Comment OMG! No Cowboy Neal? What is slashdot coming too? (Score 1) 310
I can't believe my eyes .. is this the third poll in a row without a "Cowboy Neal" option? What is the world coming too?
Seagate Sues STEC For Patent Infringement 51
Lucas123 writes "Yesterday Seagate filed suit against STEC, claiming several of its products, including solid state disks and some DRAM devices, infringe as many as four of its patents. Today STEC responded that it holds patents on the technology 10 years older than Seagate's. A Seagate win in the suit, or a settlement, could result in the equivalent of a tax on SSDs and potentially other flash memory products, increasing prices to end users at a time when demand for SSD storage is exploding."
Monster Cables Pushes Around the Wrong Small Company 572
Alien54 writes "Audioholics has a fun read regarding a recent legal dustup involving Monster Cables. The well-known (some might say notorious) cabling company sent a cease and desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable over a supposed patent violation. What the Monster folks couldn't have known was that Blue Jeans president Kurt Denke used to be a lawyer. His response is as humorous as it is thorough. ' Let me begin by stating, without equivocation, that I have no interest whatsoever in infringing upon any intellectual property belonging to Monster Cable. Indeed, the less my customers think my products resemble Monster's, in form or in function, the better ... If there is more than one such connector design in actual use by Monster Cable as to which appropriation of trade dress is alleged, of course, I will require this information for each and every such design. On the basis of what I have seen, both in the USPTO documents you have sent and the actual appearance of Monster Cable connectors which I have observed in use in commerce, it does not appear to me that Monster Cable is in a position to advance a nonfrivolous claim for infringement of these marks.'"
Making 3D Models from Video Clips 103
BoingBoing is covering an interesting piece of software called VideoTrace that allows you to easily create 3D models from the images in video clips. "The user interacts with VideoTrace by tracing the shape of the object to be modeled over one or more frames of the video. By interpreting the sketch drawn by the user in light of 3D information obtained from computer vision techniques, a small number of simple 2D interactions can be used to generate a realistic 3D model."
Journal Journal: Cancer Stem Cells May Be at the Root of Brain Tumors
Stem cells -- popularly known as a source of biological rejuvenation -- may play harmful roles in the body, specifically in the growth and spread of cancer. Amongst the wildly dividing cells of a tumor, scientists have located cancer stem cells. Physician-scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College are studying these cells with hopes of combating malignant cancers in the brain.
Submission + - Single-chip x86 chipsets around the corner? (linuxdevices.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Kontron, a giant among industrial single-board computer vendors, yesterday revealed a credit-card sized board apparently based on a single-chip x86 chipset that clocks to 1.5GHz and supports a gig of RAM. It targets portable devices — not x86's usual forte. Kontron isn't saying whether the board uses a Via or an Intel chip(set) — both vendors reportedly have single-chip chipsets in the works, part of their respective missions to drive "x86 everywhere." At 1.5GHz, the new highly integrated x86 SoC — whatever it is — would certainly clobber the currently available crop of 386- and 486-class X86 SoCs, and if truly battery-friendly, could even make x86 somewhat more viable as a portable device architecture.
Monster.com Malware Tags Another Site 50
bl8n8r writes "The first wave of problems for Monster.com came in the form of malware as recruiters cluelessly pointed trojaned Windows systems into Monster's database. The incident reportedly gleaned more than 1.6 million records from the job search site's database. The second incident followed two days later in the form of an infected Monster.com server pharming out malware by way of advertisements hosted on its websites. The latest incident now shows jobseekers using USAJobs are also at risk from the pharmed Monster trojan. The worst part is Monster.com seems to shrug it off with: 'As is the case with many companies that maintain large databases of information, Monster is from time to time subject to illegal attempts to extract information from its database. Despite ongoing analysis, the scope of this illegal activity is impossible to pinpoint.'"
Submission + - New Google Linux Apps Coming Soon !! (techrythm.com) 2
techoon writes: "The goal of the Google Linux Client Team is to develop Linux desktop applications, such as what we have seen from Google Earth and Google Picasa with official Linux versions. Google had also made an interesting splash at the first-ever Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit (which they had kindly hosted at their Mountain View campus) during a presentation by the Google Linux Client Team. What was it? Well, there are some "significant accomplishments" and other new Google desktop applications coming out this year for the Linux platform."
Submission + - Google Geek's Famous Photos (nytimes.com)
kiracatgirl writes: Here's a fun story about a relatively unknown Google employee and his hobby — taking photographs of himself with famous visitors to Google's headquarters. His gallery is posted on the walls at Google HQ, but is also available for our viewing pleasure at his online photo album.
Feed Start-up forced to admit that Sun invented Java (theregister.com)
Settling in with Azul
Sun Microsystems and start-up Azul Systems have settled their patent spat. Neither company will say squat about the settlement, leaving you wondering who came out the victor in this exercise.
Feed Expanded Linux printer support is goal of new driver development kit (slashdot.org)
The Linux Standard Base Driver Development Kit (LSB DDK), released last week by the Linux Foundation, aims to allow printer manufacturers to support virtually all Linux distributions via a single driver package.
Submission + - Users rage against China's 'Great Firewall'
slugo writes: "Yang Zhou is no cyberdissident, but recent curbs on his Web surfing habits by China's censors have him fomenting discontent about China's "Great Firewall"."
Feed Thousands Petition Feds on Net Neutrality (wired.com)
Polyethylene Bulletproof Vests Better Than Kevlar 345
teflonscout writes "When I think of bulletproof vests, the first word that comes to mind is Kevlar. Wired is running a story on Dynema SB61, a bulletproof material that is made of polyethylene. It is a higher grade of the plastic found in Tupperware. The story also mentions the recall of Second Chance bulletproof vests that were made from Zylon, a material that degraded slowly when exposed to moisture. At least one police officer was injured when a bullet penetrated his Zylon vest. Polyethylene is impervious to moisture. The first vests made from this new material are 5mm thick and can stop a 9mm bullet traveling at 1777 feet per second, which is slightly better than other top of the line vests."
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