Should cops police your Wi-Fi? | News.blog | CNET News.com … can they … aren’t they snooping?

Gmail Atom Feed Coming? is an article Franki pointed out to me today. An intriguing idea I guess.

Franki is using Thunderbird now for RSS feeds and I am starting to use the bookmarking feature for RSS in the new FireFox 1.x release.

Gmail invites meanwhile have become much easier to get as all new users are apparently given six invitations within days of “joining”. If you do the math, it is like the Kevin Bacon Game, it don’t take long for everyone to have one I guess.

In another example of stupid vague software patents being used for easy money, Kodak has just won a case against Sun on the basis of a process that is intrinsic to programming. That of one program quering another program, a widespread and basic software process.

Kodak want one billion dollars to be handed over to them because of the verdict.

Read about it at news.com.

The patenting of vague ideas in software has to stop if software is to continue evolving. Half of the problem in this case is that the laymen in the court didn’t understand that the idea was a basic software process and therefore the patents should never have been granted in the first place. I’d also guess Sun will appeal this.

Rgds

Franki

This post at news.com is interesting in that it reveals that Microsoft is planning to tackle spyware. Apparently big Bill has suffered from it himself.

No mention of the fact that much of the problem with spyware stems from Microsoft’s deplorable security, but that’s kinda to be expected really.

Ok, so they killed Netscape by releasing Internet Explorer as part of Windows, now they are in trouble for trying to put Real Networks and the like out of business by tying Media player into Windows and then all manner of commercial programs into media player. In other words, they are using Windows to push their version of every application onto the public and then when they get busted for it, they claim that it can’t be taken back out because its miraculously become irreparably entwined in Windows. Oh, and they have anti-virus plans as well. Doesn’t it seem odd to anyone else that the will likely end up profiting from their own lack of security?

Good scam don’t you think?

What I find most ironic is the latest news, that Microsoft are claiming that Windows in Europe will be more expensive then normal Windows because they had to remove media player, and yet they just spent millions making a limited version of Windows that they are releasing in 3rd world countries for around $35 bucks a pop.

I think Judge Jackson had the right idea when he wanted to split Microsoft into two pieces, operating system, and everything else. He proposed the only solution that would have put them on equal footing with their competition, and yet he was overruled and Microsoft instead got a slap on the wrist.

Regards

Franki

In a victory for anyone with enough sense (and no agenda) to be against stupid and vague software patents, the “United States Patent and Trademark Office” have rejected Microsoft’s attempt to patent the FAT file system.

It is believed that Microsoft would have used this patent to get license money from companies making devices that use the FAT file system. That includes most digital cameras, many MP3 players, PDA units and recently a few models of Mobile phones that now include flash cards or micro hard drives.

PubPat (Public Patent Foundation) has the full story here.

This is not only a victory for common sense and cheap consumer products, it’s also a victory for Open Source, because it removes another potential patent problem from Linux distro’s, all of which can create, read and write FAT file systems. (all of which was done to create better interoperability with Windows.)

Also see coverage at The Inquirer and The Register and News.com and
Internetnews.com and Eweek not to mention LinuxToday.

Regards

Franki

The JPEG image security flaw in Windows that Microsoft recently announced is starting to appear in the wild. TheInq has a story about a new variant that is spreading or attempting to spread via AOL Instant Chat software.

The next bit, also from TheInq, is that apparently there are loads of people out there using Windows that have no idea that they are infected by virus’s, worms or Trojans. It really goes to show that computing on Windows has been marketed as being so easy that most people don’t even know that they need to protect themselves. That’s a real shame, because nowadays it need not even cost you money to protect yourself. ClamWin is a totally free Open Source anti-virus application for Windows, and in my tests, it has been remarkably stable, fast and effective.

Lastly, we have this article, in which Tim Berners-Lee, one of the guys largely credited with what we now call the Internet says something most smart people who don’t work for big software corporations have been saying for some time. That software patents hurt innovation and lock the little guys out of the game. Look at it this way. Where would Microsoft be, if they had to pay big license fee’s for technology based on TCP/IP? (TCP/IP is the protocol that is responsible for the web, and also for a good deal of internal networks as well.)

The pioneers like Mr Berners-Lee created something that has been of benefit to the whole of humankind, and yet none of them that I am aware of, have a 45 billion dollar personal fortune. Unlike a certain someone who has benefited directly and greatly from the work of these pioneers. And this same certain someone’s company recently couldn’t let go of the almighty dollar for long enough to help rid the world of SPAM. Let us all hope and pray that the next generation of pioneers do not work for this certain company.

Regards

Franki

In what seems to be a blow to Microsoft Office dominance, the EC has sent Sun a letter that indicates that the “International Organization for Standardization” (ISO) looks like making the OpenOffice.org XML based file formats as the standard ISO file format for office documents.

The reason is pretty simple I believe, OpenOffice formats are just that, totally open. Anyone inclined to, can knock out a program that can read and write OpenOffice format files. The same can not be said for Microsoft office file formats, which have traditionally been very hard for Microsoft competitors to use, and in fact may result in patent lawsuits for people that try.

This is a huge bonus for the free open source office application suite, because if it happens, Microsoft will likely be forced to add OpenOffice file formats to their office suite to ensure compatibility. This means that one more reason to stick with expensive Microsoft software is gone. You will be able to use OpenOffice as your office suite and be sure that MS office users will be able to read your documents.

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