A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.

In Historic Vote, New Zealand Bans Software Patents
My two cents: A computer program is “not an invention.” The bill only applies to new patents and there is some ambiguity as to what it covers, but it will be interesting to see if this is the beginning of a trend. Will other countries follow New Zealand’s lead?
—Brent Turner, chief digital officer

The RDF Working Group has published two Last Call Working Drafts:

• N-Triples. N-Triples is a line-based, plain text format for encoding an RDF graph. Comments are welcome through 14 October.
• N-Quads. N-Quads is a line-based, plain text format for encoding an RDF dataset. Comments are welcome through 14 October.

Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

• Engineering drawing maintenance – walking down ‘as-built’ drawings, managing master set, and interfacing with engineering firm to implement changes
• Verifying construction meets engineering specifications
• Developing and managing Engineering Turn-Over Packages (ETOPs)
• Executing the Commissioning Checklists
• Supporting equipment start-up
• Witnessing field testing and reviewing data against specifications
• Tagging equipment and components
• Generating standard operating procedures (SOPs) for operation and maintenance of equipment

• Must be currently or previously enrolled in an Engineering Program at an accredited college or university
• Strong organizational skills with attention to details
• Ability to read and understand engineering drawings
• Good communication and teamwork skills
• Technical writing ability

To apply: Submit a resume on UMBCworks by September 20.  This position is open to both current Mechanical Engineering majors as well as recent grads and early applications are encouraged.

UI kits are a great way to kick-start a user interface design. The best ones feature the most common elements required by developers. Most importantly, UI kits avoid the dreaded ‘blank screen’, giving you a jumping off point for your own innovations.

It’s rare however that you find a UI kit that is neutral enough to really be open to changes. Too many UI kits follow one design route or another: delivering on flat design but simultaneously imposing it; or delivering on skeuomorphism, but making it impossible to extract a flat design.

So we’re delighted to be able to bring you this fantastic free UI kit by Tempees.com. The UI kit comes in two versions: skeuomorphic and flat, meaning that whatever style fits your project, you’ll be able to make your start here.

The kits are monochromatic and set in an almost Yves Klein-like blue. The rich color can easily be modified, but sits beautifully with the low-contrast greys of the other elements.

There are three menus, profile boxes and UI buttons, but the central element is the tabbed log in/register panel that allows your visitors to elegantly switch between the two functions.

The standard kit features gradients and inner shadows aplenty, with buttons being treated as convex and input fields reversing the highlights and shadows to appear concave. The flat UI kit version on the other hand, removes the gradients, retaining some of the deep shadows and highlights, keeping the concave and convex style whilst creating an almost-flat aesthetic.

The kits are free for personal and commercial use; download them after the previews:

Have you built a project using these kits? Which do you prefer, standard or flat? Let us know in the comments.

Ultimatum 2.5: The Ultimate WordPress Theme Builder – $35!

An attempt to make reading on screens easier though applying color gradients to lines of text. For example, one line of text will fade to red and the next line will start with red, making it easier for your eye to jump down to the right place. It looks silly, but I've tried it a few times now and it does seem to make me read faster and more comfortably.

I'm not sure why it has to be all "All rights reserved" / "patent pending" yadda yadda. I would think it would help the world more if the idea was open and the company made money through good implementations of the idea (e.g. paid app components).

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

BeeLine Reader is a post from CSS-Tricks