Two men who were just trying to sell some stuff online had their pants (and more) stolen Wednesday, even though they met their robbers on a busy San Francisco street.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, the male victims (aged 18 and 23) had arranged "to sell goods through an online ad" to prospective buyers meeting them on the 1700 block of Sloat Boulevard, which is between 34th and 35th Avenues.

When the buyers, two men in their 20s, arrived, one of them "showed [the 18-year-old victim] a gun in his waistband and demanded property." The gun-wielding man then forced the 23-year-old victim to "go to an ATM to take out more cash."

All in all, the two suspects stole the men's cell phones, wallets, credit cards, and cash. They also swiped their shoes and jeans, police say.

The suspects hopped into a nearby vehicle and fled in an unknown direction, police say. As of publication time,the men remain at large and no arrests have been made in the case.

Wired Gadget Lab’s senior writer Mat Honan's digital life was hacked last week. In addition to a detailed article on Monday, he also gave a rather jarring interview about what happened and the entire thing comes off like an episode of I Survived (though not nearly as bad because, oh my god, that show is utterly terrifying and beyond lurid). Describing himself as "intimately tied to his devices," he's now paranoid about his daily online use. Understandably so.

Honan also goes into detail about his online communications with the person who took control of his Amazon account, AppleID, and GMail, asking them if they felt any remorse for what they had done. (Spoiler: they do!) In the end, Honan's simple advice is to back up your stuff and sign up for two-factor authentication on Google.

[Wired]

Oh dear. For those of you who use LinkedIn (side note: please explain your LinkedIn love in the comments), they've just sent word that some of your passwords have been compromised. It seems that some of the passwords were stolen, so those accounts that have been or risk the possibility of being messed with, have been reset. And according to PC World, an estimated 6.5 million passwords were posted online on a forum based in Russia. "More than 200,000 of these passwords have reportedly been cracked so far."

Vicente Silveira of LinkedIn explains:

We want to provide you with an update on this morning’s reports of stolen passwords. We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts. We are continuing to investigate this situation and here is what we are pursuing as far as next steps for the compromised accounts:

1. Members that have accounts associated with the compromised passwords will notice that their LinkedIn account password is no longer valid.

2. These members will also receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords. There will not be any links in these emails. For security reasons, you should never change your password on any website by following a link in an email.

3. These affected members will receive a second email from our Customer Support team providing a bit more context on this situation and why they are being asked to change their passwords.

It is worth noting that the affected members who update their passwords and members whose passwords have not been compromised benefit from the enhanced security we just recently put in place, which includes hashing and salting of our current password databases.

Let this be a good reminder to update all of your passwords on a regular basis.

The chilling Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), drafted by Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, would have catastrophic affects on how you use the web and who (namely the U.S. government) controls it. Think China, Malaysia, or Iran. SOPA also represents another reality-estranged attempt from "Hollywood, the Recording Industry Association of America, and their allies to counter what they claim to be rampant piracy online, especially from offshore sites such as ThePirateBay.org," notes CNET. The act would essentially let the Justice Department make any "allegedly piratical Web sites virtually vanish from the Internet."

Now Silicon Valley's most prominent leaders and thinkers are taking action against SOPA. Treasured Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yan, as well as a slew of others put their name on an open letter warning people against SOPA.

The letter reads:

An Open Letter to Washington

We've all had the good fortune to found Internet companies and nonprofits in a regulatory climate that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, the creation of content and free expression online.

However we're worried that the PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act--which started out as well-meaning efforts to control piracy online--will undermine that framework.
These two pieces of legislation threaten to:

* Require web services, like the ones we helped found, to monitor what users link to, or upload. This would have a chilling effect on innovation;
* Deny website owners the right to due process of law;
* Give the U.S. Government the power to censor the web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran; and
* Undermine security online by changing the basic structure of the Internet.
We urge Congress to think hard before changing the regulation that underpins the Internet. Let's not deny the next generation of entrepreneurs and founders the same opportunities that we all had.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square
Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and Hunch
David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo!
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post
Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube
Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive and co-founder of Alexa Internet
Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal
Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist
Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay
Biz Stone, co-founder of Obvious and Twitter
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation
Evan Williams, co-founder of Blogger and Twitter
Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!

Said letter will appear in The New York Times and other major publications.

In November, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn helped pen a letter to cetain members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, stating that SOPA would be "a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity."

Your days of enjoying a combo plan of getting a disc or two via those red envelopes in the mail and streaming content from California-based Netflix are numbered, kids. Starting September 1, the popular site is implementing separate plans for streaming and physical disc borrowing.

This move is "to better reflect the costs of each and to give our members a choice," explains Netflix on their blog.

Uhm, really? If you, like so many of us, are enjoying the $9.99 a month unlimited streaming and one-disc-at-a-time plan, if you'd like to continue enjoying such a set-up, get ready to nearly double what you pay:

[Netflix's] current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming), for $7.99 a month.

Yeah, that's nearly $16 to have your disc and stream some, too.

"We think $7.99 is a terrific value for our unlimited streaming plan and $7.99 a terrific value for our unlimited DVD plan," enthuses Netflix. "We hope one, or both, of these plans makes sense for our members and their entertainment needs."

This obviously makes sense for Netflix, who realized that doing the mailed discs for a $2 add-on to the $7.99 streaming was cutting them out of some bucks. However, for the customer who enjoys streaming, but supplements the sometimes paltry offerings with items only available on disc, this is a big f-you. The trouble is, so many of us have come to rely on how we use Netflix--so how many of us will say "f-you" back and close our accounts?

Last week, after Attorneys General in 17 states sparked the removal of Craigslist "Adult Services" section, Newmark and company decided to slap a brilliant "censored" protest icon on the site. Today, however, as CNET and SF Appeal notes, the bar has been removed.

For amorous types still looking for pay-to-play lovemaking on the site, the m4m, m4w, w4w, w4m, misc romance, and casual encounters sections are a good start. Blatant requests for cash, however, get weeded out, so look carefully for such terms as "generous" or "helping hand."

Conversely, Gawker has a helpful post-Craigslist guide to buying sex online. God bless.

Want to hear more about a self-indulgent dilettante? Can you stomach another online writer who prattles on and on passive-aggressively about their alleged accomplishments? One who went to Ivy League schools you couldn't afford to get into? And, as a result, is a bit out of touch with the common man?

Well, surprise! It's not Peter and Billy Getty; it's the guy you voted for, former Board of Supervisors president and ex-Vice Presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez. And, according to his Facebook page, he's done and got himself "one" of those "fancy" new blogs. Take "a" look":"

Hello everyone~ I've just launched a "blog" that collects various opinion editorials and other writings I've done over the years, many of which are no longer in print or available online.

A few are a bit dated, but on the whole they hold up well..... enjoy~

Why the moniker hate, sir? Embrace the "blog" connotation and all that comes with it, Matt. Taste the lulz and petty drama on thew tip of your tongue. Caress yourself with the early AM crazy commenters and soft blogging community in-fighting. Bask in petty link wars. Let it wash over you.

In his defense, at least Matt allows comments, unlike the Gettys. Another win for progressives. (Although the blog's title, "The Matt Gonzalez Reader," makes us want to throw our laptop against the wall 12 times. Who does he think he is, James Joyce? Jesus.)

The FBI arrested Roanoke, Virginia resident Jeffrey Weaver, 47, this week after he made several threatening comments on the interwebs. Weaver, it seems, allegedly posted anonymous comments on InfoWars.com about Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop who allegedly shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Year's Day. According to Wired, Weaver reportedly went on a tirade on January 5th and 7th under the droll sobriquet "FuckThePigs.” Ahem: “Fuck the pigs and if I find out who the pig is then I will kill the pig who killed him,” is just one of the messages he angrily typed out against the disgraced cop. Anyway, Mehserle’s father saw the comments and contact the FBI. Then, "FBI agents subpoenaed [Alex] Jones, who runs InfoWars, to obtain IP addresses from which the messages were posted. They matched three addresses to a Verizon account owned by Weaver." Agents arrested Weaver and -- horror of horrors -- "found a 'green leafy substance' (.pdf) and 'a glass smoking device,' but no gun. Jones told Wired that there are worse comments on YouTube and other sites compared to InforWars, saying that he feels unfairly targeted.

Prepared to take l'internet by storm, SF Chronicle just unveiled their new "e-edition" (which is sophisticated, high-tech talk for "electronic edition"). What is the "e-edition," you ask? Well, according to the advertisement, it's a "new way to enjoy the San Francisco Chronicle." The "e-edition," the press material goes on to say, "includes the same page layout, headlines and photographs as the San Francisco Chronicle, with the advantage of interactive features that can be viewed from any Internet connection, anytime." Still confused? Let us explains: See, it offers the readers an "exact digital replica of the San Francisco Chronicle," "easy navigation," "keyword search for stories, topics and people" (genius!), and "access to a 30-day archive" (whoa!).

Needless to say, this newfangled, paperless newspaper concept is a brilliant idea, one that might even catch on at some point in the future on the world wide web. And, get this, it's only $99 a year! To sign up for the "e-edition," go here. (Also, would you pay to read e-edition? Take a poll and let your voice be heard.)

You can also get SF Examiner's "E-Dition," which has been available for some time now, right here.

Three Hayward residents (of course) are sitting in jail facing attempted murder charges after kidnapping and beating a man they met online. The 22-year-old unidentified victim, a San Jose man, had "gone to a Hayward motel to meet a woman after responding to a social networking Web site." (Which site? Who knows. Since they don't flat out mention Craigslist, which MSM loves to do, we're going to call it out as onlinebootycall.com.) According to CBS 5, "When the man arrived at the motel, police say he was beaten by the three suspects. The three then allegedly used the victim's ATM card to get cash, drove him to the Bethany Reservoir and beat him some more. " He was fond the next morning by a fisherman. The three suspects are 28-year-old Rodolfo Aguilar, 32-year-old Salim Ahmed and 20-year-old Lydia Troche. See, this is why online sex hookups just don't work in the heterosexual community. Alas. Update: the online site in question, according to the SJ Merc, was mocospace.com.

What is the dumbest thing in the world?
I am tempted to say nationalism, for the way in which it rallies people around a symbol they believe to be inextricably linked to their own identity but which belies a much darker reality and causes those who take it up to lose their independent mind and soul and give it over to the idea of a thing that, in and of itself, can only exist by oppressing the very people it purports to represent, creating monsters of us all, but I think you'll be expecting that. I'll go with Pop Tarts.

What is the dumbest thing about the Bay Area?
That it insists on calling itself the Bay Area, as if there are no other regions of the world centered around bays!

What was the most surprising thing you learned in working on this book?
Unlike what the people of Germany might say, it is remarkably hard to make light of unspeakable human suffering. Our greatest challenge was finding something to say about countries no one has ever heard of and which we are not even sure exist. I also really want to go to Iceland some day—it looks to be paradise on Earth.

What is the most fake seeming (yet real) news story you've come across?
"Bush Wins." That one got me twice.

Please create an Onion headline about SFist:
Online Alternative Magazine Has Perfect Obscure Band For You To Feign Enjoying This Weekend

In an effort to tame the trolls, SFGate's site (as well as a few others like ThinkProgress) use software from an outside company that implements a unique "block user" function. This feature blocks all comments made by a user from view by anyone but themselves (upon login). That is to say, whenever the quasi-banned user logs in to the site, they see their comments intact; but to everyone else, the offending comment is simply invisible. When we heard about this "deception" recently, we thought what most blog editors thought: genius. And heads up.

Investigate the Media broke the story -- its only story, in fact. (Hmm. Just who is this JimJams? Curious.) ITM broke it down like this:

Why would SFGate do such a thing? Because ever since public input was first allowed at SFGate, many commenters who had their comments deleted would come back onto the comment thread and point out that they had been silenced for ideological reasons -- i.e. they weren't sufficiently "progressive" -- or because they had pointed out ethical lapses at SFGate and the Chronicle.

"Silenced for ideological reasons?" Banned for not being "sufficiently 'progressive?'" (Do you hear that? That's the din of collective chortling by SF progressives.) And here we thought that this was simply a more gentle yet passive way of dealing with the gaggle of trolls that park under the bridges of any site with user comments. Admittedly, we do understand ITM's point of view here. But the issue here seems to stem from hurt feelings, not noble anguish over dastardly censorship as we're being led to believe. The blocked commenter is upset that their comments and thoughts simply haven't been read. We don't think censorship is the real issue here. He or she simply didn't know that they were banned.

Anyway, we asked former SFist Editor and current Deputy Managing Editor for Online, Eve Batey, just what in God's name is going on. (Full disclosure: Batey is a friend of the site and personal friend.) When asked whether or not commenters are banned for varying viewpoints, she told SFist that "neither The Chronicle nor SFGate would delete a comment based on an idealogical stance. ... Why would we bother to have comments on the site if we didn't want varying viewpoints to be expressed?" She goes on to tell us that "[w]e've stopped using the 'block user' function as of today, even at the risk of having comments 'disappear' and at having some article comment section conversations suffer as a result."

Batey's entire statement after the jump.

Starting today and running through Sunday, Pinot Noir will be the focus in the Russian River Valley this weekend. Russian River Vineyards in Forestville plays host to this year's fest featuring top Pinot producers from the area.

Enjoy wine-tasting, seminars, tours, and delicious culinary treats. The events kick off with dinner tonight. Online tickets are unfortunately no longer available. (You snooze, you lose.) But you can still call and beg at (707) 887-3344.

Here's the schedule of events.

Our top picks after the jump!