Freshly Exhumed writes: Two major backbone internet service providers — Level 3 and Cogent — appear to be suffering from massive outages and downgraded service, according to ISP monitoring service Downdetector. Users in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. are apparently being hit the hardest. Comcast is also said to be affected to a lesser degree. “Backbone internet service providers work directly with large internet platforms like Netflix to deliver large amounts of data across networks, and also work behind the scenes of consumer-facing ISPs, ” reports Slate. “Since the internet is an interconnected mess of wires, disruptions with Level 3 and Cogent could impact service for Comcast and Verizon users in turn.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Two Major ISPs Are Suffering Outages, Making the Internet Really Slow Right Now
An anonymous reader quote the Register: The world’s getting a new Amiga for Christmas. Yes, that Amiga — the seminal Commodore microcomputers that brought mouse-driven GUIs plus slick and speedy graphics to the masses from 1985 to 1996… The platform died when Commodore went bankrupt, but enthusiasm for the Amiga persisted and various clones and efforts to preserve AmigaOS continue to this day. One such effort, from Apollo Accelerators, emerged last week: the company’s forthcoming “Vampire V4” can work as a standalone Amiga or an accelerator for older Amigas… There’s also 512MB of RAM, 40-and-44-pin FastIDE connectors, Ethernet, a pair of USB ports and MicroSD for storage [PDF]. Micro USB gets power to the board. A school in Michigan used the same Amiga for 30 years. Whenever it broke, they actually phoned up the high school student who original set it up in 1987 and had him come over to fix it. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
New submitter FarnsworthG writes A news story about the capture of a kidnapper mentioned that he was caught because a car dealer had secretly installed a GPS device on his car. Apparently this is becoming common for “buy-here-pay-here” dealers. The devices are sold by Spireon, among many others. Raises interesting privacy questions. FarnsworthG also points to this Jalopnik article condemning the practice, when it’s done without disclosure. The kidnapping itself, of Philadelphia nursing assistant Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, was captured by a surveillance camera. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
We’re all kind of old. It’s okay! Happens to everyone. And while our collective childlike wonder at the world has been gradually erased by the realities of Life, there are still a few simple things that wield the power to make us go “Ooooh.” Crayons are kind of like that. Read more…