via kotaku

In a surprising turn of events, a former New Hanover County sheriff's deputy was charged today in the shooting death of a teen accused of stealing a Playstation 3 console.

Cpl. Christopher Long, 34, was indicted Monday on second-degree murder for the death of 18-year-old college student Payton Strickland, which was shot Dec. 1.

Stories do not address whether Strickland had a controller in his hand when he was shot, though his roommate said that might have been the case. The stories do say he was unarmed.

District Attorney Ben David said Long mistook the sound of another sheriff deputy's battering ram hitting a door as a gunshot. Strickland was shot in the shoulder and once in the head. The fatal shot first ricocheted off of another object, according to an autopsy report.

Deputies believed that the raid would be high risk because of pictures found on the Internet which showed one of Strickland's friend's posing with guns and because UNC Wilmington police had said they had received information that the friend, who didn't live with Strickland, was known to carry a weapon.

Strickland and two friends were suspected of beating a UNC Wilmington student and robbing him of two Playstation 3s in November.

"This indictment is an important first step in holding accountable everyone responsible for Peyton's death - but this is only a first step," his parents, Don and Kathy Strickland, said in a written statement. "None of these actions can bring Peyton back to us, but perhaps they can save someone else's child."
Family and friends of Long, who was fired last week, described the man as widely known, respected and loved. He has, they say, received death threats since the shooting.

These cases are never black and white and in my investigatory experience, which is quite substantial, chargning an officer or deputy in a case like this is very rare. Brian Crecente

Former N.C. sheriff's deputy charged in death of teen during raid ...

via kotaku

In order to wash the taste of the Sony PSP viral marketing video from earlier out of your mouth, I present you with Wii Boy, the story of a man who uses the power of imagination to overcome hardship.

The video reminds me of when I was a kid, and all the other kids had Go-bots and Transformers, and all I had was rocks. I would pretend they transformed into robots, and I was happy. Then Tonka made Rock Lords. *******s. Pretty sure this isn't a viral ad, seeing as a real viral ad would use a real Wii in it...or maybe they know I know that, and used a fake one to throw me off. Man, the internet sure is complicated.

Video here --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkj28_TVFss ...

Cannabis guide 2.0

this is a guide to view all the various cannabis strains. There are quite a few missing, this program has most of the more known strains.

whats been done

+ The instruction screen code has been fixed
+ The credits screen code has been fixed
+ There is a new start screen (animation is still null)
+ There have been 7 NEW STRAINS ADDED
+ Some various code cleaning
- The main menu sprites have been deleted (they served no purpose)
/ A total of 53 STRAINS CAN NOW BE VIEWED
/ 1.5 and 1.0 Eboot is now avalible

extract the rar and place the cannabis guide and cannabis guide% in the game folder of your psp if you have a 1.5 . Place the cannabis guide folder in the 1.0 download in your game folder of your psp if you have a 1.0 psp

thank you all who have taken the time out to try the cannabis guide

if you wish to give me ideas or give your input please email me at [email protected]

--gunntims0103

download and give feedback via comment ...

Art has released X-Flash V17. nothing can say it better, so here’s the changelog:

V17 (12/12/06):
* Auto checking for incorrect PSP registry version at startup. User is kicked if a 1.50 registry is present in a 2.71 SE firmware installation, or vice versa. A prompt is given to restore registry settings in the XMB menu.
* Implementation of custom coded ‘6AM Sample Player’. Sound effects are resampled louder and clearer. Sound sample files are built into the program EBOOT.
* Mikmod audio library is now used soley to play demo music.
* Startup file checking sequence is faster since there are less external files to validate.

Download via comments ...

Earlier this year in June I purchased a used PSP from GameStop for my girlfriend. It was a 2.01 and after downgrading and purchasing a memory stick it was the perfect gift item (she loves video games).

Today I went with my friend to two local GameStop retails stores looking for a used PSP to have some fun with. Being not allowed to examine them at one store, we tried looking at the other GameStop only to discover from the manager that it's now GameStop policy to UPDATE all the used PSP console systems when refurbishing them. All GameStop stores are doing this now.

It's time to act. If you want anything worth having in the PSP world, now is the time to go out and get it. Try looking wherever you can, because the days of the used PSPs--and original PSP motherboards--are numbered. ...

The ICP Phlash Portal was, without a doubt, the best portal of its time. Sadly, I have not released a new version in quite a while now, and I was wondering if it would be worth it to make new versions of it.

If I do release a new version, it will obviously have the same features, games, apps, and links that it already does, but I was thinking about a more intuitive and sleeker interface, rather than the curves and colors already used. I am also thinking about a name change. I was thinking about something non-portal and non-PSP related to make it really cool sounding, like "Quasar". If you have anymore name suggestions, please let me know.

Vote by poll via comments ...

With firmware 3.xx (both in emulated and installed firmware), Sony have sort of added a feature to see if your memory card is fake. Just follow these steps:

1. In the XMB, go to either Game, Music, Video or Photo.
2. Press triangle to bring up a menu, then click "Information".
3. If the MagicGate text says "compatible", then it's a genuine memory stick. If it says "Unknown", it's most likely a fake (at least it's not MagicGate compatible).

Mine says "Unknown", which doesn't really surprise me as I bought it cheap from a stand in town. It's working very well, though, maybe a little slower than a genuine, so I guess I'm lucky.

What about your memory sticks, are they genuine?

Thanks to Muratcan. ...

via pspfanboy

There's something lethal about this game. How bad it is. When a publisher decides not to hype a game, and let it silently release to the masses, you know something's going on. Let's see what went wrong, according to the critics:

Gamespot (71/100) enjoyed the game quite a bit, noting good ideas marred by poor controls - "The analog stick isn't conducive to subtle movement, so most of your "mission failed" screens are the result of control struggles. The shooting portions are standard fare"

Games Radar (50/100) thought the game was a bore - "Star Wars: Lethal Alliance is the very definition of mediocre. The storyline isn't integral enough to the gameplay experience to really snag fans, and the gameplay won't do much for anyone else. It's cool to finally play a Twi'lek, but if Lethal Alliance is any indication, they should really stick to dancing."

GameDaily (50/100) notes the game's poor controls as well - "Unfortunately, the poor mission design keeps this game from being a must buy. Ubisoft relied on old game ideas, such as not being able to leave a room until all enemies have been killed, or back tracking through the same bland looking environment instead of throwing the player something new. On top of that, Rianna's targeting system sucks."

Star Wars games have been notorious for being either amazing or merely mediocre. It's unfortunate to see that we got the latter. ...

Via IGN

Today, Take-Two announced that the preliminary findings in an investigation into the company's stock option granting practices and procedures have been reported by the Special Committee of its Board of Directors.

This Special Committee was put together by Take-Two's Board of Directors to look into stock option grants, the timing of such grants, and related accounting matters. The Special Committee is composed of three independent members of Take-Two's Board of Directors, and is being assisted by independent accounting firm BDO Seidman, as well as outside legal counsel Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman.

The Special Committee conducted a thorough investigation, which included a review and analysis of documents and e-mails, as well as an interview with current and former officers, directors, employees, and advisors to Take-Two. According to the results of the investigation, the Special Committee found that there were improprieties in the stock option granting and documenting process, and that incorrect measurement dates for certain stock option grants were used for financial accounting purposes. The Committee expects that it will release a final report detailing both its findings and recommendations for corrective actions.

Take-Two's Board of Directors and management have concluded that the company will need to restate its financial statements to catalogue non-cash charges for compensation expense relating to past stock option grants. Although the total amount of said charges and the resulting impact on the company's accounting has not been determined, all financial information for the company for periods between 1997 and 2006 has been deemed unreliable.

While certain improprieties were uncovered as a result of the investigation, no misconduct was found on the part of the company's current Executive officers, including Paul Eibler, Take Two's CEO and President, and Karl Winters, Take-Two's Chief Financial officer.

Additionally, Take-Two met with the NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel to petition for an extension of time to file its Form 10-Q, solicit proxies, and hold an annual meeting despite not complying with NADAQ filing requirements. ...