Current News: We pick through it, so you don't have to.
Archive for October, 2009
Funny Mishaps
Oct 9th
We were discussing funny Infomercial bloopers today at lunch and I just thought I’d share some of the things it reminded me off.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z18X1jmj15w[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isYF5E0WxGU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxGWENAv_oA[/youtube]
VOIP Coming to iPhone
Oct 7th
For all those AT&T customers, AT&T announced that it will be enabling VOIP abilities such as Skype on the iPhone. Perhaps they’re trying to justify the ridiculous prices on the iPhone data plans.
Article
eBay 4 Life
Oct 7th
Second-hand Software on eBay
Well, as some of you may know, Autodesk makes one of the most popular (if not THE most popular) CAD programs ever: AutoCAD. Well, it appears as though Autodesk believes that according to the DMCA when you buy their product, you are actually only purchasing the ability to use the liscence. They have made several attempts recently to force any eBay user who attempts to sell one of their used products to remove the auction. I supposed from their side, it sort of makes sense but I can’t believe they actually went through with it. Did they really expect this to go well?
Article
Anyway, shortly thereafter, one of the eBay sellers decided this wasn’t “kosher” and sued Autodesk for $10 Million dollars in damages for preventing the sale.
Article 1
Article 2
Well, this morning, courts have ruled on the subject. It appears all of us eBay sellers were correct when selling used software. When purchased, we do actually OWN the software in question.
Ruling
Eolas Sues Microsoft, Google, and 23 Other Companies
Oct 6th
Eolas is suing Microsoft, Google, and 23 other companies for patent infringement. They claim that they now have patent protection over anyone providing the ability (usually via plug-ins) to embed user-interactive applications. So yea, if you’ve used Wordpress (which uses AJAX) or any other site in which you implemented a plug-in to increase user interaction, you just became a part of history. This is getting ridiculous…
Article
This just 3 days after the Software Freedom Law Center filed a brief with the Supreme Court insisting that software patents be shot down.
Excerpt: “In this closely-watched case, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was correct in restricting patentable processes to those ‘tied to a particular machine or apparatus,’ or which ‘transform[s] a particular article into a different state or thing,’ a conclusion which if fully implemented could bring to an end the widespread patenting of computer programs. … This case gives the Supreme Court a chance to reaffirm what its past cases have held for more than a century: that no patent law consistent with the US Constitution can permit the monopolization of abstract ideas.”
Link 1
Link 2
Guess we’ll see soon about good old Bilski…
Mice and Fonts and Interesting Articles, Oh My
Oct 6th
Mac Vs PC
Well, how freakin interesting…Seems no matter how much of an Apple Fanboy you are *cough*maveric*cough*, there are some things you just need a good PC for. Man, I think this pretty much sums it up. I suppose Apple is destined to play second fiddle.
Article
OpenRouter
Some of us have been using aftermarket firmware (DDWRT, OpenWRT, Tomato) for our routers for some time now (some sooner than others…yea, I said it) in order to get the most out of them, but it looks like one of the brand names finally decided to release a router specifically made for open source firmware.
Article
Mice
Microsoft released a nice video of some of their mice prototypes that we can wish we had. Personally, I’m interested in the “Side Mouse”.
Random
Video I was directed to as a result of a rather interesting conversation…Thanks Mike!
[collegehumor]http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766[/collegehumor]