@Mikey_pants

Ever take pains to word your Facebook shares just right, only to discover that friends and loved ones missed it? What if you could pay for the privilege of making sure they see the super important update? That’s the notion that Facebook is playing around with in New Zealand, as it charges users $0.40–$2 to highlight posts.

This came to light when a user noticed the offer and, thinking it was a scam, reported it. But a Facebook representative confirmed the new test feature. “This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends,” the rep told the BBC.

If Facebook launched this service in your home country, would you pay the company to promote your updates?

[via BBC]

But this data loss was not due to a server breach, or some complex phishing attack—instead, the Social Services office said that Hewlett Packard, which manages the data controlled by the office, notified the IHSS of the breach after a physical package containing microfiche with thousands of entries of payroll data went missing from a damaged package that HP had shipped by U.S. Postal Service to the State Compensation Insurance Fund in Riverside, CA.

As the package arrived damaged and incomplete, it’s unclear whether the information was lost or stolen, but the state has launched an internal investigation and notified law enforcement in the hopes of resolving the issue, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The possibly compromised information, dating from October to December 2011, for 375,000 workers included names, Social Security numbers and wages. For 326,000 recipients, state identification numbers may be at risk,” the LA Times reports. The In-Home Supportive Services office is also sending out hundreds of thousands of letters to potentially affected parties.

Read more on Ars Technica…

Iran’s attempts at censoring digital communications have come under global scrutiny in recent months, and now the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa outlawing anti-filtering tools that help citizens access blocked material on the internet. However, in an ironic twist, less than 30 hours after being published the religious edict itself was blocked to those trying to access it inside the country. Because the filtering software uses fairly simplistic keyword tools to detect pages which should be banned, it’s likely that the occurrence of the word “anti-filtering” was enough to place the site onto the blacklist.

It’s the latest in the country’s attempts to create a “safe” internet, which blocks content that…

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The casting of Ashton Kutcher in the role of Steve Jobs in an upcoming independent film focusing on the Apple co-founder’s life has certainly generated a significant amount of attention for the project, despite the fact that the film is a completely separate effort from the high-profile planned Sony Pictures film to be based on Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Jobs.

With filming on the indie film starring Kutcher having already begun with the star on break from his work on the TV show Two and a Half Men, TMZ shares a few photos of Kutcher seen wearing Jobs’ trademark outfit of a black turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers. The photos were reportedly taken on Friday while Kutcher was walking to the set of the film.

Kutcher has been said by some to bear an uncanny resemblance to a young Steve Jobs, particularly with having adopted a close copy of Jobs’ hairstyle and facial hair from those days. Jobs did not adopt his trademark wardrobe until a number of years later, but Kutcher is clearly taking on that aspect of Jobs’ identity for the role as well.