Technology

Forgent Networks has initiated a suit against Microsoft for allegedly infringing on its compression patent known as “The ‘672 Patent“. Microsoft had originally filed a complaint seeking a declaratory judgment “noninfringement, invalidity and unenforceability of the ‘672 Patent.” Forget’s complaint stems from Microsoft’s use of the compression technology in the popular JPEG image [...]

United States Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, the former Republican Governor of Nebraska, unveiled “MyPyramid” yesterday, a set of twelve ‘food pyramids’ that replaces the old pyramid which has been the authority on graphical food group distribution since 1992. MyPyramid is tailored to different individuals, as a person’s activity level and caloric intake needs [...]

The jury’s still out on whether or not cell phones are as dangerous as pop rocks. Is the belief that cell phones can cause brain tumors a sound theory or on par with some of the other great urban legends? According to a recent study published in the April 12th edition of Neurology, it’s probably [...]

Microsoft is putting out a new means for battling grade inflation at America’s universities: the Xbox 360. Video games — the great eaters of college students’ time — just get more and more complex, and now the means by which they hit the market is getting more complex too. Too chic to simply [...]

According to a recent study, people have found that it just isn’t worth their time to resist spam. According to the Washington Post, a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (sounds like the name of an online church and/or anti-abortion group, rather than a Spam watchdog, doesn’t it?) has found that [...]

Can someone get rid of all the trackback spam we get? It seems like every time I look up, we have another trackback or comment from some guy named “Free Texas Holdem 2005″ telling us he loves the webpage and wants us to visit his online gambling site. Perhaps the only way to [...]

The Food and Drug Administration asked pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer to withdraw its arthritis drug, Bextra, stating that “overall risk versus benefit profile for the drug is unfavorable.” The Business Standard reports: The FDA said it had also asked Pfizer to include a safety warning on its Celebrex drug. Both Bextra and Celebrex are among the [...]

The staphylococcus “staph” infection, incredibly difficult to treat, usually shows up only in hospitals and other health-care settings. (Lending support to that old joke that if you want to avoid getting sick, stay away from hospitals, which are full of sick people.) In such settings, patients with open wounds or tubes can get [...]

A hotly-contested race is taking place among America’s pharmaceutical giants to become the first company to release the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine. The vaccine has shown great success in protecting test subjects against cervical cancer, which is caused by a number of different strands of HPV. Both Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have begun [...]

The solar powered rovers Spirit and Opportunity might be getting homesick after landing on Mars in January of 2004, but NASA has no intention of bringing them back home any time soon. The two rovers, having “proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery environments on Mars that might have harbored life,” according [...]