40796985
submission
c0lo writes:
Dave Brubeck died yesterday at 91 — one day short of 92.
Dave Brubeck revolutionized the jazz rhythms and is considered one of the founders of progressive jazz — in other words a great hacker.
40003999
submission
c0lo writes:
Engineers from Google's Books team have released the design plans for a comparatively reasonably priced (about $1500) book scanner on Google Code.
Built using a scanner, a vacuum cleaner and various other components, the Linear Book Scanner was developed by engineers during the "20 percent time" that Google allocates for personal projects.
The license is highly permissive, thus it's possible the design and building costs can be improved. Any takers?
39941829
submission
c0lo writes:
Severely brain-injured Scott Routley hasn’t spoken in 12 years. None of his physical assessments since then have shown any sign of awareness, or ability to communicate, thus being diagnosed as vegetative (vegetative patients emerge from a coma into a condition where they have periods awake, with their eyes open, but have no perception of themselves or the outside world).
Scott Routley was asked questions while having his brain activity scanned in an fMRI machine. British neuroscientist Prof Adrian Owen said Mr Routley was clearly not vegetative.
"Scott has been able to show he has a conscious, thinking mind. We have scanned him several times and his pattern of brain activity shows he is clearly choosing to answer our questions. We believe he knows who and where he is."
As a consequence, medical textbooks would need to be updated to include Prof Owen's techniques, because only observational assessments (as opposed to using mind-readers) of Mr Routley have continued to suggest he is vegetative.
The professor in an earlier interview functional MRI machines are expensive (up to $2 million), but it’s quite possible that a portable high-end EEG machine, costing about $75,000, can be used at a patient’s bedside.
Phillip K Dick's world is one step closer.
37787447
submission
c0lo writes:
The West Country city launched its own local currency to great fanfare yesterday with the Lord Mayor handing over a £B1 note in symbolic exchange for a round loaf of granary bread made by local baker Joe Wheatcroft, who said he would put his first piece of Bristolian cash towards buying a dairy cow.
Independent mayor candidate George Ferguson says if he is elected he would be happy to be paid in Bristol Pounds.
The 5 Bristol pound denomination is Banksy note, featuring a design tribute to the renowned graffiti artist.
37211141
submission
c0lo writes:
Amazing display of intelligence for a bird, even more amazing as it relies on a "delayed gratification" — a bird using a scrap of bread to catch fish.
36306013
submission
c0lo writes:
The UN's World Intellectual Property Organization's Broadcasting Treaty is back. This is the treaty that EFF and its colleagues killed five years ago, but Big Content won't let it die.
Under the treaty, broadcasters would have rights over the material they transmitted, separate from copyright, meaning that if you recorded something from TV, the Internet, cable or satellite, you'd need to get permission from the creator and the broadcaster to re-use it. And unlike copyright, the "broadcast right" doesn't expire, so even video that is in the public domain can't be used without permission from the broadcaster
36112883
submission
c0lo writes:
The older crowd likes to blame the youth for the popularization of text-speak. You know the type: LOL, LMFAO, ROFL, OMG, Totes. Well, it turns out that we’re blaming the wrong people for at least one of those abominations to the English language. “OMG” is almost 100 years old.
The earliest known usage of the abbreviation OMG was found in a letter to Winston Churchill. The sentence in question reads:
“I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis — O.M.G. (Oh! My God!) — Shower it on the Admiralty!!” [sic]
30951959
submission
c0lo writes:
AOL Inc. (AOL) hired Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR) to find a buyer for its more than 800 patents and explore other strategic options.
The beleaguered internet provider squeaked out fourth quarter earnings that were better than expected in February. However, AOL is still drawing poor profit returns from major online publishing purchases such as TechCrunch and The Huffington Post (bought last year for $315 mil).
AOL’s fourth-quarter net income declined 65 percent from a year earlier to $22.8 million on sales of $576.8 million.
Earlier this month, AOL let go of more than 40 employees, with approx another 100 expected by the end of the month
Many of AOL’s patents cover Internet advertising and communications services, and Evercore is trying to help the company wring value from a patent portfolio that AOL shareholder Starboard Value LP said may yield more than $1 billion in licensing income.
30039547
submission
c0lo writes:
University of Michigan researchers have used webcams in a data centre to capture the moment administrators of a voting system learned they had been pwned.
The system, developed by the Washington DC Board of Elections and Ethics, was designed to allow military and overseas voters registered in cast electronic ballots in a local election.
Their attack attempts went unnoticed by the intrusion detection system (IDS) device deployed in front of the web server, because it "was not configured to intercept and monitor the contents of the encrypted HTTPS connections that carried" the attacks.
The researchers found a pair of publicly-accessible webcams showing the server room that housed the pilot network. The cameras were pointed at the entrance to the room and at the rack of server and network hardware.
"We used them to gauge whether the network administrators had discovered our attacks," the researchers said. "When they did, their body language became noticeably more agitated."
29090097
submission
c0lo writes:
On Saturday, Icelandic member of parliament Birgitta Jónsdóttir posted a nomination letter on her blog on behalf of the three-member parliamentary group The Movement, proposing suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning as a candidate for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Prize nominations can be submitted by any member of a national assembly, among others.
The nomination comes on uncertain times for the Nobel Piece Prize, as its officials are facing a formal inquiry over accusations (brought by a Norwegian peace researcher) they have drifted away from the prize’s original selection criteria.
If the Stockholm County Administrative Board, which supervises foundations in Sweden’s capital, finds that prize founder Alfred Nobel’s will is not being honored, it has the authority to suspend award decisions going back three years – though that would be unlikely and unprecedented, said Mikael Wiman, a legal expert working for the county
29088723
submission
c0lo writes:
A good example of the /. spirit extended at a size of a nation.
What has happened with ACTA in Poland has surely caught the attention of the world (or at least Europe), but perhaps the scale of it is still underestimated. When word got out that ACTA was to be signed by the Polish government only IP specialists knew what it was. Nevertheless, in a very short time the Polish internet started buzzing and a moment later exploded in fury.
The government’s reaction was at the beginning a genuine and utter disbelief, as no one saw it coming, but frankly speaking how could they? There was for example no public outcry against the enforcement directive (99,9% of the population still does not know it exists).
At first the Prime Minister tried to keep his cool. He declared Poland would sign ACTA and it did so in Tokio (because of time zones it was about 3 am in Poland and hence a funny exchange in one of the radio stations:
A: They signed ACTA under the guise of the night! Scandal!
B: But it was about noon in Tokio! A; What? In broad daylight! Scandal!)
The protests, again surprisingly, did not recede, so the government declared the ratification of ACTA was not certain.
As to the question why in Poland and why so vehemently one could only speculate. But it is important to stress that in Poland the quarrel was and is not about ACTA as such. It is mostly about intellectual property in general, about the scope of copyright exceptions and limitations and about the frustrating uncertainty of copyright law, which has not been able to precisely define what is a copyright work and what constitutes fair use.When people hear they can be tracked down, brought to court, maybe even accused of criminal behaviour for something they have been doing for years, it is natural they feel threatened. When they hear a simple photo is a copyright work and they can be made liable for using it on Facebook, they do not develop warm feelings for copyright law.
24403430
submission
c0lo writes:
A 2011 CareerBliss survey says that four out of the 10 most hated jobs are IT related.
Even the listed jobs are well-paid positions and fairly high up in the corporate infrastructure, the issues with the IT positions seem to be with the way their companies are run.
24071614
submission
c0lo writes:
Just last week at the Build conference in Anaheim, California, Microsoft revealed more information Windows 8 and Windows on a tablet while at the same time giving the 5,000 or so developers in attendance a free prototype Samsung tablet with Windows 8 pre-loaded.
Less than a week later and it appears that those very developer tablets are now appearing on eBay, with bids over $2000.
Microsoft tried to put a positive spin into that: "Some wonder if there is any demand for Microsoft’s new tablet OS.".
Well, would you buy into that?
24040310
submission
c0lo writes:
In apparent retaliation to its U.S. rival's continual patent suits against it in global markets, Samsung Electronics is seeking a complete ban on the sales of the upcoming Apple iPhone 5 in Korea.
Most recently opened (by Samsung) fronts in the patent world wars: Apple is sued in France on 3 technical patents and counter-sued in Australia over 7 technical patents (after an Apple "offensive" temporarily blocked Galaxy Tab for Australian market).
24036318
submission
c0lo writes:
After it sued Apple in France on 3 technical patents, Samsung also counter-attacks Apple in Australia, suing for an alleged infringement of 7 technical patents granted to Samsung in Australia. While Apple blocked the launch of Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, Samsung's action could result in blocking the entire by iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 product ranges if successful.
Some 3 weeks back, Apple lawyers cried foul alleging an anticompetitive use of the Samsung and Google (ex-Motorola) patent portfolio.
