The Shittiest N64 Casemod Ever...AT&T Bans Class Action Suits...Surprise! Overworked Telecommuters Want Overtime...A Report Tells NASA to Get Awesome Again...
"Rough around the edges" doesn't begin to do justice to this unpostably ugly briefcase-bound N64. How about that particle-board liner? Looks like it was hacked with a butter knife. Nice translucent orange controller—I hope it came free with the purchase of something. The only thing that saves this abomination from imploding on its own crappiness is that GoldenEye cartridge. Do not remove! [Geeky Gadgets via Oobject]
AT&T—exclusive carrier to the iPhone for how many more months, Dear Lord?—has recently updated its terms of service to limit the kinds of legal actions you as a customer can engage in. Most notably: "Any arbitration under this Agreement will take place on an individual basis; class arbitrations and class actions are not permitted." I think they have a point. I mean, it's only fair when it's one-on-one: One multibillion-dollar telecom corporation versus one multi-limbed telephone-owning human. That said, those terms of service say a lot of things that a sober judge would probably laugh at, so we're not going to take this one seriously. Yet. [Boy Genius]
Speaking of lawsuits, people who work late hours because they can do so at home, or via their BlackBerrys, are starting to sue their employers for the overtime they should get for burning that midnight oil. My guess is, many of those same people probably wouldn't have a comment on the amount of daytime they spend with Facebook, Twitter, Mine Sweeper, Solitaire and text messaging. I hear you people—do I ever hear you!!!—but I think we oughtta call it a wash before the real truth about time management in the digital age comes out. [Ars Technica]
Space elevators, solar sails, warp drives—that's what space exploration is supposed to be about. So I was pretty jazzed to hear that the National Research Council called for a reinstatement of NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts, or something like it. NIAC is the wing that's supposed to work on all that freaky stuff, closed down in 2007 to make room for more attainable (that is, boring) goals. Trouble with this "news" is, like most great ideas in government, it's just one group of advisers telling another one something it ought to do. These things take cash, and while we're spending it all to sorta maybe get our butts back to the moon by 2020, other stuff remains unfunded. When we see NASA truly reach for the stars, we'll be sure to cover it for real. [USA Today]