Submission + - Who needs SOPA? JotForm seized (geek.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A form creation site was apparently seized due to user content and with no prior notice to the owners.
Submission + - PlayStation Vita: A Closer Look At Near (modojo.com)
buffdaily247 writes: "Sony's PlayStation Vita comes with a handful of apps to enjoy, chief among them Near, social networking software that uses GPS technology to display fellow Vita owners within a radius of roughly four to five miles. From there, you can rate games, connect with friends and pick-up/leave gifts for others to find."
Submission + - WindowMaker development resumes, has first relase since 2006 (windowmaker.org)
brad-x writes: "A new team of developers have recently picked up development of WindowMaker, and they've added many new features including improved support for freedesktop standard menu layout and MacOS X style application and window switching from the keyboard, culminating in a new release, 0.95.2. A basic changelog on the newly redesigned website is available at http://windowmaker.org/news.php."
Submission + - European court of justice rules against SABAM (RIAA in Belgium) (destandaard.be)
An anonymous reader writes: The European court of justice have ruled against the implementation of a filter that blocks copyright content on Netlog. It says the filter is against the law on e-commerce in Europe.
Submission + - Apple, you're not the iPad trademark boss of China (itworld.com)
bdking writes: Apple has found out it will take more than its powerful corporate brand and phalanx of attorneys to assert ownership of the iPad trademark in China. A few hundred million dollars for a legal settlement might be a good start.
Submission + - Supreme Court Legitimizing Medical Patents? (arstechnica.com)
RobinEggs writes: A case before the US Supreme Court today addresses the legality of medical patents.
From TFA: "The case focuses on a patent that covers the concept of adjusting the dosage of a drug, thiopurine, based on the concentration of a particular chemical (called a metabolite) in the patient's blood. The patent does not cover the drug itself—that patent expired years ago—nor does it cover any specific machine or procedure for measuring the metabolite level. Rather, it covers the idea that particular levels of the chemical "indicate a need" to raise or lower the drug dosage.
The patent holder, Prometheus Labs, offers a thiopurine testing product. It sued the Mayo Clinic when the latter announced it would offer its own, competing thiopurine test. But Prometheus claims much more than its specific testing process. It claims a physician administering thiopurine to a patient can infringe its patent merely by being aware of the scientific correlation disclosed in the patent—even if the doctor doesn't act on the patent's recommendations."
The ACLU, AMA, AARP, multiple libertarian groups, and the ghost of Michael Crichton all filed strongly worded amicus briefs urging the court to decide against Prometheus claims.
It's amazing how friendly the justices seem toward medical patents in general. Newest member Elena Kagan offered an opinion I find particularly stupid, which is easiest read and understood in the context of the linked article.
From TFA: "The case focuses on a patent that covers the concept of adjusting the dosage of a drug, thiopurine, based on the concentration of a particular chemical (called a metabolite) in the patient's blood. The patent does not cover the drug itself—that patent expired years ago—nor does it cover any specific machine or procedure for measuring the metabolite level. Rather, it covers the idea that particular levels of the chemical "indicate a need" to raise or lower the drug dosage.
The patent holder, Prometheus Labs, offers a thiopurine testing product. It sued the Mayo Clinic when the latter announced it would offer its own, competing thiopurine test. But Prometheus claims much more than its specific testing process. It claims a physician administering thiopurine to a patient can infringe its patent merely by being aware of the scientific correlation disclosed in the patent—even if the doctor doesn't act on the patent's recommendations."
The ACLU, AMA, AARP, multiple libertarian groups, and the ghost of Michael Crichton all filed strongly worded amicus briefs urging the court to decide against Prometheus claims.
It's amazing how friendly the justices seem toward medical patents in general. Newest member Elena Kagan offered an opinion I find particularly stupid, which is easiest read and understood in the context of the linked article.
Comment ATT Uverse / DSL vs Charter cable (Score 2) 201
I've had all 3 services, and I'll just break them down service wise: Uverse: Speedy all around, latency not that special.
DSL: Really great and cheaper than Uverse.
Charter: Wow.. oversubscribed crap, less than a 56k modem.
Regardless, AT&T has won hands down in service and support. When I called up Charter on my slow ass Internet speeds I was taking to some script reading dude from India and well ya. I took the cable box and modem back to them and they seemed surprised that I canceled my service.
These are my only choices btw, and it sucks.
US Air Force Pays SETI To Check Kepler-22b For Alien Life 301
New submitter iComp writes with this quote from El Reg:
"The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has announced that it is back in business checking out the new [potentially] habitable exoplanets recently discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope to see if they might be home to alien civilizations. The cash needed to restart SETI's efforts has come in part from the U.S. Air Force Space Command, who are interested in using the organization's detection instruments for 'space situational awareness'."
Journal Journal: The wildest musical instrument I've ever seen 5
Someone emailed a wmv of this, but it's here on youtube. The thing is made of farm machinery and looks to be a hell of an engineering feat, but it's more art than engineering.
Submission + - 3-way Price War on Black Friday: iPad, Nook, and K (beyond-black-friday.com)
destinyland writes: "Black Friday has touched off a three-way price war between Apple, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Kobo readers dropped their price to just $99 to compete with the Nook, only to discover that Barnes and Noble was lowering the price on their touchscreen Nooks to $79, to compete with the new $79 Kindle from Amazon. And meanwhile, Apple has announced aggressive pricing on all Apple products for Black Friday, reportedly including $100 off on MacBook and iMac products, and a $61 discount on the iPad 2."
Comment Re:why not outsource all of it? (Score 1) 264
Really? I find it hard to believe that someone even gave you a +1 as Anonymous, yet alone even agree with you.
US Military fab / manufacturing needs to stay in the US and actually employee people in the US.
Comment Thanks Sony (Score 2) 271
It's just confirms that I won't be purchasing anything from you, ever. Good job killing your potential customers.
Comment Re:Exactly the same trajectory, but for the ending (Score 1) 835
I started out with Linux back at the 0.99 release time. I've been using it ever since, until after the updates for Gnome and KDE sucked.
It's pretty bad when someone that hates Windows actually purchases a oem version and installs it on a new build. Honestly I don't know what the hell they were thinking when they did all this UI fubar.
Thankfully Bodhi Linux http://www.bodhilinux.com/ came around. It's still a bit rough around the edges, but I can live with it. E17 based, and just a user that is happy.
Comment Re:headdesk* (Score -1, Offtopic) 63
This really shouldn't be moderated as Flamebait, it's true of all of the politicians.
Submission + - History of Online Gaming (infographic) (silveroakcasino.com)
SeanLind writes: While the history of gaming in general has been talked about for decades, we had never seen an attempt at compiling complete history of online multiplayer gaming.
After a fruitless search we decided it was time for someone to take on the project and get it done, which is exactly what we did. This infographic details all of the most important moments in the world of multiplayer online gaming.
After a fruitless search we decided it was time for someone to take on the project and get it done, which is exactly what we did. This infographic details all of the most important moments in the world of multiplayer online gaming.
