Hmm.. I wonder if this wasn't the inspiration of the previous season's NCIS episode "Need to Know" where the victim was killed in exactly that manner.

Why not? It works. There's a reason why prices everywhere are always ending in '.95', or '.99' in countries that still have cents. Even if only subconsciously, it makes a difference to people's perception of the cost. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing

According to previous articles, it was to prevent him either directly using his 'leet' computer skills to destroy evidence relevant to the case, or co-ordinating with others to do so. Which I thought was a bit of a croc. After all, they could always monitor any computer use to ensure that he didn't, and if he was going to conspire with any others to destroy any purported evidence, he could do so just as easily through his mother as in person.

I can't help but feel that it seems like, more and more, we're seeing cases around the world where prosecutors abusing pre-trial incarceration to make it a de-facto sentence irrespective of a person's eventual guilt or innocence. But I also recognise that I don't know the full details of the case, so it's always possible that the prosecutor fears were legitimate.

I agree. I know it's just being released, but I'm eager to hear if the communications with the controller are encrypted or not, and whether it uses 'off the shelf' parts/protocols that would be easy to duplicate. Just as lots of homebrew coolness has come out of the Wii controller, it'd be interesting to find out if something similar can be done for the Wii U controller. Not just for being a portable media player, but other cool things. Maybe even implement a PC display driver so people could use it as a cheap extra screen for their home computer.

Of course, part of the problem is just how you define 'Just ahead of'. Part of the problem in the last cycle with the PS3 particularly, from what I undestand, was the complexity of developing the software for the multi-core Cell processor architecture. Even if the speed of the Wii U overall isn't much better overall, the fact that the architecture is simpler may make it easier for developers to wring better performance out of their games. The fastest system in the world isn't going to matter if it's so hard to develop for that you end up writing poorly performant code.

We'll have to wait and see how well newly released titles post-launch are able to do with the new hardware.

I'm part of the ScummVM group, a cross platform software for playing various classic adventure games, and the question of Download.com came up when we released the next version of our software. There were some arguments for including it on such sites, such as giving greater visibility to the project. However, the issue of the bundled 'crapware' was considered too big a downside. We weren't that desperate for wider coverage of our software, and we certainly didn't want people to adversely associate our software with malware.

These days I wouldn't touch download.com even if you paid me.

And just like that we've got a wonderful outline for a sequel to Finding Nemo, as they try to recover coral eggs that the humans have stolen. :)

It really depends on the data. Remember that a large part of the protests against the Wikileaks release of Afghanistan info was the potential to endanger the lives of civilian informants. Such computer crimes as we see these days can have the potential to hurt a lot of people. Not that a terrorist couldn't also hurt a lot of people using a stolen car. It just depends on what's actually done.

You may not be able to arrest an idea, but it seems you can arrest the person.

I absolutely agree with them. With the big budget games I've bought previously, I've also tended to download and apply cracks to be on the safe side - not just in case their DRM screws up my system, but also to get rid of needing the disc in all the time. There has always been temptation, though, to simply screw them over like they've screwed me over in the past, and get a pirate copy of the game.

I personally have re-bought over a dozen games I previously owned from GOG.com - they've made an effort to create automatic installers for all the older games, and it's a lot easier than breaking out the discs again. Particularly for some of the larger games, like Pandora Directive, which came on 6 CDs.

For those who don't already know, Infamous Adventures also released a remake of Kings Quest III some time back - http://www.infamous-adventures.com/

Two websites I've enjoyed for tech horror stories are:

Tech Tales [http://www.techtales.com/]
Clients From Hell [http://clientsfromhell.net/]

Reminds me of the Simpsons X-Files episode:
Mulder: There's been another unsubstantiated UFO sighting in the Heartland of America. We've gotta get there right away.
Scully: Well... gee, Mulder, there's also this report of a shipment of drugs and illegal weapons coming into New Jersey tonight.
Mulder: [scoffs] I hardly think the FBI is concerned with matters like that.

---
DreamMaster.

That's a very good question, and precisely what I was wondering myself - how could they be so sure that it was a pirated game, and not a backup of a game he legitimately owned? Given the original article said that they had to prove he knew/was breaking the law, I can't see how they could prove that it was indeed a pirated game. Or did they previously execute a search warrant to see if he had the original disc for the game or not?

DreamMaster.

Maybe he should move to Switzerland. If the example set by Roman Polanski.is anything to go by, the country's a haven for accused sex offenders.