New Zealand Parliament bans software patents:
The text of the bill, intended to replace the outdated Patents Act of 1953, states, “Protecting software by patenting is inconsistent with the open source model, and its proponents oppose it. A number of submitters argued that there is no ‘inventive step’ in software development, as ‘new’ software invariably builds on existing software.”
Not sure I agree with either point - there’s no a priori reason software cannot contain innovation.
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FCC loosens outdoor power restrictions on unlicensed 60GHz spectrum:
Higher power levels will enable multi-Gigabit ad-hoc networks over a distance of a few miles.
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In an attempt to live up to its age-old motto to not be evil, Google has just added 79 more patents to its Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge. Enacted in March of this year, the pact was designed to encourage open-source software development, and consists of patents the Mountain View company won’t use to sue anyone unless first attacked. While the first set of patents had to deal with large data sets, these additional ones were acquired from IBM and CA Technologies and consist of software used to run data centers, such as middleware and distributed database management. The technologies included in the OPN Pledge has so far been of the back-end variety, but the search giant claims that it’ll add more consumer-facing patents to the pledge in the future. Google might not ever be completely free from the dark side, but gestures like these could go a long way in earning good will — especially in an age of heavy back-to-back lawsuits. For those who want to delve head-first into the...
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Perseids peak tonight:
Remember, everyone: Get out tonight to see the Persieds. It looks like relatively clear skies tonight in New England, so head out and look just below the constellation Cassiopeia (the big W) in the Northeast.
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Kids can't use computers... and this is why it should worry you.:
A good argument that the issue of digital illiteracy is bigger than just being “Digital Natives.”
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Key patents on hi-res 3D printing expiring:
Expiration the patents on high-resolution 3D printers result in a flood of inexpensive printers and will have “Disruptive implications for industry and the democratization of distributed manufacturing” through a significant drop in order time and cost for high-quality fully customized parts.
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“The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space—each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.”
- Randall Munroe, author of the xkcd comic (via heythereuniverse)
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The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space—each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision. - http://blog.technodad.org/post...
Sufficient Evidence: June US Budget Surplus Shatters Record:
The US economy continues to improve, resulting in a budget surplus for June and contributions from the now-profitable mortgage backers:
An improving economy and tax hikes enacted earlier in the year led government receipts to rise to $287 billion, up 10 percent from a year earlier.
Also driving the surplus in June, state-backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were bailed out by taxpayers in the wake of the financial crisis but have since returned to profitability, poured billion of dollars into public coffers.
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