Woohoo Go Shatner

Shatner hopes new game will revive “Trek” (Reuters)

Reuters – The Starship Enterprise is in trouble and, as usual, Capt. James T. Kirk has a plan to save it.

Now That Just Sucks

Xbox ownership dispute leads to arson

Following the horrific incident in 2004 in which four dim-witted individuals perpetrated a home invasion and mass murder in order to “reclaim” their repo’ed Xbox, comes another tale of disputed console ownership leading to tragic consequences. A 20-year-old Seattle man returned to his former residence on Thursday in an attempt to take possession of an Xbox that he had supposedly purchased, and in a classic example of “if I can’t play with this toy then no one can,” tossed the ‘Box right through a window and into the front yard. Not content with destroying what may have been his own property, the young man returned later that night and set fire to home’s back porch, and although no injuries were reported, the structure was apparently completely gutted. Making the suspect even more eligible for the “Stupid Criminals’ Hall of Fame” was the fact that he called the house from a payphone (while it was still burning, presumably) to brag of his crime and make additional threats. The lesson here: videogames may or may not incite folks to violence, but fighting over them sure does.

Google Now Pimpin Porn?

Google Porn?

People watching Google Video closely noticed a change this week in the upload area – the restrictions on uploading “pornographic or obscene” material is now just a restriction on “obscene” material. They’ve also added a “mature and adult” category to the genres and removed (I believe) a box on the initial uploading page that must be checked where the uploader certifies that the “video is not pornographic or obscene material”.

This may or may not mean Google is allowing, or preparing to allow, porn. Videos containing nudity are clearly available on the site, and many were uploaded months ago (for example, is this porn?). But nothing hardcore seems to be on the site.

Also, the box requiring uploaders to certify that content is not pornographic is still in certain areas, such as the “edit video” area of the site. And the terms and conditions still prohibit pornographic material.

It’s strange that Google is allowing classification of content as “mature and adult”, and allowing video containing nudity (which is arguably porn), but still restricting pornography through the terms and conditions and in the video edit section. Either they’re just testing the boundaries of what their users will allow, or in the middle of making changes that could allow more hardcore content. Either way, porn is big business, and I’m sure Google has thought long and hard about how to get their piece of it.

Now Thats Just Damn Cool

Samsung Develops World’s First three-inch VGA LCD

Nomad05 writes “Samsung announced this week it has developed the world’s first three-inch VGA LCD panel that “directly meets industry interface standards for digital still cameras.” What this means is that future LCD screens on digital cameras will allow multimedia to be viewed at a resolution of 640×480. Presently, a majority of camera LCDs only display multimedia at a resolution of 320×240 — significantly lower in quality than Samsung’s new LCD. In layman’s terms, expect significantly brighter, more detailed LCD displays, which will enable you to review your photography more thoroughly after you take an exposure. This innovation will make it easier to spot blurry images and ensure your photo is framed properly. “

Ah The Wonders Of The Internet

Indian village uploads itself onto Internet (Reuters)

Reuters – An Indian village has uploaded itself onto the Internet, giving the outside world a glimpse of life in rural India.

Ooo Penguin Vs. Penguin

Ubuntu vs. Debian: What Canonical Doesn’t Want You To Know

“Debian and Ubuntu. Ubuntu and Debian. How are they different? How are they the same? Well, most of the differences lie in the target userbase of the OSes. Debian is attempting the unattemptable by making a distro that’s right for almost every use imaginable. Servers use it, workstations use it, monkeys I’m sure could use it too. That comes at a price.” More here.

Get Yours Today!

Judge orders online sale of Unabomber goods (Reuters)

Reuters – “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski’s journal, as well as axes, typewriters and books seized from his Montana cabin will be sold in an Internet auction to help pay restitution to his victims, a federal judge has ordered.

Gotta Love Apple

Leopard first looks: iCal

When iCal undergoes an update for OS X 10.5, expect a calendaring application that’s a lot smarter about group scheduling.

Gotta Love Cheap HDD's

Hard Drive Price War Coming

Seagate Technology CEO Bill Watkins says a price war in the hard drive business industry is a possibility. Seagate is the world’s largest hard drive manufacturer and are in direct competition with companies such as Hitachi, Samsung and Toshiba. On Wednesday, Watkins said “If pricing doesn’t drop for us, it’ll be an upside.” Seagate is expecting stiff pricecutting from its competitors through into 2007.

Seagate believes that despite the aggressive price cutting from competitors, the only gains they are receiving are minor. Watkins indicated that their competitors are getting volume units and share, but it’s lousy share. Watkins said that Seagate gains more share because of product quality,reliability and support rather than heavy price cutting. Watkins alsonoted that Seagate’s competitors are cutting prices so much, it erodes into the profitability of its competitors.

Seagate acquired its largest competitor, Maxtor, earlier this year andannounced that it would cut the company in half. Seagate mentioned that despitethe job cuts,it would keep many of Maxtor’s enterprise level product lines and services. Seagate also made several announcements of its own so far this year, including a 300GB, 15,000 RPM, perpendicular Cheetah and 1TB NAS productsunder the Maxtor brand name.

Atthe moment, Seagate is one of the few companies that are not under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC is currently investigating more than 80 companies for stock-option manipulations and back-dating practices that give huge financial gains to executive level employees. Watkins indicated that he was confidentabout his company’s business practices, saying “we have a very rigorous stock-option grant program. It’ssuch a rigorous process. We feel confident.”

DailyTech

Read full story…

All Hail IBM

The IBM PC’s 25 Year Legacy

“August 12, 1981 marks the birth of the IBM PC, the computer that single-handedly turned personal computing to the business market. IBM’s success forced Apple and others to change their focus, and most personal computer companies from the pre-IBM era have become historical footnotes. By 2006, even Apple Computer had followed IBM’s lead and adopted Intel CPUs and built Macs that can boot Microsoft Windows.” Yes, boys and girls, she’s that old. A ‘thank you’ is in order, I suppose.