Chad’s News

Starting tomorrow (Monday, May 12th), the cost of a first class letter will be raised to $0.42. Those who have purchased forever stamps, however, can ignore the price hike.

Link: http://www.usps.com/…
(via Consumerist)

We spend so much time and energy dealing with hackers attempting to take over our computers that it’s easy to forget about the physical theft of server hardware. As the linked article asks, “How secure is your data center?”

Link: http://hardware.slashdot.org/…

In an update to this Chad’s News post, it turns out there can be serious problems with cars that run on grease, vegetable oil, and other biofuels. The problems are not mechanical or technical; rather, they have to do with legal and regulatory issues (at least in California).

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

Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 are now officially available via the Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update.

Link #1 (XP): http://www.microsoft.com/…

Link #2 (Vista): http://www.microsoft.com/…

(via Lifehacker)

I don’t know if this photo is for real, but it’s obviously intended to be someone protesting the fact that China will be hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics. For those who don’t understand why the picture is so funny, I suggest the following Google search.

Link: http://lachschon.pcgames.de/…
(via digg)

In an update to this Chad’s News post, here is the video of the astronaut throwing the boomerang while inside the international space station.

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

Yesterday (May 3rd) was the 30th anniversary of the first internet spam message. The linked article has the exact text of the message. Interestingly, an interview with the message’s author reveals that it was very successful.

Link: http://tech.yahoo.com/…
(via Neatorama)

Not realizing that most banks need prior notice to cash even a $1 Million check, this man allegedly tried to cash a $360 Billion check. To make matters worse, the check was made out to someone other than himself. After the police nabbed him for this blatantly obvious scam, they also determined he was carrying marijuana and an illegal firearm.

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

Microsoft is adamant that June 30th is the last day it will sell Windows XP. Dell, however, has an interesting licensing agreement that will allow it to continue shipping PCs with XP pre-installed.

Link: http://www.engadget.com/…

Instead of using standard shipping companies, you can ship via Amtrak and save. The downside is that they don’t deliver directly to your location—packages are picked up at the train station.

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

Service pack 3 for Windows XP was supposed to be available yesterday (April 29th), but a last-minute bug prevented its release. Official release, that is—if you are not affected by the bug, you can download the service pack directly (warning: 300MB file). The bug involves an incompatibility between SP3 and the Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, which I’m pretty sure is not an issue for the vast majority of Chad’s News readers. Additional download links, as well as more information about what’s included in SP3, are in the linked article.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

This man allegedly replaced the UPC sticker of a $517 television with that of a $3.16 bottle of water. The cashier noticed the discrepancy, and the man is awaiting trial.

Link: http://www.engadget.com/…