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Geekanomics: US car loans default 50% over foreign-> 1

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes "Researchers today said customers that take auto loans on "American cars should have significantly higher interest rates to compensate for higher default risk," than customers who buy Japanese or European cars. Loans secured for European cars and Japanese cars are 50% and 56%, respectively, less likely to default than loans on American cars. In a forthcoming book, Brent Ambrose, professor of real estate at The Pennsylvania State University's Smeal College of Business, and his co-authors find that the probability that borrowers will default on their auto loans is affected by the type of car that is financed. The authors looked at the performance of 6,996 auto loans from January 1998 to March 2003. Some other interesting findings in the research include: Loans for GM Saturns had default hazards 22 times higher than the default hazard of Toyotas. Loans for Mazdas were six times more likely to default than loans for Toyotas. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18416"
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Software

Software "Upgrade" Disallows Remote Deskto 2

Submitted by
langelgjm
langelgjm writes "I work for a small business, and I have been using Remote Desktop to work from home and school quite happily for the past 3 years. We recently purchased an upgrade to one of our manufacturing software packages (this is high-priced CAD/CAM stuff, complete with hardware security dongles), and I just discovered that the "upgrade" no longer allows the application to be run over Remote Desktop. This wasn't disclosed anywhere. I called the distributor, and was told that my options are to buy a network key and another license for the software, which will cost several thousand dollars, or to use a service like GoToMyPC or VNC. Frankly, I'm at a loss; I don't understand: 1) why they deny Remote Desktop but then suggest you use another program to accomplish the same thing; 2) why I should need a network key and two licenses when only one person can use Remote Desktop at a time; 3) why I should have to pay nearly $200 a year indefinitely and rely on a third party (GoToMyPC) to accomplish what I've been doing for free in the past. I specifically chose not to use VNC because Remote Desktop is significantly faster and better looking over slow network connections; also, Remote Desktop has lightweight and secure clients for OS X, Pocket PC, and Linux, all of which I use.

Have any Slashdotters been in a similar situation? Is there a workaround that will allow me to keep using Remote Desktop? Why do companies feel the need to remove completely valid, legal, and extremely useful features from new versions?"
Microsoft

Microsoft gets over Chilean citizens->

Submitted by
david basulto
david basulto writes "During last May, the chilean Economy Minister signed a "collaboration" agreement with Microsoft. While Microsoft will provide technological solutions for chilean citizens, based on their Live platform, the government will let Microsoft link to the citizens database, and will let Microsoft become the standard in both government and education. Chilean internet activists noted this and started a Digital Liberation Front to put this situation on the public debate. They ask for the Economy Minister removal."
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Microsoft

Microsoft Live Search Gains Driven By Bots->

Submitted by
Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes "Internet metrics company Compete recently reported a 67% jump MSN/Live search query volume. Questions immediately arose about how the gain could be so large. It now seems that bot-driven efforts to rack up Live Search Club prizes are responsible for a large part of Microsoft's search share gain. Live Search Club users are selling accounts with 20,000 points — enough for a free Zune — for $25."
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Software

iPhone root password cracked in three days

Submitted by Dimentox
Dimentox writes "Builder.au reports that "The iPhone root password has been cracked, The information came from an an official Apple iPhone restore image (rename as a zip file and extract). The archive contains two .dmg disk images: a password encrypted system image and an unencrypted user image. By delving into the unencrypted image inquisitive hackers were able to discover that all iPhones ship with predefined passwords to the accounts 'mobile' and 'root', the last of which being the name of the privileged administration account on UNIX based systems..."
"The information came from an an official Apple iPhone restore image (rename as a zip file and extract). The archive contains two .dmg disk images: a password encrypted system image and an unencrypted user image. By delving into the unencrypted image inquisitive hackers were able to discover that all iPhones ship with predefined passwords to the accounts 'mobile' and 'root', the last of which being the name of the privileged administration account on UNIX based systems.""
XBox (Games)

Retailers Estimate Xbox 360 Failure Rate as 33%->

Submitted by
News for nerds
News for nerds writes "Dailytech reveals that EB Games held conference calls for its Canadian stores informing them of the new policy changes and revealing alarming failure rates of the Xbox 360. "The real numbers were between 30 to 33 percent," said former EB Games employee. An anonymous Best Buy customer service department manager said that failure rates for the console were "between a quarter to a third" of all units sold."
Link to Original Source
Wine

Parallels Releases WineD3D Source Code->

Submitted by something_wicked_thi
something_wicked_thi writes "Seeing as Slashdot ran the story about Parallels being out of compliance with the [L]GPL, I think it's only fair that they provide an update. On the very next weekday after the Slashdot story ran, Parallels, apparently, has released the source code. The Wine developers are verifying that it really is what they say it is. The Wine page provides a link to the sources, though it is temporary. It would be nice if someone could mirror that before it gets Slashdotted."
Link to Original Source

"...[Linux's] capacity to talk via any medium except smoke signals." (By Dr. Greg Wettstein, Roger Maris Cancer Center)