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Submission + - Google Strikes Deal With Verizon to Reduce Patent Troll Suits (wsj.com)

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: Google Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. struck a long-term patent cross-license agreement to reduce the risk of future patent lawsuits, the latest in a string of deals that signal a slowdown after years of aggressive patent wars.

The deal effectively bars the companies from suing each other over any of the thousands of patents the companies currently own or acquire in the next five years. It also protects the companies if either sells a patent to another company, and that company attempts a lawsuit.

“This cross license allows both companies to focus on delivering great products and services to consumers around the world,” said Kirk Dailey, Google’s head of patent transactions.

Submission + - China officially became the world's largest economy, ahead of the United States

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: For the first time in 150 years, the USA has lost its title of the largest economy in the world to China. China officially became the world’s largest economy, ahead of the United States, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to the latest figures of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) just released in December 8th, 2014, China has come ahead the United States as the world’s largest economy. China’s GDP will indeed reach 17600 billion in 2014 against 17400 billion for the United States. These data are calculated using the method known as “purchasing power parity”, which is economically significant. It measures the purchasing power of different currencies in a common unit as opposed to changes in exchange rates. Now China represents 16.5% of the global economy in terms of real purchasing power, ahead of the US, 16.3%. According to IMF estimates, the gap should continue to widen in the coming years. By 2019, China would reach more than 26,800 billion of national wealth, against just 22,000 billion for the United States. The United States had become the leading economic power in 1872 after overtaking Britain.

Submission + - What Will Microsoft's 'Embrace' of Open Source Actually Achieve? (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Back in the day, Microsoft viewed open source and Linux as a threat and did its best to retaliate with FUD and patent threats. And then a funny thing happened: Whether in the name of pragmatism or simply marketing, Microsoft began a very public transition from a company of open-source haters (at least in top management) to one that’s embraced some aspects of open-source computing. Last month, the company blogged that .NET Core will become open-source, adding to its previously open-sourced ASP.NET MVC, Web API, and Web Pages (Razor). There’s no doubt that, at least in some respects, Microsoft wants to make a big show of being more open and supportive of interoperability. The company’s even gotten involved with the .NET Foundation, an independent organization designed to assist developers with the growing collection of open-source technologies for .NET. But there’s only so far Microsoft will go into the realm of open source—whereas once upon a time, the company tried to wreck the movement, now it faces the very real danger of its whole revenue model being undermined by free software. But what's Microsoft's end-goal with open source? What can the company possibly hope to accomplish, given a widespread perception that such a move on its part is the product of either fear, cynicism, or both?

Submission + - Brain-Like Circuits Can Mimic Pavlov's Dogs (insidescience.org)

Submitted by benonemusic
benonemusic writes: A materials scientist at Harvard University and his colleagues have invented a new type of transistor-based electronic system that can mimic the plasticity of the brain by learning, unlearning and storing memories.The researchers constructed their device using films of samarium nickel oxide (SNO). When placed in contact with an ion-based liquid, SNO's electrical conductivity can be affected over the long term. The researchers used their electronic system to conduct versions of Pavlov's experiments with dogs, in which dogs associated food rewards with a bell ringing. The electronic system detect that two electrical stimuli are linked if they repeatedly came at the same time, and unlearned this connection if these two stimuli stopped coming at the same time. The circuits could also store patterns of electrical signals they experienced, mimicking how the brain stores memories. These devices can serve as "an electronic platform to probe fundamental problems in neuroscience," said lead researcher Shriram Ramanathan, a materials scientist at Harvard University.

Submission + - How Birds Lost Their Teeth

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A research team from the University of California, Riverside and Montclair State University, New Jersey, have found that the lack of teeth in all living birds can be traced back to a common ancestor who lived about 116 million years ago. From the article: "To solve this puzzle, the researchers used a recently created genome database that catalogues the genetic history of nearly all living bird orders--48 species in total. They were looking for two specific types of genes: one responsible for dentin, the substance that (mostly) makes up teeth, and another for the enamel that protects them. Upon finding these genes, researchers then located the mutations that deactivate them, and combed the fossil record to figure out when those mutations developed. They concluded that the loss of teeth and the development of the beak was a two-stage process, though the steps basically happened simultaneously. The paper states: 'In the first stage, tooth loss and partial beak development began on the anterior portion of both the upper and lower jaws. The second stage involved concurrent progression of tooth loss and beak development from the anterior portion of both jaws to the back of the rostrum.'"

Comment Or, maybe deliberate? (Score 1) 230

by Futurepower(R) (#48597303) Attached to: Forbes Blasts Latests Windows 7 Patch as Malware
"... one may reasonably conjecture that MS is not exerting strong efforts on quality control."

One may reasonably conjecture that a Microsoft employee deliberately caused problems so that people will buy new computers, with another version of Windows. If that was done at the request of top management is not known.

Submission + - Canada Waives Own Rules, Helps Microsoft Avoid US Visa Problems

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: Citizenship and Immigration Canada has granted an unprecedented exemption to Microsoft that will allow the company to bring in an unspecified number of temporary foreign workers as trainees without first looking for Canadians to fill the jobs. No other company in any other field has been granted such an exemption, and it does not fall within any of the other categories where exemptions are normally given, according to a source familiar with process, effectively creating a new category: the Microsoft Exemption. Microsoft Canada did not immediately respond to questions about the deal, but in an interview earlier this year with Bloomberg Businessweek, Karen Jones, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, said the deal will allow Microsoft to bypass stricter U.S. rules on visas for foreign workers. The entire issue of temporary foreign workers has been as blisteringly hot a topic across Canada as it has been in the USA.

Submission + - Attorney General Won't Force New York Times Reporter to Reveal Source (nbcnews.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Attorney General Eric Holder has decided against forcing a reporter for the New York Times to reveal the identity of a confidential source, according to a senior Justice Department official. The reporter, James Risen, has been battling for years to stop prosecutors from forcing him to name his source for a book that revealed a CIA effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The government wanted Risen's testimony in the trial of a former CIA official, Jeffrey Sterling, accused of leaking classified information.

Submission + - 'Revolving door' spins between AT&T, government (publicintegrity.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: That AT&T just won an eight-figure contract to provide the federal government’s General Services Administration with new mobile devices isn’t itself particularly notable.

What is: Casey Coleman, an AT&T executive responsible for “delivering IT and professional services to federal government customers,” oversaw the GSA’s information technology division and its $600 million IT budget as recently as January.

Submission + - Spy Drone hacks WiFi networks, listens to calls (wusa9.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: It's small. It's bright yellow, and it's capable of cracking Wi-Fi passwords, eavesdropping on your cell phone calls and reading your text messages. It's a spy drone and it just landed in Washington, D.C.

Long-time friends and former Air Force buddies, Mike Tassey and Rich Perkins, describe their state-of-the-art cyber drone as hard to take down, hard to see and virtually hard to detect.

They built it in a garage, using off the shelf electronics to prove a drone can be used to launch cyber-attacks.

Submission + - Fury at Airbus after it hints the A380 may be mothballed (independent.co.uk) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Airbus plunged deeper into crisis yesterday as customers reacted with fury to its suggestion that it may stop producing the fabled A380 super-jumbo in 2018 because of poor sales. The prospect of the European plane-maker, which employs thousands of workers in the UK, mothballing the giant passenger airliner sent shockwaves through the aviation industry yesterday and triggered a major fall in the company’s share price.

Sales of the A380 have been sluggish because of a limit to the number of routes where a 500-seater is needed. No airline has ordered A380s at all this year, while in July, the Japanese carrier Skymark Airlines cancelled the six it had ordered.

Chief financial officer Harald Wilhelm started the speculation frenzy when reports emerged that he had told investors Airbus might have to discontinue the plane unless it can invest in improvements to make it more attractive to customers. Although analysts and rivals have suggested it for some time, it was the first time the manufacturer had talked publicly about the humiliating possibility.

He said the A380 manufacturing programme would break even next year but not into 2018 without new engine types. That decision on the engine has to be made soon, because it would normally take about four years – and $2bn – to develop.

Submission + - 'Lax' Crossdomain Policy Puts Yahoo Mail At Risk (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: A researcher disclosed a problem with a loose cross-domain policy for Flash requests on Yahoo Mail that put email message content, contact information and much more at risk. The researcher said the weakness is relatively simple to exploit and puts users at high risk for data loss, identity theft, and more.

Yahoo has patched one issue related to a specific .swf file hosted on Yahoo’s content delivery network that contained a vulnerability that could give an attacker complete control over Yahoo Mail accounts cross origin. While the patch fixed this specific issue, the larger overall configuration issue remains, meaning that other vulnerable .swf files hosted outside the Yahoo CDN and on another Yahoo subdomain could be manipulated the same way.

Submission + - Congress grants US authorities unlimited access to every person's communications (infowars.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The legislation was passed yesterday 325-100 via a voice vote, a green light for what Congressman Justin Amash describes as “one of the most egregious sections of law I’ve encountered during my time as a representative”.

The bill allows the private communications of Americans to be scooped up without a court order and then transferred to law enforcement for criminal investigations.

The legislation effectively codifies and legalizes mass warrantless NSA surveillance on the American people, with barely a whimper of debate.

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