Comment: Good Plan (Score 1) 314
Because fortunately there is no history of humanity ever acting with intentional malice. #phew
Comment: Re:Marshall, TX (Score 3, Informative) 227
The judges will respond to motions from the defendants to transfer, but in this district Judges Everingham and Ward default to favoring the plaintiff's choice and have consistenly applied a stringent test to those requests. Only if the defendants can show by predefined factors that their proposed venue is "clearly more convenient" than the venue chosen by the plaintiff will they allow a transfer (here's a blog that tracks the court's activity).
The judges don't seem to mind the extra load. In fact they pride themselves how their "streamlining" of the process for trying patent cases has drawn in so much activity. They've fondly nicknamed their court "the rocket docket".
Comment: Re:Marshall, TX (Score 1) 227
I don't know how the judges rationalize it but the spin from the lawyers is that "the Eastern District is 'a great venue,' because the judges there are experts on patent matters, and there is always a pool of experienced patent lawyers available to serve as local counsel". I guess it's just Eastern Texas good fortune to have this natural resource of patent lawyer pools.
Another lawyer shares this insight into his clients motivations "they prefer to go to ... where the judges have the expertise"
So the story goes that the ED of Texas gets so many patent cases because they're so experienced and they got this expertise from doing so many patent cases. Rinse, lather, repeat! Ain't circular logic fun?
Comment: Don't forget the food! (Score 1) 122
Please tell me the food vendors will be offering an OSI seven layer cake.
Comment: Not without the parents (Score 5, Insightful) 801
Unless the proposal includes some tactics for getting the parents involvement, it'll be doomed before it starts.
Education happens outside of the classroom just as much as in it and a child's mindset regarding education (no matter the field) is strongly influenced by their parents' mindset.
Comment: Re:I hope they washed their hands after (Score 1) 156
In a word, yes. Salmonella and E.coli have been going at it for some time now--why not this bug?
Of course, as another poster responded, there are other ways the DNA from these UV resistant bugs could get into our more familiar bacteria: transformation and transduction. Transformation would happen even if you killed the bacteria.
Comment: Re:I hope they washed their hands after (Score 1) 156
And how long before they can interbreed with the bacteria down here and pass on the UV resistance trait to some that currently plague us? This whole venture doesn't seem terriibly well thought out.
Comment: Re:I'm non-plussed (Score 1) 365
Nope, just confused. It appears I'm not alone.
+ - Are Web Services Worth the Performance Hit?
Submitted
by
CexpTretical
CexpTretical writes "In software, adaptabiliy and performance are most often mutually exclusive.
Just as an adjustable wrench almost never works as well as a straight wrench
of a specific size, communications between software applications by means of
RMI-RPC interfaces usually out-performs equivalent Web Services by orders of magnitude,
especially for non-document-oriented data transfers like simple data transactions and method based communications.
Two good relevant performance studies on RMI versus Web Services including metrics are:
Comparison of performance of Web services, WS-Security, RMI, and RMI SSL and
Web Services versus Distributed Objects: A Case Study of Performance and Interface Design
Web Services can be more adaptable but with a price.
Is that price worth it?"
Web Services can be more adaptable but with a price.
Is that price worth it?"
+ - Can CDs Be Recycled?
Submitted
by
An anonymous reader writes "I was recently doing a closet-cleaning and came across literally hundreds of old software CDs that are no longer usable — both manufactured CDs and CD-Rs. Note that by "not usable", I mean that many of them simply couldn't be read anymore, possibly due to the fact that they'd been stored rather ineptly (no, I wasn't responsible for how they were stored). My question is: Is it possible to reclaim CDs for raw materials? It seems wrong to just throw them out, but are there other things that can be done with them that will allow their raw materials to be reused in some way?"
+ - RIAA cracks down on legitimate promotion.
Submitted
by
rizzo320
rizzo320 writes "Reports are surfacing on several websites, including therockradio.com and blabbermouth.net, that the RIAA has goofed on its most recent bout of litigation. Nine Inch Nails recently "leaked" some tracks off of an upcoming album as a promotion, that was approved by both the band, and Interscope Records. The RIAA has begun cracking down on sites that posted the leaked tracks. No word yet on whether or not they have figured out the mistake yet."
+ - Technorati: blogs closing in on traditional media
Submitted
by
thefickler
thefickler writes "Increasing numbers of people are turning to blogs for their news and information, according to David Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati. Sifry also says they they're less likely to distinguish between a traditional news outlet, like the nytimes.com and a blog.
In the recently published The State of the Live Web April 2007, Sifry reports that the number of blogs in the top 100 popular sites has risen to 22, compared to 16 in Q3 2006.
Sifry wrote that this is "further evidence of the continuing maturation of the Blogosphere. Blogs continue to become more and more viable news and information outlets."
But he would say that wouldn't he??"
In the recently published The State of the Live Web April 2007, Sifry reports that the number of blogs in the top 100 popular sites has risen to 22, compared to 16 in Q3 2006.
Sifry wrote that this is "further evidence of the continuing maturation of the Blogosphere. Blogs continue to become more and more viable news and information outlets."
But he would say that wouldn't he??"
+ - Political Change 2.0: Vote on Suggested Change
An anonymous reader writes "Spare Some Change?
Three young entrepreneurs aim to raise capital for business and change the country while doing it.
April 4 2007: 1:32 PM EDT
Vancouver, WA- Three young entrepreneurs searching for capital for their startup business are taking a unique approach to fund raising, they are calling on all Americans to help them out. What does America get in exchange? The opportunity to write a book detailing what Americans want to see changed in America. Who will get that book? The president of the United States, and the candidates for the 2008 race.
Jason Timm, Nick Ewing, and Michael Brown of Vancouver, Washington have launched HelpWithChange.com. For a one dollar donation every American is invited to contribute what they want to see changed in America. Everyone is then able to vote on the ideas for change they most agree with. The top suggestions for change as voted on will then be included in the book which will be delivered to the next president of the United States on his or her inauguration day.
The site which was launched on April 4th will be taking suggestions for change, and the spare pocket change that goes with them for the next three months. The top ideas for change will be selected on July 4th.
When asked what inspired them to do this the trio replied "We want to put ourselves in a position to have our American dream come true, that being the birth of our business. Who better to include in that process than America itself?"
Jason, Nick, and Michael all cite the lack of anyone wanting to listen these days as a driving reason behind this project.
"It takes so much effort to get someone to hear what your business idea is, and to have them show interest in funding you", Michael states. "The same seems to go for the American people as well, sometimes they just feel like their concerns fall on deaf ears at the political level."
To get your message for change to the current and future president and to help out Jason, Nick, and Michael visit HelpWithChange.com or to see their startup visit Kuzoa.com"
Three young entrepreneurs aim to raise capital for business and change the country while doing it.
April 4 2007: 1:32 PM EDT
Vancouver, WA- Three young entrepreneurs searching for capital for their startup business are taking a unique approach to fund raising, they are calling on all Americans to help them out. What does America get in exchange? The opportunity to write a book detailing what Americans want to see changed in America. Who will get that book? The president of the United States, and the candidates for the 2008 race.
Jason Timm, Nick Ewing, and Michael Brown of Vancouver, Washington have launched HelpWithChange.com. For a one dollar donation every American is invited to contribute what they want to see changed in America. Everyone is then able to vote on the ideas for change they most agree with. The top suggestions for change as voted on will then be included in the book which will be delivered to the next president of the United States on his or her inauguration day.
The site which was launched on April 4th will be taking suggestions for change, and the spare pocket change that goes with them for the next three months. The top ideas for change will be selected on July 4th.
When asked what inspired them to do this the trio replied "We want to put ourselves in a position to have our American dream come true, that being the birth of our business. Who better to include in that process than America itself?"
Jason, Nick, and Michael all cite the lack of anyone wanting to listen these days as a driving reason behind this project.
"It takes so much effort to get someone to hear what your business idea is, and to have them show interest in funding you", Michael states. "The same seems to go for the American people as well, sometimes they just feel like their concerns fall on deaf ears at the political level."
To get your message for change to the current and future president and to help out Jason, Nick, and Michael visit HelpWithChange.com or to see their startup visit Kuzoa.com"
+ - Sustainable Fuel For The Transportation Sector
Submitted
by
Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "A chemical engineering research team from Purdue University has proposed an interesting new way to obtain sustainable liquid hydrocarbon fuels, similar to diesel, for transportation. The proposed method is to combine carbon atoms (from biomass or coal) with hydrogen (obtained from electrolysis of water, electricity being generated by carbon-free source such as wind, solar or nuclear) in a modified Fischer-Tropsch reaction to produce medium chain alkanes similar to diesel. If this works, it will be a viable method to make fuels that our internal combustion engines can run on with no modification, without being based on imported oil supplies, having the potential to be fully renewable (when based on biomass and wind/solar), without the need to build a hydrogen supply chain, without the need to develop car-scale fuel cells, without the need for large batteries, while using a fraction of the land area that biodiesel or ethanol would use, all while using existing transportation infrastructure. Best of all, the carbon released in the final customer's car or truck would be captured by the biomass again, closing the carbon loop."
+ - Hybrid NVIDIA Chipset Motherboards Launched
Submitted
by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes "Filling the price gap between the high-end nForce 680i SLI and more affordable 650i SLI chipsets, without sacrificing any advanced features, motherboard manufacturer Asus has created a
hybrid motherboard chipset
in cooperation with NVIDIA, dubbed the "Dual X16 SLI". Designed for
the Intel platform, the chipset combination employed on the P5N32-E SLI Plus
motherboard offers true, dual PCI Express x16 electrical connections for graphics, dual
Gig-E LAN support and a slew of other features found on high-end 680i boards.
This article at HotHardware pits the P5N32-E SLI Plus up against an nForce 680i SLI to see if Asus' hybrid chipset approach truly offers all of the performance of the more expensive 680i SLI for a fraction of the cost."