Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve seen the boys and girls in blue disturb the peace on occasion, but this is just downright bizarre. It’s bruited that the city of Plano, Texas has complained to the FCC about a powerful new police communications system that’s being testing in Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Duncanville. The signals have the ability to reach some 30 miles away, and they’re driving the radio-controlled sprinklers that Plano uses at parks and road medians absolutely crazy. The whole ordeal has made for some pretty interesting conversation amongst those involved, with one Tim Smith, managing director of the Southwest Regional Communications Center, asserting: “Which comes first: watering plants or protecting police and fire?” If anyone catches grown men fighting about this, do us a favor and send in the video.

[Thanks, Travis]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Oh sure, Rock Port, Missouri managed to snag the title of being “100% wind powered,” but Texas’ new plan will make the Show Me state’s gusty initiatives look awfully weak. Officials at the Public Utility Commission recently okayed a plan to “build billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines to bring pollution-free energy from West Texas to urban areas.” The ginormous Lone Star state is already the nation’s leader in wind power, but when said plan is fully implemented (pending final approval), it’ll produce more wind energy than the next closest 14 states combined. Granted, customers will be paying a touch more ($4 per month is the current estimate) for all this clean energy, but pundits assert that the cost is minor when looking at just how much this will help out Mother Earth. Look for everything to go live in four to five years, barring any unforeseen setbacks.

[Thanks, Adam]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

What’s that, you didn’t know AT&T was based in Texas? Yeah, ever since all those mergers (re-)created AT&T, its HQ has been in the former SBC offices in San Antonio, which is why certain services tend to roll out there first. It looks like the Alamo City isn’t quite big enough for Ma Bell, though — it’s just announced that it’s moving its corporate headquarters to Dallas in order to be closer to the airport. Yes, the airport. Dallas-Fort Worth Internation is country’s third-largest airport, and AT&T wants travel to and from HQ to be more convenient and cost-effective. AT&T also has about 1,300 different suppliers and vendors in the Dallas area who employ some 45,000 people, so moving closer to them seems like a no-brainer. The company’s Telecom Operations unit is staying put, however, so only about 700 of the 6,000 workers currently in San Antonio will be schlepping across the state. The transition should be completed within the year — here’s hoping some of those cost savings make their way down to us.

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Filed under: Gaming

Remember Anascape Ltd, the little “gaming company” which sued Microsoft and Nintendo back in 2006 for controller patent infringement? Well, it’s payday to the tune of $21 million after a jury found Nintendo’s Wii Classic, WaveBird, and Gamecube controller designs all guilty of violating Anascape’s patents. Nintendo will appeal naturally while Microsoft settled the case before the matter ever went to trial. Now go ahead and Google Anascape with the challenge of finding a single service or product offering. Oh, did we mention that they are based in the patent-lawsuit friendly state of Tejas? Patent Trolls? Oh, you betcha.

Anascape… there is none.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

CompUSA died a sputtering, inglorious death, but Ohio-based Systemax (which owns TigerDirect) didn’t shell out $30M to pick up the pieces for nothing: it’s just announced that it’s re-opening 15 US stores and opening a new one, 13 of which are in Florida. We’re not sure why the Sunshine State faces the brunt of CompUSA’s angry zombie wrath — do retirees enjoy being ripped off?* — but Texans and Puerto Ricans can join in the fun with four stores of their very own. These are all apparently open now — anyone brave enough to check out the scene?

*Rejected asides: “Is this punishment for that Pitbull record?” “Guess you don’t need braiiiiiins to pay these prices!” “Screw you, Mickey!”

[Thanks, Steven]

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Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

A district attorney in Rockwall County, Dallas, is under scrutiny from the FBI due to a PC he built as a backup server — using office money. Ray Sumrow claims he was using the system for business, but the “server” actually seems to be a tricked out gaming rig, featuring two hard drives, seven fans, high end graphics and sound cards, WiFi, and cables which “glow under ultraviolet light.” Rod Gregg, the FBI examiner on the case says, “I would not configure a backup computer in that way,” and added, “When I saw that, I did not think of anything related to a government agency.” Charges of forgery, theft, and records tampering have been made against Mr. Sumrow due to his use of the district attorney’s “fee fund,” which is meant to be used for office supplies or employee salaries. Testimony will take place through the week, and prosecutors expect to hear how it was imperative to Mr. Sumrow’s legal work that he, “Frag the crap out of dudes.”

[Via Penny Arcade]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation

Paperless boarding schemes aren’t exactly revolutionary, but they’re still far from common at US airports. Now, however, Continental Airlines has announced that it will be trialing a cellphone-based boarding setup at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport, which will enable single passengers (as in, one barcode per person, per device) to show personnel a jumbled mixture of blocks alongside their ID in order to hop on board. The three-month program will allow guinea pigs to receive a paper pass should their mobile / PDA run out of juice before boarding time approaches, and while hard plans for future use aren’t laid out, it was noted that the process could spread to other airlines and airports if things go smoothly.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

Sadly, we can’t say the story of “random company decides it has patents worth milking, sues world + dog” is a new one, but it’s still fun for a quick laugh. This time ’round it’s Ottawa-based Wi-LAN with a bone to pick with the likes of Apple, Belkin, Best Buy, Dell, HP, Intel, Netgear, Sony and pretty much any other major electronics manufacturer or retailer — 22 all told. Wi-LAN claims that those companies are swiping its technology related to WiFi and power consumption in DSL products, so anybody making or selling a router, modem or laptop is a target. Apparently Fujitsu struck a licensing agreement with Wi-LAN in July. Like most patent troll suits, this one’s going down in Marshall, Texas.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!