TheTechStop.net clan is now on twitter. Well, maybe not all of us, but a few of us that don’t mind being in voyeuristic environments. It’s a great way to reach us and tell us what you want reviewed, what you thought of our reviews, and take an in-depth look at our boring lives! Come tweet with us…we just might follow you, too!
Melanie: www.twitter.com/kewlgirl
A U.S. judge’s order to Google Inc to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc sparked an outcry on Thursday from privacy advocates in the midst of a legal showdown over video piracy.
This is one of those things that shows how little the legal system understands the changes that have taken place in content creation and distribution. They’re still caught-up in the belief that only the big media companies could possible create content that the public would want to watch. Never mind the fact that none of the the all-time watched videos on YouTube are copyrighted, or that the majority of YouTube videos consist of young people kicking each other in the nuts… no… big media needs a reason why their profits are falling and they’re willing to violate the privacy of their consumers to convince themselves that it can’t possibly be because there is not legit competition.
From Information Week: In June 2006, Apple acknowledged that an internal investigation had revealed irregularities in its stock option grants between 1997 and 2001. It also said that one of the grants in question was to Jobs but that “it was subsequently canceled and resulted in no financial gain to the CEO.”
According to the complaint, Apple’s share price dropped 14% in the two weeks after Apple’s admission, erasing more than $7 billion in share value. It’s this loss that the plaintiffs hope to recover.
Now I’m not the biggest fan of Apple, and I did wonder aloud about the wisdom of the FTC allowing an INTERNAL Apple probe to settle the legality of the backdating that took place in the late 90’s. However, as much as I would love to lob a bomb or two at the “Steve Jobs Reality Distortion field”, even I have to look at this Class-Action as just another money grab.
The complaintants are claiming huge in losses after the announcement of the financial impropriety back in 2006. They say that the 14% dip in the stock wiped out billions — But here’s the rub…. I’m pretty sure that the stock recovered… so shut your pie-hole and stop suing for suits sake.
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It seems the more advanced our technology becomes, the more suspicious we get of cheap no-name gear. Just look at the rise of Apple branded products and it appears clear that we are all becoming more snobby (technologically speaking anyway). It’s simply not possible to get a good quality video camera for less than a grand, right? Wrong. The Aiptek HD 1080P provides acceptable video quality in a great form factor, for….$149.00. |
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I’ve been following Roz Savage (virtually, not stalking) on her blog at rozsavage.com. Roz is attempting to become the first female to row across the Pacific Ocean. She has already crossed the Atlantic, and now her sights are set on the Pacific. |
“Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis is being sued by a Las Vegas Strip casino for $2 million in gambling debts from February of last year.
The funny thing about this story is that Francis and his attorney are claiming that the Wynn hotel had promise him discounts to go along with his gambling. — Now most of us are familiar with the concept of the Vegas comp. They wine and dine you, give you a beautiful suite and shower you with free perks all in the hopes that you’ll dump a wad on the tables, but Francis only paid $800,000 of his $2.8 Million tab — Who in their right mind expects a 60% discount on the money that they lose!!!!
Put a little dance in your life…
I can’t wait to get my Home Theater geeky hands on the Godfather on Blu Ray. Most older movies that I have seen which were remastered on Blu Ray looked great to me (e.g. Fifth Element); others, though, not so much (e.g. Total Recall, which looked soft). Apparently, Coppola himself oversaw the remastering.
It’s only my favorite movie ever, on the highest quality picture format, what’s not to be excited about.? If anybody has a pre-release version, I’ll take it off your hands and give it a review….
News courtesy of Electronic House. You can read the full article after the jump.
http://tinyurl.com/3nj4ay
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Anybody here remember the 1999 opening of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider? No — well I’m not surprised… you see, even though there was a group of quacks and self-proclaimed scientists who claimed that the RHIC would lead to the destruction of the planet who used lawsuits and protests to delay or derail the project, it went online in 2000 with not so much as a micro black hole. Enter 2008 and the Large Hadron Collider is getting ready to go online. The same group, the same lawyer/physicist actually, is once again suing to shut down the project. Once again they are claiming that the project will cause the destruction of our planet. |
IRVINE, Calif., June 30, 2008 – Gateway is helping students and their families get ready for next school year with new models in its popular notebook and desktop PC lines that provide leading technology at exceptional prices. The new Gateway notebook and desktop PCs are available now at popular electronics and technology retailers. Manufacturer’s suggested retail prices (MSRP) range from $549.99 to $1,149.99. Visit www.gateway.com/retail for specifications or to locate a store.“Summer is the ideal season to buy a new notebook or desktop PC from Gateway,” said Steve Bulling, senior manager, product management, Acer Inc. “Families can take advantage of their extra time by enjoying the latest games, as well as making videos and creating photo slideshows of summer events. In the fall, students can take advantage of their new PC’s impressive performance to jump into research and studies. Plus, now is the time consumers can get a great deal on a fashionable PC that fits within their budget.”
So… have you heard of Zappos.com? What’s that?… yeah.. me neither.
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Anyway, this little runaway startup has carved a niche for itself by become the Internet Nordstroms… a place that covers shipping both ways and will replace your product for pretty much any reason. — I actually like the business plan, concentrate on the long sale based on customer satisfaction and loyalty rather than go for the short margins and diminishing returns — Anyway, back to the uberGeek part… Zappos has gone ahead and added another chain to the reach of the Internet by fully automating their warehouse functions by using a little robot system named Kiva. |
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It seems that there has been a nasty accident in France. A shooting demonstration that was supposed to showcase French military procedures for freeing hostages turned deadly when one of the weapons used in the demonstration was loaded with live ammunition rather than blanks. Let’s start with what is most important… our prayers go out to all the wounded in this bizzare accident.— Now with that out of the way…
There are two big WTF?! aspects of this story. First, what in the world was real ammo doing ANYWHERE NEAR a shooting demonstration that should have been blanks-only? — Secondly, it would seem that their hostage freeing techniques are fundamentally flawed if they resulted in the woundign of 16 people, INCLUDING the demo hostages.
From the article: A military shooting demonstration in southeast France on Sunday left 16 people wounded, including children, when real bullets were used instead of blank ones, officials said.
Four of the wounded were in serious condition, including a 3-year-old child, Bernard Lemaire, chief of the regional administration in Aude, said on France-3 television. Fifteen of the injured were civilians.
| I saw this on YouTube and I absolutely had to post it. I’ve always wanted to make something like this, but I was afraid that my contraption might hurt one of our pets. Still… this is an uberGeek declaration of pet love! |
Among a plethora of other things…he’s helping to transform downtown Austin,
First, I’m a defense attorney. Second, I’m outright embarrassed by the rantings of this Massachusetts legislator. Third, when defending a child sex case, juries tend to not like defense attorneys (and, by extension, their clients) who attack children (especially when they are the alleged victims). So, not only would he try to further ruin the lives of these alleged victims, but he would not be doing his clients any favors by doing so.
I know I don’t think about ways I can get the child victim on the stand and ruin his life. I’m not sure what that has to do with presenting a zealous and effective defense. Watch for yourself and tell us where you stand.
Be prepared for some pretty bad legal douchery after the jump.
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Speck has already released 3 different styles for that shiny new phone you’ll be buying on July 11th. Pixelskin (a soft-touch, tiled pattern made of tactile rubber), Toughskin (an ultra-durable texturized rubber case reminiscent of Tonka truck tires), and the SeeThru (an ultra-slim, translucent hard plastic case that has rubberized no-slip grips on the sides). Price point on these is $24.95, $34.95, and $29.95 respectively.
I like the design on each of these. The Pixelskin is for the fun, casual, yet fashion conscious user, the Toughskin is truly for the more rugged, perhaps even accident-prone user, and the SeeThru a more sleek, sexy, and edgey user. Check them out and tell me which one YOU are!