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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 345 declined, 83 accepted (428 total, 19.39% accepted)

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Submission + - Hot water does not clean hands any better than cold water (wiley.com) 1

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Multiple government and health organizations recommend the use of warm or hot water in publications designed to educate the public on best practices for washing one's hands. This is despite research suggesting that the use of an elevated water temperature does not improve handwashing efficacy, but can cause hand irritation. There is reason to believe that the perception that warm or hot water is more effective at cleaning one's hands is pervasive, and may be one factor that is driving up unnecessary energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Submission + - Google calls ibiblio.org a malware distributer (ibiblio.org)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: The following is the message I get when I try to access ibiblio with my chrome browser:

Danger: Malware Ahead! Chromium has blocked access to this page on groklaw.net. Content from www.ibiblio.org, a known malware distributor, has been inserted into this web page. Visiting this page now is very likely to infect your computer with malware. Malware is malicious software that causes things like identity theft, financial loss, and permanent file deletion


Submission + - Oracle Wants $1 Billion From Google (ustradevoice.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is suing Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) for more than $1 billion in damages. Oracle claims that Google has infringed on its patent and has used code developed by it to develop the Android operating system. Android operating system is used in a majority of smartphones and tablets with estimates of its market share putting the figure at 70+% and above. The earlier claim of $6 billion was not found sustainable. The courts will now decide whether the case should be pursued further.

In other news, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) has announced that it will integrate OpenStack capabilities in its own products.

Submission + - Why I will no longer donate to Wikipedia - And Why You Shouldn't Either (wikipedia.org)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: I can understand errors, and I can understand disputes. But wikipedia, knowingly, defends information it knows to be false. Far too often, when inaccuracies are brought to wikipedia's attention, wikipedia response is to "circle the wagons" and defend the inaccuracies, in deference to overwhelming evidence. Here is one example (this has been in wikipedia for quite some time).

Race is a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups by anatomical, cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical, historical, linguistic, religious, and/or social affiliation.

This is clearly ridiculous. By this definition, identical twins could belong to different races. A person’s religion does not determined by his/her race. Furthermore, it has been brought to wikipedia's attention, that this citation has been taken out of context, and twisted to say the opposite of what was in the cited source. Wikipedia stubbornly refuses to correct this. Instead, wikipedia has removed the posts of those who pointed out the error, and stopped discussion about the issue. I have connected wikipedia, and explained why I will no longer donate, but since donations are small, I doubt wikipedia will care. Maybe if enough people stop donating?

Submission + - Microsoft's New 'Smart' Bra Could Stop You From Over Eating (care2.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: A team of engineers at Microsoft Research have developed a high-tech bra that’s intended to monitor women’s stress levels and dissuade them from emotional over-eating. The undergarment has sensors that track the user’s heart rate, respiration, skin conductance and movement — all of which can indicate the type of stressful emotions that lead to over-eating, according to Microsoft researchers. The data is sent to a smartphone app, which then alerts users about their mood.

Submission + - German court invalidates Microsoft FAT patent (techworld.com) 1

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Microsoft storage patent that was used to get a sales ban on products from Google-owned Motorola Mobility in Germany has been invalidated by the German Federal Patent Court.

Microsoft's FAT (File Allocation Table) patent, which concerns a "common name space for long and short filenames" was invalidated on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Federal Patent Court said in an email Friday. She could not give the exact reasons for the court's decision before the written judicial decision is released, which will take a few weeks.

Submission + - Get Ready For Streaming Music Die-Off (readwrite.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Streaming services are ailing. Pandora, the giant of its class and the survivor at 13 years old, is waging an ugly war to pay artists and labels less in order to stay afloat. Spotify, in spite of 6 million paid users and 18 million subscribers who humor some ads in their stream, has yet to turn a profit. Rhapsody axed 15% of its workforce right as Apple’s iTunes Radio hit the scene. On-demand competitor Rdio just opted for layoffs too, in order to move into a “scalable business model.” Hmm no one wondered about that business-model bit in the beginning?

Meanwhile, Turntable.fm, a comparatively tiny competitor with what should have been viral DNA, just pulled the plug on its virtual jam sessions this week—and it just might be the canary in the coal mine.

Submission + - Apple heads to trial against man claiming to have invented iPhone Read more at h (macdailynews.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: “Apple maintains the NetAirus Technologies LLC patent is invalid because the technology was known long before the company filed its patent. Cupertino, California-based Apple, which three weeks ago defeated patent holder Wi-Lan Inc. at trial over a $248 million royalty demand for wireless technology used in mobile devices, has won pretrial rulings that cap any recovery NetAirus may win,” Pettersson reports. “The company owned by inventor Richard L. Ditzik filed the patent application in 1997 for a handheld device that combines computer and wireless-communications functions over both a local-area network and a wide-area network. Jury selection started today in Los Angeles federal court in the lawsuit, filed 3 1/2 years ago by NetAirus.”

Submission + - Yahoo's latest email change a complete disaster

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: WTF is the matter with all these "change for the sake of change" thinkers? Even Linux is not exempt.

Yahoo's new email — second time within a year — completely sucks. Worst of all, for me, yahoo just deleted tons of my contact information. Stuff like birthdays, home addresses, work

I am not the only one unhappy about this. Lots of attention in the media.

Petition: "Yahoo: Bring back the old version of Yahoo Mail!" has over 25,000 signitures so far.
http://www.change.org/petitions/yahoo-bring-back-the-old-version-of-yahoo-mail

Anger explodes at Yahoo Mail redesign disaster: Key functions removed or broken
http://www.zdnet.com/anger-explodes-at-yahoo-mail-redesign-disaster-key-functions-removed-or-broken-7000021911/#postComment

Furor Over Yahoo Mail Changes
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/furor-over-yahoo-mail-changes/?smid=fb-share

Marissa Mayer Sparks Outrage From Longtime Yahoo Mail Customers
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/yahoo-mail-change_n_4107257.html

Yahoo Mail users furious over Marissa Mayer's redesign that wiped away key features and left interface looking like a 'Gmail knock-off' (except useless)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2460096/Yahoo-Mail-users-furious-Marissa-Mayer-led-redesign-wiped-away-features-left-interface-looking-like-Gmail-knockoff.html

Yahoo Mail redesign plagued with bugs
http://www.cnet.com.au/yahoo-mail-redesign-plagued-with-bugs-339345681.htm

Submission + - Nokia Admits Giving Misleading Information About Elop's Compensation (forbes.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: According to changes implemented in 2010, Elop was entitled to immediate share price performance bonus in case of a “change of control” situation such as selling of Nokia’s handset division. Curiously, his predecessor Kallasvuo had no such clause in his contract. This adjustment meant that unlike previous CEOs, Elop was facing an instant, massive windfall should the following sequence happen to take place:

Nokia’s share price drops steeply as the company drifts close to cash flow crisis under Elop.
Elop sells the company’s handset unit to Microsoft MSFT -0.87% under pressure to raise cash
The share price rebounds sharply, though remains far below where it was when Elop joined the company.
Should this unlikely chain of events ever occur, Elop would be entitled to an accelerated, $25M payoff.

Through some strange coincidence, that very sequence of events actually did happen to take place between 2011-2013.

Submission + - Stop Blaming Indian Companies for Visa Abuse (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: It is amazing, in this racially enlightened century, that we still see members of the U.S. Congress demonizing an ethnic group. Yet that is what happened when the Senate adopted a provision in the immigration bill singling out Indian and Indian-American information-technology companies that have operations in the U.S. with punitive restrictions on H-1B work visas. By contrast, the legislation expanded access to the visa to others in the technology industry.

Submission + - Microsoft Bribe Probe Reaches Into Pakistan, Russia Deals (wsj.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: The probe is one of dozens being conducted by U.S. officials under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that prohibits U.S. traded companies from paying bribes to foreign officials. The law also holds companies liable for improper payments made by others on their behalf.

Submission + - Asus kills its line of Windows RT tablets (computerworld.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Asustek CEO Jerry Shen confirmed today that his company will no longer produce Windows RT tablets.

"It's not only our opinion; the industry sentiment is also that Windows RT has not been successful," Shen told the Wall Street Journal Friday at a Taipei earnings conference.

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