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This Weekend: Celebrate the Life and Work of Aaron Swartz at the Internet Archive On November 4 and 5, the Internet Archive will host the Fifth Annual Aaron Swartz Day and Hackathon . Aaron would have turned 31 on November 8. The late activist, political organizer, programmer, and entrepreneur was a dear friend of EFF’s who made a lasting imprint on the Internet and the digital community. Aaron’s life was tragically cut short after overzealous prosecutors sought to make an example out of him under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for using MIT’s computer network to download millions of academic articles from the online archive JSTOR. At EFF, we carry on Aaron’s legacy every day through our work on open access and CFAA reform. And this weekend, we’ll join our friends at the Internet Archive in celebrating Aaron’s life and work. This weekend’s events include a two-day hackathon focused on  SecureDrop , the whistleblower submission system Aaron created just before he passed away, an

This Weekend: Celebrate the Life and Work of Aaron Swartz at the Internet Archive On November 4 and 5, the Internet Archive will host the Fifth Annual Aaron Swartz Day and Hackathon . Aaron would have turned 31 on November 8. The late activist, political organizer, programmer, and entrepreneur was a dear friend of EFF’s who made a lasting imprint on the Internet and the digital community. Aaron’s life was tragically cut short after overzealous prosecutors sought to make an example out of him under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for using MIT’s computer network to download millions of academic articles from the online archive JSTOR. At EFF, we carry on Aaron’s legacy every day through our work on open access and CFAA reform. And this weekend, we’ll join our friends at the Internet Archive in celebrating Aaron’s life and work. This weekend’s events include a two-day hackathon focused on  SecureDrop , the whistleblower submission system Aaron created just before he passed away, an

Stupid Patent of the Month: Bad Patent Goes Down Using Procedures at Patent Office Threatened by Supreme Court Case At the height of the first dot-com bubble, many patent applications were filed that took common ideas and put them on the Internet . This month’s stupid patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,738,155 (“the ’155 patent”), is a good example of that trend. The patent is titled “System and method of providing publishing and printing services via a communications network.” Generally, it relates to a “printing and publishing system” that provides “workflow services…using a communication network.” The original application was filed in 1999, and the patent issued in 2004. The ’155 patent has a significant litigation history. Starting in 2013, its owner 1  CTP Innovations, LLC, filed over 50 lawsuits alleging infringement, and told a court  it intended to file as many as 200 additional cases. CTP claimed  [PDF] that infringement of its patent was “ubiquitous” by the printing and graph

Stupid Patent of the Month: Bad Patent Goes Down Using Procedures at Patent Office Threatened by Supreme Court Case At the height of the first dot-com bubble, many patent applications were filed that took common ideas and put them on the Internet . This month’s stupid patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,738,155 (“the ’155 patent”), is a good example of that trend. The patent is titled “System and method of providing publishing and printing services via a communications network.” Generally, it relates to a “printing and publishing system” that provides “workflow services...using a communication network.” The original application was filed in 1999, and the patent issued in 2004. The ’155 patent has a significant litigation history. Starting in 2013, its owner 1  CTP Innovations, LLC, filed over 50 lawsuits alleging infringement, and told a court  it intended to file as many as 200 additional cases. CTP claimed  [PDF] that infringement of its patent was “ubiquitous” by the printing and gra

The Data Center Science Center makes the system architecture simple to understand with a new FAQ app note SO…EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s name for our IoT-enabled, open, and interoperable system architecture.  A system architecture is a conceptual model that defines the structure and behaviour of a system.  In the case of EcoStruxure, the system is comprised of 3 levels: connected products, edge control software, and cloud-based apps/analytics/services. It takes great advantage of IoT, cloud, and Big Data analytics technologies to bring unprecedented insight into data center operations. The EcoStruxure architecture maximizes the value of data to deliver improved safety, reliability, efficiency, and sustainability for our customers and their data centers.     It sounds wonderful, but, what does all that mean in reality?  How is that value achieved through the architecture?  And what the heck is “edge control software”??  There’s been a lot of press coverage and promotion ove

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Happy workers make a happy bottom line Is there a business benefit to happy employees? Indeed, there is. It’s all about improved productivity which leads to improved results. I will show you some compelling proof points below. Throughout this blog series , I’ve written about how the EcoXpert Partner Program helps our partners stay on the cutting edge of EcoStruxure Power, EcoStruxure Building, and IoT-enabled energy management technology. In the 4th blog of the series, I focused on employee talent where through continuing education, employees can keep up with advances in our EcoStruxure architecture and platforms to ensure that their company is positioned to take advantage of new business opportunities. There’s another advantage to employee training that also helps the business, and that’s employee satisfaction. Employees are your best assets but you may be surprised to learn just how much happy employees can affect improved productivity and your business’ success. Improved product

Direct current (DC) distribution systems predominated in electricity’s early days, but they have since lost ground to alternating current (AC) approaches in most applications. However, DC has maintained its importance in a number of specific applications – especially those involving battery-based storage equipment and uninterruptible power supplies. Designing protection into DC distribution systems can be complicated, though, and require special attention from the consulting engineers working on such projects. Among DC technology’s advantages is its compatibility with simple battery storage solutions, and it has benefited from the development of power supplies with electronic converters and batteries. Additionally, at its lowest voltages, DC power poses many fewer dangers to installers and maintenance personnel than AC systems, which can reduce requirements for personal protective equipment in some applications. DC systems can be found performing a number of tasks in remote and indust

It depends on your strategy, level of internal expertise, and what you need from your electrical system. For many, business continuity is the single most important need because shutdowns are unacceptable. The cost of failure is too high. That top goal is often followed by planning and forecasting operations and opex budgets over time, and by maximizing asset lifespans and efficiency. Engaging the services of trusted power distribution experts from original equipment manufacturers can accomplish each of these goals. They can deliver more than one might expect across the entire lifecycle of an electrical installation. Some facility or network managers are satisfied with the current performance, efficiency, and maintenance strategy of their electrical distribution system…but whose opinions change when they see what’s actually possible. Connected, digital technologies for these networks and equipment have come a long way in recent years, and it’s easy to underestimate the extent of wha

Heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems represent 15% of all electrical power consumed worldwide, and 30% to 60% in any given facility. Providing the global market with innovative and smarter HVAC/R systems can lead to an enormous energy savings for your customers, plus greater market share for you. Your challenge is finding innovative ways to wring out the energy savings potential of your manufactured HVAC/R equipment and gain differentiation in the market. Control systems and automation architecture offer big energy efficiency benefits   Whether you build chillers or air-handling units in commercial buildings, residential or industrial facilities, application engineering in your manufactured HVAC/R equipment plus choosing the right automation architecture are key to distinguishing yourself at every stage of the process.   CONTROL SYSTEMS Innovation is the key in wringing out optimum performance and peak energy efficiency. Most of today’s facility ma

By: Rachel K. Carson, MarCom Intern for Process Industries Remember when you were young and completed a connect-the-dots activity? At first the page appeared to be an array of random dots with no association with one another. However, once you started following the chronological nature of the numbered dots, and connected them, suddenly a picture came to life. The dots that before were separate and unconnected suddenly work together, in one solution, to create the bigger picture.  Like connect-the-dots activities, value chain optimization does the same task in mining processes. Value chain optimization is all about connecting individual point solutions to close gaps and create a more smooth flowing, connected mine. The first of the four pillars of digital mining transformation is Value Chain Optimization . This innovation is sparked from within the environment full of individual point solutions that cover some portion of the overall supply chain. These individual point solutions esse

Who Speaks for The Billions of Victims of Mass Surveillance? Tech Companies Could Two clocks are ticking for US tech companies in the power centers of the modern world. In Washington, lawmakers are working to reform FISA Section 702 before it expires on December 31st, 2017. Section 702 is the main legal basis for US mass surveillance, including the programs and techniques that scoop up the data transferred by non-US individuals to US servers. Upstream surveillance collects communications as they travel over the Internet backbone, and downstream surveillance (better known as PRISM) collects communications from companies like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. Both programs have used Section 702’s vague definitions to justify the wholesale seizure of Internet and telephony traffic: any foreign person located outside the United States could be subjected to surveillance if the government thinks that surveillance would acquire “foreign intelligence information”—which here means information

Who Speaks for The Billions of Victims of Mass Surveillance? Tech Companies Could Two clocks are ticking for US tech companies in the power centers of the modern world. In Washington, lawmakers are working to reform FISA Section 702 before it expires on December 31st, 2017. Section 702 is the main legal basis for US mass surveillance, including the programs and techniques that scoop up the data transferred by non-US individuals to US servers. Upstream surveillance collects communications as they travel over the Internet backbone, and downstream surveillance (better known as PRISM) collects communications from companies like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. Both programs have used Section 702’s vague definitions to justify the wholesale seizure of Internet and telephony traffic: any foreign person located outside the United States could be subjected to surveillance if the government thinks that surveillance would acquire “foreign intelligence information”—which here means information

EFF Files Brief in Support of Ability to Challenge Bad Patents at the Patent Office The Patent Office doesn’t always do the best job. That’s how Personal Audio managed to get a patent on podcasting, even though other people were podcasting years before Personal Audio first applied for a patent. As we’ve detailed on many occasions , patents are often granted on things that are known and obvious, giving rights to patent owners that actually belong to the public. As a result, it’s important for the public to have the ability to challenge bad patents. Unfortunately, challenging bad patents in court can be hard and very expensive. In court, challenges are often decided by a judge or jury with little technical knowledge. Courts also require a high level of proof (“clear and convincing”) that can be hard to come by, especially after the passage of time . In order to help alleviate that problem, in 2011 Congress passed the America Invents Act , which created new procedures at the Patent

EFF Files Brief in Support of Ability to Challenge Bad Patents at the Patent Office The Patent Office doesn’t always do the best job. That’s how Personal Audio managed to get a patent on podcasting, even though other people were podcasting years before Personal Audio first applied for a patent. As we’ve detailed on many occasions , patents are often granted on things that are known and obvious, giving rights to patent owners that actually belong to the public. As a result, it’s important for the public to have the ability to challenge bad patents. Unfortunately, challenging bad patents in court can be hard and very expensive. In court, challenges are often decided by a judge or jury with little technical knowledge. Courts also require a high level of proof (“clear and convincing”) that can be hard to come by, especially after the passage of time . In order to help alleviate that problem, in 2011 Congress passed the America Invents Act , which created new procedures at the Patent

One of the best ways to cool beer on a day out is to have a good time on the river, where the moisture makes the air cooler. The result is a rapid transfer of heat, and so the liquid in the bottle quickly matches the outside temperature. Likewise, in industrial settings, air-water exchangers are a very good solution. This is especially true for situations complicated by an aggressive external environment or by the need to control clean air in facilities. Examples include chemical industries, cement plants, mines, foodstuffs, pharmaceutical, and so on. When deciding to use an air-water exchanger, it is usually because the air temperature is too high, more than 40 o C. Also, it could be that the quality of the air outside makes it impossible to work with ventilation, air conditioner or other solutions that need outside air for cooling. For instance, in the case of cement plants, filters are quickly blocked due to airborne particulates. Paper mills, printing facilities or chemical pla

In my last blog post, I took a look at how the newest power management solutions are helping healthcare facilities address financial challenges like energy and maintenance costs, as well as meet regulatory requirements. In this post I’d like to look at another top concern of healthcare executives: patient safety. While the healthcare motto is “First, do no harm,” the World Health Organization estimates that “in developed countries, as many as 1 patient in 10 is harmed while receiving hospital care.” Though there are a variety of causes behind this statistic, a facility’s electrical supply can be a contributing factor. For medium and large hospitals as well as smaller outpatient facilities, 24/7 power and data availability are critical. Power availability is a matter of life or death in the hospital environment. To help ensure safe and reliable power for patient and staff well-being, it’s important to safeguard against risks and find issues fast before problems occur. Beyond improvi

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