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IBM

Submission + - With All Due Respect: The Patent System's Not Broken (wired.com)

TurinX writes: Unsurprisingly, IBM's Chief Patent Counsel thinks the patent system’s not broken. "Patent disputes like this are a natural characteristic of a vigorously competitive industry.And they’re nothing new: Similar skirmishes have historically occurred in areas as diverse as sewing machines, winged flight, agriculture, and telegraph technology. Each marked the emergence of incredible technological advances, and each generated similar outcries about the patent system. We are actually witnessing fewer patent suits per patent issued today than the historical average."
Power

Submission + - Germany exports more power than ever despite phasing out nuclear enegery (google.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The german magazine "Der Spiegel" writes, that "the current export from Germany reached a record high this year — despite nuclear phase. Reason is the boom in green energy." Especially in the Netherlands power-plants are shut down because "electricity imported from Germany is cheaper." Is Germany an example of forward looking energy policy after all?

Comment Re:So basically you confirm everything (Score 1) 183

My guess is that he was probably referring to the above comments that "if you plan to use Office in a commercial setting, you need an extra license key." I agree with you, it still includes office and in what looks to be a decent form for a tablet, but I can see why some people are frustrated with the condition. (Though my guess is that this is not a huge issue, as I'd hope that most offices have office wide licences that they could use...)
Google

Google Engineer Sponsors New Kinect Bounties 96

ashidosan writes "Hot on the heels of the Adafruit competition, Matt Cutts (a search spam engineer at Google) is sponsoring two more $1,000 bounties for projects using Kinect. 'The first $1,000 prize goes to the person or team that writes the coolest open-source app, demo, or program using the Kinect. The second prize goes to the person or team that does the most to make it easy to write programs that use the Kinect on Linux.'" Relatedly, reader imamac points out a video showing Kinect operating on OS X.

Comment Re:Game changer (Score 1) 309

I cannot believe there are so many comments with a lack of understanding of what 100/1 is. I cannot believe one of them has been modded +3 interesting.

100/1 means if you bet £1 and the bet wins, you get your £1 stake back and your winnings of £100. Their winnings aren't 1%, they are 100x i.e. 10000%. So if contact was made, the bookmaker would lose £100 on a £1 bet, and hence would have somehow had to turn that £1 into £101 beforehand in order to not make a loss. Forget the people talking about how 3% is impossible, there is NO savings account or bond that'll let you do that in a year.

I think you misread the quote above, he was talking about people who were taking the other side, ie Betting that contact wasn't made..... so 1/100 odds, or 1%.....

And therefore arguing that it was brilliant by the bookie, he keeps the nut job's money outright, and he only has to pay 1% to the people the bet the other way...... As he said...Brilliant!

Comment Don't we need to just change the way we forgive? (Score 1) 329

I think in many ways it is better to have all this information stored forever. As with most decisions, the more information you have the more informed a decision you can make...

I think the argument that people forget and therefore can forgive is true, but I think we need to then adapt how we forgive. If we accept that people change, then it doesn't matter that we have a store of someone's past actions - we can let then 'reinvent' themselves while still knowing where they came from.

Right now that may be difficult, but that's because the internet is still a relatively new phenomena in Human history. As we progress, I assume we'll evolve to accept that all our actions are remembered indefinitely, and mature to not let past events completely out way current ones.

Comment Re:Can someone explain why this is so terrible (Score 0) 281

Thanks for replying - not sure why people felt i was trolling.

I agree on the implementation side I don't know enough to say whether any current systems will bring the whole thing down or not, but I disagree with your point in that its a bad road to go down.
In terms of hiding child porn from ignorant/masses, thats a damn sensible thing. Those that really want to get at it will, regardless of whats done - but it will require a fairly high level of know how. The 'average' (if that word is applicable) paedophile i doubt happens also to be incredibly IT literate. This reminds me of a quote I heard years ago -"Locks don't keep thieves out, they keep normal people from becoming thieves".
So, if a large base (and I don't claim to know what % of paedophiles are IT literate vs not) cannot easily get access to the material, well, then there's less incentive to produce which will filter down the system.
I also happen to completely disagree with the overall message that censorship of the internet is fundamentally wrong (a separate issue, but seems to be brought up a lot here - 1984esc comments). We live in society that is far from actually having free speech (racial incitement laws, prohibition of anti-holocaust views, etc).
Why should the internet be special? I agree places like China are a disaster, but I'm not a believer in the "we're going down that road" - china was down that road and is actually moving the other way...etc etc (as I said, separate debate)

Your point that it is noble to prevent children suffering - yes, agreed. And that should be a focus, but very hard to do if people have incentives to cause children to suffer. Take away the incentives, help the children.
However, your point that the law swings to far is very valid - and I hope that when cases like the one you mention (parents taking pics of children) are challenged and over-ruled.
Overall, I feel the goal is sensible and worth pursing, however, I cannot comment on the feasibility, and if checks are not currently in place, then yes, they should be put there.

Comment Can someone explain why this is so terrible (Score 0, Troll) 281

I don't quite follow why everyone is against putting in legislation. I'm not saying I am, i just don't quite follow what the issue is....
So they try and block all child porn - job well done, no?
Yes it doesn't stop the underlying porn existing, but if no one can get at it, then that will filter through to less people making it, no?
I'm just confused as to what all the uproar is about? (as in an honest question - not trying to take a stupid position...)

Comment Re:take your punishment like good kids (Score 1) 546

Thats completely incorrect. Demand has fallen, and fallen off a cliff.
A huge factor in Oil's drop from $147 in July is due to he the massive decline in both OCED and non-OCED demand. non-OCED (ie China) was supposed to be the key, decoupling etc... wow that was wrong!
Speculation was just thrown about by politicians - Net length and Open Interest are almost as high now as they were in July!! (they came of substantially towards the end of last year, but now picked up again). Currently there are almost 4mmb/d of OPEC excess capacity... no supprise that oil is now trading at ~$40.

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