365557
submission
Gibbs-Duhem writes:
Time Magazine is reporting on the best inventions of the year. Alas, the top invention is the somewhat well-known iPhone, but there are some extremely cool projects included that I had certainly never heard of, including a device for capturing waste heat from car engines to increase efficiency up to 40%, a novel car designed to run entirely on compressed air claiming to have a range of 2000km with zero pollution, a James Bond style GPS tracking device that police can use to avoid high-speed chases, a small-scale printing press capable of printing and binding a paperback book in 3 minutes for under $3/book (and $50k per machine), a microbe-based technology for turning soft sand into sandstone, a water-based display which uses computer controlled nozzles to produce coherent gaps in the water, and a way to convert type A, B, and AB-negative blood into type O.
261821
submission
Gibbs-Duhem writes:
Sen. Max Baucus (Dem from MT) wants free college tuition for US math, science, and engineering majors conditional upon working or teaching in the field for at least four years.
It's difficult to see anything that pumps money into education as a bad thing, but is this the best way to help the country create a more stable, educated workforce to compete with India, China, and Canada? It certainly seems that the "trickle-down" effect could help high school education as well, as more graduates look to teaching as a way to repay their debt to society.
112801
submission
Gibbs-Duhem writes:
Nice to see that some market forces are working against DRM. Of course, the big difference between this situation and music is that the professors aren't being paid to submit to the journal, so the journal turning around and restricting access to that work is even more ridiculous. Here is a case where the threat of those professors no longer publishing in that journal may well be enough of a danger that the SAE removes the DRM from their software.
From the Article:
The MIT Libraries have canceled access to the Society of Automotive Engineers' web-based database of technical papers, rejecting the SAE's requirement that MIT accept the imposition of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology.
SAE's DRM technology severely limits use of SAE papers and imposes unnecessary burdens on readers. With this technology, users must download a DRM plugin, Adobe's "FileOpen," in order to read SAE papers. This plugin limits use to on-screen viewing and making a single printed copy, and does not work on Linux or Unix platforms.
MIT faculty respond
"It's a step backwards," says Professor Wai Cheng, SAE fellow and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, who feels strongly enough about the implications of DRM that he has asked to be added to the agenda of the upcoming SAE Publication Board meeting in April, when he will address this topic.
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