TommyLog

A decade-long Wal-Mart barcode crime ring has been busted (how often do you hear that?); the scammers were
apparently replacing UPC bar codes for high-priced items with homemade bar codes for cheaper stuff, then selling or
returning the items, defrauding the company of $1.5M in the process. Two couples were arrested, although authorities
say there were up to 30 accomplices. We’re not sure what this shows more of—the ingenuity of the criminals, or
cluelessness of Wal-Mart employees.

[Via BoingBoing]

Originally posted by Donald Melanson from Engadget

We have a feeling Xzibit’s gonna go lay down some serious smack on whichever fed (heretofore referred to as “the
man”) fined Pimp My Ride’s West Coast Customs $16,000. Dude, all they did was start removing airbags and installing DVD
players and LCDs in the remaining cavities! What’s your problem! Actually, we can kind of understand why the man did
this, safety regulations and all, but we’re pretty sure West Coast Customs is operating under the logic that if you
drop $20,000 on mods into your beat up jalopy (or H2, alike), then you’re probably going to drive a little more
carefully than the average road-warrior. But that that’s not actually been our experience driving on the roads with
such people it neither here nor there, is it?

Originally posted by Ryan Block from Engadget

ThinkSecret is about as reliable a source as you can get for these things, and they’re saying that next month Apple
is going to introduce a new iMac codenamed “Q88” that will retail for $499 and come without a built-in monitor
(something Apple should have done a long time ago, only the high-end PowerMac G5 desktops come without displays). The
new ghetto budget Mac is supposed to have a 1.25GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, either a 40GB or 80GB
hard drive, and a combo drive. Apple’s main motivation for swimming into the shallow end of the pool? To capitalize on
iPod owners who own PCs but say they would switch to a Mac if it were less expensive.

Originally posted by Peter Rojas from Engadget

So Time Warner Cable is apparently yakkin’ it up with Sprint, looking to buy cell service time on their network to
offer it up to their customers; they want to put it on trial in Kansas City in Q1 2005. What’s weirder is that their
consumer media, communications, and service offerings would then make Time Warner Cable (Time Warners, er, cable-TV
unit) otherwise unparalleled in their prolificacy, they being the only company to offer broadband, television, landline
phone, and cellphone service. All crappy, too.

Originally posted by Ryan Block from Engadget

Hepped up, hot rodding sister site Jalopnik reports that steam is hot—especially inside of cars, where a British Steam Car Challenge team plans to put the gaseous gas vapor. The ‘Inspiration’ is a 300 horsepower steam-fired car that might just hit 200mph with an turbine that will hit almost 12,000 rpm. The English engineers are perhaps best known for their work on the ‘Chamomilean,’ a color-changing tea pot that reached almost 10,000 tps (toots per second) in the 2nd Annual Grey Earl Poppycockery Exhibition and Kennel Run.

Inspiration Steam Car Aims for World Record [Jalopnik]

Originally from Gizmodo