Tech

Apple Got a Patent for the Page-Turn, Which May Send Mark Cuban Over the Edge

By Joe Tone Fri., Nov. 16 2012 at 2:03 PM
Categories: Tech

bits-pageturn-tmagArticle.jpg
The design submitted to the patent office.
In this week's Dallas Observer, we have a long look at the goofiness of the U.S. patent system, which lots of smart people agree is suffocating innovation in this country. One of those smart people is local billionaire Mark Cuban, who's been on a jihad against patent laws for a while. He wrote this back in March:

Anyone who reads this blog knows how much I hate patent laws. I think 99pct of the time they are anti-competitive, corruptive, impede creativity and innovation and can kill small businesses. I think the ratio of patent law doing a good job protecting company IP vs it being used purely to negatively impact competitors or to troll for un-earned revenue is probably 1000 to 1, or worse.

Well, he's going to really love this: Apple just secured a patent for turning the page.

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Geek-Offs

UT Dallas Has Created Robots That Play Chess

By Matthew Lawson Fri., Nov. 2 2012 at 10:00 AM
Categories: Geek-Offs, Nerdery, Tech

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Matthew Lawson
The UTD Robotic chess team sets up for a demonstration at Klyde Warren Park
Bobby Fischer said that "chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent's mind." If chess is a war, then the minds at UTD have just gone nuclear.

See also:
Five Ways to Use Klyde Warren Park

In a joint effort between UTD's electrical and mechanical engineering departments and the legendary UTD chess program -- world-championship legendary -- have combined to create robot chess, which was on display at Klyde Warren Park over the weekend. If you thought chess was all broken bottle cap glasses and pocket protectors, think again.


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Arts & Culture News

Picasso and Braque is the Cubist App(le) of Kimbell Art Museum's iPad

By Lauren Drewes Daniels Thu., Jun. 2 2011 at 10:15 AM
Categories: Arts & Culture News, Tech, Visual Cues

Pablo Picasso, Still Life with a Bottle of Rum, 1911. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Jacques and Natasha Gelman .jpg
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998. © 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Pablo Picasso's "Still Life with a Bottle of Rum," 1911
Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum has trumped Tom Hanks and his high-tech Da Vinci Code shenanigans by using Apple's iPad as a virtual museum guide for their Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-1912 exhibition.

The Kimbell supplies the iPads preloaded with an application called iCubist, created specifically for this event by the California-based MegaVision. More like preloaded with awesomeness, in my opinion.

iCubist contains "spectral images" of several paintings at different light frequencies, like ultraviolet and infrared, which allows users to uncover Picasso and Braque's creative process. These images also reveal features otherwise invisible to the human eye while highlighting unique elements of the pieces, the artists and Cubism in general.

Considering Señor Pablo loved him some ladies, who knows what you may see. Think of the possibilities.


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Tags:

apps, Cubism, Georges Braque, iCubist, iPad, Kimbell Art Museum, Pablo Picasso
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