“The Micros: High Stakes and Low Comedy”.

When you’re a cynical, worldly bastard like myself, you greet news of any new webisodic animated comedy series with healthy skepticism. Because, let’s face it, most of ‘em suck. And, as history and Hollywood have shown, mixing poker and funny is usually a pretty terrible idea. And that’s why the pilot episode of “The Micros” was such a happy surprise. Because it doesn’t suck, at all. In fact, it’s pretty damn awesome. 

It’s an animated look at the “high stakes world of online poker” starring three players who, when they’re not living in mom’s basement, grind on the micro-stakes tables, while dreaming of a better life… like blacking out in Vegas then waking up naked, on an inflatable raft full of hundred dollar bills, on the lagoon at the Bellagio.  

Since the creators, KRANTZ and JimmyLegs, are calling it a pilot, it seems likely there will be more episodes to come. Their Facebook page looks like a good place to get the scoop and, if you’re so inclined, give them some props.

The guy being played by this guy doesn’t care about your privacy.

Remember how Facebook kept saying they were going to stop the leaking of private data about their users? Turns out, they lied. A Wall Street Journal investigative report found a new problem. Apparently every single one of the 10 most popular apps on Facebook, including their Texas Hold’Em game, has been transmitting private info about the people who play them to dozens of outside marketing companies. And it’s been happening even to people that set their privacy settings to the highest possible level.

Facebook has maintained that any info it sells about its users is anonymous, that they may tell companies what a user’s interests are, but they don’t reveal who that user is. And that’s where this latest problem lies. In fact, many of their biggest apps have been transmitting users’ unique Facebook User ID number. And if you know someone’s User ID number, you can hop on the site and find out their name and, in many cases, the names of all their friends. The issue is said to affect literally millions of users of Facebook apps.

The social networking site has responded to the report, saying they’re now working to “dramatically limit” the leaking of private info about its users. But a spokesman for the company admitted: “A Facebook User ID may be inadvertently shared by a user’s internet browser or by an application.” He went on to add that knowledge of an ID number “does not permit access to anyone’s private information on Facebook.”

The Wall Street Journal investigation led them to discover that apps were sending Facebook ID numbers to at least 25 advertising and data-mining firms. Several of the apps mentioned in the Wall Street Journal have since become unavailable on Facebook, but the company hasn’t come out and said their absence is directly linked to the report.

If cheesecake photos of a Russian spy are your thing, this app is for you.

Once upon a time you could face death or exile if you were caught spying for a foreign country. These days, you get your own iPhone poker app.

Poker with Anna Chapman is one of the newest additions to the App Store, Apple’s wildly popular way to blow large amounts of money on tiny little pieces of software that help you kill time on the subway. According to its press release, the app, which sells for $1.99, lets you play hold’em or five-card draw and “feel the ultimate drive of competing with a truly worthy opponent – Anna Chapman, the real-life Russian femme fatale.” 

The poker app features witty banter from the Russian spy as you play, and a level in the Anna Chapman poker app opens up a new photo of the Russian spy “in which she flaunts posh outfits and allows a glance at her social life with parties, shopping and more.” Somehow that doesn’t sound quite like the kind of photo that people who want to see Anna Chapman would be looking for, but that’s all your going to get given Apple’s family-friendly rules for the App Store.

In addition, “the luckiest players” – whatever that means – will get access to the spy’s Facebook page and be able to read her personal blog, both of which were created specifically for users of the app. There’s no word yet on whether the $1.99 you’ll pay for the kind of stuff so many other people give away for free will finance another deep cover mission for Anna Chapman – or when the app will be capable of playing Omaha or stud.

Justin Grant’s week of freedom apparently included plenty of time online.

An Australian prisoner who escaped from correctional officers while being treated at a local hospital has been caught – but not before he spent a week at large, using Facebook the whole time.

21-year-old Justin Grant broke away from his escort while at a hospital being treated for a hand injury last week, escaping while wearing handcuffs and a t-shirt reading “Corrective Services.” From there he went underground – or at least as underground as one can be while posting frequent updates to Facebook. “Ha u watch ile hav to hand myself in before they cach me” was one status update posted in broken English to Grant’s Facebook page last week. He later sent out an invitation to a poker game via the site, and over the last week he added several people to his friends list. 

Grant is actually the fifth person this year to escape from the prison in Townsville, a town of about 160,000 in the northeastern part of the country. It appears, though, that he’s the first one to openly taunt the authorities via social media while on the lam – if it was even Grant making the taunts. At least one Australian government official thinks someone other than Grant was running his Facebook page over the last week in order to throw police off. 

“One of the suggestions here, which I know was raised by police yesterday, was whether or not it is in fact the fugitive running the Facebook site,” said Andrew Fraser, Treasurer of Queensland. Given the nature of his arrest – he surrendered after being surrounded in a fast food restaurant parking lot in south Townsville – it seems much more likely that Grant knew he’d eventually be caught and was just enjoying his moment of freedom by thumbing his nose at The Man. 

Grant is currently assisting the authorities with their investigation into his escape. Maybe before he’s hauled back to his cell he’ll get the chance to play some poker with them, since they obviously have a habit of giving him way too much credit.