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Nobel Laureate Attacks Medical Intellectual Property 449

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the corporate-bottom-line-is-red dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who was fired by the World Bank blasted drug patents in an editorial in the British Medical Journal titled 'Scrooge and intellectual property rights.' 'Knowledge is like a candle, when one candle lights another it does not diminish its light.' In medicine, patents cost lives. The US patent for turmeric didn't stimulate research, and restricted access by the Indian poor who actually discovered it hundreds of years ago. 'These rights were intended to reduce access to generic medicines and they succeeded.' Billions of people, who live on $2-3 a day, could no longer afford the drugs they needed. Drug companies spend more on advertising and marketing than on research. A few scientists beat the human genome project and patented breast cancer genes; so now the cost of testing women for breast cancer is 'enormous.'"
Software

Submission + - Why Ecma for OOXML? Press Releases Tell the Tale

Submitted by
Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes: "Earlier this month Ecma, a Europe-based standard setting consortium, approved Microsoft's OOXML formats. When Microsoft submitted the formats to Ecma a year ago, ODF proponents called Ecma a "rubber stamp" organization that would do as it was told. Was that fair? Ecma's press releases for the past year may provide a clue: during that time period, it issued three press releases announcing the general adoption of a total of 32 standards at General Assemblies, and twelve press releases on individual standards projects — all but one of which were dedicated to Microsoft's OOXML specification. It would appear that either Ecma doesn't think much of what it's doing these days is very important, or that there is a great deal it can gain from being associated with the OOXML project — or both. This may be why it agreed to charter a Technical Committee with an unusually specific charge for a standards organization: to produce a standard that is "fully compatible" with the formats used by a single vendor. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/articl e.php?story=20061221065155844"
Security

Submission + - Vista zero-day exploit for sale for $50,000

Submitted by dthomas731
dthomas731 writes: Computerworld has an article about a zero day exploit in vista for sale. From the article:
An online criminal has offered to sell software that exploits an unpatched bug in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system, according to security vendor Trend Micro Inc. The code was offered for sale in an underground hacker discussion forum last month, said Raimund Genes, Trend Micro's chief technology officer. The asking price? $50,000.
What gets to me is the tone of the article, almost like it was a legitimate sale. Such as this quote from the article.
"To be honest [the price for a Vista zero day] should probably be lower, ..."
Privacy

Ten Best, Worst, and Craziest Uses of RFID 126

Posted by CowboyNeal from the track-this dept.
An anonymous reader writes "This top 10 rounds up what it calls 'the best, worst and craziest' uses of RFID out there — including chipped kids at Legoland, smart pub tables that let you order drinks, smartcards for sports fans, and chipped airline passengers. The craziest use of the tech surely has to be RFID chips for Marks & Spencer suits — you couldn't pay most people to wear one of them."
Google

Gaia Project Agrees To Google Cease and Desist 323

Posted by Zonk from the quieting-that-particular-deity dept.
Dreben writes "Gaia, an opensource project to develop a 3D API to Google Earth, has decided to comply with a request from Google. The search giant's Chief Technologist, Michael Jones, contacted the project with a request to cease and desist from all past, present and future development of the Gaia project. Amongst other things, they cited 'improper usage of licensed data,' which Google licenses from assorted third party vendors. They are going so far as to request anyone who has ever downloaded any aspect of Gaia to purge all related files. From the post to the freegis-l mail list: 'We understand and respect Google's position on the case, so we've removed all downloads from this page and we ask everybody who have ever downloaded gaia 0.1.0 and prior versions to delete all files concerned with the project, which include source code, binary files and image cache (~/.gaia).' How does such a request, likely to have turned into a demand, affect fair usage? While the API is intended to interface with the the Google Earth service, Google Earth is nothing without the data. Yet at the same time, Google openly publishes their own API which uses the same data in the same manner."

Readable Nuclear Spins Advance Quantum Computing 82

Posted by kdawson from the entangled-phosphorus dept.
eldavojohn writes, "A University of Utah researcher and his team of German colleagues have shown that it is possible, using electronics, to read data stored as nuclear 'spins'. The lead researcher in the experiment was Dr. Christoph Boehme and his team's letter is available via Nature Physics (at a cost of $18 unless you are a subscriber). This is looking to be a large advance in quantum computing because prior to this, measuring the number of spins of a single phosphorus nucleus was very difficult." From the article: "The researchers used a piece of silicon crystal about 300 microns thick — about three times the width of a human hair — less than 3 inches long and about one-tenth of an inch wide. The silicon crystal was doped with phosphorus atoms. Phosphorus atoms were embedded in silicon because too many phosphorus atoms too close together would interact with each other so much that they couldn't store information. The concept is that the nuclear spin from one atom of phosphorus would store one qubit of information. The scientists used lithography to print two gold electrical contacts onto the doped silicon. Then they placed an extremely thin layer of silicon dioxide — about two billionths of a meter thick — onto the silicon between the gold contacts. As a result, the device's surface had tiny spots where the spins of phosphorus atoms could be detected."

Wii Launches, Sells Out Peacefully 565

Posted by Hemos from the no-gunfire-ftw dept.
porcupine8 writes "Like the Playstation 3, the Nintendo Wii sold out on launch day this weekend. Unlike the PS3, the launch was a peaceful affair with no reports yet of console-related violence in the US. This may be partially due to the fact that Nintendo promises to have a total of four million units in stores by Christmas, with the bulk of those going to North America. Midnight launch parties on both the east and west coasts ushered the new console in with a bang." Please, if you've managed to snag a Wii yourself, share your opinions below! Update: 11/20 17:25 GMT by Z : A few quick impressions from 24 hours of owning a Wii, and some links on the subject if you Read More.

Wireless Sensors To Monitor Power Grids 72

Posted by samzenpus from the nano-oversight dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Major power outages like the ones which affected the New York state last month or Western Europe ten days ago are becoming more frequent — even if their causes were different. In some cases, the utility companies have to dispatch electricians all over the place to discover the cause of the power failure or simply to restore power. Engineers at the University of Buffalo think they have a better solution: deploy wireless 'nanotech' sensors to monitor the networks and to find the exact location of a failure. They also say that even if the technology is almost available, several years of research are necessary before such a solution can be used by electrical companies. Read more for additional details about this attractive solution."

iPod Owners Not As Loyal To Brand As Mac Owners 299

Posted by Zonk from the chink-in-the-armor dept.
Virtual_Raider writes "A survey indicates that iPod owners may not be as loyal to their devices as Mac owners are to their computers, thus opening the possibility for Microsoft's Zune to enter the market. Surveyed people also indicated a high likelihood of buying the much maligned brown device. But that doesn't mean that the market is now at Microsoft's mercy." From the article: "ABI Research believes that a critical factor will be whether or not Microsoft can differentiate the Zune from competing products in some meaningful way. One differentiator, Zune's Wi-Fi peer-to-peer sharing, which Microsoft is playing up heavily, 'isn't all that compelling, at least not now,' notes Wilson. 'There's a lot more you could do with that capability.' But given the results of ABI Research's survey, Apple will need to make some big announcements in 2007 if it is to maintain its edge in the industry. Says Wilson, 'Apple needs a new high-end device that works really well and looks really cool, because other brands are catching up.'"

High-Def Disc Interactivity Debuts on HD DVD 135

Posted by Zonk from the movies-remixed dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Next to picture quality, interactivity has been touted as one of the key selling points of the next-gen disc formats — unlike standard def DVD, both HD DVD and Blu-ray are capable of delivering truly interactive experiences. This past Tuesday, Universal Studios released 'Fast and the Furious: Toyko Drift' on HD DVD with an interactive feature they've dubbed 'U-Control,' delivering the first true on-the-fly, user-controlled supplements to a pre-recorded video format."

Perseid Meteor Shower To Peak This Weekend 118

Posted by Hemos from the go-out-and-watch-the-sights dept.
Krishna Dagli writes "This weekend provides one of the year's best opportunities to see some "shooting stars". The annual Perseid meteor display is expected to peak on Friday and Saturday night. Meteors are bits of dust or rock that plunge into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up, making bright streaks in the sky. It does not take a large object to produce a visible meteor — most are the size of a grain of sand or a small pebble."

Torvalds Critiques of GPLv3 and FSF Refuted 548

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the time-for-a-face-to-face dept.
j00bar writes "After Linus Torvalds' impassioned critiques of the second draft of GPLv3 and the community process the FSF has organized, Newsforge's Bruce Byfield discovered in conversations with the members of the GPLv3 committees that the committee members disagree; they believe not only has the FSF been responsive to the committees' feedback but also that the second draft includes some modifications in response to Torvalds' earlier criticisms." NewsForge and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.

MySpace #1 US Destination Last Week 381

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the looking-for-a-stage-2-burn dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Hitwise is reporting that MySpace has reached the top, surpassing Yahoo! Mail as the most visited site on the internet for US users. Seeing a 4300% increase in visits in just two short years, this internet sensation has come quite a long ways. From the article: 'To put MySpace's growth in perspective, if we look back to July 2004 myspace.com represented only .1% of all Internet visits. This time last year myspace.com represented 1.9% of all Internet visits. With the week ending July 8, 2006 market share figure of 4.5% of all the US Internet visits.'"

Patriot Act Bypasses Facebook Privacy 562

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the if-you-don't-want-it-published dept.
Geoffreyerffoeg writes "An article from the National Association of Colleges and Employers contains yet another horror story about a prospective hire's Facebook being checked — with a different twist. The interviewee had enabled privacy on his profile, '[b]ut, during the interview, something he was not prepared for happened. The interviewer began asking specific questions about the content on his Facebook.com listing and the situation became very awkward and uncomfortable. The son had thought only those he allowed to access his profile would be able to do so. But, the interviewer explained that as a state agency, recruiters accessed his Facebook account under the auspices of the Patriot Act.' How can a 'state agency' use the Patriot Act to subpoena a Facebook profile?"

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