iPod Nano May Have Some Big Problems

BetaNews - What some analysts have billed as the "top MP3 player this fall" may have just hit a potentially damaging roadblock - its own frailty.

Complaints have begun to circle on both Web logs and Apple's own support forums surrounding an issue with the polycarbonate plastic that covers the front of the iPod Nano. Some users claim the player scratches extremely easily, enough that it makes the screen difficult to read.

The problems have even led one anonymous Nano owner to set up a Web site to gather complaints of defects surrounding the diminutive player. flawedmusicplayer.com, was registered September 21 by Matthew Peterson of Hazel Park, Michigan.

While the site was originally created to demand some kind of recourse for what Park called a defect in the LCD screen that causes it to crack, in recent days reports of the scratching problem have become the primary complaint.

"My thoughts are that the nano is way too expensive to scratch so easily like this. In my case, the only thing my nano screen touched was the inside of my cotton shirt's pocket," a customer named Curt wrote.

Other users experienced similar problems to Park, with varying degrees of success in getting a resolution from Apple. "I have brought it down to the Apple Service Centre (and called Apple Customer Care Australia) and was told by them that this problem is not covered by Apple's warranty," a Nano owner named Ed wrote.

But some had their units replaced. "Went to the Apple store... and as clearly there was no sign of external damage, they agreed to replace the unit," Amanda from New York reported.

Microsoft even took time in an internal meeting with employees on the company's reorganization to mention the Nano issues. "I have to tell you that I did get the iPod Nano the first day it came out and it only worked one day," Windows chief Jim Allchin said. "True story. I think they have a moisture problem."

Apple has yet to make any public statement regarding the scratching issue or cracks in the Nano's screen. BetaNews had a request out for an official position on the matter, however no response was received as of press time.

Differences Now That Britney's a Mom

5> Every night at bedtime, the poor child shrieks in agony when mom starts singing lullabies.

4> With the new baby, the collective IQ of the Federline family soars into the triple digits.

3> There's finally someone for Madonna's baby to French kiss.

2> "Oops! He shitted again."

and the Number 1 Difference Now That Britney's a Mom...

94.7 The Zone in Chicago

IS NO MORE :(

Not sure what they are playing yet

This station changes every few years

To All

Defense wants client's nickname barred

Attorney says 'Scuz' moniker could negatively influence jurors

WEST CHESTER, Pa. - A defense attorney has asked a judge to bar any references to his client's nickname — "Scuz" — in his upcoming murder trial, saying the moniker could negatively influence jurors.

Demetrius "Scuz" Fiorentino, 31, of Coatesville, is charged with the April 2004 robbery and shooting death of Joel "Wellz" Taylor, 19, of Queens, N.Y., during a botched drug deal in a Coatesville crack house in Coatesville.

Defense attorney Laurence Harmelin cited the dictionary definition of scuzzball as "an unpleasant, dirty or dangerous person; creep" and scuzzy as "dirty, shabby or foul in condition or nature."

Harmelin told Common Pleas Judge Phyllis Streitel on Friday that connotations of Fiorentino's nickname would prejudice jurors against the defendant.

Assistant District Attorney Lorraine Finnegan said it would be nearly impossible for witnesses to identify the defendant without using his nickname.

"All of these witnesses are going to have to call him by the name they know," she said. "We're not calling him a scuzzball or scuzzy ... it's 'Scuz' because that is his nickname."

Harmelin also asked to have the trial moved out of Chester County, citing publicity surrounding the case. Finnegan wants the trial to stay in the county.

cuthbert1776

cool - 111, 111

i guess i am 111,113

but not as cool as yours

cuthbert1776

As always - watch out for the New World Order.

A Class-A Scumbag . . .

N.Y. Ex-Schools Chief: I Stole Millions

MINEOLA, N.Y. - For years, ex-Roslyn schools chief Frank Tassone admitted, he stole millions of dollars in taxpayer money to finance everything from his breakfast bagel to European jaunts on the Concorde. His next big journey on the taxpayers' dime will be to prison.

Tassone, 58, of Manhattan pleaded guilty Monday to first- and second-degree grand larceny before Nassau County Judge Alan Honorof in a scandal that state Comptroller Alan Hevesi has called "the largest, most remarkable, most extraordinary theft" from a school system in American history.

As part of a plea bargain, Tassone will spend four to 12 years in prison and pay back an estimated $2 million. If convicted at trial, he could have faced 25 years.

Four other people have been charged. Prosecutors have said they anticipate further arrests, and Tassone will cooperate in the continuing investigation as part of his plea deal, District Attorney Denis Dillon said.

About 50 district residents booed as Tassone entered the courtroom. Many, including former school board president William Costigan, said afterward they were dissatisfied with the penalty Tassone was promised.

"I think he should serve the maximum sentence," Costigan said, although he conceded he was glad to see Tassone "admit in open court that his actions had caused pain and suffering. ... We have become the poster boys for school scandals."

Speaking barely above a whisper, Tassone read an apology in court.

"I will make restitution to the Roslyn schools and I am sorry for my poor judgment," he said. "I only hope and pray that someday, the Roslyn community will remember the good I did for the district."

An audit by Hevesi earlier this year found that $11.2 million had been pilfered between 1996 and 2004, although prosecutors have been able to link slightly less than $7 million to the current defendants.

Sentencing was set for Nov. 29.

The fifth person accused is the district's former independent auditor, Andrew Miller, who prosecutors say helped cover up some of the pilfering. Dillon said Tassone provided information that led to the charges against Miller and suggested the probe "may lead to information on the 50 or more school districts that he audited across Long Island."

The $2 million taken by Tassone paid for flights aboard the Concorde for vacations in England, cruises, hotel and resort accommodations, dermatology treatments, furniture, jewelry and meals. More than $1 million allegedly was stolen via ATM cash advances, and prosecutors said the defendants even had their dry cleaning and cable TV bills picked up by taxpayers.

Records show that Tassone and a former school official withdrew the district's money from ATMs almost every day between February 2001 and October 2002, with Tassone taking out a monthly average of $21,747.

Tassone is the first of the defendants to settle criminal charges.

cuthbert1776

Keniko

fretrider

You may want to make a general post for a site that will accept your songs to share with all of us.

cuthbert1776

I am a pretty big Star Wars fan - saw the new movie twice at the theaters - looking forward to the DVD

Stones' Album to Come on Memory Card

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Virgin Records said Tuesday it would release the Rolling Stones' latest album on a new encrypted flash memory card that will allow users to preview and buy locked tracks from four of the veteran rockers' previous albums.

The memory card, dubbed Gruvi, is manufactured by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SanDisk Corp. (SNDK), and will be available in November at select U.S. stores for $39.95, SanDisk and the label said in a statement.

By comparison, the Stones' latest album, "A Bigger Bang," costs about $14 on CD.

SanDisk spokesman Ken Castle said the value for consumers is in being able to use the thumbnail-sized memory card to move music and other media between compatible mobile phones, electronic organizers, computers and other devices.

To keep that content from ending up on Internet file-swapping sites or otherwise distributed without permission, the card comes with copy-protection technology, or firmware, built in.

"You can take the card out and transfer it to other devices and the content stays locked in the card rather than to the device," Castle said.

The cost to buy individual tracks from the four Stones albums loaded on the memory card - "Some Girls,""Tattoo You," Exile on Main Street," and "Sticky Fingers," - was not disclosed.

But tracks on the card - even those from "A Bigger Bang" or any unlocked after purchase - cannot be copied to a PC hard drive, Castle said. A card reader-equipped laptop or desktop computer would be required to play the tracks, he said.

Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said placing copy-protection technology on the SanDisk card didn't make sense because fans can already find the content online for free, so the copy restrictions only end up inconveniencing the customer who paid for the card.

Last year, Virgin label parent EMI Music released music and video content by British singer Robbie Williams on another type of memory card for mobile phones.

More proof that gasoline prices are out of control:

Reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English:

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove, dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.

19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

22) I spent last evening, evening out a pile of dirt.

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted.

But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square! And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wiseguy are opposites?

Why do we park in driveways and drive on parkways?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English is a difficult

A rather difficult language to understand at moments

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes; but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice; yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men, why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet, and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those, yet hat in the plural would never be hose, and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren, but though we say mother, we never say methren.

Chromeboy10th

An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her telephone failed to ring when her friends called - and that on the few occasions when it did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang. The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic dog or senile elderly lady.

He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring. Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via a steel chain and collar.

2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.

3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number was called.

4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then urinate on himself and the gound.

5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring.

Which demonstrates that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning.

Q: What is George W. Bush's position on Roe vs. Wade?

A woman was trying hard to get the catsup to come out of the jar.

During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her four-year old daughter to answer the phone.

"It's the minister, Mommy," the child said to her mother.

Mary Clancy goes up to Father O'Grady after his Sunday morning service and she's in tears.

He says, "So what's bothering you, dear?"

She says, "Oh, Father, I've got terrible news. My husband passed away last night."

The priest says, "Oh, Mary, that's terrible. Tell me, Mary, did he have any last requests?"

She says, "That he did, Father..."

The priest says, "What did he ask, Mary?"

What's the similarity between a tornado and an Alabama divorce?