Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he -- we feel certain -- felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren't enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.
Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
In October, a bank robber -- wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles -- eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.
Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous "ladies," giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked... at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.
Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home -- on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse -- he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.
17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual 'Furniture'
When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site 'Habbo' in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime -- whether actual or virtual -- does not pay.
Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend
Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones' fertile frontier. The result? "Vishing." Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn't sound like a James Bond villain saying, "Wishing."
Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into -- that's right, into -- a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they -- apparently uninterested in the cash register -- stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We've all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation's thieves, too?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Goldsmith said 9:16AM on 8-09-2007
I'd be very surprised.
You know when hi-def TV was ready to rollout? Try 25 years ago. Old habits are very hard to break, for many reasons. Heck, I'm typing this on a QWERTY keyboard developed just after the typewriter was invented to slow-down human fingers that were able to move faster than the mechanical parts could fly. It is still the standard. 99% of those tired of PC/Windows flaws will (as I have) migrate to Apple which (judging by the iphone) has all sorts of user-friendly products in the pipeline.
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RumorBreaker said 7:15AM on 11-13-2007
Fine with most what you say but please don't propagate rumors/urban legends. The QWERTY lay out was not designed to slow typist down. It was designed so that letters which were normally typed together were spread out so they wouldn't bind and thus SPEED up typing.
BTW - Nippon developed HiDef in 1969
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clear4takeoff73 said 9:38AM on 11-13-2007
Per Wikipedia...you're both right...The QWERTY keyboard layout was devised and created in the 1860s by the creator of the first modern typewriter, Christopher Sholes, a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee. Originally, the characters on the typewriters he invented were arranged alphabetically, set on the end of a metal bar which struck the paper when its key was pressed. However, once an operator had learned to type at speed, the bars attached to letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another, forcing the typist to manually unstick the typebars, and also frequently blotting the document.[1] A business associate of Sholes, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to speed up typing by preventing common pairs of typebars from striking the platen at the same time and sticking together. The effect this rearrangement of letters had on maximum typing speed is a disputed issue. Some sources assert that the QWERTY layout was designed to slow down typing speed to further reduce jamming.[2] Other sources assert the rearrangement worked by separating common sequences of letters in English. Ostensibly, the hammers that were likely to be used in quick succession were less likely to interfere with each other.
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Greekie said 4:30PM on 2-04-2008
You won't believe this, but QWERTY keyboards are pretty much the standard because they are more efficient. I know that another type of keyboard is out there, and is mostly used to kill keylogging (hackers use it to track what you type and then steal your passwords) and to stand out from the crowd. I type at a 60+ wpm speed with QWERTY, and I can type mentally with a QWERTY. I simply can't switch without a little time, and that is what's happening now. I agree that we need to view every option, but most people will not come out of their "safe" shell where they know everything. Linux might become popular after Microsoft goes bankrupt or when it advertises. I've heard of Linux, but I don't know anything about it. I agree that we need to change keyboards and OS's and everything else. Did you know that the flying car was invented in the 50's and actually inspired the Jetson's car? Yeah, but nobody will fund it, so it's just a prototype. Also, that colony on the Moon could have happened before the Y2K generation was born, but NASA was cut from funding. Should we blame the government for these cuts from important materials? Well, think about this: Scientists have been able to genetically engineer DNA for a century, but what has stopped us from doing it?
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