Kimberly Jernigan--a 33-year-old woman from North Carolina--was apparently distraught after her online relationship with a 52-year-old man from Claymont, Del., came to an end.
The pair apparently met through the online community Second Life and began a virtual relationship. The two finally met in reality several months ago, and the alleged victim ended the relationship, sending Jernigan into a downward spiral.
In early August, Jernigan allegedly drove to the victim's Pennsylvania workplace and attempted to kidnap him at gunpoint, according to local news station CBS3.com. When she was unsuccessful, according to the report, she returned two weeks later to track down the victim's Delaware address, and posed as a postal worker to do so. After four days of searching, authorities said she found residence in the Whitney Presidential Towers on the 7100 block of Society Drive in Claymont.
On August 21, police said, Jernigan broke into the unnamed victim's apartment with a Taser, a pair of handcuffs, a BB gun, her dog, and a roll of duct tape. He wasn't there, so she waited. When the virtual ex arrived home he saw what looked like a laser beam projecting on his chest. He immediately fled the apartment and contacted the Newcastle County Police.
When police arrived they said they found Jernigan's dog, Gogi, bound with duct tape in the bathtub of the victim's bathroom. Jernigan's reason for gagging her pooch--"he was making too much noise." The dog was said to be uninjured, but the ASPCA is looking into possible charges of animal cruelty.
Approximately an hour after the incident, authorities in Maryland spotted Jernigan's vehicle at a rest stop on I-95. She was taken into custody after a brief struggle. Jernigan is currently facing charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary, and aggravated menacing, CBS3 said.
What's the lesson here, kiddies? Keep your virtual relationships virtual and don't bring it into the real world or some innocent animal may be harmed in the process...
Friday, November 21, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
BT's Mayfair exchange downed by burglary
You may have Madonna to thank
BT's Mayfair exchange was burgled last night, leaving thousands of homes and businesses in central London without internet access this morning.
The raid cleaned out routers, networking cards and fibre at about 9pm on Wednesday, Reg sources said. According to data at Samknows, the exchange serves about 3,000 residential premises and 4,200 non-residential premises.
A BT spokesman confirmed police are investigating "an incident" at its Mayfair site, which is in Farm Street, near Park Lane. He said BT was unable to estimate yet when customers will see service restored but that more information would be released later today.
Customers including ISPs who resell BT Wholesale broadband lines have been told that new hardware is being sourced by engineers.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said a public statement is being prepared. We'll update this story as soon as we have it.
Update 11.34am
BT sent this statement:
We can confirm there was a break-in at our Mayfair Telephone Exchange last night (Wednesday), this is a now an ongoing police investigation and therefore we are unable to comment further.
BT apologises for any disruption caused to our customers. Our engineers are working around the clock to ensure that full service is up and running as soon as possible.
The Met is still working on its line.
Update 1.50pm
Police told El Reg they were called to the Farm Street exchange at about 1am this morning. Investigators from Central Westminster CID are working with BT to establish what was taken. No arrests have been made and police are not prepared to discuss the value of what was taken.
The Daily Mail offers the theory that the raiders used the scrum caused by a party thrown by Guy Ritchie and Madonna at the pub next door to the exchange as cover.
BT's Mayfair exchange was burgled last night, leaving thousands of homes and businesses in central London without internet access this morning.
The raid cleaned out routers, networking cards and fibre at about 9pm on Wednesday, Reg sources said. According to data at Samknows, the exchange serves about 3,000 residential premises and 4,200 non-residential premises.
A BT spokesman confirmed police are investigating "an incident" at its Mayfair site, which is in Farm Street, near Park Lane. He said BT was unable to estimate yet when customers will see service restored but that more information would be released later today.
Customers including ISPs who resell BT Wholesale broadband lines have been told that new hardware is being sourced by engineers.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said a public statement is being prepared. We'll update this story as soon as we have it.
Update 11.34am
BT sent this statement:
We can confirm there was a break-in at our Mayfair Telephone Exchange last night (Wednesday), this is a now an ongoing police investigation and therefore we are unable to comment further.
BT apologises for any disruption caused to our customers. Our engineers are working around the clock to ensure that full service is up and running as soon as possible.
The Met is still working on its line.
Update 1.50pm
Police told El Reg they were called to the Farm Street exchange at about 1am this morning. Investigators from Central Westminster CID are working with BT to establish what was taken. No arrests have been made and police are not prepared to discuss the value of what was taken.
The Daily Mail offers the theory that the raiders used the scrum caused by a party thrown by Guy Ritchie and Madonna at the pub next door to the exchange as cover.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Pay-by-phone commerce coming closer
The global trade body for the mobile industry and a European monetary organisation have signed a pact to speed up the deployment of handset payment services in Europe.
The GSM Association (GSMA) and the European Payments Council (EPC), which represents 8000 banks in the EU, will now jointly co-ordinate efforts to get phones paying for just about everything, from impulse purchases in shops to restaurant meals.
The programme has been called, simply, the Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative. But, in order to ensure such services run smoothly, the pair recognises the need for a “Trusted Service Manager” clearing house to help manage cash-flow between banks and network operators.
Although the partners haven't said which form or forms of contactless payment technology they envisage being used by mobile phone users, Near Field Communication (NFC) and Universal Integrated Credit Card (UICC) have been hinted at.
UICC is a smartcard used in mobile terminals in GSM and UMTS networks to allow them to communicate securely with the banks. NFC devices can be built directly into mobile phones to allow short-range wireless communications between, say, a mobile phone and reader, much like the Oyster card system used on the London Underground.
In Japan, mobile-phone based payments are already thriving. So much so that Japanese carrier KDDI and the Bank of Tokyo recently jointly created a bank specifically designed to create accounts for anyone using cashless-enabled mobile phones.
The GSM Association (GSMA) and the European Payments Council (EPC), which represents 8000 banks in the EU, will now jointly co-ordinate efforts to get phones paying for just about everything, from impulse purchases in shops to restaurant meals.
The programme has been called, simply, the Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative. But, in order to ensure such services run smoothly, the pair recognises the need for a “Trusted Service Manager” clearing house to help manage cash-flow between banks and network operators.
Although the partners haven't said which form or forms of contactless payment technology they envisage being used by mobile phone users, Near Field Communication (NFC) and Universal Integrated Credit Card (UICC) have been hinted at.
UICC is a smartcard used in mobile terminals in GSM and UMTS networks to allow them to communicate securely with the banks. NFC devices can be built directly into mobile phones to allow short-range wireless communications between, say, a mobile phone and reader, much like the Oyster card system used on the London Underground.
In Japan, mobile-phone based payments are already thriving. So much so that Japanese carrier KDDI and the Bank of Tokyo recently jointly created a bank specifically designed to create accounts for anyone using cashless-enabled mobile phones.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Welsh Darth Vader dodges jail
A Welsh man, Arwel Wynn Hughes, from Holyhead has avoided jail for attacking two would-be Jedis with a crutch while disguised as Darth Vader.
Hughes, whose attack was captured on video, was sentenced to two months in prison suspended for 12 months.
Two keen Welsh Jedis were filming themselves having a pretend light sabre fight in their garden. Hughes leapt over a low garden wall with a binbag round his shoulders while wielding a crutch and shouting "Darth Vader".
After hitting the two, both members of Holyhead's Jedi Church, Hughes departed over the garden wall saying: "I'm only joking..."
The two Jedis complained of a headache and a bruised thigh after the incident. We wonder about the Jedi credentials of these two if they were defeated by a drunk bloke armed with a crutch.
The court heard Hughes had no memory of the incident since he had drunk most of a ten-litre box of wine. He only realised what had happened when he read about it in the local paper. When arrested he admitted being extremely drunk at the time.
Hughes admitted two charges of common assault. He will undergo treatment for his drink problem and must pay the two Jedis £100 each and £60 costs.
The Beeb has footage of the attack here.
Hughes, whose attack was captured on video, was sentenced to two months in prison suspended for 12 months.
Two keen Welsh Jedis were filming themselves having a pretend light sabre fight in their garden. Hughes leapt over a low garden wall with a binbag round his shoulders while wielding a crutch and shouting "Darth Vader".
After hitting the two, both members of Holyhead's Jedi Church, Hughes departed over the garden wall saying: "I'm only joking..."
The two Jedis complained of a headache and a bruised thigh after the incident. We wonder about the Jedi credentials of these two if they were defeated by a drunk bloke armed with a crutch.
The court heard Hughes had no memory of the incident since he had drunk most of a ten-litre box of wine. He only realised what had happened when he read about it in the local paper. When arrested he admitted being extremely drunk at the time.
Hughes admitted two charges of common assault. He will undergo treatment for his drink problem and must pay the two Jedis £100 each and £60 costs.
The Beeb has footage of the attack here.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
GPS tracking fights teenage trauma
Mobile phones and GPS tracking technology have been combined to track the whereabouts of unruly children, as part of a study into the health risks posed to tech teens.
In the study, 15 teenage girls were tracked by their mobile phones for one week. The researchers claim the study wasn’t designed to provide parents with information about where, say, Charlotte actually was when she was supposed to be home for tea.
Instead, the information is being compiled to study the health risks posed to teenagers. As the girls took their phones with them wherever they went, the teenagers’ movements could be accurately plotted on a map.
Dr Sarah Wiehe, who led the research, said that mobile phones and GPS technology help parents to better understand “where adolescents spend their time and what they’re doing”.
She claimed that, by studying teenagers' movements, parents will be able to intervene at points where their kids are most likely to, say, drink alcohol or smoke. Presumably parents will also know when their kids are at Make Out Point or hanging around on street corners, possibly with biker gangs.
Suspicious wives, or husbands, can already use GPS tracking technology to keep tabs on wayward partners. The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder (SNIFF) application can be accessed through Facebook or a mobile phone to provide users with a detailed map of someone’s location, or at least the location of their mobile phone.
SNIFF, created by US firm Useful Networks, can only be used if someone gives their permission for their whereabouts to be tracked. Each GPS tracking request costs 75p (€1/$2).
In the study, 15 teenage girls were tracked by their mobile phones for one week. The researchers claim the study wasn’t designed to provide parents with information about where, say, Charlotte actually was when she was supposed to be home for tea.
Instead, the information is being compiled to study the health risks posed to teenagers. As the girls took their phones with them wherever they went, the teenagers’ movements could be accurately plotted on a map.
Dr Sarah Wiehe, who led the research, said that mobile phones and GPS technology help parents to better understand “where adolescents spend their time and what they’re doing”.
She claimed that, by studying teenagers' movements, parents will be able to intervene at points where their kids are most likely to, say, drink alcohol or smoke. Presumably parents will also know when their kids are at Make Out Point or hanging around on street corners, possibly with biker gangs.
Suspicious wives, or husbands, can already use GPS tracking technology to keep tabs on wayward partners. The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder (SNIFF) application can be accessed through Facebook or a mobile phone to provide users with a detailed map of someone’s location, or at least the location of their mobile phone.
SNIFF, created by US firm Useful Networks, can only be used if someone gives their permission for their whereabouts to be tracked. Each GPS tracking request costs 75p (€1/$2).
Friday, March 28, 2008
DIY satellite TV installer shoots wife dead
.22 handgun - not the best way to drill through walls
Officials are pondering whether to charge a Missouri DIY satellite TV installer who decided that the best way to punch a hole through the wall was with a .22 calibre handgun, and in so doing accidentally shot and killed his wife.
According to KCTV5.com, Ronald Long was attempting to install said system in the bedroom of his family's Deepwater home last Saturday. After "several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means" he popped two caps into the wall, unaware that his wife, Patsy, was outside the building.
The second round hit her in the chest, and although she was "given CPR by neighbors and family until medics arrived", she was later pronounced dead in hospital.
Sheriff's department spokesman Maj. Robert Hills explained: "He was under the impression that everybody was inside the residence, that he knew where everybody was at."
He added: "Once we complete a diagram of the incident, we will be submitting everything to the prosecuting attorney and let him decide if he wants to press criminal charges."
Hills said that "a person involved in such a case normally would be charged with manslaughter", KCTV5.com notes.
Officials are pondering whether to charge a Missouri DIY satellite TV installer who decided that the best way to punch a hole through the wall was with a .22 calibre handgun, and in so doing accidentally shot and killed his wife.
According to KCTV5.com, Ronald Long was attempting to install said system in the bedroom of his family's Deepwater home last Saturday. After "several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means" he popped two caps into the wall, unaware that his wife, Patsy, was outside the building.
The second round hit her in the chest, and although she was "given CPR by neighbors and family until medics arrived", she was later pronounced dead in hospital.
Sheriff's department spokesman Maj. Robert Hills explained: "He was under the impression that everybody was inside the residence, that he knew where everybody was at."
He added: "Once we complete a diagram of the incident, we will be submitting everything to the prosecuting attorney and let him decide if he wants to press criminal charges."
Hills said that "a person involved in such a case normally would be charged with manslaughter", KCTV5.com notes.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
New HiPath OpenOffice solution from Siemens
OpenOffice is a new unified communications platform from Siemens.
Technology is moving fast and we now have many different forms of communication tools at our fingertips whether it be emails, mobile calls, texts, instant messages, landline calls etc.
Dealing with all these different forms of communications takes up time in the day and there is always the worry that you haven't got the message quick enough to act in time.
Siemens new HiPath OpenOffice unifies all of this mediums creating a communications system that lets you combine your phone calls, voicemail boxes, conferencing, fax, and messaging into a single, unified solution freeing up time for you to get on with your day.
some of the advantages you’ll enjoy with HiPath OpenOffice include:
* Integrate communications with business processes
* See dramatic improvements in workflow
* Increase productivity and profitability
* Reduce organisational frustration and stress
* Share information seamlessly from any location
* Eliminate guessing games and wasted energy
* Reduce operational costs
* Reach team mates or employees the first time, every time
HiPath OpenOffice is a unified communications solution that incorporates the latest in VoIP. It’s designed and priced specifically for small and medium enterprises and because it uses genuine open standards, it integrates seamlessly into your existing IT environment. There’s no need to rip and replace; HiPath OpenOffice is easy to install, use, administer and maintain. What’s more, it can be scaled smoothly from 20 up to 150 users.
The average small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) uses 6.4 types of communication device and 4.8 communications applications such as email, mobile phones, desktop phones and PDA's. Juggling them is almost impossible, especially when your people could be anywhere within your building, on the road, or even on the other side of the world. The end result is inefficient communications with unpredictable costs that can easily get out of control:
* 52% of employees use multiple methods to contact someone on a daily basis
* 36% of the time they fail to get connected
* 22% of deadlines are missed as well as valuable revenue opportunities
So if you can overcome inefficient communications, you will have a distinct competitive advantage.
Quite often in business things can grind to a halt when someone can not be contacted. HiPath OpenOffice makes the frustrating physical and technological barriers to efficient communication a thing of the past. It enables you to achieve new levels of productivity by freeing up bottlenecks, reducing wasted time and speeding up decision making. So you can increase customer and employee satisfaction and improve revenue opportunities - all at a reduced operational cost.
HiPath OpenOffice has been specifically designed to meet the needs of small and medium enterprises with features that make managing diverse communications simple and cost effective. It lets everyone set their availability so you'll know if someone is in a meeting, on a phone call, when they'll become available and the best way to contact them. If you're out of the office you can even update your availability via your phone. HiPath OpenOffice makes it easy to set up conference calls using the 'Conference Management' feature. Schedule your conference calls, create a dial-in or ad-hoc call on the fly by simply dragging and dropping participants from your directory. Remember, there are no conference call charges. It's all handled through HiPath OpenOffice, so costs are reduced and productivity is improved because everyone can get together to make the decisions required to move forward.
Because HiPath OpenOffice integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook™, everyone can access all their communications via a single screen. Email, voicemail, fax and instant messages can be viewed, managed and answered from the application they're most familiar with - the Outlook screen they use everyday. What's more, presence status and voicemail greetings will change dynamically based on events in the Outlook™ calendar, so callers will always get the latest information about staff availability.
HiPath OpenOffice is a total solution package that comes with a whole host of cool features. Just think how convenient they could be for your business:
* Have all your contacts in just ONE directory so you don't have to search for numbers in multiple places
* Access, change, and manage your key contacts with handy favorites lists
* Route all mobile and desk phone messages to ONE voice message box
* Receive and respond to faxes as easily as an email with a fax message box
* Know who you've called and who has called you with your personal call journal
* Forward all your calls to ONE number with intelligent call management
* Get immediate notifications when you are away from your desk and a key message or fax arrives
* Give your callers options to reach you or someone else with personal autoattendant
* Connect callers to available staff the first time and see the presence status of everyone in your organisation with Attendant Console
* Dial a number from any desktop application to contact someone immediately
* Never misunderstand a customer instruction or action item again with live call recording
* Instant message a contact who is already on another line to let them know another call is waiting or their attention is needed for another matter
* Take advantage of your negotiated call rates and call packages with different mobility capabilities
Article written about Siemens HiPath OpenOffice by Daniel of Datasharp Telecom
Technology is moving fast and we now have many different forms of communication tools at our fingertips whether it be emails, mobile calls, texts, instant messages, landline calls etc.
Dealing with all these different forms of communications takes up time in the day and there is always the worry that you haven't got the message quick enough to act in time.
Siemens new HiPath OpenOffice unifies all of this mediums creating a communications system that lets you combine your phone calls, voicemail boxes, conferencing, fax, and messaging into a single, unified solution freeing up time for you to get on with your day.
some of the advantages you’ll enjoy with HiPath OpenOffice include:
* Integrate communications with business processes
* See dramatic improvements in workflow
* Increase productivity and profitability
* Reduce organisational frustration and stress
* Share information seamlessly from any location
* Eliminate guessing games and wasted energy
* Reduce operational costs
* Reach team mates or employees the first time, every time
HiPath OpenOffice is a unified communications solution that incorporates the latest in VoIP. It’s designed and priced specifically for small and medium enterprises and because it uses genuine open standards, it integrates seamlessly into your existing IT environment. There’s no need to rip and replace; HiPath OpenOffice is easy to install, use, administer and maintain. What’s more, it can be scaled smoothly from 20 up to 150 users.
The average small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) uses 6.4 types of communication device and 4.8 communications applications such as email, mobile phones, desktop phones and PDA's. Juggling them is almost impossible, especially when your people could be anywhere within your building, on the road, or even on the other side of the world. The end result is inefficient communications with unpredictable costs that can easily get out of control:
* 52% of employees use multiple methods to contact someone on a daily basis
* 36% of the time they fail to get connected
* 22% of deadlines are missed as well as valuable revenue opportunities
So if you can overcome inefficient communications, you will have a distinct competitive advantage.
Quite often in business things can grind to a halt when someone can not be contacted. HiPath OpenOffice makes the frustrating physical and technological barriers to efficient communication a thing of the past. It enables you to achieve new levels of productivity by freeing up bottlenecks, reducing wasted time and speeding up decision making. So you can increase customer and employee satisfaction and improve revenue opportunities - all at a reduced operational cost.
HiPath OpenOffice has been specifically designed to meet the needs of small and medium enterprises with features that make managing diverse communications simple and cost effective. It lets everyone set their availability so you'll know if someone is in a meeting, on a phone call, when they'll become available and the best way to contact them. If you're out of the office you can even update your availability via your phone. HiPath OpenOffice makes it easy to set up conference calls using the 'Conference Management' feature. Schedule your conference calls, create a dial-in or ad-hoc call on the fly by simply dragging and dropping participants from your directory. Remember, there are no conference call charges. It's all handled through HiPath OpenOffice, so costs are reduced and productivity is improved because everyone can get together to make the decisions required to move forward.
Because HiPath OpenOffice integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook™, everyone can access all their communications via a single screen. Email, voicemail, fax and instant messages can be viewed, managed and answered from the application they're most familiar with - the Outlook screen they use everyday. What's more, presence status and voicemail greetings will change dynamically based on events in the Outlook™ calendar, so callers will always get the latest information about staff availability.
HiPath OpenOffice is a total solution package that comes with a whole host of cool features. Just think how convenient they could be for your business:
* Have all your contacts in just ONE directory so you don't have to search for numbers in multiple places
* Access, change, and manage your key contacts with handy favorites lists
* Route all mobile and desk phone messages to ONE voice message box
* Receive and respond to faxes as easily as an email with a fax message box
* Know who you've called and who has called you with your personal call journal
* Forward all your calls to ONE number with intelligent call management
* Get immediate notifications when you are away from your desk and a key message or fax arrives
* Give your callers options to reach you or someone else with personal autoattendant
* Connect callers to available staff the first time and see the presence status of everyone in your organisation with Attendant Console
* Dial a number from any desktop application to contact someone immediately
* Never misunderstand a customer instruction or action item again with live call recording
* Instant message a contact who is already on another line to let them know another call is waiting or their attention is needed for another matter
* Take advantage of your negotiated call rates and call packages with different mobility capabilities
Article written about Siemens HiPath OpenOffice by Daniel of Datasharp Telecom
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Teen-mum flick gets filmgoers hungry for hamburger phone
Companies like Apple and Sony have known for years that movie product placement translates into big bucks. The latest such placement is...a hamburger phone, which features in new teens-up-the-duff movie Juno.
Statistics floating around online, which have been attributed to eBay, claim that sales of the retro handset jumped 759 per cent in the month after the film’s US release. The average sales price for the corded handset on the auction site is around $15 (£8/€11).
Quite why people would want to talk into something that’s been around for decades, rather than a state of the art wireless Dect handset is beyond us. However, that hasn’t stopped numerous companies cashing on the sales wave, while it lasts.
Hong Kong-based online retailer Cellphonefocus.com has already announced that it's stocking the fast-food phone. It's also trying to super-size its sales by selling French fry phones.
Film studio Fox Searchlight hasn’t commented on the hamburger phone’s popularity, but it’s rumoured the company gave some of the phones to reviewers as part of the film’s publicity campaign.
At least one thing’s for sure, Del Boy and Rodders will be upping their prices for hamburger handsets down Peckham market this week.
Written by a erstwhile stripper Diablo Cody, Juno has taken more than $78m in the US and garnered four Oscar nominations, including best director (for Jason Reitman), best actress (Ellen Page), best film and best script.
The Hamburger Phone is available from Cellphonefocus.com now for $16 (£9/€12). A European price hasn’t been served-up yet.
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