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Experiment Shows Not Washing Jeans for 15 Months is Disgusting But Safe 258

Posted by samzenpus from the thank-you-science dept.
dbune writes "Young people who argue with their parents over wearing the same pair of smelly jeans can now cite the work of a 20-year old University of Alberta student who wore the same jeans for 15 months straight. From the article: 'Josh Le wore the same pair of jeans to break in the raw denim, so it would wrap the contours of his body, leaving distinct wear lines. He had his textile professor test the jeans for bacteria before washing them for the first time. The results showed high counts of five different kinds of bacteria, but nothing in the range of being considered a health hazard."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft's internal advice about patents

Submitted by
BigPoppaT
BigPoppaT writes: "Eric Brechner writes a best practices blog called Hard Code for Microsoft under the name I.M. Wright. His most recent post sounds like an endorsement of open source developement (and does end with a call for Microsoft developers to participate in the shared source community). But even better is his advice regarding patents:

When using existing libraries, services, tools, and methods from outside Microsoft, we must be respectful of licenses, copyrights, and patents. Generally, you want to carefully research licenses and copyrights (your contact in Legal and Corporate Affairs can help), and never search, view, or speculate about patents. I was confused by this guidance till I wrote and reviewed one of my own patents. The legal claims section--the only section that counts--was indecipherable by anyone but a patent attorney. Ignorance is bliss and strongly recommended when it comes to patents.

Interesting advice from inside Microsoft. I wonder if Ballmer would agree that ignorance should be "strongly recommended when it comes to patents"?"

Feed Engadget: Exclusive shots of Goschy's prototype "Wiimote" controllers (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Features, Gaming, Peripherals


So, we got some more information from Patrick Goschy so he could set his story straight, and were surprised to learn he still had the original prototype controller! According to Goschy, he really has no plans -- or venue -- to sue Nintendo, since Midway owned all of his patents, and as far as he can tell, Nintendo bought the patents from Midway, since Nintendo references one of the patents in its application for the Wiimote. Apparently he just wants the recognition: "I just wanted to people to know. Wanted the truth to come out. Did this 8 years ago, and the Wii has been such a huge deal, I wanted the truth to get out there. It wasn't these two or three Japanese guys that came up with this thing." His guess is that Nintendo saw the video demo he did -- which was seen by hundreds of employees of Midway -- and probably payed a pittance for the technology, thanks to Midway's mismanagement. Right now Goschy is doing engineering consulting work to pay the bills, and when asked if he could take a few shots of his controller alongside Nintendo's, told us that he "can't afford a Wii." He's going to do a redo of the original video -- hopefully with pants this time -- if he can scrounge himself up a working Dreamcast.

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Biotech

Journal Journal: Modifying stem cell's surface steers cells where needed

Journal by stemceller
Now it appears that even stem cells can come with GPS. In a groundbreaking study, Robert Sackstein, MD, PhD, and colleagues in the Department of Dermatology at the Biomedical Research Institute at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) harmlessly modified the surface of human mesenchymal stem cells (a type of adult stem cell that is the precursor of bone forming cells called osteoblasts), which directed the cel

Feed Science Daily: Life's Ingredients Detected In Far Off Galaxy (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Astronomers have detected for the first time the molecules methanimine and hydrogen cyanide -- two ingredients that build life-forming amino acids -- in a galaxy some 250 million light years away. When combined with water, the molecules form glycene, the simplest amino acid and a building block of life on Earth.


KDE

KDE 4 Uses 40% Less Memory Than 3 Despite Eye-Candy 566

Posted by Zonk from the optimization-in-action dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Pro-Linux reports that KDE 4, scheduled to be released in January 2008, consumes almost 40% less memory than KDE 3.5, despite the fact that version 4 of the Free and Open Source desktop system includes a composited window manager and a revamped menu and applet interface. KDE developer Will Stephenson showcased KDE 4's 3D eye-candy on a 256Mb laptop with 1Ghz CPU and run-of-the-mill integrated graphics, pointing out that mini-optimizations haven't even yet been started." Update: 12/14 22:40 GMT by Z : Or, not so much. An anonymous reader writes "The author of the original KDE 3.5 vs KDE 4.0 memory comparison has come out with a more accurate benchmark. In reality, KDE 4.0 uses 110 MB more memory than KDE 3.5.8.
Software

Journal Journal: PDF now ISO 32000

Journal by nickull
It is official. As Jim King himself blogged today, Adobe has received word that the Ballot for approval of PDF 1.7 to become the ISO 32000 Standard (DIS) has passed by a vote of 13 yes votes and only 1 negative. The report breaks down as follows:
Security

Submission + - Privacy breach in passport applications in Canada (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by
Joanna Karczmarek
Joanna Karczmarek writes: "Passport applicant finds massive privacy breach while filling out their on-line form at the Government of Canada passport website. From the article: "A security flaw in Passport Canada's website has allowed easy access to the personal information — including social insurance numbers, dates of birth and driver's licence numbers — of people applying for new passports." And it did not require any know-how: "The breach was discovered last week by an Ontario man completing his own passport application. He found he could easily view the applications of others by altering one character in the Internet address displayed by his Web browser." Ooops!"

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