Comcast sued for forcing users to rent their crappy boxes
arstechnica.com — A California woman filed a class action complaint against Comcast, charging that the company is using its monopoly power to keep her paying monthly rental fees for decryption hardware. After only a few months, alleges the complaint, end users have already paid Comcast more than the box is worth. More…
McCain Uses Same Robocall Firm That Helped Smear Him in 2000
huffingtonpost.com — In his efforts to attack Barack Obama, John McCain appears to have turned to the same political consulting firm that was responsible for spreading vicious smears about the Senator during the 2000 South Carolina GOP primary. At the time, McCain railed against the practice of robocalls, calling them "hate calls" . More…
Joe Biden's pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record
news.cnet.com — By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET's Technology Voters' Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the More…
25 things vanishing in America: The stick shift
walletpop.com — It's hard to find a manual transmission these days. In 1980, J.D. Powers and Associates estimates that more than 35% of all cars sold had a stick shift. By 2005, that number had dropped to 6%. Four years later, finding a car with a manual transmission is a big challenge. More…

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