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19 Jun 2011 22:24

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Tech: That guy who claims he owns Facebook passed a lie detector test

  • Paul Ceglia, 1. Lie detector, 0. Despite the fact that, you know, courts routinely ignore evidence from lie detectors and the Supreme Court doesn’t require the admission of polygraph evidence in court cases, the guy who claims that he owns most of Facebook says that he isn’t lying about his claims — and has the lie detector test results to prove it. “I respectfully suggest that Mark Zuckerberg undergo the same polygraph examination I have in order to expose who is really telling the truth,” says Paul Ceglia, who took the test June 11. Facebook’s lawyers want Ceglia to release the original copy of the contract immediately for testing — which Ceglia’s lawyers don’t want to do unless Zuckerberg’s boys come up with some evidence of their own. Do you guys think a lie detector test should be allowable evidence in this case? source

18 Jun 2011 19:18

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Tech: Duke Nukem Forever PR firm fired after threatening reviewers

  • We are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom. Bad scores are fine. Venom filled reviews… that’s completely different. Too many went too far with their reviews.
  • The Redner Group founder Jim Redner • Tweeting his anger with the negative reviews the long-awaited “Duke Nukem Forever” received upon its release. Those were Redner’s last words as 2K Games’ PR guy — his company was ditched not long after. (Because, um, he suggested doing something that’s very unethical.) The game itself, which many reviewers noted seemed to have come from a different era of gaming, received mixed reviews according to Metacritic — few reaching to the point of total hatred. source

17 Jun 2011 13:20

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Tech: The rise of the mysterious BitCoin: The nerdiest currency around

  • I spoke to one guy who thought aliens might have come to earth to bring us this technology, it’s so perfect.
  • BitCoin enthusiast Bruce Wagner • Discussing the origin of the mysterious open-source peer-to-peer currency project. The project was started by some guy who disappeared from online forums back in December — just as the currency was taking off. The currency is akin to BitTorrent if you could use it to send money — in good ways and bad. And without an easy way to trace the currency, it’s got some somewhat sketchy fans, like hackers and drug dealers. And the value of the currency itself (tied to no government, so no Federal Reserve) is leaping quickly — roughly 6,000 percent since the year started. So, would you buy some stuff with bitcoins? source

16 Jun 2011 20:11

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Biz, Tech: Pandora’s crappy day: When day two of an IPO totally bombs

  • $16 the amount per share Pandora set its initial public offering for
  • $26 the price the internet radio company reached at its peak yesterday
  • $13 the price the stock closed at today; not looking so hot source
  • » This isn’t a good sign: Generally when a stock has a steep decline immediately after its IPO, it means that the pricing is totally off. In the case of Pandora, the company initially planned to enter the stock market at $7 to $9 per share, but with the current investor fervor over internet companies, the IPO price doubled. Meanwhile, other recently-added tech stocks — LinkedIn and Yandex — have fallen from their peaks, but remain above their IPO prices. In the case of LinkedIn, they’re a solid 52 percent above their IPO price.

16 Jun 2011 13:53

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Tech: Robin Williams is definitely a bigger Zelda fan than you

  • Robin Williams has been into Legend of Zelda since the ’80s. And in this new ad for the 3DS version of the Nintendo 64 classic Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (one of the best video games ever), Robin Williams is their poster boy. He’s a pretty big fan, apparently, and he has the proof. Check it out. source

16 Jun 2011 10:51

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Biz, Tech: One day after its IPO, Pandora’s stock falls below its IPO price

  • yesterday As the latest entrant in the “there’s a new tech bubble” contest, Pandora had an IPO that leaped fairly high above its $16 starting value. Not bad for a company that isn’t profitable, eh?
  • today It appears reality has caught up with Pandora at least a little, as the stock’s price fell below its IPO price in day two of trading, proving that the company is in fact susceptible to the effects of gravity. source

15 Jun 2011 11:32

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Tech: Texas Rep. David Simpson gets a high-five over his anti-TSA bill

  • Right now, searches are proceeding under the object of preventing terrorist activities. But we’ve got to draw a line. You’ve got to have reasonable cause to touch people’s private parts.
  • Texas State Rep. David Simpson • Discussing his bill to prevent the TSA from intrusively groping people in the name of national security. (Which, as you might know, is kind of a pet issue for us.) The bill actually went somewhere last month — it passed the state’s legislature. However, it stalled in the senate because the state got pushback from the federal government, who threatened to stop flights into Texas if the bill became law. Simpson (a Republican), however, notes that the law doesn’t prevent these searches, but forces a good reason for them to happen: “But what we’re basically saying is, ‘Show me the law that says you can touch my private parts in order to travel and I’ll let you do it.’” This guy deserves a high-five. source
 

15 Jun 2011 11:17

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Tech: Facebook’s growing war chest of former presidential aides

They didn’t get Robert Gibbs, but they did get Joe Lockhart (Clinton’s press secretary). And a bunch of Bush aides. Looks like someone’s prepping for a big legislative fight in DC. source

15 Jun 2011 11:03

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Biz, Tech: Tech bubble? Pandora’s IPO kicking butt on Wall Street today

  • $16 the initial public offering price for Pandora, the online radio station that predicts your tastes
  • $20+ its current price on the stock market; it’s a situation that mirrors LinkedIn’s recent IPO source
  • » Another sign of strong investor demand: Pandora’s IPO is more evidence of a growing tech bubble, though Pandora’s on a smaller scale than some of the other companies expected to do an IPO soon. Facebook and Twitter, once they do their IPOs, will likely make this look like a walk in the park. Which makes it understandable why some investors might think that Pandora — which hasn’t turned a profit — might get overshadowed a year or two from now. Pandora also faces some tough business challenges because of their reliance on expensive music licensing — ensuring that that their profit margins remain extremely tight.

14 Jun 2011 14:50

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Tech, U.S.: Hackers break into senate.gov, nothing of value is lost

  • A certain hacker group that’s been making headlines lately hacked the Senate’s website. However, they stole nothing of value — they only obtained information about to go on the site itself. The firewall protecting the Senate’s important documents kept them away from the data that could have been potentially harmful if released. Investigators traced the weakness in the system back to one senator’s office, but the senator hasn’t been named. In a press release about the incident, the hackers made it sound like this wouldn’t be the last time they targeted a government site, either. One thing is for sure — the White House should really look into cyber security if some amateur hackers are breaking into government websites this regularly. source