Shortly after 2 p.m., Scott noticed several people already in line outside the Apple store on Boylston Street for tomorrow's release of the iPhone Somedamnnumberorletter, which goes on sale tomorrow - including one person who brought her own reclining seat.
A federal appeals court ruled today that prosecutors can use eight child-porn files allegedly found on Alex Levin's computer as evidence against him even though a judge in Virginia should not have issued the search warrant used to authorize the software that linked him to one of the world's largest child-porn Web sites. Read more.
Sharon Machlis, who works on a Framingham events calendar, has created an Alexa "skill" that lets you find out what's going on in our soon-to-be-newest city 100% hands free: Read more.
The BPDA is looking to begin asking developers of large residential projects whether their buildings will give residents a choice of at least two ways to get broadband - including wirelessly. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today rejected Yahoo's efforts to bar a dead man's brother and sister from seeing the contents of his inbox, at least under federal law. Still at issue, though: Whether a section of Yahoo's terms of service agreement lets it withhold the e-mail simply because it feels like it. Read more.
A man determined to torment a former roommate in Watertown used skills gained as a computer-science major and a professional software writer - along with some basic human engineering - to repeatedly target the woman, her family, her friends and her colleagues with sexually explicit messages, bomb threats to institutions in Waltham and Chelmsford made in their names, for some 18 months until his arrest last week, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent on the case. Read more.
Caitlin asks:
Any idea where to bring 5" floppy disks to get text files?
Verizon announced today it will soon make its FiOS Internet/cable/phone service available in all of Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale and Roxbury, and in parts of South Boston, including the waterfront. Read more.
The Globe reports the Prudential Center is no longer being patrolled by the vibrator robot it brought in this past May.
Would it surprise you terribly to learn that the Red Line is having signal problems again? This time they're at Kendall/MIT. The MBTA says the delays, on the southbound side, are "minor," but some riders beg to differ:
50 minutes from Alewife to Andrew is not minor.
In a reminder that the law doesn't always keep up with technology, a federal judge in Boston today tossed a French student's Title IX sexual-harassment complaint against an MIT professor because she never set foot in the US and Title IX only applies to actions that take place between people on American soil. Read more.
Dezeen reports that NanoLab, which develops products based on carbon nanotubes, has developed a paint that could be one of the blackest paints ever produced.
All interesting as it goes, but NanoLab says it will sell its pigment to anybody, unlike rival NanoSystems, which granted exclusive rights to its blackest-black paint to a British artist - which sparked one of his rivals to come out with a pink paint that he would sell to anybody who signed a contract agreeing they were not that guy and would not give him any of that paint.
Joe Kinsella has put together a list of key spots for anybody interested in the history of technology innovation in the Boston area (with side excursions out to Auburn for the site of the first rocket launch and the Cape for the first wireless transatlantic transmission).
The Harvard Gazette reports Harvard and MIT boffins are using the database of Google Street Views to show how cities' landscapes are changing. And South Boston's W. 1 Street is one of their examples.
Because down in DC, a cousin of the security robot that now patrols the Pru went and drowned itself today (photos of the android body recovery).
A firm with no apparent Web site of its own that holds a patent it claims gives it ownership of a way to index information stored in online databases is suing two local companies for patent infringement. Read more.
As a leading consumer of energy, transportation has risen to the forefront of discussion when developing a sustainable future. Boston has several sustainability initiatives underway, including the MBTA’s Environmental Management System (EMS), which has been in place since 2004, and Boston’s Complete Streets Program, a collaborative effort to design sustainable transportation networks. However, social, technological, and economic issues hinder the implementation of practical, sustainable transport.
Credit/Debit Card Only fare machine that doesn't take credit or debit cards
At lunchtime today, I went to purchase my July commuter rail pass. The Charlie sales machine in the State Transportation Buliding accepts only credit or debit cards - which doesn't make sense, given that the machine is in the STB where many tourists congregate and where the T has its administrative offices - and is clearly marked as so (see first photo).
So I tap the "Purchase Charlie Ticket" button, and immediately get a flashing message "Sorry No Credit Or Debit Cards Accepted." (see second photo)
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