firehose

dampsandwich:

its garbage day???

i cant believe they made a day dedicated to me :)

OED Word of the Day: friendful, adj. Friendly, well-disposed, loving

Mark Wilson writes: Post-Snowden there is great interest in just what involvement the government has with technology firms. There are frequent requests from government agencies for information about users and the likes of Google, Snapchat and even the NSA itself have all released transparency reports that reveal, in broad strokes, the number of requests for data they have received. Amazon is the latest company to release a transparency report — although the term really should be used in the loosest possible sense. The report includes scant details about the number of subpoenas, search warrants, court orders, and national security requests received in the first five months of 2015. The report is so vague as to be virtually meaningless.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

Author and archivist Emily Spivack fell down the rabbit hole of reading these guides, and has scraped them to create How to Dress Like, a digital archive of wikiHow’s dressing instructions.

Read 30 remaining paragraphs | Comments

“My new erotic novel "Love in the time of autocorrect” will be out soon. Here is a sample http://t.co/MiwRZjSZfC “

design-is-fine:

Patriz Huber, stencils for wall decoration, 1901. Glückert Haus, Darmstadt. Via University of Heidelberg

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

More Quirky news this is from last week-ish and is a follow up from our 2013 post “Quirky vs OXO“. Do you remember when Quirky did a protest “Justice for Bill Ward” about OXO (previous article here) … and OXO responded to the claims on a post? (blog post here) – That was the end of it right? Nope, Quirky filed a patent infringement for the BROOM GROOMER anyways (PDF patent 8,555,459). It’s been over 1 year and the case is over, what was the outcome? It appears OXO responded back effectively and it went to “settled” (PDF).

However what was said is really interesting if you’ve ever posted a video online: it appears that OXO pointed out the patent is not valid because Quirky waited too long to file after it was disclosed on video on their site, on top of that Quirky did not disclose the videos to the USPTO (later Quirky admitted that in the counter claim / counterclaim).

Here’s what OXO argued:

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/new-york/nysdce/1:2014cv01603/424294
https://ecf.nysd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/qrySummary.pl?424294
Date filed: 03/10/2014
Date terminated: 01/30/2015
Date of last filing: 06/03/2015
If you have a PACER account you can view all the docs here.

There was more, it looks like a dustpan with teeth was patented 100 years ago regardless. OXO writes-

Unfortunately, the designer of Quirky’s Broom Groomer wasn’t the first person to come up with the idea of teeth on a dustpan. The idea was actually invented almost 100 years ago. On September 9, 1919, the patent for this idea was issued to Addison F. Kelley from Freeland Park, IN. Information about this patent (No. US1,315,310) is available here: http://www.google.com/patents/US1315310.

One thing we noticed, a bank was named as a counter defendant.

In the counterclaim (OXO vs Quirky, summons PDF) an entity called Comerica Bank was named a defendant, who are they? It looks like they “loan, loaned or can loan” money to Quirky in exchange for a “security interest” in certain copyrights, trademarks and patents (PDF). If we understand this correctly the bank gives or gave or can give money to Quirky based on what they think a patent may be worth. It also means that OXO could go after Quirky and the bank in lawsuit for a counterclaim since the bank may “own” the patent in some way.

We did not know this was a thing, maybe this is something common now? You get a patent and then get a bank to give you a loan based on it’s potential value, sounds risky, but this is outside our expertise. We’ll ask our lawyer friends about this and update the post with any additional information. We suppose a bigger question is, did Quirky fail to file correctly and on time on a ton of patents and is the bank going to freak out about that?

Any way, back to potential issue for anyone using a site like Quirky, Kickstarter, YouTube, Vimeo… or just in general – if you post videos of your “invention” and you wait more than a year to file a patent it could invalidate it later, more so if you try to sue someone and they dig up that old video.

In the Quirky vs OXO case, the court didn’t get a chance to rule on a statutory-bar invalidation, but OXO came in hard pointing it out and later Quirky admitted they didn’t file or disclose the videos when they did file past the 1 year deadline. And don’t forget the USA is now a first to file system. “In a first-to-file system, the right to the grant of a patent for a given invention lies with the first person to file a patent application for protection of that invention, regardless of the date of actual invention.”

What should have the inventor/Quirky done? Or anyone else who has something they’re showing online in a video for anything? Well, if you ever want protection, you’ll need to file a “provisional patent application” which contains an informal but complete description of the invention. A provisional application secures the inventor’s place in the timeline, and also is pretty cheap to prepare (you might submit, for example, a transcript of the video, some key screenshots, and the text of the Kickstarter pitch or that Vimeo video from years ago when you first showed you product/idea to the world).

We are not lawyers, this is not legal advice – it’s an observation that a lot of people are using crowdsourcing for ideas/money and more, and big venture-funded back companies like Quirky are filing patents, can get loans based on those ideas, lawsuits eventually happen… and that video back in the day where you showed off your idea may get you a lot of interest and VC later, but if you become a company later and get a patent, be careful about disclosing when and where you first showed it off – if you waited more than a year, you might have some problems later. More so if you decide to go on the offense and sue others.

Related:

• Quirky: pragmatic patenters or patently absurd? @ PandoDaily.
• Fresh funding and more departures at Quirky, the New York startup that burned through $150 million.
• How a quirky 28-year-old plowed through $150 million and almost destroyed his start-up.
• GE-Backed Quirky’s home automation product WINK gets recalled.

---

---

If you’ve stuck around this long and you’re a lawyer or have corrections/additional information, please post them in the comments.

In March 2001, the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, a pair of giant statues dating to the 6th century in the Bamyan valley in central Afghanistan. Now, the statues have been resurrected with 3D light projection technology.

Read more...

vandallsavage:

zezlemet:

Remember when Terry played the Joker like a fiddle cause I sure do

Joker status:
[ ] Told
[ ] Told like a bitch
[X] Batman: The Brave And The Told

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

mattydread23 writes: It started out as a controversial idea inside Facebook. In four short years, the Open Compute Project has turned the $141 billion data-center computer-hardware industry on its head. This is the comprehensive history of the project, including interviews with founder Jonathan Heiliger and members of the financial services industry who are already on board, plus a dismissal from Google's own data center guru Urs Holzle.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Submission - NEW Official Transportation Map of Szeged, Hungary

Submitted by barnade, who says:

2 years ago, you reviewed the transit map of Szeged, Hungary (September 2013, 0.5 stars). The conclusion was the map is a mess, as we here in Szeged thought so. Also, you’ve been pointed out that it would be much better, if a circular schematic form had been applied, based on the town’s triple-boulevard structure. Now, the day has come, the new official transit map of Szeged have been applied on trams, trolleybuses and buses, thanks to electric public transport company SZKT and the new local bus and coach provider DAKK. Besides of the foregoing circular scheme, it’s also a new thing to have every line (bus, trolleybus, tram) on a single map. There is another version of the new map, which is based on the real map of the town, with natural scale, having the main sightseeing points on it [the second image above - Cam]. This version can be found on SZKT’s website, and will be placed in the stops.

---

Transit Maps says:

Wow, what a difference a few years can make! This is so much better than the previous map I reviewed (which, sadly, is still hanging around on the SZKT website). The circular diagram is a natural fit for the city’s shape – as shown by a comparison with the geographical map above – and it’s implemented quite well, with a nice hierarchy from trams (thick yellow lines), through trolleybuses (thinner red/magenta lines) and down to the downtown and suburban bus lines (dark blue and light blue lines, respectively). And I love that the same style of mapping and hierarchy has been carried across between the two different maps – visual continuity that can only help the end user to understand and navigate the system.

The excellent work of the diagram itself is let down a little bit by the typography and placement of the legends, which aren’t quite up to the same standard. This is a pretty minor point, though.

Our rating: Much better! The diagram by itself is nice enough, but it’s in combination with the geographical map that the new mapping system really shines. Probably one of my favourite Eastern European maps now. Three-and-a-half stars.

Source: dakk.hu website (PDF)

Jerusalem Post Israel News

U. of Illinois censured after rescinding job offer to professor over anti-Semitic ... Jerusalem Post Israel News The American Association of University Professors released a report in April that found that the University of Illinois violated the principles of academic freedom. Sydney. The University of Sydney. (photo credit:Wikimedia Commons). Share on Facebook University of Illinois censured for rescinding job offer over professor's anti-Israel ...Haaretz AAUP Censures U. of Illinois and 3 Other Colleges, Vows to Fight On in WisconsinChronicle of Higher Education (subscription) U. of Illinois censured for canceling prof's job over anti-Semitic tweetsJewish Telegraphic Agency ABC News all 81 news articles »

New York Daily News

Los Angeles raises minimum wage to $15 per hour New York Daily News Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law on Saturday an ordinance that makes Los Angeles the biggest city in the nation to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He called the law “a major victory for our city” at a signing ceremony in south Los Angeles, ... Some criticize Garcetti's low-key approach to police shootingsLos Angeles Times Los Angeles mayor signs $6 minimum wage hike into lawBangor Daily News Garcetti signs into law $15 minimum wage for Los AngelesMyNewsLA.com Eurweb.com all 142 news articles »

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

New York Times

Texas Supreme Court allows same-sex divorce Reuters AUSTIN, Texas The Texas Supreme Court on Friday upheld a divorce granted in a lower court for a same-sex couple, a precedent-setting decision in a state that has a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The court ruled that state authorities, who tried to ... Turmoil Only Sure Thing If Supreme Court Rejects Gay MarriageBloomberg Texas Supreme Court allows same-sex divorce, which means marriage can't be ...Dallas Morning News (blog) 175000 Pledge To Party If Anti-Gay Australia Couple Divorces Over Same-Sex ...Huffington Post Fox News -Chron.com -Forbes all 504 news articles »

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

If you’ve ever wondered where your lost airline baggage in the US ended up, there’s a good chance it’s Alabama. More precisely, the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a retail store filled with treasures from unfortunate travelers’ misplaced bags.

These kids have the kind of look on their faces you only see in movies. Butch had this look when he opened the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, those evil Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark when they found the Ark of the Covenant, and now these kids.

No, I'm not going to make a Children of the Corn joke -- even though I really want to.

h/t Reddit

I’m still alive. I still make controllers for people. Just email me if you need something done! I don’t feel like there’s much news to put here, but feel free to shoot me an email any time.

Also, enjoy some pictures of a controller being modded.

Whaletone pianos are stunning instruments with the sleek look of orcas and dolphins. The black Royal Digital piano is the larger version—though not quite as big as an orca. The white Grand Hybrid piano is a smaller version, though both look like they have dorsal fins when the tops are opened.

photos via Whaletone

via Boing Boing

dvdp:

150612