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Submission + - Pinch-to-zoom Apple patent rejected by USPTO (pcworld.com)

Submitted by freddienumber13
freddienumber13 writes: In another patent surprise, this week from the USPTO, where a claim by Apple for pinch-to-zoom has been rejected by the USPTO on the grounds that the claims were anticipated by previous patents or unpatentable. This will be welcome news for Samsung that back in April asked for a stay of the trial [http://phandroid.com/2013/04/18/samsung-apple-trial-stay-request/] however Apple have a short period of time in which they can appeal this finding.

Submission + - Should more math and equations be used in the popular press? (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by raque
raque writes: The NYTimes (standard disclaimers apply) published two OP-EDs in their Philosophy section (first here second here), The Stone, discussing how Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle is abused. The second is a followup to the first. The author struggled to make clear his point and left the impression he was creating a strawman argument. In his followup he said that he was avoiding equations due to his writing for a general audience. I replied to both articles as Rtbinc, in the second I put up the following comment:

One of the issues is that Dr Callendar has is a fear of Math and equations in popular reading. A lot of other people are afraid of these few very pretty symbols. Lets do an experiment and see if using some equations and symbols drives readers into fits of terror and prevents their understanding as they cower shivering under their chairs.

The below is from Heinz Pagels in the Cosmic Code (available on Kindle from Amazon and Nook from B&N for about 10 bucks). It shows up on Google books too. Go look, it's fun.

One part of the Uncertainty Principal is (p)x(q)h – where p and q (the is pronounced delta, e.g., delta-p) are the sums of all of the uncertainties — or differences — in a huge pile of measurements of the position and velocity of some particle we're measuring – and h is the tiny, but still not zero, number called the Plank constant. The mathematical symbols haven't changed meaning, so if h ain't zero, neither p or q can be either. We can be as precise as we like, until we hit the Plank Constant. This is not some mathematical oddity, it is how the universe operates. That is weird, and that is one example of quantum weirdness.

The question for the experiment is: Would Dr Callendar have done better to use the equation in the first article instead of metaphors from TV and Movies? Or, did they so frighten you that you need a good stiff brandy and a foot rub.

So I'm asking the same question to everyone on Slashdot. Would Dr Callendar been better off just diving in and dealing with Heisenberg and quantum mechanics using the tools that were developed for it.

Submission + - Stem cells used to grow miniature human livers in mice (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Transplanting tiny 'liver buds' constructed from human stem cells restores liver function in mice, researchers have found. Although preliminary, the results offer a potential path towards developing treatments for the thousands of patients awaiting liver transplants every year.
The liver buds, approximately 4 mm across, staved off death in mice with liver failure, the researchers report this week in Nature (abstract.). The transplanted structures also took on a range of liver functions — secreting liver-specific proteins and producing human-specific metabolites. But perhaps most notably, these buds quickly hooked up with nearby blood vessels and continued to grow after transplantation.

Submission + - Japan and EU Commit 18m Euros to Develop 100Gbps Internet Access 1

Submitted by Mark.JUK
Mark.JUK writes: The European Union and Japan have unveiled a joint investment of 18 Million Euro’s that aims to build more efficient fibre optic broadband networks that are “5000 times faster than today’s average European broadband ISP speed (100Gbps compared to 19.7Mbps)“. The funding will go towards supporting six research projects, which range from an effort to enable fibre optic networks at more than 100Gbps (aka – STRAUSS), to investigating new ways of ensuring efficient use of energy in information networks (aka — GreenICN). Faster than 100Gbps fibre optic links already exist but the new research could potentially help to bring these closer to homes. Some ISPs already offer 1Gbps+ connections to home users; not so long ago everybody was still stuck on a 50Kbps dialup link or slower.
Games

Game Endings Going Out of Style? 190

Posted by Soulskill from the to-be-continued dept.
An article in the Guardian asks whether the focus of modern games has shifted away from having a clear-cut ending and toward indefinite entertainment instead. With the rise of achievements, frequent content updates and open-ended worlds, it seems like publishers and developers are doing everything they can to help this trend. Quoting: "Particularly before the advent of 'saving,' the completion of even a simple game could take huge amounts of patience, effort and time. The ending, like those last pages of a book, was a key reason why we started playing in the first place. Sure, multiplayer and arcade style games still had their place, but fond 8, 16 and 32-bit memories consist more of completion and satisfaction than particular levels or tricky moments. Over the past few years, however, the idea of a game as simply something to 'finish' has shifted somewhat. For starters, the availability of downloadable content means no story need ever end, as long as the makers think there's a paying audience. Also, the ubiquity of broadband means multiplayer gaming is now the standard, not the exception it once was. There is no real 'finish' to most MMORPGs."
Media

Submission + - MythTV 0.22 Released

Submitted by uyguremre
uyguremre writes: After a little over a year and a half in the making, the developers of MythTV announced that MythTV 0.22 is now available. There have been a lot of large changes since 0.21, including a port from Qt v3 to Qt v4 and a major UI rewrite to convert to MythTV's new MythUI user interface libary.
As always, this release adds support for some new hardware, in this case VDPAU video acceleration, DVB-S2, and the Hauppauge HD-PVR. The MythUI toolkit allows themes much greater control over the user interface and today we're announcing a competition to design new themes for MythTV. With the new release comes a theming competition too.
For a more complete list of changes and new features, read the Release Notes on the wiki.
Spam

Submission + - Facebook on Spammer Rampage (cnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook is on a never before seen legal rampage against high profile internet spammers. Today Facebook was awarded yet another 9 figure settlement, this time for over $700 million dollars. Facebook also has a criminal contempt case on Wallace, which means a high likelihood of prison, a big win for the internet and a milestone in cyber law.

From the courts:
"The record demonstrates that Wallace willfully violated the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook and the thousands of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct," Fogel wrote in his judgment order, which permanently prohibits Wallace from accessing the Facebook Web site or creating a Facebook account, among other restrictions.

Comment Re:7 Bashing (Score 1) 241

by cichlid (#28987237) Attached to: Microsoft Denies Windows 7 "Showstopper Bug"

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/windowspartition

my pleasure.

Funny, this will crash linux if you don't have a /dev/windowspartition file (as most won't). It will create a regular file by that name and then fill the root partition (100% full given that you're running as root). Oops.

Big Linux fan but been there done that :-)

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