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Comment Re:Still no patent-related indemnification (Score 1) 89

Your blog discounts the likely possibility that this is lies for the purpose of FUD, or that even if true the FUD is more valuable than actually asserting the patents.

I think the patent allegations are made to slow adoption. But I think indemnification may be still be necessary, because even proving non-infringement is expensive.

I hope if the patent pools manifest, Google sues for a declaration of non-infringement.

Comment CPU Limit Ridiculous (Score 1) 407

The CPU Limit is there mainly so they can abort programs rather than wait for potential infinite loops. Or at least that is what it was for in the programming competitions I participated in. Get some example problems before making a decision, but I'd definitely lean toward a scripting language, and something with a robust set of shipped libraries.

Comment Re:Junk patents (Score 1) 284

Agreed, I think less than 1% of the patents accepted now should be, but I believe there may be valid patents that have unfair terms and are stifling new development.

Ultimately the only entity that can force a sale is the government. The government made a mess; they need to clean it up. But even if they clean up the mess, they need to solve the corner cases.

Comment Re:Junk patents (Score 4, Insightful) 284

Sadly, I think the answer may be government intervention. I was at the aviation museum in Seattle, and I learned something interesting.

The government had to nationalize a bunch of patents, set the license fees reasonably and pay back the original inventors to get more people working on planes.

It may be that something similar has to happen to get us the web we want.

Biotech

Submission + - Rare Semi-Identical Twins Discovered

daftna writes: Twins can be identical, fraternal and apparently semi-identical, scientists now report.

Researchers discovered twins who are identical on their mom's side of the equation but share only half their genes from dad.

Here's how it happened: Two sperm cells fertilized one egg — an event assumed to be very rare — then split into two embryos.
Handhelds

Submission + - DS's 3D graphical secrets revealed

ElFozzie writes: Vicarious Visions has proven that, despite the common perception to the contrary, it is possible to make good 3D titles on the Nintendo DS. At this year's GDC they let slip some of their secrets.
From the article: "When it comes to 2D graphics, each DS screen is powered by a more powerful version of the hardware that run the single Game Boy Advance screen. This technology allows developers to 'layer' together elements such as sprites, tiled graphics and bitmaps....When it comes to the 3D graphics layer, there is a strict theoretical limitation of 2048 polygons, or 6144 vertices (or corners), per frame...[but] you don't always need to use more polygons to get a nice-looking game"
Digital

Submission + - Bracelt Phone Concept

Paul writes: "Bracelt Phone Concept I love concept handsets, as it shows that people are thinking about how we use communication devices rather than just continuing development along existing lines. This one comes by way of Uberphones, and is a concept phone based around embedding the handset into a bracelet. Some of the sacrifices include taking out the display and removing the standard set of buttons, relying on controls placed at the inner side instead. Since there is no screen, it is safe to assume there is no way you can send or receive text messages with this handset. Ditch that iPod on your runs as the Bracelet Phone comes with an earphone jack and supports MP3 files. There's an opportunity here for these to be made into high-fashion jewellery items."
Biotech

Submission + - Technology used to measure empathy

Danny Rathjens writes: "physorg reports that "Researchers in Boston used technology to measure empathy between psychotherapists and their patients. ... In a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Merci and his colleagues described using a combination of skin sensors and videotapes viewed by neutral observers to measure empathy. They said their results suggest a nervous network for empathy and emotional response that is "implicated in the ability to take another's emotional perspective.""
Robotics

Submission + - Urbi for Mindstorm NXT programming

JC Baillie writes: "Hi, You might have heard of URBI, an easy to use programming interface for robotics, which has been used so far on the Aibo. I thought you might be interested to know that we have released a version of URBI for Lego Mindstorms NXT. You can find more information here: http://www.gostai.com/nxt URBI is free, with open source interfaces, and you don't have to change the original firmware to use it. We have a forum also to discuss technical matters here: http://forum.gostai.com/viewforum.php?f=16 Let me know what you think about it, Best Regards, JC Baillie"

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