An anonymous reader writes "BlueJ is a popular academic IDE which lets students have a visual programming interface. Microsoft copied the design in their 'Object Test Bench' feature in Visual Studio 2005 and even admitted it. Now, a patent application has come to light which patents the very same feature, blatantly ignoring prior art."

eldavojohn writes "Scientists are being forced to rethink theories on why Saturn's upper atmospheric temperature is hotter than can be explained by absorbed sunlight. 'This unexplained "energy crisis" represents a major gap in our understanding of these planets' atmospheres,' the scientists write. 'We need to re-examine our basic assumptions about planetary atmospheres and what causes the observed heating.'"

Dr Kool, PhD writes "According to Bloomberg, a jury ruled against Qualcomm in their patent lawsuit against Broadcom. Qualcomm had sought $8.3 million in damages for patent infringement stemming from Broadcom's H.264 encoder/decoder chips. From the article: 'The patents, covering a way to compress high-definition video, are unenforceable in part because Qualcomm withheld information from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, jurors in San Diego said today after deliberating less than six hours.' This ruling clears the way for H.264 to become a widely adopted open standard."

narramissic writes "The Web Honeynet Project, an independent group of Honeynet researchers from Securiteam and the ITOSF, is putting a new twist on Web application honeynets by naming not only the attack details, but the IP addresses and other tracking information about the attackers as well. As security consultant Brent Huston notes, 'This approach is not unheard of, as lists of known high-volume attackers have been circulating through the Net for several years, but this is the first time someone has applied the honeynet concept to making attacker IP data publicly known.'"

ukhackster writes "A row is brewing in Europe over plans to make medical records available across the EU. The scheme calls for interoperability between health systems in 22 different countries. Experts are predicting that security problems could expose confidential patient records, with one calling the affair 'a colossal waste of money and energy.' This 'e-Health' initiative reflects similar projects in the United States, and raises many of the same issues discussed here. The article makes it clear that many important issues, such as security, privacy, and the rights of patients, are still up in the air as the project moves forward. Could this be another huge IT project disaster on the horizon?"

Reader tqft tipped us to an opinion piece on the UK site The Guardian, which lays out the reasons why article writer Seth Finkelstein feels the .XXX domain is a terrible idea. You may recall that last year (being an election year and all), the concept of a triple-X ghetto was revived, considered, and then quashed all in the space of a few months. We also recently discussed the fact that the idea just won't die, as the company ICM Registry pushes ICANN to allow them to pass out the names by Summer. Finkelstein primarily argues that the new domain is a bad idea from a business point of view. Ignoring for a moment the issue that much of this content is already labeled, he sees this as primarily a means for ICM Registry to gain a monopoly on what is sure to be a hot-selling product. Speculators, pornographers, and above-board companies will all jump on the namespace in an effort to ensure that their domain is represented ... or not, as the case may be. Where do you fall on this issue? Would a .XXX domain be helpful for parents, or just a political salve/moneymaking scam?

The Penny Arcade Expo has moved to a new venue and plans to double in size over the 2006 show. The Washington State Convention center is the new home of PAX for the forseeable future, boasting 200,000 square feet of usable space. Organizers of the convention, started by the duo behind the Penny Arcade comic in 2005, are conservatively expecting 30,000 people to attend the three-day long event. Information about this year's show: "In addition to a show floor filled with contests, tournaments, and unreleased games, PAX 2007 will play host to the annual Omegathon three-day gaming competition, as well as a number of musical acts. Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins told GameSpot today that Jonathan Coulton ('Code Monkey,' 'Re: Your Brains') and Freezepop (whose music can be heard in games like Amplitude and Guitar Hero) will be performing at PAX 07."

The Fun Guy sent in a link to the American Society for Microbiology site, your leading news source for everything between nano and macro. The site is featuring a story about new research into the KT barrier extinction: the period in history where the dinosaurs went extinct, along with a number of other families of species. For a number of years scientists have theorized that an impact on the Yucatan peninsula was responsible for the species crash, but microbiological examination of marine organisms of the time indicate life persisted for another 300,000 years after the 'Chicxulub impact'. The researchers at Princeton who made this discovery theorize that global warming caused by a volcanic eruption in India is a more likely culprit for the world-wide devastation. The article generalizes that there is no 'smoking gun' for this event, and further research is required.