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Power

Body Heat Energy Generation 214

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i'm-sweating-right-now dept.
BuzzSkyline writes "Researchers in Belgium have developed devices to harvest the waste heat our bodies throw off in order to convert it to electricity to run devices such as a wristband blood oxygen sensor and an electrocardiogram shirt. As a side benefit, the power sources help cool you down and keep you looking cool, all while running sundry micropower devices. In fact, the researchers mention that the energy harvesting head band works so well that it can get uncomfortably cold. In that case, they say, 'This problem is solved in exactly the same way as someone solves it on the body level in cold weather: a headgear should be worn on top of the system to limit the heat flow and make it comfortable.' But it would be such a shame to cover up the golden heat-harvesting headband with a hat."
Businesses

A Requiem For Saab 438

Posted by kdawson from the just-call-me-baab dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that auto enthusiasts across the country are dismayed by the news that General Motors is planning to shut down Saab, the Swedish carmaker it bought two decades ago, after a deal to sell it fell apart. Even with its modest and steadily declining sales, Saab, an acronym for Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, or Swedish Airplane Company, long stood out as a powerful brand in spite of itself. 'It wasn't designed to be a fashion statement,' says Ron Pinelli, president of Autodata, which tracks industry statistics. 'It was designed to provide transportation under miserable weather conditions.' Many Saab owners consider the brand's glory days to be the 1980s, when Americans began buying cars again after a recession and energy crisis. 'The cars were communicative,' says Pinelli. 'They didn't try to numb the experience like cars do today.' The cars had odd touches and appealed to those who appreciate the unconventional. Swedish engineers assumed drivers would be wearing gloves, so they designed big buttons for the dashboard. Though the cars were compact, with long hoods and short rear ends, there was plenty of headroom inside. Now Saab, a brand that once had one of the clearest identities in the industry, seems headed for extinction just as automakers are searching for more distinctive designs to help set them apart. 'It's a shame that Saab is a victim,' adds Pinelli."

Comment Re:Good thing (Score 1) 105

by blitzkrieg3 (#30418412) Attached to: Google and Microsoft Sued By Mini Music Label
it almost looks like that's exactly what they're trying to do. Surely they know they can't win, and they probably won't get a huge amount of converts just by disallowing RS access.
I know they probably are sueing in earnest but it seems as though they're trying to take the wind out of record companies sails. (IE you can't sue the ISP for being the medium)
Microsoft

Chinese Court Rules Microsoft Violated IP Rights 237

Posted by kdawson from the shut-down-the-pirated-versions-and-that-would-really-hurt dept.
angry tapir writes "A Beijing court has ruled that Microsoft violated a Chinese company's intellectual property rights in a case over fonts used in past Windows operating systems. The Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court ordered Microsoft to stop selling versions of Windows that use the Chinese fonts, including Windows XP. Microsoft plans to appeal the case. Microsoft originally licensed Zhongyi's intellectual property more than a decade ago for use in the Chinese version of Windows 95, according to Zhongyi. Zhongyi argues that agreement applied only to Windows 95, but that Microsoft continued to use the intellectual property in eight versions of Windows from Windows 98 to Windows XP. Vista and Windows 7 are not involved."

Comment Re:Still guilty (Score 1) 327

by blitzkrieg3 (#30130672) Attached to: Pirate Bay Shuts Down Tracker, Switches To Distributed Hash Table
This is exactly what I was thinking. How does this help them in court? They're still hosting a web site that allows a lookup of copyrighted material and then gives you a set of instructions on how to obtain that material.

What does it matter if those instructions come in the form of a torrent/tracker or a magnet uri/PEX? How much different is tracker.piratebay.com from router.piratebay.com? Practically speaking they're still doing the same thing. And they're still hosting torrents, so wouldn't that leave an avenue available for the prosecution?
Programming

Microsoft Open Sources .NET Micro Framework 320

Posted by timothy from the what's-your-angle-college-boy dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Back in July, Microsoft announced it was making .NET available under its Community Promise, which in theory allowed free software developers to use the technology without fear of patent lawsuits. Not surprisingly, many free software geeks were unconvinced by the promise (after all, what's a promise compared to an actual open licence?), but now Microsoft has taken things to the next level by releasing the .NET Micro Framework under the Apache 2.0 licence. Yes, you read that correctly: a sizeable chunk of .NET is about to go open source."

Comment Re:Wow (Score 1) 234

by blitzkrieg3 (#29965480) Attached to: Unfinished Windows 7 Hotspot Feature Exploited
From TFA:

Connectify lets a Windows 7 laptop "tether" other wireless devices to a single Internet connection by effectively turning that PC into a software-based wireless router, added Gizis.

Serious question: can you do this easily with linux? I mean with only one wireless NIC.

Comment Re:Curious about the F/OSS devs thoughts. (Score 1) 275

by blitzkrieg3 (#29567893) Attached to: How To Save $1 Trillion a Year With Open Source
This reminds me of that scene in Revolution OS where Linus is asked if he's angry that people are making billions of dollars off his work and not getting any of it directly:

So, if I hadn't made Linux available, I mean, I wouldn't have gotten any money that way either. So I mean, It's a win-win situation. Uh, just the fact that there are a lot of commercial companies means that there are a lot of Linux people who used to work on Linux kind of on the side. And now they get paid for doing what they wanted to do. And that helps me in the sense that I wanted them to work on Linux anyway.

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