Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Yale University

Yale University Puts Its Museum and Library Collections On The Internet

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 14 May 2011 16:43:14 +0000

Ivy league school Yale University decided to archive their collections on the Internet by scanning content. Yale has announced that they have made their museum and library collections entirely available on the Internet. No licenses are required to access the content. About 250,000 images have been uploaded to their collections catalog thus far. [Yale News via MediaBistro]

Apple Reverses $625.5 Million Patent Judgement Against Mirror Worlds

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:28:39 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has emerged victorious in lawsuit filed against them by Mirror Worlds. Mirror Worlds is a company that was founded by Yale professor Dave Gelertner, who claims to have a patent on Cover Flow.

“Mirror Worlds may have painted an appealing picture for the jury, but it failed to lay a solid foundation sufficient to support important elements it was required to establish under the law,” stated U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis. Apple said that Cover Flow was created by Andrew Coulter Enright and Mac developer Jonathan del Strother. Steve Jobs acquired the technology in 2006 and integrated the functionality into all versions of iTunes since version 7.

Gelertner filed for software patents in 1999 that covers streams of documents that is sorted by time. Gelertner said that Apple’s Cover Flow feature, Time Machine, and Spotlight features infringes upon his patents. Gelertner wanted $208.5 million per feature as a penalty, adding up to $625.5 million.

Apple appealed the penalty imposed on them claiming that they are being forced to pay for one patent violation three times over. Apple ended up winning the entire case without any penalties as the judge threw out the entire case.

[Edible Apple]

Apple Fighting A $625.5 Million Patent Verdict From Lawsuit Filed By Mirror Worlds

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:41:40 +0000

Mirror Worlds LLC, a company founded by Yale computer science professor David Gelernter (pictured above) took Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to court about infringing patents related to how documents are digitally displayed. Apple asked U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis for an emergency stay of the October 1 verdict that there are outstanding issues on 2 out of the 3 patents.

Apple said that Mirror Worlds would be “triple dipping” if they collected $208.5 million on each of the patents. Apple is also challenging the validity of the patents and whether they were actually infringing them.

The patents focus on Spotlight, Time Machine, and Cover Flow features on the Mac OS X operating system. Cover Flow lets you view album cover art when browsing music on iTunes. Spotlight allows you to search for files when searching through the operating system and Time Machine automatically saves copies of files.

Apple lawyer Jeffrey Randall of Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker told the jury that Mirrow Worlds patents had been sold already. Judge Davis is considering Apple’s request filed before the verdict to rule that Apple does not infringe two of the patents. If Apple is granted the request, the judge would strike the amount of the damages.

Gelernter wrote two books called “Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox” and “Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber.” The Drawing Life book focuses on Gerlernter’s recovery from a right hand and eye injury from a bomb that was sent to him by Theodore Kaczynski in 1993.

[Bloomberg]

The E-mails, MySpace Profile, and TheKnot.com Profile Of Ray Clark III

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:24:30 +0000

Today is a dark day at Yale University. Raymond Clark III was arrested for strangling Yale graduate student Annie Le to death. Clark seemed to live a normal life before the incident. In high school, he respected authority and was competitive at baseball. Clark also volunteered to help the homeless and raised money for cancer-stricken patients. Clark was also a part of the Asian Awareness Club.

However Clark also had a dark side. He was very controlling of his fiance and tended to withdraw from emotions. There was even a police report filed that suggested that he was abrasive with his high school girlfriend. The girlfriend said that Clark forced her to have sex with him and she was scared to find out what happens if she broke up with him. When working at the lab at Yale University, Clark was reportedly very demanding of his co-workers.

There were some text messages and e-mails found between Le and Clark that revolved around work cleanliness. Clark was mad at Le for supposedly leaving the mice cages in the lab dirty. Clark was responsible for cleaning the mice cages. Clark lived with his girlfriend Jennifer Hromadka in an apartment nearby the Yale lab. One of the neighbors of Clark and Hromadka said that he did not treat her well. Clark would not let Hromadka talk to anyone.

On September 8, Le’s body was discovered in the wall of the basement of a Yale building. On that day she was supposed to get married. Later that day Clark seemed to have scratches on his body but he blamed that on the animals he worked with at the lab.

Last year Hromadka wrote a undated blog post on her MySpace profile that denied that Clark was having a fling with a woman at the lab. “My boyfriend, Ray, if you don’t know him, has no interest in any of the other girls at YARC as anything more than friends,” stated Hromadka. She added that Clark was “a bit naive… but a good guy.” Hromadka deleted her MySpace profile recently.

Ray himself also had a MySpace page that he did not touch since 2006. But now the account has been deleted. On his MySpace profile in the about me section he wrote “Hello my name is homo ray i fart on people.” And on the Who I’d like to Meet section he wrote, “your mom so I can [expletive] her.” Under his interests he wrote porn for movies, TV, books, and heroes. Ray and Jennifer also had a profile page on TheKnot.com. The couple planned to get married on December 20, 2011 and have been engaged since New Year’s Day 2008.

When creating social media profiles, there is a certain level of professionalism that should be considered. Now people that hear about Ray’s MySpace profile will know that there was something slightly off about the guy.

Yale Student Jesse Maiman Suing U.S. Airways For $1 Million Over Lost Xbox

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:40:49 +0000

When you think of how people are rewarded unfair sums of money for sueing a company over your own stupidity, I instantly think of the Stella Liebeck who burned herself with hot coffee from McDonald’s. If this Yale kid somehow wins $1 million by sueing U.S. Airways over a lost Xbox, I’ll have a new story associated with the above statement.

Jesse Maiman was flying from New Haven, CT to Cincinnati, OH. He packed his Xbox 360 in his checked luggage and he supposedly had a specialized hard drive and other components within the console worth about $1,000. The Xbox went lost during the transportation so he intends on sueing the airline company for $1 million. A new Xbox costs less than $300. Maiman believes he should be awarded “non-economic distress” at a minimum value of $25,000 and up to $1 million as allowed by law.

U.S. Airways has yet to be notified about the lawsuit, but has sent Maiman a response stating, “there are federal loss limits applicable to all airlines on their liability for lost luggage and belongings, which are currently set at $3,300 per bag.”

[via TG Daily]