Otakui - Slashdot User

Submission + - Apple granted patent on wedge-shaped laptops (cnet.com)

Submitted by Nick Fel on Friday June 08, 2012 @12:36PM

Nick Fel writes: Apple has been granted a broad patent on the wedge-shaped design of the Mac Air. The design has been copied by most ultrabooks, and their manufacturers are likely starting to feel a little uneasy about the news.

Comment Obviousness! (Score 1) 293

by Otakui on Friday July 09, 2010 @08:49PM (#32857094) Attached to: Microsoft Applies For Page-Turn Animation Patent

So what's next? Patent for the transmission of information stored as pigment in the form of alphabetical characters on a flexible planar physical medium?

Gravitational Waves May Have Been Detected In 1987 221

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 04, 2009 @03:18PM from the and-you-know-what-the-monkeys-may-do dept.

KentuckyFC writes "In 1987, a physicist called Joe Weber claimed to have detected gravitational waves at the same time that other scientists spotted a supernova called SN1987A. His claims were largely ignored because of calculations showing that gravitational waves could not be strong enough to be picked up by Weber's equipment, a set of giant aluminium cylinders designed to vibrate as the waves passed by. But these calculations were based on first order effects in the way spacetime can be distorted. Now a new analysis shows that second order effects can enhance gravitational waves by four orders of magnitude, but only when certain asymmetries are present. It turns out that SN1987A possesses just the right kind of asymmetries to make this enhancement possible because the supernova wasn't entirely spherical. Which means that Weber, who died in 2000, may have been the first to see gravitational waves after all."

Submission + - Pirate Bay Day 5 - Calling Perry Mason

Submitted by Hodejo1 on Friday February 20, 2009 @01:19PM

Hodejo1 writes: On the old Perry Mason TV shows it was a common site to see someone burst into the crowded courtroom at a dire moment and confess aloud that they, not the defendant, killed so-and-so. In reality courts do not allow evidence to enter trial without a chance for the opposing council to view it and for a judge to rule on their admissibility. Yet, in the fifth day of the Pirate Bay trial lawyers for the prosecution again tried to sneak in surprise evidence while questioning defendants. The judge put his foot down this time telling lawyers for the state "If you have documents which you eventually plan to use, you need to hand them over now." The prosecution continues to struggle in court. In one humorous moment prosecutor Håkan Roswall tried to show how "hip" he was with technology when he questioned defendant Peter Sunde. "When did you meet [Gottfrid] for the first time IRL?" asked the Prosecutor. "We do not use the expression IRL," said Peter, "We use AFK." "IRL?" questioned the judge. "In Real Life," the Prosecutor explained to the judge. "We do not use that expression," Peter noted. "Everything is in real life. We use AFK — Away From Keyboard." "Well," said Roswall. "It seems I am a little bit out of date." The defendants are not out of the woods yet. Lawyer and technology writer Richard Koman wonders aloud if the Pirate Bay's I-dunno defense is all that much better.

Submission + - S3 Graphics Responds About Linux Support (phoronix.com)

Submitted by V!NCENT on Friday February 20, 2009 @07:10AM

V!NCENT writes: Phoronix has an update on S3's Linux driver state.

"We are doing an internal build of the Chrome 500 Linux driver to incorporate some of the additional hardware features and upgrades (over the Chrome 400 Series GPUs).
If you want to test the Linux now, the Chrome 400 Series drivers also support the Chrome 500 Series since it is a unified driver architecture."

Microsoft and Red Hat Team Up On Virtualization 168

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 16, 2009 @02:15PM from the don't-go-the-way-of-the-novell-bird dept.

mjasay writes "For years Microsoft has insisted that open-source vendors acknowledge its patent portfolio as a precursor to interoperability discussions. Today, Microsoft shed that charade and announced an interoperability alliance with Red Hat for virtualization. The nuts-and-bolts of the agreement are somewhat pedantic, providing for Red Hat to validate Windows Server guests to be supported on Red Hat Enterprise virtualization technologies, and other technical support details. But the real crux of the agreement is what isn't there: patents. Red Hat has long held that open standards and open APIs are the key to interoperability, even as Microsoft insisted patents play a critical role in working together, and got Novell to buy in. Today, Red Hat's vision seems to have won out with an interoperability deal heavy on technical integration and light on lawyers."

Senator Diane Feinstein Trying to Kill Net Neutrality 873

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 11, 2009 @11:53AM from the wonder-what-the-payoff-was dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to the Register, Senator Diane Feinstein is attempting to put language into the stimulus bill that would kill net neutrality. The amendment that her provision was attached to was withdrawn, but lobbyists tell Public Knowledge that Feinstein hopes to put it back into the bill during the closed-door conference committee that reconciles the House and Senate versions." Bad Senator! No Cookie!

Build a BoxeeBox and Wean Yourself From Cable 335

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 11, 2009 @09:52AM from the but-what-about-chuck dept.

Since I've been having serious problems with satellite all week, DeviceGuru's submission was really interesting to me. He says "Inspired by Roku's awesome Netflix video download box and impressed with Boxee's free A/V media center platform, it was merely a matter of time before DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum would create the BoxeeBox, an Ubuntu-powered HTPC with Boxee serving as its primary media center UI. Based on a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, the BoxeeBox has the look and feel of consumer A/V equipment and packs 2GB RAM, 1TB HDD, CD/DVD drive, USB, Firewire, HDMI, DVI-D, RGB, and 8-channel surround sound audio."

Two Big Tests For Personal Rapid Transportation 299

Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @12:19PM from the as-long-as-you-stay-near-a-charging-point dept.

Al writes "A novel kind of transit system, in which cars are replaced by a network of automated electric vehicles, is about to get its first large-scale testing and deployment. Two of these Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) systems are being installed this year, one at Heathrow International Airport, near London, and one in the United Arab Emirates, where it will be the primary source of transportation in Masdar City, a development that will eventually accommodate 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses and is designed to emit no carbon dioxide. The article examines these two systems and includes video that includes an animation of the PRT system in action."

Russia's Operating System May Be Fedora Based 242

Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @11:32AM from the if-the-hat-is-red-wear-it dept.

Glyn Moody writes "Last month, a story about Russia producing its own national operating system based on GNU/Linux started circulating. Now there's some confirmation, and details of how the plan might be put into practice. Red Hat had a meeting with the Russian communications ministry, which announced that the development of free software in Russia was one of its priorities. One concrete idea they talked about was using the Russian Fedora project as a step towards creating a national operating system."

Telling Fact From Fantasy In the World of Apple Rumors 91

Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @11:08AM from the step-one-make-sure-you're-awake dept.

Harry writes "In recent years, fact-based reporting about Apple and its products has been almost completely overwhelmed by gossip, predictions, and speculation — an amazing percentage of which is embarrassingly wrong. I've put together a guide to figuring out which scuttlebutt is almost certainly fiction, and which has a shot at jibing with reality."

The Incredible Shrinking Operating System 345

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday February 09, 2009 @12:47PM from the good-since-you-can-only-run-3-apps-now dept.

snydeq writes "The center of gravity is shifting away from the traditional, massive operating systems of the past, as even the major OSes are slimming their footprint to make code bases easier to manage and secure, and to increase the variety of devices on which they can run, InfoWorld reports. Microsoft, for one, is cutting down the number of services that run at boot to ensure Windows 7 will run across a spectrum of hardware. Linux distros such as Ubuntu are stripping out functionality, including MySQL, CUPS, and LDAP, to cut footprints in half. And Apple appears headed for a slimmed-down OS X that will enable future iPhones or tablet devices to run the same OS as the Mac. Though these developments don't necessarily mean that the browser will supplant the OS, they do show that OS vendors realize they must adapt as virtualization, cloud computing, netbooks, and power concerns drive business users toward smaller, less costly, more efficient operating environments."

Firefox Exec Says Windows Bundling Is a Bad Idea 413

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday February 09, 2009 @12:06PM from the bounce-test-failed dept.

eldavojohn writes "The Firefox executives say they don't want to be bundled with Windows. Firefox architect Mike Conner also said this of Opera, 'Opera's asserting something that's provably false. It's asserting that bundling leads to market share. I don't know how you can make the claim with a straight face. As people become aware there's an alternative, you don't end up in that [monopoly] situation. You have to be perceptibly better [than Internet Explorer].' He also told PCPro that they are worried about becoming the next monopoly just like Microsoft is now."

Psystar Wins a Round Against Apple 660

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday February 09, 2009 @11:19AM

Daengbo writes "'A federal judge last week ruled that Psystar Corp. can continue its countersuit against Apple Inc., giving the Mac clone maker a rare win in its seven-month-old battle with Apple. He also hinted that if Psystar proves its allegations, others may then be free to sell computers with Mac OS X already installed.' Apple is currently suing Psystar over its sale of Mac clones."

Microsoft Ramps Up "Fix it" Support Tool 144

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @05:29PM from the pretty-please dept.

CWmike writes "Microsoft has ramped up its new Windows support assistant 'Fix it for me' nearly three months after it quietly released the automatic repair and configuration tool. The upgrade adds a 'Fix it' button to some of the support documents that Microsoft posts to its Knowledge Base. The blog introducing the changes lists some of the Knowledge Base documents that boast the 'Fix it' button, including one that prevents users from connecting a USB storage device — useful in protecting against one of the infection vectors of the 'Downadup' worm. Have ideas for the tool? In a forum on the 'WinVistaClub' Web site, someone who said he was part of the 'Fix it' team at Microsoft encouraged users to send feedback on the feature to the group at fixit4me@microsoft.com."

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