The Week in Review: Cheaters and Cheetos

In this week’s edition, the police knock on the door of a Call of Duty hacker, and a man loses weight eating nothing but junk food.

Boy Arrested Over Call of Duty Hacking

A seventeen-year-old boy was arrested this week in the Manchester, UK, on suspicion of using denial of service attacks to force rival Call of Duty players off servers. Police tracked the boy down after Activision handed them his IP address in September. It seems unlikely that he will face particularly harsh punishment if convicted, but will probably think twice before cheating again. (Link)

Man Eats Nothing but Twinkies, Gets Thin Anyway

As part of an experiment, Mark Haub – who teaches nutrition at Kansas State University – lived on junk food for two months to see if he could lose weight. Despite eating only snacks and sugary cereal and drinking nothing but soda, Haub was able to shed fifteen pounds by controlling his calorie intake. Haub is hopeful that his efforts will help people lose weight, by showing them that they didn’t have to give up the foods they love. (Link)

Wikileaks Founder Gains an Anonymous Ally

Anonymous has launched what it calls an “infowar” against organizations trying to silence or otherwise harm whistle-blowing site Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. Anonymous targeted PayPal, Swiss financial firm PostFinance, and the website of the Swedish prosecutors who are pursuing a sexual assault case against Assange. Anonymous said that it wasn’t really affiliated with Wikileaks, but believed very strongly in the site’s struggle for transparency and truth. (Link)

City Beats Farm and Frontier For Zynga

Casual gaming giant Zynga has celebrated its biggest launch ever, following the release of its new game CityVille. It was twice as successful as Zynga’s last release, FrontierVille and in its first week, CityVille players – all 1.2 million of them – have built nearly three million homes, around half a million bakeries and countless other structures. There’s a long way to go before Cityville rivals its predecessors, but these early figures show that it’s off to a good start. (Link)

Resupply and Revive Your Way to an Extra Bad Company 2 Map

Battlefield developer DICE has tucked a bonus map into the upcoming Vietnam expansion for Bad Company 2. There’s a few strings attached however, as players will have to pull together to unlock it, with a key made of 69 million team actions. Team actions include things like healing other players and repairing vehicles. The map is a remake of the Operation Hastings map from Battlefield Vietnam, so should come with a heady infusion of nostalgia for long-term Battlefield fans. (Link)