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Comment Not a "new" problem.. (Score 4, Informative) 243

by _hAZE_ (#27528797) Attached to: GameStop Selling Games Played By Employees As New

I'm quite surprised that the rest of the world is just now being made aware of this practice. I worked for two competing shopping-mall chain video game stores in the mid-to-late 90's, and both of them had policies almost identical to this. The shrink-wrap machine in the back room made the fact that an item was "checked out" very simple to conceal from the customers.

To be completely honest, I really don't care, as long as:

- The materials are sold to me in a "new" condition
- If it requires any sort of registration key, I better not ever find out it's already been registered

Without this policy in place, I'm fairly certain a lot of video game stores would simply stop having employees; it's one of the best perks of working at one. Discounts are nice, but playing for free? That's even better.
Printer

Submission + - Inkless printers to be built into digital cameras

Submitted by
MattSparkes
MattSparkes writes: "A revolutionary way to print pictures without ink has been invented by a US company called Zink Imaging. The company, a spin-off of Polaroid, says it will use the technology to make hand-held printers that can be integrated into mobile phones and digital cameras. "The key to creating the devices is doing away with ink, using a new type of digital printing that changes colour of paper when heat is applied.""
Power

Submission + - Data centers sucking down electricity bigtime

Submitted by
BobB
BobB writes: "Energy consumption in corporate data centers doubled between 2000 and 2005, due in large part to the spreading use of volume servers, according to a new report. The study, conducted by a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and a consulting professor at Stanford University, found that servers and associated infrastructure, such as cooling and uninterruptible power supplies, in U.S. data centers consumed about 45 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2005, accounting for about 1.2% of the country's electricity consumption, roughly equal to the power drawn by the nation's color televisions. The electricity costs for the servers and associated infrastructure reached $2.7 billion. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/021507-study .html"
Media

Submission + - MythTV better than Series 3?

Submitted by
gizmateer
gizmateer writes: "Does an open source solution like MythTV stand a chance against TiVo's Series 3?

According to this article MythTV actually has several features that a TiVo will never be able to compete with but is considerably harder for the non-geek to initially setup and then maintain. A huge ding against MythTV is the fact it does not support CableCARD like the Series 3. Since I'm OTA, that's not as big of a deal, but what are your thoughts? MythTV vs Series 3?"
Businesses

Submission + - Opportunity is knocking. Should I open the door?

Submitted by
infinite9
infinite9 writes: "I hear about startups all the time. But most of the time, it's just talk. So I don't take them seriously. But this time, someone has really caught my attention. I'm an independant IT consultant with many years of experience. I'm in my 30s. I make an excellent hourly rate and would most likely continue to do so. But a friend of mine has offered me part ownership as a founding share holder in a new business. I can't talk about what I would be doing, but it's spectacularly awesome. It's the stuff I dreamed about making when I was a kid. I'm usually very skeptical about these things. But in this case, their business plan is rock solid. They have several investors interested already. But when I heard about one potential investor in particular who they've already met with, it floored me. Everyone here would instantly recognize his name. If this person trusts these people and their business plan, shouldn't I? Here's the problem. For the first few years, I would be making what for most people is a great salary. But for me, it's a significant pay cut, almost half. But I'd be working from home a lot. I'd have a lot of control. I'd be working with my friends doing something extremely fun and satisfying. Currently, I put quite a lot of money a year in an IRA/401k. I'd have to stop that. But in exchange I'd get quite a lot of shares. If they just hit the conservative estimates in their business plan, i'd be very comfortable. If they exceed plan even a little, which is likely if they succeed, I'd never have to work again. Worst case, I walk away with valuable business experience, good technical experience, and no IRA/401k. I would be around 40 at this point. So what would you need to justify leaving your comfort zone and taking a risk like this? Other than obvious due diligence, what would you want to know or consider up front?"
Power

Submission + - Affordable Solar Manufacturing Breakthrough

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: International Automated Systems, Inc. (IAUS) has announced that they have set a new production record for solar panel manufacturing, both in speed and in cost. They claim to have manufactured nearly 1,000 Kilowatts of IAUS's solar panels in a short 24-hour run. The IAUS system consists of panels which serve as lenses to focus the sun's heat on a heat exchanger that then produce steam or other high-temperature fluid that is then passed through a simple, patented turbine which is connected to a generator to produce electricity. The company says that they have achieved the milestone of producing electricity via solar energy at a price below wholesale grid pricing.
Republicans

Submission + - Law requires ISPs to record all surfing activity

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A bill introduced last week by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is beginning to raise eyebrows. (...) Under the guise of reducing child pornography, the SAFETY (Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth) Act is currently the gravest threat to digital privacy rights on the Internet. Given the increasing tendency of people, especially young people, to use the Internet as a primary means of communication, this measure would affect nearly all Americans in ways we are only beginning to understand. Also, given the fact that the Act requires all Internet Service Providers to record the web surfing activity of all Internet users, this amounts to the warrantless wiretapping of the entire Internet.
Movies

Submission + - The Top 12 Movies that Were Ahead of Their Time

Submitted by
Alex Billington
Alex Billington writes: "What makes a movie years down the road be referred to as ahead of its time? It's the visual effects and technical achievements that the filmmakers implemented, from the miniatures in Star Wars to the time-freezing camera system in The Matrix, these movies were vastly ahead of their time. FirstShowing.net has comprised a comprehensive list of the top 12 movies in history that were ahead of their time, ranging from Psycho and 2001 to The Matrix."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - A Lifetime of E-mail

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Does anyone else think e-mail is completely out of control? If so, what can be done about it? Is there any way out of e-mail hell? My only hope is that e-mail will eventually collapse under its own weight. I work at an office where e-mail is the primary communication mechanism, or rather, it was. I get 100 e-mails a day, and can only get to about half that number — if I stay late an extra hour or two. The volume of e-mail is so overwhelming now that my boss is considering a permanent out of office reply telling senders to call her if it's important because it could be days before current e-mail is read. Then I come home to at least 30 new e-mails in my personal inbox. Who enjoys the thought of spending their whole life reading and responding to e-mails? The movie "You've Got Mail" was cute in its day, but will we soon see a new movie akin to "Office Space" that, rather than denouncing cubicle life, will comment on the horrors of living a life sifting, sorting, reading, and replying to endless and increasingly meaningless electronic messages?
Editorial

Submission + - The Headaches of On-Line Game Rentals

Submitted by
jayintune
jayintune writes: "2old2play took a cross section of the average gamer to see what their experiences have been like with various online game rental services. Some of the results may surprise you, while issues like receiving the latest game releases on time, may not. They also give a couple quick tips on how to choose the best service without getting burned."
Security

Submission + - "Hacking" a Fake Snow Day

Submitted by
Class Act Dynamo
Class Act Dynamo writes: "Two students in Trenton, Ohio face expulsion from their school and possibly some time in juvie for posting a fake snow-related announcement on the school district website. According to the article, there was no hacking involved. The girls somehow must have gotten the password. It will be interesting to find out how that happened. We'll probably find out next week that it was on a post-it note on the principle's desk."

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