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Comment IP Belongs to the students (Score 1) 128

by Blittzed (#25773071) Attached to: IP Rights For Games Made In School?
At the Australian University I work for, and I believe it is the same for all, the students retain the IP for any creative work they produce. This applies to both undergrad and postgrad students, but interestingly, does NOT apply to staff. However, a recent law suit saw an Academic sue the Univeristy he worked for over a patent realting to a drug he created. The court found in his favour stating that acedmics are empoyed to conduct research, and not to invent. From the judgment "...a duty to research does not carry with it a duty to invent". http://www.managingip.com/Article/1922287/Australian-court-highlights-university-patent-dangers.html/
Power

Super Soaker Inventor Hopes to Double Solar Efficiency 288

Posted by timothy from the if-they-get-too-hot-we-can-super-soak-them dept.
mattnyc99 writes "With top geeks saying photovoltaic cells are still four years away from costing as much as the grid, and the first U.S. thermal power plant just getting into production, there's plenty of solar hype without any practical solution that's efficient enough. Until Lonnie Johnson came along. The man who invented the Super Soaker water gun turns out to be a nuclear engineer who's developed a solid-state heat engine that converts the sun's heat to electricity at 60-percent efficiency—double the rate of the next most successful solar process. And his innovation, called the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Conversion (JTEC) system, is getting funding from the National Science Foundation, so this is no toy. From the article: 'If it proves feasible, drastically reducing the cost of solar power would only be a start. JTEC could potentially harvest waste heat from internal combustion engines and combustion turbines, perhaps even the human body. And no moving parts means no friction and fewer mechanical failures.'"

Feed Free Subtitles = Two Years In Jail? (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
This one was submitted last week, and a few other sites had stories about it late last week or over the weekend, but the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it became. It's the story of a group of folks in Poland getting arrested after having their homes raided for creating free translation subtitles for various movies. Not only is this considered copyright infringement in Poland, but it could net the pro bono translators two years in jail. This raises the question that no one seems willing to answer: under what logical basis could you possibly see this as a crime worth two years in jail? The most interesting part is that the guy who runs the site that distributes these subtitles claims that official translators often use the unofficial translations from the site. In other words, they're helping the industry in many cases -- and now police time (both German and Polish police) was wasted for no good reason, followed up by eventual court time and resources wasted. Aren't there more important things for German and Polish police to be taking care of these days? More importantly, though, what does it say about copyright law in Poland that creating an unofficial translation of a movie is considered a crime punishable by two years in jail?
Media

Submission + - High-Def Format War: 'The Matrix' vs 'Pirates'

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Choosing sides in the high-def format war becomes that much harder this week, as two powerhouse movie franchises hit store shelves on opposing formats. Exclusive to Blu-ray are the first two "Pirates of the Caribbean" flicks, while exclusive to HD DVD are two different configurations of the "Matrix" Trilogy. So which format wins this battle? According to High-Def Digest, this one's a draw. After evaluating each of the releases in excruciating detail, ("The Ultimate Matrix Collection" & "The Complete Matrix Trilogy" on HD DVD, and "POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl" & "POTC: Dead Man's Chest" on Blu-ray) the site says both sets of releases boast benchmark video and audio, but a preponderance of standard-def supplements prevent all from being the perfect high-def package.
Software

Submission + - Customer support's newest servicing tool

Submitted by
Robert Smith
Robert Smith writes: "Increasingly, consulting firms, training organizations and helpdesk-support companies are eliminating conventional methods of outsourcing and leaning on the newest trend in customer support: remote desktop sharing.

Remote desktop sharing is revolutionary because-with the help of software-it allows companies to "insource" using existing employees. Companies can connect to a customer's desktop, control it remotely, and then assist a customer at their PC without complicated router configurations or changes to the computer. The need to spend hours on the phone with problematic users is eliminated; with this unique method, staff members show customers exactly how a problem is resolved.

What's more, the companies driving this revolutionary movement are small, Internet-based shops focused solely on customer-profitably and ease-of-use.

For example, Techinline, a progressive, fast-growing company out of the United Kingdom, is the first desktop-sharing business to develop a program centered on accessibility. They released the newest version of their time-tested software this month.

"We are continually improving performance and working diligently to provide a new level of customer support for our clients. With our product; specifically, with this newest version, you're able to use existing employees to accomplish a better result than an offshore call center, or personal visit would," said Slav Tataurov, Techinline CEO.

Techinline is setting additional trends in customer support — ones that go beyond operational methods. Continually working to give customers the upper hand in the (highly competitive) helpdesk support arena, Techinline's newest software release boosts performance and increases ease-of-use. What's more, Techinline also offers a variety of pricing plan options that cater to businesses of all sizes.

"With the recent release of Techinline Remote Desktop 1.1.3, short latency eliminates any delay between the customer's action and the support expert's reaction. Also, we now offer a pay-per-use option, since we know that many of our clients are smaller companies with simpler needs." Tataurov said.

Techinline Ltd. (www.techinline.com) is a team of information technology professionals on the cutting-edge of customer service development. Since 2006, Techinline has provided next-generation online remote access service geared toward eliminating telephone or in-person support."
Intel

Submission + - Intel P35 Bearlake Chipset And DDR3 Memory Launch

Submitted by
Spinnerbait
Spinnerbait writes: "Intel is officially unleashing their newest mainstream desktop chipset today, the P35, a member of the formerly codenamed "Bearlake" family. In addition to a new ICH9 Southbridge, the P35 chipset ushers in support for DDR3 system memory for the desktop. It also supports legacy DDR2 memory, depending on the motherboard's DIMM slot configuration. HotHardware has a performance evaluation on a pair of P35-based motherboards from Asus with both DDR2 and DDR3 memory installed. As you'll note, thanks to some relatively high latencies currently, DDR3 doesn't affect performance all that much. It sure is great for overclocking though!"
Microsoft

Submission + - Todd Bishop Rates 20 Years of Gates' Predictions

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "The Seattle PI's Microsoft Blogger Todd Bishop asks "How does Gates shape up as a seer?" None strike me as particularly clairvoyant, but the missed ones are winners: "I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time." and "Two years from now, spam will be solved." But in fairness to Gates, for many years Microsoft's tagline was "a PC on every desktop and in every home.""

Feed Electrode hats to exploit soldiers' subconscious powers (theregister.com)

From feed by registerfeed
Helmet mind-probe madness at DARPA

Those wacky boffins at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have outdone themselves. The US military researchers are engaged in an effort to produce "soldier portable" digital imaging systems which can pick out "vehicle and dismount" threats 1-10 km away over a 120-degree or greater field of view, by scanning the user's brain.

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