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Traveling for work usually involves bringing along a small mountain of electronics, each with cables that need to tag along too. But a new Kickstarter promises to replace them all—power, video, and audio—with a single multi-headed cord that can handle any connection that wireless hasn't already replaced.

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And it doesn't involve food.

Lest you think that it’s just Comcast employees that are spitefully renaming customers “A**hole Brown,” or “super b*tch,” the company’s pending merger partner has proven it can do much worse — by slapping the C-bomb on a customer’s bill.

Ars Technica has a copy of a bill addressed to “C*nt Martinez,” which we’re pretty sure is not intended to be a compliment.

Not only does the letter get her name wrong, but it inaccurately states that she tried to cancel her service, which the customer tells Ars she never did.

She says she contacted TWC customer service and was only promised that she’d receive a follow-up call within 48 hours.

“The only information they could provide was that the name change was made on 2/12/15, which happens to be the same day I used their ‘live chat’ feature online and called in and spoke to a representative regarding an issue with my cable box,” she tells Ars.

When Ars contacted TWC about the bill, it was more apologetic, blaming the rude renaming on a third-party vendor with whom it has terminated its agreement.

If you love pizza but wish your hands would get a little greasier while you eat it, it's a great time to be alive.

Little Caesars has unveiled the latest fast food item to make us question everything we know about grub — a new pizza with a crust made out of more than 3 1/2 feet of bacon. Because 4 feet even would be excessive.

The Bacon-Wrapped Crust Deep! Deep! Dish Pizza will be available for a limited time from Feb. 23 to late April

The pizza will be wrapped in two kinds of bacon and topped with pepperoni. On the off chance you have your heart set on trying it but are concerned for your health, each slice is approximately 450 calories. Read more...

More about Bacon, Pizza, Fast Food, Watercooler, and Conversations

Despite the growing availability of legal services, unauthorized file-sharing continues to generate thousands of petabytes of traffic each month.

This massive network use has caused concern among many Internet providers over the years, some of which decided to throttle BitTorrent transfers. Interestingly, AT&T believes the problem can also be dealt with in a more positive way.

A new patent awarded to the Intellectual Property division of the Texas-based ISP describes a ‘fast lane’ for BitTorrent and other P2P traffic.

Titled “System and Method to Guide Active Participation in Peer-to-Peer Systems with Passive Monitoring Environment,” one of the patent’s main goals is to speed up P2P transfers while reducing network costs.

While acknowledging the benefits of file-sharing networks, the ISP notes that they can take up a lot of resources.

“P2P networks can be useful for sharing content files containing audio, video, or other data in digital format. It is estimated that P2P file sharing, such as BitTorrent, represents greater than 20% of all broadband traffic on the Internet,” AT&T writes.

To limit the impact on its network resources, AT&T proposes several technologies to serve content locally. This can be done by prioritizing local traffic and caching files from its own servers.

“The local peer server may provide the content to peers within the same subnet more efficiently than can a peer in another subnet,” the patent reads.

“As such, providing the content on the local peer server can reduce network usage and decrease the time required for the peer to download the content.”

Patent drawing

The ISP realizes that there may be legal concerns when it starts to serve downloads from its own servers, and notes that some “unlicensed” content may be excluded.

In addition to caching files, the patent also describes a system in which BitTorrent traffic is analyzed in order to connect subscribers to peers that cause less congestion.

“In an embodiment, pieces of the data file may be preferentially retrieved from peers closer in the network or peers having a lower network cost,” the patent reads.

In other words, AT&T’s proposal reduces network costs while speeding up the transfers of its subscribers. It seems like a win-win for everyone involved, except strict net neutrality proponents who expect every bit to be treated equally.

Given the big push for net neutrality it is unlikely that the ISP has intentions to test or implement the file-sharing “fast lane” in the real world.

It’s hard to miss the irony here.

The present net neutrality debate first started in 2007 when TF uncovered that Comcast was throttling BitTorrent traffic. Those same principles might now prevent a system that can speed up torrents.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

Conan O'Brien gives everyone's favorite foul-mouthed puppet, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the opportunity to share the offensive jokes that he was censored from saying during his recent appearance on NBC's The Today Show.

(PG-13 content) [sent by teamcoco]

The Consumer Electronics Show draws tens of thousands of tech fans to Las Vegas each year.

Some visitors, however, are apparently better-heeled than others. 

According to Bloomberg, Vice CEO Shane Smith spent a jaw-dropping $300,000 on a dinner at the Bellagio's Prime Steakhouse during CES in January.

A group of 12 diners joined Smith at the steakhouse, the brainchild of legendary chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. 

During an earnings call Tuesday, MGM Resorts International revealed that an unnamed guest had dropped $300,000 on a meal at Prime during the week of CES. On Wednesday, an anonymous source confirmed to Bloomberg that the big spender was indeed Smith.

The Vice CEO had apparently had quite the night at the blackjack tables — according to the Bloomberg report, he had won some $100,000 gambling earlier that night.

MGM spokesman Clark Dumont told Bloomberg that the majority of the check was spent on wine, with some bottles costing more than $20,000 each.

Smith did not immediately return a request for comment.

Smith is known for his antics. At Vice's holiday party in December, he reportedly stood on stage and delivered a $1,500 cash bonus to each employee.

SEE ALSO: Here's where President Obama dined with Elon Musk and Marc Benioff this weekend

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

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