It's like they're TRYING to troll George Orwell. They know he's dead, right? (Photo: screencap, Russia Today)

How's that brave new world  of connected devices faring so far? It's going just great if you're a Russian who drives like a bat out of hell, because some sort of malware infection has got Moscow's network of speed cameras all screwed up. Welcome to the autobahn, baby!

The report comes from Russia's Izvestia, via The Register. The city has an extensive system of cameras designed to catch offenders in the act and mail them tickets. It's supposed to net something like $3.2 million in fines every month, which no doubt buys a whole lot of umbrellas for the meter maids.

Only, the network hasn't been working properly for the last couple of weeks. Research by--who else?--Kaspersky Lab suggests that a virus got into the servers for the Office of Traffic Police, which infected other parts of the system with malware that prevents individual cameras from transmitting. Presumably the perpetrator is someone who's always in a rush to get to the supermarket that closes really early because sometimes you just can't go another day without Ben  & Jerry's, toilet paper and a couple cans of cat food, am I right? 

But it wasn't just newfangled hacking creating problems, though. Some of the cameras had decidedly low-tech problems:

A virus infection may be a secondary cause of failure at many of the 144 camera sites on the network: inspections of the gear at 13 locations revealed evidence that cameras were not connected to a power supply. Dirty glass lenses and corroded metal was also discovered.

Well just unplugging the damn things is one manner of virus protection, we suppose. 

When Betabeat first met Russian tycoon Dmitry Grishin in June, the CEO of Mail.ru was arguing that personal robotics companies needed to put the same emphasis on customers and user experience as their consumer Internet counterparts.

Today, Grishin Robotics, his New York City-based venture capital firm, has made an investment that could mean a step in that direction: $250,000 in funding for RobotAppStore, which bills itself as the first-ever marketplace for apps that "extend the functionality of any types of robot–from Roomba vacuum cleaners and NAO humanoids to the AR.Drone quadcopter and Sphero (the robotic ball)."

(via Grishin Robotics)

"The concept of ‘Cloud robotics’, which implies ability of all robots to connect to the internet, share a common knowledge database and seamlessly upgrade their functions in real-time, is a soon-to-be future; one reminiscent of the of personal computer industry," Mr. Grishin, who is currently on stage at TechCrunch Moscow, said in a press release.

Much like Apple's App Store, the market is also encouraging developers to add their own software in exchange for 70 percent of future earnings. RobotAppStore, which was founded in 2011, also offers support for developers with programming manuals and the chance to talk to experts in the field.

Of course, Apple benefits from only having to worry about apps built for its own operating system. But founder and CEO Elad Inbar says that's where the investment will come in handy. "Being a part of Grishin Robotics’ portfolio provides high synergy with other robotics companies and better resource utilization," he said in a press release.

The size of today's investment is rather small. Mr. Grishin seeded his VC firm with $25 million, which he initially planned to deploy into 10 to 20 mid-stage companies. But according to RobotAppStore's own estimates, there is room to grow: figures from UNECE, IFR, ABI Research and BCC Research show that more than 30 million programmable robots have been sold to date.

Just think--soon you might be able to buy a DJ Roomba app instead of having to hack it together yourself. [Update: Inspired by Tom Haverford, Roomba manufacturer iRobot has apparently created "a handful of these musical vacuuming wonders." Unfortunately, your name has to be Sam Biddle if you want a test run.]