Comment Re:How to not get caught by a red-light camera (Score 1) 976
I'd very interested to see you cite the law which allows the Police to impound your car because you allegedly ran a red light. Oh yeah, it doesn't exist.
Comment How to not get caught by a red-light camera (Score 1) 976
If you know you are going though an intersection where there is a camera, and you're not sure whether you'll make the light or not, simply cover your face (or duck down) before you enter the intersection. Legally, they must be able to identify the driver by their face in order to be able to issue a ticket. If they can't make out your face, they can't identify you as the driver. Even if they have your license plate number, they still can't issue a ticket without that photographic identify confirmation.
Comment Re:-1 False Assumption (Score 4, Informative) 976
In California, if any part of your car enters the intersection while the light is still yellow, then it's "your intersection" for as long as it takes you to get clear of it. The traffic camera must show that the car was behind the limit line at the moment the light turned red.
Owners Smash iPhones To Get Upgrades, Says Insurance Company 406
markass530 writes "An iPhone insurance carrier says that four in six claims are suspicious, and is worse when a new model appears on the market. 'Supercover Insurance is alleging that many iPhone owners are deliberately smashing their devices and filing false claims in order to upgrade to the latest model. The gadget insurance company told Sky News Sunday that it saw a 50-percent rise in claims during the month Apple launched the latest version, the iPhone 3GS.'"
Comment A question (Score 1) 242
How do they get their spacesuit helmets to fit over their turbans????
Former Exec Says Electronic Arts "Is In the Wrong Business" 180
Mitch Lasky was the executive vice president of Mobile and Online at Electronic Arts until leaving the publisher to work at an investment firm. He now has some harsh things to say about how EA has been run over the past several years, in particular criticizing the decisions of CEO John Riccitiello. Quoting:
"EA is in the wrong business, with the wrong cost structure and the wrong team, but somehow they seem to think that it is going to be a smooth, two-year transition from packaged goods to digital. Think again. ... by far the greatest failure of Riccitiello's strategy has been the EA Games division. JR bet his tenure on EA's ability to 'grow their way through the transition' to digital/online with hit packaged goods titles. They honestly believed that they had a decade to make this transition (I think it's more like 2-3 years). Since the recurring-revenue sports titles were already 'booked' (i.e., fully accounted for in the Wall Street estimates) it fell to EA Games to make hits that could move the needle. It's been a very ugly scene, indeed. From Spore, to Dead Space, to Mirror's Edge, to Need for Speed: Undercover, it's been one expensive commercial disappointment for EA Games after another. Not to mention the shut-down of Pandemic, half of the justification for EA's $850MM acquisition of Bioware-Pandemic. And don't think that Dante's Inferno, or Knights of the Old Republic, is going to make it all better. It's a bankrupt strategy."
The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza 282
iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."
Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242
likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."
Comment Re:If this is true... (Score 1) 505
From your own article reference:
Many security researchers agree that Windows operating systems will always be more vulnerable to malware. That’s because the vast majority of PC owners are Windows users, and that gives “the bad guys” greater economic incentive to attack Windows systems.
Thus, even though Windows 7 ships with more built-in security features than Apple’s Mac OS X, the Mac is still safer because fewer malicious hackers are targeting the less-popular platform.
Many security researchers agree that Windows operating systems will always be more vulnerable to malware. That’s because the vast majority of PC owners are Windows users, and that gives “the bad guys” greater economic incentive to attack Windows systems.
Thus, even though Windows 7 ships with more built-in security features than Apple’s Mac OS X, the Mac is still safer because fewer malicious hackers are targeting the less-popular platform.
Comment Re:For example... (Score 1) 203
Actually, the One Child policy in China has been successful, to the tune of 300 to 400 million less people than if the policy had not been implemented back in 1979.
Google Releases the SDK For Version 1.6 of Android 69
Qwavel writes "This release includes improvements to the Android Market, the Search Framework, and Text-to-Speech. It now has support for more screen resolutions and CDMA phones. Android 1.6 is based on v2.6.29 of the Linux kernel and is expected in phones that will be available next month. The mystery of Android 1.6, however, is Google's continued unwillingness to commit to a Bluetooth API and any Bluetooth functionality beyond the basic audio functions."
Comment I run Spotify in the US ;) (Score 1) 130
I signed up for an account using a UK-based anonymous proxy site, and entered a valid UK postal code (which I got from a postal code lookup site). I use a free UK proxy server to run the application. As far as Spotify is concerned, I live in the UK and run Spotify from inside the UK. Fortunately I signed up while the UK still didn't need an invite to get an account.
Comment Re:Sure, but... (Score 1) 404
I've seen plenty of people commit crimes in front of cameras, but they usually aren't criminals, just bad movie/TV actors.
Comment Re:Whoa, what?? It was pretty good, but... (Score 1) 705
I suppose I can agree with the summary if we are talking about the George Lucas that made "Jar Jar" -- but not the George Lucas I imagine existed before that.
You mean the George Lucas that made the Ewoks???
Comment Re:Why did you give DirectTV your SSN? (Score 2, Interesting) 505
For those who are wondering how to get a fake SSN from a block that won't get allocated, the easiest thing to do is just change the first digit of your real SSN to an "8" - no SSN starting with 8 has ever been allocated and likely will not be for quite some time.
