Cellphones are everywhere in India. Practically everyone already has a cellphone, or is going to get one this week. Text Messages (locally called SMS) are often free, or are dirt cheap. It is common even for low-wage workers (day labourers, porters, gardeners) to have cell-phones in India. This is, in part because the landline infrastructure is very poor and unreliable, and a open economy has meant that cellphone operators have been able to provide good service for really competitive rates.
Why is the DaringFireball article here? and why does it have a 100 votes? The guy has just quoted the Wired article without adding anything on his own?
In reading the email communication and also paying attention to the timeline, I did not get the impression that the OP was "pestering" the Apple Manager. He was cordial and gently reminding that he was promised a response and had not received one.
If anything, I got the impression that the Apple Manager was stalling (or maybe he really was ill and it really took him 10 days - from May 4 to May 14 - to "get back on his feet")
I have never used this service and from reading what it does, I probably never will. BUT, if were the kind of person into these type of things, I would feel pretty good about them. The explanation sounds sincere, honest and heart-felt. They have done their research and discovered what caused the problem. The credit card numbers were only in the source-code of the HTML, not actually diaplayed on the HTML page (I know it only takes 2 clicks to see the source, but how many people check out the source code of every page we see through the day ?). And they are telling us that they are well-funded to dedicate more resources on security. I feel pretty good about them.
Did someone take a screenshot for posterity? I suspect the good folks at MTV will fix the issue soon and HNners who are a little late to the party will be left wondering why this article is at the top of the page?
When you change the first value from "Full" to "Upgrade" or vice-versa, an empty dialog box pops up, with no text and a Ok button. I have to clcik on it twice to dismiss it. IE on Win XP!
Why does he write "baaaahhhhssstttaaaarrrrdddddssss" when he means to write "bastards" ?! Reads very silly to me. Is he trying to be cute? Or trying to get around content-blocking systems? (One would think he could just write "batsards")