Chapium - Slashdot User

White House responds to software patent petition-> 0

Submitted by Chapium on Tuesday November 01 2011, @12:52PM

Chapium writes "As part of the "We the People" series of petitions to provide feedback to the US government, the following petition was sent:

"... Under the patent office's current activity, patents have been come a way to stifle innovation and prevent competition rather than supporting innovation and competitive markets. They've become a tool of antitrust employed by large companies against small ones.

To return sanity to the software industry — one of the few industries still going strong in America — direct the patent office to cease issuing software patents and to void all previously issued software patents."

Here is the response."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Dell needs to go back to what made them great (Score 1) 169

by Chapium on Friday September 03 2010, @06:57PM (#33470850) Attached to: Where Does Dell Go After Losing 3Par?

I have received awesome support from Dell via India during non-standard business hours. How does getting support from someone in India differ than if its from Texas? Either way its still remote.

FBI to Investigate CIA Tape Destruction 0

Submitted by on Friday January 04 2008, @03:20PM

An anonymous reader writes "The US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that the FBI will be investigating the destruction of detainee interrogation tapes by CIA personnel. CIA Director Michael Hayden claimed the tapes were destroyed to protect the identities of CIA personnel and it is widely believed these tapes showed the use of torture by the CIA. The FBI will conduct the investigation under the direction of First Assistant US Attorney John Durham instead of the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who has been recused to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest."

Research: Drivers on cellphones cause traffic jams-> 0

Submitted by BobB-NW on Wednesday January 02 2008, @01:08PM

BobB-NW writes "University of Utah researchers have conducted a new study that drivers on cell phones are to blame for more than causing accidents — they also cause traffic jams. And that costs society plenty, too, in lost productivity and fuel costs."
Link to Original Source

Single human gene gives mice tri-color vision

Submitted by

maynard

on Thursday March 22 2007, @05:28PM

maynard writes "Scientists from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute working in collaboration have published a study in the peer reviewed journal Science showing that mice transgenetically altered with a single human gene are then able to see in full tri-color vision. Mice without this alteration are normally colorblind. The scientists speculate that even mammalian brains from animals that have never evolved color vision are flexible enough to interpret new color sense information with just a simple addition of new photoreceptors. Such a result is also indicated by a dominant X chromosome mutation that allows for quad-color vision in some women. From the article:

The experiments were designed to determine whether the brains of the genetically altered mice could efficiently process sensory information from the new photoreceptors in their eyes. Among mammals, this more complex type of color vision has only been observed in primates, and therefore the brains of mice did not need to evolve to make these discriminations.

The new abilities of the genetically engineered mice indicate that the mammalian brain possesses a flexibility that permits a nearly instantaneous upgrade in the complexity of color vision, say the study's senior authors, Gerald Jacobs and Jeremy Nathans.
"