albert Yeung Sau-shing.

Gillian Chung and Edison Chen have since made public apologies in relation to the pictures.

Chen is expected to return to the city in October for the trial of the remaining two people charged over the incident.

The first man arrested in relation to the scandal, Chung Yik-tin, was freed on February 15 after charges against him were withdrawn.

What won’t they sell next? This just seems wrong, from the Associated Press this one.

Homeowner offers house and her ‘love’ for sale

• Story Highlights
• Woman goes online to sell her Florida home — and a shot at marrying her
• "I’m not selling myself," she says. "I’m selling love … to meet that true love."
• Home lists for $340,000 and she’s asking $500,000 for her companionship
• Handsome Italian wine and cheese taster has answered her ad , she says

She’s tried nightclubs and online dating sites, but now a 42-year-old single mother is looking for love where everyone else’s heart is breaking: the real estate market.

After a year of trying to sell her four-bedroom home and eight years of singledom, Deven Trabosh is offering her South Florida home and a shot at marrying her on the Internet.

"I figured, let’s combine the ad, because I’m looking for love and I’m looking to sell the house," said Trabosh, a Barbie-esque blonde who teeters around the nearly 2,000-square-foot house in patent leather heels.

"Marry a Princess Lost in America," Trabosh wrote in the ads she posted on eBay and Craigslist last week. She describes a life of romance and travel and a home decorated with vaulted ceilings, upgraded tile and a soaking tub in a gated community with a pool and tennis courts.

Trabosh, a licensed real estate agent who hasn’t practiced in years, knew that she would struggle to sell the home in the troubled real estate market but insists that her fairy-tale ad isn’t just a sales gimmick.

"I’m struggling. … I don’t want to lose my house, and I want to find somebody," said Trabosh, who changed her name in the ad to Traboscia to keep people from finding her in the Florida phone book. "So I came up with this dream plan, because I’ve always dreamed about being a fairy-tale princess."

She listed the home for $340,000 on a sell-it-yourself Web site but upped the price, adding a $500,000 shipping fee to include her companionship on eBay.

Trabosh says eBay removed her ad, though she planned to change the wording and repost it. Under the site’s prohibited services policy, eBay does not allow the sale of human beings, body parts or relationships, spokeswoman Catherine England said Friday.

Trabosh hasn’t received any serious offers but says she’s had nearly 500 responses, mostly positive, including one from Ottie of Surrey, England, who e-mailed to say, "You are offering the perfect life with the perfect American princess."

She whips out her laptop to show off a picture of Claudio, a handsome Italian wine and cheese taster who she’s been corresponding with since he responded to the ad. Seated on a white leather love seat in her living room, she giggles almost girlishly about him. They’re hoping to meet in Miami in a few weeks.

She’s gotten criticism too. Her 21-year-old daughter, Haley, says she just wants her mom to find love, but her 14-year-old daughter says her mother is embarrassing her. Other have e-mailed to say she’s selling herself short.

"I’m not selling myself. I’m selling love … to meet that true love," Trabosh said. "Of course, it’s gonna take more chemistry and connection. It’s not going to be instantaneous that I’m just going to be automatically for sale. … It’s a package deal for true love."

Trabosh isn’t the first to use the Internet to hawk the unconventional. A heartbroken Australian man recently tried to sell his life online, including his house, job and friends. Others have sold body space, promising to display advertisements for the highest bidder.

"There is a plethora of quirky ads on craigslist that pop up on craigslist every day, and this appears to be one of them," spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mail. "Scads of couples have met and, thus, married through craigslist over the last twelve years sometimes marrying the person who bought their tired couch."

Ideally, Trabosh hopes a European man will close the deal and says she’s willing to move overseas.

"I know I’m putting myself out there. I’m sincere. I believe in true love," she said. "I want to get married again."

This is like everywhere..

The story of Hello Kitty rediscovering its japanese roots (even though she is an english girl according to her bio)  but the most interesting quote is that Sanrio themselves don’t seem to know why Kitty is so popular…wooot?

Even for Japanese fans, Hello Kitty, associated initially with elementary school-age girls, is wooing newcomers, with boxer shorts with glittery cat designs targeting young men and lingerie with cat-inspired lacing for adult women.

“We have to keep changing so people won’t get bored,” Sanrio manager Kazuo Tohmatsu said. “Ideas we would have thought out of the question 20 years ago are perfectly fine today.”

Sanrio officials acknowledge they don’t know for sure why Hello Kitty has proved so popular. But the absence of the mouth, a key feature for reading emotions, is believed to be one reason, allowing onlookers to add their own interpretations to the character.

I may have posted this before, but I saw it again and wanted to share it with you all, just hilarious.

I don’t really like Doom or any shooter game for that matter, but the irony is just fantastic, I hope they all go around and get cuteyfied (and kittyfied in the process!)

For those of us who know Tokyo’s famous Akihabara district (Electronic town) and love it for what it is, and all the craziness, cosplay, anime and whatever else we think is cool, screwy, funny and dorky all at the same time, a tragedy emerged there just a day ago.

Taken from Patrick Macias blog, the summary (worth checking out in more detail) is as follows taken from his blog.

The growing tension and push-and-pull between the cops, the normal people, and the otaku in Akihabara was shaping up to be a grand saga, complete with flash mobs and organized protests. But now, all of that has been preempted by some loser who just wanted to kill people.

(Here’s the part where I have to cover my ass by saying that I have friends who work in the area and who visit that very spot where the shit hit quite regularly, including me. So no, it’s not some abstract GTAIV sandbox where this all took place and I understand what it means when real human beings die real horribly.)

Meta Tame calls it the AKB Massacre. This is tragic because real people died and got injured because some insane person decided to go there, crash his car into people and then take out a knife and stab people before being taken down by police. It was said he announced his intention to kill to the public via the Internet days before.

Then, from the morass of it all comes an internet mob hunt against those that were less than respectful infront of news cameras… as posted in Japanprobe amongst other things and are now being hunted down by japanese internet mobs in more acts of hatefulness and other stupid things with posts and forum discussions debating the pro’s and con’s of effectively lynching innocent, yet arguably very stupid people. Were they stupid to do what they did? Yes, do they deserve to be lynched? I don’t remember reading in the constitution of any "democratic" country that you may be lynched for being stupid. As was commented, two wrongs does not make a right.

For more news related information check out the Times.

A quick guide/tip to overcoming the Video Sanriotown limit.

So you may be asking, why did I not post any videos recently, since I usually post a lot of videos.

Simply put, I ran out of space! I guess I didn’t realize but I used up hundreds of megabytes of upload space so I cannot post any new videos! The solution, open a new account! It’s free of course!

So I opened up a new video account here to see my new videos of course! If I tag them all right, they should all link to each other going forward, let’s hope and see!

Here’s my first video entry with the new free account, DOH!

There is a contest going no for best Hello Kitty Online Video under the tag HKOCONTEST, check the above video out, it really is funny and technically excellent!

Techcrunch has an interesting article on Google supporting and assisting the arrest of an Indian Man for saying he hated a prominent politician. More details on this story here entitled Techie held for posting derogatory messages against Sonia Gandhi on Orkut.

To quote from Techcrunch:

He was then charged under section 292 of Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act because he created a profile and then posted content in vulgar language about Sonia Gandhi in the community. If he’s convicted, he can be imprisoned for up to five years and may have to pay a fine up to Rs one lakh.

Now what is interesting is that for a democracy like India there appears to be no free speech issue issue for arresting a pan who said he hated a politician.

The Express Indian times said this:

Interestingly, the person who formed this community is not guilty as per the law. The police said that hating Sonia Gandhi is a personal opinion of the person who formed the community and having a personal opinion about someone is not an offence as per the law.

So he may not even be technically in breach as the law says he is entitled to a personal opinion.

So why is he charged and arrested?

Isn’t India a democratic country?

When China arrested people such as Shi Tao the media was abuzz, Yahoo was taken, in part, to congress on this, lots of reactions took place. The world was against China and its government, lots of protests took place. Yahoo was called a moral pygmie for supporting China by US Politicians because of this.

Don’t get me wrong, both is wrong, neither China or India should be arresting people for expressing their personal opinions or their free speech rights.

But the Internet has little  news about Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid from Gurgaon in contrast. Shi Tao in contrast was prominent news including the BBC.

China is not a democratic country yet, it is communist and has laws against certain areas of free speech and media. That they are not  agreeable to some, if not most is not my point, I agree that China needs to open up more and become more democratic which it is slowly embracing. What I find awful is that when a democratic country does the same thing, the world turns a blind eye. WHY?

Because you embrace ‘democracy’ therefore it is ok to break your own fundamental values? Countries that are called communist do not?

A dangerous polarization is taking place, like as was mention in this Pro-China or Anti-China video about the infamous torch relay.

China is viewed as simply bad no matter what it does, and if the media and individuals continue to display China poorly without recognizing that there are other aspects you will make us more suspicious. You will make us wonder more about your hidden agenda to hurt us. Are you afraid of China? Why can a perso be arrested in a democractic country for violations of free speech but not in China? What would happen if someone blogged "I don’t like Hu Jintao?" in China, it would be more than a mere footprint of online news, it would take the world by storm, Google would be asked to come in to congress to explain their actions like Yahoo did.

But for Rahul, he doesn’t seem to matter, because he is from India, or because India is "democratic" and endorses the western view of free speech?

Does the world really think China wouldn’t notice this type of treatment and be understanding of it? What does one really hope to achieve other than further polarizing and segmenting the chinese? If it was the intent of western media to garner sympathy and support for creating a more open society in China, your recent display was anything but.