On Tech Brief today: Digg may be "deadd", internet scammers get scammed, and the perils of digital journey-planners.

• Whatever happened to Digg, the online service which lets users share stories and links they like, or "dig", with others? Mike Phillips thinks it has entered a state of terminal decline:

"According to the latest Compete.com data (April, 2010) Digg lost an astounding 13.8 million unique visits from March to April, 2010 -- a near 36 percent drop ... The fact is, people -- real people -- are beginning to tire. Submit this, upload that, vote on this, 'like' that, be my 'friend', check in here, suggest this, retweet that ... there's already so much to do. The only thing left to 'Digg' is a grave."

The creator of Digg, Kevin Rose has announced changes to the service, and a recently released video shows how a new version of Digg will work. But Mike Phillips thinks it has lost its relevance:

"By all accounts, it's another social network. An unnecessary one. The main focus is to make friends (starting by importing your social graph from sites like Facebook) and Digg stories. Then, your new Digg page will show the stories Dugg most by all your friends. Sound like something your friends 'liked' on Facebook? Or perhaps something retweeted on Twitter?"

• And now for something completely different. Fans of the British comedy group Monty Python will be very familiar with its famous Dead Parrot sketch. Bruce Sterling at Wired magazine has spotted a version purporting to be the product of a reverse sting on advance fee fraudsters in Nigeria.

Advance-fee scams are e-mails that read like this: "I'm the long lost nephew of Sani Abacha, and am looking for a home for his lost millions. Send me a cheque for £5,000 and I'll send you back £5m."

The characters in the sketch supposedly were promised fame and fortune by someone purporting to be a video producer, who they had tried to scam, if they were prepared to act out the Monty Python sketch.

Its authenticity can not be confirmed, as Bruce Sterling points out:

"I really don't know what to say. Maybe it's a scam. A fraud. A charade. Except it's free, and didn't ask me for money. I'm confused. Also, it's three years old and only had 57,000+ hits. Surely it oughta have at least fifty million."

But it is entertaining, and it definitely deserves a wider airing.

• Anyone who has used a satellite navigation system is familiar with getting sent down a cul-de-sac once in a while. But in the United States, a woman is suing Google, because she alleges that a Google Maps walking route led her to a busy road, where she was struck by a car.

Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land wonders:

"Are Google's bad guesses also dangerous? I suspect a court is going to find that despite getting bad directions from Google (or a gas station attendant, a local person or any source), people are also expected to use common sense."

But he adds:

"Here's to Google improving its directions and perhaps using more common sense of its own, understanding whether a street is a busy highway and maybe simply not offering routes when it doubt, rather than guessing."

• Lego bricks are famous the world over as a children's toy for building stuff. But prepare to be amazed. A person known only as "squirrelfantasy" has

turned a few bits of lego into a fully-fledged felt-tip pen 'printer'. Kevin Hall is impressed:

"Adorned with LEGO men and, really, only as pretty as it has to be to get the job done, the LEGO printer doesn't look like it's the fastest, though it does create a pretty unique printout. The pen slides back and forth, building images and text one line at a time. It'd probably have trouble with the finer details, though maybe it could just use a finer pen."

• Yesterday on Tech Brief, we heard about Google's move to keep new employees away from Microsoft software, owing to concerns about security. Microsoft wasted no time in hitting back, on its Windows team blog. Brandon LeBlanc from Microsoft is adamant:

"When it comes to security, even hackers admit we're doing a better job making our products more secure than anyone else. And it's not just the hackers; third party influentials and industry leaders like Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others."

If you want to suggest links or stories for Tech Brief, you can send them to @bbctechbrief on Twitter, tag them bbctechbrief on Delicious or e-mail them to techbrief@bbc.co.uk.

Links in full



• Mike Phillips | Website Magazine | Digg is deadd

• Bruce Sterling | Wired |

Showtime: 419 spammers perform the Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch

• Danny Sullivan | Search Engine Land | Woman Follows Google Maps "Walking" Directions, Gets Hit, Sues

• Kevin Hall | Dvice | Working LEGO printer uses felt-tip pens to get 'er done

• Brandon LeBlanc | Windows Team Blog | Windows and Security: Setting the Record Straight

