Gather a group of potentially bored kids in an open space with tools and a heap of sawmill scraps, add summer vacation and what do you have? Hutopolis!

A village of eight huts was constructed during two weeks in July from timber slabs from an area sawmill, salvaged wood and found items. Each hut is different, based on the children's design, with odd angles and shapes, rooftop lookout posts, windows, doors, ladders and a fire pit under a homemade shelter in the village center.

[via Bill]

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Education | Digg this!

Rob Nero is building this interesting finger tracking device using two infrared lasers and 110 infrared sensors. The cool part about this is that all the math is being done on the microcontroller, which means that it can be used without hooking it to a computer. He writes:

When 2 shadows are detected (one by each laser), it calculates the XY coordinate of each shadow. Using simple algebra, I will be able to calculate the equation for each line that is created (between laser and shadow), and then find where the 2 lines intersect (where my finger is).

There are some more videos at his Vimeo channel. [via Arduino Blog]

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Electronics | Digg this!

krou writes "Caster Semenya won the 800m at the World Athletics Championship in blistering style leaving her competitors in the dust, but she has been thrown into the midst of a scandal amidst claims that she's not really a woman. According to the many press reports, she's believed to shave, is flat chested, has a very masculine physique, previously preferred playing physical games with boys, and shunned traditional female activities and clothing. Questions about her gender have dogged her entire career. Previously, acceptance that she is a women relied on simple inspection of female genitals. But now the IAAF claim that they want to conduct further tests to see if 'she may have a rare medical condition that gives her an unfair advantage.' An IAAF spokesmen noted that 'The [testing] process was started after Semenya made her startling breakthroughs — a 25-second improvement at 1500m and eight seconds at 800m, just some weeks ago.' I'm curious what the Slashdot community thinks: what can be considered proof of someone being male or female? Is it simply a case of having the right genitals, or are there other criteria that should be used? Is the IAAF right in claiming that someone should be prevented from competing because they have a rare medical or genetic advantage?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A reader writes,

Back in the day before ARIN, I obtained a class C license (255 IP numbers) for a network of servers running in my garage. This block hasn't been in official routing for several years. As you well know, class C licenses are in rather short supply.

This is a unique situation. I was talking couple of years ago about this with Clay Shirky, who suggested I crowdsource the question, so here goes:

What's the most creative use that you could imagine for an IP v4 class C license?

A couple weeks back, I blogged about how much my daughter and I were enjoying the old Betty Boop cartoons on Archive.org, which feature the likes of Cab Calloway and fantastic incidental and theme music by Sammy Timberg, who also wrote music fo Popeye, Superman, and other Max Fleischer cartoons.

A commenter mentioned that Timberg's daughter Pat Timberg had recorded and released a CD of Sammy Timberg's Max Fleischer classics called "Boop-Oop-a-Dooin'," and Pat was kind enough to send me a review copy. We've been playing it around the house for a couple weeks now and again, the kid and I have been totally rockin' out. I love hearing some of my favorite Popeye songs, like "Clean Shaven Man" as well as Flesicher classics like "An Elephant Never Forgets" and, of course, Betty Boop's flirty, silly little songs.

The vocals, provided by Timberg's granddaughter Shannon Cullem and Richard "Mr Tin Pan Alley" Halpern are spot-on versions of Popeye, Wimpy, Olive Oyl, Betty Boop and the other Fleischer favorites. The orchestration is lively and sprightly, and my daughter, who's just starting to sing and speak, loves the songs as much as I do.

BOOP-OOP-A-DOOIN'

theodp writes "If you're brilliant, work really hard, and earn a world-class doctorate from a US university, IBM has a job for you at one of its US research sites — as a 'complementary worker' (as this 1996 piece defined the then-emerging term). But be prepared to ship out to India or China after you've soaked up knowledge for 13 months as a 'long-term supplemental worker.' Newsweek sketches some of the bigger picture, reporting that IBM, HP, Accenture, and others are finding it profitable to detach from the United States (even patenting the process). 'IBM is one of the multinationals that propelled America to the apex of its power, and it is now emblematic of the process of creative destruction pushing America to a new, less dominant, and less comfortable position.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Little Red Light's kids have produced a followup Doctor Who fan video as a sequel to last summer's lovely effort, this one focused on Torchwood.

UNIT-Torchwood Upgraded: Part 1 (Thanks, littleredlight!)

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA's claim that personalized internet radio stations were 'interactive services' was flatly rejected 'as a matter of law' by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Arista Records v. Launch Media. In affirming the jury's verdict in favor of the defendant, Launch Media — acquired during the lawsuit by Yahoo! — the Court said it did not even need to concern itself with possible errors in the jury instructions, since the trial judge should have directed a verdict for defendant 'as a matter of law' on the question of whether the radio stations were 'interactive services.' At pages 23-42 of its 42-page opinion (PDF), the appeals court carefully analyzed how Launch Media's personalized internet radio stations worked, and noted that the users could neither obtain and play on demand a particular song, nor obtain the transmission of a particular program, thus rendering the RIAA's claim of 'interactivity' meritless."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Lisa told about her favorite sport headphones for running with. • Steven got hands-on with HTC's MyTouch. • Rob offered a compendium of disturbing British public information films. • Justin Timberlake's new fragrance looks a lot like a music player. • Apple is so inundated with AppStore submissions that its review teams have only minutes to examine each one.

KentuckyFC writes "Metamaterials are substances with a permittivity and permeability that has been manipulated in a way that allows fine control over the behavior of light. They have famously been used to create an invisibility cloak that hides objects from view. Now Igor Smolyaninov, a physicist in the US, has calculated how metamaterials could be used for a much more profound demonstration: to reproduce the behavior of light in various kinds of spacetimes, in particular a (2+2) spacetime (one having two dimensions of space and two of time). His method is to show that there is formal mathematical analogy between the way metamaterials and spacetimes affect light. He goes on to show how a phase transition in a (2+2) spacetime leads to the creation of a (2+1) spacetime filled with photons, an event analogous to the Big Bang." Here are the abstract and the preprint (PDF).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mark has an example of what designers used to have to do in the days before desktop publishing... via textfiles.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Retro | Digg this!

Teach your family to solder! Take a few pictures tagged as "MAKEcation" and put them in the MAKE Flickr pool by September 9th to enter to win a $100 Maker Shed gift certifiate!

If you are looking to introduce soldering to your classes this school year, you should consider having students use a soldering vise or other holder to secure the circuit board. Keeping the components in place will help students get the hang of soldering quicker than if the board and parts are loose on the table or held by hand. I've been messing with this idea more since using the PanaVise my brother employed to solder the boards for his HeathKit amateur radio back in the day. While super nice to use, a well-made vise like this is too expensive and too easily broken for classroom use. This design can be easily made from readily available supplies from the supply cabinet and a few pieces from either maintenance or home.

My first iteration of the design was pretty simple, a scrap of 1"x3" strapping placed onto a scrap of 3/4" plywood. On the strapping, I screwed down a binder clip with a washer to help the sheet rock screw hold down the handle of the clip. I had some ideas of using water bottles from the recycling bin to hold parts, but plastic near hot iron is a bad combination. There were a few problems with the design, so I made another run at it. The idea behind this project is to create a functional tool, which should be something that kids could make themselves for use at home, or a teacher could bang out a bunch of them pretty quickly and inexpensively to set up several soldering stations.

Skills in this project (you can pick which ones you want to focus on):

• Measuring for a cut
• Cutting with a handsaw
• Cutting with a power saw like a miter box
• Designing with CAD (extrusions, assembly, or if you want to get hard core, you can even design the screws with a revolve and put threads on them too)
• Making and following drawings for manufacturing
• Manufacturing processes
• Mass production of a single design

Materials you will need:

• 2 Binder clips
• 6" Scrap of 2"x4"
• 6"x9" Plywood, 1/2" or 3/4"
• 5 Sheetrock screws 1 1/4" or longer
• 2 Washers to fit the screws

Tools:

• Ruler or tape measure
• Pencil to mark your cuts
• Saw (hand or power)
• Screwdriver or screw gun
• Safety goggles/glasses

Process
Start with a scrap of plywood. 6 inches by 9 inches should be plenty, but you can make it bigger.
Measure for your cuts and mark them on the wood in pencil.
Cut the 2"x4" to fit the short dimension of the plywood.
Align the 2"x4" so that it is about 2 1/2" from one end and mark the plywood. This will allow you to attach a holder such as a mint tin for solder and other supplies later.
Flip the plywood over, ideally, put the 2"x4" in a vise to keep it secure and screw the plywood to the 2"x4" with three screws.
Flip it over and place the two binder clips on the 2"x4" so that they are evenly spaced.
Place the washers on the screws and secure the binder clips in place.
Your soldering stand is ready for action!

Extensions
Storage
You may want to screw a mint tin or two on the board. This will allow you to hold things like short lengths of desoldering braid, solder, LEDs, switches, resistors etc. You will need screws that are at least 1/8" shorter than the thickness of the wood you are screwing into.
Soldering iron holder
You could make an iron holder with a 3/4" screw eye on the side of the upright. Making sure the heat from the business end of the iron is shielded should be part of your design, this could probably be done with a soda can, which can be cut with scissors and held with a short screw or two.
Soldering iron cleaner
Brass or copper pot scrubbers make good tip cleaners. Use a short screw with a wide fender washer (small hole, wide disk) to secure it to the plywood. Steel wool should not be used for a couple of reasons, apparently it scratches up the tip of the iron, and sooner or later, kids will discover that it is flammable, which could invite a visit from the local fire department or its' representatives.
Computer Aided Design
You can introduce students to the powerful ideas around CAD by having them make a virtual model of the stand either before or after building.

For well under $5, you can have a soldering station for your students to hold their work. If they use this as a way to also learn about manufacturing and computer aided design, you can wake up some other useful interests as they get ready to explore electronics.

More:

• MAKEcations: deadline extended!
• Dave's soldering tips
• Soldering - Where to start?
• Soldering tutorial PDF
• It's learn to solder month!

In the Maker Shed:

DIY Design Electronics Kit

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Education | Digg this!

adeelarshad82 writes "Twitter developers are now working on a location-based API that will provide accurate information on your whereabouts. Developers will be able to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. The option will definitely be opt-in. Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice, and the exact location data won't be stored for an extended period of time."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

BuzzSkyline writes "Despite fire codes that require emergency exits be clear of obstacles, some types of obstacles actually speed evacuation. The counterintuitive conclusion resulted from a series of experiments performed at a TV studio in Japan. Researchers from the University of Tokyo asked 50 volunteers to exit the studio through a narrow door. Video tapes of the experiments show that people made it out quickest when a pole was placed about 30 degrees to one side of the exit. The lead researcher believes an obstacle reduces jamming and friction among people in crowds by decreasing conflicts as the crowd presses toward the exit. A paper describing the research is scheduled to appear in the journal Physical Review E in September, but a preprint is available on the Physics Arxiv."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We have another Dog days of summer sale going on right now in the Maker Shed. You can pick up our Maker's Notebook for $11.99, that's 40% off. Also, don't forget to take advantage of our summer clearance sale.

The Maker Shed is continuing our summer clearance sale featuring a wide range of products. The sale will run for the rest of the summer, but only while supplies last. Be sure to check back regularly since we will be adding daily specials throughout the summer on some of our popular products.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Maker Shed Store | Digg this!

7 years ago today: "Tomorrow is Day 70 of No Smoking Dave. Ten weeks. A non-smoking story at the Bowie concert last week. As I'm walking out I see people lighting up everywhere. Smell of smoke all around. It smells good. I really want one. In my mind I outline the steps it would take to be smoking and the amount of time it would take. I would ask someone if they could spare a cigarette. If they said no I'd offer them $1. Oh hell, just offer $1 to begin with. Whoo, where would I get a match. I'd ask for a light. Take a drag. Estimated time, 15 seconds to one minute to first nicotine rush. My heart started beating faster. I felt scared like you feel on a NY subway platform as a train is entering the station and you're standing on the platform and in the instant before it passes you think how you could end your life by leaning forward. I never actually jump, and that night I didn't smoke, and it's good that inside I equate smoking with death so deeply that it invokes my subway nightmare. Do I have it beat? No way. I am still an addict, I expect I will be for life. But I'm an addict in recovery, who is not taking the drug. Even better, I am becoming a constant evangelist for a nicotine-free lifestyle for nicotine addicts, illustrating the old adage that you teach what you most need to learn."

Wish I could send a message back in time to that Dave, seven years ago. I'm sure at some level I'm still a nicotine addict, but I no longer go through this torture when I see someone smoking. Quite the opposite. I smell it and it repels me. Given enough time, you go into remission. Maybe never all the way, but pretty close.

glow-in-the-dark writes "The Swiss office for Data Protection has asked Google to turn off Street View within the country because it doesn't meet the conditions demanded when permission was given to go ahead with the photography. Google answered privacy concerns with the following points (I'm translating them from German; here's an automated translation): 'Google will publish in advance where it is going to record the images, so you can act accordingly.' Do they want you to hide? Where is the real obligation here? 'Google has made masking the images of people and car license plates obligatory.' I think this is where trouble starts, because their permission to go ahead appears to have been dependent on how well they did this. I have browsed one particular town as an experiment and was quite quickly able to find unmasked faces. This means that either the algorithm they use doesn't work, or that it is done manually and they've fallen behind (in which case they should not have put up the images). 'Although a picture of a home is generally not covered under Data Protection, Google has agreed to remove them if asked. Follow the same process as removing a person.' I think it wouldn't be half as bad if the pictures weren't taken with a high enough resolution to see inside a house. In short, Google has not been given the easy ride it had in other countries regarding Street View. I actually suspect there is more to come."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Earthquake Retrofit writes "Ars has a story about EVE Online banning thousands of accounts for real-world trading of in-game money for profit. From the article: 'Those who buy and sell ISK, the game's currency, are not only exploiting the game, but unbalancing play. That's why the company decided to go drastic: a program they called "Unholy Rage." For weeks they studied the behavior and effects these real-money traders had on the game, and then they struck. During scheduled maintenance, over 6,000 accounts were banned. [Einar Hreiðarsson, EVE's lead GM,] assures us that the methods were sound, and the bannings went off with surgical precision. ... While the number of accounts banned in the opening phase of the operation constituted around 2 percent of the total active registered accounts, the CPU per user usage was cut by a good 30 percent.' Looks like they got the right 6,000.' Further information and more graphs are available from the EVE dev blog."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

stelt writes "Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is in most graphical tools. It is used heavily in many big projects, such as KDE and Wikipedia. But Internet Explorer's lack of built-in support for SVG was keeping it away from mainstream use on the web. Google is fixing that now with a JavaScript drop-in named SVGWeb. They've posted a quick, one-minute overview, a longer and more detailed presentation, and you can read about it on the project page."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

BudgetTravel has a slide show of what they've deemed the "World's Weirdest Hotels." No Madonna Inn, but more interesting to me than theme rooms anyway are places where the entire hotel structure is an oddity. Top, the Hotel Costa Verde near Quepos, Costa Rica. Left, at the Capsule Hotel in Den Haag, Netherlands, you can sleep in an escape pod from a 1970s oil rig.
"World's Weirdest Hotels, Part Deux"

uolamer writes with word that the Economic Crimes Bureau in Sweden has opened an investigation into the upcoming purchase of The Pirate Bay by Global Gaming Factory X. Quoting: "The Swedish newspaper SvD reported Saturday that authorities are looking for possible insider trading after Global Gaming's stock jumped a week before they announced plans to acquire The Pirate Bay. Trading of Global Gaming shares was halted by AktieTorget, a Swedish exchange, on Friday after officials there requested proof that Global Gaming had enough money to complete the sale. Global Gaming has yet to produce the required documentation. Until officials get the proof they need, they said they won't allow the stock to be traded again"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

patentpundit writes "On Friday, August 21, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted Microsoft an expedited appeal of its patent infringement loss to i4i Limited Partnership. On August 11, 2009, Microsoft lost a $300 million judgment for infringing the XML patents of i4i by selling Word. Microsoft was given 60 days to stop selling Word, or implement work arounds that did not utilize the infringed technology. Microsoft filed an emergency appeal with the Federal Circuit, and requested a stay of the permanent injunction that will force them to stop selling work 60 days from August 11, 2009. The Federal Circuit granted an expedited oral argument, which will take place on September 23, 2009. Microsoft requested an administrative stay of the permanent injunction, which was denied, and then filed a petition to stay the injunction pending appeal. i4i has until August 25, 2009, to respond to Microsoft's request to stay the injunction pending appeal."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gijs Gieskes' Synth Car V3 seems like its straight outta crazytown! The R/C rover incorporates a collection of motion sensors to generate sound and even trigger glitches on a circuit bent camcorder. Seen above is the resulting video captured by the onboard cam, providing a view of the pinwheel which generates a clock signal for the sequencer which triggers the Gakken SX-150 synth which … well, the list goes on and on. Take a closer look at some more of the built-in kinetic triggers (box of marbles, etc) over on the project's page - oh and don't forget the earlier versions -

In the Maker Shed:

SX-150 Analog Synthesizer Kit Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Music | Digg this!

Death Metal writes "Psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles say the human body has a gene that connects physical pain sensitivity with social pain sensitivity. The findings back the common theory that rejection 'hurts' by showing that a gene regulating the body's most potent painkillers — mu-opioids — is involved in socially painful experiences too."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "The Free Software Foundation's Holmes Wilson is just back from Berlin, where he participated in the Ogg Theora book sprint put on by FLOSS Manuals. Here is a broad look at Ogg Theora and how it fits into the push for free formats: where we're winning, what works, and what could be improved."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mount your gadgets on your handlebars with this printable handlebar mount by aylr on Thingiverse.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Bicycles | Digg this!

Recently, we were discussing how copyright law seems to only get worse and worse, and it got me thinking how likely it is that "better" copyright laws could ever be put in place. Michael Geist recently put up a post on how to design copyright law that would last, emphasizing "balance" as being essential for durability. I have to admit, I tend to wince when people talk about a "balanced" copyright law, because it usually means a copyright law where everyone is worse off. A balanced copyright sets up the argument as if there's a real give-and-take, where what's good for some is bad for others.

I don't think copyright law needs to be that way. If the real purpose of copyright law is to "promote the progress," then why not make sure it's doing so? In other words, why not have actual evidence-based copyright law? There's a lot of historical evidence that can be looked at, and different ideas around copyright law can be empirically tested. If it doesn't promote the progress, get rid of it. If it does, then shouldn't that make almost everyone better off?

The real problem, though, is that there is a very small group of companies who disproportionately benefit from today's copyright laws -- at the expense of the public. And they have a ridiculously powerful lobby who aren't about to give up their monopoly rights, no matter how much evidence there is that it harms the public and does not promote the progress at all. So we're left with a bad system that continually gets worse. And no evidence-based system will ever be allowed, because it would almost certainly strip that small, but powerful, group of their monopoly rents.

People often assume that I'm in favor of just tossing out all copyright law. I'd argue that I'm more agnostic on the subject than anything else. I don't care about "copyright law" per se. I care about what's going to best promote the progress. If someone can show me that copyright actually can do that, I'm willing to understand how. But if we can't present the evidence of how, or actually defend what good copyright does, the I'm left wondering why it's there at all.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Plenty of studies have shown, over and over again, that in an emerging market, the last thing you want is patent protection. It slows down innovation and adoption drastically. That's because in a brand new emerging market, the bigger issue is actually figuring out how to get the market established -- and that means a lot of different efforts getting thrown at the wall, and the ability for multiple parties to try different approaches to getting things to work in a way that the market wants. Often this means a lot more sharing of ideas (even among competitors), as everyone begins to recognize that getting over that adoption hurdle is a much bigger deal than hoarding IP. And that's a key point. With these emerging markets, the incentive is often the realization that when the market need is actually met, it will make a lot of people very wealthy, not by hoarding IP, but by selling product. This is a perfect example of a market where patents make no sense at all. There's no need for monopoly protections where the market can accurately reward the innovators.

The clean tech market has been an interesting one to watch, because it certainly has not needed patents to keep people interested. Lots of companies have been jumping into the market, realizing that the world needs better energy solutions, and recognizing that those who successfully crack that nut won't have to worry about patents, but about being able to actually serve the demand. But, those who look at innovation entirely through the spectrum of patents would like to paint a different picture. Reader bretton points out that a recent document sent around by a big law firm is pushing the idea that patents will be essential for "fostering innovation" in clean tech (pdf). Of course, studies (and history) have shown exactly the opposite... but, of course, more patents would be good for the law firm and its business.

At almost the same time as that link was sent over, Michael Koch alerted us to a discussion of how some big companies are suddenly very interested in patents on clean tech. It notes that, prior to this year, there was very little interest in the clean tech community for patents or patent issues, but as the new administration talked up the importance of working together and sharing information (even across borders) to further the goal of actual innovation (rather than the hoarding of ideas), suddenly the US Chamber of Commerce unleashed its lobbying muscle to demand that patents be a big part of this:

However, this situation changed dramatically in the spring and summer of 2009 with the advent of the Obama administration making public statements about sharing technology related to energy. In reaction, the United States Chamber of Commerce, a leading lobby representing businesses, is expressing growing concern that moves to spread new energy technologies to developing countries could erode the IP rights that have driven commercial efforts to innovate for generations.

Late in May 2009, the group and representatives of General Electric, Microsoft and Sunrise Solar gathered in Washington to launch the Innovation, Development & Employment Alliance, or I.D.E.A. The initiative is aimed at pressing Congress and the Obama administration to ensure that global climate-treaty talks do not weaken protections on who can profit from new technologies that provide abundant energy without abundant pollution. The creation of I.D.E.A. has been widely noted, with some alarm, in the IP "watchers" community, and likely means the status of alternative energy as a less-observed IP sector is finished for good....

The new Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize winner, has publicly supported collaborating with developing countries - in particular China - and sharing all IP rights of the resulting technologies. He has already pushed forward with a new U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, developed with $15 million dollars each from the U.S. and Chinese governments, and designed to create innovative technologies for building energy efficiency, clean coal (including carbon capture and storage) and clean vehicles. In addition, Secretary Chu is advocating for the development of open-source building energy-efficiency software that will make it cheaper and easier for developers to implement energy saving measures in new buildings, both in the U.S. and in emerging economies like China and India.

Such an effort could certainly help advance some of the important scientific research and innovation in clean tech issues... but of course, this new lobby is having none of it:

In reaction, I.D.E.A.'s first act was to back the Larsen-Kirk Amendment to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act (H.R. 2410). The amendment calls on the President, the Secretary of State and the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations to uphold the existing international legal requirements for IP rights and avoid any weakening of them for the UNFCCC in the context of energy and environmental technology. The Amendment passed the House with a 432-0 vote. It was described as an amendment to protect U.S. green jobs and U.S. technology innovation.

Of course, the reality is exactly the opposite. If we don't make the necessary innovation breakthroughs then there won't be that many US green jobs at all. It's stunning in this day and age that politicians can still be convinced that such protectionist policies protect jobs rather than limit them. Getting serious innovation in the clean tech market will create tremendous job opportunities. Focusing on who gets to own the patents (and blocking foreign collaboration) at this stage only delays the ability for the US to create those jobs and to move to better energy options.

What a shame.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

anonymousNR writes "From the BBC, 'Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google's attempt to create what could be the world's largest virtual library. Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive. They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works. "Google is trying to monopolise the library system," the Internet Archive's founder Brewster Kahle said.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's no secret that we've got some serious problems with the way the old school scientific journals work -- basically locking up scientific research rather than really living up to their mandate to spread scientific knowledge. Stephen alerts us to a separate issue with traditional journal publications: how they handle the followup discussion. There's a great blog post at Scienceblogs, that compares two separate journal articles where readers felt that the results were falsified in some way (despite being peer reviewed). In one, the scientist had to go to hell and back just to get the editors publish a comment questioning the original article. In the second, even though the article was published in a journal, an outside blog post and its comments became an impromptu forum to question the data in the article -- with many scientists conducting the same experiment themselves and posting the results (including photos) in real-time.

The second one is obviously a lot more of the way research should work these days, though it shouldn't all be hidden in a separate site's comments. If journals are serious about advancing knowledge, rather than locking it up, why not give up on the obviously faulty simple peer review process, and open up the content so that knowledgeable people can input their own thoughts in comments directly on the article in question? Isn't that what knowledge exchange is supposed to be about?

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Ivan Mavrovic made this steampunk skull mouse, wow! [via BBG]

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!

I'm really beginning to wonder if there should be sanctions on plaintiffs who sue the obviously wrong party. We write about so many cases, where people sue whoever has the deepest pockets, rather than those actually responsible, that it's clearly an abuse of the law. The latest example, sent in by davebarnes, involves a photographer suing Apple, because an iPhone app from a third party developer includes some of his photos. Note that the guy did not sue the actual app developer: just Apple. I'd also like to see the argument that explains how getting this guy's photographs more publicity somehow "damages" him, but that's another story...

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Well, finally. The RIAA has lost its case against Yahoo over what royalties the Launchcast service needed to pay. As per usual, the RIAA kept trying to add on additional fees. Rather than just webcasting fees, it also wanted an additional royalty for being an interactive service. This is a neat trick that the RIAA has been pulling a lot lately. In the past, every time some new technology comes along, the recording industry runs screaming and crying to Congress about how unfair it is, and how it needs a special new royalty for that new technology/service. But here, because Launchcast was online and combined elements of different services, the RIAA simply figured it could lump all the different royalties together and get Launchcast/Yahoo to pay multiple times for each use of a song. The entertainment industry sure does love trying to get everyone to pay multiple times for the same thing.

But, it appears the court was having none of that, saying that the service didn't provide enough user control to make it an interactive service that would require a different license (though, it still has to pay the basic webcasting fees). The ruling here did not take kindly to the RIAA's argument that being able to choose which station you wanted to listen to (or that you could skip songs) made it somehow interactive beyond regular radio:

"Launchcast listeners do not even enjoy the limited predictability that once graced the AM airwaves on weekends in America when 'special requests' represented love-struck adolescents' attempts to communicate their feelings to 'that special friend'."

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Last year, it became clear that REAL ID was dead on arrival as pretty much everyone was against it, and states were refusing to implement it. With the changing of the administration, it seemed like REAL ID was finally going to die completely... but apparently not just yet. EFF alerts folks to the fact that the same concept has basically been reintroduced under the name PASS ID, as if that would trick people: The plan sounds equally as bad and unnecessary:

Proponents seem to be blind to the systemic impotence of such an identification card scheme. Individuals originally motivated to obtain and use fake IDs will instead use fake identity documents to procure "real" drivers' licenses. PASS ID creates new risks -- it calls for the scanning and storage of copies of applicants' identity documents (birth certificates, visas, etc.). These documents will be stored in databases that will become leaky honeypots of sensitive personal data, prime targets for malicious identity thieves or otherwise accessible by individuals authorized to obtain documents from the database. Despite some alterations to the scheme, PASS ID is still bad for privacy in many of the same ways the REAL ID was.

But why let that stop the gov't from coming up with more ways to keep tabs on you?

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Slatterz writes "Logitech has introduced new mice that use two lasers rather than one to work on a variety of previously unusable surfaces. The first laser picks out imperfections in the surface of a tabletop while the second laser focuses on microscopic imperfections highlighted and uses those to direct the cursor. The technique, dubbed dark field microscopy, allows mice to be used on almost any surface, including glass as long as it is more than 4mm thick."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.