Boing Boing Submitterator » RAGE

EFF’s new patent project

hughillustration — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:32:28 +0000

from EFF: Today, EFF launched a new campaign against software patents (https://defendinnovation.org). In this campaign, we outline seven proposals that we think will address some of the greatest abuses of the current software patent system, including making sure that folks who independently arrived at an invention can’t be held liable for infringing on a software patent. But our campaign isn’t just about our proposals — we also want to hear, and amplify, the views of the technical community. Many engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs have suggested that reform is not enough and that software should not be patentable, period. We want to record these views, which is why our Defend Innovation campaign is designed to solicit comments from all of the stakeholders. We’ll incorporate what we learn into a formal publication that we can take to Congress that reflects the views of innovators, academics, lawyers, CEOs, VCs, and everyone else who is concerned about the software patent system.

View Link [defendinnovation.org]

You Be The Judge!

katrue21 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:14:47 +0000

Crazy bitch Alina decides to host a game show. I hope the contestants survive.

View Link [youtube.com]

‘Obscene’ Portrait of South African President Vandalized

Guido — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:14:42 +0000

A portrait of South African President Jacob Zuma, like the famous Lenin portrait, but with his genitals exposed, was vandalized by supporters. Zuma and his party were trying to get the picture removed because it’s ‘disrespectful’. Zuma is also suing a political cartoonist because of a cartoon of him about to rape a blindfolded lady justice when he was acquitted of rape, a few years ago.

View Link [bbc.co.uk]

Guess You Can Only be a Lab Technician

frycook — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:14:36 +0000

Lab Technician Set

View Link [25.media.tumblr.com]

The Secret Court of Harvard in 1920 Expels Several Students

ChinggizKhan — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:14:32 +0000

A long since forgotten set of documents found by accident at Harvard chronicles the steps taken by university to remove several “homosexual deviants” from the school.

View Link [goodmenproject.com]

China blocking search results like “today,” “tomorrow,” “yesterday,” “35″

Ryan Kiefer — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:00:14 +0000

On the heels of Google announcing they would begin notifying Chinese users when they searched for terms likely to cause problems (read:censored results), China is blocking simple words like “today,” “tomorrow” and “35″ from search results on the government-run Weibo microblogging service. This is evidently in response to the upcoming anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.

View Link [npr.org]

Robocalls in Wisconsin

Jim T — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:00:09 +0000

Wisconsin is having a recall election to get rid of governor Scott Walker. Big turnout is expected.

But apparently somebody who wants Walker to stay in office has been robocalling people that signed the recall ptition and telling them they don’t need to vote because their signature was enough. Pretty scuzzy.

View Link [salon.com]

June is Goat Trauma Awareness Month

tamar — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:00:05 +0000

Hover over the goat for more trauma.

View Link [goat-trauma.org]

Ray bradbury Died

Mushimatosis — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:59:53 +0000

Today, Famed Author Ray Bradbury Died

View Link [io9.com]

Will Smith – Save Us!

sneakyzebra — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:57:56 +0000

The year was 2002, we found water on Mars, Brazil won the world cup” and the final movie tie in song from Will Smith was released!

View Link [youtube.com]

Someone Arrest Me

ideatrip — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:57:53 +0000

Students in Québec are protesting a fundamental shift in post-secondary education philosophy. Tuition has been the lowest in the country anticipating the promise of European-style tuition-free university. Now they are being told that there has been a change of plans, that education isn’t about bettering the individual in the interest of a more creative and intelligent society, instead, that education is a business where only the highly profitable disciplines should be pursued: how else are you supposed to pay off the crippling student loans?

The Québec provincial government has put in effect Loi 78, where protest organizers may be fined up to $35 000, individuals – $5 000 and organizations – up to $125 000. The photos on the website linked-to are of people in defiance of this disregard for our charter rights.

This is also good to see: http://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/u12ik/montreal_may_22_2012/

View Link [arretezmoiquelquun.com]

EPIC FAIL: How Facebook Fucked Up Its Own IPO

ritholtz — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:57:53 +0000

Our story so far: Facebook, a wildly overvalued momentary internet phenomena led by an arrogant 28 year old man-child, decided to treat the process of going public with the same respect they do their users’ privacy, which is to say, with none at all. So they went public more or less unlawfully over the past two years, allowing 1000s (or more) outside investors to acquire substantial stakes via secondary markets from their employees and early investors. Note this is within the company’s control, and could have been stopped, but they elected not to do so. When the clamor to dump shares overwhelmed these markets (but not the hype surrounding them), FB decided to do what was described as an IPO, but was in all actuality a secondary.

Flattered and cajoled by the bankers and wankers at Morgan Stanley and Nasdaq respectively, the man-child allowed the Facebook secondary to be bungled by these once-great-now-shite financial firms.

How?

Let’s begin with Morgan Stanley, who wildly over-priced the offering price (and size) by about 4X. They were hemmed in by the inefficient, opaque, clumsy secondary markets that had originally over-priced FB’s shares. Forget $25B, had Morgan Stanley told the man-child and his team that a $40-50B cap was more than reasonable, they would not have gotten the deal. Hence, the once esteemed bankers, down from $100 in 2000, now trading at a paltry $13, have become a shadow of what they once were and were worth . . . So they took the deal.

View Link [ritholtz.com]

RIAA sues Limewire for creators for 120% of all the money in the world

Pedge — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:57:40 +0000

RIAA is suing the developers behind filesharing program Limewire for $72 trillion dollars

View Link [zeropaid.com]

National Organization for Marriage has Nooses on its Facebook Page

slavid — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:57:39 +0000

I can’t believe they have the nerve to actually put nooses in the graphic on their Facebook page. I saw this because people are posting this so they can be reported to Facebook as hate speech.

View Link [facebook.com]

Elections Depend on the Most Trivial of Things

frycook — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:50:22 +0000

The minor tragedies of life.

View Link [25.media.tumblr.com]

Calgon, Take Me Away!

hookersorcake — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:50:07 +0000

Bath Salts, turning people into Zombies?

View Link [hookersorcake.com]

Translating the “Printemps Érable”

Erik — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:49:54 +0000

Most (if not all) french articles concerning the student(citizen) uprising in Montréal and Quebec, translated in english. Enjoy!

View Link [quebecprotest.com]

Zombie? Reaver? PCP Addict?

edi — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:17:17 +0000

A man in Miami was shot and killed by police after he was allegedly found assaulting another man by eating his face. Reports from nearby witnesses claim there were approximately 6 gunshots before the suspect stopped his assault.

View Link [miamiherald.com]

Arrêtez-moi quelqu’un! Someone Stop/Arrest Me!

PaulR — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:17:15 +0000

Via the Babelfish translator – http://www.arretezmoiquelquun.com
People post photographs of themselves, promising to break Quebec’s Bill 78. People like Natacha Jobin-Rochefort, holding Article 3 of Quebec’s ‘Charte des droits et libertés de la personne’.
(http://www2.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type=2&file=/C_12/C12_A.HTM)

(Shades of 2004′s sorryeverybody.com.)

View Link [98.139.168.220]

Danielle Colby Cushman from American Pickers hassled as she tries to help homeless veterans

FionaL — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:17:05 +0000

Danielle Colby Cushman, the beautiful and talented office manager from American Pickers, is getting hassled as she tries to help homeless veterans. She posted a stunning photo of herself wrapped in a 48 star flag that she rescued from the trash and is now offering it on Ebay, with the proceeds going to The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (http://www.nchv.org/standdown.cfm). She’s now dealing with haters who have run up the auction to ridiculous amounts in an attempt to sabotage it.

More details on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Danielle-Colby-Cushman-American-Pickers/110186395705559

I was hesitant about submitting this, but I figured I can’t be the only happy mutant who enjoys the show and thinks Danielle rocks…

View Link [ebay.com]

Google Penguin Update Whips Down Speed Dating Services

millavaux — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:16:47 +0000

To Speedxdating founder Milla vaux (as well as others), Penguin Update was extremely frustrating. WordPress and web design installs are a unique use case that might have been caught in the crossfire of this update. It simply makes sense for these sites to have a link in the footer back to the theme and/or designer – this is definitely what users expect, and is good from a usability perspective overall.

View Link [speedxdating]

Cheerful Censors at Work

frycook — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:16:40 +0000

Things were a little different during World War 2 — one could expect their mail to be read by a stranger.

View Link [youtube.com]

I’m Giving a TED Talk! (In My Living Room)

frycook — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:23:52 +0000

Laura Zigman on Ted Talks.

View Link [youtube.com]

Edison was a douchebag

hirumaui — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:23:39 +0000

A great page about Tesla..showing what kind of man Edison really was…

View Link [theoatmeal.com]

Chaos theory of phone charger cords

frycook — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:23:35 +0000

Maybe ask Siri to help.

View Link [youtube.com]