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Google

Google Project 10^100 Reaches Voting Phase 154

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the show-me-the-money dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In autumn last year, Google announced Project 10 to the 100, through which it aimed to commit $10 million to implement the best philanthropic idea. The project was suspended indefinitely after receiving more than 150,000 submissions. Google has now announced sixteen finalists — each of which was inspired by many individual submissions — and issued a call for votes. The voting deadline is October 8 and the Project 10^100 advisory board will then select up to five ideas to be implemented."
Microsoft

The Real-World State of Windows Use 374

Posted by samzenpus from the give-me-the-numbers dept.
snydeq writes "Performance and metrics researcher Devil Mountain Software has released an array of real-world Windows use data as compiled by its exo.performance.network, a community-based monitoring tool that receives real-time data from about 10,000 PCs throughout the world. Tracking users' specific configurations, as well as the applications they actually use, the tool provides insights into real-world Windows use, including browser share, multicore adoption, service pack adoption, and which anti-virus, productivity, and media software are most prevalent among Windows users. Of note are the following conclusions: two years after Vista's release, not even 30 percent of PCs actually run it; OpenOffice.org is making inroads into the Microsoft Office user base; and despite the rise of Firefox, Internet Explorer remains the standard option for inside-the-firewall apps."
Lord of the Rings

Tolkien Trust Okays Hobbit Movie 325

Posted by Soulskill from the if-i-say-he-is-a-burgla-a-burglar-he-is dept.
saudadelinux writes "Last year, the Tolkien Trust, which administers JRR's estate, bellowed stentoriously, 'Youuuu shall not make The Hobbit!' and sued New Line Cinema for 'a reported $220m (£133m) in compensation, based on breach of contract and fraud.' New Line, chastened, has settled for an undisclosed sum of money. The Trust has given its blessing to New Line for Guillermo del Toro to film The Hobbit and for New Line to make other films based on Tolkien's work. Much rejoicing!"

Comment Re:Generic sounds, words can not be trademarked (Score 1) 251

by langelgjm (#29275821) Attached to: Tour Companies Battle Over Trademarked Duck Noises

Look at Qualitex again, though. The green-gold color is arbitrary. The only reason it's able to be trademarked is because it has acquired a secondary meaning. The same would apply here - if the tour company is associated with these duck sounds enough, the sounds may have acquired a secondary meaning.

Any injunction against use would also only apply to other tour companies, not people using duck calls in general. (Though with trademark dilution, its possible that related business areas would be encompassed as well)

Comment too much data (Score 1) 282

by roggg (#29275365) Attached to: IBM Patents Tweeting Remote Control
Twitter and FB statuses where useful and/or interesting because the amount of data was manageable. When you have 50 friends auto-tweeting channel changes and every other bit of daily minutia, the data will only be useful to other computers (ie marketers and advertisers).

Comment Re:Typical OEM Software Deal (Score 1) 278

by lordandmaker (#29275315) Attached to: Sony To Put Chrome On Laptops

I'd suggest you're in the minority with a preference for having no browser at point of delivery, rather than just the wrong browser.

Much of the rest of the crap I agree with you on, there's a whole load of crap I'll never need. But a browser is something I just expect to have on a new, complete, system and I'm quite prepared to change it if it's the 'wrong' one. I think I'm in the majority here.

Comment Re:In the real world, fire is a bad solution (Score 1) 497

by Hattmannen (#29252799) Attached to: The Homemade Hard Disk Destroyer
Sorry if I seemed harsh. That was not my intention. And you are most certainly right. Most of the stuff will probably end up as oxides. Doesn't make it any easier to recover data from though. :-) Intresting that about aluminium being used as a deoxidizing agent. I didn't know about that method, although I can imagine it must be terribly effective. As I remember from primary school we learned that coal was often used in the old Swedish ironworks to purify the metal.
Displays

Augmenting Reality With Your Mobile Phone 111

Posted by CmdrTaco from the evolve-no-neck dept.
blackbearnh writes "With the release of the 3.1 iPhone OS, application developers will finally be able to develop augmented reality (AR) apps. In other words, Terminator Vision is right around the corner. O'Reilly Media recently talked to Chetan Damani, one of the founders of Acrossair, about how they developed their new AR application, Nearest Tube, which displays the closest London Tube stations over a live video overlay on an iPhone 3GS. According to Damani, developing AR applications on the 3GS is dead easy, and the real trick will be developing good augmented reality apps. 'It's all about who's going to have the most amount of data and the most valid data. So there's the obvious types of apps which you're going to launch and those are the find me my nearest bar, find me my nearest event, find me the nearest tube stop, find me the nearest ATM. And those sorts of apps are all going to be around. But they're only going to be useful for when you're trying to look for things. So if we want to get users to use augmented reality a little bit more, we have to start introducing other bits of functionality, things like show me the offers available in a particular high street. Show me when I'm walking down a high street if there's a table available at a particular restaurant. And it's that sort of interactivity and providing that real-time data in this augmented reality view which is going to start getting people to use it a lot more rather than just for show me where the nearest area is.'"
Medicine

Depression May Provide Cognitive Advantages 512

Posted by CmdrTaco from the see-it's-an-advantage dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. argue in Scientific American that although depression is considered a mental disorder, depression may in fact be a mental adaptation which provides real benefits. This is not to say that depression is not a problem. Depressed people often have trouble performing everyday activities, they can't concentrate on their work, they tend to socially isolate themselves, they are lethargic, and they often lose the ability to take pleasure from such activities such as eating and sex. So what could be so useful about depression? 'Depressed people often think intensely about their problems,' write the authors. 'These thoughts are called ruminations; they are persistent and depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. Numerous studies have also shown that this thinking style is often highly analytical. They dwell on a complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, which are considered one at a time.' Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas and there is evidence that people who get more depressed while they are working on complex problems in an intelligence test tend to score higher on the test (PDF). 'When one considers all the evidence, depression seems less like a disorder where the brain is operating in a haphazard way, or malfunctioning. Instead, depression seems more like the vertebrate eye — an intricate, highly organized piece of machinery that performs a specific function.'"

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