Update

Employees readying class-action lawsuit against EA

Yesterday, a blog entry from the spouse of a worker at Electronic Arts lashed out against the game giant. “The current mandatory hours are 9am to 10pm–seven days a week–with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behavior (at 6:30pm),” read the post, which went on to claim that EA employees receive no overtime, “comp” time, or additional vacation for their efforts.

The veracity of the claims in the online rant is difficult to confirm. However, GameSpot News decided to investigate the matter–and found that there might be some truth behind the blogger’s anger.

Following a tip from an informed source, GameSpot contacted attorney Robert C. Schubert, a partner at the San Francisco law firm Schubert & Reed. He said that he has initiated legal proceedings to start a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a group of EA employees. “We are seeking unpaid overtime for a good number of [EA] employees who weren’t [properly] paid,” Schubert told GameSpot this afternoon. “EA contends they were exempt,” Schubert said. “We contend otherwise.”

DIE! EA! DIE!

Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player

An anonymous reader writes “German PC-Welt magazine reports that Microsoft used an illegal copy of SoundForge 4.5 (Google translation) for editing Wave files shipped with Windows Media Player. You can check that yourself by opening any file in the [Windows location] HelpToursWindowsMediaPlayerAudioWav folder in notepad or other editors of your choice and looking at the last line. There you will find a reference to SoundForge 4.5 and also a user called ‘Deepz0ne’ who happens to be one of the founders of an audio software cracking group called Radium.”

DIE! MICROSOFT! DIE!

Jeopardy College Tournament Game Won by “1337” Student

Tonight was round 1 of the Jeopardy College Tournament. One of the contestants, Kermin, a comp-sci/engineering student from Carnegie Mellon University, had a commanding lead (well over $10K) going into Final Jeopardy.

His final wager had Alex Trebek scratching his head, but Kermin was clearly sending a message to fellow computer nerds. His wager:

$1337

In leetspeak, 1337 translates to “leet” or “elite.”

Due to his correct response in Final Jeopardy, Kermin ended up with $31,542, which makes it likely he’ll wind up in the final rounds of the tournament. It was a clever gesture, perhaps one that only could have been outdone if he had wagered $1132, which would have left him a final score of $31,337.

DIE! L33T! DIE!