Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
Patents

Submission + - Congress Tackles Patent Reform

nadamsieee writes: Wired's Luke O'Brian recently reported about Congress' latest attempt to reform the patent system. In the article O'Brian tells of how "[w]itnesses at Thursday's hearing painted a bleak picture of that system. Adam Jaffe, a Brandeis University professor and author of a book on the subject, described the system as "out of whack." Instead of "the engine of innovation," the patent has become "the sand in the gears," he said, citing widespread fears of litigation." The House Oversight Committee website has more details. How would you fix the patent system?
Announcements

Submission + - Nanotech battery claims to solve electric car woes

rbgrn writes: A123 Systems claims to have invented a Lithium Ion battery that not only can discharge at very high rates of current but can be recharged very quickly without damage to the cells or overheating. From their website: "A unique feature of A123Systems' M1 cells is their ability to charge to high capacity in 5 minutes or less. That's a significant improvement over traditional Li Ion, which typically requires more than 90 minutes to reach a similar level of charge." Using this technology, General Motors has announced a plug-in hybrid SUV and Venture Vehicles is developing a fully electric 3 wheel vehicle. Politics aside, the main technological hurdle to mass adoption of electric cars has been a fuel station replacement when driving distances beyond a single charge worth of range. Will we finally be seeing high current recharge stations in the next decade?
Security

Submission + - Network Computing Editor Wins RSA Hacking Contest

richkarpi writes: Network Computing's security editor won the recent RSA Interactive Testing Challenge, er hacking, contest. Read his blow-by-blow description of the events:

>>I squeaked out a win in the tie-breaking challenge the first day with only a few seconds to spare as my opponent was right behind
>>in the hunt to combine three injectable fields into one long javascript function.

Read all the details: For Hackers, By A Hacker

Slashdot Top Deals

A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator. -- Paul Valery

Working...