xblackstatic - Slashdot User

Submission + - HP Skates Away From SEC Charges

Submitted by

theodp

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @11:28PM

theodp writes: "In return for the SEC dropping charges that HP improperly deprived investors of important information and violated the public reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act by failing to disclose the circumstances surrounding a Board member's resignation over an out-of-control press leak investigation, the computer maker simply agreed to cease and desist from doing so in the future, without admitting or denying having done so in the past. 'HP acted in what it believed to be a proper manner,' said the company in a press release."

The Man Who Owns the Internet 369

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @07:46PM from the what-a-way-to-make-a-living dept.

Tefen writes "CNN Money posted this story about Kevin Ham, who has made a fortune gobbling up lapsed domain names and has recently launched a lucrative business partnership with Cameroon, the country which controls the .cm TLD. Since 2000 he has quietly cobbled together a portfolio of some 300,000 domains that, combined with several other ventures, generate an estimated $70 million a year in revenue."

MMOG Industry Community Vet Speaks Out 61

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @07:20PM from the oh-the-stories-she-could-tell dept.

Sanya Weathers, known for many years as Tweety, was the Community Manager for Dark Age of Camelot essentially since that game's launch. Known throughout the games industry as truthful, caring, and innovative, she almost created the position of Community Manager out of whole cloth. Many elements of Massively Multiplayer communities we take for granted today originated at Mythic in Sanya's hands. Now doing work freelance, she has time to blog about her experiences keeping Massive gamers happy. It is entitled Eating Bees, after a Penny Arcade strip on the subject of forum management. So far she has two posts up, one looking at what professionalism looks like in the position, and a hilarious fictional day in the life for a CM. "Bob forwards Gertrude's email to Jake, a programmer. Jake is not the one who coded the original element on which Gertrude's system is based. THAT guy, Wayne, is somewhere in the Caribbean coked up along with a bunch of strippers, where he has been ever since he cashed his FunFactory stock options, opened his own studio, and sold THAT one to MegaCorp for millions of dollars. Wayne was also a self-taught genius who adhered to no known coding formalities and whose comments were in haiku. Since Wayne left, approximately two dozen programmers of various levels of ability have added layers of complexity. Jake is very young and enthusiastic, but his joy at finally being in the gaming industry is starting to dim from coping with a ten year old pile of what is called "spaghetti code.""

Feed Arcane Senate Rule Helps Preserve Antiquated Senate Practice (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed on Friday April 20, 2007 @01:12AM

Back in February, we pointed to a story about the absurd system that Senators use to disclose their campaign contributions. Unlike their counterparts in the House, Senators don't have to file their contributions electronically, and instead file them using a tortuous process that involves needless photocopying and hand entry of the data. Not only is this time consuming, but it also costs taxpayers $250,000 per year. That's not a whole lot by government standards, but since it's a total waste it's still depressing. It looked like the Senate was all set to scrap the old system, but just as it was set to come to a vote, another arcane Senate rule came into play as Senator Lamar Alexander stood up and announced that on behalf of an anonymous Senator he would block the vote. Yes, the Senate has a rule that allows an anonymous coward, as we'd call them around here, to block any vote. So at this point it's not clear if or when electronic disclosure will be adopted in the Senate. It's lovely how democracy works, isn't it?

Comment Re:It's Still Wrong (Score 1) 394

by xblackstatic on Sunday February 25, 2007 @10:48PM (#18148480) Attached to: TV Delays Driving AU Viewers To Piracy

Agreed.

The only point about delaying gratification is if you get something better by waiting. It's the classic marshmallow experiment. The experiment wasn't, "I'll give you this marshmallow, and if you don't eat it for ten minutes you are a good person", it was, "I'll give you this marshmallow, and if you don't eat it for ten minutes I'll give you another one." It's a measure of short- versus long-term thinking. To put it another way, if I really want a brand new Ferrari the second it comes out, and I have the means to purchase this item with no negative effects (i.e. I have high disposable income), and there would be no substantial benefit to me if I waited six month, then I should buy my Ferrari. On the other hand, if I wanted a brand new Ferrari but purchasing it would mean I couldn't buy food for the next twelve years, then if I still bought it I'd be succumbing to instant gratification.

Slashdot Top Deals