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In the virtual future, you must organize to survive

At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual "gold," jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world's poorest countries, where countless "gold farmers," bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.

Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat have earned her the title of "General Robotwalla." In Shenzen, heart of China's industrial boom, Matthew is defying his former bosses to build his own successful gold-farming team. Leonard, who calls himself Wei-Dong, lives in Southern California, but spends his nights fighting virtual battles alongside his buddies in Asia, a world away. All of these young people, and more, will become entangled with the mysterious young woman called Big Sister Nor, who will use her experience, her knowledge of history, and her connections with real-world organizers to build them into a movement that can challenge the status quo.

The ruthless forces arrayed against them are willing to use any means to protect their power--including blackmail, extortion, infiltration, violence, and even murder. To survive, Big Sister's people must out-think the system. This will lead them to devise a plan to crash the economy of every virtual world at once--a Ponzi scheme combined with a brilliant hack that ends up being the biggest, funnest game of all.

Imbued with the same lively, subversive spirit and thrilling storytelling that made LITTLE BROTHER an international sensation, FOR THE WIN is a prophetic and inspiring call-to-arms for a new generation

We did this with Little Brother a couple years back, on the grounds that books for young people should be available for young reviewers to write about, rather than adult reviewes who try to figure out whether young people will enjoy them. It was a real success and I'm happy to be repeating it.

It is not often one comes across a book which encourages an entire industry to reflect upon its essence and purpose. Ajit Jaokar and Anna Gatti have delivered a compelling treatise which challenges the core of the mobile industry to reflect on how “Open|Mobile” is impacting telecoms, and mobile device manufacturers and how it is reshaping the Internet, social networks, media and personal privacy.

Smart Mobs encourages you to visit FUTURETEXT to download your “FREE” copy of the eBook: Open Mobile: Understanding the Impact of Open Mobile - Implications for Telecoms/Devices, Web, Social Networks, Media and Personal Privacy.

Ebook Only - FREE DOWNLOAD

“This book explores the interplay between the world of the Internet and the world of mobility. The Internet world is regarded as being ‘Open’; however, as we shall see, ‘Open’ can be interpreted differently depending on constituency. The mobile world is supposed to be ‘Closed’. Thus, the interaction between the Internet and mobile worlds extends beyond technology - and into the realm of philosophy (Open vs. Closed). Driven by customers and under the influence of the Internet, it is inevitable that the closed mobile ecosystem is now ‘Opening up’. We call this phenomenon ‘Open Mobile’.”

The past few weeks have brought a fair amount of news about King & Spalding. Some of it has been good -- e.g., adding talent from Orrick. And some of it has been bad -- e.g., getting benchslapped (and disqualified from a case) by the Federal Circuit.

This week also brought compensation news to King & Spalding. The information has been a long time coming. Back in February, a K&S source told us:

King & Spalding continues to leave its associates in the dark with respect to 2009 bonuses and 2010 salaries. Back in September we were all demoted one year, and the Atlanta office salaries were slashed by an additional $10k. On top of that, our salaries are frozen and we received no increase on January 1st as we normally receive. Currently 1st, 2nd and 3rd year associates in Atlanta all make the same salary ($135,000). We were told late last year that we would receive bonuses for 2009, but no announcement has been made with respect to the amounts of those bonuses which have typically been paid at the end of February each year.

On Tuesday, associates at the firm received their bonus and salary info. And some of them were pleasantly surprised....

The full memo appears at the end of this post. In terms of the new base salary scale, one source was fairly happy:

My response is actually of pleasant surprise with the firm. We were slow movers to match the market, which has sucked, but my calculation was that because Alston did their paycut/salary freeze several months before King & Spalding did, the partners would drag out their decision on salaries until they saved about the same on associate comp that Alston did. Well, paying it out retroactively flies in the face of that theory, and maintaining 2008 bonus structure allows King & Spalding to edge out the rest of Atlanta-based firms in terms of that.

But the emotional reaction is something like the feeling when Darth Vader, after choking the Imperial Generals with his Dark Side stranglehold, releases them just before they die. The March 2010 payout + bonus resembles a survival of a chokehold much more than a high five.

A second tipster also conducted the Alston & Bird comparison:

It looks like we might still be a little below Alston & Bird here in Atlanta, at least for certain years, but it isn't completely clear as Alston distributed salaries on an individual basis rather than by memo. At least we know now though, so that is good.

I actually expected them to do exactly what we think Alston did, which was docking the scale by one year across the board. That would have given us a scale of 140, 145, 150, 162, 172, 185, 195, but instead they just took each year and reduced it by $10k so we are now 135, 140, 145, 152, 162, 175, 185, 190. They actually added an 8th year to the scale which we've never had before as you are supposed to come up for partner at the end of your 7th year.

A different source expressed some Alston envy, at least on the "firm culture" front:

Indeed, our local "grass-is-greener" competitor, Alston & Bird, has managed to live up to its reputation as a "better place to work," simply because King & Spalding makes itself such an easy target. Morale continues to be at an all-time low. Big firms need to have a place for associates that aren't interested in spilling their blood for partnership, but King & Spalding is the perfect example of NOT being that place. Every associate that isn't an on-track super-gunner is looking for another place to be. The new school of equity partnership management reinforces the idea that it's extremely difficult to ever make partner at a place like this, and as a result, many quality associates have taken a hike to greener pastures. You are left with associates that haven't figured that out yet, and the uber-gunners that King & Spalding one day hopes to populate all of their ranks.

But let's close on a happy note: bonuses. Said one source:

On the bonus side, I think everyone is pretty happy. The wording of the memo is a little ambiguous, but we think it means that we are getting paid bonuses based on the scale that was announced back in 2007 which is pretty nice and in some cases more than the Cravath bonus scale other firms are paying this year. Our bonus system has always been strictly driven by the number of hours you bill, so you get a flat bonus for hitting 2,050 (nothing below that) and a variable bonus for each hour over 2,050. There are some associates that billed a lot more than 2,050 hours last year that should get some comparatively large bonuses.

If you'd like to get into the nitty gritty, check out the full memo below.

P.S. Said one of source: "Would love to see more of ATL (the city) on ATL (the blog). It's a pretty unique legal environment."

Attorney Ethics: Disqualifying a Law Firm [Patently-O]
King & Spalding Gets Another Partner from Orrick [The BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]
King & Spalding Lands Three Litigation Partners from Orrick [The BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]

Consumer Reports has a new report on which computer company has the best tech support. Apple wins! That’s what happens when the same company controls the hardware as well as the operating system (and several of the most prominent pieces of software). The highest ranking PC manufacturer is Dell for desktops and Lenovo for laptops.

The actual report is behind the Consumer Reports paywall, but Slashgear had the bottle to do the impossible and pay for content. Far braver than any of us here.

But the highlights:

• Apple had the tops marks for both desktop and laptop tech support

• Dell leads the PC desktop side, and Lenovo leads the laptop side

• Acer/Gateway/eMachineshas the worst tech support on both the desktop and laptop side

That’s the gist of it—Apple good, Acer/Gateway/eMachines not so good.

It sorta makes sense, in a very superficial way. When you buy an iMac, not only was the hardware created by Apple, but much of the software was created by Apple, too. When you buy an Acer laptop, how is Microsoft supposed to know what kind of hardware it [Acer] stuck in there? Whereas Apple only as to support a pretty small hardware line, Microsoft has to support all sorts of alien configurations.

That still doesn’t explain the manufacturer’s inability to provide tech support for its own hardware. “Hi Dell. Your laptop won’t turn on, what’s wrong?” Dell should go out of its way to help you out. After all, that’s part of the reason why you buy a Dell (or HP or whatever) PC in the first place, so that you can receive tech support when you need it. Otherwise, just build your own PC, like cool people like me do.

But as the family’s “tech guy,” I cannot stress how incredibly infuriating it is to help family members with their computer woes. “My computer is broken,” they’ll tell me over the phone, “I need you to fix it.” Sure, let me stop what I’m doing to try to figure out what the hell is going wrong with your wretched Windows XP installation…

Flickr

Tron Legacy is nerds wet dream come true. The movie will hopefully invoke the same sort of futuristic imagination as the original. You’ve watched the trailer, right? Well, anyway, to gear up for the premiere, Disney has skin a couple of its monorails to look like the light cycles. Kind of meta future meets future moment, eh?

[Disney Parks via Sci Fi Wire]

Panasonic has updated their popular line of Micro 4/3rds camera bodies with the unveiling of the DMC-G2K. A follow-up to the original G1 and its various iterations since then, the G2 brings some interesting features including a touch-screen interface as well as HD 1080p video recording. The flip-out LCD screen allows for viewing angle rotation for easy use under most circumstances. Read more…

Brian Garret Schuur is talented guy, and that’s why rapid manufacturer Freedom of Creation has taken his design for the Street Headphones. These made-to-order headphones feature the names of your favorite bands and singers all around them, in 3D. Read more…

adidas has recently added two Sambas to the swelling range of World Cup 2010 products. The indoor footie sneakers come in basic leather color ups – black on white for the US and red on gum for Germany. Each shoe also includes a country-specific lace jewel. You can find them at HUF. Source

As best I can tell, Health Insurance for the average family costs about 13k per year. For individuals, its about $6k per year. For some, employers pay a big chuck of that. For others, the deductibles and other charges are super high so that the monthly premium is lower.  For many,  its a health arbitrage. You pray you don’t get sick while you can’t afford the insurance.

What we have is a product, health insurance, that everyone seems to need. And if you pay attention to the political world, its a product that our government wants everyone to have.  Which got me thinking.

$500 per month per person. $1,200 per month per family.  Where do we spend enough on products in competitive industries to warrant a business subsidizing  our health costs ?

Google subsidizes the cost of hosting our home and business videos in exchange for selling advertising around the content we upload. Our cellphone provider might cover a couple hundred dollars of the cost of our phone in exchange for a multiyear commitment to buy phone and data from them. What do we have to exchange in order for someone to cover all or part of our health care costs ?

Let me give you an example. Is it worth it for Walmart to add me to the self insured health plan that they offer employees in exchange for a commitment that I buy 100pct of any products Walmart sells from Walmart ?  If I promise to buy everything from toothpaste to celery to lightbulbs to underwear from them for the next 5 years, would the average person generate more than enough in net margin dollars to make it worth the incremental expense ? Remember, you have to build in the reduction in new customer acquisition costs as well. Is it worth it to Walmart ? What if my employer did the same type of deal. For the sake of example, what if the Dallas Mavericks promised to buy everything that we can from Walmart ? Would Walmart make us an affiliate for health insurance purposes and add Dallas Mavericks employees ?  Or could the program be simplified so that while Walmart wont commit to subsidizing all of the health care costs in their system, or require 100 pct of purchases, they could take a page from Visa and apply some percentage of purchases towards health care premiums for customers and allow them to participate in a Group Insurance program that Walmart , with their incredibly purchasing power set up.  Not surprisingly, this wouldn’t be a drastic step for a Walmart. They already offer special discounts to other self insured companies for the purchase of prescription drugs.

Here is the bottom line. Would consumers and businesses commit to do business with companies that offer incentives and subsidies built around health insurance coverage ? And what if health insurance became a value add rather than a primary product ? Would a service from companies that are big enough to self insure and add their customers to their corporate health care programs change the dynamics and economics of health care ? Would it create enough competition to force traditional insurance companies to change their ways ?

Maybe its already out there and I don’t know about.  Maybe its an opportunity.  But its certainly something I would like to see discussed more. If there is any way to bring back universal healthcare to the market, rather than the government, now is the time to talk about it

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It’s that time again – time to post about what I’ve been doing that was apparently way more interesting than updating my blog at all for a month.

First, some housekeeping stuff. Yeah, I guess I’m using Google Buzz but I don’t really know if I have an opinion on it yet. I am not producing any Buzz-specific content (and I kind of want to punch myself for writing that) but I’m letting it suck in stuff from Twitter, Flickr, etc. Twitter is still probably the thing to read if you’re looking for frequent, inconsequential, context-free tidbits about my life. If you are more interested in reading about things I have read about, you may enjoy my Google Reader shared items. Man, living in the future is confusing.

As for awesome shit I have been up to for the past month, probably the most awesome is Nerd by Nerd East, a miniature gaming convention that took place in Brooklyn at the end of January. Events ran from Friday night (starting with our Pre-Game Social at Barcade and dinner at Dumont) to late Sunday night. The weekend was pretty heavily saturated with fun. I played a ton of boardgames – Pandemic, Zooloretto (which also exists as an iPhone app), Dominion, and Descent (my favorite game of the weekend). There was also a rousing session of True Nerd Trivia and a truly epic marbles tournament. Yes, marbles, and a great deal of drinking. All in all, a thoroughly satisfactory weekend.

It has also been a good month for food. I took advantage of a couple of Restaurant Week deals – lunch at Tabla and dinner at City Crab. Both were great, though I think I preferred City Crab’s prix fixe options over Tabla’s. However, probably the best meal I have had recently was cooked for me by two of my closest friends as a belated birthday dinner. The whole evening was really quite luxurious – I sprawled on the couch watching Top Gear and was fed course after course of astonishingly tasty treats. I kind of wish it was my birthday every month.

Music-wise, I hit up the MC Frontalot show at Pianos a couple of weeks ago. I have a couple of videos up, if it’s videos you want; I recommend starting with Tongue-Clucking Grammarian. I also stopped by Otto’s Shrunken Head for RockEM SockEM, and I wonder now why I did not live in that bar throughout college. It’s adorable, and they have a cinnamon-infused rum I quite enjoyed. I suppose I may have been too resolutely spooky then to set up camp in a tiki bar, but thankfully those days are behind me.

And finally, this past Tuesday I saw BAM’s production of The Tempest. I ended up much closer than I expected to and enjoyed the show very much. I have a particular fondness for the play which I suppose dates from the show at the ART in Cambridge which my brother was involved in. I also used it for a set design project in college and have read it many, many times.

So it’s been a pretty good month, I’d say. Here’s hoping the next is just as much fun.

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Thanks to Jameson Cigars for sponsoring tonight’s #cigarchat event!

Here are your Twitter reviews from tonight’s event:

1. thotful: Jameson Daclaration – started out with some nice cedar and spice. Mellowed out about 1/3 through and finished smooth and creamy #cigarchat (Link)

2. mikethebig1: Well made, good flavor, good draw and well priced cigar @jamesoncigars declaration #cigarchat (Link)

3. keith1911: The Declaration is a medium bodied cigar with some spice, creaminess and leather w/ excellent construction for a low priced cigar #cigarchat (Link)

4. andym78: mild-medium smoke with flavors of wood, leather, spice. no harshness at all. really enjoyable smoke for the price! #cigarchat (Link)

5. DaByrdman33: The Declaration is a well-made smooth medium bodied cigar with lots of wood, spice, & bits of leather & raisins. Good lunch cigar #cigarchat (Link)

6. KnightRid: amazing leather, wood, spice and creaminess in a cigar for under $6. Very good stick in my opinion! #cigarchat (Link)

7. JenniSpinner: #cigarchat I LOVED the @JamesonCigars Declaration; mellow, nice flavor, enjoyable start to finish. I rarely finish a cigar but this is soooo easy to smoke. (Link #1, link #2)

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Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2008″

• CigarChat Cigar Review: Tesa Vintage Especial Torpedo
• CigarChat #5 announcement, and our sponsor: Jameson Cigars
• CigarChat Cigar Review: Partagas Benji Menendez
• Cigar Review: Jameson Black Label
• Cigar Review: Tabacos Baez

This article has been published at RLSLOG.net - visit our site for full content.

FQM released the season premiere of “America’s Next Top Model”.

Links: HOMEPAGE – TV.com

Americas.Next.Top.Model.S14E01.Be.My.Friend.Tyra.PDTV.XviD-FQM
XviD | MP3 VBR | 550MB
NFO – NTi – SiNGLE FiLE DOWNLOAD

more at RLSLOG.net

Usenet is a not so popular method of obtaining new scene releases, but it’s actually one of the faster and more convenient. All you need is a NZB file, which is often linked with new posts here at Releaselog (or you can search the files directly as well). There are virtually hundreds of different Usenet providers, but if you want to try this service for the first time and enjoy some advanced functions, Binverse is a good place to start.

Binverse offers a completely FREE 14-day trial, to try their service. The service offers two methods of downloads – unlimited downloads capped at 1 Mbps or Full speed downloads with data cap of 30 GB a month. All you need to activate the free 14-day trial is to register and submit your credit card or PayPal details. You can cancel the service at anytime before the end of trial without being charged, or you can continue paying $14.99 a month for the service afterwards.

With Binverse, you can access over 5 new Terabytes per day of new files and messages. Binverse will also provide you with a special Usenet client with features as Usenet search, built in RAR / PAR support for dealing with large compressed files, intergrated chat, email alerts and many more. There’s really nothing to lose, if you won’t like it, you can just cancel it.

This article has been published at RLSLOG.net - visit our site for full content.

2HD released a new episode of CBC’s “Republic Of Doyle”.

Links: HOMEPAGE

Republic.Of.Doyle.S01E08.HDTV.XviD-2HD
XviD | MP3 VBR | 350MB
NFO – NTi – SiNGLE FiLE DOWNLOAD

more at RLSLOG.net

Sony shows its new motion controller. Google maps for biking released. Bikers take heed. Best Buy should have 3D-TV at a store near you soon. IPCC report folks are leaving the errors in the report. MSFT Bing creeps up another inch on Google. MySpace being overhauled. Looks like the .xxx TLD is back in play. Facebook and Twitter introducing location-based feature. ARM Ltd. says 50 iPad clones to hit market this year. Too many Final Fantasies?

Show presented by e-Harmony. Get a date. Go to www.eharmony.com and use the code EHTECH for a great discount.

Microsoft fixing bugs, says there is a zero day bug on IE about to hit. RUN! My thoughts on 3D TV. HP says it has a killer app for its tablet. Google translation services goes for the voice. NASA worried about Obama's plans. Windows 7 SP1 coming out later this year. Amazon Kindle browser showing up. Filemaker 11 comes out.

Show presented by e-Harmony. Get a date. Go to www.eharmony.com and use the code EHTECH for a great discount.

Josh Gerstein over at Politico sent Threat Level his piece underscoring once again President Barack Obama is not the civil-liberties Knight In Shining Armor many were expecting.

Gerstein posts a televised interview of Obama and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted. The nation’s chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, “It’s the right thing to do” to “tighten the grip around folks” who commit crime.

When it comes to civil liberties, the Obama administration has come under fire for often mirroring his predecessor’s practices surrounding state secrets, the Patriot Act and domestic spying. There’s also Gitmo, Jay Bybee and John Yoo.

Now there’s DNA sampling. Obama told Walsh he supported the 18 states, including the federal government, that have varying laws requiring compulsory DNA sampling of individuals upon an arrest for crimes ranging from misdemeanors to felonies. The data is lodged in state and federal databases, and has fostered as many as 200 arrests nationwide, Walsh said.

The American Civil Liberties Union claims DNA sampling is different from mandatory, upon-arrest fingerprinting that has been standard practice in the United States for decades.

A fingerprint, the group says, reveals nothing more than a person’s identity. But much can be learned from a DNA sample, which codes a person’s family ties, some health risks, and, according to some, can predict a propensity for violence.

The ACLU is suing California to block its voter-approved measure requiring saliva sampling of people picked up on felony charges. Authorities in the Golden State are allowed to conduct so-called “familial searching” — when a genetic sample does not directly match another, authorities start investigating people with closely matched DNA in hopes of finding leads to the perpetrator.

Wondering whether DNA sampling is legal?

The courts have already upheld DNA sampling of convicted felons based on the theory that the convicted have fewer privacy rights. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that when conducting intrusions of the body during an investigation, the police need so-called “exigent circumstances” or a warrant. That alcohol evaporates in the blood stream is the exigent circumstance to draw blood from a suspected drunk driver without a warrant.

Illustration: hibiotech/Flickr

See Also:

• DNA Testing Firm Goes Bankrupt; Who Gets the Data?
• ACLU Says Extracting DNA From Suspects Unconstitutional
• NY Gov Spitzer Plans to Expand DNA Database
• Scotland Yard Investigator Wants to Collect DNA from School …
• Hacker Adrian Lamo Wins, Won’t Have to Give the FBI his Blood …
• Reiser Prosecution Wobbles Under Police Forensics Gaffe — Update …

The site set up to locate long lost pals, Classmates.com, has been hit with a class action privacy lawsuit. It alleges the company violated the law when it decided to make user profiles public to compete with Facebook.

The suit says Classmates.com duped its paying customers in late January when it sent them an e-mail telling members they’d have to opt out of new Facebook and iPhone apps to keep their data private. That’s a massive change to the site’s privacy policy and violates federal and Washington State privacy (.pdf) and fairness laws, according to the suit filed in a Washington State federal district court March 5.

Classmates.com has long kept user information non-public, and only paying members can read e-mails sent to them by others, see ‘old friends’ on a map, and see who’s been looking at their profile. While the site has 3 million paying users, it’s been eclipsed by sites like Facebook and MySpace, which have more members, more public profiles and don’t charge.

In order to keep up, Classmates.com decided to make “public Classmates content available to people using a variety of sites and devices, including Facebook and the iPhone,” according to a January 30 e-mail sent to users.

“This content can include your name, photos, community affiliations, and more,” the e-mail continued. “Of course, we care about your privacy as much as we do your ability to catch up with your past. We’re updating our privacy policy to make these new features possible, and you’re able to opt out.”

That’s a move not unlike one Facebook made in December, when it decided to make user profile information and friend’s list public by default (without the benefit of an opt-out). That landed Facebook with a decent-sized user revolt and a complaint to the FTC from privacy groups.

Building on that, the lawsuit argues that Classmates.com’s switch amounts to “unfair and deceptive practices,” and that having to choose to opt out is “well-known to be confusing to consumers, and is deceptive.” That amounts to a violation of the Washington State Consumer Protection Act, the suit contends.

The lawsuit, filed by Roger Townsend with Breskin Johnson & Townsend, also accuses Classmates.com of violating the federal “Electronic Data Privacy Act” or EDPA. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs (and the general public), no such law exists. One assumes the plaintiff’s lawyers meant to refer to the “Electronic Communications Privacy Act.” But because that real law is generally about protecting e-mails against eavesdropping, it’s not likely to be relevant in this case.

The suit seeks an injunction against the new policy, damages and any profits made from the new apps. The putative class action suit seeks to cover all 40 million Classmates.com members.

Classmates.com did not return a call seeking comment. The site, which has been sued before for alleged deceptive marketing, is a frequent target of online complaints by users who say the site misleads them and makes it difficult to cancel a membership.

Via Courthouse News.  Screenshot: Flickr/Jason Walsh

See Also:

• Classmates.com User Sues; Schoolmates Weren’t Really Looking for Him
• Classmates.com IPO: What Are These People Thinking?
• United Online Cans Classmates.com IPO
• Facebook’s Point of No Return - Webmonkey

WITH the star power of hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas and Avatar director James Cameron, South Korea's Samsung Electronics giant late Wednesday unveiled the world's first 3-D TV technology aimed at revolutionising the home viewing experience.

Gallery: JubJub and co-accused in court By Solly Maphumulo and Gill Gifford An outraged community, stirred by the deaths of four teenage boys, beat a frantic path to the court gates in Protea, Soweto, yesterday.

For all you low-life types that like to put Mexicans at the brunt of your jokes, it’s time to eat crow (and a 33 gallon bowl of Albondigas). According to Forbes, Carlos Slim Helú just made it rain in Bill Gates’ face and still has more pesos to play with.

Carlos Slim Helú is the name and cell phones are his game. While his empire América Móvil may not be so widespread on U.S. soil, it is the fourth largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers (14 million isn’t too shabby) as well as the largest corporation in Latin America.

I wonder if he used a green, white & red Blackberry Curve to call up William Gates and taunt him when the news broke. The conversation probably went something like this…

Señor Slim: Hey Billy! Still peddling computer chips I see. I told you long ago the world was going cellular but you chose not to listen. Now look at you! Standing in the unemployment line.

Bill Gates: Well, I’m still on the list Mr. Helú. And Melinda and I just donat…

Señor Slim: You do know this is an international call right? Sure you got the funds to cover this?

Bill Gates: I’m canceling your XBox Live subscription.

Señor Slim: Too bad I’m buying you out. Word got out at the market that you’re weak Gates. I crush all my enemies. I’ll tell you what, next time you’re in Cancun, come to the Sheraton lobby and ask for Slim. I’ll get you a job chump.

Yeah I’m sure that’s exactly how it went. Worth an estimated $53.5 billion, Señor Slim can cuss out the Pope in Spanish and still sit front row at Mass. Who would of thought the Industrial Average would cross the border? Now about their economy…

[Via]

Free shoes? Yeah, we’re about that. Free one of one’s? That’s even greater.

The skinny is Ronnie Fieg – he of previous noteworthy creations and collaborations with Asics, Polo Ralph Lauren and Timberland – is offering up this sample pair of GT-II “Aquas.” Since these stalled @ the sample stage and were on hand, Ronnie’s decided to give them away. All one has to do is follow his Twitter (Twitter.com/RonnieFieg) and tweet the phrase “Follow @Ronniefieg to win a 1 of 1 exclusive Asics GT-II Sample set.” On the 17th of March, one of those followers will be named the winner and days later will claim ownership of a pair of kicks nobody else is holding.

How Fresh is that?

Follow @TSS_Crew too!

http://rapidshare.com/files/361840255/Solomon_Kane_-_Death_s_Black_Riders_03.cbz
OR
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PJ7PH2YC

http://rapidshare.com/files/361840792/Action_Comics_887.cbr
OR
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http://rapidshare.com/files/361837825/Angel_-_A_Hole_in_the_World_04.cbr
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http://rapidshare.com/files/361836812/Superman_-_Last_Stand_of_New_Krypton_01.cbr
OR
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Come to the debut of “it” tonight where the only rules are that you come dressed to kill and not ask the DJ to play your song. “We’ll let you decide what to wear and you’ll let us decide what to spin. You’re in ‘it’ country now where the motto is ‘in DJ’s we trust.’ Mention “it” at the
door and get a wrist-band for free vodka drinks from 10-11 and $3 vodkas from 10:30 – 11. 21+

Sage Stand-Up, the longest-running, most successful weekly stand-up comedy show in Times Square, is now at an incredible new location, Hurley’s Saloon!  The show is free (no cover and no drink minimum) and features comedy megastars from Comedy Central, HBO, and NBC-TV’s Last Comic Standing.  This week, we feature some of our most popular comics: Chris and Paul (Winner of Philadelphia Sketchfest), Jill Michelle-Meleán (MAD TV Cast member), Myq Kaplan (The Tonight Show, his own half hour on Comedy Central), Brendan McGlaughlin (Comix), Harrison Greenbaum (SPIKE TV, writer for MAD Magazine), and Sam Morril (Friars Club Roast of Omarosa). Click here to make a reservation.

“We have a crazy event coming… called “Mating Season.” Three live go-go dancers, The Prime.Mates, will be dancing in animals masks and a DVD of animals mating will be projected against one of the brick walls. DJ AK will be on the decks all night spinning everything wild” 21+

Our friends from Norway have dropped a little present in the Android Market — especially for all you Opera fans — as Opera Mini 5 beta 2 is available for download starting… now. Opera’s next generation mobile web browser packs tabbed browsing, speed dial, Opera Link, a download manager, and a password manager, amongst other things. Those of you who are sick of the default Android browser and can’t quite cozy up to Dolphin can go ahead and take Opera Mini 5 for a spin… and do let us know what you think about it.

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It’s no secret that Google and China aren’t exactly BFFs at the moment, but now Motorola has thrown its hat into the foray in a rather large way in order to protect its own interests and presumably make a nice bit of coin while doing so. As of this quarter, all of Motorola’s Android smartphones sold in China will see Google search and Google Maps replaced by Bing search and Bing Maps. Devices currently in the hands of consumers or sitting unsold on store shelves will be getting an OTA update sometime in the not too distant future. Both Motorola and Microsoft have not announced any specific plans to expand on their partnership outside of China — one could argue it’s already in the US — but based upon our understanding of the term “global alliance”, we don’t doubt for a second that this partnership will be forced upon other markets.

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This article has been published at RLSLOG.net - visit our site for full content.

Here we have a TS of film “Alice in Wonderland” released by p2p group WBZ. It`s a 2010 fantasy,adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and stars Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen and Stephen Fry. The Video quality looks a bit better then previous releases, and audio is fine, you can always check the Sample before download a full movie.

PLOT: 19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.

Genre: Adventure | Family | Fantasy
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10 (3,621 votes)
Directed by: Tim Burton
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter

Release Name: Alice.In.Wonderland.2010.TS-WBZ
Size: 1.01GB
Video: XviD,624 x 320, 1356kbps
Audio: VBR MP3, 64kbps
Runtime: 1:58:17

Links: IMDB – RT – HOMEPAGE
Samples: Video | #1 – #2
NFO: Here
Torrent: NTi
NZB: Search

Download: Hotfile:- Soon

more at RLSLOG.net

Usenet is a not so popular method of obtaining new scene releases, but it’s actually one of the faster and more convenient. All you need is a NZB file, which is often linked with new posts here at Releaselog (or you can search the files directly as well). There are virtually hundreds of different Usenet providers, but if you want to try this service for the first time and enjoy some advanced functions, Binverse is a good place to start.

Binverse offers a completely FREE 14-day trial, to try their service. The service offers two methods of downloads – unlimited downloads capped at 1 Mbps or Full speed downloads with data cap of 30 GB a month. All you need to activate the free 14-day trial is to register and submit your credit card or PayPal details. You can cancel the service at anytime before the end of trial without being charged, or you can continue paying $14.99 a month for the service afterwards.

With Binverse, you can access over 5 new Terabytes per day of new files and messages. Binverse will also provide you with a special Usenet client with features as Usenet search, built in RAR / PAR support for dealing with large compressed files, intergrated chat, email alerts and many more. There’s really nothing to lose, if you won’t like it, you can just cancel it.

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For all HiDef lovers here is 720p version of “Arthur And The Revenge Of Maltazard”.

Plot: Arthur (Freddie Highmore) is reunited with his beloved Princess Selenia in the latest adventure adapted from Luc Besson’s bestselling children’s books, but danger lurks on the horizon… A spider deposits a grain of rice in Arthur’s hand, with a message carved into it. It’s an S.O.S. from the Minimoys. Arthur doesn’t think twice about flying to the rescue. But not thinking twice could land him in the trap set by the abominable Maltazard, who has resolved to take his revenge… Luc Besson’s follow-up to his worldwide box-office hit Arthur And The Minimoys, reprises the combo of live-action, starring Freddie Highmore (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory) and Mia Farrow (Be Kind Rewind), and magnificent, state-of-the-art animation.

Genre: Animation
IMDB rating: 4.8/10 (310 votes)
Directed by: Luc Besson
Starring: Freddie Highmore, Selena Gomez, Stacy Ferguson, Mia Farrow

Release Name: Arthur.And.The.Revenge.Of.Maltazard.2009.720p.BluRay.x264-Japhson
Size: 4.36 GB
Quality: 1280×544, X264 5169K, DTS 1536K
Runtime: 93 minutes
Filename: japhson-aatrom

Links: IMDB, Homepage
Samples: Video sample
NFO: Here

Download: HOTFiLE, Torrent search

more at RLSLOG.net

This article has been published at RLSLOG.net - visit our site for full content.

Sc relased new ”Radioplay pop express”. This release contains 1 cd with 16 tracks. Enjoy.

Track list:
1. Alicia Keys Feat. Beyonce – Put It In A Love Song 3:17
2. Beyonce – Black Culture 3:48
3. Girls Can’t Catch – Echo-(Radio Edit) 3:25
4. Justin Bieber Feat. Ludacris – Baby 3:37
5. Glee Cast – Gold Digger 3:02
6. Livvi Franc – Automatik 2:54
7. Timbaland Feat. Drake – Say Something 4:04
8. Rihanna – Redemption Song For Haiti Relief 2:49
9. Cheryl Cole – Parachute 3:42
10. Owl City – Vanilla Twilight 3:52
11. Cartel – The Perfect Mistake-(Serban Ghenea Mix) 3:26
12. Ross Shifflet – What Would You Say 4:51
13. Melissa Etheridge – Fearless Love 4:12
14. Jewel – Stay Here Forever-(Single Edit) 3:00
15. Leona Lewis – Stop Crying Your Heart Out 4:10
16. Rod Stewart – Tracks Of My Tears 3:35

Release name: VA-Radioplay_Pop_Express_864P-2010-SC
Size: 75.65 mb
Nfo: Here
Download: Hotfile

more at RLSLOG.net

Usenet is a not so popular method of obtaining new scene releases, but it’s actually one of the faster and more convenient. All you need is a NZB file, which is often linked with new posts here at Releaselog (or you can search the files directly as well). There are virtually hundreds of different Usenet providers, but if you want to try this service for the first time and enjoy some advanced functions, Binverse is a good place to start.

Binverse offers a completely FREE 14-day trial, to try their service. The service offers two methods of downloads – unlimited downloads capped at 1 Mbps or Full speed downloads with data cap of 30 GB a month. All you need to activate the free 14-day trial is to register and submit your credit card or PayPal details. You can cancel the service at anytime before the end of trial without being charged, or you can continue paying $14.99 a month for the service afterwards.

With Binverse, you can access over 5 new Terabytes per day of new files and messages. Binverse will also provide you with a special Usenet client with features as Usenet search, built in RAR / PAR support for dealing with large compressed files, intergrated chat, email alerts and many more. There’s really nothing to lose, if you won’t like it, you can just cancel it.