Comment First deployment in NZ needed now (Score 1) 54
Great news that the world has an effective working oil retreival device. Now can you send the first batch of product to New Zealand to remove the oil being spilt from the Rena. Please !!!!!
VA Mistakenly Tells Vets They Have Fatal Illness 108
An anonymous reader writes "Thanks to a computer glitch and bad diagnosis coding, the VA sent a letter to thousands of veterans telling them they have Lou Gehrig's Disease. Some were right, but many were mistakes. From the article, 'Recently, the VA determined ALS to be a service-connected disability and generated automatic letters to all veterans whose records included the code for the disease. However, since the coding contained both ALS and undiagnosed neurological disorders, some of those letters were erroneous.'"
Thieves Take the Cake 91
Two very hungry German couriers ate a fruit cake destined for a German newspaper and in its place mailed a box of credit card data. The data including names, addresses and card transactions ended up at the Frankfurter Rundschau daily. The mix-up triggered an alarm, and police advised credit card customers with Landesbank Berlin to check their accounts for inconsistencies. Fruitcake must be different in Germany for people to want to use it as something other than a paperweight.
Comment Re:Pong vs Star Trek (Score 1) 718
1979. About 1/2 hr before my 6th Form (Year 11 for the non-oldies, non-Kiwis) Tech Drawing Exam. Played some form of Star Trek on a home built computer at school. Built by a new music teacher (!) at the school (from dim dark memory). The computer was a home etched motherboard sitting in a cardboard box. Used a black & white television as a monitor. Still remember it vividly to this day. Spent the whole exam thinking about the computer and the game. Failed the exam miserably. Been addicted to computers and games ever since.
