Technology Slice Blog

Sarah Palin NYT Lawsuit Dismissed - A federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a defamation lawsuit by Sarah Palin against The New York Times, saying the former Alaska governor failed to show the newspaper knew it was publishing false statements in an editorial before quickly correcting them. The written ruling by Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said the lawsuit seeking unspecified damages "fails on its face to adequately allege actual malice." The decision came weeks after the onetime Republican vice presidential nominee sued over an editorial titled "America's Lethal Politics." It was published in June after a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers in Virginia, wounding U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise. Sarah Palin NYT Lawsuit Dismissed

HTC U11 Ocean - The latest HTC flagship phone has been announced and it is to be called the HTC U11 Ocean. It has had mixed reviews so far. Some say the hardware is lacking as it is no improvement on any of the other flagships from other manufacturers. Others say it is a great improvement and will sell well. The hook for the new HTC is the new squeeze gesture. The phone has pressure sensors around the edges so squeezing it with different pressure will make it do different things. This feature seems like more of a gimmick than a reason to buy it. I would imagine most people that buy the phone would barely ever use it. It does have one thing going for it though. The price! It is more than $200 cheaper than the Galaxy S8 or the IPhone 7. Time will tell how popular it will be. HTC U11 Ocean

Kraft Brand to Dissapear - Kraft is a brand that has graced the shelves of Australian grocery stores for more than 90 years. Two thirds of our homes include one or more of their products. Yet, despite it being one of the world’s biggest brands — worth $12 billion globally according to Forbes — by the end of the year it will have disappeared from Australia and New Zealand altogether. The brand first arrived in Australia in 1926, and the name ‘Kraft’ has adorned everything from Mac & Cheese to Vegemite. But despite it being worth more than Nestle or Kellogs, it’s now headed to the brand bin. While the products themselves will remain, the Kraft name is being sidelined. This month, Kraft Singles was replaced by UK brand “Dairylea Slices”. Kraft Brand to Dissapear

Homeless Man Aided Wounded - Stephen Jones, 35, was sleeping near Manchester Arena when he heard a loud bang, which he initially believed to be fireworks. In an interview with ITV News, he detailed the aftermath of the deadly attack that left at least 22 dead and dozens injured. When Jones and his friend saw everyone screaming and running, they began to run with the crowd. But when they realized what was happening, they ran back and saw women and children leaving the arena with "blood throughout the stairs" and victims lying on the ground. He explained that his instincts led him back inside the building. "There was a lot of homeless people that stayed there and helped and that's what we done. And obviously when we seen children like that with blood... having to pull nails and stuff out of their arms and I pulled one out of this little girl's face," Jones said. Jones felt like he had no choice but to help the children who were covered in blood, "cr...

Credit Card Surcharge Laws Australia - A new ban stops businesses from charging payment surcharges on credit, debit and prepaid card payments that are excessive. The ACCC will investigate consumer complaints and take enforcement action where necessary. When you pay a business using certain payment types, for example a credit card, the business incurs costs for processing the payment. These costs are usually paid by the business to its bank. Some businesses include these costs in the price they charge for their goods or services. Others pass the costs on as a payment surcharge. A payment surcharge is an additional amount charged by a business when you pay for goods or services by one form of payment (e.g. a credit card) rather than another (e.g. cash). On 25 February 2016 the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Payment Surcharges) Act 2016 became law. It inserted a new part into the CCA banning excessive payment surcharges and provided new powers for the ACCC. The ban is found ...

There have been recent rumblings about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson starting a political career and he has made light of this by posting a picture of himself on Instagram with the numbers "2020". This is all a part of a Saturday Night Live skit where The Rock is running for president, and he's running mate is Tom Hanks. All joking aside with the popularity of both The Rock and Tom Hanks, they may have a chance at the presidency.

Donald Trump has fired FBI boss James Comey in spectacular fashion with Comey himself saying he only heard about the firing when he saw it on t.v. Speculation has been rife about the reason for the firing but it certainly is interesting that it occured almost immediately after Comey asked for funds to investigate the Russian meddling in the election. According to the president, Comey was a showboat and was not fit to lead the FBI.

The budget for the near future has been announced by Liberal party treasurer Scott Morrison with some surprise inclusions. The most shocking being the new levy on the big banks. The new levy is expected to earn the government billions of dollars that will go towards repairing the budget. Understandably, the banks are outraged but it looks like there is little they can do about it. The most likely outcome will be the banks somehow passing on this levy to customers regardless of the amount of warnings the government issues. The second surprise was the increase in the medicare levy resulting in most Australians pays hundreds of dollars more every year. This move will stop the medicare freeze and result in more people paying less out of their pockets for doctors visits.