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Comment Re:They were obsoleted by a more convenient tech . (Score 1) 362

I was disappointed when I got Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and found out that it didn't support local multiplayer. I wouldn't have bought the game if I had known that. Yes, I could have checked, but given the fact that every Need for Speed game that I have bought in the past was multiplayer, it didn't even dawn on me that it might not be. Lesson learned. Perhaps, as more people realize this, video game manufacturers will lose sufficient sales to encourage them to put local multiplayer back in.

Censorship

DHS Seized Domains Based On Bad Evidence 235

An anonymous reader writes "Back over Thanksgiving, the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit (ICE) made a lot of news by seizing over 80 domain names. While many of these involved sites that sold counterfeit products, five of the domains involved copyright issues. Four of them involved hiphop-related blogs — including ones that hiphop stars like Kanye West and others used to promote their own works, and the last one was a meta search engine that simply aggregated other search engines. Weeks went by without the owners of those sites even being told why their domains were seized, but the affidavit for the seizure of those five sites has recently come out, and it's full of all sorts of problems. Not only was it put together by a recent college graduate, who claimed that merely linking to news and blog posts about file sharing constituted evidence of copyright infringement, it listed as evidence of infringement songs that labels specifically sent these blogs to promote. Also, what becomes clear is that the MPAA was instrumental in 'guiding' ICE's rookie agent in going after these sites, as that appeared to be the only outside expertise relied on in determining if these sites should be seized."
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Nigerian Email Scam Victim Sues Bank, Loses Appeal Screenshot-sm 312

reidhellyer writes "From California Litigation Attorney Blog: 'While many victims of the so-called "Nigerian e-mail scam" would be too embarrassed to trumpet that fact, others end up infamous for their victimhood like the appellant in a published opinion of the California Court of Appeal in Riverside. In March 2009, Charles Peters received an email from someone purporting to be a citizen of Malaysia. The e-mail informed Peters that certain third parties in the United States and Canada owed the Malaysian money, but that “they can not transfer the funds to any bank account outside America continent due to their new company policy [sic].” He asked Peters to “assist me in receiving the funds and forward to me.” He offered to pay Peters 12 percent of the money. Peters agreed after apparently negotiating an increase of his fee to 15 percent.'"

Comment Re:Seriously? (Score 3, Insightful) 1352

If by equally biased, you are talking about MSNBC, then sure. But if you're saying all the other news channels are equally biased than you are truly a special kind of person. CNN and the major network news organizations do have a bias. This is true. However none of them so heartily embrace one side of the aisle in their coverage as FOX News and MSNBC.

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Survey Shows That Fox News Makes You Less Informed Screenshot-sm 1352

A survey of American voters by World Public Opinion shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. One of the most interesting questions was about President Obama's birthplace. 63 percent of Fox viewers believe Obama was not born in the US (or that it is unclear). In 2003 a similar study about the Iraq war showed that Fox viewers were once again less knowledgeable on the subject than average. Let the flame war begin!

Comment Re:So Almost Nothing? (Score 1) 775

If what I've found on the internet is correct, because it is a 4-4 decision, it sets no precedent. Therefore this ruling is only in effect for this case. IANAL and I may be totally wrong, but that's the best information I have at this moment.

That said, wtf were the four that voted to uphold the decision thinking?

Comment Re:Doomed (Score 3, Informative) 987

Yes, because, in a state that has such a large dependence on tourism based around nature, most bullets sold are primarily for the purpose of murder rather than hunting, wildlife management, or target shooting.

In 2009, there were 175 murders in Colorado. In 1981, the year with the greatest number of murders on record, there were 239. These are total counts for murder, they do not delineate gun murders from any other method. In 2008 approximately 41,000 pheasant roosters were harvested. That's just pheasants. I'm not even going to take the time to find out the bag totals of other animals/hunting seasons.

Nobody's "pretending" that the majority of bullets sold are for hunting.

Comment Re:Doomed (Score 0) 987

There is no moral equivalence. Anyone who argues that selling bullets makes someone responsible for murder is an idiot. Selling a tool doesn't make you responsible for how the tool is used or misused, unless you had complicit knowledge of future illegal acts. Anyone can buy a steak knife, anyone can buy a car, heck, anyone can buy a bathtub and a blow dryer. The seller of these is no more responsible for any future murders committed with these "weapons," than the cashier at the local big box mart was for selling the Columbine murderers their bullets.

The millionaire movie maker trying to make his point was being an ass. The (likely) minimum wage cashier was only trying to make a living. Harassing someone to sell a few DVD's is disgusting.

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IT Worker's Revenge Lands Her In Jail Screenshot-sm 347

aesoteric writes "A 30-year-old IT worker at a Florida-based health centre was this week sentenced to 19 months in a US federal prison for hacking, and then locking, her former employer's IT systems. Four days after being fired from the Suncoast Community Health Centers' for insubordination, Patricia Marie Fowler exacter her revenge by hacking the centre's systems, deleting files, changing passwords, removing access to infrastructure systems, and tampering with pay and accrued leave rates of staff."
Power

Video Shows Why Recharging Kills Batteries 111

sciencehabit writes with this except from Science: "You may not give a lot of thought to what happens inside the battery of your laptop or cell phone, but to judge from this video, it's not a dull place. The battery in question is a miniature rechargeable lithium-ion device, and the clip shows what happens when it is charged. As lithium ions flow from the positively charged cathode into the 200-nanometre diameter wires of tin oxide that make up the negatively charged anode, the nanowires writhe and bulge, causing them to expand up to 2.5 fold. The wires also change structure from a neatly ordered crystal to a disordered glassy material. These distortions may explain why such batteries ultimately wear down. Knowing more about the process may help researchers develop longer lasting, and perhaps much smaller, batteries in the future."
The Courts

Man Sues Rockstar Saying GTA:SA Is Based On His Life 124

dotarray writes "From the article: 'Rockstar Games are no strangers to legal action, but it doesn't come stranger than this. An American model, Michael Washington (known as "Shagg") is suing the publisher — as well as parent company Take Two Interactive — because they based Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on his life.'" It's a good thing Washington never learned the infinite ammo cheat.

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