
According to our recent poll, only 12% of respondents blame Walmart for the tragic death of a 34 year old employee in the Black Friday rush. But when it comes to lawsuits, money talks.
Naturally, the family of victim Jdimytai Damour is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Walmart, the adjacent Green Acres Mall, the company that manages the property and the company in charge of security. In their view Wamart was "engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem and was otherwise careless, reckless and negligent."
Despite his 6-5, 270 pound stature, Damour died of asphyxiation when trampled by the 2000+ shoppers that fled into the store that night. The amount that the family is suing for has not been disclosed, but I'm sure that they will get what they ask for. Not that money is much consolation mind you—especially when it appears that the shoppers involved will most likely get away scot free. [MSNBC Thanks Matt!]
Global semiconductor suppliers are expected to maintain lean inventory stockpiles in the first quarter of 2010 to help maintain profitability amid uncertain economic conditions, according to market research firm iSuppli.
More details have come about about what was behind PayPal's decision to suspend personal payments to any user in India, as we discussed on Sunday. In a blog post today, PayPal revealed that payments to India will remain in suspension for at least a few months. Customers in India will be able to pull rupees out of the service into their bank accounts within a few days. The suspension came about when Indian government regulators raised questions about whether PayPal's service was enabling remittences (transfers of money by foreign workers) to Indian citizens. "The problems may have been triggered by a marketing push that promotes PayPal as a way to send money abroad, a source familiar with the matter said. The campaign — which reads 'As low as $1.50 to send $300 to countries like India' — may have caught the attention of Indian regulators, the source said."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Just as we're coming to grips with the entire netbook phenomenon, low end manufacturer Coby comes up with something even lamer. "[Midget PCs] are smaller than a netbook but not THAT small." Midget PCs. Lovely.
What's makes a midget PC different than a netbook? If you listen to Coby's marketing director, they're a whole new category of computer meant for leaner times. As far as I can tell though, the PoqetMate-7 and PoqetMate-9 are just netbooks, albeit extremely cheap ones. Coby hasn't offered many specs to ponder, but the models, primarily differentiated by screen size (7in and 9in) will run Linux atop a Chinese Longsoon processor. Past that, I wouldn't expect much more than a Wi-Fi adapter and a few ports, bringing the PoqetMate in line with low-end netbooks like the Asus EeePC 701.
Coby plans to bring these to discount retailers, including traditionally computer-averse stores like Kroger and Rite-Aid, by March, making the PoqetMate-7 the first $100 computer to be widely available in the US. [AKIndi via TheGadgetSite]