Chad's News

A class action lawsuit has been brought against members of the DeBeers Group for inflating the price of diamonds. You can get part of the settlement if you belong to this group: “All persons located in the United States who purchased any diamond or diamond jewelry or other products containing gem diamonds for personal use and not for resale between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006.”

Link: https://diamondsclassaction.com/
(via The Consumerist)

This video shows a model train that uses a superconductor to levitate over a magnetic track. The only thing slowing it down is air resistance. My favorite part is when he turns the track upside down and it makes no difference.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via Neatorama)

Amazon has added the Sony BMG catalog to its library of DRM-free music downloads. This is significant because Amazon now has all four of the major US music labels on board and is a serious competitor to Apple’s iTunes store. Note that, with the exception of EMI, Apple is required to sell the same music with copyright protection.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

A bungee jump of 233m (764 feet) off the Macau Tower. Looks like fun!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via Neatorama)

In an update to this post about the analog television coupons, there are some further details that could cause problems. Chief among them is that the coupons have a 90-day expiration, even though most converter boxes are not yet widely available. So the wise move would be to wait, but don’t wait too long, because the total number of available coupons is limited.

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

Apparently it’s not a wise idea to be an early adopter with regards to the Blu-ray high-definition movie format. Due to competition from the HD-DVD format, the Blu-ray specification was released about a year early. Smart shoppers will wait until players are available that support “Profile 2.0” of the spec. There’s also an intermediate step called Profile 1.1 (current players, with the exception of the PS3, support Profile 1.0).

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

Update: Ars Technica has an article that explains more about the various specifications and the players that support them.

When searching for domain availability via Network Solutions, they put a 4-day lock on the name. This effectively prevents you from registering that domain with a registrar other than Network Solutions. Here at the Chad’s News network command center, however, we always use Network Solutions because we know it will never go out of business and leave our domains stranded. Sometimes it’s worth paying a bit extra for increased peace of mind.

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

Talk about getting your revenge. And how did he even know about this particular law?

Link: http://afp.google.com/…

Last Friday, Warner Bros. announced that it would drop the HD-DVD format for movie releases after May 2008, and will exclusively use the Blu-ray format. This is a significant strike for HD-DVD, as only two of the eight major US studios are using it. In the days following the announcement, the internet has been full of speculation that HD-DVD has lost the format war.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Although it would be really nice if we could get rid of nuclear waste just by incinerating it, I think someone’s been watching a bit too much Lord of the Rings. Wonder what would’ve happened if the One Ring was made of Plutonium? Alternatively, sending the waste into the Sun would actually be an effective (but hideously expensive) solution.

Link: http://www.slate.com/…
(via digg)

Let’s see… a long flight, a bored computer hacker. Yup, it’s going to happen.

Link: http://www.wired.com/…
(via Engadget)

“At midnight on February 17, 2009, all full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to 100% digital broadcasting.”

What does this mean for you, the informed Chad’s News reader? First, this won’t affect you if you have cable or satellite TV. The digital TV transition only applies to over-the-air broadcasts (think rabbit ears). Second, most newer televisions can handle digital, so it will only apply to older, analog-only TVs. In order to continue using an older TV after the transition, it will be necessary to have a converter box.

When passing this bill, the US Congress realized there is a specific demographic that has older televisions without cable or satellite: poor people. Not wanting to anger this group, Congress wisely created a coupon program, whereby the US government will pay up to $40 towards the purchase of a converter box. Apparently demand is quite high, as over 1 million households requested coupons in the first 4 days or so.

Should you have questions about the transition or if you want to sign up for the coupons, check out the link below.

Link: https://www.dtv2009.gov/
(via ars technica)