Oh the irony!  Around the same week that Amazon.com was hit by a glitch in the system where the sales rankings for gay and lesbian books on the website were dropped, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded the company with a patent that they filed about 4 years ago.  The patent is titled “Automatic identification of unreliable user ratings.”  A hacker nicknamed Weev claimed responsibility for the Amazon.com sales ranking and reviews glitch.

Ironically, the Amazon.com patent for Automatic Identification of Unreliable User Ratings invention focuses on providing a feature that automatically detects product ratings from being gamed by flagging inappropriate content.  All of the gay and lesbian novels in the Amazon.com system were flagged as inappropriate content by the glitch that the hacker put together.  Once it was noticed, bloggers and Twitter users got upset and coined a term called “AmazonFAIL” in response to the situation.

[via TechDirt]

There is a major problem in the mobile world today in the form of transferring explicit content.  Several children have been caught sending each other naked photos over mobile devices, including Disney High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens.  But another major concern is whether these children should be punished by having to register as sex offenders.  THe government in Vermont decided against this.

The Senate in Vermont passed a bill that would remove the legal consequences for teenagers that “sext” each other.  The legislation has to pass through the House as well.  However this would only apply for children between the ages of 13-18 and as long as they voluntarily transmitted it themselves.  Anyone that is older that participates in “sexting” involving a minor will be registered as a sex offender.  The state of Vermont has been stepping up in terms of taking down sexual predators.

“We felt that it’s poor behavior and it’s not something we want to give our OK to,” stated Senator Richard Sears. “But at the same time, do we want a kid in jail? Do we want them tagged as a sex offender for the rest of their lives? And the answer is no.”

Last month, a 14 year old girl in New Jersey posted nude pictures on her MySpace page.  Rather than being punished by juvenile standards, she was charged for being in possession of child pornography.  This has been one of the most controversial cases in social media thus far.

What are your thoughts on this controversial subject?  Should children that engage in “sexting” be considered sex offenders? Let us know in the comments.

[via Associated Press]

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) is now utilizing the Intel Nehalem microarchitecture in a new line of servers they have released called NEM.  This move directly competes with Cisco Systems.  Sun also unleashed a new line of servers that contain the Intel Xeon 5500 processors built on Nehalem.  This is the first time that Sun is using flash storage combined with microprocessors, thus reducing latency through the boost of input/output speeds.

These servers have a 24GB capacity and works through the conjunction of hard disk drives and solid-state drives.  The NEM servers sold by Sun will work with existing and new servers.  The flash storage module connects to a chassis blade through a PCI Express backplane.  The cost of the NEM servers are about $4,999.  The flash storage modeuls ranges from about $1,488 to about $8,779.

[via InformationWeek]

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) listed a job offer on CareerBuilder that revealed their plans for the next Halo game.  The new Halo will link the Xbox console with the web and mobile distribution.  Unfortunately the new Halo game is not Halo 3: ODST which is to be released this September.  It will be part of the next Halo experience after that.  The position is Software Development Engineer working out of Redmond, but the environment is like a startup.

After the jump is the full job description:

Envision, a company that develops iPhone applications has built one around the book America At Home.  The application has the same name as the book and contains essays and photos.  The application has the same chapter layout as the book as well.  The America At Home application costs $0.99 [iTunes link], but you also get 25% off the book by buying the application.

America At Home is a book series with very intersting photographs from some of the top photographers around the world.  The book also has an introduction from Simpsons creator Matt Groening.  Essays in the book are written by famous authors such as David Pogue, Amy Tan, Richard Rodriguez, and Terry Teachout.

Today Nikon introduced the D5000 Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera.  It will be introduced this month for $850 with a 18-55mm VR lens.  The camera will have a 12.3 megapixel DX-format CMOS image sensor.   The LCD display is a 2.7″ vari-angle.

The camera can shoot pictures at 4fps and can record HD movies at 1280×720 resolution.  The camera also has an HDMI interface to connect it to an HD TV.  Other features include “Subject Tracking” and “Face Priority” which focuses on moving objects and five faces in a scene.  The D5000 will also have 19 automatic scene modes which has sports modes, portrait modes, etc.

One of the most interesting features is the self-cleaning systems.  There is a dust reduction system that prevents dust and lint from getting into the camera’s sensor.  A “Quiet Sensor Mode” also keeps the camera noise low which is especially useful for wedding season.

[via Engadget/PCWorld]

Spinal Tap is a parody heavy metal band.  In 1984, they did a rock mockumentary called This Is Spinal Tap.  Now the band is working on a new album called “Back From The Dead” which is slated to be released in June.  The album will be created using Apple software Logic Studio.

The band has just finished a double album in The Treehouse, a Hollywood music studio.  The double album contains work redone from the first album and will also feature new material.  One of the songs called “Short and Sweet” is about one of the band members’ four foot nine-inch girlfriend and is about 7 minutes long.

“PCs aren’t allowed within 20 feet of me,” stated CJ Vanston, a producer and recording engineer that owns The Treehouse.  “There’s always a problem with them, whether its a virus, defragging the drive, or something. They just slow you down.”

[via Macworld]

Michael Massimino also known as @Astro_Mike is getting ready to tweet from outer space.  Massimino is currently training for overhauling the Hubble Space Telescope.  Massimino will be launching into space on May 12 aboard NASA space shuttle Atlantis.

“Practicing approaches and landings with my crew in the space shuttle simulator,” tweeted Massimino about an hour ago.  Massimino has done two spacewalks so far.  Massimino’s 11 day space mission includes 5 spacewalks and will help extend the Hubble’s lifetime to at least 2014.

Last time Massimino travelled to space, he did some maintenance work to the Hubble telescope.  This time around he will be replacing batteries and gyroscopes on the telescope along with attaching a docking ring for future robotic vehicles to make repairs to the telescope’s systems.

This mission is quite a bit riskier than routine missions because it the shuttle is not bound for the International Space Station.  If the orbiter suffers from damage, astronauts could take refuge at the International Space Station, but in this case Atlantis will have to fly at a higher orbit and different inclination than the station.  If an emergency is necessary, NASA would send a second space shuttle from the launch pad in Florida as a rescue team.

Massimino will be using a mobile device to update Twitter messages.  He is currently the only NASA astronaut to use the micro-blogging tool for space agency business.

“Social media is a large and growing sector of communications,” stated NASA spokesperson James Hartsfield. “So this is a very neat thing and it offers Mike a chance to connect with the public.”

[via FOXNews]