It’s been a while since we heard anything about the Lower Merion School District webcam controversy, but it’s back in the news today.

First off, the Department of Justice has opted to not file any charges against the school district.  It was decided it was best to get this announced now before the new school year started so that the schools could begin without this hanging over their heads.

Too bad it turns out that a second lawsuit has been filed against the school district over the situation.  In the case of Jalil Hasan, he left his laptop in cooking class on Dec. 18th, 2009, it was turning into the office and he retrieved it from officials on Dec. 21st.  Later that day the tracking software was activated and it went on to gather 469 webcam photographs and 543 screen shots over the next two months.  Mr. Hasan is now 18, heading off to culinary school, but has filed a lawsuit for invasion of privacy.

As for the original lawsuit of Blake Robbins, that suit is still ongoing and his lawyer has asked for $418,000 from the school district to cover his expenses up through July.

In somewhat good news, the school has just issued a new computer policy that actually spells it out for parents and students.  What a concept.  The most important part is:

The most important changes to the policy concern theft tracking, remote access and the privacy of students’ files on District laptops. The School District will only access a student’s computer with the explicit written authority from parents/guardians and students. School personnel will only access a student’s laptop remotely to resolve a technical problem only if the student formally gives the district permission to do so. If the student chooses, he or she can decline the remote access and take the laptop directly to the school’s IT center for repair. Theft tracking software will only be activated if a student and parent/guardian file a police report and provide a signed “remote file access consent” form and a signed incident report to the principal verifying that a laptop has been lost or stolen. Theft tracking software would never have the capability of capturing screen shots, audio, video and on-screen text.

And, yes, all of the bolded words are their doing.  Apparently they really don’t want any confusion this time, but I still wouldn’t want one of their computers in my home.

Morning Monday can only mean one thing … more of my braincells die.

We also announce a new theme night … listen in for what it is!

Oh, and make sure to tune in for domain name buying excitement!

• Thanko’s “USB Necktie Cooler 3? – CrunchGear
• Ferrari espresso machine is one fast way to spend lots of money – DVICE
• The mouse / calculator combo – gHacks
• Transformer Jacket, More Than Meets the Eye – Neatorama
• Twitter Friend Mug – Neatorama
• Python Garden Sculpture – Random Good Stuff
• Paintball-equipped robot leaves its victims terrified and messy – DVICE
• Brilliant Slink-O-Matic lets you enjoy a Slinky, no stairs required – DVICE
• Pee Aim Ball – Random Good Stuff

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It would appear the new fun thing for female sexual perverts to do is to pose as teenage boys on social networks and try to lure young girls into their webs of deceit.

Last week I told you the story of Patricia Dye and how she lured teen girls into her life by posing as a teen boy.  She got away with dating multiple teen girls by posing as a boy named Matt Abrams, and not revealing she was a woman to her victims in spite of sexual acts having occurred.

Very rarely do you hear about women omitting sex crimes, but now having a second story to you about such a subject in under a week seems to indicate the number of women doing this is on the rise.  The newest woman accused of such acts is Alexsa Mirabal, 31-years-old from Roy, NV, who appears to have posed on social networking site MySpace for quite some time to lure young girls into relationships with her.

Ms. Mirabal took on the guise of “Alex”, a teenage boy, to talk with the young girls, and even went so far as to talk to the mother of one of the girls on the phone, successfully convincing her that she was a boy instead of her true gender.  She apparently dated one of the girls for two years, only revealing her gender to the girl when they met for their first date, but by that time the girl was so enamored with “Alex” that she went out on the date with her anyway, leading to the lengthy relationship.

Apparently the police learned of Ms. Mirabal when a second teen girl came forward out of jealousy learning that the accused was seeing both of them at the same time.

Normally this is where I would make some comments about this case in this space, but a comment on one news story got me to doing some research, and there appears to be some mental issues going on here that date back to Ms. Mirabal’s teens.  It certainly doesn’t excuse her actions, but you have to wonder a bit as to what exactly is going on.  From what I can gather, she was lured in by an older woman in her teen years and ended up sticking with her.  Of course the old saying of “two wrongs don’t make a right” pops into my head at this point, but it appears this may not be as cut-and-dry as most of the news stories are making it out to be.

Whatever the case ends up being here, you do have to kind of wonder about the sudden uptick in female lesbian predators.

[Hat tip to Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins for bringing this case to my attention]

The first weekend box office for any movie is the most important one, and it almost always sets the tone for its entire box office run.

Anyone want to hear me say “I told you so” on Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World now or later?  I mean, I can wait, but it’s coming eventually.  Okay, to be fair, I never flat out said it would flop, I took a lot more words to do it than that, but the same point none the less.

On a $60 million budget, Scott Pilgrim brought in only $10.5 million this weekend to finish in fifth place on the charts for the three days ending Sunday.  In other words, this films has next to no chance of even breaking even at the box office and will have to wait for home video to make anything.

This movie had multiple problems going for it, one of them I feel being very much Michael Cera in the lead role.  While he appears to be similar to the comic character, the problem is we have seen Cera do this role so many times now, we just can’t be bothered to care any more.

It is based on a comic only known to real comic book enthusiasts, and while they were excited for the film, no one else was.  There was no way this was going to play well with the mass market, and as much as you may wish you could succeed without them, when you spend $60 million on the budget you simply can’t ignore them.  Historical data shows that you can’t make back that sort of budget without your average audience members.

While I would love to see some off kilter comics succeed as movies, it just isn’t time yet.  If you want to do something like Scott Pilgrim, go for it, just try remember your audience is more than just the people who bought the books, and you have to make it accessible to as many people as you can.  Casting Cera as the same character he has played endlessly sure doesn’t help your case.

This week brings you 48 pearls of my wisdom … STOP LAUGHING!

FiveMinutePhotographer.com

• Canon comes out the clear winner in Australian consumer study

FunJug.com

• Drunk History vol. 2 – Featuring Jack Black
• double rainbow double bear
• The Dancer
• Bo The Bailer
• Monstrous Wildlife
• Twitter Movie Trailer
• Telephone | THE OFFICE VERSION

Photo.BLORGE.com

• Sorry Nikon, but Canon beat you easily in Australia

RememberingChristmas.com

• Christmas Decoration Showroom

SeanPAune.com

• Walmart Birthday Cakes Suck
• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 121: Moronic Monday’s and Sean wants off the world
• The Peculiar Case Of Patricia Dye
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 122: Pranks are fun until they bite you on the ass
• Comic Books In The Oddest Places
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 123: Enough with the visitors already
• California May Legalize Pot, Much To Canada’s Dismay
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 124: So bad it’s freaking awesome
• Scattercast #108: Hotbox
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 125: Techmeme Friday – the DUH! edition
• Karl Urban Is Judge Dredd

SpookieBits.com

• Halloween Parties For The Kids May Be The Way To Go

Tech.BLORGE.com

• Report: Apple ordering CDMA chipsets to launch on Verizon this January
• Netflix and Epix in advanced negotiations for streaming deal
• Top 40 best free legal movies you can download right now
• Rumor: Apple TV taking a step back in time
• Third BioShock game takes to the skies

TechnoBuffalo.com

• Man In Charge Of iPhone Antennas Leaves Apple
• Intent To Purchase Macs Rising Across College Campuses
• Book Publisher Going Digital Only
• AT&T Believes Losing iPhone Exclusivity Won’t Have a Negative Impact
• Rumor: Apple Ordering Parts For Verizon iPhone
• Skype Preparing To Go Public
• Google’s Appetite For Small Companies Still Unsatisfied
• Netflix And Epix Strike Multi-Year Streaming Movie Deal
• Bill Gates Thinks College Tuition Should Be $2,000
• Dell Streak Gets A Date And A Price
• Redbox Adding Blu-ray Discs And More Locations
• The Game That Will Never Die, Duke Nukem Forever Back In The News
• Rumor: New Apple TV To Be Named iTV And Lose 1080 Support
• Twitter Releases Official ReTweet Button
• iPhone Users Get More Sex
• Google Adds Voice Actions To Android 2.2
• Flashaback Friday: The Software Dating Game With Steve Jobs & Bill Gates
• 3D TV Sales Pick Up In Japan; Means Nothing
• The Strange Battle Over Free Wi-Fi
• Mid-level Apple Manager Arrested In Bribery & Money Laundering Scheme

Karl Urban, best known for playing Dr. McCoy in the latest Star Trek movie, has been cast as Judge Dredd in the second attempt to make this character into a movie.

Judge Dredd first appeared in the second issue of the weekly British comic series 2000 A.D. back in 1977.  He has appeared in every issue since, and has been spun off into more solo comics than I think anyone can count.  The series is set in the post-apocalyptic city of Mega-City One that encompasses most of the East cost of what was once the United States.  A police system known as the Judge System was put into place to keep the massive population under control.  Your basic Judges, known as “street Judges” serve as judge, jury and sometimes executioner for crimes, eliminating the need for a judicial process.  Oh all of the Judges, Dredd is the most feared because he lives strictly by the letter of the law, and there is no room for interpretation.

The series has long been more about a way to comment on modern society than anything else.  The story changes with time, but it is almost always some form of commentary on politics and society.  There has always been one steadfast rule to the series, though, and that is that we have never seen, nor will we, Dredd’s face.  Even if his helmet comes off, which is incredibly rare, the artists find other ways to keep us from seeing it.  The idea has always been that he is truly the law, and the law is a faceless entity.

So, imagine the dismay of fans when the 1995 film came out with Sylvester Stallone and he spends 95 percent of the movie with the helmet off.  They got a lot of little things right (Block Wars, “The Long Walk”, the Angel Family etc), but the biggest, most important thing, a cornerstone of the whole mythos … right out the window.  (Never mind the awful inclusion of Rob Schneider for “comic relief”)  It was an awful representation of the character, and one that is best forgotten.

A new film has been rumored for a couple years now, and it will thankfully completely ignore the 1995 one.  This is the one Karl Urban has been cast in, and for some unknown reason it will be in 3D, but other than that the filmmaker are promising to give us “a more realistic and gritty” take on the story.   It is being written by Alex Garland (28 Days Later) and will film in Johannesburg, South Africa with a lot of the people worked on District 9, a film that I feel gets better every time I view it.

Of course, the best news is that we are being promised that … the helmet won’t come off.  From an actor’s standpoint, I can see why they would get annoyed with the prop, but it is really intrinsic to the character.  It is the only rule set in stone when it comes to Dredd himself, and yet it seems to be the first thing thrown out the window.

Here’s hoping they get this one right.

Good grief this whole week was boring, and this Techmeme Friday was a struggle, but there is still plent to mock.

Oh, and make sure to tune in for domain name buying excitement!

• Initial Thoughts on Oracle vs Google Patent Lawsuit – Miguel de Icaza
• Facebook Live Launches, Broadcasting Celebrities, Product Launches and More from Company Headquarters – Inside Facebook
• Wireless is Different – AT&T Public Policy Blog
• PayPal Talking With Google About Handling Android Payments – Bloomberg
• How a 16-yo Kid Made His First Million Dollars Following His Hero, Steve Jobs – Gizmodo
• The problem with Google Voice Actions for Android – Googling Google Blog
• Zynga Hires Former Facebook, MySpace Exec Owen Van Natta – TechCrunch
• The $99 Kindle – Why e-readers will soon cost less than $100. – Slate
• Axon Logic Hackintosh Tablet May Just Out-iPad The iPad – CrunchGear
• Survey Says: 34 Percent Of AT&T iPhone Owners Are Waiting To Switch To Verizon – TechCrunch
• Gowalla CEO: Sorry Mobile Web: Users Prefer Apps – GigaOM

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It’s episode #106 of Scattercast and I’m on the warpath again.

My AC broke … I’m cranky.

Oh yeah, darn those kids wanting to be the Human Torch.

Legalize marijuana ya idiots.

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subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

This episode covers technology … movie theaters … taco ingredients … it’s all over the board.

Oh, and make sure to tune in for domain name buying excitement!

• This Is How I Read TechCrunch: Without Comments – TechCrunch
• A body on Google Street View? Don’t worry it’s just me playing dead, says girl, ten – Mail Online
• Watch this now: The Twitter Movie Trailer – The Next Web
• Cyber-Cute Overload: Quadrocopter Drone Has Its Own Little Home – Crunch Gear
• Norwegian Mailbox Drone – BotJunkie

As Steven said, “And Sean’s give to web designers around the world a gift to haunt your nights – don’t blame me if you eyes bleed”

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Leave it to an English newspaper to inform me how a proposed referendum in California might impact the economy of Canada. You have to love American journalism some days.

According to The Guardian, and this is total news to me, California voters may get the opportunity to vote to legalize the cultivation and sale of marijuana on November’s ballot.  All I can say is, “It’s about freaking time.”

Let me be crystal clear on this part: I have never so much as taken one puff of marijuana in any form.  I have gotten contact highs twice in my life (once at a concert, another time at a private party at Comic-Con in the mid ’90s) and those experiences were enough to tell me I didn’t want to get involved with it.  Add in my addictive personality and I knew it would be a recipe for disaster, so I have just always avoided it.

All that being said, it’s about time we legalized it.  Apparently the state of California is looking at the potential taxes that could be collected, as well as the jobs it would create, as it being time for this to be considered.  It would also free up a tremendous amount of funds, court time and prison space if enforcement against it was brought to a near end.  It is no more harmful than cigarettes, and in some studies is less harmful, and compared to alcohol, it doesn’t even come close.  The time to legalize pot has never been better.

And then comes the problem: Canada.  Apparently there is such a strong industry there for the cultivation of marijuana that the economy would actually be impacted by legalization of it anywhere in the United States.  Money would stop flowing in, jobs would be lost and so on.  Apparently that is why some Canadian politicians are backing the move in California because they want the industry to stop, while others worry this could drive them into a double dip recession.

My thoughts?  Sorry, Canada, but we have to do this.  The time to legalize marijuana was ages ago, and the fact that it is still illegal is just idiotic.  It’s not for me, clearly, but if you want to enjoy it, I couldn’t care less, and I’ve thought the amount of money spent fighting was silly for as long as I can remember.  By legalizing it we get some control over it, we get to collect taxes and we save some money on law enforcement … how is this not a win-win situation again?

So, come Nov., vote “Yes” on Prop 19 … not only do you get legal pot, but you can point and laugh at the Canadians at the same time! (Said with much love for my numerous friends in Canada)

I went into this episode in a horrible mood because of something unrelated to the show, but I was quickly laughing at Steven … as I usually do.

Oh, and make sure to tune in for domain name buying excitement!

• Sometimes the weird news is about us… – JetBlue
• Shocker: Viral HOPA girl totally a hoax! – The Inquisitr
• 3D A Relative Flop, TV Manufacturers Talk Up Apps – CrunchGear

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Apparently my friends know what will get my behind in a car, and that is to tell me that Hastings, a store I am not overly fond of, has not only converted part of its music section into a comic book area, but they are even going so far as to carry back issues.

… say what?

I got two e-mails asking me if I had been by Hastings as of late to see that a whole rack of music had been removed and replaced with a comic book area.  Short answer was “no”, long answer was my car was in the shop and I was going to get up there as soon as I got some wheels.

Not exactly sure what to expect, I headed up there and this is what I found (click either image for a much larger version)

The back issues on the other side of the display.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. It’s obvious they are dealing with Diamond Comics Distribution, which means they are getting books the same week as comic book stores. This is unusual as most stores such as this go through a magazine distributor for books as they can make returns to those by stripping off the covers to prove they didn’t sell copies. I’m going to guess some sort of deal has been made with Diamond for returns, or else Hastings’ back issue bins are going to fill up pretty darn quick.

Why will they fill up quick? They’re ordering on new books was all over the board: One to two copies of this or that, and 20 copies of something else. It was erratic at best.

What did catch my eye about the back issues was that it was an eclectic mix of recent issues and stuff from the 1980′s.  Secret Wars, a key Marvel title from the 80′s, three copies of Transformers #14 from that decade and so on, next to books that were out just a month or two ago.  How they built up a selection like this is odd, and make me guess they have bought out some large company that was sitting on a ton of back stock.  The prices for back issues seemed reasonable ranging from $.99 up to the highest I saw at $5.99.

On another end cap of a neighboring display was a selection of recent hard cover books, as well as packages of collector bags and boards.  I have no clue what has prompted Hastings to get so serious about comics, but it appears to have jumped in with both feet.

I wandered off for a few minutes to ponder what this means for the industry.  True, it is just one display in a store, but the chain overall, and if it is doing it at all locations, means a decent comic selection is now available at around 200 more locations around the country.  As I went back to take another look, my thoughts turned to nothing but positive thoughts as I saw a mother and son, who appeared to be 10 or 11,  going through the back issues.  She was telling him he could get one book, and he was pouring through them like it was a monumental decision he had to make.

This is one of the key things I have been saying about comics for some time now that comics have priced themselves to a level where kids can’t get involved any more.  Your average new issue runs between $2.99 and $3.99 these days, and that is just not a price parents are going to say, “sure, why not” at.  However, slap $.99 on a book, the comes in a bag and board no less, and they may be more inclined to let little Jimmy pick something up.  Without new kids coming into the medium, it is doomed to die out, so it warmed even my cold, dead heart a bit to see a child picking out a comic book.

However, therein lies the mystery of this sudden change at Hastings.  As much as it saddens me, comic books are not what they once were.  Yes, the company took out a rack of music CDs, another medium that is dying, and replaced it something of an equally questionable lifespan.  Comics have been on the decline for some time now, especially in what we refer to as the “monthly pamphlet” format.  Trade paperbacks that collect several issues into one volume have become the more popular way of consuming the literature, and now with digital comics on the rise on devices such as the iPad, who knows how long the monthly has left.  Collectors still love the old format, but your casual reader is much more interested in self-contained stories, or consuming it digitally.  This is an awful lot of floor space to devote to a product such as this.

Why Hastings has gone this route is a mystery to me, and I question the sanity of it, but, to be honest, that one little kid with his mother made me move a long way off from condemning it as complete stupidity.