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Comment It happened to me (Score 1) 756

I'm in the USA, where we drive on the RIGHT side of the road..---right having a double-meaning of the side, as well as "correct" :-) On Feb 6 2011, I was in a 60mph front-end collision with a girl that chose to make a two-lane right-hand turn in front of my lane. Both front airbags deployed and I lived.--duh, obviously. Where were my hands? Prior to thinking "holy $h1t!" and slamming into the girl's car, I had the right hand on the shifter, and left hand at about 8:00--This is how I normally drive. I believe I had enough time to grab the wheel with both hands in order to hold both sides of the wheel as I went for the brake pedal. I don't know if I got that far as it happened so fast. Being 6'1", I sit as far back from the wheel as I can, just to ensure adequate leg-room. In this case, it paid off as I never hit the airbag with my face. The seatbelt restrained me before I could get that far. I don't recall my arms hurting at all from any possible air-bag induced throwback, so it would be hard to say where exactly I had the wheel gripped. At the scene, and for about 4 weeks afterward, my chest hurt dead-center where the seatbelt crosses the breastbone. It felt like someone punched me in the chest HARD. It hurt to sneeze, cough, and laugh while it was healing. Thankfully there appears to be no permanent damage. My vote overall though would be to agree that 10:00 and 2:00 are not the right spots in a modern airbag-equipped car. Also, tell your passenger wife/girlfriend that driving with their feet up on the dash in the passenger front seat to do their toe-nails, or just to relax is also a bad I ideal. I'd hate to see what happens when that passenger airbag goes off and sends their ankles through the windshield.
Red Hat Software

CEO of Red Hat Steps Down 153

bearer_of_bad_news points us to a C|net article which states that Matthew Szulik is stepping down as the president and chief executive of Red Hat. Szulik is citing family health reasons, and he plans to remain chairman of the board. Red Hat has indicated that his replacement will be former Delta Airlines COO James Whitehurst. Quoting the article: "On a conference call, Szulik said Whitehurst stood 'head and shoulders' above other candidates interviewed in a recruiting process. He was a programmer earlier in his career and runs four versions of Linux at home." We discussed Szulik's ascension to CEO back in 1999.
Security

Exploit Found to Brick Most HP and Compaq Laptops 294

Ian Lamont writes "A security researcher calling himself porkythepig has published attack code that can supposedly brick most HP and Compaq laptops. The exploit uses an ActiveX control in HP's Software Update. It would 'let an attacker corrupt Windows' kernel files, making the laptop unbootable, or with a little more effort, allow hacks that would result in a PC hijack or malware infection.' The same researcher last week outlined a batch of additional vulnerabilities in HP and Compaq laptops, for which HP later issued patches."

Feed Techdirt: Oops, Your Balance Is: ($211,010,028,257,303.00) (techdirt.com) 2

A few years ago, an honest Virginia man reported a bank error that resulted in an extra $1.8 million dollars in his bank account -- not once, but three times. Where did all of that money come from? Perhaps they have now found the source. This week, a Georgia man was notified that he had a negative balance of $211 trillion at his Wachovia bank account. His debt makes the national debt, which is only slightly over $9 trillion, seem like small potatoes. Luckily for him, Wachovia reports that the balance was caused by an isolated banking error, and that he was not liable for any charges related to the negative balance. In this case, the error was that his account number was entered in place of his balance. Like the $218 trillion phone bill we saw in 2006, why are errors of this magnitude not be caught by some sort of bounds checking algorithm in the bank's software? Furthermore, if an error this size gets through all of the checks and balances, then what other, less noticeable errors are falling through the cracks every day?

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Feed Engadget: Creative finally confirms 32GB Zen (engadget.com)

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Like we needed any more confirmation, but Creative has finally put an end to any remaining incredulity on our part by posting a press release with all the sordid details of its new 32GB Zen. We're not really used to "world firsts" from Creative in the DAP space, but the doubling in capacity over competing flash-based players certainly qualifies as one -- though Sansa seems to be hot on Creative's heels. The Zen is otherwise the same as its 4GB, 8GB and 16GB siblings, including that SD card slot for expansion should 32GB prove limiting for you. The new player will be available mid-December in Singapore for S$549.00 (about $380 US), and there's no word on release dates for Europe or the States. Get ready to import!

[Thanks, Rene]

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