Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Microsoft

Microsoft, Apple, EMC, and Oracle Form Patent Bloc 113

Posted by Soulskill from the axis-of-prior-art dept.
An anonymous reader writes "When Novell finally sold itself, part of the deal included the sale of 882 patents to a consortium backed by Microsoft. Thanks to a tip from Florian Mueller, it turns out that Microsoft's partners are Apple, Oracle, and EMC, which raises questions about where these companies are heading and what it means for the rest of the industry."
Transportation

Digital Dashboard Device Detects Driver Drowsiness 117

Posted by timothy from the string-between-ceiling-and-nostril dept.
Pickens writes "Science Daily Headlines reports that researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology have developed a self-contained, dashboard-mounted assistant system that tracks a driver's eye movements and issues a warning before the driver has an opportunity to nod off to sleep. 'What we have developed is a small modular system with its own hardware and programs on board, so that the line of vision is computed directly within the camera itself,' says Professor Husar. 'Since the Eyetracker is fitted with at least two cameras that record images stereoscopically — meaning in three dimensions — the system can easily identify the spatial position of the pupil and the line of vision.' The cameras, which can be installed in any model of car, evaluate up to 200 images per second to identify the line of vision. If the camera modules detect that the eye is closed for longer than a user-defined interval, it sounds an alarm. The Eyetracker also has applications in computer games where players could look around themselves without requiring a joystick to change their viewing direction, and in marketing and advertising, where researchers could determine which parts of a poster or advertising spot receive longer attention from their viewers."

Comment Loss of noise AND loss of signal. (Score 1) 833

by Amnenth (#32815510) Attached to: Blizzard To Require Real First and Last Names For Official Forums
Several posts on the WoW general forums and MMO-Champion's article on the subject raise a valid and somewhat chilling point: while forum trolls are likely to be driven away, removing some of the noise from actual discussions, actual contributing posters are going to be shying away from the new forum system as well. People who would otherwise be helpful, share knowledge about class and game mechanics or even info about interface-modding are going to disappear entirely from the forums because they do not want to be compelled to show their real name to all.

I'm not sure if the loss of signal will be worth the loss of noise here.

Comment Re:So (Score 2, Informative) 334

by Amnenth (#31212778) Attached to: Ars Analysis Calls Windows 7 Memory Usage Claims "Scaremongering"

People aren't taking the time to learn the meaning of the 'available' memory stat in the Task Manager.

Based on my experience, it's usually very close to the total you get when adding 'free' memory and 'cached' memory together.

'Available' in this case means that, as parent suggests, Windows will free it for use as soon as it's needed.

Comment Re:Northeast Blackout of 2003 (Score 1) 462

by Amnenth (#30034632) Attached to: Massive Power Outages In Brazil Caused By Hackers

Remember the Northeast Blackout of 2003 ?

...That we lost the Northeastern grid in 2003 through malicious intervention, or that it simply failed and "dominoed" all by itself after some nasty spikes in Canada?

Hey, don't blame us. The article you referenced (link fixed) pegs the domino effect as starting from within Ohio.

Comment Re:Logos (Score 1) 342

by Amnenth (#29847947) Attached to: Apple Seeks Patent On Operating System Advertising
I can hardly consider the logos or branding on any OS I've used so far to actually be intrusive or advertising. I mean, (in the case of non-free OSes) you've already bought the darn thing, right? Right now they're more just like a reminder about what OS you're using.
Patents

Patent Claim Could Block Import of Toyota's Hybrid Cars 451

Posted by timothy from the advancing-the-useful-arts-and-sciences dept.
JynxMe writes "Paice is a tiny Florida company that has patented a way to apply force to a car's wheels from an electric motor or internal combustion engine. Paice thinks that Toyota is infringing on its technology, and is going after the automaker in court. The legal spat became much more serious for Toyota this week, when the US International Trade Commission decided to investigate the matter. In the worst-case scenario for Toyota, the commission could ban the hybrid Camry, third-generation Prius, Lexus HS250h sedan and Lexus RX450h SUV."
Government

Real-LIfe Distributed-Snooping Web Game To Launch In Britain 419

Posted by timothy from the no-room-for-abuse-there dept.
corerunner writes "A new internet game is about to be launched which allows 'super snooper' players to plug into the nation's CCTV cameras and report on members of the public committing crimes. The 'Internet Eyes' service involves players scouring thousands of CCTV cameras installed in shops, businesses and town centres across Britain looking for law-breakers. Players who help catch the most criminals each month will win cash prizes up to £1,000."

Comment Re:Bricked Consoles? (Score 1) 438

by Amnenth (#29672385) Attached to: Sony Sued Over Bricked PS3s

That's pretty handy, actually. Still I'd rather not update mine until the update itself has a zero chance of bricking my unit. Even if it IS free, that's time where the wii itself is left unusable. (And I'm far from the only person who wants to use this one in particular.)

Slashdot Top Deals

Understanding is always the understanding of a smaller problem in relation to a bigger problem. -- P.D. Ouspensky

Close