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Submission + - USPTO Gives Sergey Brin Patent for Google Doodles

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: After a 10-year struggle, the USPTO was convinced to issue Google a patent Tuesday for Systems and Methods for Enticing Users to Access a Web Site, aka Google Doodles. Among other things, Google explains that the invention of co-founder Sergey Brin covers modifying a company logo with 'a turkey for Thanksgiving' and 'a leprechaun's pot of gold for Saint Patrick's Day.' To help drive home its point, Google included an illustration showing the USPTO that hearts could be displayed on the Google home page for Valentine's Day, which would be deja-vu-all-over-again for the 394 lovers who used the UIUC PLATO system on Feb. 14th, 1975. Coincidentally, a request was made last spring for a PLATO-themed Google Doodle to tell the world about the huge set of innovations introduced decades before Larry and Sergey founded Google, but the search giant begged off.
Apple

Submission + - Court okays Steve Jobs deposition in iTunes case (edibleapple.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It seems like forever ago, but it really wasn’t until April 2009 that Apple began offering iTunes downloads free from the shackles of DRM. Prior to that, downloaded songs were only playable on iPods, effectively tying consumers who used iTunes for music downloads to Apple hardware.

Antitrust lawsuits ensued, and while some claims were dropped, the rest were consolidated and rage on. Now, US Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd has given the the prosecution the go-ahead to conduct a limited deposition of Apple CEO Steve Jobs about his role in refusing to license FairPlay to RealNetworks.
United States

Submission + - Wikileaks Claims US Ambassador to Mexico

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Miami Herald reports that US Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual has resigned following weeks of withering criticism by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who said he'd lost trust in the envoy and demanded his removal marking the first high-level US diplomat to quit as a result of the release of sensitive US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. Calderon repeatedly voiced frustration and anger at US diplomatic cables from Pascual and diplomats serving under him that questioned whether Calderon's anti-crime strategy would succeed and criticized the effectiveness of Mexican security agencies. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced "great regret" in announcing Pascual's resignation, saying he'd been an effective "architect and advocate for the U.S.-Mexico relationship" and said Pascual had sustained morale of US agents and diplomats in Mexico as they have increasingly fallen into the line of fire. It is highly unusual for a foreign leader to be so outspoken in demanding the removal of a US diplomat as Calderon has been in recent weeks — and equally rare that such demands would be met."
Businesses

Submission + - Experienced Need Not Apply

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: A federal lawsuit claims that requirements in job ads posted by Infosys automatically discriminated against older workers. Ralph DeVito, a NJ resident who filed the lawsuit, had applied for two tech job openings advertised by Infosys on Monster.com. One posting set a 'maximum experience' requirement of 15 years, and another set a limit of 25 years. DeVito, who was 58 when he applied for the jobs, has more than 25 years of experience in the jobs sought. 'Simply doing the math, 25 years' experience boxes out anyone who is over 40,' said John Roberts, who represents DeVito. Infosys, whose CEO and Chairman each have 30 years experience with the company, said it doesn't comment on pending litigation. Monster Worldwide was also named in the lawsuit, which contends that Monster should have known that 'maximum experience' requirements 'constituted a de facto age limit.' In November, the EEOC, in a letter to DeVito, wrote, 'We found that you were discriminated against in violation of the ADEA (Age Discrimination in Employment Act),' but the agency declined to bring a lawsuit.
Networking

Submission + - Tech Titans Team to Back OpenFlow Networking (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by
miller60
miller60 writes: "Six huge network operators are joining forces to create the open Networking Foundation, which will advance the development of the OpenFlow standard developed at Stanford and Cal-Berkeley. Founding members Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Verizon and Deutsche Telekom say OpenFlow has the potential to simplify network management and speed innovation. "OpenFlow really has the potential to be a very important shift in how people look at networks, said Google's Urs Hoelzle, who will head the new foundation."

Comment Re:I wonder what will Apple fanbois will say (Score 1) 315

by tgrigsby (#35380812) Attached to: Apple: You Must Be 17+ To Use Opera

You can't be a "control whore", because then you would be selling your authority to whomever would pay.

You are absolutely correct. By that argument, we could reasonably call Apple the "Control Pimp". It has a whole bunch of apps in its stable (App Store) and it charges you money to use one of them. It can restrict use of an app and even kill an app off if it's not bringing in enough money.

Cuz Apple gots to get PAID.

[insert picture of Steve Jobs macking with a grill, 10 pounds of gold chains and rings, and a cane.]

Comment Phone got him off -- Judge avoided precedent (Score 2) 254

by tgrigsby (#35320620) Attached to: Smart Phone Gets Driver Out of a Speeding Ticket

I'm going to guess that, yes, the phone got him out of the ticket, but only because the judge wanted to avoid setting a precedent by expressly ignoring it. I'd say his evidence was clear enough, but the judge wanted to avoid being the judge to rule that an app on someone's mobile device constitutes indisputable evidence, and the lack of evidence on the officer's part gave him the necessary out.

Comment Superconducting protons? (Score 1) 145

by tgrigsby (#35319772) Attached to: Frictionless Superfluid Found In Neutron Star Core

Based on observations of Cassiopeia A, Dany Page and his collaborators pinpoint the critical temperature of the neutron superfluid to half a billion degrees and argue that the protons in neutron-star cores are superconducting.

Hey folks, help me out here. My understanding of "superconduction" deals solely with electron pairs traveling through a special medium. How would protons in a neutron star be "superconducting"? Is that to say that protons move through the neutron star material with zero resistance? And if that's the case, what happened to all the electrons? I thought that the very definition of a neutron star was one in which gravity had caused the collapse of atoms, and that one byproduct of that collapse was that the protons and electrons merged to become neutrons themselves...

???

Comment In other words (Score 2) 98

by tgrigsby (#34959582) Attached to: Foundation Drupal 7

"Of all the better-known content management systems, Drupal is oftentimes criticized for having the steepest learning curve. Yet that would only be a valid charge as a result of Drupal's great power and flexibility — particularly in the hands of a knowledgeable Drupal developer."

Of all the better-known programming languages, Assembly is oftentimes criticized for having the steepest learning curve. Yet that would only be a valid charge as a result of Assembly's great power and flexibility — particularly in the hands of a knowledgeable Assembly developer.

There. Fixed that for you.

Anytime someone tells me that a system has a steep learning curve, I figure the guy that developed it did it wrong. There's steep, and then there's ridiculous, and if you have to tell me that the learning curve is criticized for being steep, I'm going to assume that there are better solutions out there or that there is an opportunity for a better solution to be created.

That's just 21 years of programming talking...

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