16999520
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
It's official. Dell will pay the US government $100 million to settle fraud charges. CEO Michael Dell will personally pay a $4 million fine. A federal judge approved the settlement after Michael Dell assured him the company will deliver on the reforms it promised. Dell was accused of pumping up its profits over five years by improperly using payments from Intel, in order to meet Wall Street targets.
16995154
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
Can you drive without talking or texting? Want to make money for doing it? There's an app for that. A new application for the iPhone and phones that use Android keeps track of when the driver's following the local laws regarding cellphone use behind the wheel....and the driver can earn or lose points which can be cashed in at retailers like Barnes and Noble.
16977618
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
A planned server outage turned into an unplanned glitch for the Internal Revenue Service, and it comes at a very bad time. The IRS planned the server outage for the holiday weekend....but today they couldn't get the system back into operation. This week is the deadline for filing 2009 tax returns for taxpayers who got extensions. So far it's not having a huge impact since the shutdown only involves the updated version of the e-filing system, and most programs used by large tax companies like H&R Block will default to the older version. There's no estimate on when the system will be back up.
16970900
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
While the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania has agreed to a $610,000 settlement in two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops, less than a third of that will go to the students. A total of $185,000 will be put in trust for the students. Their lawyer will receive $425,000.
16959942
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
It may be the funniest thing Microsoft has done since Windows Vista....but this time they want people to laugh. The company is going the spoof route in its first batch of ads for the new Windows 7 phone software. The commercials poke fun at smart phone addiction....showing people wandering in a daze, eyes glued to their smart phone screens. The solution to their problem....you guessed it, another smart phone.
16956300
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
One little Tweet could cost Terrell Owens some big bucks. There was a post on his Twitter account an hour before yesterday's game between Owens' Bengals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers....and even if TO didn't post it himself, it still violates the NFL policy against players using social media, beginning 90 minutes before a game. His teammate, Chad Ochocinco, was fined $25,000 for Twitter violations before and during a preseason game in August.
16945056
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
It's a brother act that's really out of this world. If all goes according to plan, the only space sibling team will be hooking up in orbit. And not only are Scott and Mark Kelly brothers, they're identical twins. Scott took off Friday on a Russian Soyuz rocket to begin a five and a half month mission as the next commander of the International Space Station. Mark is the next commander of the space shuttle Endeavour, scheduled to lift off in February and hook up with the space station March 1st.
16944080
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
The scariest thing about your iPhone is no longer the bill. The creative forces behind a horror movie called "Mental Scars" have created the first horror magazine app for the iPhone. Geeks + gore = "Deadzone".
16936784
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
The federal government wants to say "plug 'er in" instead of "fill 'er up". The General Services Administration is asking auto companies to bid on supplying 100 electric cars. It's a symbolic (and small) step....but the government says it would help them determine how federal agencies could best use electric vehicles. The request is part of an administration plan to increase the number of green vehicles used in federal jobs.
16932692
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
Call it a status upgrade for the effort to legalize marijuana in California. Facebook co-founder Sean Parker has made a $100,000 donation to back California's Proposition 19. And co-founder Dustin Moskovitz made a $20,000 donation....on top of $50,000 he previously contributed. A spokesman for the Drug Policy Alliance says "What's interesting here is that (Parker) is a member of the generation that really gets it. We think he's pivotal to the future of drug policy reform in the country".
16905448
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
The nation that started the "let's ban the Blackberry" trend has now decided it won't ban the Blackberry. The United Arab Emirates has reached a deal with Reseach in Motion, just days before it was about to begin blocking messaging, email, and Web services on the smart phone over security concerns. So far there's no indication what concessions RIM made...but in its statement, the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority acknowledged "the positive engagement and collaboration of Research In Motion (RIM) in reaching this regulatory compliant outcome". The ban would have affected a half-million UAE users and foreign travelers passing through the busy Dubai airport.
16880486
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
Imagine a college student without a cellphone or a laptop....no email, no social networking. A significant number of students say that wouldn't be so bad. While a new poll found that 57 percent of students say being without that constant connection would make them more stressed, 25 percent said it would actually be a relief. They feel pressure to instantly answer emails and texts, and they get nervous when their own messages don't get an immediate reply.
16875314
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
Smart cars. Smart phones. Smart cities? That's the star of the show this week at Caetec, Japan's premier electronics show...and it takes "going green" to a whole new level. Using no fossil fuel. Solar, wind, and nuclear power are distributed to buildings, homes, and electric cars through "smart grids".....drastically reducing or even eliminating carbon emissions, and as a result fighting global warming. And possibly becoming Japan's next big export.
16848468
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
What's advertised as "eco-friendly" isn't always consumer friendly, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC today released new guidelines for making claims about environmentally-friendly products.....and says if companies want to claim they're being green, it can't just be in an attempt to make more green. The new Green Guides...which have been updated for the first time since 1998...contain specific recommendations on when to use words like "degradable" and warnings about misleading messages through the use of seals of approval.
16841312
submission
crimeandpunishment writes:
How many times have we heard about someone being robbed when answering an ad on Craigslist? But every once in a while, instead of "buyer beware" the story ends with "buyer battles back". Case in point....a would-be robber in Western New York will now have plenty of time in prison to think about how a feisty victim and a pair of good Samaritans foiled his plan.
