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Multi-Billion Dollar Geeks Don’t Always Have Good Grades

Daljeet — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:00:23 +0000

Steve Jobs has always been hailed as the geek who wasn’t that smart kid practically kneeling in front of the lecturer to get even more work than that was already set. I recall it going around that he didn’t go to college – it was around the time a lot of people I knew were considering University and he was often held as an example that the education system isn’t for everyone.

Well apparently, even in high school our “Think Different” genius was not a shining star. From his recently released FBI file (I had no idea there was a public vault of FBI files!) it’s been revealed that he got an average of 2.65 on the standard 4.0 scale at Homestead High School (page 79 of the file). For those of us not familiar with the system, this translates to getting mostly Bs and Cs.

So hey, if you’re not doing so well in school and people try to tell you that you aren’t a sexy geek – tell em to stuff it up their Macbook!

[Via The Atlantic]

Court Orders Refund for “Windows Tax”

JLister — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:00:43 +0000

A French man has become at least the fourth person to gain a refund for a copy of Windows that came pre-installed on a new computer. This looks to be the first case, though, where a court has ordered the refund.

Microsoft’s general policy is that it sells Windows to the retailer and the retailer then sells it to the customer as part of the computer package. If you don’t want Windows (for example, if you want to run Linux on the machine), that’s between you and the retailer. That policy is covered by the End User License Agreement which you click to approve before using Windows.

In the three previous cases:

An American man persuaded HP to refund him $200 from a $599 laptop when he decided he didn’t want to use Vista (which is understandable.) Although HP tried to deter him, and at one point argued it was Microsoft’s responsibility, persistence eventually paid off.
An Israeli man sued Dell for refusing to refund him for Vista. Possibly fearing a court ruling setting a precedent, Dell eventually offered him an out of court settlement of $100, the price it had paid Microsoft for the Windows license. The man then talked them into paying the $137 he’s sued for, which covered the full consumer retail price of the system at the time.
A British customer persuaded Amazon to refund him the cost of Windows after buying an Asus laptop. It was a simple process, which appeared to be a case of him getting lucky and speaking to a customer service representative with a good knowledge of open source software.

The new case went as far as several court rulings. Stephane Petrus bought a Lenovo laptop and asked for a refund, citing a French law that says you cannot make the sale of one product dependent on the sale of another. The French court initially rejected that, ruling he should simply return the PC. An appeals court later ordered a retrial, saying the original judge had not fully considered a European directive on unfair commercial practices. Such directives must be adopted in the domestic law of European Union member countries.

The original court has now ruled in Petrus’ favor. It did reject his somewhat baffling estimate that of the €597 price of the computer, €404.81 was made up of the Windows license. Instead the court ordered Lenovo to hand over €120 as a refund, but a further €800 in damages for making him take the case through the courts, and €1,000 to cover legal costs.

Not only does this establish a legal precedence in French law, but the European Union directive angle means people across the continent may now have a stronger argument for saying they have a legal right to a Windows refund in their own country.

(Image credit: Alan Lord/The Open Sourceror)

3D Printing Breaks into the Medical Field

Daljeet — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:00:58 +0000

Photo Credit: organprinter

So we’ve all definitely heard the hype surrounding the 3D printing technology. Yes, it’s been around for a while, but it’s now taking off like a whirlwind – with everything from 3D remote control aeroplanes to opening a whole new range of sculptural artistry – and it seems like the Star Trek replicators are not so far fetched after all.

Last year, orthopaedic specialists were already delving into the world of 3D printing to see how it might benefit the medical community. Tests on animals showed that 3D printed bone scaffolds could be attached to assist in bone growth repairs – a technology they hope to make viable for humans within the next two decades.

However, what they didn’t realize was that doctors in the Netherlands were way ahead of them; they just hadn’t talked about it yet.

The patient was an elderly woman of 83 years who had developed a chronic bone infection in her lower jaw. Reconstructive surgery would be risky (and expensive) at her age so they decided to try something new – an operation that is literally the first of its kind.

They crafted a brand new jaw for her, made from titanium powder fused in a 3D printer. The complex body part comes complete with articulated joints, cavities to promote muscle attachment, and grooves to direct regrowth of nerves and veins. It will also be equipped with a specially made dental bridge into which false teeth can be screwed into holes. That will happen later this month during a follow-up surgery.

The operation was done in June last year, but has only recently been publicized – probably because they decided to make sure it actually worked first!

And work it did: our lovely old granny got to walk away from the hospital only four days after a surgery that only took four hours – a fifth of the time it would have taken to do a traditional reconstructive surgery. The day after the surgery the woman was already able to swallow with her new mouth!

The future for 3D printing in medicine looks bright. The slashing of operation and subsequent hospitalisation time reduces medical costs so dramatically that it’s bound to make hospitals around the world perk up and drive forward the research.

The company that produced the machinery, LayerWise, believes that this application is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s perfectly plausible to imagine that patient-specific organs can be printed, ready for transplant in the matter of hours.

Of course, the world where hearts will no longer need to be stored in boxes and flown across the country to be received by the next patient on the waiting list is still some way off. I’m not sure a tin-man’s (or titanium-man’s) heart would really work so well in an actual human body.

Working out all the biological and chemical issues – namely how to use organic material as the ‘ink’ in the 3D printer – is something that’s definitely going to take some time. Most likely it will only be a reality outside of our lifetimes, but who knows – I’m pretty sure a few decades ago they would have thought the idea of whipping up a fully functioning jaw bone out of titanium powder would have seemed ridiculously far off as well.

You never know what those orthopaedists will pull out of their bony brains next!

[Via BBC]

Amazon to Test Brick and Mortar Stores?

Rodney Brazeau — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:17 +0000

Amazon is a giant in the book biz, which is subtly ironic considering they only sell books online. Of course in recent years they have expanded beyond online book sales to include other products. A sign of the times, Amazon even expanded to create the Kindle, their very own e-book reader, allowing them to sell books without books.

Now the very changing landscape of the internet may be changing even more, but not in the direction you might expect. Amazon is currently testing the market to see if a real brick and mortar retail store will fit their business model.

Gawker says:

“Sources close to the situation” tell trade blog Good E-Reader Amazon plans to roll out a small, boutique store in Seattle in the next few months as a test of whether physical stores could be profitable. The pilot location will focus on Kindles and accessories. It’s not clear if the store will even stock books, but Amazon’s publishing imprints have been banned from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, so there would be a rationale for doing so.

This does seem a little strange considering they have made quite a name for themselves as a store without a store.

It does make sense that if Amazon wants to be considered a player in the publishing market, this would allow them to have more places to sell their published works.

Amazon broke all trends, creating a retail market without a retail brick and mortar storefront, and now decides to dabble in traditional sales methods? Does this feel backwards to you?

Pack Your Bags Aussie Tech Nerds: A Place to Crash in San Fran!

Daljeet — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:32 +0000

A team from StartUpBus: one of Elias Bizannes’ other start-up initiatives. Photo credit: Eoin McMillan.

A couple of entrepreneur Aussies (and a Kiwi!) are tired of having their tech start-up friends, with bright, puppy-dog eyes crashing on their couches week after week. They needed somewhere to direct their tides of friends so they could actually sit down in their living room in the morning!

Australians Elias Bizannes, Bardia Houseman (lol – what an appropriate last name for this project!), and New Zealander Stephen Weir decided enough was enough and decided to literally set up a house for the homeless start-ups. And what are they calling it? StartUpHouse.

These guys aren’t just some random kids from down-under with a good idea and no idea how to implement it. Bizannes moved to San Francisco about two and a half years ago and has a solid job as a director at Charles River Ventures. He also has experience in start-up ventures, including StartUpBus (which actually sounds really cool!) – get on a bus with Internet access and have a viable tech company set up by the end of the road trip!

Being a veteran in nurturing start-ups, Bizannes realized that San Francisco holds a definite allure to aspiring Aussies, and since it’s difficult for a foreigner to find a place to stay in the city of technological dreams, there was a void to be filled. He also is an invaluable resource, being very connected in the Silicon Valley network and giving local insight on the ideas coming through.

The 3345-square meter complex, at 880 Harrison Street in the “SoMa” (South of Market) district, is set to be “Ground Zero” for what they believe is the next Silicon Valley. With 210 desks and a 576-square meter building next door for accommodation, they hope to incubate great minds and churn out even better enterprises.

The government of New South Wales liked the idea so much that they’ll be subsidising the costs of NSW businesses using the facility by up to 50 per cent!

For us techy nerds, it’s a dream come true: a fun place to meet people of like minds, but most of all, to cooperate with those of like minds. It is the beginning of the human version of a mind meld, and hopefully it will start spitting out ingenious ideas that will completely change the world.

One might think that there are so many other places offering space to the start-ups, that we’re in a bubble that might well soon pop. Well, Elias defies such theorizing and says we’re not quite in the bubble yet, we’re still in a “boom” and this hub is going to be a “fun” place where entrepreneurs will live, sleep, and breathe together – hopefully to the benefit of all.

So if you’re keen to pick out your little corner from which you plan to become a leading tycoon, check out this video tour that Bizannes gave Hermione Way of the 880 Harrison street complex!

[Via The Age]

Super-Earth: A Candidate for Real-World Caprica?

Daljeet — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:00:49 +0000

Photo credit

A team of scientists using data from the European Southern Observatory, have determined there is a potentially Earth-like planet in a nearby solar system, only 22 light years away, but it’s at least 4.5 times the mass of Earth!

In addition to the public data from the European Southern Observatory, they were incorporating new measurements from the Keck Observatory’s High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph and the new Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph at the Magellan II Telescope. The technique used to find the planet was the effect of the planet’s gravity on the star – making it wobble.

The super-Earth planet in question is called GJ 667Cc. GJ 667C is the name of the star, GJ 667AB are a pair of orange K dwarfs that reside in the same solar system – yes, it’s a triple-star system – and GJ667Cb is another ‘super-Earth’ planet that has an orbit too close to the sun to be of a life-friendly temperature. The new planet discovered has an orbital period of 28.15 days and receives about 90% of the light that Earth gets. However, since this star gives off mostly infrared light, being an M-class dwarf star, the percentage of energy absorbed should be higher. This means the planet most likely absorbs the same amount of energy as good ol’ Mother Earth.

Anglada-Escudé, one of the leading scientists on the project, claims that, “This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it.”

Of course, nothing can be confirmed until we get more information about the planets atmosphere – even though it has the same energy absorption as Earth, we don’t know enough yet to know if liquid water can actually be sustained on its surface.

But who knows? Only a century ago, the idea of being able to fly across the world in a few hours seemed a ridiculously impossible feat. Perhaps in another century, the idea of travelling a couple of light years might not be so hard? Maybe we can start populating the Universe and have a United Federation of Planets? Maybe the planet GJ 667Cc is already populated with inhabitants that are enslaved by a race of aliens that attach themselves to human brains? Maybe they’ve got a prime directive that they can’t violate, and we’re just some quaint little planet that doesn’t quite get it yet.

Let’s just make sure we rein them in when they decide to build robotic slaves.

[Via Science Daily]

Creative Introduces SoundBlaster Recon3D

Rodney Brazeau — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:04 +0000

When it comes to building a gaming PC, I find the most overlooked feature is the Sound Card. On-board sound cards that come with higher end gaming capable motherboards are often more than good enough to feed a nice signal to your speakers.

But leave it to the people at Creative Labs to once again introduce a PCI-E audio board and new quad core processor technology called Recon3D in three different flavors:

GamingBlend offers this:

For gamers on a budget you can go with the standard Recon3D card for $99.99, with THX TruStudio Pro support and Crystal Voice audio technologies powering the card, along with the proprietary quad-core Core3D processor at its heart.
The next step up is the Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional edition, which features everything the standard edition has but with added I/O support, beam-forming microphone, and CrystalVoice Echo Cancellation, CrystalVoice Focus and CrystalVoice Active Noise Reduction, all for $149.99.
If you have the cash to spare and the ears to withstand the awesomeness of the pure and unadulterated rush of THX TruStudio Pro audio technologies then you’ll want the Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Champion Edition. This bad-mofo comes custom I/O mini-jacks, CrystalVoice Echo Cancellation, CrystalVoice Focus and CrystalVoice Active Noise Reduction, as well as custom software to easily and efficiently switch between multi-speaker setups

I have been coasting with a really decent set of speakers and my on-board card for a while now, but this just has me eager to earn back my game geek street cred.

And by “street” I mean the information superhighway. Ok… that last statement might have cost me more points than it earned.

Tech Giants Accused of Recruitment Collusion

JLister — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:00:41 +0000

The case against major tech firms that allegedly colluded to keep engineer salaries down looks to have become a lot stronger with the publication of e-mails between the companies. It’s for a civil court to decide whether the agreement between companies such as Apple and Google was unlawful, but it now appears incontrovertible that such an agreement existed,

There’s already been an investigation by the US Justice Department that concluded in an 2010 agreement signed by Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit (an accounting software developer) and Pixar. The firms said that in the future they would not make deals to refrain from approaching one another’s staff with offers of employment. Of course, while the firms promised they wouldn’t do so in the future, they weren’t officially acknowledging having done so in the past.

The question of what happened in the past is the heart of an ongoing lawsuit brought by five software engineers who believe that anti-poaching deals between the companies restricted their negotiating power. They are looking for the case to be granted class action status.

It should be noted the allegation is not that all six firms made a comprehensive pact, rather than there were a series of bilateral agreements between various combinations of the companies, as demonstrated in the image above, provided by the plaintiff’s lawyers.

The e-mails published this week include Steve Jobs telling Google chief Eric Schmidt (who was at the time an Apple board member) that a Google employee had attempted to recruit an Apple employee. Jobs noted “I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this.” Schmidt passed on the message and it appears the Google worker who tried to arrange the poaching was fired on the spot.

An even more incriminating document revealed by the plaintiffs is a note from Intel’s chief executive referring to a deal with Google, but noting “Let me clarify. We have nothing signed. We have a handshake ‘no recruit’ between Eric and myself. I would not like this broadly known.”

The evidence also includes a message from Palm’s chief executive to Steve Jobs, publication of which confirms a previous rumor that Jobs had offered a no-poaching deal and that Palm had rejected it on the grounds that it would be “likely illegal.”

Blizzcon 2012 Canceled

Rodney Brazeau — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:56:09 +0000

While Blizzard Entertainment’s official All-Things-Starcraft-Warcraft-Diablo gaming convention is such a big deal, it seemed odd that they would NOT have one this year. After all, the media gaming giant has Heart of the Swarm (Starcraft2 Expansion), Mists of Pandaria (World of Warcraft Expansion) and Diablo 3 all being released this year. But in a side note in a Battle.net news post about the 2012 Battle.net World Championship event in Asia later this year, it was announced that they were skipping out on the wildly popular convention for 2012.

GamingBlend quotes the release:

“We’re excited to be showcasing Blizzard eSports on a truly global stage this year. We’re also heavily focused on getting Diablo III, [World of Warcraft expansion] Mists of Pandaria, and [Starcraft II expansion] Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible. In light of our jam-packed schedule, we’ve decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013.”

This baffles my mind. I know they said they want to focus on getting those games out this year so they are not doing the convention, but I don’t see the connection.

There is very little overlap of the people involved in making the convention happen and the people involved in actually finishing the game. One weekend off is not going to delay the game anymore than we already assume it will be!

Blizzard does not have a great track record for reaching initial release dates (Diablo3 was shown off at the last 4 years of Blizzcon) so if it did get shoved back no one is going to be surprised.

Maybe this is one of those things where an executive looked at the bank account and said “We don’t need the money” and a PR guy looked at all the online buzz about these products and agreed while noticing “We don’t need to advertise”

They will use Blizzcon on the years they have nothing to release to keep the buzz alive!

Safety agency calls for total driver cellphone ban

JLister — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:00:32 +0000

A federal agency has urged state legislatures to introduce a flat-out ban on any cellphone use by drivers, except in genuine emergencies.

Previous proposals at both state and federal level have varied in scope, with some states banning texting or handheld use of phones by drivers. Now the National Transportation Safety Board is going a step further and arguing that it’s time for a total ban on any use, even with hands-free equipment or wireless headsets.

Although the board said it was taking into account a decade of studies, the specific recommendation came in response to a report into a Missouri pile-up last August involving two trucks and two buses that killed two people and injured another 35. Officials believe the accident was caused by a driver being distracted after exchanging 11 text messages in the minutes leading up to the crash.

The NTSB says that not only should states ban drivers from using any portable electronic devices other than “those designed to support the driving task” (ie GPS), but that states should use “high visibility enforcement” and launch publicity campaigns.

The enforcement is a particularly relevant issue in the Missouri case: the state does ban those under 21 from texting while driving, so the 19-year-old driver was already breaking the law. That said, even while police watching out for people using phones is a difficult task, it’s harder if they have to guess how old people are: a person who might be flattered to be asked for ID when buying alcohol probably wouldn’t be so happy being pulled over.

The board has also asked phone manufacturers to consider putting blocks on phone when they are within reach of a driver and the vehicle is in motion, though with an override for emergencies. It didn’t go into detail about how it actually expected this to work.

The New York Times gives a frank assessment of the politics behind the recommendation: no state is forced to take any notice and many won’t. However, those that do consider bans will be able to cite the recommendation, particularly as this is the first time there’s been such official backing for a complete ban.

At the moment 35 states (plus DC) ban texting, while nine (plus DC) ban all handheld use. None have bans on hands-free use: an association bringing together traffic agencies across the states says that likely won’t change any time soon, but will now be a more serious topic for debate.

Smartphone and Tablet Lawsuit Shapes Up

JLister — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:00:03 +0000

If you want to create a tablet computer or smartphone that’s a pointy green pyramid, Apple has no objection.

That’s the only logical conclusion from a curious court filing the company has made in an ongoing legal battle with Samsung. Long story short, Apple is suing Samsung for copying the design of its products with the Galaxy S phone and Galaxy Tab tablet. Samsung has countered with the simple argument that it’s pretty difficult to design a decent tablet or phone that isn’t of a similar shape and style.

Apple’s is arguing that the design points it wants to protect are not vital to the functionality of a smartphone or tablet. It’s come up with a long list of suggested design features that Samsung could have used, with examples of how other companies have used them. This seems a particularly odd form of logic, akin to a car company suing any other firm that uses four wheels by noting that there are a few three-wheeled vehicles on the road. The argument also completely misses the point that while each of the example handsets differs in at least one way from an iPhone or iPad, they generally have many of the similarities Apple is objecting to with the Samsung case.

Apparently if you don’t want to risk a lawsuit from Apple your smartphone needs to have a front surface that is a color other than black or clear, isn’t rectangular, isn’t flat, and doesn’t have rounded corners. Meanwhile your display screen must be “more square than rectangular” (which makes little geometric sense) or not rectangular at all, and must not be centered on the front of the phone. Speaker openings that are horizontal slots with rounded openings are out, and you musn’t center them above the display screen. As for the front surface, you’ll be needing thick uneven bezels with “substantial adornment.”

Apple also maintains you have plenty of options if you want to avoid apeing the iPad. For example, just choose a shape other than a rectangle, and if that’s not possible, use pointed corners. Make sure your front surface isn’t flat and again has “substantial adornment”, keep the frame thick, and whatever you do make sure your tablet is much thicker than the iPad and looks cluttered.

What Apple is effectively arguing is that it’s created devices with a simple, effective (and most people would say logical) design; that some other companies have created some crappy looking devices; and that this somehow proves that unless you also use a crappy design, you are copying them.

Samsung will no doubt now respond by paying a design expert to compare all the leading handsets and tablets on the market to Apple’s checklist and revealing that the vast majority “copy” most of Apple’s listed features.

Unfortunately the legal system likely doesn’t allow Samsung to make a simple offer that if Apple can find anyone who bought a Samsung phone or tablet thinking it was an iPhone or iPad, they’ll happily give a refund.

Farmville Leads to Billion Dollar Bounty

JLister — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:00:01 +0000

Zynga is hoping to raise more than a billion dollars when it goes public. The company, which runs Facebook games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars, is set to become the third most valuable games producer in the US.

The company has made a regulatory filing that says it plans to issue the public stock as soon as practically possible. It intends to issue 115 million shares to the public at a price of between $8.50 and $10 a share.

Analysts say the strategy appears to be going for volume rather than price, apparently learning from a quick fall in the stock of Groupon after its market flotation earlier this year. The Zynga issue will represent 14% of the company’s total stock, meaning that if it gets the $10 price, the company will be worth around $7 billion on paper.

That would put it a little behind Electronic Arts and roughly half the value of Activision Blizzard, the two most valuable gaming firms at the moment.

The filing also reveals that the company has taken in $828.9 million in the first nine months of this year, with a net profit of $30 million. It now has around 6.7 million paying customers, out of a total of around 54 million who play on an average day. Zynga says it expects this to continue to be a low proportion as its system needs large number of players to work most effectively, even if they don’t spend any cash. The revenue also includes money from advertising.

With such filings also required to list any significant risk factors, Zynga has been forced to formally acknowledge what is obvious to anyone who gives it any thought: if they fall out with Facebook, they are screwed. The filing notes that “substantially all” of Zynga’s revenue is generated via Facebook, and that it’s already suffered from Facebook introducing its credit scheme for in-app purchases, lowering revenue for developers. It also acknowledges that if Facebook has site problems, Zynga will in turn suffer.