Remember 2004-2005? Let’s go back there now… Remember… back when people still thought Revenge of the Sith was going to redeem the prequels… Ok, let’s not remember, it’s too painful. Anyway, in late 2004, Sprint and Nextel announced a “merger of equals.” And now, after billions of dollars in mistakes, they’ve finally announced that Nextel will officially die on June 30, 2013. What does this mean for Nextel customers? Yes, apparently they still exist! [More]
FAA Missing Info On 119,000 Planes
By December 10, 2010
The FAA says its records are in such disarray that its afraid that criminals could buy planes “without the government’s knowledge” or use the registration numbers of other planes. The agency has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register. [More]
CEO Says He Will "Make Digg As Good As It Used To Be"
By October 12, 2010
Here’s the latest dispatch from contrite-CEO-land. The social news site “Digg” has a new CEO and he started things off with an admission that the site isn’t as good as it used to be, but promises that fixing things is his top priority. [More]
Xbox 360 Glitch Gives Away Five Downloadable Games
By August 12, 2010
In a bizarre fluke that sounds like an urban legend come true, five downloadable Xbox Live Arcade games are available for free for those willing to bend their ethics. [More]
Best Buy Replaces Your TV, Forgets About It, Offers You Another
By August 4, 2010
Reader Wayne is an honest person. His Best Buy Insignia TV died and so, of course, he brought it back to the store. They kept it for a little while, decided they couldn’t fix it, and replaced it with a similar model. Then they forgot they did this. [More]
Foursquare Was Leaking Your Data, Too Busy With Funding To Tell You
By July 1, 2010
Wired says that a few days ago, a white hat hacker found a way to capture the location data of all of Foursquare (which we can only describe, for those who remain unaware of it, as a location-based, social media experiment in solipsism that distinguishes itself by offering Starbucks coupons) — even if users had opted-out through privacy settings. [More]
Brake Fluid Leaks & Car Fires Prompt Recall Of 600,000 Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler Vehicles
By June 7, 2010
Brake fluid leaks and wiring problems are responsible for the recall of almost 600,000 Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler vehicles NHTSA announced today. What’s wrong? Your brakes could not work effectively or a fire could start inside the sliding doors of your mini-van. [More]
Missing Some Mail From The Early '90s? There's A Shed That Might Interest You
By May 25, 2010
The AP says that thousands of pieces of undelivered mail from the early ’90s were recently found in a shed in Michigan, and a ex-mail carrier is now charged with stealing mail — the punishment for which is up to 5 years in prison. [More]
United, Sick Of Breaking Guitars, Tries To Set Olsen Twin On Fire
By May 17, 2010
An Olsen twin was flying from JFK to to Los Angeles when the United Airlines plane she was traveling in caught on fire and had to land in DC. [More]
Sony's Removal Of Linux PS3 Option Screws Air Force
By May 12, 2010
Apparently the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York took a look at available cheap computing power and decided that the PS3 with Linux was the way to go — until Sony removed the ability to install the OS with their latest firmware update. Now the Air Force is stuck with a lot of PS3s that can’t be repaired if they break — because Sony will update the firmware to remove the option to install Linux. [More]
Wall Street's Biggest Drop Ever Caused By Typo?
By May 7, 2010
The AP says that a computerized selloff that may have been caused by a typo (the theory is that someone typed $16 billion when they meant $16 million) caused the biggest ever drop during a trading day. How could one typo result in such massive turmoil? The idea is that the erroneous trade triggered other computers to sell. [More]
Toyota Knew About Sticking Pedals In Europe A Year Before U.S. Accidents
By February 24, 2010
Today’s Toyota hearings featured a lot of amusing defensive yelling by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and, of course, the long awaited testimony by Toyota President Akio Toyoda. In addition, Yoshimi Inaba, CEO of Toyota North America, revealed that the company knew of the sticking pedal issue in Europe a year before accidents in the US. [More]
Sears Retracts Range Sale Email
By January 26, 2010
Back in November, Sears sent out an email that offered an amazing TV deal, which it recanted with a follow-up email that began with “WHOOPS!” [More]
"You Break It, You Bought It" Rule Does Not Apply To Museums
By January 25, 2010
Good news for the clumsy, if you stagger into a rare Picasso painting and rip a 6″ hole in it — you will not be charged for the painting. On Friday a woman fell into just such a painting while taking a class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. [More]
Largest Ever Single Residential Property Deal Collapses Under Debt Mountain
By January 25, 2010
The company that paid the most ever for a single residential property in the US is giving up and giving the development back to its lenders, says the WSJ. [More]
AT&T Randomly Logs You Into Someone Else's Facebook Account
By January 19, 2010
A glitch at AT&T is causing some mobile phone used to be randomly shuffled into other people’s Facebook accounts. Apparently the carrier has confused which phones should be logged into which accounts. Whoops. [More]
Tiger Woods' Off-Road Adventure Cost Shareholders $12B
By December 30, 2009
A new study says that Tiger Woods spectacular fall from grace has cost shareholders of the firms that used him as a spokesperson to lose $12 billion in value. [More]
Amazon Ruins Christmas Even When You Ask It Not To
By December 14, 2009
Reader Shane has an Amazon Wish List that he tells people to look at because he’s apparently impossible to shop for. Amazon lets you choose whether or not you’d like to be informed if something has been purchased from your list, then apparently tells you even if you asked it not to. [More]
