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?
First off, we'll warn you that these reports are currently unconfirmed by the suits in Redmond, but word has it that Microsoft is working with at least one OEM to have the Windows XP "downgrade" deadline pushed out from January 2009 to at least July 31, 2009. That's according to an e-mail sent from Microsoft to an unspecified partner company, which purportedly details a plan to work with other buddies in pushing that deadline out another half year. Given the results thus far, we suppose we're not too surprised to hear that firms are still clamoring for the XP option, but one wonders when this madness will ever end. Will folks really be opting for XP on new machines after Windows 7 is out? 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan said 4:31PM on 10-06-2008
Well it seems to me as long as consumers are requesting XP on new systems it should be available. As a small business owner I dread having to shift to Vista. In addition to having to spend money for the new computers I will also have to spend money in training and lost production while everyone figures out the new system. I also have many other programs we use that do not function well on Vista and would have to relace those as well. Maybe to a larger company it's no big deal but for a small startup it's a major cost when taking everything into consideration.
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Don said 11:57PM on 10-06-2008
"Will folks really be opting for XP on new machines after Windows 7 is out?" IMHO XP is the best OS MS ever made and would like to get another one,IF Intel processor,upgradable motherboard were available.
Who's to say that W7 will be any better than Vista.
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northrnltspd said 12:27AM on 10-07-2008
I own 7 computers, and use them in the home, and for my business.
The newest , a mini desktop Acer came with Vista, 4gb ram, Athalon 64 processer, hd video card etc... What a useless Operating System on that machine. I though Win ME was bad - Vista is crap. It is way too demanding of resources, wayyyy too overbloated with doo dads... Totally unsatisfactory, especially if you allow Microsoft to run their automatic " updates ". After it crashed for the third time and froze, I had Windows XP Home installed on it - AT MY EXPENSE !!!! . It now runs all my software, and is reliable. All the other machines have either XP Home or XP Professional on them. They all work well as long as you do not install Service Pack 3. In my opinion, Microsoft better listen to us - their customers, and quit trying to ram VISTA down our throats. We can choose to NOT purchase new computers, can they survive long with falling demand for a product few people want?
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xsemperidem5 said 12:38PM on 11-14-2008
I had the option of installing Vista or XP on my MacBook Pro and I went for XP. I will keep using it. And yes, as long as people are requesting it, it should be available. Microsoft, you want to maintain a good profit? Give the people what they want. ;-)
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Kyle said 4:12PM on 11-14-2008
If Microsoft actually gave people what they wanted, they would have fixed Win 98.
Gimme a break, Vista requires almost 1GB of Ram and it goes 10x slower than Win98 on the same machine.
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