Category: News

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From Ars Technica: Judge orders failed copyright troll to forfeit “all” copyrights


Righthaven, a copyright-troll law firm that failed in its attempt to make money for newspapers by suing readers for sharing stories online, was dealt a death blow on Tuesday by a federal judge who ordered the Las Vegas company to forfeit “all of” its intellectual property and other “intangible property” to settle its debts.

The order is an ironic twist to a copyright trolling saga that began in 2010, when Righthaven was formed with the idea of suing blogs and websites that re-post newspaper articles or snippets of them without permission.

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from Ars Technica

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From Engadget: White House appoints Todd Park as new Chief Technology Officer

Oooh…  a Korean-American in the government?!  Even if it’s a tech-related position!
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The White House hasn’t wasted any time replacing the vacancy left by Aneesh Chopra, who recently stepped down as our nation’s first appointed Chief Technology Officer. Following in his well-accomplished footsteps is Todd Park, a federal employee who’s no stranger to the position at hand given his former role as CTO of the US Department of Health and Services. Park is credited with the launch of HealthCare.gov and is now tasked with “applying the newest technology and latest advances to make the Federal government work better for the American people.” While we’re sure those tasks don’t include setting up Sasha and Malia’s personal Pinterest accounts, he certainly has a long road ahead, dragging ‘ol Pennsylvania Avenue kicking and screaming into our digital age.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Light-based ‘Metatronics’ chip melts minds, not copper

Engineers at the University of Pennsylvaniahave flipped the switch on a new type of computer circuit. Unlike conventional silicon, the new chip uses light — not electricity — to perform its logic. By creating an array of nano-rods, light-flow can be treated like voltage and current. These rods can then be configured to emulate electrical components such as resistors, inductors and capacitors. The benefits of the so-called “metatronic” system would be smaller, faster and more efficient computer chips, which is clearly a welcome prospect. Another curious property the team discovered, is what it calls “stereo-circuitry.” Effectively one set of nano-rods can act as two different circuits, depending on the plane of the field. This means your CPU could become a GPU just by changing the signal. We can’t speak for the light itself, but our minds are certainly bent.

 

from Engadget

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From Droid Life: Verizon Offering Significant Discounts to “Loyal” Customers, How Does a Galaxy Nexus for Free Sound?

If you have been a long-time Verizon Wireless subscriber and have an upgrade available in the near future, checking your inbox would be recommended. Big Red is sending out emails under their loyalty program that are significant. We are talking significant as in free. As you can see from the part we cropped out of the email, VZW is willing to hand you a $299 Galaxy Nexus for nothing, as long as you sign a new 2-year contract. For most current customers, a $50 discount is the max.

Tough to tell who qualifies, but it may be worth a call to Verizon’s sales team to see if you do.

Cheers Scotty!

from Droid Life