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Red Hat Settles Patent Case 76

Posted by Soulskill from the making-it-go-away dept.
darthcamaro writes "Red Hat has settled another patent case with patent holding firm Acacia. This time the patent is US Patent #6,163,776, 'System and method for exchanging data and commands between an object oriented system and relational system.' While it's great that Red Hat has ended this particular patent threat, it's not yet clear how they've settled this case. The last time Red Hat tangled with Acacia they won in an Texas jury trial. 'Red Hat routinely addresses attempts to impede the innovative forces of open source via allegations of patent infringement,' Red Hat said in a statement. 'We can confirm that Red Hat, Inc and Software Tree LLC have settled patent litigation that was pending in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas.'"

Comment Erm... Requirements? (Score 2, Insightful) 268

by teqo (#30771368) Attached to: Powerful Linux ISP Router Distribution?
So AirControl "doesn't play well with other network monitoring software" (which one, and why?), and MikroTik "isn't built for what [you] need" (what's that?) - other than that, you don't give us any idea what you really expect. What are your requirements? Suggestions out of the blue: OpenWRT with quagga/zebra, hostapd, radius, olsrd, b.a.t.m.a.n. etc. etc, or you might want to have a look at Vyatta (no affiliation).

Submission + - Airport Access IDs Hacked in Germany (spiegel.de)

Submitted by teqo
teqo writes: Hackers belonging to the Chaos Computer Club have allegedly cloned digital security ID cards for some German airport successfully which then allowed them access to all airport areas. According to the Spiegel Online article (transgoogleation here), they used a 200 Euro RFID reader to scan a valid security ID card, and since the scanner was able to pretend to be that card, used it to forge that valid ID. Even the airport authorities say that the involved system from 1992 might be outdated, but I guess it might be deployed elswewhere anyways.

Comment Re:To clarify ... (Score 1) 246

by anthony_dipierro (#26863267) Attached to: A Software License That's Libre But Not Gratis?

Obviously, modifying the software in-house counts as a derivative work, and I'm okay with that - just not with the idea that customers would then onsell or give away the modified product to other potential customers.

Just selling source code and not granting any license at all would probably accomplish that in practice if not strictly by law. In-house modifications are arguably fair use, and even if not it's basically unenforceable law anyway.

Personally I'd want to go one step further. I'd like to allow (and encourage) distribution of modifications (for free or for a charge), to people who already purchased the original.

Comment I'd like something similar (Score 1) 246

by anthony_dipierro (#26863151) Attached to: A Software License That's Libre But Not Gratis?
I was thinking recently that I'd like something similar to this, though I wouldn't call it a "libre" license. The idea is that anyone who purchased the software would get full source code and a license to make any changes without restriction, and they could distribute the software, with or without changes, to anyone who purchased a license. Furthermore, they could resell licenses. So if the base license cost $10, they could make changes and sell the modified software for $15, as long as they turned over $10 to me for each license they sold. Incidentally, it seems to me that such a license is sufficiently "free", and could actually be more useful than traditional free software, because it allows people who make modifications the ability to make money.

Comment Re:Improvement at e-bay (Score 1) 412

by anthony_dipierro (#25115073) Attached to: eBay To Disallow Checks and Money Orders In US

i was told by a mortgage broker that it is illegal for the mortgage company to make interest on the money they're holding in escrow.

Sure they "make interest on the money". In fact, you're the one paying it. If you didn't have to pay that money into escrow, it'd go toward your principal, and lower the interest you pay on the loan.

Comment Re:Actual product link: (Score 1) 245

by SubtleNuance (#19402737) Attached to: Windows-Based iPhone Rival for Business Users
What makes you think the iphone's frontend will be "nice"? It really seems to me that its going to requrie juggling of the highest order just to perform simple task.

I'm waiting to see how it pans out, but the irrational exuberance surrounding the iphone is probably leading to one of the biggest tech let-downs of the year.

Outside of the 'must-have' cache it has in some circles, I just dont see it hitting like the ipod. There are a dozen cell manufacturers that can eat Apple's lunch overnight -- trying to bring emotion based branding to the technology market isnt the recipe for long term technology-industry success.

Feed Berkeley's "respectful" surveillance cameras disregard faces (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

While blatantly spying on us is one thing, attempting to freshen it up by suggesting a venerating alternative is bordering on preposterous. As we've seen at the Sky Harbor airport, officials are trying nearly anything they can to make forthright invasions of privacy seem a bit less offensive, and a CCTV camera developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is next up to bat. The so-called "respectful cameras" are aimed at places of employment, where specified workers would wear a given marker that could be recognized by the camera. After being identified, the camera would then spot out the face of the individual to provide some sort of false assurance that their identity is magically safe. The best, er, worse part, however, is that the system doesn't actually delete the face beneath the circle, as it "allows for the privacy oval to be removed from a given set of footage in the event of an investigation." So much for dodging Big Brother.

[Via SciFiTech]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Software

Recognizing Scenes Like the Brain Does 115

Posted by kdawson from the software-meets-wetware dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research have used a biological model to train a computer model to recognize objects, such as cars or people, in busy street scenes. Their innovative approach, which combines neuroscience and artificial intelligence with computer science, mimics how the brain functions to recognize objects in the real world. This versatile model could one day be used for automobile driver's assistance, visual search engines, biomedical imaging analysis, or robots with realistic vision. Here is the researchers' paper in PDF format."
Software

Submission + - What tax software do you use?

Submitted by r_jensen11
r_jensen11 writes: I know this topic has been asked at least once before, but seeing as how 6 years have passed, I figured the question is due again. It's about that time of the year again when we find out how much we owe Uncle Sam (Or as in my case, how much Uncle Sam owes me.) Software has changed drastically in the past 6 years since the previous query I found on Slashdot, as well as many tax rules. Does anyone here use tax software other than TurboTax and TaxCut? I know that there are also online forms I can fill out, but which ones are accessable to people that use OS's other than Windows and OSX? I'd preferably use a program that I can use off-line and store my information locally instead of using eforms, but if I have to resort to eforms, which ones should I investigate and which ones should I stay far away from?

Comment Eh? (Score 3, Informative) 82

by adelayde (#15347166) Attached to: Portable Server for On-the-Road Development?
What are you on about?? Get a laptop and use that. If you need to run VMWare (why??), then get some more RAM in order to be able to run it. I do development on a low-end Dell Inspiron 510M with 1/2 GB RAM and develop in a Apache+mod_perl+Mysql+Emacs+Firefox environment and it runs fine, running Xorg, KDE, Thunderbird to boot. Any model laptop better than the one I have should do you proud. If weight's a problem, then Dells aren't maybe for you, get an iBook or a PowerBook or a Sony Vaio or something like that. Mac MINI's are pretty cool, but you'd need to buy a very small flat screen and mini keyboard and mouse. In short, I can't really see much point in your posting I'm afraid, the short answer is get a/another laptop my friend.

Comparison of Internet Book Databases? 53

Posted by Cliff from the what's-out-there-and-how-well-do-you-like-them dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "There have been several attempts at creating a book database like the IMDB. I list several [in the full article] and I would like to know which you like best, and which you use most often. What are the features you find the most useful out of the book databases you use?"

Design Software Weakens Classic Drawing Skills 268

Posted by CowboyNeal from the not-to-mention-penmanship dept.
mosel-saar-ruwer writes "A recent conference, hosted by UC-Berkeley's College of Environmental Design, sought to 'examin[e] the need and role for drawing today in the design professions and fine arts'. In this Reuters summary, via C-NET, the participants seem to agree that the emergence of sophisticated graphics software has coincided with a startling decline in the basic drawing skills of university students. Apparently teenaged boys don't need to practice drawing their nudes when they can just download them off the web."

When Ads Go Wandering 69

Posted by Zonk from the better-catch-your-refridgerator dept.
conq writes "BusinessWeek explores yet another click fraud scam, this one utilizing Yahoo!'s ads." From the article: "Somewhere along the way, an ad can wander off this trail. This happens when one of Yahoo's partners decides to give its own partners a cut in return for traffic, Edelman says. According to the study, a Yahoo partner called Ditto.com served an Overture advertisement through another site, NBCSearch (no affiliation with General Electric's NBC), unaffiliated with Yahoo. That company, in turn, passed it along to one of its own partners. (NBCSearch didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.) When that happens, Yahoo can't track its ads. Sometimes, the ads show up in undesirable places, like a pop-up from a spyware program. The average user simply sees the pop-up, unaware of how many networks it traversed beforehand."

Prof Denied Funds Over Evolution Evidence 953

Posted by Zonk from the that-would-have-been-a-fun-after-meeting-beer dept.
radarsat1 writes "The Montreal Gazette today reported that a professor at Montreal's McGill University was refused a $40,000 grant, allegedly because 'he'd failed to provide the panel with ample evidence that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is correct.' Ironically, the grant was for a study into the detrimental effects of intelligent design on Canadian academics and leaders." From the article: "Jennifer Robinson, McGill's associate vice-principal for communications, said the university has asked the SSHRC to review its decision to reject Alters's request for money to study how the rising popularity in the United States of 'intelligent design' - a controversial creationist theory of life - is eroding acceptance of evolutionary science in Canada."

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