31299509
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
How do you feel about maps as a reader of fantasy fiction? Does a good map make the world feel more believable? Does it ground it in reality for you? Or do you feel like firm boundaries limit your own imagination as a reader?
Do you prefer the detailed maps of Tolkein and LoTR, or do you prefer to your own imaginations, as with Pratchett and Discworld?
30665301
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
Robert Maas tells us an interesting story about the craziness of the IRS.
The late Ileana Sonnabend recently died, leaving her will's executor's with a dilemma. In her possession was a collage by Robert Rauschenberg called "Canyon", which unfortunately contains a bald eagle, and thus illegal to sale or even transfer abroad, from the United States.
Three independent art valuers have all agreed that this particular problem render the art has having a nil value (basically, worth $0), since it cannot be priced. The IRS disagree.
The insist that, apparently, that the executors should be able to find "a reclusive Chinese billionaire who would buy the artwork on the black market and smuggle it out of the USA in order to hide it away".
This mythical Chinese billionaire recluse would value the art at $65 million in the IRS's estimate, which means IRS is entitled to $29 million of taxes on this illegal sale. The IRS is also penalising $11.7 million for “gross valuation misstatement” in accepting the unanimous view of the three separate professional valuers that the artwork had a nil value.
All this, after paying $471million in estate taxes.
28207628
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
Samsung said it is working on merging its homegrown “bada” smartphone operating system with Tizen, an operating system project the company is conducting with chipmaker Intel.
When the integration is finished, Tizen will support mobile applications written with bada’s SDK (software development kit). That support will include backwards compatibility for previously published bada apps.
Post-integration, bada and Tizen developers will be given the same software tools (SDKs and APIs), said Kang. The idea is that if developers know how to program in bada, they will understand how to make Tizen apps, too.
There are also basic similarities between the two operating systems, such as the fact they are Linux-based. Kang said the core of the merged OS will be Linux-based, as well.
Bada/Tizen could eventually power a lot of Samsung products, but the transition will take time. Kang said Tizen will probably find its way to “at least one to two” Samsung devices this year. ”Tizen will not become Samsung’s main operating platform anytime soon,” he added.
28039722
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
SamMobile, (a Samsung Fan site) sourcing a spanish language website[1], has provided a preview to Tizen, Samsung's successor to MeeGo, which runs on a "Samsung I9500" device.
Meanwhile, CNXSoft[2] has provided links to the Tizen source code and even has a link to the SDK preview, which seem to confirm the above leaked pictures.
Given a recent[3] Slashdot story about Samsung twisting Google's arm, could Tizen be that twister?
[1]:http://realnorth.net/blog/tizen-primer-contacto/
[2]:http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/01/10/tizen-releases-source-code-and-sdk-previews/
[3]:http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/01/09/2151233/samsung-could-soon-start-to-twist-googles-arm
26616322
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
One of Samsung's arguments in its defence against Apple's injunction is that Apple is trying to improperly cover various functional (utilitarian) elements required in any modern smart-phone or tablet device: essentially, that it had no other realistic design options available when it created devices like the Galaxy S, Infuse and Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Apple obviously disagrees: it argues that Samsung had many other non-infringing design alternatives at its disposal and didn't need to copy the aesthetic features of the iPhone and iPad devices. To make that argument stick Apple had no choice but to identify exactly what those alternatives were.
On the smart-phone side of things, the following is a list of some of the alternative design options Apple felt Samsung should have looked into further:
*Front surface that isn't black.
*Overall shape that isn't rectangular, or doesn't have rounded corners.
*Display screens that aren't centered on the front face and have substantial lateral borders.
*Non-horizontal speaker slots.
*Front surfaces with substantial adornment.
*No front bezel at all.
As for tablets, Apple identified a similar list of alternative designs available to Samsung:
*Overall shape that isn't rectangular, or doesn't have rounded corners.
*Thick frames rather than a thin rim around the front surface.
*Front surface that isn't entirely flat.
*Profiles that aren't thin.
*Cluttered appearance.
This isn't an exhaustive list of the alternative designs offered up by Apple, but it's a summary of the most interesting ones.
26576618
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
The Department of Justice and "McGruff the Crime Dog" (National Crime Prevention Council) launched a multimedia campaign against piracy and counterfeiting yesterday that ties these undesirable activities to drug trafficking, job loss, child labor, and murder.
The First Video[1] claims the consequences of buying of Pirated DVD, as Drugs and Crime, Lost Jobs, Child Labour and Gang Violence.
The Second Video[2] equates the Internet Piracy to stealing from the donations in a street performers open guitar box.
[1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQFnSnhg7U
[2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOBC5kuDS5A
26363972
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
Instructables Member *Dimovi* utilised a spare LCD monitor and converted it into a “privacy” monitor.
He took apart the monitor’s plastic frame, cutting out the polarised film with a utility knife and removed the film adhesive from the glass panel before reassembling the monitor, which now shines a bright white regardless of what is actually being displayed on the screen.
He then removed the lenses from a pair of theatre 3D glasses, and replaced it with the polarised film he had just removed from the monitor.
Now, he is the only one who can see what he is doing on his computer.
26169720
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
VentureBeat's (typically unnamed) sources identifies Intel and Qualcomm as being involved in these talks for acquiring the Palm asset portfolio.
However, citing sources intimate with HP's negotiations, it reports that the company wants to be able to license webOS back for use in printers,½Â" it wants it so much, in fact, that the issue has become "a crucial part" of discussions.
Maybe there's something about webOS and printers that HP knows and the rest of the world doesn't.
24265392
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
Intel has folded the MeeGo project into a new Linux Foundation hosted software platform, Tizen, which will be jointly developed by Intel and Samsung. Focus will be shifted from Nokia held Qt to HTML5 apps.
The initial release of Tizen is targeted for Q1 2012, with first devices hitting the market mid year
21466778
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukaemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago. This Wired story says it was more likely passed down from people who became immune to a smallpox-like disease.)
What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: His HIV went away.
"He has no replicating virus and he isn't taking any medication. And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV," his doctor Gero Huetter told Reuters. Brown now lives in the Bay Area, and suffers from some mild neurological difficulties after the operation. "It makes me very happy," he says of the incredible cure.
Although Brown's story is remarkable, scientists were quick to point out that bone marrow transplants can be fatal, and there's no way Brown's treatment could be applied to the 33.3 million people around the world living with HIV. The discovery does encourage "cure research," according to Dr. Jay Levy, who co-discovered HIV thirty years ago, something that many people did not even think was possible years ago.
20369804
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
One enterprising individual has created the most secure way to wipe out Compact Discs, by using a step-up transformer and creating a 150,000 Volt pd, whilst a CD rotates in the middle.
The sparks arc through the metal in the CD and evaporates it, ripping it all off as the CD rotates. The CD is rendered transparent and unreadable. This may be the most secure method to remove data on conventional recordable CDs used in offices.
16503048
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
Nokia has announced the official release of Qt 4.7, a new version of the company's open source development toolkit. The update introduces an impressive new framework called "Qt Quick" that accelerates the development of mobile user interfaces that work across multiple platforms and form factors. Qt is the standard toolkit of MeeGo and Symbian^4.
It has some sophisticated new features for creating mobile UI. The Qt Quick stack primarily consists of a new declarative scripting language called QML that allows developers to describe flexible user interface layouts. QML can be used seamlessly with JavaScript as glue code for controlling the behaviour of the user interface.
It's possible to build entire applications with only QML and JavaScript, but QML is even more powerful when it is used in conjunction with C++.
Another big advantage of Qt Quick is that developers can easily support a wide range of device form factors and screen sizes by creating multiple QML layouts or by using conditional expressions to make the visibility of certain elements change depending on the screen size.
It's also worth noting that Nokia is hosting a Qt Developer Days event in Munich (Oct 11-13) and San Francisco (Nov 1-3), which will offer training and other opportunities to learn more about Qt desktop and mobile development.
14856106
submission
ryzvonusef writes:
Engadget article based on a video of Nokia presentation. The presentation is about the their development strategy, including emphasis on Qt and Ovi.
