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Comment Interesting..... (Score 5, Insightful) 289

by LordPhantom (#31148072) Attached to: 'Iceman' Gets 13 Years For 2nd Hacking Offense
"It is a shame that someone with so much ability chose to use it in a manner that hurt many people," Dembosky said in an e-mail message."

That in light of

"Butler served an 18-month prison term for the crime and fell on hard times after his 2002 release, he said in a sentencing memorandum filed Thursday. "I was homeless, staying on a friends couch. I couldn't get work," he wrote. In desperation, he turned again to cybercrime."

I'm not saying he's right, but it does highlight something interesting about finding work as an ex-con.

Comment Re:heating element (Score 1) 839

by LordPhantom (#30597552) Attached to: Midwest Seeing Red Over 'Green' Traffic Lights

I was up in Fargo, ND visiting family for Christmas (yah shoor ya betcha) and a traffic light was out on a 6-lane intersection. Guess what? Everyone was calmly proceeding as if it was a 4-way stop. No drama, no retardation.

This whole thing is a non-problem. It's just that lazy journalists love it because it's "irony". It's not really ironic unless you're Alanis Morissette, but it makes for an easy, shitty space filler. Notice how in that story the SIGN is also covered in snow? ZOMG! We need heated road signs! Woe is me! Signs can sometimes become obscured by snow, the horror! The HORROR!

You don't get it. The problem here is *one* direction is out or misleading. The drivers coming from any other direction have no idea that there's a problem, thus the issue.
Google

Google Nexus Rumored To Cost $530 Or $180 w/Plan 284

Posted by CmdrTaco from the it-better-be-good dept.
wkurzius writes "The new Google phone, the Nexus One, is rumored to cost $530 unlocked and will work on any GSM network. A subsidized version is also available for $180 and will get you a T-Mobile Even More Individual 500 Plan for 2-years with a $350 termination fee. Access to the phone is supposed to be invite only at first, with January 5th being the supposed release date."
Power

Midwest Seeing Red Over 'Green' Traffic Lights 839

Posted by CmdrTaco from the do-you-see-what-i-see dept.
theodp writes "Many municipalities have switched to LED traffic signals because they burn brighter, last longer and use 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs. But they also emit less heat, meaning they sometimes have trouble melting snow, causing problems across the Midwest. In Wisconsin, snow blanketed LED traffic lights in some towns, leading to crashes at intersections where drivers weren't sure whether to stop or go. The unintended consequences of the green technology were also identified as a 'contributing factor' in the death of an Illinois woman hit by a driver who blamed the snow-covered energy-efficient signal for giving the appearance of a normal green light instead of a left-turn signal. 'We can remove the snow with heat, but the cost of doing that in terms of energy use has not brought any enthusiasm from cities and states that buy these signals,' said the CEO of an LED traffic-signal manufacturer. 'They'd like to be able to take away this issue, but they don't want to spend the money and lose the savings.' In the meantime, some towns are addressing sporadic problems by dispatching crews to remove snow or ice from signals using poles, brooms, and heating devices." We were discussing these recently at the office — several folks in the building are red/green color blind and different street lights are differently distinguishable.

Comment Re:Its justified price (Score 2, Insightful) 536

by LordPhantom (#29542821) Attached to: Why Games Cost $60
Frankly, to some degree I think the current cost of games is a bargain, especially if you compare the price point versus development costs of games of even 5-10 years ago. Paying $60 for a 40-100 hour RPG experience complete with full score, FMV and incredible rendering that took thousands of man-hours to produce is actually pretty cheap.

Comment Re:Put into another way (Score 1) 220

by LordPhantom (#24673269) Attached to: Watchmen Delayed, Or Worse
Copyright law exist to protect the original author from abuses, so that the result of their hard working and sweating aren't used without proper compensation. This isn't the case.

Wrong Keep in mind Company A (Fox) originally paid for the transferal of rights for exclusive publication, the original author being the beneficiary of that transaction. If you don't protect the rights of Company A, you're restricting the free market and causing author's selling of their publication rights to have much less value. Just because company B is willing to pay for that franchise *now* doesn't mean that if company A hadn't footed the original bill in return for future profits that there'd even be anything to sell at this point.

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