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Submission + - Amazon Payment Adds "No Class Action" Language to Terms Of Service
1.3 Disputes. Any dispute or claim relating in any way to your visit to the Site or Seller Central or to products or services sold or distributed by us or through the Site or Seller Central (including without limitation the Service) will be resolved by binding arbitration, rather than in court, except that you may assert claims in small claims court if your claims qualify. The Federal Arbitration Act and federal arbitration law apply to this agreement....
This is becoming more and more common, and while the end user normally doesn't make out well in a class-action suit, large settlements do provide a punishment and deterrent to corporations that abuse their power. The question becomes, what do we do to fix this so that consumers are truly protected?
Submission + - Why Microsoft Says the Patent System Is Peachy Keen (wired.com)
But as he puts it, Microsoft will also “pro-actively” drive licensing deals. “We will go out and look for areas where we see a lot people who are probably using our technology in one form or another,” he says, “and we kinda ask ourselves whether it has risen to a level that we care about and we want to have some conversations.” Basically, this involves a Microsoft lawyer like Kaefer trying to convince lawyers at other companies that their technology infringes on Microsoft patents — and that they should pay to license those patents. According to Kaefer, these discussions can spans months — or even years."
Submission + - In UK, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail (chron.com)
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: High-tech ways to manage your own library at home? 1
This is why I am looking for a modern solution to implement some professional-yet-still-home-sized library management. Ideally, this should include some cool features like RFID tags or NFC for keeping track of the books, finding and checking them out quickly, if I decide to lent one.
One problem seems to be the short lifetime of RFID tags (only 5-10 years). Given that many books will probably only be read or checked out once or twice in this period at best, the administrative effort seems very large.
I have also been largely unsuccessful in finding tags or solutions that go beyond the cheap 5 to 20 item "starter kits", yet still remain affordable and below the industrial scale.
Also, what would be suitable and affordable readers/writers for the tags in this context?
Finally, as many of the books are old folios or fairly precious first editions, everything must be non-destructive and should be removable without damage to the books if need be.
(Note: Scanning ISBN's with a hand-held barcode scanner is not an option, as many books are old (pre-ISBN) or special editions).
Software-wise, I would like to have a nice and modern-looking, easy-to-use software that can interface with the hardware side as described above. I do not necessarily need multi-user or networking capabilities at this point.
I hope the CSI (Combined Slashdot Intelligence) has some helpful ideas and pointers for me on this!
Submission + - Kinected Browser - Kinect On The Web (i-programmer.info)
Submission + - A Free Internet, If You Can Keep It (techcrunch.com)
Submission + - Google engineers open source book scanner design (theverge.com)
Built using a scanner, a vacuum cleaner and various other components, the Linear Book Scanner was developed by engineers during the "20 percent time" that Google allocates for personal projects.
The license is highly permissive, thus it's possible the design and building costs can be improved. Any takers?
Submission + - The First Amendment and Software Speech (stanfordlawreview.org)
Submission + - Teaching robots new tricks without programming (gizmag.com) 1
Submission + - Unhackable drone research to go open source (scmagazine.com.au) 3
The DARPA research will take four years, cost $18 million and promises to also help secure critical systems such as aircraft, vehicles and medical devices and make their code more stable.
Submission + - Amazon.com: Earth's Biggest Wine Cellar?
Submission + - Papa John's Sued For Unwanted Pizza-Related Texts (itworld.com)
Submission + - Climate treaty negotiators are taking the wrong approach, says game theory (sciencenews.org)
Submission + - Google open non-destructive book scanner; books and libraries rejoice (google.com)
Disclaimer: I worked with Jeff when we were at Xerox (where he did the awesome hack Gnu Chess on your Scanner), but this is more awesome because it saves books."
Submission + - Hostess (Twinkies!) to liquidate if bakers' strike continues through Thursday (cnn.com) 4
Even if Hostess does end up in liquidation, analysts say that some of its most iconic brand names — Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, to name a few — will likely live on, getting scooped up at auction and attached to products from other companies
Submission + - US Air Force scraps ERP project after $1 billion spent (computerworld.com.au)
Submission + - Volcano may have killed off new bioluminescent cockroach (mongabay.com)
Submission + - Entire Pig Genome Sequenced in Breakthrough That Could Combat Human Disease (medicaldaily.com)
The study published in the journal Nature found that pigs and humans share 112 DNA mutations that have previously been linked to diseases like obesity, diabetes, dyslexia, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, according to US and European researchers.
Researchers said that because pigs share many of the same complex genetic diseases as humans, the animals would serve as excellent models for studying the underlying biology of human disease.