Extended Warranty

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Worst Business Advice Contest WinnersThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Early this week I asked readers to share the worst business advice they ever received for a chance to win a desktop shredder from Staples. My thought was shredding bad advice. Several themes emerged as bad advice that is consistently handed out Don’t start a [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ducttapemarketing/nRUD/~3/b-q37vg65ZQ/

WESTERN DIGITAL VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY VIRGIN MEDIA

Choose a Blogging Niche You Can Expand On for Life

This guest post is by Ronique Gibson of Freshome. After one year, I have written 773 blog posts about one topic: your home. After 240 posts for Freshome, 430 posts for Stagetecture, and 103 posts for various ghost writing and personal blog clients, the numbers don?t seem real to me, but I feel I have [...]

Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips

Choose a Blogging Niche You Can Expand On for Life

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/Rp0W4thetgw/

YAHOO XILINX WESTERN DIGITAL VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES

Debunking The Claim That Bad Things Happen When Works Fall Into The Public Domain

If you've read James Boyle's book, The Public Domain, then you already should understand the reasons why the public domain is so important, and why it's a shame that, here in the US, we've had absolutely nothing going into the public domain for years, due to retroactive extension of copyright terms. One of the key complaints about such retroactive extension of copyrights is that it was done entirely without evidence that it was needed. Instead, we got purely faith-based arguments on the importance of keeping works out of the public domain. Those arguments tended to fall into three camps: (1) that public domain works get ignored, since a lack of monopoly means no one will do anything with them. (2) Totally contradicting the first claim, that public domain works would become overused in typical "tragedy of the commons" fashion, because there were no limits, and (3) that since the works can be used in a manner not approved by a copyright holder, it will lead to "inappropriate or distasteful" use (i.e., Mickey Mouse porn).

In the US, reason number one -- that public domain works are not used enough since there's no monopoly to make it worthwhile to invest in them and offer them up -- was a key driving force behind the last copyright extension, and likely will be used in a few years when Disney leads the fight for yet another copyright extension (what, you didn't think that was coming?).

Of course, now we actually have some evidence, and the initial reports suggest that all three reasons for hating on the public domain are simply not true. At all. The idea that bad things happen when works fall into the public domain is not supported by the data at all:

Since these arguments for the extension of term protection are based on assumptions that are quantifiable, [Professor] Paul [Heald] followed in the footsteps of Tim Brooks and began a series of papers where he attempted to prove or disprove the argument against the public domain through comparing the fate of works in the public domain to those still under copyright. In a series of three papers, he looked at the continued publication history of best sellers from 1907-1922, which are all in the public domain and those from 1923-1932, which are still under copyright. He looked at a number of measures, including whether the book was still in print, how many editions of the book were available and the price of the edition. His findings indicated that there was no statistical difference between the works in copyright and those outside. In fact, Paul noted that the data indicated that there was little support for the under-use of the public domain works as almost all of them were in print, compared to around 75% of the copyright works. Additionally, there appeared to be no meaningful difference in price between the two types either.

Paul then looked at popular music used in films between 1968-2008 in order to test the over-usage argument. Again he identified songs that were in the public domain and those that were in copyright in roughly the same timeframe as the books. Looking at the 74 songs that appeared in 4 or more films during that timeframe, he found no difference in usage between protected and unprotected works.This was the same for works that appeared in 1, 2 or 3 films. Public domain and copyright works were used roughly the same amount.

With regard to the debasement argument, Paul is currently working on a study of audiobooks and customer perception of their quality. In the study, he is looking at three types of works: amateur recordings of public domain works, professional recordings of public domain works and professional recordings of copyright works. In his first test of customer perceptions, he surveyed around 160 people on the quality of various recordings. While the full study is not complete, the preliminary reports indicate that there is no difference between the public domain recordings and the copyright ones.

Of course, will this evidence actually be used to prevent further copyright extensions and further limits on the public domain? That seems doubtful.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110324/17550313619/debunking-claim-that-bad-things-happen-when-works-fall-into-public-domain.shtml

HYPERCOM HEWLETT PACKARD CO HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS GOOGLE

How It Works: The Make-All 3-D Printer

The Objet Connex churns out complex objects by spraying eight million plastic droplets a second

Since the first 3-D printer was invented by Charles Hull in 1984, machines have seen vast improvements in speed and accuracy. Today's best 3-D printers operate much like a standard inkjet, spraying millions of droplets of polymer to build an object layer by layer. But there's a hitch: Most 3-D printers use only use a single material at once, thus each product they produce can be just one color or consistency.

The Objet Connex can print two materials at a time, and even mix composites. In doing so, it can craft items with varied flex, shade and feel. The Connex has helped hospitals fabricate see-through medical models and even allowed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student to construct a working flute complete with moving hinges and rubber gaskets.

Click the image above to see an animation showing how the Objet Connex can print complex objects one microscopic layer at a time. If you are unable to view Flash files, click here for a static version. Illustrations by Aaron Newman; Flash Design by Josh Rashkin

More How It Works:

This month's How It Works section is brought to you by Digi-Key. All posts are purely editorial content, which we are pleased to present with the help of a sponsor; the sponsor has no input in the content itself.

Source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-03/how-it-works-make-all-machine

NINTENDO NOKIA NVIDIA ORACLE

Monday, March 28, 2011

Video: New Modular Robot Fits Together to Form Larger Modular Robots

iMobot UC-Davis

Meet iMobot, a new reconfigurable robot that can be linked together like a chain to form larger versions of itself. With four degrees of freedom, it can stand itself up and turn into a tiny camera stand, roll end-over-end like a mini tank tread, or hunch along like an inchworm.

Researchers at the University of California-Davis have applied for a patent on the robot, which they say could be used for search and rescue operations as well as robotics research.

Its two modules have two joints at the center, which can rotate 180 degrees, and two rotating faceplates at each end, as the researchers explain. The faceplates turn continuously, allowing the robot to roll along as though it were driving. Future research will explore clusters of iMobots working together in even larger modular platforms.

Creators Graham Ryland and Harry Cheng received a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant to start Barobo Inc., a business aimed at commercializing the iMobot. You can find out how to get one here.

Modular robots could be a more cost-effective way to build robot helpers for a variety of tasks, like search-and-rescue snakebots or tree-climbing spy cams. The inventors hope it will be for sale by the end of the year.

[R&D Magazine]

Source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-03/video-new-modular-robot-fits-together-form-larger-modular-robots

MICROSEMI MICROS SYSTEMS MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY

LinkedIn Uses Food Trucks And Free Coffee To Advertise Social News Platform

LinkedIn is using the food truck phenomenon to publicize the launch of its new social news product, LinkedIn Today. In San Francisco and New York, LinkedIn has hired food trucks to give away coffee at locations around both cities. The trucks, which you can follow on Twitter here, are emblazoned with advertisements for LinkedIn Today. Similar to the way that food trucks use Twitter to advertise their locations, the LinkedIn Today trucks will be posting their locations in San Francisco and New York, for the entire week on the account.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/g38nDb7DFjM/

IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS IDT IBASIS HYPERCOM