1214845
submission
Token_Internet_Girl writes:
Mathematicians at UCLA have discovered a 13 million-digit prime number, a long-sought milestone that makes them eligible for a $100,000 prize. The group found the 46th known Mersenne prime last month on a network of 75 computers running Windows XP. The number was verified by a different computer system running a different algorithm.
802303
submission
Token_Internet_Girl writes:
In one of the most significant legal rulings in the tech industry this year, a Superior Court judge in California has ruled that the practice of charging consumers a fee for ending their cell phone contract early is illegal and violates state law.
The preliminary, tentative judgment orders Sprint Nextel to pay customers $18.2 million in reimbursements and, more importantly, orders Sprint to stop trying to collect another $54.7 million from California customers (some 2 million customers total) who have canceled their contracts but refused or failed to pay the termination fee.
673414
submission
Token_Internet_Girl writes:
http://us.i1.yimg.com/videogames.yahoo.com/feature/video-games-turn-kids-into-killers-not-so-says-new-book/1212550
"Penned by Harvard Med School researchers Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olsen, 'Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do' refutes common conceptions about the causal relationship between violent video games and violent behavior."
In other words, playing a few hours of GTA IV will not result in your kid stealing a car, careening through traffic and gunning down civilians.
461826
submission
Token_Internet_Girl writes:
In Texas, an unemployed game developer was visited in his mom's basement by the FBI for building a home-made nuclear reactor. "The feds were alerted after the man blogged that he had some uranium and that the background radiation in his home had doubled." If only we were all so productive with our time...
442836
submission
Token_Internet_Girl writes:
A Trekkie who paid $6,000 for a poker visor that was supposedly worn by the android Data on the television show "Star Trek: The Next Generation" claims in a lawsuit against Christie's auction house that the prop is a fake.
Ted Moustakis, of Towaco, N.J., said he began to doubt the authenticity of the visor and other items he purchased at an auction of CBS Paramount props in 2006, after he brought it to a convention in August to have it autographed by the actor who played Data, Brent Spiner.
According to the lawsuit, Spiner recognized the visor as the one that had been sold by Christie's and told Moustakis that it wasn't the real deal. The actual visor had been sold by the actor himself some time ago.
