jquirke - Slashdot User

Best Buy Unapologetic About Charging For PS3 Firmware Updates 454

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday October 07, 2010 @01:12AM from the a-fool-and-his-money dept.

donniebaseball23 writes "After discovering that electronics retailer Best Buy was charging ignorant customers $30 for the 'service' of installing updated firmware on PS3s, IndustryGamers got word from the company on its policy. Best Buy sees no problem with charging for this convenience, even though it's something Sony provides to PS3 owners completely free. 'While many gamers can handle firmware upgrades easily on their own, those customers who do want help can get it from Geek Squad, and we continue to evaluate this offering to ensure it meets their needs. The service goes beyond a firmware updates, and includes user account setup, parental control setup and other components,' a representative said."

Aussie Gamer Loses PS3 Court Case Over 'Other OS' 206

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @03:32AM from the misrepresentation-is-relative dept.

dotarray writes "An Australian man who took Sony to court over the company's decision to remove Linux functionality from the PS3 console has now lost his claim, with the court clearing the manufacturer of any wrongdoing regarding the upgrade."

NAMCO Takes Down Student Pac-man Project 218

Posted by Soulskill on Monday August 02, 2010 @06:30PM from the chasing-ghosts dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The core of how people first learn to do stuff — programming, music, writing, etc. — is to imitate others. It's one of the best ways to learn. Apparently a bunch of students using MIT's educational Scratch programming language understand this. But not everyone else does. NAMCO Bandai sent a takedown notice to MIT because some kids had recreated Pac-man with Scratch. The NAMCO letter is pretty condescending as well, noting that it understands the educational purpose of Scratch, but 'part of their education should include concern for the intellectual property of others.'"

Scientists Create Equation For a Perfect Handshake 144

Posted by samzenpus on Monday July 26, 2010 @02:31PM from the thank-you-science dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Discover Magazine reports that despite the average person shaking hands nearly 15,000 times in a lifetime, one in five (19 per cent) admit they hate the act of the handshake and are unsure how to do it properly, regularly making a handshake faux pas such as having sweaty palms, squeezing too hard or holding on too long while over half the population (56 per cent) say they have been on the receiving end of an unpleasant handshake experience in the past month alone. But help is at hand as scientists have developed a mathematical equation for the perfect handshake taking into account the twelve primary measures needed to convey respect and trust to the recipient. The research was performed at the behest of Chevrolet as part of a handshake training guide for its staff and is meant to offer peace of mind and reassurance to its customers. A full guide to the perfect handshake is available on Flickr."

Antidepressants In the Water Are Making Shrimp Suicidal 182

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday July 13, 2010 @02:14PM from the crustacean-frustration dept.

Antidepressants may help a lot of people get up in the morning but new research shows they are making shrimp swim into that big bowl of cocktail sauce in the sky. Alex Ford, a marine biologist at the University of Portsmouth, found that shrimp exposed to the antidepressant fluoxetine are 5 times more likely to swim towards light instead of away from it. Shrimp usually swim away from light as it is associated with birds or fishermen.

Google Found Guilty of Australian Privacy Breach 105

Posted by timothy on Saturday July 10, 2010 @12:06AM from the so-so-really-very-sorry dept.

schliz writes "The Australian Privacy Commissioner has found Google guilty of breaching the country's Privacy Act when it collected unsecured WiFi payload data with its Street View vehicles. While the Commissioner could not penalize the company, Google agreed to publish an apology on its Australian blog, and work more closely with her during the next three years. Globally, Google is said to have collected some 600 GB of data transmitted over public WiFi networks. In May, the company put its high-definition Australian Street View plans on hold to audit its processes."

Comment Re:What Firewall? (Score 1) 403

by jquirke on Monday July 05, 2010 @02:00AM (#32796564) Attached to: Tunneling Under the Great Firewall?

Your experience is dated. In Guangdong Province, 2010, I found facebook & youtube completely blocked.

I also found anything containing prohibited keywords appeared to be blocked by means of sending an RST packet after a packet or two of data, so briefly you would see the text of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama for example, before Firefox would advise that the 'connection was reset whilst the page was loading'. Furtheremore, additional requests to that website's IP were completely denied for some random time (typically a few minutes).

Even pages discussing the filter were blocked in much the same way.

Verizon Charged Marine's Widow an Early Termination Fee 489

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday June 27, 2010 @04:46PM from the literal-charges dept.

In a decision that was reversed as soon as someone with half a brain in their PR department learned about it, Verizon charged a widow a $350 early termination fee. After the death of her marine husband, Michaela Brummund decided to move back to her home town to be with her family. Verizon doesn't offer any coverage in the small town so Michaela tried to cancel her contract, only to be hit with an early termination fee. From the article: "'I called them to cancel. I told them the situation with my husband. I even said I would provide a death certificate,' Michaela said."

Comment Re:Sounds fair to me. (Score 1) 263

by jquirke on Friday June 18, 2010 @02:26AM (#32610298) Attached to: Supreme Court Says Gov't Employee Texts Not Private

All digital cellular phone standards in use today (GSM, UMTS, CDMA, etc) encrypt SMS messages and voice calls and it is almost always enabled.

That being said the strength of the various algorithms remains questionable (shameless plug).

But to say it is outright plaintext and broadcast is plain wrong.

Low-Level Format For a USB Flash Drive? 252

Posted by timothy on Friday May 28, 2010 @08:51PM from the back-from-the-living-dead dept.

Luyseyal writes "I unwittingly bought one of these terrible flash cards at Fry's and have managed to nuke two of them, successively. I have a USB flash card reader that will read/write the current one at USB 1.0 speed, but it locks up every Ubuntu and XP machine I've come across in high-speed access mode. I have read that if I low-level format it that it could be fixed, though my current one doesn't support it. My Google-fu must be weak because I cannot seem to find a USB flash reader that specifies that it will do low-level formatting." Can anyone offer advice for resurrecting such drives?

California's Santa Clara County Bans Happy Meal Toys 756

Posted by timothy on Wednesday April 28, 2010 @02:54PM from the when-self-righteousness-attacks dept.

WrongSizeGlass writes "The L.A. Times is reporting that Santa Clara County officials have voted to ban toys and other promotions that restaurants offer with high-calorie children's meals. 'This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's love of toys' to sell high-calorie, unhealthful food, said Supervisor Ken Yeager, who sponsored the measure. 'This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes.' Supervisor Donald Gage, who voted against the measure, said, 'If you can't control a 3-year-old child for a toy, God save you when they get to be teenagers.' The vote was 3 - 2 in favor of the ban."

Federal Appeals Court Says Sex Offender's Computer Ban Unfair 478

Posted by timothy on Friday April 02, 2010 @08:26PM from the in-prison-or-out-should-be-the-rule dept.

crimeandpunishment writes "A federal appeals court says a 30-year computer restriction for a convicted sex offender was too stiff a punishment. The man, who was caught in an Internet sex sting, had been ordered not to own or even use a computer." The D.C. Circuit Court's opinion in the case against Mark Wayne Russell is available as a PDF; slightly longer coverage from the Courthouse News Service.

Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687

Posted by samzenpus on Saturday January 16, 2010 @05:37PM from the duck-and-cover dept.

garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"

Submission + - Apple to challenge Aussie Woolworths over logo (smh.com.au)

Submitted by jquirke on Monday October 05, 2009 @12:43AM

jquirke writes: Apple looks to be unhappy with Australian retail & gambling group Woolworths Limited's new logo for it's supermarket division, which Woolworths says is a stylized 'W' and is not an apple, but a piece of 'fresh fruit' that also resembles a person with their arms in the air.

Apple insists the Woolworths logo is too similar to its own, and will be filing a case with IP Australia, the body that governs trademarks in Australia, to have the Woolworths application overturned.

This would not be the first time Apple has flexed its legal muscle in regards to trademark disputes, with defendants ranging from New York City to business schools.

Slashdot Top Deals