Patently ridiculous

While most of us think of this time of year as the season of giving, corporations seem preoccupied with keeping, or even taking — via outrageous patents.

One current trend in graphical user interfaces these days is the use of live icons to indicate files, where the icon represents a mini-preview or thumbnail of the document in question.  Think Windows Explorer, Apple Finder, or the default home page in Google Chrome.   For those who like GUIs, it’s a time saver — the user can more easily recognize which document to open, without first loading the application used to open it fully.  But Cygnus Systems, Inc. says “that’s our invention!” and is seeking damages and a permanent injunction against further infringement by Microsoft, Apple, and Google of their US patent 7,346,850 which describes that sort of interface.  Pull it, guys!

Moving to the other end of the usability spectrum, RIM (the makers of the popular BlackBerry mobile device) wants to patent what seems to be a bone-headed “improvement” over their SureType keyboard technology.  Instead of combining a numeric and QWERTY keypad in the same interface, RIM’s US patent application 20080318617 describes a keypad that starts out with the familiar numeric layout, and then folds out into a QWERTY keyboard — with two letters sharing each key.  Couldn’t they just keep things simple and provide a clay tablet interface instead?  This is one patent that I doubt they’ll ever need to defend.

While we’re on keyboards, Apple has filed a patent application covering the use of swiping gestures on touch screen keyboards.  Examples include swiping down for Return, swiping left for Delete, etc.  The number of fingers used in a gesture could change the meaning of a directional swipe — for instance, a one-finger swipe to the right could add a space, while using two fingers would add a period.  While these features certainly seem like they’d be useful shortcuts for advanced touch screen users, the idea seems much too broad for a patent — and there’s probably plenty of prior art.  Apple, if you’re trying to tell us that certain finger gestures can have meaning for only your devices, then I’ve got a single-finger gesture of my own for you to interpret.



Rails 3.0 to become Merb 2.0, and vice versa

(Actually, that could be one equal sign, or maybe three, depending on how this works out).

Yesterday, key developers of both Merb and Rails announced that the two popular web frameworks for Ruby will be merging.

This decision comes as a shock to must Ruby web developers, given the history and philosophy of the two frameworks.  Rails has been described as a monolithic, instant web application generator that likes default configurations.  It’s very easy to create a fully functional web application, but not so easy to slim it down or to use other than the default stack.  Plugins for Rails often break between versions because there is no clearly defined API.

Merb was largely created as a reaction against those issues — preferring a modular approach with a lightweight core, agnostic of object-relational mapper (ORM) and JavaScript libraries, and having a well-documented API for extensions.

According to the announcements, the Rails team has finally seen the Merb light.  Rails 3.0 will incorporate multiple features of Merb:

  • An option to generate a Rails app with only minimum core support.  This means making the Rails code more modular.
  • Performance improvements taken directly from Merb code.
  • An easier way to use other than the defaults for ORM, JavaScript libraries, templating, and testing framework.
  • A well-documented API for plugins, with a test suite for that API.

Merb will also be evolving towards that same codebase, with the plan that Merb 2.0 will be Rails 3.0.  Both teams plan to devote a lot of effort towards making migration of existing apps as easy as possible.

Combining these frameworks will not be a trivial task, but I’m thinking it may prove even more difficult to combine the personalities on the two teams.  Has DHH really converted to the Merb way, or will there be further conflict between the two approaches?  Not that that’s a bad thing, but how easily will those conflicts be resolved?



The Bacon Cheese Roll is a Geek Delicacy

Bacon Cheese Roll

A geek delicacy? Ok, ok, maybe not… but come on, admit it, it really looks yummy, in a greasy, disgusting kind of way. After posting about the “Fatty Melt” burger and Google’s Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburgers, we just knew we had to throw this one in with the bunch. If any of you feel like trying to “cook” one of these things, please share your experience with us in the comments!

[Bacon Cheese Roll | Via Neatorama]

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: DVD “Revue”

By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

The DVD for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was released on Friday. Having pre-ordered from Amazon, I received it yesterday, and since I’m home for the holidays, forced my parents to watch it with me last night. At only $10, for a fan it’s probably worth buying just to have the musical in DVD form. However, it happens to have some really neat special features as well.

The best part is definitely Commentary! The Musical, a full commentary track consisting of original songs by the actors and crew about the making of the film. It’s completely silly, featuring numbers like Nathan Fillion singing about how he’s better than Neil Patrick Harris (“So he was on Broadway while I was in soaps, but who’s got the high score on Ninja Ropes?”), Felicia Day plugging The Guild (“I have dozens of fans! Bakers dozens!”), and groupie #1 (and writer) lamenting that she didn’t get the role of Penny because she’s Asian (“If there is a part for us, it’s a ninja or physician or a goofy mathematician or a groupie in the chorus…”). There’s also an entire song about the iPhone game Ninja Ropes. This commentary track doesn’t really follow the action on the screen at all (it’s basically just an audio featurette), but there’s also a regular behind-the-scene commentary track that provides more of the traditional insights.

One of the great things about the “Making Of” featurettes is that it’s clear how much the cast and crew really get along, and they’re all extremely laudatory of each other. Even though Joss got the lion’s share of the glory, it’s very obvious how much of a group effort the writing and the music was. Those Whedons are a very talented family. There’s also a great featurette about the fans and the reaction to the musical–it’s always nice to get a feel for how much the creators of something appreciate their fans (Jed: “All you want to do in life is to create something that people will dress up as.”).

There are also apparently easter eggs on the DVD, but I haven’t had a chance to go hunting for them yet.

The bottom line is that if you’re a fan of Dr. Horrible, it’s definitely worth shelling out the $10 for the DVD. Not that everyone’s a fan. This is definitely one of those things that a lot of people just don’t get. My dad, for one, said, “And to think, I could have gone my whole life without seeing that.”

As Dr. Horrible would say, “Wow, sarcasm. That’s original.”

9 Year Old Becomes World’s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)

I’ve always considered IT certifications as mostly worthless, but still, what this little girl accomplished is pretty amazing. This only goes to prove one thing: Anyone with an exceptional memory can succeed at those Microsoft certification exams. I wonder how she would manage to deal with real-life IT issues, such as rebuilding a corrupted Exchange database or implementing a layered security architecture?

Nikon’s New S60 Face Detection Ads are Hilarious

These are absolutely hilarious. Apparently, the face detection technology on Nikon’s new S60 camera can spot up to 12 different faces in a scene. Check it out.



However, even though the ads are very good, customers’ reviews on amazon.com seems to indicate that this camera is a real piece of junk. Proof that you should never rely on an ad to purchase a product.

[Via LA Weekly]

500 Rounds Per Minute Nerf Vulcan Gun Hack

In its original version, the Nerf Vulcan is already one of a hell of an office war weapon, but when slightly modified with a few extra battery packs, it quickly becomes a rather frightening instrument of destruction. Check it out:

To accomplish this, the guys from Manapotions increased the voltage inside the Nerf Vulcan’s firing engine using 2 X 9.6v battery pack. I’m sure you’ll agree, The result is quite impressive to say the least. The new version fires up to 500 rounds per minute and costs about $79 to make. If you’re interested in building one of these babies for yourself, you can follow the step-by-step guide located right here.

[Via TechEblog]

Einstein Proven From the DARK SIDE

By Will Sullivan
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

This is especially for the cosmology wunderkinds among us geeks; hey, it takes geeks of all kinds!  Among “the rest of us,” we merely semi-brilliant folk, Einstein may be most famous for his General Relativity theory, which is mind-blowing enough; however, he also famously regretted to himself and the truly brilliant astro-physics cognocenti what he felt at the time was his truly greatest “blunder”: that he had to “fit” a tiny, slight constant into his calculations to make the whole thing “work.” Everything “worked,” but only with that tiny nudge, that he apparently felt may have been dishonest.

Ironically, he himself was not dishonest about that “nudge,” and his calculations surely showed such (to those capable of understanding them!).  And, here’s where it all gets a little sticky, or weird, and pretty cool…

It seems that his “cosmological constant” nudge actually has been found to be a real, measurable phenomenon.  Scientists using both Earth-based and spaced-based telescopes across spectra have confirmed that so-called “dark energy” is driving the universe apart—counteracting the consolidating effects of gravity.  As a matter of perceived fact, the universe is accelerating its expansion effects.  The tiny force that can account for this effect—such that even totally empty space has mass (and therefore energy)—corresponds pretty much exactly with Einstein’s “cosmological constant” nudge.

Not that anyone truly understands it all—just that it fits calculations.  Perhaps it “looks” or operates thusly:

No one understands gravity—the attractions of objects in curved spacetime to one another—let alone the increasing (tiny) force that is driving everything away from everything else, at an accelerating rate, that counteracts the gravity force.

“Dark energy” is the answer, but we don’t even understand the question…although Einstein did, intuitively…he just made it all work out, and was right, in the end.  His other major regret–in effect that he couldn’t calculate or overtly make room for “God”–has yet to be fulfilled…or has it?  Hopefully all the things we don’t understand right now, we will come to understand in time…

Comments always are welcome!

[Via Space and Wired]

Exploring the frontiers of happiness

In the following video presentation, Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness — sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself.

The premise of his current research — that our assumptions about what will make us happy are often wrong — is supported with clinical research drawn from psychology and neuroscience. But his delivery is what sets him apart. His engaging — and often hilarious — style pokes fun at typical human behavior and invokes pop-culture references everyone can relate to.

[Source: TED]