Gizmodo: virginia

RoboCop Gets the Job Done

John Herrman — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:19:27 EST

Skeptics will tell you that Wytheville, Virginia hostage-taker Warren Taylor climbed out of his chair, laid on the ground and surrendered to police by his own will. But I think it's obvious what really happened here. [DailyMail, AP]

First White Spaces Broadband Trial Spreads Wi-Fi Via Broadcast TV

Chris Jacob — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:40:00 EDT

The NAB has been battling white spaces networks for years, but the technology that repurposes unused TV spectrum as a Wi-Fi signal is finally getting a trial period in Claudville, Virginia.

The idea is simple, but the politics aren't. All white spaces networks do is stick data into the unused frequencies that neighbor television signals, but broadcasters are afraid that TV signals aren't robust enough to handle data being packed in so tightly. This trial will be the first real-world test of that belief.

Hopefully all will go well and the tech will be able to provide rural communities with the broadband they've been hurting for. [Ars Technica]

Image via FutureAtlas

Police Use Google Street View to Solve Kidnapping Crime

Elaine Chow — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:51 EST

Usually when we hear Google Street View news, it's over kitty-cat privacy issues or people peeing in the street. But this time around, the mayhem monitor actually helped solve the kidnapping of a young girl.

Police in Massachusetts were trying to track down a missing 9-year-old girl who had allegedly been kidnapped by her grandmother. They had managed to find the girl's cellphone coordinates and traced it to an intersection in Virginia.

Since they were nowhere near Virginia, the policemen turned to Google Street View to help them round up possible hiding-out locations. They identified a building that looked like a motel, confirmed it was one with a subsequent Google search and then called the Virginia State Police, who visited the motel and found the grandmother and the girl.

The moral of this story is: Police know how to Google now. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

75-Year-Old Sends a Hammering Blow to Comcast's Customer Service

Haroon Malik — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 21:19:49 EDT

If there is one 75-year-old you do not want to piss off, it's Mona Shaw. Ms Shaw was in the process of switching her phone service from Verizon to Comcast's Triple Play, but after multiple failed attempts, she went ballistic—with a hammer! Ms Shaw vented her fury by smashing up the local Comcast payment center in Manassas, Center Street, Virginia.

As Mona went ape shit with the hammer, destroying inanimate objects around the office, she was reported to have been screaming, "Have I got your attention now?" The mental image of which has us laughing so hard we think we peed our pants a little. Ms Shaw was later arrested for disorderly behavior, after which she received a three month suspended sentence, a $345 fine and was barred from Comcast's offices for one year.

We've heard that Comcast's customer service is so pants, it was only a matter of time before a 75-year-old took a hammer to their office furniture. Drop your messages of united frustration below, but no matter however diabolical the service, remember; random destruction caused by senseless wielding of a hammer will rarely provide the answers you seek. [Washington Post]

Apple iBook Riots in VA

johnb — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:54:58 EDT

What do you get when you mix record heat, $50 4-year-old iBooks, and a burgeoning back-to-school season? Riot! Folks in Richmond, Virginia piled up at the doors of the Richmond International Raceway to get their hands on one of about 1,000 laptops. The ensuing chaos caused one intrepid shopper to lose her footwear:

"This is total, total chaos," said Latoya Jones, 19, who lost one of her flip-flops in the ordeal and later limped around on the sizzling blacktop with one foot bare.

Another charming and telling quote:

One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

They couldn't donate these things? Tell the kids to take one home?

Panic ensues in rush for cheap laptops [CNN]
iBook frenzy, as it happened [GatewayVA]
Video [NBC12]