The actual claims (1 and 8 were found to infringe) are even vaguer than that - not only "phone numbers"; it covers ANY findable data structure in ANY data:
What is claimed is:
1. A computer-based system for detecting structures in data and performing actions on detected structures, comprising:
an input device for receiving data;
an output device for presenting the data;
a memory storing information including program routines including
an analyzer server for detecting structures in the data, and for linking actions to the detected structures;
a user interface enabling the selection of a detected structure and a linked action; and
an action processor for performing the selected action linked to the selected structure; and
a processing unit coupled to the input device, the output device, and the memory for controlling the execution of the program routines.
[...non-infringed claims...]
8. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the user interface highlights detected structures.
This patent appears to cover the entire internet without even having to add "...on the internet" as a claim.
Careful; the advertisers also have a nuclear MAD option: make you submit proof that you saw / interacted with the ad. Kind of like a CAPTCHA for ad-viewership; they could force users to type in a word/code displayed on the ad, or (for "rich" / interactive formats) e.g. mouse over it it in a specific way indicated within the ad itself.
Some seedy (porn/warez) sites of the '90s toyed with variations on this option as an early form of ad-paywalling their goods - "to enter download area, click this banner, come back and enter the xth word in the yth paragraph...)
This screamer device sounds like the fabled 'blotto box'. The modern Internet sez this was a (mostly purely hypothetical) phone phreak box that would take out large swaths of phone service, e.g. entire area codes. Many years ago I'd heard the name applied to a device that would cut out your local phone and apply high-voltage AC across the wires instead, royally hosing whoever was attached at the other end.
Our front porch has a small crawlspace under it, so last year I planted a subwoofer under the porch connected to an mp3 player loaded with a series of deep animal growls (may have been from Alien / horror movies), separated by about 30 seconds of silence. So, it was silent most of the time, but would periodically catch a kid just has he was coming up the steps. Many of the little ones ran away before they even got to the door, and didn't come back!
Soon-to-be-wife was very displeased, and we had lots of leftover candy. This year the subwoofer will be repurposed to make a sweet Oobleck monster. We'll see if I can get away with putting out a jar of realistic fake body parts nearby for "feedings".
For that matter, I was shocked to discover that porcelain teeth emit a surprising* amount of radiation. For a 5th grade science fair project, I took a handful of dental X-ray films (my father is a dentist) and attached them to various everyday objects folks (or 5th grade kids) might be suspicious of emitting radiation, then developed them in batch after one month of exposure. For the youngsters who have never seen a dental x-ray using real film, they are small (about 4x5cm) squares of photographic film sealed inside a lightproof jacket. They are developed in a darkroom using a metal 'clipboard' of sorts that holds maybe 16 films at a time, making the development process very consistent across a batch.
Things like microwave oven (none) and CRT television (almost imperceptible amount) were unsurprising, but a porcelain denture tooth showed a clear dark blob where it was taped to the film. It turns out trace amounts of uranium were a routine additive to give them the natural fluorescence of real teeth.
Can you explain this bit about pumping water when the tank is empty? I understand condensation can cause there to be a small amount of water in the gas tank, but last I checked water is heavier than gasoline (it should generally be the first thing pumped). In fact, pilots of some small aircraft - I have seen this done - draw a small amount of fuel from the bottom of the tank into a syringe to check for water bubbles before takeoff.
Also, "sludge" (rust, other particulates) can be a specific problem of empty tanks for large, very stationary tanks (e.g. home heating oil) where sludge can potentially settle on the bottom, away from the intake and remain there 'safely' for some time unless drawn in by dropping fuel level. I can't imagine the same being the case with a car's constantly moving, sloshing tank though. Not the way I drive, at least;-)
If s/he were are proper slashdotter, the thief will have immediately wiped the machine (or at least nuked any obvious remote/location processes like logmein, vnc, preyproject etc.) before letting it touch the internet again.
DNA replication process involves complementary matches between bases -- adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T) and guanine (G) pairs with cytosine (C) -- to form its familiar double helix. By contrast, the NYU researchers developed an artificial tile or motif, called BTX (bent triple helix molecules containing three DNA double helices)
In order to achieve self-replication of the BTX tile arrays, a seed word is needed to catalyze multiple generations of identical arrays. BTX's seed consists of a sequence of seven tiles -- a seven-letter word. To bring about the self-replication process, the seed is placed in a chemical solution, where it assembles complementary tiles to form a "daughter BTX array" -- a complementary word. The daughter array is then separated from the seed by heating the solution to ~ 40 oC. The process is then repeated.
"While our replication method requires multiple chemical and thermal processing cycles,
I think Megahard above has it right, it sounds like they reproduced the well-known PCR chemistry on some fake DNA. I will admit having fake DNA itself is mildly interesting, but not exactly novel (folks like DIYBio do this at the hobbyist level - or at least buy made-to-order DNA sequences from labs - and I've seen hackerspace Bio'ers doing PCR literally in a kitchen sink). "Self-replicating" a DNA sequence via a PCR-like reaction is kind of like gluing a row of magnets to a board, dipping it into a bucket of more magnets and being surprised to find that your original magnets now have an exact copy of the N/S pole arrangement stuck to them. Self-replicating structure? Technically maybe, but not exactly the gray-goo scenario it's cracked up to be.)
That, and near the beginning of TFA the guy is actively soliciting someone to contact him if they want to "do a story". I dare not count the occurrences of the word "viral".
According to TFA, they are trying to patent malware (and same could be considered prior art).
Claim 1: A method comprising: presenting an application offering a product for purchase, the application being from a first entity; presenting a purchase interface overlaid the application, the purchase interface being from a second entity; and completing a sales transaction without navigating away from the application.
The method of claim 1, wherein the application is an advertisement. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is from an application server that targets applications to users. The method of claim 1, wherein the purchase interface is for purchasing a product directly from an online store.
This sounds like a common practice by which old-school adware and malware operated - in the case of ad-supported software, an ad for a purchaseable product would be presented in the supported application's window. When clicked, either the user's already-installed browser or an embedded MSIE instance would open for the user to complete the purchase using 'the internet'. For bona fide malware, the ad-spawning application was windowless and lurked in the background, popping up ads on top of whatever "app" the user is currently working in, and obviously without quitting said app (being a multitasking OS and all). Oftentimes, the specific ad would be triggered by what the user was doing in the other app (e.g. by monitoring for specific words typed or URLs visited). Knowing lawyers, the nuanced prior-artiness of each case might hinge on whether an IE instance and webpage embedded the the app constitutes a third-party "purchase interface" or not.
and suddently you had to upgrade, since the 3 year old cpu could not keep up with newer software anymore. This is less the case today.
Don't know about that; my work PC has just been 'upgraded' from Windows XP to 7 last week. Aye caramba. It used to be that I would start some coffee brewing and do work on the computer while waiting for it to finish. Now I start a process on the computer and go make coffee while I wait for it to finish.
I have to disrecommend Barracuda. Earlier this year I started getting emails from a never-heard-of "technology reselling company" that, when pressed, acknowledged they got my address from Barracuda Networks after we bought one of their spam firewall boxen.
I've been waiting for myself to get enough free time to show *exactly this*. The vast majority of TVs - basically everything except LCDs without any kind of "dynamic contrast" feature - have current consumption that is dependent on screen brightness. A Google or similar statistical hivemind could potentially tease out the shows being displayed on a screen in a 'normal' house (not only contrived lab setup) because most household power consumption either switches on much larger timescales than scene-brightness transitions (most don't flick their light switches every few seconds) or else have a repeatable current profile (dish / clothes washer and other appliances). These repeatable light + appliance patterns could be used similarly to estimate when you are home and how many guests you are housing (via how often the dish/laundry runs).
An old electronic technician's trick got me started on the idea - when repairing blown gadgets, you wire an ordinary lightbulb socket in series with the outlet you plug the gadget into. Start with a low-wattage e.g. 40W fridge bulb, and move up as needed. The bulb acts as a current limiter in case there are any remaining faults, and gives you a visual indication of the gadget's instantaneous current, with various 'normal' and fault conditions producing a distinct visual pattern (e.g. "solid on" at plug-in usually indicates a dead short across the HOT / main switching transistor). When doing this with a CRT set (haven't tried it with others), the bulb brightness does directly and eerily track the average scene brightness.
Like mentioned in other posts - this does not only work on CRTs (of which Plasma is a type), but also *most* modern LCDs as well as the LED/OLED screens that are already beginning to displace them. About the only screens whose power consumption does not depend on scene brightness is old fixed-backlight LCDs, which are mostly displaced these days by "dynamic contrast" backlighting.
That, and it's only a matter of time before LED/OLED screens reach cost-parity with LCD and supplant them anyway. Old-skool LCDs with fixed backlights are a dying breed.
Be careful with tape; many kinds don't hold up well over time. In my electronics lab we now have a hardline no-tape-on-cables policy after too many people have grabbed whatever tape was handy (usually electrical, masking or duct) tape to label a cable or mark matching ends. After a while it invariably comes off and leaves the cable end permanently sticky and gooey.
While the whole solar-powered thing is kind of a gimmick, the fact that they have an (x86-compatible?), 'real' CPU (not microcontrollers) operating on 10mW is pretty impressive. This is a level where powering from ambient motion and a user's body heat is also feasible.
Have to say, I don't think this guy will get much sympathy on/., even if he is exposing a whole different level of scum among scummers. There is, by definition, no such thing as legitimate traffic to a parked domain. Nobody wants to go there.
Don't know about that; I remember it showing up in kid/young adult fiction when I was a kid (not terribly long ago). There are only so many ways to say "$character said" without getting monotonous, and they tried 'em all. I don't remember who the author was, but the first time I came across (no pun intended) a "...he ejaculated", I was maybe 8 and on a roadtrip with my parents. The look on their face when I called out from the back seat:
Me: "Dad, what's 'ejaculated' mean?" Both parents: "WHAT ARE YOU READING?!"
Slashdot Mirror
The actual claims (1 and 8 were found to infringe) are even vaguer than that - not only "phone numbers"; it covers ANY findable data structure in ANY data:
What is claimed is:
1. A computer-based system for detecting structures in data and performing actions on detected structures, comprising:
an input device for receiving data;
an output device for presenting the data;
a memory storing information including program routines including
an analyzer server for detecting structures in the data, and for linking actions to the detected structures;
a user interface enabling the selection of a detected structure and a linked action; and
an action processor for performing the selected action linked to the selected structure; and
a processing unit coupled to the input device, the output device, and the memory for controlling the execution of the program routines.
[...non-infringed claims...]
8. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the user interface highlights detected structures.
This patent appears to cover the entire internet without even having to add "...on the internet" as a claim.
Careful; the advertisers also have a nuclear MAD option: make you submit proof that you saw / interacted with the ad. Kind of like a CAPTCHA for ad-viewership; they could force users to type in a word/code displayed on the ad, or (for "rich" / interactive formats) e.g. mouse over it it in a specific way indicated within the ad itself.
Some seedy (porn/warez) sites of the '90s toyed with variations on this option as an early form of ad-paywalling their goods - "to enter download area, click this banner, come back and enter the xth word in the yth paragraph...)
This screamer device sounds like the fabled 'blotto box'. The modern Internet sez this was a (mostly purely hypothetical) phone phreak box that would take out large swaths of phone service, e.g. entire area codes. Many years ago I'd heard the name applied to a device that would cut out your local phone and apply high-voltage AC across the wires instead, royally hosing whoever was attached at the other end.
Our front porch has a small crawlspace under it, so last year I planted a subwoofer under the porch connected to an mp3 player loaded with a series of deep animal growls (may have been from Alien / horror movies), separated by about 30 seconds of silence. So, it was silent most of the time, but would periodically catch a kid just has he was coming up the steps. Many of the little ones ran away before they even got to the door, and didn't come back!
Soon-to-be-wife was very displeased, and we had lots of leftover candy. This year the subwoofer will be repurposed to make a sweet Oobleck monster. We'll see if I can get away with putting out a jar of realistic fake body parts nearby for "feedings".
And for everyone else, it is a real one locked behind a little plexiglass cage... with a can of computer duster / cold spray sitting on top of it.
For that matter, I was shocked to discover that porcelain teeth emit a surprising* amount of radiation. For a 5th grade science fair project, I took a handful of dental X-ray films (my father is a dentist) and attached them to various everyday objects folks (or 5th grade kids) might be suspicious of emitting radiation, then developed them in batch after one month of exposure. For the youngsters who have never seen a dental x-ray using real film, they are small (about 4x5cm) squares of photographic film sealed inside a lightproof jacket. They are developed in a darkroom using a metal 'clipboard' of sorts that holds maybe 16 films at a time, making the development process very consistent across a batch.
Things like microwave oven (none) and CRT television (almost imperceptible amount) were unsurprising, but a porcelain denture tooth showed a clear dark blob where it was taped to the film. It turns out trace amounts of uranium were a routine additive to give them the natural fluorescence of real teeth.
*Surprising, but not deadly.
Can you explain this bit about pumping water when the tank is empty? I understand condensation can cause there to be a small amount of water in the gas tank, but last I checked water is heavier than gasoline (it should generally be the first thing pumped). In fact, pilots of some small aircraft - I have seen this done - draw a small amount of fuel from the bottom of the tank into a syringe to check for water bubbles before takeoff.
Also, "sludge" (rust, other particulates) can be a specific problem of empty tanks for large, very stationary tanks (e.g. home heating oil) where sludge can potentially settle on the bottom, away from the intake and remain there 'safely' for some time unless drawn in by dropping fuel level. I can't imagine the same being the case with a car's constantly moving, sloshing tank though. Not the way I drive, at least ;-)
If s/he were are proper slashdotter, the thief will have immediately wiped the machine (or at least nuked any obvious remote/location processes like logmein, vnc, preyproject etc.) before letting it touch the internet again.
From the article:
DNA replication process involves complementary matches between bases -- adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T) and guanine (G) pairs with cytosine (C) -- to form its familiar double helix. By contrast, the NYU researchers developed an artificial tile or motif, called BTX (bent triple helix molecules containing three DNA double helices)
In order to achieve self-replication of the BTX tile arrays, a seed word is needed to catalyze multiple generations of identical arrays. BTX's seed consists of a sequence of seven tiles -- a seven-letter word. To bring about the self-replication process, the seed is placed in a chemical solution, where it assembles complementary tiles to form a "daughter BTX array" -- a complementary word. The daughter array is then separated from the seed by heating the solution to ~ 40 oC. The process is then repeated.
"While our replication method requires multiple chemical and thermal processing cycles,
I think Megahard above has it right, it sounds like they reproduced the well-known PCR chemistry on some fake DNA. I will admit having fake DNA itself is mildly interesting, but not exactly novel (folks like DIYBio do this at the hobbyist level - or at least buy made-to-order DNA sequences from labs - and I've seen hackerspace Bio'ers doing PCR literally in a kitchen sink). "Self-replicating" a DNA sequence via a PCR-like reaction is kind of like gluing a row of magnets to a board, dipping it into a bucket of more magnets and being surprised to find that your original magnets now have an exact copy of the N/S pole arrangement stuck to them. Self-replicating structure? Technically maybe, but not exactly the gray-goo scenario it's cracked up to be.)
That, and near the beginning of TFA the guy is actively soliciting someone to contact him if they want to "do a story". I dare not count the occurrences of the word "viral".
According to TFA, they are trying to patent malware (and same could be considered prior art).
Claim 1: A method comprising: presenting an application offering a product for purchase, the application being from a first entity; presenting a purchase interface overlaid the application, the purchase interface being from a second entity; and completing a sales transaction without navigating away from the application.
The method of claim 1, wherein the application is an advertisement.
The method of claim 1, wherein the application is from an application server that targets applications to users.
The method of claim 1, wherein the purchase interface is for purchasing a product directly from an online store.
This sounds like a common practice by which old-school adware and malware operated - in the case of ad-supported software, an ad for a purchaseable product would be presented in the supported application's window. When clicked, either the user's already-installed browser or an embedded MSIE instance would open for the user to complete the purchase using 'the internet'. For bona fide malware, the ad-spawning application was windowless and lurked in the background, popping up ads on top of whatever "app" the user is currently working in, and obviously without quitting said app (being a multitasking OS and all). Oftentimes, the specific ad would be triggered by what the user was doing in the other app (e.g. by monitoring for specific words typed or URLs visited). Knowing lawyers, the nuanced prior-artiness of each case might hinge on whether an IE instance and webpage embedded the the app constitutes a third-party "purchase interface" or not.
Maybe the house was built over an Amish burial ground.
And double their revenue by selling ambulance-chasers subscriptions to the feed.
and suddently you had to upgrade, since the 3 year old cpu could not keep up with newer software anymore. This is less the case today.
Don't know about that; my work PC has just been 'upgraded' from Windows XP to 7 last week. Aye caramba. It used to be that I would start some coffee brewing and do work on the computer while waiting for it to finish. Now I start a process on the computer and go make coffee while I wait for it to finish.
I have to disrecommend Barracuda. Earlier this year I started getting emails from a never-heard-of "technology reselling company" that, when pressed, acknowledged they got my address from Barracuda Networks after we bought one of their spam firewall boxen.
I've been waiting for myself to get enough free time to show *exactly this*. The vast majority of TVs - basically everything except LCDs without any kind of "dynamic contrast" feature - have current consumption that is dependent on screen brightness. A Google or similar statistical hivemind could potentially tease out the shows being displayed on a screen in a 'normal' house (not only contrived lab setup) because most household power consumption either switches on much larger timescales than scene-brightness transitions (most don't flick their light switches every few seconds) or else have a repeatable current profile (dish / clothes washer and other appliances). These repeatable light + appliance patterns could be used similarly to estimate when you are home and how many guests you are housing (via how often the dish/laundry runs).
An old electronic technician's trick got me started on the idea - when repairing blown gadgets, you wire an ordinary lightbulb socket in series with the outlet you plug the gadget into. Start with a low-wattage e.g. 40W fridge bulb, and move up as needed. The bulb acts as a current limiter in case there are any remaining faults, and gives you a visual indication of the gadget's instantaneous current, with various 'normal' and fault conditions producing a distinct visual pattern (e.g. "solid on" at plug-in usually indicates a dead short across the HOT / main switching transistor). When doing this with a CRT set (haven't tried it with others), the bulb brightness does directly and eerily track the average scene brightness.
Like mentioned in other posts - this does not only work on CRTs (of which Plasma is a type), but also *most* modern LCDs as well as the LED/OLED screens that are already beginning to displace them. About the only screens whose power consumption does not depend on scene brightness is old fixed-backlight LCDs, which are mostly displaced these days by "dynamic contrast" backlighting.
That, and it's only a matter of time before LED/OLED screens reach cost-parity with LCD and supplant them anyway. Old-skool LCDs with fixed backlights are a dying breed.
Is it a camera artifact or is that shelf actually sagging from the weight of all those monitors? :p
Be careful with tape; many kinds don't hold up well over time. In my electronics lab we now have a hardline no-tape-on-cables policy after too many people have grabbed whatever tape was handy (usually electrical, masking or duct) tape to label a cable or mark matching ends. After a while it invariably comes off and leaves the cable end permanently sticky and gooey.
While the whole solar-powered thing is kind of a gimmick, the fact that they have an (x86-compatible?), 'real' CPU (not microcontrollers) operating on 10mW is pretty impressive. This is a level where powering from ambient motion and a user's body heat is also feasible.
Have to say, I don't think this guy will get much sympathy on /., even if he is exposing a whole different level of scum among scummers. There is, by definition, no such thing as legitimate traffic to a parked domain. Nobody wants to go there.
Don't know about that; I remember it showing up in kid/young adult fiction when I was a kid (not terribly long ago). There are only so many ways to say "$character said" without getting monotonous, and they tried 'em all. I don't remember who the author was, but the first time I came across (no pun intended) a "...he ejaculated", I was maybe 8 and on a roadtrip with my parents. The look on their face when I called out from the back seat:
Me: "Dad, what's 'ejaculated' mean?"
Both parents: "WHAT ARE YOU READING?!"
And, according to the paper, mercury. When the TSA is done with you the EPA will have a shot.
Electrowetting described in four words: "Don't Tase Me Bro"