[MyAppleMenu] Dec 24, 2014

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

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*** Apple-Backed Rockstar Sells Patents To RPX For $900 Million ***
<http://recode.net/2014/12/23/apple-backed-rockstar-sells-patents-to-rpx-for-900-million/>
Reuters

> Patent risk management company RPX said Tuesday it would buy patents owned by Apple and other firms for $900 million, helping to further scale back lawsuits over smartphone technology.
> While the sale price is far less than what Rockstar had paid for the original 6,000 patents, the most valuable 2,000 of them had already been distributed to consortium members, RPX Chief Executive John Amster said.



*** Apple Pushes First Ever Automated Security Update To Mac Users ***
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/23/us-apple-cybersecurity-idUSKBN0K108W20141223>
Reuters

> The bugs were made public in security bulletins on Friday by the Department of Homeland Security and the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. Carnegie Mellon identified dozens of technology companies, including Apple, whose products might be vulnerable.



*** How To Watch Blu-ray Discs On Your Mac ***
<http://www.imore.com/how-watch-blu-ray-discs-your-mac>
Peter Cohen, iMore

> With the right software and hardware in place, you <i>can</i> turn your Mac into a powerful Blu-ray Disc system. It just takes a little self-reliance and some extra hardware and software to make happen.



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*** ‘Butterflies In November’ By Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir ***
<http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2014/12/23/book-review-butterflies-november-auur-ava-olafsdottir/B61b8gYCrQKexmPpMpPw3M/story.html>
Clea Simon, The Boston Globe

> On an island, there’s only so far you can go before you find yourself back where you started. That’s one of the themes circulating through Icelandic author Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir’s quirky and enchanting novel, “Butterflies in November.”



*** What 800 Nerds On A Cruise Ship Taught Me About Life, The Universe, And Snorkeling ***
<http://www.wired.com/2014/12/nerd-cruise/>
Adam Rogers, Wired

> Jonathan Coulton loves cruise ships. He loves the weird artificial mall running down the middle, and he loves staring off the back of the ship into infinity. That’s not to say that David Foster Wallace’s famously dark assessment of shipboard vacationing (“There is something about a mass-market Luxury Cruise that’s unbearably sad”) is unfamiliar. The lanyard that holds a laser-cut wooden JoCo Cruise name tag around my neck came printed with the phrase “A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again.” Inside jokes are the coin of the realm around here.
> We’re sitting in the courtyard of a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hotel; our ship departs tomorrow morning. Around us, other cruise-bound performers are gathering—Grant Imahara of <i>MythBusters</i> is introducing himself to NPR host Peter Sagal. The comedian Paul F. Tompkins is filling a plate with nachos at the buffet. This trip, Coulton says, he might break his rule not to go Jet Skiing, but he’s not sure what he’ll do with his glasses.



*** The Race To Save Peter Kassig ***
<http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/dec/18/-sp-the-race-to-save-peter-kassig>
Shiv Malik, Ali Younes, Spencer Ackerman and Mustafa Khalili, The Guardian

> The American aid worker was killed by his Isis captors on 16 November. Here, for the first time, is the story of an extraordinary effort to secure his release, which involved a radical New York lawyer, the US government, and the world’s most revered jihadi scholar.



*** How Did Roasting Vegetables Become A Thing?  ***
<http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2014/12/roasting_vegetables_history_when_did_this_technique_overtake_boiling.html>
J. Bryan Lowder, Slate

> Boiling used to be the default vegetable cooking method. We attempt to trace the shift from stovetop to oven.



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