iPhone Update Melee

It seems as though the latest iPhone update has brought not only relocked phones, but also some bricks as well.

As for unlocked iPhones, you should probably hold off for the time being. The most serious problems we're hearing so far relate to iPhone Dev Team's anySIM unlock, which has left some iPhones "bricked" with an "Incorrect SIM" error message (seen above). That's not to say a workaround won't be found in the future, but for now anySIM users should certainly stay away from 1.1.1. SuperSIM and TurboSIM users are also advised not to update, but we have less solid info about that.

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Gap Job Applicants' Data Stolen

GAP Inc. just announced that a laptop containing the personal information of about 800,000 job applicants, including social security numbers, was stolen from a third-party vendor. If you’ve recently applied for a job at the Gap, you might want to find out if your information was on that laptop.

The San Francisco-based retailer said it has begun notifying on Thursday those applicants whose Social Security numbers were included in the information on the laptop. "Gap Inc. deeply regrets this incident occurred. We take our obligation to protect the data security of personal information very seriously," Gap CEO Glenn Murphy, said in a statement.

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Senators Triple Fines For ISPs Ignoring Child Porn

A new bill approved by a U.S. Senate committee today triples the fines for ISPs that ISPs that do not alert authorities when they find child pornography on their servers.

The Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, which the Senate Commerce Committee cleared by a unanimous voice vote on Thursday afternoon, would triple the fines for failure to comply with the current law--rising to up to $150,000 for the first offense and up to $300,000 for each subsequent violation.

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Internet Tax Moratorium Stalls In The Senate

A U.S. Senate committee has postponed action on a bill that would’ve extended an Internet tax moratorium after it expires Nov. 1.

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chairman Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, yanked the Internet Tax Freedom Extension Act from a list of bills scheduled to be amended and approved Thursday. Inouye, in a statement, said "further negotiations are warranted."

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Novell Credits Microsoft for Soaring Linux Sales

Novell’s Linux business has grown an amazing 243 percent in the last three quarters and you’ll never guess who they are crediting…Microsoft.

Novell has reached $100 million in revenue from Linux over the nine-month period thanks to the close working relationship it has had with Microsoft since the two companies signed their collaborative deal in November. As part of the deal, Microsoft offers support for Novell's Suse Linux, and the two companies are working on making their respective software interoperable.

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[H]ardware Round-Up II

Cooling

Scythe Ninja Mini CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers

Thermaltake DuOrb VGA Cooler @ Overclocker Café

Power Supply

Ultra X3 600W Modular PSU @ Think Computers

ETC.

Logitech Harmony 890 Pro Remote Control @ Overclockers Club

Emerson to Buy Motorola Unit for $350 Million

Emerson has entered into an agreement with Motorola to acquire the company's Embedded Communications Computing business for $350 million by the end of the calendar year.

The Motorola business, which had sales last year of about $520 million, provides embedded computing products and services to communication infrastructure and equipment makers in the telecommunications, medical imaging, defense and aerospace, and industrial automation industries, the companies said.

Catalyst 7.9 Hotfix

AMD/ATi has just released a hotfix for Catalyst 7.9 (96.1MB) that addresses the following issues:

Enemy Territory Quake Wars: Crossfire flickering issues are resolved. Performance is improved. Bioshock: Resolved intermittent hangs for the Radeon HD 2400 and Radeon HD 2600. Call of Juarez: Texture corruption is fixed. World In Conflict: Performance is improved. Team Fortress 2: Facial morphing corruption is fixed. Time Shift: Resolved random crashes for Radeon 9xxx and Radeon X8xx series of products

(Ninja Edit from Brent - We are currently working on our own World in Conflict video card performance and IQ roundup article and will be using this new hotfix driver to realize the full potential of the 2900 XT in that game.)

Gaming News

Activision: ‘We’ll drive rivals crazy’ @ MCV

God of War PSP Demo Now Shipping @ Shacknews

Scrabble On The DS Likes “Lesbos” @ Belfast Telegraph

Xbox 360 Core Discontinued? @ Kotaku

CMU, Google Collaborate on Robotic Camera

Carnegie Mellon University recently announced that it is collaborating with Google to let people explore places around the world without ever leaving home. How is this possible? GigaPans (gigapixel panoramas) stored on servers provided by the university, made public for anyone to explore. You can even sign up to be one of the 300 people that are given GigaPan camera systems to provide feedback to the program.

Using a robotic device and free software, developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and NASA scientists, people with standard hand-held digital cameras can create panoramas with enough detail that they can be mined for data or just enjoyed for their clarity. The images are built into the newest version of Google Earth, a mapping program that lets people view Earth through satellite imagery and aerial photographs.

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Massive Cable Messes

Here’s a collection of photos of some of the worst cable messes ever seen. The site itself is loading really slow right now so I snagged a few of my favorites to show you guys:

Spaghetti Cabling that would make a fully-grown sys admin cry, or… Cable management is for wimps. Most network and system administrators like a nice tidy cabled cabinet of servers and network equipment. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way.

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[H]ardware Round-Up

Video

Asus EN8600 GTS 256MB @ Legit Reviews

Processor

Pedal to the Metal: Overclocking the Athlon @ PC Perspective

Power Supply

Akasa Power Max 1000W PSU @ techPowerUP!

Memory

Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 2Gb Kit @ CPU3D

ETC.

Zonbu: The Evolutionary, Cute, Silent, Safe PC @ VIAArena