gilstrac

Many government retirees also get public paychecks - Yahoo! Finance : I can exactly put my finger on it but something feels wrong about this. Maybe wrong is not the right word. It is more like working the system. I have known about the practice for years. I know many who do it. MIlitary, air traffic controllers, police, and etc and in my opinion many of them do it only to get a pay raise. It has less to do with other reasons but because I can and I deserve. I am hard pressed to think of any career where working 20% of the average life expectancy entitles you a paycheck for the rest of your life.

Google Chief To Defend Search Service As Criticism Mounts - WSJ.com : They demonize a company for providing a better service while we watch other companies hide behind patents on obvious and natural ideas spouting from the exponential growth in knowledge. I cant approve of this.

Hackers break SSL encryption used by millions of sites • The Register : Now this is scary...

Penn State Researchers Discover Method of Off-Grid Hydrogen Production | CleanTechnica : W e can thank the high price of oil for this.

New PS3, PSP PSN Terms Update drops class action option | Punch Jump : C an this be done legally?

Microsoft Cracks Live Migration Problem | PCWorld Business Center : This is cool although I doubt I will ever get to use it.

DailyTech - New Quarter-Sized Device Harvests Energy from Low-Frequency Vibrations : Now can this be applied to micro machine...maybe nano technology

Amazon's sales-tax showdown may dissolve soon - seattlepi.com : I am not sure how adding more use taxes will help the consumer to consume more and thus create more jobs.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com There are facts in this that go against common beliefs.... I guess my real problem is trusting anything extra would actually go to solving the problems at hand.

New drug could cure nearly any viral infection - MIT News Office This is amazing research.

HTC Sues Apple (Again) for Patent Infringement | News & Opinion | PCMag.com Patent system is broken and slows down the exponential growth of innovation brought on by the ease of information exchange and accessible technology

The patent system isn’t broken — we are | This is my next... innovation is not invention....being the first to ask the question and come up with the obvious solution is not an invention...I am in industry and see what happens...patents are pushed through on obvious solutions to new questions by corporate lawyers to stifle competition..this is openly discussed..they need this protection to protect these OBVIOUS solutions to these new questions....I watch these simple ideas morphed into patent legalese and references galore....I would find it laughable if it wasn't rampant....Our patent plaques hanging on the wall are seen as source of respect but I know inside they are just a necessary to move up the corporate ladder if you are an engineer in america....little better than some sort of certification.....the true value and prestige of a patent has and is being diluted...it is not just in software!!!!!!!!!

Apple, publishers conspired against $9.99 Amazon e-books, says lawsuit : "'A few big business heavyweights are taking a powerful advancement of technology that would benefit consumers and suffocating it to protect profit margins and market-share.'" This is a very true statement... "A few big business heavyweights are taking a powerful advancement of technology that would benefit consumers and suffocating it to protect profit margins and market-share." This makes no sense. Pinning a pricing model to

Businesses fret over possible loss of Plymouth post office - The Boston Globe Entitlements have many forms

Mark Zuckerberg's sister resigns from Facebook - San Jose Mercury News Like I say I would rather be lucky than good!

Intellectual property: Patents against prosperity | The Economist I agree with a lot of what is in this article.

Flu super antibody may bring universal shot closer | Reuters A universal flu shot. This would be nice. I wonder if it is a one time thing instead of every year.

Adobe Software Breaks Down on Mac OS X Lion | PCWorld : "Once again Apple can do no wrong.... It is Adobes fault! If this was Windows, it would be Micrsoft's fault. What a joke!"

AppleInsider | After $8M victory, Personal Audio sues Apple again over same patent Apple is victim of their own tactics. Reading through this patent US Patent No 6,199,076 reaffirms my belief most patents do not pass the obvious test. I see on the horizon many things possible in 10 years with trends technology today. I just need to the funds to invest in these obvious hail mary patents.

Semiconductors Drive a Faster, Cheaper DNA Decoder - NYTimes.com This pretty amazing. Get it a thousand bucks. I want mine.

Sonos releases the Play:3, a networkable speaker for $299 These are nice. Music in every room. I am going to consider getting one.

DailyTech - Google Ex-CEO: Apple Doesn't Innovate, They Sue Well I think several of the comments are not completely true. But lets face it, many of the patents I have read are ridiculous. I would suggest Google's Android is successful not because of the innovation. Most of innovation in the OS is obvious natural next steps from the past work. The strength is the openness of the process and inclusion of the public. The value it adds. Just like free markets are good for the global economy. Frivolous patents and lawsuits are friction to innovation and value you add applications and systems.

Apple wins initial ITC ruling on HTC phone | Reuters Another example the patent system is broken

furbo.org · The Rise and Fall of the Independent Developer The patent system is broken.

Microsoft patent division taking cash from at least 5 Android vendors I love some of Microsoft products. However, the patent system is broken. It becomes barrier innovation and small companies. Google and Android is not small but it is success is largely due to the free availability of it to the masses. The masses ability to review, critique and contribute and then use. Just like other products, java, linux, etc.... I suspect the arguments will sound like those of the drug industry. We invested so much we must protect our investment. As we watch big Pharma die a slow death from protectionism and gaming the patent system. A company that wants to make money needs to add VALUE not put up white picket fences. I provide services to my employers. If I put up picket fences to protect my JOB, I would be fired as soon as possible. We need to fire this type of action. It is friction to innovation not lubricant.

Stuffed Jalapeno Firecrackers Recipe - Allrecipes.com Now these sound so yummy...where do I find the Jalapeno Bacon?

Skype’s Worthless Employee Stock Option Plan: Here’s Why They Did It I personally never bought into the stock option thing. I always thought they underpaid a guy or at least the amounts I have ever been offered. I suspect stock options have motivated a lot of employees to work a bit harder. It will be a shame if them gains momentum.

MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer Kit - MakerBot Industries This is interesting. I want to buy one of these. My birthday happens ever year.

Lodsys Sues Developers For Patent Infringement -- InformationWeek I find it amazing patents issued in the last 20 years. So much in software and other fields are the patenting of OBVIOUS solutions. http://www.lodsys.com/our-patents.html just look into these so called inventions..... I can only wonder where the money came to subsidize the lawyer fees and patent fees to push this crap through the system. I guess my new biz model is get seed money to subsidize patents, sell to patent trolls, subsidize more patents..... BROKEN....

The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse - BusinessWeek : "the agency’s union contracts prohibit layoffs." hmmm, what a joke...only government.... "the agency’s union contracts prohibit layoffs." The USPS has historically placed the interests of its unions first. That hasn't changed. In March it reached a four-and-a-half-year agreement with the 250,000-member American Postal Workers Union, which represents mail clerks, drivers, mechanics, and custodians. The pact extends the no-layoff provision and provides a 3.5 percent raise for APWU members over the period of the contract, along with seven upcapped cost-of-living increases. The union is happy. "Despite the fact that the postal service is on the edge of insolvency, the union and management have reached an agreement that is a 'win-win' proposition," said APWU President Cliff Guffey on the union's website. A USPS spokeswoman said the agency agreed to the raise because it feared the decision

  "System.BadImageFormatException was unhandled" is a nebulous error message. Oh, by the way, unhandled shows up as a miss-spelling on my spell checker. I really don't feel comfortable sharing how long I spent figuring this out but I am sharing the solution to possibly help someone else save some time. This error did not mean anything to me.  At first blush, I suspected a version issue, installation issue with the sdk or a licensing issue.  What a joy!  Now the jump here may have something to do with past experience with this particular sdk. After some time doing inspection and investigation and finding nothing I just happen click on the “Get General Help with this Exception”. Now I click on these things occasionally but experience has shown me to be a waste of time more often than not.   I usually go to world’s help desk aka “The Google Machine” and sometimes Bing.  But when on occasion when I am thinking I just click around.  Now the help content did not disa

Phillips Lighting CEO: Super-efficient light bulb prices will be cut in half by 2017 | Reuters 14watts for a 100watt of incandescent...pretty sweet

GE and EADS to Print Parts for Airplanes - Technology Review This is a amazing stuff. Technology that is so young, so many possibilities, so many problems to solve as it is applied to different manufacturing processes.

Russian dandelions could be new source for rubber | R&D Mag I bet tons of this stuff goes undiscovered. This is interesting.

iPad Horizontal Docking Patent [Apple Patents Horizontal Dock for the iPad; More Accessories to Come Soon?] | TFTS : "the patent system is broke if putting a port on the side of a ipad is deemed worthy of a patent" The patent system is broke if putting a port on the side of a ipad is deemed worthy of a patent

Android Market Now Hosts More Free Apps than iPhone How many are useful? You have to rewrite you web site as an ios app to even get it to work properly on apple products. hmmmm

Lasers set to replace spark plugs in car engines • The Register This is interesting. This should allow for the designs of engines to change eventually. Potentially change what can be burned.

Hard Start DIY repair scripts This just saved me a $300. What a great find.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 Design: 10 Essential Features - Enterprise Applications - News & Reviews - eWeek.com I think this is great IF..... If M$ can make their installs as unobtrusive as Chrome. Otherwise, it is a big pain. The IE9 forced me to reboot. OMG....for a browser install. I am not sure what is being done to require this but I suspect the value add for the reboot is just not there.

France to require unhashed password storage - Boing Boing Surely this is a gag article. Here come the French jokes.

Elliptical Machines and Outdoor Exercise Bikes by StreetStrider - Making Fitness Fun I am tempted to buy one of these. I really like the elliptical machines at the gym. I use them almost exclusively instead of the treadmill. The low impact makes a big difference.

YouTube - TSA still groping kids...and drug testing them groping or searching? Is it groping under the guise of searching? Blame the TSA! It is a government agency. or maybe blame the terriosts I imagine if that child had plastic hidden on her it would take on a whole different context. Personally I would sign something removing them(TSA) of all liability if explosives were smuggled on via a child. But I doubt if every one else would in the country. But I imagine the odds are in my favor nothing would ever happen to me. Making that a gov agency is a joke. First sign of problems the lawyers will come out of the wood work worse then even now. Suing the endlessly deep pocket of the government and winning is the dream of every tort lawyer. At least a biz could bk. We just get to pay for all governments over spending and implied guarantees. Where will it end?

Building nuclear reactor at home - from scratch : Svarychevski Michail Aleksandrovich I want to do this. At minimum it will raise awareness to the different types of radiation.

Flip video image - Cisco's consumer failures (photos) - CNET News Cisco...value trap....maybe that will change. I watched them destroy linksys. I own a flip and would have given pause to the purchase had I known it was made by Cisco. They just don't understand the consumer area. Confusion and convolution works with business products since employees love white picket fences. but it doesn't work with consumer products.