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An online doctor appointment — you fill out a questionnaire, are interviewed via VC, and receive any prescription you need. Recommended by devxda on the ITC slack
The mysterious case of the Linux Page Table Isolation patches | Hacker News
good HN comments on the horrible security bug du jour — Intel CPUs potentially allowing privileged data leaks cross-VM and cross-process
These experts figured out why so many bogus patents get approved | Ars Technica
A recent paper published by the Brookings Institution offers fascinating insights into this question. Written by legal scholars Michael Frakes and Melissa Wasserman, the paper identifies three ways the patent process encourages approval of low-quality patents: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is funded by fees—and the agency gets more fees if it approves an application. Unlimited opportunities to refile rejected applications means sometimes granting a patent is the only way to get rid of a persistent applicant. Patent examiners are given less time to review patent applications as they gain seniority, leading to less thorough reviews. None of these observations is entirely new. For example, we have covered the problems created by unlimited re-applications in the past. But what sets Frakes and Wasserman’s work apart is that they have convincing empirical evidence for all three theories.
(tags: patents uspto swpats brookings-institution patenting law)
SE Asia travel pro-tip from Naomi Wu
Naomi Wu on Twitter: “Honestly Saccharomyces boulardii solves the problem [of dodgy tummy] for most people, it’s what I take when I travel to SE Asia”
(tags: food diarrhoea s-boulardii bacterica digestion health travel se-asia tips)