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AMD

Intel and AMD Settle Antitrust, Patent Lawsuits 165

Posted by Soulskill from the mr.-otellini-tear-down-that-wall dept.
Kohenkatz writes "Intel has agreed to pay $1.25 billion to AMD. In return, AMD will drop its lawsuits about patent and antitrust complaints. The two companies released this joint statement: 'While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development.' The press release also says, 'Under terms of the agreement, AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement,' and that 'Intel and AMD will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement.'"
Patents

US Supreme Court Skeptical of Business Method Patents 160

Posted by kdawson from the feeling-bilski dept.
Trepidity writes "The US Supreme Court held oral argument Monday in Bilski, a business-methods patent case that might also have important implications for software patents (We have previously discussed the case several times). The tone of the argument appears to be good news, as the justices were very skeptical of the broad patentability claims. They even brought up a parade of absurd hypothetical patents quite similar to the ones Slashdotters tend to mention in these kinds of debates. Roberts surmised that 'buy low, sell high' might be a patentable business method, Sotomayor wondered if speed-dating could be patentable, Breyer questioned whether a professor could patent a lesson plan that kept his students from falling asleep, and Scalia brought up the old-time radio soap opera Lorenzo Jones, featuring a hare-brained inventor with delusions of getting rich." Patently O has good blow-by-blow coverage of the day's proceedings. Official argument transcripts will be up soon, they say.
Privacy

In the UK, Big Brother Recedes and Advances 176

Posted by kdawson from the now-get-rid-of-the-damn-cameras dept.
PeterAitch writes "The UK government's Home Office has put a hold on their surveillance project to track details of everybody's email, mobile phone, text, and Web use after being warned of problems with privacy as well as technical feasibility and high costs." Four hours before the above Guardian story was filed, the BBC reported that the same Home Office insisted that it will push ahead with plans "to compel communication service providers to collect and retain records of communications from a wider range of internet sources, from social networks through to chatrooms and unorthodox methods, such as within online games."
Games

Avataritis — On the Abundance of Customizable Game Characters 78

Posted by Soulskill from the forty-nine-precisely-placed-freckles dept.
Martyn Zachary writes "The Slowdown has posted a new critique, 'Avataritis,' that attempts to portray the utilization of character customization as a pandemic, emotional response on behalf of publishers and developers to finding the easiest, most efficient solution to the very unique dilemma presented by the enlarging, widening player base of video games. 'No mechanisms are in place stopping developers from writing and designing heterogeneous yet fully structured, narrative-based computer games with carefully constructed and immutable, unchangeable characters.' The article discusses the emergence and role of gender criticism and research in relation to the recent proliferation of the customizable avatar. The story also dissects the very act of character creation, subsequently aiming to clarify several semantic distortions related to the terminology utilized in character creation, and in turn breaking apart the concepts of relatability and understandability, wholly differentiating the two. The overarching analysis is finally related to examples from the gaming marketplace, where many continue to corroborate apparent falsehoods and misunderstandings in relation to the utilization of the avatar. Ultimately, the writer hopes to dissuade readers, developers and players from believing that written narratives are going away as customization and emergent content are entering video games with full force."

Comment Faith engineers (Score 2, Funny) 712

by SpeedyGonz (#29283839) Attached to: Has the Rate of Technical Progress Slowed?
...the middle America just wants "science" in the dust bin and back to safe, faith based engineering subjects.

Can you even imagine a faith based engineer?:

- The Lord will split the river in two for us to build the dam, amen.
- Let's pray to Jesus Christ this holy bridge, made in the image of Moses' Ark, holds its own.

Might sound silly, but if some zealots have their way in changing education content, say, with stuff like intelligent design... who knows

Comment You forgot to add . . . (Score 1) 73

by SpeedyGonz (#27087137) Attached to: Dinosaurs Could Hold Basketballs, But Not Dribble
who wishes us to believe dinosaurs could evolve to hold a basketball. the holy truth is of course intelligent dribbling, probably taught by 3 point all star jesus himself to intelligent basketball playing dinosaurs on jurassic half courts

... that he teached those dinos just before the tournament finals of 5500 bc
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Using Viagra to combat jet-lag

Submitted by SpeedyGonz
SpeedyGonz writes: A research team from the Quilmes National University in Argentina has found that a light to moderate dose of Viagra helps recover from jet lag a 50% faster. According to reuters, a group of male hamsters were subjected to changing lighting patterns to simulate the effect known as jet-lag, then a portion of them received the drug. Viagra interferes with an enzyme that lowers levels of a naturally occurring compound that plays a role in the regulation of the circadian cycle, the body's internal clock, the researchers said.

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