The UberReview » Breaking News

Jammie Thomas Gets Her Fine Jacked Up to $1.92M

C. S. Magor — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:34:06 +0000

It took a US jury just five hours to decide that Jammie Thomas-Rasset was guilty of piracy and liable for $US1.92 million in damages for downloading 24 songs from Kazaa.

The decision is a major win for the six record comanies involved, namely: Capitol Records, Sony BMG Music, Arista Records, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records and UMG Recordings; they each pick up $80,000 per song.

The verdict is certainly unexpected, as a judge described the previous decision to order the single mother to pay $US220,000 as “wholly disproportionate” and “oppressive.”

On a brighter note, while a somewhat annoying single mother is being struck with a life-crushing legal bill, Axl Rose will still be able to afford to push grand pianos out of his window, so it is kind of a lose-win situation.

[The Age]

Trek Aerospace Exoskeleton May Just Be The Most Badass Form Of Personal Transportation Ever Conceived

C. S. Magor — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:20:01 +0000

If you want to get from A to B quickly, the fastest way tends to be in a straight line. Traveling by car that is almost always impossible, and while helicopter works, they need space to land, which means that they are not always practical. Trek Aeorospace’s exoskeleton makes a nice alternative. Sure, they might plan to use it for boring tasks such as crop dusting, but all I can see is myself driving over rush hour traffic at 100 mph and getting to work in five minutes instead of forty. [DVICE]

Microsoft Posts 250K Bounty on Conficker Worm Maker’s Head

C. S. Magor — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:24:20 +0000

Microsoft has posted a $250,000 reward for anyone who can provide information that leads to the capture of the person or people responsible for the “Conficker” or “Downadup” code, which means that the coder is probably sitting in his or her parent’s basement crying him or her self to sleep as he or she recounts every single person to whom they bragged about their diabolical coding skills. [Yahoo]

Chinese Shopper Was Killed by Bullet, Not Exploding Cell Phone

C. S. Magor — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:18:24 +0000

Remember the case of the Chinese shopper that was apparently killed when his cell phone exploded? Well it turns out that it wasn’t his cell phone battery at all, but some type of firearm that discharged when he dropped it. By all accounts, the gun was homemade and one has to wonder what he was doing walking into a store with a concealed, loaded weapon. I am inclined to believe that there is something more to this story. [Sohu via Telegraph, Engadget]

Klingon Bat’leth Used to Rob Convenience Store

C. S. Magor — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:08:51 +0000

A man in Colorado Springs has robbed a 7-11 convenience store with a weapon that was said to resemble a Klingon Bat’leth sword. The man, who fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash is reportedly a six-foot-tall white male of approximately 28 years of age. [Denver Channel via The Register]