richard

Bidder buys $1.5 million space date with Leonardo DiCaprio

If you thought $200,000 was a lot to pay for a Virgin Galactic flight to the edge of space, try $1.5 million. Do note, however, that the steep ticket price includes Leo DiCaprio as your travel buddy.

A bidder at a Cannes charity auction agreed to fork out that much for a seat in space beside the star who played flight-mad Howard Hughes in "The Aviator." The money will benefit amfARa Cinema Against AIDS, hosted by amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

The winning bid was made by 37-year-old Vasily Klyukin, a Russian living in Monaco, according to Reuters.

"I want to be a bit daring," Klyukin was quoted as saying. "I will have to give up smoking now for sure!" … Read more

Is protecting intellectual property from cyberthieves futile?

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- After the publication of the Mandiant report earlier in the year linking China's People's Liberation Army to ongoing and massive cyberattacks against U.S. corporations, government agencies, universities, and other organizations, policy makers and industry experts have been trying to figure out how to better secure their intellectual property against cyberattacks.

Call it a work in progress.

"The frustration for me is that in the U.S., parties who have valuable intellectual property are not adequately protecting their data," said Richard Marshall, former director of Global Cyber Security Management for the Department … Read more

Keith Richards: Apple's iPod shortchanges customers

Keith Richards wearing white headphones would be like Josh Groban wearing a skirt.

Or Steven Tyler wearing men's clothing.

Somehow, it wouldn't seem right.

Fortunately, it is unlikely to happen, because the Rolling Stone who once fell out of a tree has revealed he doesn't own an iPod. … Read more

The 404 1,257: Where we're blank on the inside (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Virgin America flights allow mile-high flirting.

- Nintendo: Don't expect a big event at E3 this year.

- Next Xbox: Microsoft sets big reveal for May 21.

- Wii outsells Wii U.… Read more

France Telecom CEO: iPhone too pricey for Europeans

There may be a reason why Android devices are more popular in Europe than Apple's iPhone: they're cheaper.

The CEO of one of Europe's largest wireless carriers said today that European customers are becoming increasingly more pennywise, which is putting a damper on sales of costlier mobile phones. Hence, this should sound as a warning call to Apple.

"Customers are more focused on price," France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard told Bloomberg. "Except for a few hundred thousand people who will buy the latest iPhone -- except for that category of people -- the majority … Read more

MP3 resale violates copyright law, court rules

A court ruling has put the kibosh on reselling digital media.

In a lawsuit between Universal Music Group's Capitol Records and MP3 reseller ReDigi, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan has sided with the record label and said that reselling songs bought on iTunes, Amazon, or other digital music venues is akin to copyright infringement.

"The court grants Capitol's motion for summary judgment on its claims for ReDigi's direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement of its distribution and reproduction rights," Judge Sullivan wrote in a summary judgment filed Saturday. "The court also denies ReDigi's … Read more

Best Buy brings founder Schulze back on board

Best Buy said today that its founder, Richard Schulze, is returning to the company as chairman emeritus.

Schulze is also bringing with him a pair of new members for Best Buy's board of directors, former company executives Brad Anderson and Al Lenzmeier. The two are joining the board immediately and then will stand for election at the annual shareholder meeting in June, Best Buy said.

It wasn't so long ago that Schulze was trying to acquire Best Buy and take it private. Last August, he submitted an offer of between $24 and $26 a share to buy the … Read more

The 404 1,233: Where we stick a fork in it (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Bill Gates will grant you $100,000 to invent a next-gen condom.

- "Now That's What I Call Music" documentary coming soon.

- Dongle jokes and a tweet lead to firings, threats, DDoS attacks.

- And of course, a silver lining: http://forkmydongle.com.

Bathroom break video: NHL celebrates 20-year anniversary of NHL '94 in awesome throwback fashion.… Read more

Dongle jokes and a tweet lead to firings, threats, DDoS attacks

What started as a handful of off-color jokes by two men at a developer conference has led to cyberattacks, death threats, and the firing of two people, including the woman who originally reported the incident.

It all started Sunday at the PyCon event in Santa Clara, Calif., when Adria Richards, a developer evangelist for e-mail vendor SendGrid, overheard some jokes being told by two men seated immediately behind her at the conference, which is for people working on the Python programming language. The two allegedly made jokes about "forking" in a sexual manner and "big dongles." … Read more

'Craigslist killer' convicted of murder

A man charged with using Craiglist to lure three people to their deaths has been convicted of murder.

The jury in an Akron, Ohio, courtroom yesterday found Richard Beasley guilty of kidnapping and murdering David Pauley, Ralph Geiger, and Timothy Kern, according to Reuters. Beasley was also convicted of the attempted murder of Scott Davis, who was shot in the arm but managed to escape.

Beasley was found guilty of all charges against him, including aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, aggravated robbery, grand and petty theft, and ID theft. The jury will next meet on March 20 to determine whether … Read more