thruthenight - Slashdot User

Sony Sued Over PS3 "Other OS" Removal 546

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday April 29, 2010 @08:41AM from the they-deserve-worse dept.

Stoobalou writes "A Californian Playstation 3 user has filed the first class action lawsuit against Sony over removal of the 'Install Other OS' function from the Playstation 3. The action seeks to redress Sony's 'intentional disablement of the valuable functionalities originally advertised as available with the Sony Playstation 3 video game console.' The suit claims that the disablement breaches the sales contract between Sony and its customers and constitutes 'an unfair and deceptive business practice perpetrated on millions of unsuspecting customers.'"

Comment Nokia is loosing touch (Score 1) 174

by thruthenight on Wednesday April 28, 2010 @04:53PM (#32021476) Attached to: Microsoft Signs Android Patent Deal With HTC

I used to say "Nokia or nothing", I still love their quality, and usability of Nokia phones (keyboard, layout, etc)... But they've got to seriously improve Symbian. And good luck finding good/living/improving apps for it - seems nobody develops for Symbian anymore. Not to mention that prices for Nokia phones are insane. I mean I've got Nexus One for about 25% cheaper than price for quite obsolete model N97 - isn't it crazy?!

Arizona "Papers, Please" Law May Hit Tech Workers 1590

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 27, 2010 @11:56PM from the don't-know-jack-boots dept.

dcblogs writes "H-1B workers and foreign students may think twice about attending school or working in Arizona as a result of the state's new immigration law. If a police officer has a 'reasonable suspicion' about the immigration status of someone, the officer may ask to see proof of legal status. Federal immigration law requires all non-US citizens, including H-1B workers, to carry documentation, but 'no state until Arizona has made it a crime to not have that paperwork on your person,' said immigration lawyer Sarah Hawk. It means that an H-1B holder risks detention every time they make a 7-11 run if they don't have their papers, or if their paperwork is out of date because US immigration authorities are behind in processing (which condition does not make them illegal). The potential tech backlash over the law may have begun yesterday with a call by San Francisco City Atty. Dennis Herrera 'to adopt and implement a sweeping boycott of the State of Arizona and Arizona-based businesses.'"

Google Street View Logs Wi-Fi Networks, MAC Addresses 559

Posted by timothy on Friday April 23, 2010 @08:17AM from the cannot-see-basements dept.

An anonymous reader points to this story at The Register that says "Google is collecting more than just images when they drive around for the Street View service. 'Google's roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it's got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users' unique MAC (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.' There's a choice quote at the end: 'Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said Internet users shouldn't worry about privacy unless they have something to hide.'"

At Issue In a Massachusetts Town, the Value of Two-Thirds 449

Posted by timothy on Thursday April 22, 2010 @07:09PM from the all-those-in-favor-and-then-some dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In Truro, Massachusetts (a town on Cape Cod), a zoning decision came up for vote, where the results were 136 for, 70 against. The vote required 2/3 approval to pass. The Town Clerk and Town Accountant believe that since .66 * 206 is less than 136, the vote passes. However, an 'anonymous caller' noted that a more accurate value of 2/3 would require 137 (or perhaps even 138 votes) for the measure to be considered passed. The MA Secretary of State and State Attorney General are hard at work to resolve this issue." Updated 20100422 23:55 by timothy: Oops! This story is a year old (rounding up), which I didn't spot quickly enough. Hope they've got it all worked out in the meantime.

Comment Re:Damn them! (Score 3, Insightful) 332

by thruthenight on Thursday April 22, 2010 @02:49PM (#31943636) Attached to: After DNA Misuse, Researchers Banished From Havasupai Reservation

What about this: you give your credit card number to a store for certain purchase, and they purchase dozen of other things on the same credit card for you ("Yes, sir, we truly believe you need all those things, it's all for your own good!")

Woman Claims Wii Fit Caused Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome 380

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday April 15, 2010 @07:00PM from the can't-stop-playing dept.

Amanda Flowers always liked her Wii Fit but now she can't get enough of it. Amanda claims a fall from her balance board damaged a nerve and has left her suffering from persistent sexual arousal syndrome. From the article: "The catering worker said: 'It began as a twinge down below before surging through my body. Sometimes it built up into a trembling orgasm.' A doctor diagnosed her with persistent sexual arousal syndrome due to a damaged nerve."

Google to Open Source the VP8 Codec 501

Posted by kdawson on Monday April 12, 2010 @10:06PM from the floor-wax-and-dessert-topping dept.

Several readers noted Google's reported intention to open source the VP8 codec it acquired with On2 last February — as the FSF had urged. "HTML5 has the potential to capture the online video market from Flash by providing an open standard for web video — but only if everyone can agree on a codec. So far Adobe and Microsoft support H.264 because of the video quality, while Mozilla has been backing Ogg Theora because it's open source. Now it looks like Google might be able to end the squabble by making the VP8 codec it bought from On2 Technologies open source and giving everyone what they want: high-quality encoding that also happens to be open. Sure, Chrome and Firefox will support it. But can Google get Safari and IE on board?"

Fossil of Ant-Eating Dinosaur Discovered In China 64

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @11:29PM from the ancient-picnic-defender dept.

thomst writes "Charles Q. Choi of LiveScience reports that a farmer in southern Henan Province in China has dug up the first known ant-eating dinosaur, a half-meter-long theropod (the dinosaur family to which T. Rex belongs), whose fossilized remains were described as 'fairly intact'. The 83- to 89-million-year-old pygmy dinosaur has been named named Xixianykus zhangi by Xig Xu, De-you Wang, Corwin Sullivan, David Hone, Feng-lu Han, Rong-hao Yan, and Fu-ming Du, whose paper on the critter, A basal parvicursorine (Theropoda: Alvarezsauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of China, was published in the March 29 issue of Zootaxa (the abstract is available in PDF format for free, the full article is paywall-protected.)"

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