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Submission + - Google launches a data prediction API (google.com)

Submitted by databuff
databuff writes: Google has released a data prediction a prediction API. The service helps users leverage historical data to make predictions that can guide real-time decisions. According to Google, the API can be used for prediction tasks ranging from product recommendations to churn analysis (predicting which customers are likely to switch to another provider). The API involves three simple steps, upload the data, train the model and then generate predictions. The API is currently available on an invitation only basis.
Earth

Japanese Researchers Make Plastic Out of Water 117

Posted by timothy from the what's-kanji-for-boffin? dept.
greenrainbow writes with this excerpt from Inhabit: "The material shown in the picture above is just ice, right? Look again. Elastic water, a new substance invented by researchers at Tokyo University, is a jelly-like substance made up of 95% water along with two grams of clay and a small amount of organic materials. As is, the all-natural substance is perfect for medical procedures, because it's made of water, poses no harm to people, and is perfect for mending tissue. And, if the research team can increase the density of this exciting new substance, it could be used in place of our current oil-based plastics for a host of other things."
Medicine

Submission + - Japanese Researchers Invent Elastic Water (inhabitat.com) 1

Submitted by MikeChino
MikeChino writes: Recently a group of researchers at Tokyo University invented a new material called "elastic water" — a jelly-like substance made up of 95% water mixed with a small amount of clay and other organic materials. According to the researchers, the substance can be used to stick tissues together (human tissues, not Kleenex) and to produce clean plastic materials. It also has a high mechanical strength and self-mends when damaged.
Operating Systems

Submission + - Once free software no longer free (irradiatedsoftware.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TwoUp is/was a piece of free (as in beer) software that offers similar functionality to a Windows 7 feature where you can drag a window to the side to automatically resize and easily compare two windows, but it is keyboard-based and runs on OS X. The developer has "discontinued" TwoUp (read, removed all download links from his site) in order to "concentrate on Cinch and SizeUp," his or her pay-to-play offerings. While you get more features, you have to pay for functionality that once was free.

Question is: am I free to (legally) distribute the application file (rather, disk image) that I currently have on my machine? I downloaded it when it was free, and anyone at the time could have done the same. Currently there is no file available from the developer directly, but I could provide the once-free file, much as if the developer had decided to close up shop or other similar circumstance. In general, it seems like a pretty low move to offer a piece of software for free, let it get noted on blogs and news sites, then pull the rug out from under people who didn't get it in time and force them to pay because they didn't want all the fancy features you had to offer.
Google

Submission + - Xerox sues Google, Yahoo over search patents (cnet.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Xerox has filed a complaint against Google and Yahoo on Friday in U.S. District Court in Delaware (click for PDF), as operating products and services that infringe on two Xerox patents for organizing documents. The two patents, No. 6,778,979 and No. 6,236,994, were granted to Xerox in 2004 and 2001, respectively.

In its complaint, Xerox said various services from Google and Yahoo--including AdWords, Yahoo Search, and YouTube--fall under the scope of the patents, entitled "System for Automatically Generating Queries" and "Method and Apparatus for the Integration of Information and Knowledge." Xerox is seeking an injunction against Google and Yahoo as part of the case, which is a relatively common move in patent trials.

CNET News: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10458419-265.html
Power

Submission + - MIT Developing Body Heat-Powered Electronics (inhabitat.com) 1

Submitted by MikeChino
MikeChino writes: It’s a lot easier to change the batteries in a flashlight than to switch out the batteries in, say, a biomedical monitor. But eventually, such batteries might never have to be changed thanks to a new breed of heat-harvesting electronics developed by researchers at MIT. Professor Anantha Chandrakasan and alumnus Yogesh Ramadass have developed so-called “energy-scavenging systems” that can gather power from temperature differences between an object (like the body) and the air. The systems can’t produce much power yet — just 100 microwatts from a temperature difference of one to two degrees — but that could still be enough to power biomedical devices (i.e. heart rate and blood sugar monitors) or other low-power electronics located in hard-to-reach spots, such as air quality monitors in heating and ventilation ducts or exhaust gas monitors in the flues of industrial plants.

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