News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
Chinese officials in the city of Dandong were planning to cut teaching jobs, but they made a special exception for single parents. The result? More divorce filings from a single school in one week than for the whole city in all of 2005.
CableCARDs are computer cards that can be put into certain televisions and other related devices (think TiVo series 3). They essentially replace the set-top cable box and allow the television to directly manipulate the cable signal. The CableCARD is provided by the cable TV company and has a standardized interface so that any device with a CableCARD slot can accept any CableCARD.
The reality is a bit different. First, CableCARD acceptance is low: 200,000 users out of the millions of cable TV subscribers. This is due, in part, because only the newest television devices are compatible with them. Thus you have to purchase a new TV or TiVo to use the CableCARD. In addition, the current crop of CableCARDs doesn’t support two-way communication (think Pay-Per-View, interactive programming guides, and video on demand), so some viewers are sticking with the set-top box even though they could use the CableCard. Second, there are incompatibilities between various CableCARDs and the various television devices, meaning you may not be able to use a CableCARD in your brand-new large screen TV.
14-year-old Shannon Derrik loaned her new iPod to a friend who managed to lose it. Shannon, being a typical modern-day American, filed a lawsuit to recoup the cost. But now the ludicrousness has gone even further, as both parties have agreed to appear on the Judge Judy show.
UPDATE: New developments in this case have precluded a Judge Judy appearance. Further updates to come.
UPDATE #2: This case has been resolved, with Shannon’s friend ordered to give her 30GB iPod to Shannon as a replacement for the stolen iPod Nano.
