Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Robots in Hospitals [Slashdot] "The 50-pound machine, which looks like a vacuum cleaner mated to a cabinet, is designed to autonomously ferry loads of linens, medical supplies, X-rays, food and other materials". 4:00:33 PM      Google It!.

Court Throws Out Microsoft Win on Keyboard Patents. LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal appellate court on Tuesday said a lower court erred in invalidating two patents for ergonomic computer keyboards, dealing a blow to Microsoft Corp., which fought to have them voided after being sued by the holder of those patents. [Reuters: Technology] 12:49:54 PM      Google It!.

Report on institutional repositories conference. Kurt Paulus, Conference feature: Institutional repositories and their impact on publishing, JISC, July 5, 2004. A report on last month's PALS conference, Institutional Repositories and Their Impact on Scholarly Publishing (London, June 24, 2004). Excerpt: "Most of the repositories are small, with the number of records in the hundreds only....These figures suggest that one of the main early issues is to persuade academics to deposit their outputs in the repositories, through advocacy and training. One or two institutions take a somewhat more coercive line, but none of the speakers recommended this as a sensible route. With the current slow rate of progress, there is little evidence yet that repositories are focusing on reforming scholarly publishing....In principle, well based and stocked institutional repositories could have a significant impact on scholarly publishing, but Mark Ware's survey of publishers suggested that they are not yet quaking in their boots. Less than half those surveyed thought repositories would impact significantly on traditional publishing within five years. Nearly three quarters considered that the commercial impact would be zero or neutral. Their permissions policies reflect this fairly relaxed view and they are split between waiting, and doing some experimentation to explore the many publishing issues surrounding repositories." [Open Access News] 11:29:02 AM      Google It!.

Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high. The Sun is more active now than at anytime in the past 1,000 years, according to an analysis of ice cores and sunspots by Swiss-based researchers. [BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition] sunspots seem to modulate climate change untill recently when there has been increased warming without increased sunspots --BL 11:27:42 AM      Google It!.

AAU and libraries support H.R. 107. Andrea Foster, Library Groups Join Effort to Ease Copyright Law's Restrictions on Digital Sharing, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 9, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "The Association of American Universities and five academic library groups have joined a coalition that seeks to make the digital distribution of copyrighted works easier in some circumstances. The coalition already includes consumer groups and telecommunications and electronics companies. Calling itself the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition, the group is backing legislation that would revamp the controversial section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act known as the anti-circumvention provision....Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, is championing the bill, called the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (HR 107)....John C. Vaughn, executive vice president of the Association of American Universities, said he would try to encourage other higher-education groups to endorse Mr. Boucher's legislation." (PS: If you're from the U.S., then consider using the Public Knowledge web form to send a fax to key members of Congress in support of H.R. 107.) [Open Access News] 11:17:39 AM      Google It!.