jails

It was the glow that gave him away.

Benjamin Kohler, 26, a jury member at a trial in Oregon, was sitting through testimony.

You might imagine that the testimony was interesting to a 26-year-old man. For the defendant was accused of armed robbery.

Indeed, the lights dimmed to show a surveillance video. That would surely have a mesmerizing element.

It may not have been mesmerizing enough. Or, perhaps, Kohler is a very adept multitasker.

For the dimmed lights revealed his illuminated face. Like a character from the "Blair Witch Project," the rays shone from below.

Benjamin Kohler appeared to be texting. … Read more

The head of gaming company Sensory Sweep Studio has landed in jail after not paying his workers a combined sum of $1.2 million.

According to the Associated Press, David Rushton, 57, who operated out of Salt Lake City, Utah, withheld pay from his staff of 211 people.

"We had occasional paychecks that trickled in. Some people were favored more than others," former Sensory Sweep Studio game designer Adam Hunter told the Associated Press. He quit working for Rushton in 2009 and is still owed $12,000.

Sensory Sweep Studio created several games for Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox, … Read more

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Facebook set to launch "something awesome"later today

Google to drop Blogger and Picasa brands

Adobe and Avid offer deals to switchers

Steve Jobs biography gets title

iPad 2 jailbreak is live

CNET infringement case dropped

Restaurant blogging has many nuances.

You can try, in general, to be constructive, like The Tablehopper. You can try to be artistically idiosyncratic like Orangette or From Lips to Fingers. Or you can decide to make chefs quake in their clogs like Frenchman Francois Simon who once said: "I start judging the minute I come in."

Perhaps that is the set of mind and soul espoused by a Taiwanese blogger (last name Liu) who wandered into a Taichung beef noodle restaurant. If so, it's an attitude that has reportedly landed her her in jail.

You see, the … Read more

Three people charged with the leaking of trade secrets, including information about Apple's iPad 2, were reportedly sentenced to jail time by a Chinese court this week.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Xiao Chengsong, Lin Kecheng, and Hou Pengna were found guilty by The Shenzhen Bao'an People's Court yesterday and sentenced to 18 months, 14 months, and 12 months in jail respectively. Out of the three, Kecheng is the only one to have been an employee with Foxconn at the time, according to the Journal.

Foxconn, which is part of Hon Hai Precision Industries, … Read more

The next major version of Apple's iOS has been exploited less than a day after its beta release to developers.

A member of the iPhone Dev Team--a group of hackers that targets Apple devices and is not to be confused with Apple's group that designs the iOS software--announced through a tweet last night that the developer beta release of iOS 5 was susceptible to limera1n, an exploit that targets a vulnerability in the iOS boot software.

As a result, iPhone Dev Team member "MuscleNerd" said that it was possible to install third-party application installer Cydia, which lets users download applications not offered through Apple's App Store. The device used was a fourth-generation iPod Touch running the beta of iOS 5, software Apple offered up to developers following yesterday's WWDC keynote address and iOS 5 unveiling.

For proof, MuscleNerd has posted two photos of the jailbreak, one of which includes the iPod's home screen, which prominently feature the Cydia logo. Another is a screenshot from the third-party SSH iOS application, iSSH, which shows that root level access to the iPod's file system has been obtained. … Read more

So you have a problem with your credit card.

Perhaps you'd like to check on a charge that looks slightly illicit.

You call your credit card company. Your call is answered by someone in a call center in India. This might be someone who knows a little about illicit transactions. It might also be someone who is in jail for murder.

As usual, I am deadly serious.

For the Guardian happily informs me that the guardians of Indian prisons are experimenting with a new program that puts some of their computer-savvy inmates into the workforce. Their task will be … Read more

If you're looking for a weight loss boot camp, the Tent City Jail in Phoenix may be your solution. Controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who dubs himself "America's toughest sheriff," is providing the inmates there with a new amenity: cable television. But to watch their favorite shows, they're going to have to pedal.

Arpaio installed an energy-generating stationary bike (PDF) attached to a TV when he found that 50 percent of the inmates were overweight, many morbidly so. As long as an inmate is pedaling, the bike will produce 12 volts of energy--just enough to power a 19-inch tube TV. But if an inmate stops pedaling at a moderate speed, the TV shuts off.

Because inmates can't be forced to exercise, access to cable TV could provide incentive for them to do so. Female prisoners will test the program first, because they were more receptive to it, Arpaio says.

This isn't Arpaio's first attempt to trim inmates' waistlines. Some years back, he cut inmates' food intake from 3,000 calories to 2,500 calories. "You're too fat," CNN reported Arpaio as saying to the inmates. "I'm taking away your food because I'm trying to help you. I'm on a diet myself. You eat too much fat."

"America's toughest sheriff" hasn't always had an easy time implementing his standards, which have included assembling a female chain gang and making inmates pay $10 every time they need to see a nurse. Human-rights groups consider Tent City jail to be among the harshest in the nation, according to CNN, and numerous civil-rights lawsuits have been filed against the sheriff.

The program that Arpaio is calling "Pedal Vision" might be received with less criticism, though. Watching TV while serving time is a privilege, not a right, so inmates are choosing to take advantage of it. But what if every prisoner pedaled to produce energy? … Read more

Google has finally chosen to be socially conscious.

Oh, of course I'm kidding. Just like those deeply witty Googlies who have reportedly decided to make an April Fool's jape out of jail.

Fast Company appears to have accessed an April 1 amusement, in which the repression-averse company claims it will make jails a better experience for the masses. Which presumably includes mass murderers.

The idea is Google Jail for Communities. And, in the reported words of the company for whom doing evil would constitute doing time for life, this experiment comprises an attempt to bring the finest aspects … Read more