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Submission + - iPhone 4 - not in left hand please (engadget.com)

terjeber writes: Looks like some iPhone 4 models, but apparently not all, will lose the signal if held in the left hand. Essentially the two antennas on the phone are connected by the skin of your palm if you do so, making them lose their signal.
Image

Happy Towel Day 122

An anonymous reader writes "While Douglas Adams continues his attempt to set a new record for the longest extended lunch break, geeks all over the universe pay tribute to the beloved author by celebrating the tenth edition of Towel Day. Towel Day is more alive than ever. This year Richard Dawkins, one of Adams' best friends, has tweeted a Towel Day reminder to his numerous followers. The CERN Bulletin has published an article on Towel Day. There has been TV coverage and there will be a radio interview. The Military Republic of the Deltan Imperium, a newly formed micronation, has recognized Towel Day as an official holiday. In Hungary several hundreds of hitchhiker fans want to have a picnic together in a park. And there's a concert, a free downloadable nerdrap album, a free game being released, the list goes on and on."
Programming

Sid Meier and the 48-Hour Game 58

MMBK writes "Sid Meier is possibly the most influential game designer ever, having developed the Civilization series, among others. This video documentary looks at his past while he travels to the University of Michigan for the 48-hour game design competition, which was hosted by his son."
Image

Woman Creates 3-D Erotic Book For the Blind 113

Lisa J. Murphy has written an erotic book with tactile images for that special visually impaired porn connoisseur in your life. Tactile Mind contains explicit softcore raised images, along with Braille text and photos. From the article: "A photographer with a certificate in Tactile Graphics from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Murphy learned to create touchable images of animals for books for visually impaired children. Then she realized that there was a lack of such books for adults only. 'There are no books of tactile pictures of nudes for adults, at least the last time I looked around,' says Murphy. 'We're breaking new ground. Playboy has [an edition with] Braille wording, but there are no pictures.' She says that while we live in a culture saturated with sexual images, the blind have been 'left out.'"

Submission + - Court rejects Microsoft i4i Appeal (canoe.ca)

Onyma writes: On Thursday a federal appeals court denied Microsoft’s request that a full panel of judges rehear arguments in its long-running patent dispute with i4i Ltd.. The decision is a blow to the world’s largest software maker, which has been embroiled in a dispute with the Toronto-based company over a feature in Microsoft’s Word application for more than three years.

“This has been a long and arduous process, but this decision is a powerful reinforcement of the message that smaller enterprises and inventors who own intellectual property can and will be protected,” said Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i.

Submission + - Jamie Escalante died of cancer (wikipedia.org)

Subm writes: Jaime Escalante (December 31, 1930 — March 30, 2010) was a professor and teacher of mathematics who gained renown and distinction for his work at Garfield High School in Los Angeles, California, in teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991. Escalante was the subject of the 1988 film Stand and Deliver. It would be hard to overstate the impact Escalante has made on the education reform movement in the U.S. He and Rafe Esquith were the first to prove very publicly and definitively that demography is not destiny and that inner-city kids, with great teaching and high expectations, could achieve at high levels. At his peak, Escalante had 187 students AT ONE TIME sitting for the Calculus AP exam — and his students accounted for ONE-THIRD of all Mexican-Americans passing the exam in the country.

Comment Re:Cop-out (Score 1) 437

I personally don't believe the engine control system in the Prius failed any safety tests that would have deemed it unsafe to sell when it was certified. I do think that the rising rate of cases (even after you factor out the money-grabbing scammers) signifies an age degradation issue of some component in the system. This is not an uncommon happening in engineering as it is truly impossible to perfectly rapid-age parts during testing the same way they will in real world scenarios.
Google

Google Wins European Trademark Victory 39

adeelarshad82 writes "A European court has ruled in Google's favor, saying that allowing advertising customers to use the names of other companies as search keywords does not represent a trademark violation. The court also went on to say that Google's AdWords program is protected by a European law governing Internet hosting services. Google's main line of defense was claiming that companies that want to extend trademark law to keywords are really interested in 'controlling and restricting the amount of information that users may see in response to their searches.' The decision is the first in a series of decisions from the court about how trademark rights can be used to restrict information available to users. Google is currently battling several trademark keyword cases in the US, including a case against Rosetta Stone, Inc."
Idle

Submission + - Australia Bans Small Breasts as “Child Porn& (sankakucomplex.com)

Madsy writes: "From the article itself: "Australia has banned mainstream pornography from showing women with A-cup breasts, apparently on the grounds that they encourage paedophilia, and in spite of the fact this is a normal breast size for many adult women."

What's next? Make it illegal to take pictures of midgets?"

Submission + - mySQL Community being quietly buried? (mysql.com) 1

Onyma writes: I went to mySQL.com this morning to pick up the latest GA release and to my surprise I found no downloads section on their main page. All that is being pushed up front is Enterprise with 'How to buy" links and a 30 day trial. I finally found the GA's buried in the Dev section of the site. Is this another quiet step forward into trying to bury mySQL Community Edition? If you didn't know better now the mySQL site would look like an entirely commercial product.

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