Umpires show ethnic bias in ball/strike calls—unless they're feeling watched
There's a lot of behavioral literature that indicates we tend to like people who we think belong to the same group as us, and behave favorably towards them—even though we're not aware of doing so. Another, unrelated set of research indicates that we're all prone to behaving better if we think someone's watching us—even a static photo of a pair of eyes is enough to cause people to shape up. These two threads have been brought together in a rather unusual package by a detailed statistical analysis that looks at a somewhat unusual topic for research: baseball umpires and the pitchers they sometimes torment.
Calling balls and strikes would seem to be one of the last bastions of the low-tech world; it's all up to the judgement of the lone umpire behind home plate, and there's no instant replay. But that impression would be badly wrong. In recent years, every stadium in the major leagues has been equipped with a QuesTec system that compares umpires' ball and strike calls to an objective, computer-validated standard. Deviate too far from what the system says you should be calling, and you'll automatically have your performance reviewed. This provides the ultimate "someone is watching you" experience for the umpire. As a control, the researchers behind the study took advantage of a five-year period in which the system was only installed in half the stadiums in baseball, creating a set of monitored and unmonitored games.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Sprint expected to entice iPhone 5 users with unlimited data
Haven't heard enough about the rumored Sprint iPhone? Have another tidbit: according to sources speaking to Bloomberg, the iPhone 5 will indeed launch on Sprint—among other US carriers—in October. But aside from having a little extra choice in wireless carrier, users considering a switch to Sprint will have one more carrot dangled in front of them: unlimited data.
According to Bloomberg's sources, Sprint will begin offering the device in mid-October alongside AT&T and Verizon. Sprint is, of course, much smaller than its heavyweight competitors, which is undoubtedly part of the reason the company plans to be the only one to offer unlimited data on the iPhone when it comes out. AT&T and Verizon used to offer unlimited data packages for iPhone subscribers, but both have since moved to a tiered data cap system for new subscribers.
Chatter about Sprint picking up the iPhone line has exploded in recent weeks, with leaks coming from seemingly everywhere. Most recently, Best Buy was rumored to be preparing for a Sprint iPhone launch in October and the carrier was said to be installing Sprint network repeaters near certain Apple retail locations. At this point, we would be surprised if the next-generation iPhone didn't show up on Sprint once released, and with the prospect of unlimited data, it may end up attracting a good handful of switchers away from Verizon and AT&T.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
German court bans Galaxy Tab 10.1: looks too much like iPad
Apple has won a more stringent ban on Samsung's Galaxy 10.1 tablet in Germany. On Friday, a Düsseldorf court upheld its previous ban on the device, with Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann ruling that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 looked too much like the iPad Community Design that Apple has registered with the European Union. Samsung has vowed to appeal the decision.
Apple first went after Samsung in April for "blatantly copying" the hardware and UI designs used in the iPhone and iPad for its Android devices. Samsung eventually fired back with lawsuits in Asia, Europe, and the US, but in August, Apple won an EU-wide ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 via the German lawsuit. The ban ended up being lifted for most of Europe due to jurisdiction concerns, but the Galaxy Tab 10.1 remained temporarily barred from being sold in Germany.
That brings us to today. In issuing her decision to uphold the ban on Samsung's iPad competitor, Judge Brueckner-Hofmann said that copying Apple isn't necessary in order to create a functional tablet, and that even the "informed customer" might get the impression that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks just like Apple's iPad. "The court is of the opinion that Apple’s minimalistic design isn’t the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible,” Brueckner-Hofmann said, according to Bloomberg.
The German decision doesn't bar the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold in other parts of Europe, so why is this decision a big deal? Apple could potentially use the Germany case to bolster its arguments against Samsung in other European courts, or even in the US. A hearing for the US case is coming up in mid-October, and Apple will want to gather as much evidence as it can to bolster its position.
Samsung, for its part, is understandably disappointed with the German ruling. In a statement issued Friday, the company said the decision "restricts design innovation and progress in the industry" and that it "severely limits consumer choice in Germany."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Intel denies giving up on MeeGo, but that doesn't mean much
The Linux-based MeeGo mobile operating system faces an uncertain future amid rumors that Intel plans to back away from the platform. The troubled open source software project has failed to gain broad industry support and appears to be slowing down in the face of weak demand and declining engagement from its backers.
Intel denied the rumors today, saying that it is still "fully committed" to MeeGo and intends to continue developing the platform while searching for new partners. Intel's "commitment" doesn't mean much in practice, however, because the company's development efforts to date have done little to advance the project. Unless Intel can attract a partner that is better equipped to produce consumer-facing software, MeeGo doesn't have much of a future as a discrete mobile platform.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Windows 8 to bring 10-second boot-ups to new PCs
Microsoft says it has developed a hybrid shutdown and boot process for Windows 8 that merges the traditional cold boot approach with resume-from-hibernate functionality, reducing startup time by 30% to 70% and resulting in 10-second boot times for new PCs with solid state disks.
Startup time has long frustrated PC users, and the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and fast-starting laptops like the MacBook Air has given Microsoft even more reason to build software that allows computers to turn off and on almost instantly. In a new blog post describing the Windows 8 boot process, Windows program management director Gabe Aul said a hybrid cold boot and resume feature closes user-facing sessions but keeps kernel processes in hibernation mode. This allows PCs to power down and use “effectively zero” power but start up far more quickly than Windows 7 computers, he writes.
“Here’s the key difference for Windows 8: as in Windows 7, we close the user sessions, but instead of closing the kernel session, we hibernate it,” Aul writes. “Compared to a full hibernate, which includes a lot of memory pages in use by apps, session 0 hibernation data is much smaller, which takes substantially less time to write to disk.”
Microsoft claimed that boot times on Windows 8 are 30 percent to 70 percent faster “on most systems we’ve tested.” While Microsoft did not say exactly which computers were tested, the benefits will be most noticeable for “newer systems with fast SSDs.” An accompanying video demonstrates a Windows 8 PC starting up in approximately 10 seconds.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Reasons to leave: studios often own games devs create in spare time
When we wrote about the movement of professional game developers leaving to pursue their own projects in independent gaming, we had no idea how many people would contact us to talk about their experiences. Many industry professionals had thoughts and stories to share, and one of those in particular stuck out. He had another reason for people to leave the world of large-budget game publishing: it's common for contracts to include clauses that give publishers the rights to whatever developers work on during their spare time.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
"Bisexual money-grubber with Asperger's": How to troll Anonymous
A "leaked" FBI psychological profile of the Anonymous leadership has been making the rounds online for the last few weeks; it popped up again today at "Anon Central." The document purportedly profiles the six "leaders" of Anonymous, even ranking them at times, but its psych profiles would seem to fit every negative stereotype of hackers—right down to the "possible Aspergers syndrome," "amorality," and "social ineptness."
Oh, and did we mention the "bisexuality" and the greed?
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Mostly pointless patent reform bill goes to Obama for signature
The United States Senate has approved the America Invents Act, a major overhaul to patent law that switches to a "first to file" rule for granting patents, creates two new processes for challenging already-granted patents, and gives the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) power to set patent fees. Because the House of Representatives passed the bill with identical language earlier this year, the legislation will now go directly to President Obama for his signature. He is expected to sign it, and may tout it during tonight's prime-time address on the economy.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) hailed the legislation as the most significant overhaul of the patent system in decades. But Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) blasted the bill. "This is not a patent reform bill. This is a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on the right of small inventors," she said.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
"It was a dumb idea": newspaper chain fires copyright troll Righthaven
The new chief executive of MediaNews Group, publisher of the Denver Post and 50 other newspapers, said it was “a dumb idea” for the nation’s second-largest newspaper chain to sign up with copyright troll Righthaven.
The Denver-based publisher’s year-long copyright infringement litigation deal with Righthaven is terminating at month’s end, said John Paton, who replaced Dean Singleton to lead the company on Wednesday.
“The issues about copyright are real,” Paton told Wired.com in a telephone interview. “But the idea that you would hire someone on an—essentially—success fee to run around and sue people at will who may or may not have infringed as a way of protecting yourself... does not reflect how news is created and disseminated in the modern world.
“I come from the idea that it was a dumb idea from the start,” Paton added, noting that Righthaven was informed of the decision to end relations last month.
On Wednesday, Wired reported that Las Vegas-based Righthaven, founded more than a year ago to monetize print news content through copyright infringement lawsuits, was struggling after several courtroom setbacks. Righthaven has not prevailed in court on any of the infringement lawsuits filed over MediaNews’ content, though it appears from court records that about two dozen cases had settled out of court.
Paton said if he was MediaNews’ chief a year ago, he likely never would have signed on with Righthaven, which hoped to fix the print media’s financial ills by suing bloggers and website owners for reposting snippets or entire copyrighted articles. Terms of the Righthaven-MediaNews deal grant each side a 50 percent stake in settlements and verdicts.
Three dozen outstanding MediaNews infringement cases over Denver Post material are on hold while a federal judge in Colorado weighs dismissal over MediaNews’ agreement with Righthaven. A decision by US District Judge John Kane of Denver is pending on whether the lawsuits can proceed to the merits of the infringement allegations.
Sara Glines, a MediaNews vice president, said those cases are likely to remain active as Judge Kane weighs whether Righthaven has standing to sue over the Denver Post copyrights.
“It’s more complicated than that because the cases are with Righthaven, and they have control as long as litigation is in process,” Glines wrote in an e-mail. “But our position is that we will not pursue further litigation with Righthaven.”
The legal flap in those copyright cases concerns Righthaven not owning the copyrights it was filing suit over, despite initially saying it did. Instead, MediaNews granted Righthaven permission to sue over the newspaper chain’s content. The deal does not grant Righthaven license to use the content in any other way other than for litigation purposes. The Copyright Act, however, only gives rights holders legal standing to sue on behalf of their own works.
Judges in Las Vegas have been dismissing Righthaven lawsuits left and right over the same standing issue in lawsuits regarding content owned by Las Vegas-based Stephens Media—Righthaven’s first and remaining client—and a major investor in the faltering enterprise.
Righthaven has not filed a new case in two months. Righthaven’s chief executive, Steve Gibson, said in a recent telephone interview it is awaiting appellate rulings on the issues of standing and fair use before pursuing more litigation.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Police investigating accusations in bizarre lost iPhone 5 case
Apple and possibly some San Francisco police officers may have overstepped legal bounds in attempting to retrieve yet another missing iPhone prototype that was reportedly left behind at a San Francisco bar. The SFPD has now begun an internal investigation into allegations that officers were involved in a late July search of a San Francisco home where Apple had apparently tracked the missing device.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
The post-Jobs era: Tim Cook brings philanthropy back to Apple
For all his fame and fortune, Steve Jobs has what some consider to be a blight on his record: a lack of public philanthropic activity. Andrew Ross Sorkin laid it all out just last week, but the issue has long been discussed and debated. Why wouldn't Jobs join Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and pledge to give away half his fortune? Why hasn't Jobs devoted more of his time and money to charitable causes?
Jobs' personal attitude towards philanthropy is said to have trickled down through the ranks of Apple over the years. But all of that is changing now, as Apple adopts an impressive corporate matching policy for charitable contributions. It might feel like a small change, but make no mistake: this is Cook starting to leave his mark as CEO and he's moving in a direction that no one expected from Jobs.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Hands-on with Google Docs and Gmail offline mode beta
In May 2010, Google “temporarily” removed offline access to Google Docs, which had been provided for two years through the Google Gears extension. “We know offline access is important for some of you, and we’re working hard to bring a new and improved offline access option to Google Docs,” the company said at the time.
Sixteen months later, Google has finally brought offline access back to Docs using an HTML5-powered app available for the Chrome browser. For now, it allows users to view documents and spreadsheets without an Internet connection, but not edit them. Both Docs and Gmail Offline, another new feature, require installation of an app through the Chrome Web Store, but are easy to set up and use. I spent the morning testing it on a Chromebook and MacBook Air to see how well it worked.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Origin story: New papers claim A. sediba as human ancestor
Although those who study human evolution would agree that the ancestor of the Homo genus was an Australopithecus, it's been hard to get them to agree on which of the species in that genus actually gave rise to ours. The situation was complicated further by the fact that the three earliest species of Homo, H. habilis, H. rudolfensis, and H. erectus, all appeared at roughly the same time. Fragments of earlier skeletons have been assigned to each of these species, but it's difficult to say anything definitive.
That situation was shaken up last year by the discovery of Australopithecus sediba in South Africa. Although initial dating placed it as very close in age to the first unequivocal Homo fossils, it contained a compelling mix of features that left some arguing over which of these two genuses it belonged in. Now, A. sediba is back in the news, as a set of papers pushes the date of the fossil back and strengthens the case that this was an ancestor of our genus. If that turns out to be the case, it may change some of the things we had thought about human origins.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Michael Hart, Project Gutenberg's e-book loving founder, passes away
Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, has died at his home in Urbana, Illinois at the age of 64. The project he started back in 1971 lives on, however, producing quality public domain texts now readable on devices that could only have been imagined when Project Gutenberg began.
On July 4, 1971, Hart tried out a new idea of his: typing the text of the Declaration of Independence on a computer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He made the text available to other computer users, and then to other network users, and he soon began entering more texts. As the project grew in usefulness, volunteers from around the world pitched in to research, scan, type, and proofread everything from Montaigne's complete essays to the P.G. Wodehouse comic masterpiece My Man Jeeves. (This being the Internet, the most popular title right now is the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana.)
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Rock Band dev releases $2 iOS musical meme generator, VidRhythm
The latest release from Harmonix—the developer behind music games like Rock Band and Dance Central—is musical, but it isn't a game. VidRhythm is more of a goofy toy you can play around with on your phone. It lets you create music by replacing the sounds of instruments with sounds of your own creation, and the results can be quite strange. As with most of these kinds of things, it's absolutely hilarious the first few times, but the novelty quickly wears off.
VidRhythm comes packed with a library of songs that range from dance to classical, and once you select a track it's broken down into individual sounds. Everything from specific words that need to be sung to the sound of a snare drum. What you'll need to do is record brief snippets to represent each sound using any means you like. You could use your voice to make the drums sound like a beatbox. Or you could attempt to hum the correct bars for Beethoven's Fifth.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Helpful uranium-munching bacteria breathe it through electric wires
Bacteria have long been fighting on the front lines of uranium-contaminated groundwater. Their ability to take uranium out of a solution and mineralize it has proven invaluable at abandoned uranium mines. The mechanism by which they accomplish this fortunate feat has remained a mystery—until now. A paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week reveals the details.
Bacteria of the genus Geobacter can help remediate a number of different groundwater contaminants. Besides uranium, they can also take on petroleum compounds and chlorinated solvents—two of the most widespread contaminants. They are anaerobic bacteria, meaning that they live in the absence of dissolved oxygen. Instead, they utilize a variety of elements that includes nitrogen, manganese, iron, sulfur, and, yes, uranium.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Privacy groups: behavioral opt-out system "insufficient and ineffective"
A number of privacy groups have spoken out against the adoption of a proposed opt-out plan for behavioral advertising in the US and Europe. The groups are referring to the Advertising Option Icon introduced by the Interactive Advertising Bureau almost one year ago, which purports to make it easy for users to opt out of ad tracking on participating websites with the help of an easily recognizable icon. The system was proposed by the advertising industry as a way to avoid stricter legislation on how they can use information obtained from behavioral tracking, but the privacy groups call it a "flimsy self-regulatory system" that will end up "insufficient and ineffective" at protecting consumer privacy on the Internet.
The Advertising Option Icon is based on an industry report from July 2009 that focuses on education, transparency, and consumer control when it comes to targeted ads. The participating trade groups represent some 5,000 other companies when it comes to advertising on the Web, giving the proposal a higher profile than most when it comes to voluntary opt-out measures. The icon itself is meant to let users know which sites are participating in behavioral tracking and to "enhance the efforts of the growing number of companies that are already using similar mechanisms to deliver enhanced notice to millions of consumers."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
"A massive collection scheme": Yet another judge slams file-sharing lawsuits
Over the last few weeks, some California federal judges have been hammering the lawyers bringing mass file-sharing lawsuits. Add Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman to that list.
Last year, On the Cheap LLC sued 5,011 alleged pirates of its porn film Danielle Staub Raw. Zimmerman this week threw out 5,010 of the anonymous defendants. "No courtroom in the building can hold over 200 people, let alone 5,000," he wrote in his order. Even if it could, everyone would have different lawyers, different issues of fact, different defenses—in short, it would be a total nightmare for the efficient dispensation of justice.
Of course, this assumes the plaintiffs in the case want to go to trial against anyone. Judge Zimmerman strongly suspects that they do not. He ordered the plaintiffs to provide him detailed information on their settlement activities, but his order appears to have been ignored by On the Cheap. In a potent piece of footnoting to his new severance order, Zimmerman attacked the company:
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Feature: To boldly go: Ars explores 45 years of Star Trek
NBC viewers were introduced to an innovative new television show called Star Trek on September 8, 1966—exactly 45 years ago today. The original groundbreaking series ran for only three years, but it left a lasting mark both on television and the science fiction genre.
After the cancellation of the original series, Star Trek continued with 11 feature-length movies, four additional live-action television shows, an animated series, and numerous adaptations to other media—ranging from video games to a major Las Vegas attraction. In this retrospective, we will take a look back at Star Trek's bold beginnings and powerful legacy.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Available Tags:iPhone 5 , iPhone , Galaxy Tab , Galaxy , iPad , Intel , Windows 8 , Windows , iPhone 5 , Apple , Google , Gmail , iOS , Ars ,
No comments:
Post a Comment