Last night was the first really clear evening in a week. As a matter of fact, it was downright gorgeous -- Mauna Loa was dusted with snow, a few low cumulus clouds gave the horizon some character, the setting sun really lit up Hualalai. And, I saw Mercury for the first …

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[Loren writes about Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith’s talk of patent reform (covered here and here). A line in Loren’s post caught my eye:]{style=""}

“it's not the patent fee that's the big issue. You'll still need legal assistance writing and filing the patent.”

[Ever since my …

By now you've heard that Microsoft is buying Groove Networks and Ray Ozzie is slated to become a Microsoft CTO. Not the CTO, though. He'll be one of three “Chief” officers, along with David Vaskevitch (CTO, Business Platform) and Craig Mundie (CTO, Advanced Strategies & Policy). As such, he'll report direct …

I missed the premiere of the Episode III trailer last night, largely due to the fact that I refuse to watch the OC. However, our fellow netizens have provided a torrent for your downloading pleasure. …. Odds are this film will be just as disappointing, but no matter. The dark side …

In a new study, cognitive scientists show that humans can usually track just four mental variables when trying to solve a problem…. Link  [via]{style="FONT-STYLE: italic"} [Boing Boing]

I would definitely suspect that programmers are better than average at tracking variables but I wonder if we have a gift …

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New Scientists reports on the development of a lie detector that works by tracking blood flow through the blood vessels in your face. The system is being developed by (natch) the Us Department of Defense.

\< ![if !vml]>\< ![endif]>As I relax into the chair, the questioning begins. An automated …

According to the Feb 2005 CACM, IT hiring is expected to grow 1st quarter of '05. Hottest talents are networking, information security, and user-support. Firewall admin and wireless network management are particularly hot. On the other hand, IT budgets are a mixed bag, with 50% of corporate budgets increasing expenditures …

In a comment, Scott pointed out that Dr. Dobb's probably has a higher “ad ratio” (advertising space as a percent of total pages printed) than SD Times. I would think so, but it's not necessarily a good measure of magazine success. Pardon the return to days of yore when I …

::: {.Section1} *Mark Frauenfelder: Researchers at Stanford University are planning to create mice with brains made entirely of human brain cells from aborted fetuses. [Via]{style="font-style:italic"}* [Boing Boing]

Was the name of the grant “Investigations in Pissing Off the Christian Right”?

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SD Times gained 2nd place in advertising pages among “Technical/Developer“ publications in 2004, behind only MSDN Magazine. MSDN had 669.5 advertising pages, SD Times had 553.25, while Dr. Dobb's (the perennial frontrunner among independent publications) had but 499.08.  (Info from Competitive Media Reporting, formerly AdScope).

Does …