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Stetson Hat to be New Army Standard Headgear
Posted by Donster on: 2011-04-01 16:50:33 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Army News Release
In a fingertip-to-the-brim nod to its American frontier history, the Army is changing hats again - returning to the tumultuous days of the horse Cavalry in the wild west and adopting a dark blue Stetson as the official headgear for the current force of 1.1 million Soldiers.
"We figure the Stetson will be popular with the troops," said Sgt. Maj. Bob S. Stone, Army Uniform Board headgear task force president. "It's been a while since we have changed the headgear, so it's time. Plus a Stetson is functional and down right American."
But reminiscent of the controversial switch from the garrison cap to the black beret, the Army faces opposition from one community deeply opposed to losing its special identity with the Stetson - the Armor branch.
"Why in the heck are they doing to us what they did to the snake-eaters?" asked one officer familiar with the board's deliberations. "If you ain't Cav, you ain't ought to be wearing a Cav hat. That just ain't right."
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Kodak Ending KODACHROME Run After 74 Years
Posted by Donster on: 2009-06-22 15:41:37 in category: General News [ Print ]
Still can't get that friggin' Paul Simon song out of its head
News Source: Engadget
Eastman Kodak Company announced today that it will retire KODACHROME Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.
Sales of KODACHROME Film, which became the world’s first commercially successful color film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to newer KODAK Films or to the digital imaging technologies that Kodak pioneered. Today, KODACHROME Film represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s total sales of still-picture films.
"Kodachroooome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away"
Kodak estimates supplies of existing stock will run out sometime in early fall.
News Source: Email
Give me an "Arrrr": Pirate Party Elected to EU Parliament
Posted by Donster on: 2009-06-08 16:06:49 in category: General News [ Print ]
Source: TorrentFreak
The Pirate Party has won a huge victory in the Swedish elections and is marching on to Brussels. After months of campaigning against well established parties, the Pirate Party has gathered enough votes to be guaranteed a seat in the European Parliament.
When we asked Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge about the outcome, he told TorrentFreak: “We’ve felt the wind blow in our sails. We’ve seen the polls prior to the election. But to stand here, today, and see the figures coming up on that screen… What do you want me to say? I’ll say anything”
“Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it,” Falkvinge said. “This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities’ mass-surveillance,” he added.
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Microsoft: Obama's Tax Plan May Hurt U.S. Jobs
Posted by Donster on: 2009-06-05 15:19:30 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Declan McCullagh @ CNET News
Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer offered an unwelcome economics lesson to the Obama administration this week: Higher taxes have consequences that Washington policy-makers may not especially like.
Ballmer said Wednesday that if Congress enacts President Obama's plans to impose higher corporate taxes, a sensible thing for Microsoft to do would be to move jobs offshore.
"It makes U.S. jobs more expensive," Ballmer said, according to Bloomberg News. "We're better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S."
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RAF May Replace Pilots with Gamers for Combat Drone Sorties
Posted by Donster on: 2009-03-04 16:50:09 in category: General News [ Print ]
Source: GamePolitics
Last month GamePolitics reported that one of the U.S. Army's top combat drone pilots in Iraq was a 19-year-old who learned his control skills playing Xbox.
Now comes word that Britain's Royal Air Force may employ gamers to control its combat drones in Afghanistan.
PressTV reports that the RAF hopes to save money by replacing pilots with less-skilled personnel...
Read PressTV Article
There is hope for you guys yet! 
News Source: Email
YouTube Videos Go Widescreen
Posted by Donster on: 2008-11-25 15:14:33 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Daniel A. Begun @ Hot Hardware
In the unlikely event that you've gone more than a day watching a YouTube video, the next time you see one you'll probably notice that it's going to look a little different. Yesterday, YouTube switched all of its videos over to a larger-sized player window with a widescreen format.
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Your Mail in Rebate May Be In Jeopardy
Posted by Donster on: 2008-11-13 17:11:01 in category: General News [ Print ]
If you use mail in rebates for virtually any product in North America, you will want to read up on this and start making sure your money is safe.
Author: Kyle Bennett @ [H] Enthusiast
We have been longstanding supporters of mail in rebates (MIR) in our industry and for the most part if you properly managed your personal rebate process, MIRs have been a fairly safe bet. All of that is about to change. Continental Promotions Group headquartered in Canada is one of the rebate industry’s largest and oldest players and has huge ties to computer hardware rebates. CPG is putting the screw to its customers to “repay” rebates that have already been funded. Hardly what we would call “Fulfilling the Promise of the Brand” as it is stated on its home page.
Read on...
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LMAO News: Heated Seats Bad For Reproduction
Posted by Donster on: 2008-08-28 16:31:11 in category: General News [ Print ]
Source: HardOCP
The AutoBlog crew says “they knew it all along” that heated seats bake your balls. What does that mean for all of you with heated seats trying to have a family? Heh…you need a heatsink for your huevos. Peltier powered pantaloons. TIM (thermal interface material) for your testes?
“Scientists studying male fertility have discovered that the proliferation of heated seats raises the temperature of your junk by a full degree Fahrenheit verses sitting in the car without artificially warmed seats. That's enough to cut your chances of reproducing, and it makes us strategically point a fan at close range just thinking about it.”
News Source: Email
Microsoft Withdraws Bid For Yahoo!
Posted by Donster on: 2008-05-05 15:15:53 in category: General News [ Print ]
After a long and bitter courting period, Microsoft drop its offer to buy Yahoo
By Brandon Hill @ DailyTech
There has been a long and tumultuous battle of words between Microsoft and Yahoo ever since the Redmond-based software giant decided to make a bid for Yahoo in early February. Microsoft offered to buy the search giant for $44.6B which included a 66 percent premium on Yahoo's stock price at the time.
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Yahoo CEO Seeks to Reassure Employees
Posted by Donster on: 2008-05-05 15:15:31 in category: General News [ Print ]
Everything is going to be alright, everything is going to be alright...
By Jason Mick @ DailyTech
The Yahoo and Microsoft saga ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. After Yahoo boldly rejected Microsoft, the Redmond-based giant over the weekend decided to walk away from its game-changing offer, leaving Yahoo to ponder its hopes as an independent company. Despite new deals with Google, Yahoo is for the most part back to its old self, for better or worse.
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Yahoo! Shareholders Infuriated Over Yahoo! Rejecting Microsoft Offer
Posted by Donster on: 2008-02-12 14:09:59 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Nick Farrell @ The Inquirer
Search outfit Yahoo! is facing a shareholder revolt after rejecting a $44.6 billion takeover bid from Microsoft over the weekend.
Shareholders are already miffed at the way that the board had been running Yahoo! after losing 40 per cent of the value of the company over the last year.
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Microsoft Calls Yahoo Rejection "Unfortunate," Pursues Hostile Takeover
Posted by Donster on: 2008-02-12 14:05:40 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Jason Mick @ DailyTech
Having been rejected by Yahoo!'s board, Microsoft commented that it was "unfair" that Yahoo! did not embrace its "full and fair proposal to combine" the companies. Now, Microsoft indicates it is planning to bypass the board and take the issue directly to a shareholder vote. Microsoft states, "We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market."
Read on...
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Yahoo! Formally Rejects Microsoft Offer
Posted by Donster on: 2008-02-11 15:44:40 in category: General News [ Print ]
Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, today said the Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft's unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!'s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.
PRESS RELEASE
News Source: Email
Bad to Worse: Fifth Undersea Cable Cut in Middle East
Posted by Donster on: 2008-02-07 14:58:09 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Shane McGlaun @ DailyTech
When an undersea fiber optic cable, who's sole job is to connect countries and continents, is cut, bad things happen. Entire countries, or even continents, can lose internet access, and entire chunks of the world can appear to go offline. When one was cut a week ago, nobody really considered it that big a deal, because the owner would replace it soon anyways. However, the owner has done no such thing, has not paid for any form of investigation, and merely watches as more cables are cut. Thus far, no less than five cables that run under the ocean have been lost, all five being in the middle east. Worse still, it would seem as though the owner is not looking into the exact cause of the cables all failing within one week of each other. Hopefully, action will be taken soon, and places near Southern Asia and the Middle East will have internet once again.
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Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share
Posted by Donster on: 2008-02-01 14:42:03 in category: General News [ Print ]
Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft's proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.
PRESS RELEASE
News Source: Email
Best Buy Continues to Operate Bogus In-store Website
Posted by Donster on: 2007-12-26 15:31:43 in category: General News [ Print ]
Price discrepancies between Best Buy's online site and in-store sites continue
By David Lazarus, LA Times
The Connecticut attorney general's office sued Best Buy in May, charging the electronics heavyweight with using deceptive in-store websites to trick customers into paying higher prices than available on the company's actual site.
"We thought Best Buy had addressed this," Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal told me the other day. "That's what they said to us. Apparently that's not the case."
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Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor
Posted by Donster on: 2007-12-19 15:28:07 in category: General News [ Print ]
Thanks HardOCP
Think the most powerful thing you can have in your garage is a vintage muscle car? How about a 200 kilowatt nuclear reactor? You'll be able to buy one as early as 2009 if Toshiba has its way.
"The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy."
Read more...
Why does the prospect of a small nuclear reactor in every garage make me a wee bit nervous???
News Source: Email
GameSpot Editor Fired Over Review?
Posted by Donster on: 2007-11-30 15:33:22 in category: General News [ Print ]
Thanks Blue's News
Primotech reports the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, long-time GameSpot editor, saying sources close to the situation indicate this due to his tepid review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men for Xbox 360, pointing out Eidos had invested in a prominent advertising campaign on the site. The article points out this Penny Arcade comic offering a typically searing take on the situation, along with another indication this unconfirmed story is making the rounds. A later update on DESTRUCTOID reports the departure of GameSpot editor Tim Tracy though it's not clear if or how this may relate to the situation described above.
News Source: Email
Kim Jong-il: Internet Expert
Posted by Donster on: 2007-10-08 14:44:30 in category: General News [ Print ]
Posted at Yahoo!News
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il called himself an "Internet expert" during summit talks with South Korea's president this week, a news report said Friday.
The reclusive leader made the remark after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun asked that South Korean companies operating at an industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong be allowed to use the Internet, Yonhap news agency reported, without citing any source.
"I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired," Kim told Roh, according to Yonhap.
Read on...
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The taxman cometh back to the Net
Posted by Donster on: 2007-05-25 14:15:42 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Steven Musil Staff Writer, CNET News.com
The era of tax-free e-mail, Internet shopping and broadband connections could end this fall, if recent proposals in the U.S. Congress prove successful. State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other Internet-service connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail.
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R.I.P.: Bob 'BobR' Rakosky - Creator of Empire Deluxe and The Perfect General
Posted by Donster on: 2007-05-15 15:00:00 in category: General News [ Print ]
Thanks Blue's News
Bob Rakosky died on Sunday May 6th, 2007 after fighting lung cancer. He was 55.
Some Empire/Perfect General fans may know Mr Rakosky, or “BobR” as I know he was referred to. Bob was Mark Baldwin’s development partner for many years. He and Mark made up “White Wolf Productions”, and created Empire Deluxe and The Perfect General under that developer name.
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Canadians Get "Hosed" - Overpay Millions In Copyright Levy
Posted by Donster on: 2007-05-15 14:42:39 in category: General News [ Print ]
Thanks Steve @ HardOCP
It seems our friends in Canada finally got a break on all those copyright fees they pay on blank media . Unfortunately, all the money that has been “overpaid” will not be returned to consumers. Instead, it will go to importers, manufacturers and retailers.
"The Copyright Board of Canada issued its latest private copying decision on Friday. The fourth major decision from the board on private copying, the decision addresses the levy for 2005 - 2007 (the Canadian Private Copying Collective attempt to extend the levy to iPods and SD cards would commence in 2008)."
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Public Service Announcement - iPods Can Cause Pacemakers to Malfunction
Posted by Donster on: 2007-05-11 14:24:44 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Marcus Yam @ DailyTech
A 17-year-old high school student in Michigan has uncovered that iPods can cause pacemakers to malfunction. In a study that tested 83 elderly patients, an iPod was placed just two inches from the patient's chest for five to 10 seconds. Telemetry interference occurred in 29 percent of the patients, and a pacemaker misreading the heart's function occurred in 20 percent of patients, according to HealthDay News. In some cases, electrical interference was detected from as far as 18 inches away, and in one patient, the pacemaker stopped working.
Read More...My Homepage
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The 50 Best Tech Products of All Time
Posted by Donster on: 2007-04-04 15:07:45 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Christopher Null, PC World
PC World has another installment in their "Best of" series of articles on-line today (Thx:HotHardware), this one dealing with what they think are the top 50 best tech products of all time.
"From breakthrough hardware to time-honored software, we salute those amazing products that changed technology--and our lives--forever."
Read on...
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Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website
Posted by Donster on: 2007-03-02 16:02:51 in category: General News [ Print ]
By George Gombossy @ Courant.com
Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after my column disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com.
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Google Opens Gmail to All
Posted by Donster on: 2007-02-08 15:22:28 in category: General News [ Print ]
By Matt Loney Special to CNET News.com
Google on Wednesday said its Gmail service is now open to anyone who wants an account. Previously the service, which provides users with 2.8GB of e-mail storage space, has been by invitation only.
The service, known as Google Mail in the U.K., has proved very popular. When it was launched, Google raised eyebrows with its practice of indexing the content of e-mails so that the company could place contextual advertisements in them. Nevertheless, early ZDNet UK stories garnered hundreds of reader responses from people looking for free accounts.
Read on...