Dude everyone knows they only did it because they heard Saddam was doint it with TWO hundred units. They wanted to be able to build a "Saddam's-PS3-Supercluster-Buster" in the fine traditions of ULTRA and probably something to do with ECHELON and not just space simulations or whatever non-ridiculously-hi-res-porn they're not watching in that NOC.

@AwayBBL Actually, it uses the up-and-coming Bluetooth Broadcast Channel sub-protocol which will very soon become a part of the protocol. This way telephones will already support it. No cameras, no nothing. Just set your phone to listen.

Some friends and I are working on a side project which uses a piezo button to send a single packet wireless 'chirp' containing up to 160 bytes in a machine-readable string.

The idea is, maybe you're in the shower and your "automatic shower cleaner" has a "press here for more info" button. If you press the button, the link is broadcast to any machine that wants to hear it. Your desktop or your phone will automatically parse and look up the URL to show you more information.

Or, your vacuum cleaner jams up and you don't feel comfortable tearing it down to fix it, so instead you press the 'help' button right on the vacuum while you hold your phone in your hand. POP goes the online help resource.

You shouldn't have to point your device at the code. It should be that you interact with the code to get your information.

Likewise, you can do the same thing with products on store shelves to find out more about them or to look up recipes in a recipe book.

I hope we have a marketable product within six months.

What are you all "yay"ing about? They explain the ridiculous cost of manufacturing the new separating layer right in the summary on Engadget! There will have to be several steps of simplification -- finding a manufacturing technique that is shorter and requires fewer exotic materials -- before this becomes a market-ready product; either that or they'll have to devise a chemically similar material using simpler steps...

It draws a very good comparison to r&d for pharmaceuticals.

I bet they're client applications - the application is never actually installed; it's like a remote-login deal maybe.

But whatever; either way, why don't they just print directly to torrent seed?

As a highly trained math nerd myself, I would correct you: it should say, "If you don't mind getting odd looks from everyone who ISN'T a math nerd." Math nerds will understand the symbolism immediately; duh...

Why do I see thousands of *IX users being sued by Apple for "unlicensed use of intellectual property" after writing eight-line shell scripts to use on their private servers?

Sooo they are trying to patent file and directory permissions? Or are they trying to patent the tarball?

A portable Netflix Player!

I must be missing something in this article. you see, i can't separate the concept of 'pinch-to-zoom' from the name of your bootloader. or maybe, who owns the rights to the half-trigger shutter button for a camera? it's just that they got to the interface type first, so they decided on the first well-known default command structure.

i can't understand why the software interpretation of any input command could be 'owned' in this respect. the makers of 'kleenex' can't possibly own the rights to the square or the rectangle (shapes of individual cloths that define the interface, depending on where viewed).

blah. please if you can help me catch what i'm missing, do. thanks.