Business, Technology

Cisco loses logo lawsuit against WiFi inventor boffinhaus

By
13 April 2015
2 min read
Leave a comment
In Business, Technology
1253 views

Cisco’s suffered a legal reversal in Australia, where the nation’s Trade Marks Office has ruled the logo of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is not an attempt to imitate or cash in on the Borg’s bridge badge.

CSIRO’s logo is supposed to be a stylised map of Australia. Cisco’s reimagining of the Golden Gate bridge and/or an graph is well known.

Cisco objected to the CSIRO’s application to trademark its logo. The Borg’s beef seems to have been that the colours and wave design in both logos are similar and therefore perhaps confusing to punters. That CSIRO’s desire to have its logo classified as pertaining to software and “telecommunications” didn’t help either.

CSIRO has form in the latter field: astronomers there did the basic work that led to the creation of WiFi and the organisation has scooped hundreds of millions in patent royalties from technology companies, including Cisco. The case therefore has an ironic element, as Cisco makes millions from WiFi kit every year — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Craft, Wildlife

Squid Pillow / CraftySoCal

By
13 April 2015
32 second read
Leave a comment
In Craft, Wildlife
1155 views

Four foot long squid plush. Made to order, and stuffed with hypo-allergenic polyester fibre. Colour refers to the fleece body and pattern refers to the underside of the squid. Patterns for the underside will be matched to compliment the colour of the squid unless otherwise specified — via Etsy

Entertainment

Game of Chairs / Sesame Street

By
13 April 2015
30 second read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment
1145 views

The Game of Chairs will determine who will be king or queen of Jesteros. Four players will march around three chairs while music plays until one remains. Who will take the crown in this game of musical chairs? Robb, Cersei, Joffrey, Daenerys or…? — via Youtube

Business

FedEx bids $US4.8 billion for Australian founded TNT

By
10 April 2015
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Business
1025 views

FedEx agreed to buy Dutch parcel-delivery company TNT Express for 4.4 billion euros ($US4.8 billion), predicting it can succeed where bigger rival United Parcel Service was blocked by regulators in 2013.

TNT, originally Thomas Nationwide Transport, was founded in Sydney by Ken Thomas in 1946. The company merged with Hungarian refugee Peter Abeles’ transport company, Alltrans Group, in 1967. Alltrans was famously started with Sir Peter’s two trucks dubbed Samson and Delilah.

Though the merged company scrapped the Alltrans name, Sir Peter was a significant driver in TNT’s huge expansion with his motto: Anything, anywhere, any time. The company began to expand internationally with the purchase of a California truck line in 1969.

Key to the company’s expansion was Sir Peter’s close relationship with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which was developed when the pair took joint control over Ansett in 1979, with TNT winning the contract to distribute Murdoch’s British newspapers.

TNT was eventually taken over by Koninklijke PTT Neder-land for $2 billion in 1996 in one of the largest mergers in Dutch history — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Business

FedEx bids $US4.8 billion for Australian founded TNT

By
10 April 2015
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Business
1094 views

FedEx agreed to buy Dutch parcel-delivery company TNT Express for 4.4 billion euros ($US4.8 billion), predicting it can succeed where bigger rival United Parcel Service was blocked by regulators in 2013.

TNT, originally Thomas Nationwide Transport, was founded in Sydney by Ken Thomas in 1946. The company merged with Hungarian refugee Peter Abeles’ transport company, Alltrans Group, in 1967. Alltrans was famously started with Sir Peter’s two trucks dubbed Samson and Delilah.

Though the merged company scrapped the Alltrans name, Sir Peter was a significant driver in TNT’s huge expansion with his motto: Anything, anywhere, any time. The company began to expand internationally with the purchase of a California truck line in 1969.

Key to the company’s expansion was Sir Peter’s close relationship with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which was developed when the pair took joint control over Ansett in 1979, with TNT winning the contract to distribute Murdoch’s British newspapers.

TNT was eventually taken over by Koninklijke PTT Neder-land for $2 billion in 1996 in one of the largest mergers in Dutch history — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Craft, Wildlife

Squid Necklace / Marty Magic

By
10 April 2015
20 second read
Leave a comment
In Craft, Wildlife
1113 views

Marty Magic adds this solid sterling silver, Squid Charm to the Octopus Garden Collection. It is completely three dimensional, 44mm long and complete down to its many suction cups — via Etsy

Craft, Wildlife

Sterling Silver Lizard Pendant / Revonav

By
9 April 2015
26 second read
Leave a comment
In Craft, Wildlife
1012 views

Cool Lizard Pendant saw pierced in Argentium sterling silver. The pendant measures 1.5 inches tall with a brushed satin finish and a blackened interior layer. It’s suspended from a high quality 2mm blackened sterling silver snake chain — via Etsy

Design

Storage in the Stairs / Zugai Strudwick Architects + Zenya Adderley

By
8 April 2015
26 second read
Leave a comment
In Design
1108 views

Zenya Adderley is a house builder who worked with Zugai Strudwick Architects to create these stairs for his own home in Sydney, Australia. Two of the stairs have pull-tabs that when pulled, reveal drawers hidden inside the stairs — via CONTEMPORIST

Science, Technology

Aluminum battery from Stanford offers safe alternative to conventional batteries

By
7 April 2015
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Science, Technology
1009 views

Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology offers a safe alternative to many commercial batteries in wide use today.

We have developed a rechargeable aluminum battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames, said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. Our new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it.

Dai and his colleagues describe their novel aluminum-ion battery in An ultrafast rechargeable aluminum-ion battery, which will be published in the April 6 advance online edition of the journal Nature.

Aluminum has long been an attractive material for batteries, mainly because of its low cost, low flammability and high-charge storage capacity. For decades, researchers have tried unsuccessfully to develop a commercially viable aluminum-ion battery.  A key challenge has been finding materials capable of producing sufficient voltage after repeated cycles of charging and discharging — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Design

Ingalls House / Frank Lloyd Wright

By
6 April 2015
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Design
951 views

The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ingalls House in River Forest, Illinois, USA is on the market. This prairie-style house dates from 1909 and although (as you would expect) it isn’t in entirely original condition, the house still has an air of originality about it.

But changes have been made since the original build, not least with the sympathetic addition of an expanded kitchen, new family room and deck area. That was apparently undertaken by a local architect who purchased the house back in 1977.

$1,325,000 is the asking price if you want to own a classic — via WowHaus

Previous 1 2 34 Next