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xkcd: Computer Problems

Seattle-based Classmates.com has agreed to pay up to $9.5 million to its users to settle a lawsuit that accused the social network of sending emails that made people believe their old friends from high school were reaching out to connect — only to discover, after paying for a membership, that their long-lost buddies were nowhere to be found.

The proposed settlement, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, would designate $3 in cash for every Classmates.com member (dating back to Jan. 1, 2007) who upgraded to a “gold” membership on the site after receiving an email suggesting that they pay for premium access to see who had signed their online guestbooks. Documents filed in the case estimate that as many as 3.16 million people in the United States would be eligible for the payout.

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He resigned when it finally dawned on him that he was CEO of Myspace.

I was just over at Myspace. What a shitty, filthy neighborhood that has become. Street performers, hookers and runaways everywhere.
— Marc Maron

Someday, I want to go to a site that proclaims a miracle and see a real miracle, like a pie miraculously floating above my keyboard, or a MySpace page that doesn’t look like technicolor vomit.
— PZ Myers

HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station received a special software upgrade this week – personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web via the ultimate wireless connection.

Expedition 22 Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer made first use of the new system Friday, when he posted the first unassisted update to his Twitter account, @Astro_TJ, from the space station. Previous tweets from space had to be e-mailed to the ground where support personnel posted them to the astronaut’s Twitter account.

“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! More soon, send your ?s”

This personal Web access, called the Crew Support LAN, takes advantage of existing communication links to and from the station and gives astronauts the ability to browse and use the Web. The system will provide astronauts with direct private communications to enhance their quality of life during long-duration missions by helping to ease the isolation associated with life in a closed environment.

During periods when the station is actively communicating with the ground using high-speed Ku-band communications, the crew will have remote access to the Internet via a ground computer. The crew will view the desktop of the ground computer using an onboard laptop and interact remotely with their keyboard touchpad.

Astronauts will be subject to the same computer use guidelines as government employees on Earth. In addition to this new capability, the crew will continue to have official e-mail, Internet Protocol telephone and limited videoconferencing capabilities.

The whole setup seems to be a bit kludgy…

Malware has been blamed for a problem with the Windows 7 operating system, dubbed the ‘Black Screen of Death’.

Some Windows users are confronted by a totally black screen after they log on to their system.

Initially it was thought that Microsoft’s own security update could have caused the problem but that has now been ruled out.

The software firm that suggested the security update was the problem has apologised for its claims.

Reports suggest the problem also affects Windows Vista and XP.

In a blog posting on its security site, Microsoft said that it had investigated the claims and “found that our November Security Updates are not making changes to the system that these reports say are responsible for these issues”.

The firm said that the behaviour was associated with malware, such as Daonol, and that this was probably the root cause.

<Nelson Muntz>
HA-HA!
</Nelson Muntz>