Comment There is a nice Matlab - clone for Android (Score 1) 783
Addi with Addi -plot is a Matlab clone build on the Octave project. Seems to work nicely. Pretty close to BASIC
ITC Investigates Xbox 360 After Motorola Complaint 71
FlorianMueller writes "The US International Trade Commission, which is increasingly popular as a patent enforcement agency, voted to investigate a complaint filed by Motorola against Microsoft last month. Motorola claims that the Xbox infringes five of its patents. In October, Microsoft complained against Motorola, alleging patent infringement by its Android-based smartphones. Apple, Nokia and HTC are also involved with ITC investigations as complainants and respondents. A new one-page overview document shows the ongoing ITC investigations related to smartphones and the products that the complainants would like to have banned from entry into the US market. The good news is that any import bans won't be ordered until long after Christmas. The ITC is faster than courts, but not that fast."
Thief Returns Stolen Laptop Contents On USB Stick 352
While it's true that Sweden is responsible for unleashing IKEA and ABBA on humanity, not everything they produce is terrible. Their thieves are some of the most considerate in the world. An unnamed professor at Umeå University received a USB stick with all his data after his laptop was stolen. From the article: "The professor, who teaches at Umeå University in northern Sweden, was devastated when ten years of work stored on his laptop was stolen. But to his surprise, a week after the theft, the entire contents of his laptop were posted to him on a USB stick. 'I am very happy,' the unnamed professor told the local Västerbottens-Kuriren newspaper. 'This story makes me feel hope for humanity.'"
Comment How stay on top. (Score 1) 239
It is touched at above and you touch the issue: As long as you move faster than the others, people follow. When you slow down, people find others to follow. This is also true in commercial business - when companies start using lawers instead of developers they have lost.
As long as Linus seems to keep up the steam, the rest follows, when he slows down, people will follow others. The bus-factor? There are clever people around who will be followed. Some will fight to take over Linus' position. If they get close to it, the development is already somewhere else.
Comment Re:NMT (Score 4, Informative) 308
I use the NMT - system as implemented in Scandinavia (http://www.ice.no/). It works all places I sail. It cost approx as an ADSL-connection. I opted for a plan of $30/week when in use (summer and winter holidays) and nothing at other times.
The 10 Most Absurd Scientific Papers 127
Lanxon writes "It's true: 'Effects of cocaine on honeybee dance behavior,' 'Fellatio by fruit bats prolongs copulation time,' and 'Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull?' are all genuine scientific research papers, and all were genuinely published in journals or similar publications. Wired's presentation of a collection of the most bizarrely-named research papers contains seven other gems, including one about naval fluff and another published in The Journal of Sex Research."
Ubuntu Desktop In the Cloud 83
jimjimovich writes "One new feature in Ubuntu 10.04 that caught my attention is the Desktop in the Cloud project. Ubuntu already has great EC2 support, and it's getting even better. Now you can launch Ubuntu Desktop instances on EC2 and connect to them with an NX client."
Comment Re:It's not a law!!! (Score 1) 418
If you want to make a product and you expect to hae it in the marked in two years, you would drop the idea if your product does not fit in the marked included effects of Moore's law. Nobody would make a product that don't comply with the "law". It is driving/regulating the marked.
Pål
Comment Again? What is the new take this time? (Score 1) 373
One of the biggest and best attempts to diagnose psychiatry by EEG-measures was R. John in the 1980-1990. His methods failed in practical use.
There are no publications sited by Pubmed on this, but EImindAs website and the linked article gives an impression of this being the same again. Don't hold your breath.
PGL
Comment Re:Stupidy, stupidy, stupidy... (Score 1) 532
I agree, but don't you think they have tried with a few independent testers first?
Pål
Comment Keep them in house? (Score 1) 237
When you let the documents out of the house, there are no way to prevent people from using the information. If the information was only available on a web-page with passwords and monitoring of user and IP-addresses you will at least have some control of the information.
pgl
Opening Quantum Computing To the Public 191
director_mr writes "Tom's Hardware is running a story with an interesting description of a 28-qubit quantum computer that was developed by D-Wave Systems. They intend to open up use of their quantum computer to the public. It is particularly good at pattern recognition, it operates at 10 milliKelvin, and it is shielded to limit electromagnetic interference to one nanotesla in three dimensions across the whole chip. Could this be the first successful commercial quantum computer?"
Liquid Mirror Telescopes Set For Magnetic Upgrade 64
KentuckyFC writes "Liquid mirror telescopes start life as a puddle of mercury in a bowl. Set the bowl spinning and the mercury spreads out in a thin film giving the surface an almost perfect mirror finish. But these telescopes have two important limitations. First, they can only point straight up since tilting the mirror spills the mercury. And second, they cannot be made adaptive to correct for any blurring introduced by the Earth's atmosphere. But liquid mirror telescopes look set for an upgrade thanks to the work of a group of Canadian researchers. Their technique is to change the shape of the liquid mirror using powerful electromagnets. They use a ferromagnetic fluid of iron nanoparticles in oil instead of mercury which is too dense to be easily manipulated in this way. The work is just proof of principle at this stage but the idea is to use magnets to correct for the usual range of optical aberrations that telescopes have to deal with (abstract). And also to allow a liquid telescope to be tilted by using oil that is much more viscous than mercury and correcting any periodic deformation in the fluid that tilting might cause."
Rockets To Race Over Wisconsin Skies 210
Iron Condor writes with a reminder that that the first race of the Rocket Racing League (last mentioned here in April, after its 2005 founding) is set to take place later this month at Oshkosh AirVenture 08. This race, says Iron Condor,
"is exactly what it sounds like: NASCAR 1000m above ground in rocket-propelled airplanes. Created by X-prize founder/CEO Peter Diamandis, this is 'the next evolution of racing' (at least according to the promo video, which is definitely worth watching)..."
Apple Climbs Into Third Place In U.S. PC Market 1019
Tibor the Hun writes "According to Gartner and IDC, Apple now has between 7.8 and 8.5% of market share. While those numbers are not astonishing, they are not insignificant, and their growth does not seem to be slowing down. Will the pearly gates of acceptance open up for them once they reach the magic 10%, and will that have a positive effect on desktop Linux adoption? Hard to tell, but it's good to see that normal people (not just us geeks) are choosing to go with a different OS, rather than staying with the headache-inducing Windows."
