Want some commentary about this presidential election?

 No?  I don't care.  You're getting it anyway...

The more I am finding out ("voters" born in 1850, 160,000+ ballots going for ONE candidate in a single dump, software "glitches" etc.) the more I am of the persuasion that this presidential election needs a nationwide do-over. This time with NO mail-in ballots and paper only.

But realistically, I don't see that happening.

We are hurtling headlong into a very dark and chaotic time.

 

 

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Pics of the fake Intel Core i7 processor

Earlier this week came one of the more bizarre stories that I've heard about relating to personal computers, when popular online retailer NewEgg announced that a number of the new Intel Core i7 CPUs that it had shipped turned out to be counterfeit! Yeah, a bogus microprocessor. And I joined no doubt a sizable portion of people scratching our collective head and asking "What the...?!"

So if you're wondering what a non-functioning imitation Intel Core i7-920 processor looks like, the staff at Gearlog got their hands on one of boxes that came from NewEgg (which has already ended it supply relationship with IPEX, where the fake CPUs originated). See that CPU fan? That's really a piece of mere molded plastic!

If you think that's something, click on the link for plenty more photos. Including a close-up of the alleged microprocessor.

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Stolen: The Empire State Building

William Sherman (shown at right), a reporter for the New York Daily News, engineered what must be one of the grandest thefts ever: the entire Empire State Building.

And it took him just ninety minutes to do it.

Sherman and the Daily News forged documents and even faked a notary stamp, then presented it all to the clerks in charge of New York City's deeds and mortgages. Among the witnesses for the fraudulent transfer was Fay Wray, the starlet of 1933's King Kong. An hour and a half after beginning the paperwork in the city's offices, Sherman walked out with the Empire State Building in his pocket (figuratively 'course).

The whole plot was hatched by the New York Daily News to focus attention on the shoddy attention that the city's personnel pays to property transfers and the like. There have been some real problems with con artists taking advantage of the lack of oversight. One man skipped town with over a half-million dollars gained through mortgage fraud, and another wound up heisting seven city-owned buildings in Queens.

I wonder how far someone could get away with doing this trick on the Jefferson Pilot Building in Greensboro... :-P

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