More Symantec Source Code Released

Category: General News, Bugs / Virus
Posted: February 9, 2012 11:30AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

About a month after source code for the Norton 2006 antivirus software was released by hackers, source code for Symantec’s pcAnywhere software has been published. As this software is currently in use, the danger of exploitation is far greater. However, the sequence of events has allowed Symantec prepare, at least partially, for this.

Starting on January 18, a hacker claiming to have the source code started negotiations with Symantec. The email thread of the negotiations has been posted online for everyone to see, which is, supposedly, what the hacker wanted. YamaTough, the hacker, has stated he never intended to accept any payment from Symantec and was going to post the source code regardless. The negotiations were just to embarrass the company by showing what it would do to protect itself. However, YamaTough actually was not in communication with Symantec, but law enforcement.

As the negotiations were taking place, Symantec used the time to patch the software as best it could, to make the code dump as useless as possible. Despite the company’s efforts though, these two recent hacks are surely going to hurt it.

Adriana Lima in Super Slow Motion for Five Hours

Category: General News
Posted: February 3, 2012 03:21PM
Author: bp9801

Courtesy of Kia Motors.

You're welcome.

Kazuo Hirai is Sony's New President and CEO

Category: General News
Posted: February 1, 2012 10:51AM
Author: bp9801

After a few weeks of rumors, one of Sony's most recognizable names is getting a promotion. Kazuo Hirai has been promoted to President and CEO of Sony, with current honcho Sir Howard Stringer moving to Chairman of the Board of Directors. Last June, Kaz Hirai was promoted to Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, which at the time was the latest in a series of promotions for Hirai. Now, he will be running the whole show starting on April 1st, but acknowledges Sony faces some "challenging" times ahead. Hirai seeks to turn around all aspects of Sony, from video games to television to computers and mobile phones, and wants to engage with customers in new and exciting ways. Kaz Hirai credits Stringer with providing "strong leadership," and has the backing of the Board and Stringer himself. With Kaz Hirai soon to be leading Sony, I feel the company remains in good hands to continue pushing the boundaries of what electronics can do.

Raspberry Pi Computer Costs $25, Plays HD Video

Category: General News
Posted: January 25, 2012 05:13PM
Author: Nick Harezga

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is developing a very low cost Linux computer based on the ARM11 CPU. The graphics chip is made by Broadcom, and the company has claimed that the chip features double the graphical performance of the iPhone 4S. If the claims are true, then the graphics chip will be able to vastly outperform the 700MHz ARM11. In addition to claims that it outperforms the iPhone 4S, the executive director at Broadcom, Eben Upton, also claims that its chip outperforms the Tegra 2 from NVIDIA. Upton was upfront when he made the claims, stating that "I was on the team that designed the graphics core, so I'm a little biased here, but I genuinely believe we have the best mobile GPU team in the world at Broadcom in Cambridge." It will be interesting to see some actual comparison numbers when the Raspberry Pi boards become available for sale.

There have been some efforts made to back up the claims made by Upton, with a demonstration of the open source HTPC front-end XBMC running on a Raspberry Pi board at the SCALE 10x conference. There will be two versions available, the Model A and Model B, which will cost $25 and $35, respectively. As someone that has experience with programming for a variety of embedded systems, I will be watching the Raspberry Pi with eager anticipation.

 

Help Wanted: Monitoring Publicly Available Information

Category: Internet, General News
Posted: January 25, 2012 02:59PM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has recently released an update on the Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative. As the name suggests, this initiative is to collect information from sites such as Facebook and Twitter to monitor for current or upcoming events. Researchers have previously shown information shared on these sites can tell a lot about a person, even if this is not the intention. The update (PDF) describes what the bureau wants, so private companies wanting to be hired for the job can get started.

Two potential uses for the information is preventative measures and improving operations. If someone posts on Facebook hateful speech and threats to public officials, the proposed monitoring system would alert the FBI. Further analysis of the person’s posts may reveal life-style patterns, such as when the person is at home or is not at home. This information would allow an operation to address the person to be better planned.

Of course, such a tool is potentially dangerous. Being able to collect massive amounts of information on as large a group as Facebook users immediately calls into question a person’s privacy. Not everyone realizes what they post online is viewable by everyone else, and not just friends and family. At least now when you post you can hope no one else is watching; with this tool you can be sure something is.

Google is Condensing Privacy Policy and Terms of service

Category: Internet, General News
Posted: January 25, 2012 11:02AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

Google, in an effort to simplify things, is changing the majority of its privacy policies starting March 1st. Currently there are over 70 different policies for the company’s many services, from Gmail to YouTube to Google Docs and more, but in a little more than a month, better than 60 of these policies will be combined into one document. Luckily Google has tried to keep this one policy to rule them all as simple as it can, so anyone with a Google Account can understand it.

The Lord of the Rings reference actually will extend further than just the privacy policies. By having so many of the services under the same policy, information between them can be bound together. An example of this effect is Google alerting you when you may be late to a meeting you have scheduled in Calendar, by getting location information on you and where you are going, along with traffic data for the route you will likely take. Of course this information will be put together in the cloud, and not the darkness.

The new privacy policy and terms of service can be read right now, and Google plans on notifying its users via email and notices.

YouTube Growing by an Hour Per Second

Category: Internet, General News
Posted: January 23, 2012 11:16AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

There are 3600 seconds in one hour, so for every second of video you upload to YouTube, there is another 3599 being uploaded at the same time. Google has recently given some numbers about YouTube including that awesome stat. Another stat is that every day, across the globe, there are four billion video views (4,000,000,000). To put this stat into perspective, there are roughly four billion US $1 bills in circulation, it has been approximately four billion years since Mars had liquid water on it, and the Earth itself is only 4.54 billion years old. To put the '1 second is 1 hour' stat into perspective, some Googlers created this video and onehourpersecond.com.

At 45 seconds long, almost two days of video is uploaded to YouTube by the time you finish watching the video.

Just how Effective was the SOPA/PIPA Blackout?

Category: Internet, General News
Posted: January 19, 2012 09:47AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

For those of you who do not know, yesterday a noticeable portion of the Internet went black in a grand-opposition to the SOPA and PIPA bills. (Check out ClayMeow’s editorial on the proposed legislation for more information.) Google, Mozilla, Reddit, Wikipedia, Wired, and Wordpress to name only a few sites joined in the blackout. With such popular websites very publicly voicing their opinions, just how many people were touched by this effort?

Google is reporting 4.5 million people signed its anti-SOPA petition.

Wikipedia states in a Thank You message that over 162 million people saw their blackout message. On its information page it says over 12,000 people commented on its blog post about the blackout, over 8 million visitors learned who their representatives are via the message’s tool, and #wikipediablackout reached 0.93% of all tweets at 4 AM.

At 1 PM #SOPA reached its peak of 3.5% of all tweets, and for the entire 24 hour period, from 12 AM Wednesday morning (EST) to 12 AM Thursday morning, it was above 1%. #PIPA reached a high of 1.01% at Noon on Wednesday.

Of course, Internet activity does not guarantee results in Congress, but it definitely helps. Starting with Senator Marco Rubio on Facebook, members of the United States Congress started publically declaring their opposition to the bills. Rubio had originally co-sponsored the bill, by the way. Many of these announcements were made on social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, probably to let the people know quickly, and not because Internet traffic crippled and brought down Congressional websites. For a time, the official Senate website was actually offline. All told, a minimum of 10 senators and almost twice as many representatives declared their opposition during the blackout.

PIPA comes to a vote on the 24th.

Intel Announces Performance Tuning Protection Plan

Category: General News
Posted: January 18, 2012 05:20PM
Author: Nick Harezga

Intel has announced a new plan directed at the enthusiast community, which makes it right up our alley. The Performance Tuning Protection Plan will cover the "K," "X," and LGA2011 socket processors. Through this plan, consumers will be able to purchase protection for their equipment from damage caused by overclocking and overvolting processors. The plan doesn't extend the standard three year warranty, but merely provides additional protection to those users that like to push their hardware. Intel will only provide a one-time replacement as long as the user meets the criteria of the plan. Today marks the first day of the pilot phase of this plan, which will last for six months. Intel has four resellers as partners for the first phase: CyberPower, Canada Computers and Electronics, Scan Computers, and Altech Computers. Consumers can also access the plan for CPUs that they already own by signing up at the Intel website.

Apple At It Again

Category: Manufacturers, General News
Posted: January 17, 2012 09:19AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

It seems that Apple suing Samsung is a new universal constant as more suits have been filed in Germany. Time for a quick recap: Apple first sued Samsung claiming the Galaxy S phones and Galaxy Tab tablets are too similar to the iPhone and iPad. Even though Apple tampered with images to make the similarities more extreme than they are, the court ruled that the sale of certain Samsung products be blocked. This prompted the development of the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, which is a variant that can be sold in Germany. Now Apple is claiming it and the Galaxy S II phones, amongst other devices, also infringe on Apple patents.

Worth noting is these new suits are actually separate from the original ones. This means the entire trial process will begin again for them, instead of just being added to the current proceedings. All told 10 smartphones and 5 tablets are being targeted by these new suits, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, the world is starting to wonder if the two companies are putting more money into these suits or product development.

US National Research Recommends Drinking Reprocessed Urine

Category: General News
Posted: January 16, 2012 04:00PM
Author: edwardquilo

Freshwater supplies are dwindling, says a report from the US National Research, and the solution is to start considering reprocessed urine as a substitute. With today's advanced treatment methods, reprocessed urine is said to be just as safe to drink as freshwater. The processing isn't cheap, but might prove to be a cost-effective alternative than desalinization in the long run. What's more, the study also disclosed that the number of chemicals and microbes found in the reprocessed water was generally of the same level as those found in existing freshwater supplies. So, in the not-too-distant future, we might be drinking recycled urine more often, if our freshwater supplies do eventually run out. 

Razer Calls Out PC Community to Take More Risks

Category: General News
Posted: January 16, 2012 03:21PM
Author: bp9801

Despite what you think of Razer and the products it has been showing off lately, you have to hand it to the company for trying out new designs all the time. Razer is more than just a mouse company, as its products cover keyboards, audio, mouse pads, console gaming, and soon, PC gaming. Razer is no stranger to innovation, clearly, but it sounds like it is not happy being the only one willing to think outside the box. Razer's CEO Min-Liang Tan has effectively called out the entire PC industry to take more risks and not leave Razer as the only innovator. He wants the PC industry to find its passion once again and said Razer is the only one with much passion for PC gaming. Razer is even launching the Blade gaming laptop soon and hopes to have the Project Fiona tablet ready by the end of the year, but wants other PC companies to step up to the plate and really deliver.

Study Shows Video Games Reduce Nightmares

Category: General News
Posted: January 13, 2012 08:01PM
Author: edwardquilo

An intriguing new study from The Wall Street Journal purports that video games can possibly help reduce the onset of nightmares. In a study conducted among military personnel, which included 64 "hardcore gamers" and 22 casual gamers, it was discovered that the casual gamers had more disturbing nightmares compared to those who played constantly. Furthermore, the casual gamers were reported as being more submissive in their dreams, whereas the hardcore gamers were more in control of their dreams. To this end, researchers indicate that games with violent content may have beneficial effects for soldiers. As such, assertive players who often encounter success within intense action-oriented games may have these digital images implanted in their memories and may carry over once they drift into sleep.

OnLive to Stream the Power of a PC to an iPad

Category: General News
Posted: January 10, 2012 07:41AM
Author: edwardquilo

The capabilities of a PC streamed to an iPad? That's OnLive's promise, with a free app that delivers Windows 7 PC performance to Apple's ubiquitous tablet. OnLive makes this possible using its existing technology used in their iPad gaming app that enabled console gaming titles on iPads, which is based on instant-action cloud gaming technology. Based on reports, the OnLive Desktop app provides a seamless Windows PC experience, with the touch capabilities all responding in real-time, with support for an on-screen Windows keyboard as well as editing documents, along with a robust multimedia access including videos and some PC gaming thrown in too. Although for the moment it's still unclear whether you'll be able to stream Crysis 2 with all the graphical bells and whistles turned on using your iPad. 

The free app gives you access to a cloud-based Windows 7 desktop, which comes with 2 GB of cloud storage and "as-available access" to pre-loaded software such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint along with a few touch-based games and utilities. There's also an OnLive Desktop Pro version to be made available later for $9.99 a month, providing 50 GB of cloud storage, support for more Windows applications, and gives priority access. While most of us probably wouldn't feel comfortable leaving their actual gaming PCs in exchange for OnLive's iPad app, if this type of service takes off perhaps even full-fledged PC gaming might be possible soon on an iPad. 

The Canadian with 15,000 URLs Tattooed on His Body

Category: General News
Posted: January 9, 2012 08:17PM
Author: edwardquilo

We've all heard of gutsy men and women with tattoos of various shapes and sizes, and some even canvassed with full-body tattoos, but what about this Quebec resident who almost has 15,000 URLs tattooed all over his back and shoulders? Pat Vaillancourt apparently wanted his name on the Guinness Book of World Records, but couldn't perform any death-defying stunts nor display acts of extreme physical strength or endurance.

So in 2010, he set about decorating his skin with URLs, with the idea of getting a world record and aid those in need as well. "I want to break a Guinness World Record, but more importantly, I want to help others. And this is my way of doing so," said Vaillancourt. He does this by donating half of his proceeds to the Haiti and Somalia relief efforts, while the rest of his funds go to the payment and promotion of his tattoo ventures. Vaillancourt's ultimate goal is to reach a total of 100,000 URL tattoos, with 50,000 of those inked in black and the next batch in blue. To date, he's nearing 15,000 tattooed URLs, with 16,000 companies also lined up for reserve space in Vaillancourt's skin. His friend does the tattooing, who says it typically takes around 60-90 minutes to ink 100 URLs. Interested in putting up your business in Vaillancourt's back? It costs $35. Who knows, we might see the Overclockers Club URL tattooed in Vaillancourt's shoulders soon. 

The LED Lamp That's Powered by Apples

Category: General News
Posted: January 8, 2012 02:05AM
Author: edwardquilo

Fruits have one interesting trait other than being edible: some of them can be used as a source of electricity. That's what photographer Caleb Charland did with about 300 apples, using these fruits from an apple orchard in Newburgh, Maine to generate enough electricity to power up an LED lamp. He then discovered that he only needed 10 apples to supply enough energy to light up the 30 LEDs inside his lamp. Charland took a lengthy four-hour long exposure of his apple-powered LED lamp, but he also had to fend off a herd of deer who were more interested in eating the tasty apples too.

China Reveals its Latest High-Speed 500 Km/h Train

Category: General News
Posted: January 7, 2012 09:32AM
Author: edwardquilo

An extremely fast train capable of reaching speeds of up to 500 kph or 311 mph has been announced by China, which will be used as reference in conjunction with the existing trains currently in operation. Engineered and manufactured by China's own train maker CSR Corp. Ltd., the 500 kph six-carriage test train was built in-house, using sturdy components such as plastic material reinforced with carbon fiber for the bodywork, and magnesium alloy, among others. The train's exterior was designed with the ancient Chinese sword as an inspiration, with its aerodynamic front and specially-designed rear both engineered to decrease drag. Despite China's tragic train disaster last year (which was apparently caused by lapses in security checks and emergency management), this latest foray shows the country's intent of furthering the development of its high-speed trains, hopefully with more stringent safety measures in mind.

Kopimism: the File-Sharing Religion

Category: Internet, General News
Posted: January 5, 2012 09:03AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

This is probably one of those news items you would never have expected to read. (I know it’s one I never expected to be writing.) The Swedish government has recognized Kopimism as a religion. The core belief is all information is value unto itself and sharing the information increases the value. Two of their sacred symbols are CTRL-C and CTRL-V, and the act of copying and sharing information is a religious service.

The religion was founded by a philosophy student who hopes file-sharing will now be given religious protection. The church of Kopimism does not explicitly support piracy but only the open distribution of information to all, and experts do not believe religiously protected file-sharing would stop anti-piracy laws.

Roku Announces Streaming Stick

Category: General News
Posted: January 4, 2012 05:15PM
Author: Nick Harezga

Roku has announced a new product to complement its current streaming products, the Streaming Stick. The compact device is the size of a USB flash drive, and brings the streaming software provided by its set top boxes to a much smaller form factor. The Streaming Stick features Wi-Fi, a processor, and enough memory to run the software that will allow consumers to stream Netflix and more than 400 channels available on the Roku platform to their qualified televisions. The Streaming Stick won't require any external power sources, but will need a TV with an MHL-enabled HDMI port. It will be available in the second half of this year, and can be bundled with a TV or sold on its own.

AMD Sued by Quanta (Not Over Patents)

Category: Manufacturers, General News
Posted: January 4, 2012 11:55AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

Here’s something you may not have seen for a while; a suit between two tech companies without patent infringement involved. The plaintiff in this case is Quanta Computer Inc, the largest contract maker of laptops in the world. Its claim is AMD sold it chips which did not meet heat tolerances. These chips were then used in the laptops ordered by NEC and later malfunctioned.

In the complaint Quanta says it has, "suffered significant injury to prospective revenue and profits." AMD disputes these claims and states it has never received a report of the chips involved failing. In fact, Quanta itself admits it used the same chips in a different large order for NEC without issue.

Additional allegations in the complaint include breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation, civil fraud and interference with a contract.

Sinde: The Spanish SOPA

Category: Internet, General News
Posted: January 4, 2012 08:12AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

While the SOPA and ProtectIP bills are still sitting in the US Congress, Spain has passed the Sinde Anti-Piracy Law. Similar to the American bills, Sinde gives rights holders the power to request legal action against an allegedly pirating website. There are some differences between the bills though. Sinde creates the government commission for the rights holders to turn to while SOPA and ProtectIP use the already established Attorney General’s office. Also the power to take down a site rests with Spanish courts, whereas the US bills give that power to the Attorney General.

There has been great opposition to this bill which has existed for years, it appears. It has been passed now because the ruling party, which just came to power in November, chose to implement it. It is worth mentioning that Spain has a great pirating problem, with as much as 97.8% of music consumption in the country being illegally driven, for just the first six months of 2010. Movie and game pirating were at 77% and 60.7%, respectively, for the same time period.

The Ultra Portable Timberland Folding Shoes

Category: General News
Posted: January 3, 2012 08:55AM
Author: edwardquilo

Travelers know how much of a hassle shoes can be to pack inside a traveling bag or suitcase, what with their inflexible shapes taking up a considerable amount of precious space. Timberland solves that dilemma with its Radler Camp shoes, which can fold and zip in half to give you that extra interior bag space. Although the company advertises the shoes primarily for hiking or camping trips, aesthetically these look good enough for casual wear as well. The Radler Camp shoes come in several colors, and can even be clipped outside your bag like a giant rubber keychain. If the shoes are as comfortable on the feet as they are inside a bag, then the $65 price tag could be well worth it. 

 

iPad-Equipped Orangutans to Use Skype for Video Chatting

Category: General News
Posted: January 2, 2012 06:37AM
Author: edwardquilo

A few lucky orangutans at the Milwaukee Zoo have been using the iPad for playing games and watching videos, but can these precocious primates use the ubiquitous Apple tablet for far more complex tasks like Skype video-chatting? That's what the zookeepers and the Orangutan Outreach charity group want to find out - to further enhance communications among orangutans from different enclosures using either Skype or FaceTime. The orangutans seem to have developed a liking for the games Doodle Buddy and Flick Flick Football, although one inquisitive ape couldn't take his eyes off David Attenborough's nature documentaries. Orangutan Outreach stresses that the funds for purchasing the iPads came out of their own pockets, and spokesperson Richard Zimmerman goes on to explain why they're going to such lengths to aid these orangutans: "The orangutans loved seeing videos of themselves – so there is a little vanity going on – and they like seeing videos of the orangutans who are in the other end of the enclosure. So if we incorporate cameras, they can watch each other."

The iPad-toting primates will, in theory, be able to recognize fellow iPad-using orangutans from other enclosures through constant Skype access and thus improve communication among the species. Orangutan Outreach also hopes this endeavor will garner enough public support to warrant stronger conservation efforts for the endangered species.

 

Verizon Announces Fee to Pay Your Bill, FCC Steps In, Verizon Recants

Category: General News
Posted: December 30, 2011 03:28PM
Author: bp9801

The other day, a leaked Verizon memo stated it would charge everyone a two dollar fee if they did not pay their bill with AutoPay or by electronic check. Verizon later confirmed that, with a two dollar charge being applied every month you do not use AutoPay or electronic check. This caused a massive outcry from Verizon customers, and then the FCC stepped in to look it over. The two dollar "payment convenience fee" did not sit well with the FCC, and now Verizon has gone back on the whole thing. Verizon's CEO said it will encourage consumers to use AutoPay for their bills, but will not charge a fee "at this time." The whole thing would have taken effect on January 15th, and was a way for Verizon to force its customers to pay their bills on time. Now, it has gone away, but Verizon may find another way to get a couple of bucks out of its customers.

The Japanese Vending Machine that Provides Free Wi-Fi

Category: General News
Posted: December 29, 2011 07:30AM
Author: edwardquilo

Japanese citizens looking for faster Internet access outdoors need just stay within range of the Asahi Soft Drinks' vending machine, which grants free Wi-Fi Internet surfing for 30 minutes. The catch? None apparently, as there's no need to buy a soda, nor create a login account to access the Web. You can even go beyond the 30 minute limit too, as once your initial 30 minutes is up, all you've got to do is re-login again, and you're good to go. A few location-based applications such as local shops or places of interest fire up once you're logged in - useful if you're a tourist or simply lost. 

Even in this early stage, Asahi expects its Wi-Fi vending machines to take off, as the company is planning on distributing these across major Japanese areas such as Tokyo, Sendai, Chubu, Kinki and Fukuoka - with a goal of 10,000 Wi-Fi vending machines strategically placed within the next five years. As long as Asahi manages to keep the Wi-Fi free and the soft drinks ice-cold, they may just have a winning combo on their hands. 

NVIDIA Gaming Notebook Giveaway

Category: General News
Posted: December 28, 2011 05:10PM
Author: Nick Harezga

NVIDIA has announced a contest with the grand prize being an MSI GT783 limited-edition gaming notebook. Featuring a GeForce GTX 580M 2GB GPU, this laptop should have enough horsepower for anything you decide to throw at it. An Intel i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD round out the high performance components that make this laptop more powerful than many desktop systems. A 17.3" screen will display all that gaming goodness in full HD resolution of 1920x1080. A copy of Battlefield 3 will be included to get you started. Five additional winners will receive an MSI SteelSeries gaming mouse, and another ten will receive an MSI tumbler. The contest ends January 23, and can be entered here.

Intel May Launch Thunderbolt for Windows PCs in April 2012

Category: General News
Posted: December 28, 2011 02:47PM
Author: bp9801

Intel had been talking about its new data transfer system, Light Peak, for a while before it finally appeared on Apple products. The name had been changed to Thunderbolt but offered a blistering fast connection (10Gbps) capable of transfering data to and from at the same time. Currently, you can pretty much find Intel Thunderbolt only on Apple products (plus one Sony laptop), but soon Windows computers will be joining the party. Intel Thunderbolt could launch on Windows PCs in April 2012, with products from Acer, ASUS, Gigabyte, and Sony planned for the spring. Gigabyte will incorporate Thunderbolt ports on its motherboards, while Sony will presumably use the standard Thunderbolt port instead of the USB 3.0-based one it currently uses. Acer and ASUS will both add Thunderbolt ports to its upcoming ultrabooks, while ASUS could add the port to motherboards in time for Intel's Ivy Bridge launch. Dell and HP, two of the largest computer manufacters in the world, currently do not have plans to add Thunderbolt ports to any of its products, nor do Lenovo and Toshiba.

An Example of Getting in Over Your Head

Category: General News
Posted: December 27, 2011 07:27PM
Author: bp9801

Last night, I was looking over some Twitter posts when I noticed one by Mike Krahulik (aka Gabriel) from Penny Arcade. I've been a reader of Penny Arcade ever since it launched, and over the years the website has become a huge entity with the likes of the PAX Expo and Child's Play. On Twitter, I saw a post from Mike Krahulik talking about an issue one of the Penny Arcade readers was having with a PR representative. The reader wanted to know more about a game controller he had ordered and if it would arrive before Christmas. The company had missed the projected launch date, so the customer just wanted some clarification from the PR company handling the matter. The problem with that was the PR rep essentially has no idea how to talk to people. The PR rep started to insult the customer when talk turned to the $10 discount applied to new orders and if current pre-orders can receive the discount. Things spiraled down from there, and the customer brought it to the attention of Mike Krahulik.

Now, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (Tycho) are not the kind of people you want to insult, but that is exactly what the PR rep did to Krahulik. For starters, the PR rep did not actually believe Krahulik was who he said he was and insulted him. One of the gems from that is: "Little kids unhappy with a PRE ORDER starting trouble and you email that to us , he’s a customer unless you’re his boyfriend then you should side with the company not the customer." The Twitter world stepped in shortly after, with multiple people from IGN and other sites backing Penny Arcade. The Internet is not always the best place to pick a fight, and especially not with someone with the type of clout Mike Krahulik has.

Krahulik updated Penny Arcade today with the "apology" from the PR rep. You can read it for yourself here, plus Krahulik's response, to get an idea of the backlash the Internet gave the PR rep. The Penny Arcade servers have been getting pretty slammed with the amount of traffic, so if it does not load right away, just give it a few minutes. The lesson from all of this, however, is to watch who you pick a fight with and who you name as supporters. If you act like a complete tool, you will get called out on it. Feel free to discuss this in the forums.

Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, and More Settle Consumer Class Action Price Fixing Lawsuit on LCD Panels

Category: General News
Posted: December 27, 2011 05:57PM
Author: bp9801

Earlier in December, Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, and other LCD panel manufacturers settled the price fixing lawsuit with direct purchasers, i.e. TV and monitor manufacturers. Now, Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, and others have settled the class action lawsuit with consumers over the LCD panel price fixing scheme. All the companies listed colluded in order to increase LCD prices between 1999 and 2006. The companies were found out, and then some class action lawsuits began. Everything is now settled, with direct purchasers getting $338 million and consumers getting $539 million. Samsung has to pay $240 million, Sharp will dole out $115 million, and Chimei is at $110 million. Other companies have to pay anywhere between $2.8 and $39 million, but none of this is final until the judge gives the all clear in a month.

SOPA Already Affecting the Internet, Thanks to Users

Category: Internet, General News
Posted: December 23, 2011 12:20PM
Author: Guest_Jim_*

Not long ago the list of supporters of the Stop Online Privacy Act, better known as SOPA, was released, allowing the average Internet user to respond to companies. One such company is Go Daddy, a domain name registrar that boasts 50 million domains for 9 million customers. Shortly after its support was revealed, users of the service publicly stated their intent to move their websites to other services which do not support the bill. At least one of these opponents, Name.com, offered discounts to people transferring content from Go Daddy. Already, the Internet is changing because of a bill just sitting in Congress.

Now Go Daddy has reversed its decision to support SOPA. This move may prevent more customers from changing services, but sites that have already moved, like Wikipedia, may decide to stay where they are.

For those of you against SOPA, take this as a single victory, but remain vigilant and ready for the battles ahead.