Teen Gets ipod Box With Stupid Manifesto Inside

It seems like there were a lot of people getting screwed over this past holiday season, but I think this one is just out right mean. A Dad bought his daughter an ipod Classic for Christmas, and the excited teen opened up the box only to find the stupid ramblings of some idiot who thinks they've somehow changed someone's life (for the better) by sharing their thoughts on society. Check the quote:

"Reclaim your mind from the media shackles. Read a book and resurrect yourself. To claim your capitalistic garbage go to your nearest Apple Store."

The ipod was bought at Wal-Mart and they've given a full refund to the family, and blamed Apple for the mishap. Authorities suspect that it might be a disgruntled worker, but Apple hasn't commented about this issue. I'm sure that some disgruntled worker that thinks that they are "thinking differently" by pulling this stunt.

Come on guy! Just because you belong to a book club and don't celebrate Christmas, doesn't mean you should ruin everyone else's ya douche bag. And if you're so concerned about how capitalism is destroying our society, why don't you start changing the world by LEAVING APPLE!!!!

Moron!

[TUAW via Gizmodo]

Kid Gets Phone Book For Christmas Instead Of PS3

I've had some bad Christmas gifts in my day, but none could equal up to this one.

A 13-year old California kid got a big surprise on Christmas morning when his parents bought him a PS3. The young man got even a bigger surprise once he opened the PS3 box, only to find a phone book in its place. So where did the parents buy the yellow pages PS3? Ebay? Out of the trunk of someones car?

Nope.

The parents picked this baby up from EB Games, which usually tends to be a reputable place to buy from. The parents have contacted EB Games about this, and are trying to sort things out. No word on if they will replace the PS3 or not. So what's the moral of the story? Make sure you check your purchase if you pick it up from EB Games.

[ Digg via Engadget]

Why Criminals Should Install Their Own PC Hardware

This kind of story makes me feel all icky inside, because I know that the rights of individuals should be respected, no matter how sick they are. Such is the case with Kenneth Sodomsky who in 2004 brought his computer into Circuit City to have a DVD Burner installed. While they installed the drive and the software that comes with it, the techs test to see if it works. While doing the testing, (for some reason) the Circuit City tech pulled up an Windows XP search box and scanned the users hard drive for video files to ensure that the drive was working properly. The tech found a file containing child pornography on the computer, contacted the police and Sodomsky was arrested.

Sodomsky said that his privacy was violated, and a lower court agreed with him. But an appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court said that because he voluntarily turned his computer over to the techs, and the search was "routine", no laws were violated in discovering the file.

Now why would Circuit City need to do a "routine" search for video files to install a DVD burner? I can't tell you how many burners I've installed on many different OS platforms, and not once did it require, need, or want you to do a search for video files on a hard drive. There is no reason to do this search, unless the tech wanted to see if there was some porn that he didn't have in his own collection. This is why you should install your own hardware components yourself.

Now don't get me wrong, I think Sodomsky should burn in hell, but why is Circuit City "routinely" violating privacy every time a customer brings in a computer? Why are they searching computers for video files if that isn't required? And how stupid are the lawyers if they don't ask someone if this is necessary or required to install a DVD Burner.

Morons all around!!!


Court: Privacy no defense when Circuit City finds child porn [Ars via Crunchgear]

Man Racks Up $85,000 Cell Phone Bill

Man I thought might cell phone carrier was a bunch of jags!!!

Piotr Staniaszek thought he was pretty smart when he connected his $10-per-month unlimited mobile browser phone to his computer for Internet access. Well Canadian phone carrier Bell Mobility hit him with a $85,000 phone bill, ending what he thought was a good idea. The best part about it is that Bell Mobility continued to let him rack up the charges, and never let him know about it until the bill hit. Check the quote:

"The thing is, they’ve cut my phone off for being like $100 over. Here, I’m $85,000 over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on,"

Bell Mobility was nice enough to lower the bill to $3,243 as a "goodwill gesture". Somehow that still looks like an awful lot of "goodwill" to still pay.

Shock at $85k mobile phone bill [BBC News via Crunchgear]

Best Buy Porn Inquisitions Revealed

I'm sure the people who read this blog are computer savvy, and in most cases can fix their own computer. But most of the world has to rely on others to help them, such as Geek Squad or Firedog. Well before you trot your computer over to the Big Box stores, you might want to read this confession (inquisitions) of a former Geek Squad employee. Some of the things you read might surprise you about who is really fixing (or not fixing) your computer. While the investigation to find the porn thief's that plagued Geek Squad took on a life of it's own, the fact is is that it boarders on the line of witch hunt. This is a good read my friends.

The future or direction that Geek Squad is going, might spell the death of true computer techs.

Best Buy Porn Inquisitions revealed [CONSUMERIST.COM via Gizmodo]

Peter Ha Of Crunchgear Wants Leopard To Die

Peter Ha of Crunchgear wrote a scathing article about Leopard and how it is full of bugs. He goes so far as to say that he's reloading Tiger back on to his system. I love this quote "I’d rather go back to XP then use this shit anymore". Now that's a switch, because we usually hear about how people are going from Vista back to Windows XP. Could it be that Apple has made its first misstep with an OS?

Is anyone else having the problems that Peter is experiencing with Leopard?

Check his rant out, it's worthy of a read. [Rant: I want you to die, Leopard via Crunchgear]

Disbarment seeked For Jack Thompson

For those of you who love to hate game-hating attorney Jack Thompson, your ship might have just come in. The start of the ethics trial for Thompson has begun, and the lawyer may be disbarred, which would prevent him from practicing law within Florida. The trial stems from several complaints about his professional conduct during several court cases against the video game industry.

From gamepolitics.com:

"Over the weekend, Thompson turned to the Florida Supreme Court in an apparent effort to block this morning’s trial from moving forward. In one court filing Thompson asserted that he was willing to accept a 90-day suspension of his license to practice law. The embattled attorney claimed that such an offer had been on the table, but that the Florida Bar was now seeking his permanent disbarment."

Talk about what goes around comes around!
I know I shouldn't feel this good about something bad happening to someone else, but I just can't stop giggling.

Jack Thompson Faces Trial Before the Florida Bar Today [Gamepolitics.com via G4TV.com]

Blackjacks Hang Up: Recall/Replacement Info

I usually take the time to bash AT&T at least once a week on this blog, but for once there's a problem that may not be there fault. Blackjack owners may have been pissed off at AT&T because of random dropped calls. Well it turns out that there may have been an issue with the Blackjack itself.

According to Samsung a number of Blackjacks made between November 2006 to February 2007 might have had a glitch, that hangs up when you're not ready. While Samsung has not issued a recall on the smartphones, they are offering an exchange program for certain owners, and Crunchgear has the dirty details.

Word has it that this issue has been corrected for newer models.

New Xbox 360 Ring Of Death?

Never say that Microsoft doesn't come up with something new and original, case in point is the new "ring of death" lights on the Falcon-based Xbox 360s. The newer Falcon 360s were created to cut down on such things like..... the "red ring of death". But at least they've given us a new color sequence this time, that reminds me of the upcoming holidays.

Seriously, there isn't any word on if this is a brand new internal error or the "general hardware failure" that we've all come to know and love. I'm sure the guy who this belongs to isn't to happy that he can't fire up Halo 3 right now. But I have to give it to Microsoft, those new lights sure are pretty.

[Crunchgear]

Blockbuster Scales Back 'Total Access'

When I talked how Blockbuster may be closing their doors soon, people (some from this very blog) felt that this might have been an over reaction on my part and by the tech analyst from CNet who wrote the article. Well hot on the heals of that story, Blockbuster has cut back on their Total Access plan. This is the on-line plan that allowed customers to rent movies on-line, and return the mailed movies to a near-by Blockbuster for a new movie.

The problem is that it cost Blockbuster big bucks to do this, hence the changes to the program. Now it will cost an extra $7 more a month for the unlimited in-store returns, in addition they plan on cutting in half all TV and in store advertising for the program. This doesn't sound like a company ready to compete in the digital world, in fact, it sounds like they're going backwards.

This company is going the way of the dodo bird.

Blockbuster dials back on Total Access after mail-order bloodbath [ArsTechnica via G4TV]

Blockbuster Finished?

I remember when I was a kid, and all I wanted to do was rent movies that I loved, and Blockbuster was the drug dealer for my junkie needs. I really remember when I forgot to return a movie that I had for two weeks (back then, you only had a day to view a movie), and they hit me up for a $50 late fees (that's a lot of money to an 18 year old). I've never liked the smugness that Blockbuster had, as they were the biggest video bullies in town. So hearing that this company is on the ropes made me laugh my evil laugh. They have no one to blame but themselves for this, by not recognizing (or taken seriously) the on-line market that 'Netflix' took advantage of.

Their old corporate ways and the lack to change them has doomed this company. They've already closed over 500 stores in the past year, and according to their third quarter results, had a net loss of $35 million. While this is still a billion dollar revenue company, their decision not to focus on their on-line Total Access membership, and concentrate on overall membership from brick and mortar stores may have put them in the grave. And while the demise of the company hasn't been decided, free lance technology writer Don Reisinger thinks they will close their doors within two years.

Night Night Blockbuster.... I knew ye all too well!

Say goodbye to Blockbuster [C|Net via Crunchgear]

Microsoft Concedes To EU Ruling

After losing their appeal, Microsoft has finally conceded to the European commissions ruling. So the judgment goes as follows:

• rival software developers (including open-source) can now access and use Microsoft interoperability information
  
• royalties for this information will be reduced to a one-off payment of €10,000 / $14,000
  
• royalties for a world-wide license to use Microsoft's product and patents will be reduced from 5.95% to just 0.4%

Looks like Microsoft is going to have to bend over on this one.

[Engadget]

X-Wing Video: I Knew It!!!

If you've been under a rock, you might not have seen the video of some Star Wars geeks who put together a 21' X-Wing fighter replica. On the maiden flight, it ended in destruction from the stress that the rocket doled out..... or that's what we thought.

Take a look at what really happened to the X-Wing!!!

[Crunchgear]

Sweep!!!

Hey Chicago what do you say, the Cubs just got broomed today!

Congressman: It's My Son's Porn

Talk about your ultimate 'wanna get away' moment!!!

During a Powerpoint presentation to a group of high schoolers, Congressman Matt Barrett got the shock of his life. Turns out that during the presentation, some porn made its way to the projector. The Congressman states that his son borrowed his flashdrive, and downloaded the images. This may or may not be true, but you would like to think he would be smart enough to check the presentation before having to show it.

But I certainly would've loved to have seen his reaction when those pics went up.

Child reportedly downloaded nude images that showed up in lawmaker’s speech [WKYC via Crunchgear]

iphone Users Calling For Class-Action Lawsuit For iTunes Update 1.1.1

Boy you could see this one coming!!!

It looks like the lastest iTunes update 1.1.1 that bricked hacked iphones has pissed quite a few people off. Some of Apple's upset customers are calling for a class-action law suit, claiming that Apple's actions were malicious and intentional. Customers have been complaining on Apple's site forum, since the update was released.

Those complaints have since been removed by Apple.

I understand being upset about having a bricked iphone, you have to remember that you did hack it. Apple doesn't force anyone to accept the iTunes update, trust me, I know. And if you do any kind of reading, it wasn't a mystery about what this new update was going to do to hacked iphones.

[Engadget]

Halo 3 Discs Shipping Defective

You might not have heard, but a little game called Halo 3 was released today with some fan fair. But it turns out that some of the discs for the game arrived defective, specifically the game that was shipped in the limited edition’s tins.

Apparently the packaging wasn't very good, and the discs would slip and slide around, causing scratches. Microsoft hasn't said how many disc are arriving defective, but they're giving everyone until December to replace them.

Well that was nice of Microsoft (tongue in cheek)

Replacement Information [Microsoft via Crunchgear)

BigString: Drunk Emailers Rejoice

Have you ever sent one of those emails that you wished you could 'blow up' once you sent it? You know, the one you sent to your boss telling them what they can do with there deadline!

Well BigString lets you do just that.

You can send email that has a set life span, and can still be erased after it hits the persons inbox. The emails can even be locked, preventing them from being saved, printed, or forwarded, and you can send videos. The basic service is free, but if you want unlimited storage space and the use of your own POP3 email account, it will run you $30.

[BigString via Crunchgear]

Jack Thompson Thinks He's A Target In GTA4

Jack Thompson, the video game hatting attorney, thinks that he is a target in the upcoming video game 'Grand Theft Auto 4'. He claims that an article written in 'Game Informer' magazine reveals a mission in GTA4 that involves killing an attorney. He is convinced that the attorney represents himself. Check the insanity below:

"You have until five o’clock P.M. this Friday… to inform me that you are going to delete the above references and any other references that could reasonably be construed to be references to me in Grand Theft Auto IV and any other video games that are pending release…
Now you have descended this low - using one of your games to threaten my physical safety… Failure to comply with the deadline… will result in my having to take necessary and proper means to stop release of the game which targets me personally… given the copycatting of violent games…"

This guy will file a lawsuit for anything!!!

[Gamepolitics.com via G4TV]

iphone Owners Can Get Refunds: Sort of

So Steve-o said the iphone will now cost $399.

Well that's great, but you got hosed because (like a moron) you had to be "one of the first" to get an iphone. Well if you bought your iphone within the last 14 days, Steve-o is going to save your ass, and you a little bit of money. If you paid the $599 for the phone, you can take the phone back and get what they call a "return and resale" and get $200 back. And don't let them get you with the 10% restocking fee, you're walking out with the same iphone you walked in with.

If you picked up the 4GB iphone you can exchange it for an 8GB model, and get a $100 refund, but the $49 restock fee applies.

And if you bought the iphone over 14 days ago, you're SOL!!!

Thanks to Crunchgear for this stuff.