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Businesses

Yahoo Offered Lap Dances At Hack Event 572

Posted by samzenpus from the whos'-next-it's-you dept.
Fotograf writes "Yahoo's latest embarrassment seems like a sign that the company is just trying too hard to be cool. The latest debacle is earning the company some additional publicity. After Yahoo hosted Taiwan Open Hack Day, a special event for engineers and developers that was held last weekend, a series of photos found their way onto the internet — as ill-thought out decisions often do. Yahoo offered lap dances to the attendees of the hack event. Since the pictures have come out the company has decided to apologize."

Comment Hot markets = upscale? (Score 2, Informative) 189

Having worked at a restaurant in the Fashion Square during college, I can only assume that when they say "hot markets" they mean "frequented by a wealthier demographic".

Not that I expect an MS store to compete with WalMart, but these first two locations seem to target flush consumers.
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Amazon Makes "1984" And "Animal Farm& (nytimes.com) 2

Submitted by
Oracle Goddess
Oracle Goddess writes: "In a story just dripping with irony, Amazon Kindle owners awoke this morning to discover that "1984" and "Animal Farm" had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for, and thought they owned. Apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people's Kindles and credited their accounts for the price. Amazon Customer service responded to queries by stating that. "We've always been at war with Eastasia.""

Comment Re:good, but how much will it cost? (Score 1) 806

by flanksteak (#28381541) Attached to: US Plans To Bulldoze 50 Shrinking Cities

From TFA:

Flint's recovery efforts have been helped by a new state law passed a few years ago which allowed local governments to buy up empty properties very cheaply.

It doesn't say how little it costs, but it may not be much more than this. I would think it means it's cheaper for them to buy the homes and raze them than it is to continue with upkeep on roads and utilities where nobody lives.

Besides, if you completely walk away and don't even pay your property tax, the city/county can seize the land and auction it off. Or in this case, maybe hold it to sell later on when and if the region recovers.

Comment Unreported marijuana pollen levels (Score 5, Interesting) 164

by flanksteak (#27955125) Attached to: Study Shows Cocaine And Other Drugs In Spanish Air

I grew up suffering from allergies in Phoenix and I remember reading the various pollen levels in the paper every morning during spring. I could see the different types of pollen levels and decide on whether or not to take my sleep-inducing antihistamines (this was waaay before Claritin and Zyrtec were readily available).

I later read that the local pollen reporting organization was prohibited from reporting the levels of marijuana pollen in the air, even though it often jumped into the top 5. I don't think I'm allergic to bud pollen, but I felt bad for those who were.

Feed Techdirt: DOJ Finally Approves XM-Sirius Merger (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
It only took over a year of ridiculous protests from traditional radio stations, but the Justice Department has finally decided that XM and Sirius can merge without creating a monopoly. It will be interesting to see if the NAB's own lobbying efforts helped disprove its point. The NAB, representing terrestrial radio stations argued vehemently that if XM and Sirius merged, it would create a "monopoly." The only problem with that statement is that if that were the case, it would mean that terrestrial radio wasn't competing in the same market. And, if that were true, why would the NAB care? So, by arguing so vehemently against the merger, it effectively showed what we all knew: terrestrial radio and satellite radio compete in the same market. Of course, the merger isn't a done deal yet, as the FCC still needs to weigh in. But given the amount of time it has already taken for the DoJ to make its decision, you would hope that the FCC was at least close to being done with its review as well.

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Businesses

Submission + - U.S. DoJ approves XM and Sirius merger (cnn.com)

Submitted by s13g3
s13g3 writes: The U.S. Dept. of Justice has finally approved the XM-Sirius merger, though the FCC still has yet to sign off on the deal. There seem to be concerns from various parties regarding the merger, but the DoJ seems to have decided that the deal is not anti-competitive, even though the two companies are the only U.S. based satellite radio providers, and as far as this reader is aware, the only companies providing such service in the continental U.S.
Debian

Submission + - Ubuntu Dev Summit lays out plans for Hardy Heron (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Opurt
Opurt writes: On the first day of the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Boston this week, a roundtable session focused on the vision for the upcoming Hardy Heron Ubuntu release. Unlike Gutsy Gibbon, which brought a handful of experimental features along with some new functionality, the focus with Heron will be on robustness as it will be supported on the desktop for 3 years. 'The Compiz window manager, which adds sophisticated visual effects to the Ubuntu user interface, will be a big target for usability improvements. Keyboard bindings and session management were noted as two areas where Compiz still needs some work.' PolicyKit and Tracker will also be significantly tweaked, while Heron is also likely to see a complete visual refresh.
Music

Submission + - Freakonomics - the future of the music industry (nytimes.com) 2

Submitted by mlimber
mlimber writes: The Freakonomic guys and friends take a look at the future of the music industry in light of digital music. An excerpt from one of their "Quorum" contributors: "[W]hat is the explanation for the sales reduction that has occurred [with albums]? The most obvious culprit is illicit file-sharing on networks such as Napster, KaZaA, eDonkey, and BitTorrent. While linking the two seems tantalizing — file sharing rose to prominence at roughly the same time that record sales started to fall — there is surprisingly little evidence to support the claim that file sharing has significantly hurt record sales.... If file sharing hurts record sales, then albums that are more heavily downloaded should experience lower sales than comparable albums that are less downloaded. But, after controlling for the role of popularity, we found that downloads had little effect on album sales." He also notes: "[A]lbum sales fell 18 percent between 2000 and 2006, after accounting for paid digital downloads from online stores like iTunes. While these numbers are not good, other industries have experienced similar downturns. For example, new car sales are down 22 percent for U.S. automakers."
Microsoft

Submission + - Secret info on Windows XP Service Pack 3 leaked! (techarp.com)

Submitted by
crazyeyes
crazyeyes writes: "As Microsoft winds down sales of Windows XP by January 2008, they will bid goodbye with a service pack to end all service packs. A sayorana service pack. That is exactly what the Windows XP Service Pack 3 is all about.

The Technical Beta is almost over, and Microsoft is getting ready to release the second build, which will be a public beta test. Join us as we examine the secret details of the Windows XP Service Pack 3 programme. Here's a quote from the editorial :-

"Those who are still hanging onto Windows XP (32-bit) will be heartened to know that the Service Pack 3 programme is chugging along nicely. In fact, Microsoft is scheduled to wrap up the Technical Beta and release Service Pack 3 for public beta testing within the next two weeks."
"
Businesses

Submission + - Sun to change stock symbol from SUNW to JAVA

Submitted by flanksteak
flanksteak writes: In a move that seems to make no sense (even after a long explanation), Sun's CEO Jonathon Schwartz announced on his blog today that Sun will be changing their NASDAQ stock trading symbol from SUNW to JAVA.

Initial reaction in the comments of the blog appears to be mostly negative.
The Internet

Submission + - Don't Kill The Trolls, But Feed Them (seorefugee.com) 2

Submitted by
Henk van Ess
Henk van Ess writes: "Voelspriet.nl has initiated an idea to rid communities (be it forums, blogs, whatever) of trolls. Not get rid of them by banning them or nuking their posts, no, by accepting their trolly messages and keeping them at ease. The smart thing is that this anti-troll plug-in only shows the trolly stuff to the troll itself. That way, the other community members need not suffer. The idea was presented today on Dutch radio in Radio Online. A free beta plug-in for Wordpress will be available soon."
Republicans

Karl Rove Resigning Aug 31 739

Posted by CmdrTaco from the start-the-clock-ticking dept.
tetrahedrassface writes "According to CNN current Bush Administration political advisor Karl Rove will be resigning his post as senior political advisor at the end of August to spend more time with his family. Few if any prior senior political advisors to presidents have been the lightning rods for controversy that Mr. Rove has. Accused of running smear campaigns and celebrated for pioneering district level up campaigns that rely heavily on databases and fake grassroots origins, Mr Rove is one of the chief architects of the Republican Revolution."

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