Microsoft-watch have an interesting article about Microsoft’s new push for patent reform in the US. This is in a way to be expected. Although Microsoft are one of the biggest patent holders, they are also one of the biggest targets for patent infringement lawsuits, and so they want to change the rules. They are totally correct, the rules and implementation are both broken, and Microsoft’s suggestions are for the most part solid, but I can’t help but find their action suspect and wonder if they are not just trying to change the system to limit action against them, while leaving them open to use their own patents to carry on as usual. This is however a double bladed sword as I suspect that if Microsoft gets their reforms, a good many of their own patents will be invalid along with the rest.

The whole reason the software patent system is silly and broken is simple. If the giants who created TCP/IP (the underlying protocol running the Internet), HTML and the WWW, (Web pages), E-mail and the GUI (Graphical User Interface) had decided to patent and license their ideas, what would Microsoft, Linux, IBM and co have had to build from? I’d guess IBM would be the only player on the market now as Microsoft and most others were at that time, fairly small companies and couldn’t develop applications which had big patent licensing costs. Microsoft and everyone else freely use all the real innovation underpinning the Internet for free, but every time they come up some an idea, no matter how simple, trivial or obvious, they seem to feel the need to patent it immediately and sell licences. It is very sad that in the world today, money trumps everything and very few seem to do anything beneficial for IT without expecting fistfuls of cash in return. Imagine if the guys that created the Internet had had the same philosophy.

At the current rate, in the coming years it will become so expensive to licence all the patents necessary to write a basic application, that the application will have to be priced so high that the developers won’t be able to sell it. Only truly innovative inventions should be patentable, just taking a real world scenario and getting a patent for applying that real world scenario to the Internet does not qualify for a patent. That is part of what is wrong with the system and even though Microsoft is getting stung by lawsuits and is asking for changes, they are as big an offender with regards to stupid patent applications as any.

Wireless broadband offered city wide, or even in rural areas appears to be a growing trend. This is a good thing as it makes broadband accessible and affordable in most cases. Since the roll out of wireless in Grand Haven, Michigan in 2004, other cities have followed suit. Now, according to this article, Japan appears to be aggressively pursuing wireless not only in populated areas, but in more remote areas as well.

Two things made Grand Haven a particularly attractive spot for wireless broadband:
-There is a large state park there with weekly and daily campers who want to stay connected.
-There is a significant population of boaters who slip in the marina’s there (and can even use wireless up to ten miles off-shore).
Because this creates many monthly users, the ability to pay for the sytem may exceed that of areas with more stable populations.

Wireless has many advantages including the lack of needing to invest in the infra-structure of phone lines and/or cables to carry signal to each end user. The down side is that you create some security risks using wireless over a large area.

I am reading with interest accounts of Mount St. Helen’s eruption yesterday (photo of eruption). In 1980 when it erupted, I was nearby in the following week. I visited Moscow, Idaho, and the ground was covered in volcanic ash several inches thick. It looked like it had snowed.

It is good to see that they have increased the use of technology to monitor activity around the volcano so as to minimize risk of injury and death. An October 2004 C|Net article explains how remote cameras, sensors and GPS units constantly monitor to volcano to follow what is going on.

When I left the area in 1980, I packed up several large zip lock baggies of the ash to bring it back for friends and a college science teacher. Imagine the difficulties I had at the airport as a long haired college kid going through the security x-ray when four or five zip lock baggies of white powdery substance shows up. Of course after some explanation they offered to give me more of the stuff and I got on the plane.

IBM have rolled out a 33.8 million dollar Linux network for a Spanish healthcare provider. The roll-out is said to be the largest Linux deployment in Spain to date and will provide 14,000 medical professionals with information to improve patient care. The biggest single roll-out of Linux in Europe thus far is the German National Rail, which has swapped to Linux on 55,000 of it’s machines. IBM is making great strides towards getting Linux accepted by enterprise and government and is behind both of these deployments.

When I speak, it appears Microsoft listens! Just a few short weeks ago I criticized MS for the failure to include RSS feeds on the company’s press releases. Unless I was mistaken, they did not exist then — and they do now. I could be wrong, but it appears they added them about February 7, 2005, meaning that even with the savvy they have, it took them a week after I suggested they do it. Not too bad still.

Perhaps they will offer me a job next given that they hold me in such high regard. Could happen!
[ed: Yes, but would you accept such a job?]

RSS Link for Microsoft Corporations Press Releases

RSS Link for Microsoft Corporations Latest Headline Stories

Today Microsoft launched Microsoft® Office real-time collaboration solutions with a dog and pony show led by Bill Gate’s himself. In a connection featuring Mark Burnett, creator of “The Apprentice” reality show hosted by Donald Trump, Gates demonstrated his software. They expect to roll out three primary products in the coming months:

Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 (previously code-named “Istanbul”) that is claimed to “unif[y] real-time communications modes — such as IM, voice, video and access to voiceconferencing and Web conferencing — into a single application. It also enables PC-to-phone integration”,

Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack, an update to the existing communications platform, and

Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2005, touted as a major update to the existing net meeting software.

Linuxense has issued a hacking challenge. For the first 48 hours, if it gets that far, no shell accounts will be available. The server is at: 202.88.234.250 After that time, shell accounts will be available during the remainder of the 96 hour challenge.

If you can get to root you can either:
leave your mark, or
take down the server

There are some specific rules about how to do it — be sure to read them. Should be fun.