Weird Tech: Man jailed for Facebook request

Dylan Osborn claimed he didn't know the "friend request" had been sent out by Facebook

Isn't it typical? With technological advances forever endeavouring to send the human race skyward, it's always human error that brings us right back down to earth.

It could happen to anyone...

A man who joined Facebook to look at a friend's wedding photos was jailed after the social networking site sent an automatic "friend request" to his estranged wife. Dylan Osborn had been told by magistrates to stay away from his wife, after inundating her with phone calls and text messages. He was sentenced to ten days in prison for breaking his bail conditions.

Think that's a bit harsh? Spare a thought for Jesse Martin who wasn't permitted access to the judicial system at all. Instead he was shot dead by his girlfriend after she found his stash of porn CDs.

Meanwhile, a visitor to Australia's Ipswich Magistrates Court was lucky not to face charges himself when his raunchy mobile phone ring tone went off in the courtroom.

Apparently neither verbal warnings nor an awareness of the potential for an inappropriate disruption were enough to prompt the man to switch his mobile off. Lawyers and members of the public struggled to contain their laughter as the "voice of a woman experiencing heightened pleasure" rang for up to 20 seconds, Ananova reported.

Eternal life

And yet alongside all this we observed glimpses of true brilliance this week. Quantum Picture, for example, brought its advanced image recognition software to the home (perhaps not as we'd have imagined, but amusing nonetheless), while Ink Afterlife made huge strides in the quest for eternal life.

Yes, now you too can immortalise your loved ones. Simply send the ashes to InkAfterlife.com along with a photograph - they'll mix the ashes with printer ink and spit out a colour print for you. Beautiful.

And finally...

Two American men are fighting over a three-year-old amputated leg that was stored in a barbecue smoker, according to The Register. One man says he purchased the leg when the smoker was auctioned off by a storage facility in North Carolina. The other claims (somewhat validly) that the leg was once attached to his body.

You couldn't make this stuff up.

Julia Sagar
Content director, special projects

Julia specialises in ecommerce at Future. For the last four years, she’s split her time between leading TechRadar’s crack team of deal editors - covering all the biggest sales of the year including Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day - and helping the audiences of Future’s consumer tech and lifestyle brands (TechRadar, Tom's Guide, T3, Marie Claire, Woman & Home and more) find the best products and services for their needs and budget.

A former editor of global design website Creative Bloq, she has over 15 years’ experience in online and print journalism, and was part of the team that launched TechRadar way back in the day. When she isn't reviewing mattresses (she’s tested more than she cares to remember), or sharing tips on how to save money in the latest sales, she can usually be found writing about anything from green energy to graphic design.