Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• Citi: The Solar Age Is Dawning - Business Insider

  • The biggest surprise in recent years has been the speed at which the price of solar panels has reduced, resulting in cost parity being achieved in certain areas much more quickly than was ever expected; the key point about the future is that these fast ‘learning rates’ are likely to continue, meaning that the technology just keeps getting cheaper.

• Tiny Device Will Detect Domestic Drones - US News and World Report

  • A Washington, D.C.-based engineer is working on the "Drone Shield," a small, Wi-Fi-connected device that uses a microphone to detect a drone's "acoustic signatures" (sound frequency and spectrum) when it's within range.

• Profits At High, Wages At Low - Business Insider

  • Corporate profit margins just hit another all-time high. Companies are making more per dollar of sales than they ever have before.
  • Wages as a percent of the economy just hit another all-time low
  • Fewer Americans are working than at any time in the past three decades

• Citi: Disruptive Innovation - Business Insider

  • Disruption 1: 3-D Printing
  • Disruption 2: E-cigarettes
  • Disruption 3: Genomics And Personalized Medicine
  • Disruption 4: Mobile Payments
  • Disruption 5: Energy Exploration Technology
  • Disruption 6: Oil To Gas Switching
  • Disruption 7: Over The Top Content
  • Streaming is already nudging out regular old TV
  • Disruption 8: The SaaS Opportunity
  • Disruption 9: Software Defined Networking
  • Disruption 10: Solar

• Senator Charles Schumer Targets Patent Trolls, Wants USPTO To Review Infringement Suits Before They Head To Court | TechCrunch

  • Today, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is expected to announce legislation that looks to snuff out patent suits brought by these companies in their early stages, by sending the suits to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for vetting before they hit the courts.
  • This could not only help snuff out bogus suits, but it could also highlight which patents may be bogus as well, creating a framework for preventing their use in subsequent suits.
  • the bill proposes a new process by which all patent cases will get vetted by the USPTO — not just the “extortion” (his word) brought by trolls. “This will apple to all patent cases, but if you have a legitimate case it will go forward in a month. It just eliminates all the frivolous suits. We think it’s the best solution.”

• UK.Gov passes Instagram Act: All your pics belong to everyone now * The Register

  • For the first time anywhere in the world, the Act will permit the widespread commercial exploitation of unidentified work - the user only needs to perform a "diligent search". But since this is likely to come up with a blank, they can proceed with impunity. The Act states that a user of a work can act as if they are the owner of the work (which should be you) if they're given permission to do so by the Secretary of State.

      

    The Act also fails to prohibit sub-licensing, meaning that once somebody has your work, they can wholesale it. This gives the green light to a new content-scraping industry, an industry that doesn't have to pay the originator a penny. Such is the consequence of "rebalancing copyright", in reality

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.