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Submission + - Things That Microsoft Actually Does Right

Submitted by writertype
writertype writes: We all know what Microsoft has done wrong: astroturfing, IE6's security vulnerabilities, and Windows Vista, among others. That's the narrative we all participate in every day. But what does Microsoft do right? How about a commitment to open research, educational outreach like the Imagine Cup, and even (*gulp*) working with open source? What else can you come up with?

Submission + - Are Lenovo's ThinkPads Getting Worse? (readwrite.com) 2

Submitted by writertype
writertype writes: Over the weekend, Lenovo launched the ThinkPad T431s, a ~$950 notebook with chiclet keys, no trackpad buttons, an integrated battery, and Windows 8 but no touchscreen. The T431s is also thinner and lighter than the bulletproof bento boxes we all know and love. The argument ReadWrite makes is that ThinkPads are becoming slowly, but significantly, worse. Do you agree?
Printer

Submission + - HP Moving to Jumbo-Sized Ink Cartridges

Submitted by
writertype
writertype writes: "Hewlett-Packard said Tuesday that the company plans to completely overhaul its consumer inkjet printer cartridges this year, adding an "XL"-sized printer cartridge that will hold about the double the ink of the standard cartridges. The motivation is the 80-20 rule, analysts said: 20 percent of customers use 80 percent of the ink, and HP's losing money to the third-party refillers. We've got estimated pricing and page counts at PC Magazine."
AMD

Submission + - How Can AMD Be Fixed?

Submitted by
writertype
writertype writes: "As has been previously reported, AMD is planning a corporate restructuring, tied to a significant price cut on its high-end processors. The problem is a complex one, analysts say: AMD needs profits to secure financing to build new fabs, but it lacks a truly competitive architecture to command premium revenues. But there's precedent: AMD faced a similar outlook in 2001, and came up with an interesting strategy that set it up for its successful run during the Athlon 64 years. Here's how AMD can be fixed."
Power

Submission + - Geeks Are The New Bullies

Submitted by writertype
writertype writes: Kicking someone's butt on the playground is so twentieth-century. These days, humiliating someone online and via mobile phones is the new rage. And not surprisingly, the person with the most skills (and in some cases, the most motivation) is the poor dweeb that gets picked on. You know, us, or at least us back in our school days. The problem is, those geeks are taking their power to extremes and becoming bullies themselves.
Printer

Submission + - Memjet Printer Roadmap: 360 Pages/Min By 2010

Submitted by writertype
writertype writes: You might recall the secret Silverbrook startup that launched a week or so ago after ten years of developing an advanced consumer inkjet printer. Now, PC Magazine has talked to executives at Memjet, a licensed Silverbrook spinoff that will sell components to OEMs to manufacture their own printers. Amazingly, they think they can design a consumer inkjet printer (current price target: about $200) which can print 360 pages per minute, a sixfold improvement over their current design. There's also talk about who the customers could be (Dell?) and how they'll deal with refills.

And for more fun reading, check out the over 1,400 patents founder Kai Silverbrook has had assigned to him.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Slobs Found To Be More Productive Than Neatniks

Submitted by
writertype
writertype writes: "Are you a slob? Do you pile papers on top of folders on top of game boxes? Here's the thing that those anal neat people can't even conceive of: you're more productive than they are. That's the conclusion of "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder," by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman, a new book that argues neatness is overrated, costs money, wastes time and quashes creativity."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Phillips invent dynamic pants

Submitted by
Matthew Sparkes
Matthew Sparkes writes: "Philips has come up with a way to change the size and shape of clothes by weaving "muscle wires" into the fabric. The wires are made of shape-memory alloys that change length according to the small current passed through them. The idea is that you can try on a pair of trousers and change the length of the wires in the fabric until the trousers have the correct waist size, inside leg and width — then simply try the real trousers in exactly that size. Dynamic pants could also be useful for those Slashdotters with dynamic waist measurements..."
Math

Submission + - Mathematicians finally map 57-dimensional shape

Submitted by
Matthew Sparkes
Matthew Sparkes writes: "A team has mapped a 57-dimensional structure called E8 and the results take up 60 gigabytes of data. The shape, called E8 (pronounced E-eight), is a Lie group. A Norwegian mathematician invented Lie groups in the 19th century to study symmetry. A Lie group underlies objects like balls, cylinders or cones that are symmetrical when rotated by small amounts. The team solved the problem in a four-year project using a supercomputer at the University of Washington in Seattle."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Apple Launches Product Launching App

Submitted by Jerry Rivers
Jerry Rivers writes: The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/59345) has a "scoop" on a new Apple product called iLaunch, which Steve Jobs says will "revolutionize" the process of unveiling new products throughout the world. From the article, "Described in its patent filing as a 'hype-generating mechanism with fully integrated Mac compatibility,' the iLaunch is powered by Intel dual-core processors optimized to calculate a product's gravitas. Apple claims the iLaunch can garner the same amount of press attention as a major scientific discovery, high court ruling, celebrity meltdown, or natural disaster at 200 times the speed of a traditional media-fostered launch."
Microsoft

Submission + - The Deal Steve Jobs Couldn't Refuse

Submitted by
Government Drone
Government Drone writes: "Remember the 1997 deal in which Microsoft bought $150 million in non-voting Apple stock? According to this story in InformationWeek, it wasn't done all out of the goodness of Bill Gates' heart:

Weeks prior to bailing out a struggling Apple Computer by purchasing $150 million of its stock, Microsoft officials threatened to cut development of a key product for the Macintosh in order to coerce its rival to make the deal, according to an e-mail unearthed during a recent court hearing.

The original text of the E-mail is here, which mentions a threat to pull the plug on Office for Mac, but argues against it for a variety of reasons. An interesting backend view of what was happening in Apple's darkest days."

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