In the wake of high-profile lawsuits involving BlackBerry and eBay, Congress is once again talking about fixing what the technology industry says is a thoroughly broken patent system
As Microsoft moves its internal desktop systems to Windows Vista, the company is contemplating whether to change a long running tradition and take away admin rights from its employees in order to improve security
The Department of Energy has filed a patent for hydrogen fuel balls. The proposed glass microspheres would each be a few millionths of a metre (microns) wide with a hollow centre containing specks of palladium. The walls of each sphere would also have pores just a few ten-billionths of a metre in diameter. They are supposedly safe and small enough to be pumped into a fuel tank in the same manner as petrol
Researchers at Stanford have developed a robot that mimics the extraordinary climbing skills of the Gecko. These creatures can climb sheer surfaces thanks to the intermolecular forces exerted by millions of tiny hairs their feet, called setae. The robot, Stickybot, has polymer pads on its feed with synthetic setae
John Howard’s junket to Ireland has allowed him to show the world his true colours. A talk at University College Dublin saw Howard out himself as rampant homophobe by claiming that it is not discrimination to deny gay men and lesbians equal marriage status with heterosexual couples and that most Australians do not want gay couples to have equivalent status. Howard’s warmongering, racism and dodgy dealings in East Timor have seen several TDs plan to boycott his address to the Dáil — via The Pagan Prattle Online
eBay-owned shopping portal Shopping.com believes the Australian e-commerce market is finally ripe for the picking, and will launch its Australian service this week with 200 local retail partners
With regional Australia soon to be the happy recipient of a $1.1 billion communications funding package, the tiny wireless broadband firms that have sprung up around the bush don’t know whether to laugh or cry
Domain name registration company Melbourne IT Ltd has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire hosting group WebCentral in a deal valued at $61.3 million
Telstra says it can’t put a timeline on a deal with the competition watchdog over the rollout of its proposed $5.7 billion fibre broadband network
Telstra has been forced to admit that mobile phone users in the bush could find themselves without an effective service in late 2008
Pearl Jam released their first music video in quite a while under a Creative Commons licence allowing anyone to legally copy, distribute and share the clip
for noncommercial purposes. Creative Commons thinks this may be the first video produced by a major label ever to be CC-licensed. So although the file is only available as a free download via Google Video through 24 May, fans can continue sharing it online themselves in perpetuity — via Slashdot
Official guidance on how to teach Scottish schoolchildren about gay sex is being issued for the first time since the abolition of laws which banned promoting
homosexuality in schools
Pigtail Pilot Hat as Modelled by Disgruntled Malamute originally uploaded by Red Wolf
Malamute grungingly stepped in as hat model for the occasion. Note that she’s wearing it backwards so the hole locations are better suited to the forward position of her ears.
One of the yarns I bought to sample for the Yorick scarf ended up getting used for the final run of the pigtail pilot hat project. Despite the blue colour of the picture, the yarn is actually varigated turquoise and purple.
As I had no set pattern and was cobbling together my own from a few sources, all of which have no concept of proper yarn descriptions, the result was a bit big. The 8 ply yarn, while suited to mild Australian winters, seemed a bit flimsy for the hat, especially after I added the i-cord that holds its structure together.
So, I felted it. Half an hour in the kitchen sink by hand, then it got turned over to the mercies of the hot/cold cycle of the washing machine. It got brushed when it came out of the wash and is quite fuzzy.
The size is now perfect — for a human head, Malamute was underwhelmed by the fit on her head. The ear flaps just cover my ears instead of curling up and the holes at the top could probably hold my dreadlocks up quite nicely without the additional need of hair bands. But as I have a pair of very cute, purple cat hair bands, far be it from me to leave that step out.
Danish researchers found a simple way to make curiously shaped air holes in a bucket of water. Simply rig the bucket to have a spinning plate at the bottom, and depending on the speed, you can get an ellipse, three-sided star, square, pentagon, or hexagon. The effect may help explain such shapes seen in atmospheric disturbances on Earth and other planets — via Slashdot
Finnish metal band Lordi, who dress in monster masks and outlandish fantasy costumes, have taken the Eurovision Song Contest by storm — via The Pagan Prattle Online
Google has snuck out the much anticipated street mapping data for Australia and New Zealand cities within Google Maps
Apple is suing Creative Technology, raising the stakes in the legal dispute over competing devices. Apple claims Creative Labs, the US division of Creative Technology, infringes four patents in its hand-held digital players — via digg
A new research project at MIT’s Media Lab, entitled RadioActive, aims to turn every mobile phone or PDA carrying member of the public into a podcaster, and every mobile device into a virtual podcasting studio. The project defines a large-scale asynchronous audio messaging system in which voice messages can be threaded like text in a discussion forum as a method of discussion-on-demand
— via Slashdot
Blue Security, a prominent crusader against unsolicited e-mail ads withdrew from an escalating cyberwar with spammers on Wednesday after his Web site and numerous others came under a massive retaliatory attack
Natural allies in the music industry — record labels and a leading satellite service — are on opposing sides in a federal lawsuit over how consumers may legally record songs using next-generation radio devices
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