Comment Roses (Score 1) 470
Buy a dozen Roses, Throw one out. Include card "At first glance it might seem the blooms are short one. Stand in front of the mirror to see the missing and by far the best rose." My wife still has her card.
The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza 282
iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."
Hand Written Clock 86
a3buster writes "This clock does not actually have a man inside, but a flatscreen that plays a 24-hour loop of this video by the artist watching his own clock somewhere and painstakingly erasing and re-writing each minute. This video was taken at Design Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach 2009."
Sharp Rise In Jailing of Online Journalists; Iran May Just Kill Them 233
bckspc writes "The Committee to Protect Journalists has published their annual census of journalists in prison. Of the 136 reporters in prison around the world on December 1, 'At least 68 bloggers, Web-based reporters, and online editors are imprisoned, constituting half of all journalists now in jail.' Print was next with 51 cases. Also, 'Freelancers now make up nearly 45 percent of all journalists jailed worldwide, a dramatic recent increase that reflects the evolution of the global news business.' China, Iran, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma were the top 5 jailers of journalists."
rmdstudio writes, too, with word that after the last few days' protest there, largely organized online, the government of Iran is considering the death penalty for bloggers and webmasters whose reports offend it.
Submission + - What we can learn from law's treatment of software (thepublicdomain.org)
An anonymous reader writes: "Twenty-five years ago a vigorous debate raged in U.S. legal academia over whether software should be covered by patent or copyright or some third option." What can we learn from what happened? Interesting article in the Communications of the ACM by James Boyle, gleaning lessons from how law messed up and — sometimes despite doom-saying — didn't mess up, technological change. The ungated version is here http://www.thepublicdomain.org/2009/08/26/what-intellectual-property-law-should-learn-from-software/
I liked this paragraph..
"The words "by means of a computer" seem to be an incantation of magical power, able to transubstantiate the ideas and formulae of the public domain into private property. And, like the breaking of a minor taboo that presages a Victorian literary character's slide into debauchery, once that first wall protecting the public domain was breached, the courts found it easier and easier to breach still others. If one could turn an algorithm into a patentable machine (by simply adding "by means of a computer"), then could one not turn a business method into something patentable by specifying the organizational or information technology structure through which the business method is to be implemented?"
and
"Who would have predicted that software copyrights could be used to create a self-perpetuating commons, [of free software] as well as a monopoly over operating systems, or that judges would talk knowingly of network effects in curtailing the scope of coverage? Who would have predicted that patents would be extended not only to basic algorithms implemented by a computer but to methods of business themselves?"
The article says it is adapted from Boyle's book which can be downloaded from http://thepublicdomain.org/download
I liked this paragraph..
"The words "by means of a computer" seem to be an incantation of magical power, able to transubstantiate the ideas and formulae of the public domain into private property. And, like the breaking of a minor taboo that presages a Victorian literary character's slide into debauchery, once that first wall protecting the public domain was breached, the courts found it easier and easier to breach still others. If one could turn an algorithm into a patentable machine (by simply adding "by means of a computer"), then could one not turn a business method into something patentable by specifying the organizational or information technology structure through which the business method is to be implemented?"
and
"Who would have predicted that software copyrights could be used to create a self-perpetuating commons, [of free software] as well as a monopoly over operating systems, or that judges would talk knowingly of network effects in curtailing the scope of coverage? Who would have predicted that patents would be extended not only to basic algorithms implemented by a computer but to methods of business themselves?"
The article says it is adapted from Boyle's book which can be downloaded from http://thepublicdomain.org/download
Submission + - IBM Report Reveals Unprecedented Web Insecurity (net-security.org)
An anonymous reader writes: According to a new report from IBM, there has been a 508 percent increase in the number of new malicious Web links discovered in the first half of 2009. This problem is no longer limited to malicious domains or untrusted Web sites. The X-Force report notes an increase in the presence of malicious content on trusted sites, including popular search engines, blogs, bulletin boards, personal Web sites, online magazines and mainstream news sites. The ability to gain access and manipulate data remains the primary consequence of vulnerability exploitations.
Submission + - Windows 7: Should desktop users buy into the hype? (techreport.com) 4
J. Dzhugashvili writes: We've all seen blog posts hyping up Windows 7, often with cut-and-pasted MS screenshots and feature descriptions. But what's it like to sit down and use the operating system on a desktop PC? Do new features deserve the hype? Do they work as advertised? The folks at The Tech Report have been using the final version of Windows 7 since shortly after its release to manufacturing, and they've posted an article that tries to answer those questions. A number of improvements, like the updated Backup and Restore functionality and Remote Desktop Direct3D support, have slipped through the blogosphere's radar. On the flip side, those who migrate from Vista shouldn't expect flawless compatibility or performance from the new additions. HomeGroup, for instance, interfaces in bizarre ways with the regular File Sharing interface, and Device Stage doesn't do much yet. The article also breaks down the different Windows 7 editions and explains why Home Premium now looks like a better choice for most users.
Comment Meetings to solve issues (Score 2, Interesting) 274
My favorite sign about meetings was actually posted in a shipyard meeting room, it said "There are no problems that cannot be made unsolvable if enough meetings are held to discuss them". Meetings at this shipyard, tended to be short, and were difficult to schedule. Made for really productive meetings.
Journal Journal: Wednesday, June 17th
Another day is quickly flying by. Updated phone to 3.0 OS, went well. Not as many new features as a new phone, but nice enough anyway. Some small fixes, like listing the source of the call (home, mobile, work, or city/State of Area code phone call was made.) I like it. I especially like that it will make a phone call as a plus, for what I truly consider my mini-mini mac. Kids again today. I wish their mother would just hurry up and die. She is such a pain in the ass.
Comment Get a Document Management System (Score 1) 438
Any of many document managment systems. They allow the extraction of meta data, which is in turn used to 'find' the document you are looking for. Nearly all contain some security settings and a viewer for many types of files. One thing to note. This magic doesn't happen by itself, if you get stuck doing this, be prepared for a. No one really knows how they want to do this, they all want to wonder if one of the many docs has their answer and have the correct doc located and opened for them. b. you are about to become a stranger to all those who know you outside of work.
Journal Journal: Test
Just a few notes, not sure if this will be public, would like to use if private.
Telling Fact From Fantasy In the World of Apple Rumors 91
Harry writes "In recent years, fact-based reporting about Apple and its products has been almost completely overwhelmed by gossip, predictions, and speculation — an amazing percentage of which is embarrassingly wrong. I've put together a guide to figuring out which scuttlebutt is almost certainly fiction, and which has a shot at jibing with reality."
Ubuntu Download Speeds Beat Windows XP's 515
narramissic writes "Doing a download speed test of his Time Warner cable connection, James Gaskin discovered something odd, something that he is quick to note isn't a rigorous benchmarked lab test. The discovery: His Ubuntu machine 'returned a rating from the Bandwidth.com test of 22-25mbps over several tests' while the same test done from a Windows XP PC returned a rating of 12-14mbps. The two computers used in the test are 'almost identical: both off-lease Compaq small form factor D515s, part of the very popular corporate desktop D500 family. Both have Pentium 4 processors running at 2GHz. The Ubuntu machine has 768MB of RAM, while the XP box has only 512MB of RAM. Both run Firefox 3 as their browser.' Gaskin's question: Can a little extra RAM make that much difference in Internet download speeds or does Ubuntu handles networking that much faster than Windows XP?"
Can We Create Fun Games Automatically? 198
togelius writes "What makes games fun? Some (e.g. Raph Koster) claim that fun is learning — fun games are those which are easy to learn, but hard to master, with a long and smooth learning curve. I think we can create fun game rules automatically through measuring their learnability. In a recent experiment, we do this using evolutionary computation, and create some simple Pacman-like new games completely without human intervention! Perhaps this has a future in game design? The academic paper (PDF) is available as well."
