04.27.11
Posted in Apple, Google, Microsoft, Patents at 3:21 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Legal manipulators and the companies which hire them become gatekeepers that prevent competition by assembling cartels
HERE at Techrights we are disappointed that the Free software question becomes so hinged on software patents but we are pleased that people wake up and realise that unless this issue is tackled, software freedom will eternally be impeded. Techrights was actually born as “Boycott Novell” only because of the need to fight back against software patents. It is even sites like Tux Machines (usually very technical and Linux-focused) and OStatic (focusing on Open Source more than software freedom) where Susan Linton can recognise the importance of these issues. After a long downtime she wrote:
Looks like I missed the Texas Bedrock vs. Google infringement suit decision too. This could be a rather big deal for all who use Linux. Seems Bedrock’s patent is so loosely worded and concerns such a basic function that any Linux distribution or developer could be in violation. Instead Bedrock is going after companies with deep pockets. Most lawyers and juries know so little about technology that they can be convinced of actual infringement. Even if justice prevails, these companies have spent more than the actual judgment in legal fees. There was a time and place where patents served a real purpose, but the system has been so gamed that it no longer works properly.
Speaking of patents, seems that Novell and CPTN has had to change the terms of their deal concering the sale of hundreds of patents. It seems the Department of Justice has decided that the sale of these patents to Microsoft and friends could (and probably would) jeopardize the ability of Linux and other Open Source projects to compete (or even develop) in the operation system arena. So apparently now Microsoft has to sell Attachmate the patents and all will be subject to Open Source licenses.
Then, her colleague/boss Sam Dean wrote about CPTN, which many people shy away from because it is seen as a “controversial” subject. Yes, all progressive actions are controversial in their times. Dean wrote:
No doubt, as the DOJ scrutinized this proposed patent deal, there was much complexity in the analysis. Novell goes back to the early days of local area networking and the PC industry, and its patents are influential and valuable. It’s good news that a Microsoft-led consortium won’t be permitted to simply run roughshod over the power of those patents. Oracle, Apple, and EMC are included in CTPN Holdings as well.
“To promote innovation and competition, it is critical to balance antitrust enforcement with allowing appropriate patent transfers and exercise of patent rights,” said Sharis A. Pozen, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. Amen.
Our original conclusion in the wake of the Novell buyout was that it would benefit Red Hat, and yesterday, Red Hat’s stock jumped in the wake of new analysis that reached that same conclusion. The jump in the stock came after a research note from Piper Jaffray analsysts was released concluding that “44% [of business survey respondents] indicate that businesses will spend more on Red Hat due to uncertainty surrounding Novell’s future as part of Attachmate, while only 4% expect the opposite.”
This conclusion from Piper Jaffray’s survey was implied the instant the Novell deal was announced. Make no mistake, Red Hat is the big winner in the wake of the Novell deal, and the tech giants behind CTPN Holdings have had their wings clipped in the wake of it, which is good news for open source.
Then came this column from a good author:
In a move designed to protect the free and open source software (FOSS) community, the U.S. Justice Department has intervened in an intellectual property case involving four dominant IT enterprises. The transaction involves software developer Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) and a consortium made up of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and EMC (NYSE: EMC).
And another good piece of insight (sorry, we lack the time to comment on it today):
While the Novell/CPTN sale went in favor of the open source community, Google lost a $5 million judgment in an East Texas courtroom. Bedrock Computer Technologies successfully sued Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), alleging that the search giant infringes on U.S. patent #5,893,120, which it owns. According to Bedrock, Linux 2.4.22 and onward, as used by Google, infringes on its patent.
Google may have lost the first round, but this battle is far from over. Google will be fighting back in an appeal, as will other Linux vendors, including Red Hat.
Ultimately, the goal is to have the Bedrock patent declared invalid, though as is the case with anything in the legal system, it will take time.
The latter issue is particularly relevant and we provided links about it earlier in the week. Just a few more thoughts ought to be added, firstly contesting incorrect reports which say that “Google pays”. Google will appeal, not pay, so this is just one among many headlines that can be very deceiving and frightening to adopters of GNU/Linux, e.g. [1, 2, 3]. The matter of fact is, Linux at Google is winning and those who claim otherwise typically turn out to have always had an agenda against Linux, even a vendetta. One of them carries on with her usual tabloid-like commentary. Yes, proprietary software is not so hot on GNU/Linux, so foes of Linux would use that against the platform. it’s basically about Adobe’s junk (Trash plug-ins and the likes of that) exiting from Linux while Google ushers in replacements such as WebM for video, further building a patent pool to advance that goal [1, 2] (it is called a “Cross-Licensing Initiative”). Apple’s aggression against free codecs like this one helps show why a patent pool like CPTN is malicious. The same goes for the MPEG-LA pool. Some of these pools, unlike OIN, are run by aggressors; OIN and other Linux-oriented pools can really do little or no harm because of the terms under which they operate. As MSF puts it these days: [via Groklaw]
These animations explain why people in developing countries can’t get the HIV medicines they need to survive and how setting up a ‘patent pool’ could change that.
MSF calls on researchers and pharmaceutical companies: put your patents in the pool!
Doctors Without Borders suggests a patent pool, so not every such pool is malicious by design. It is important to recognise this fact because Linux foes like Microsoft Florian use spin to distort these facts. They just won’t stop spreading their lies. █
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Posted in Microsoft at 2:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Worst privacy offender ever
Summary: Microsoft is tracking people’s movement, collecting such sensitive information and sending this information back to Microsoft
UP UNTIL recently people believed that only their ISPs knew what was going on with data packets and only their mobile network providers could track their location (plus history) using triangulation between antennas. But following the Palm/WebOS fiasco and the recent hypePhone fiasco (which everyone you speak to seem to have learned about over the past week) the federal agents stepped in, revealing that Google does not log locations as badly as Apple does (data gets shredded quickly) and Microsoft, as usual. is just about as bad as one can get. Not only does Microsoft track users’ activity on Windows desktops (over the network or locally, for forensics). According to this news report, “Windows phones send user location to Microsoft” (anyone shocked?). To quote:
Add Microsoft Windows Phone 7 to the list of mobile operating systems that silently transmit the precise physical location of the device back to a central database.
CNET reported the location tracking on Monday, almost a week after reports of similar tracking in Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile OS raised concerns that smartphones could be used by police, civil litigants, or abusive spouses to track an owner’s movements over extended periods of time.
Microsoft also has a data-sharing partnership with Facebook, so it knows everything that people do on that site.
Apple is meanwhile being sued, but why isn’t every user of Windows suing Microsoft for spying? It’s probably because the EULA, which everyone is pretty much forced to agree to when purchasing a new computer, somehow excuses Microsoft for such practices (which we covered here before). The funny thing is that Microsoft tries inciting everyone against Google based on grounds of "privacy". █
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Posted in Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 1:52 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Why Web sites which are critical of Microsoft should not be considered the problem; rather, they help counter the problem in a reactionary fashion
THERE is a point that must be addressed as it seems to be a recurrent subject that is used to bemoan and belittle the efforts of sites like Groklaw. Enemies of the site have been suggesting that since the SCO saga had pretty much ended with the ruling and the bankruptcy in SCO case, Groklaw then moved on to dismissing another so-called ‘boogeyman’ or ‘scapegoat’, such as Microsoft. Now, if these disruptors of FOSS had paid attention, they would understand the relationship between SCO and Microsoft. In the eyes of the sceptic, Groklaw was using a tactics similar to the Nazis’, which is outright ridiculous and we ought to explain why. To paint Groklaw as the intolerant side is like calling the cop who nails a thug down to the ground “violent”.
“When reality is a commodity, spin and lobbying is all they need to invest in for daemonisation of good people.”To claim that Groklaw gained power from Microsoft disdain is to completely ignore what Groklaw showed about Microsoft. It is Microsoft — not sites like Groklaw — that sought to increase its own power by dividing the free and open source software communities, further signing divisive patent deals starting in 2006 with Novell. It was Microsoft which did this, not its critics who merely highlighted it. To suggest that reactionary writings are somehow worse than Microsoft using patent litigation to fracture the community is like putting the whistelblower in prison rather than the criminal this whistelblower helped expose (and this too we know tends to happen, especially when the whistelblower is small and the crook is a too-big-to-fail entity in a suit). One bit of disinformation that I sometimes see is that I “hate Linus” and “hate open source”. That’s a bald faced lie and a complete reversal of reality, probably intended to incite people against me. This is the type of reversal Microsoft spinners use to call FOSS people “zealots” (stereotypical) when in fact the biggest zealot out there is Microsoft. When reality is a commodity, spin and lobbying is all they need to invest in for daemonisation of good people.
So please, to all those who somehow suggest that Groklaw feeds on hatred, do a sanity check. The side spreading hatred is not the one reporting about it.
In a later post we will show how Microsoft is ‘owning’ Linux, using backroom deals which are probably illegal and distort what markets actually mean, using software patents, bribes (like Novell’s), retaliatory lawsuits (sometimes via proxies), and collusion. We are going to deal with that in a separate post. In the mean time, see Groklaw‘s latest update on SCO bankruptcy and debt:
SCO’s Chapter 11 Trustee, Edward Cahn of Blank Rome, finally has filed SCO’s monthly operating reports for February. Yes. February. Didn’t they do that already? No. In February, they filed for November of 2010.
And what do you know? He finally shows us his handiwork as trustee. The company has basically no money. In fact, it’s deeply in debt. So SCO, which was solvent when it filed for bankruptcy protection in September of 2007, has managed to not only lose everything it had back then — it is in debt. What oversight! What skills! It’s precisely all the professional advice SCO has been favored with that put it into this debt.
Also recall this old research from Groklaw:
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ father’s law firm, known as the firm that represents Microsoft, has just filed a Notice of Entry of Appearance and Demand for Notices and Papers [PDF] in the SCO bankruptcy on behalf of MSLI
Microsoft is not a scapegoat and Gates is not benevolent. It’s all just part of the PR. And remember this: Groklaw as not divisive; it unifies people against a common threat which is actively attacking them, usually planning these attacks behind closed doors. Do not allow spin to portray as “villains” people who sacrificed their time and career. █
“In the fall of 1982, Pam Edstrom [of Waggener Edstrom], a diminutive woman with piercing blue eyes, was recruited by Microsoft. [...] In modern-day business, flacks were responsible not only for avoiding bad press, but for spinning the good. [...] Hanson and Edstrom would spin a whole new image for Gates himself. They would tap the best and worst of Chairman Bill, changing his clothes, his voice, and his allegiances, driving him to become not just the boss, but, essentially, the company mascot—a sort of high-technology Colonel Sanders.” –Pam Edstrom’s daughter
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Posted in News Roundup at 6:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
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Disney & DreamWorks on Linux
To say that Hollywood dream studios are Linux playgrounds today, is most definitely not an understatement. Linux has won hands down on server technology as well as pure artwork. Believe it or not, entire renderfarms and artist desktops in these studios are Linux ecosystems.
Linux offers end-to-end graphic solutions, in most challenging and competitive of environments in these studios and has finally emerged a winner. It gives an opportunity for technologists, system engineers to delve into creative art using the most scalable, reliable and most importantly free software solution called Linux.
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First off, the term “PC” includes Macs, so that’s a poor term to use for distinction.
Second, given the diversity of computing environments today, it is no longer accurate to assume that someone on a non-Mac PC is using Windows. Linux users are growing rapidly in number, and I doubt most would categorize themselves in the same group as Windows users.
That, indeed, is probably at least part of the reason a full 23 percent of respondents to the Hunch study didn’t classify themselves in either the PC (Windows) or Mac camps: the two camps are neither well-defined nor comprehensive, since they leave out Linux users altogether.
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Always Innovating, the company that brought us a tablet/netbook hybrid that you could stick to a refrigerator is back. But this time instead of focusing on its own hardware, this time the company is showcasing software it’s developed which can run on the $149 BeagleBoard compact computing platform.
The software is called Super-Jumbo, and for good reason. Basically it’s a single disk image which combines four operating systems: Google Android 2.3, Ubuntu 10.10, Google Chromium OS, and AIOS, a custom operating system developed by Always Innovating.
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Six years and over 1200 computers later, I believe that HeliOS has gained some significant insight into how people react to the Linux Desktop.
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Kernel Space
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Various internal changes to the block layer that were specifically mentioned by Linus Torvalds are designed to enhance performance and scalability. The Ext4 file system is also said to offer improvements in this respect. Still classified as experimental, Btrfs now offers Batched Discard functionality, and LIO (Linux-Iscsi.org) includes a loop-back function.
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Landing in the Phoronix e-mail inbox last night was a question by a reader asking how hardware vendors determine the operating systems used by their customers and their respective market-share since there isn’t anything to “phone home” and report usage statistics. In other words, this reader had just purchased four desktop processors and he was wondering how to inform AMD that he’s a Linux user. This is in hopes of going towards their Linux tally and eventually increasing their Linux level of support.
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Petition lists are also common for Linux users, such as OpenTheBlob.com for NVIDIA, but those tend to have little effect as well.
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Applications
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Bottom line: right now it’s a toss-up between BitDefender and F-Prot. I find them equally effective. F-Prot is faster, and so better suited for a regular, scheduled scan. But BitDefender with its GUI is easier for a newcomer to use, and I think provides a more informative report.
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So, let’s explore the 5 caching systems at hand. For each application we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.
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Instructionals/Technical
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If you work with important data on your Linux servers or desktops it is very important that you take regular backups. We have covered some backup tools and solutions that will help you do that.
Assuming you have a backup strategy and implementation in place, another important thing you need to worry about is the safety of your backups themselves. Safety includes two important factors. The first is the storage device or devices on which you store them. The other is to make sure that even if someone gets hold of your backups he can’t look at the data.
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Desktop Environments
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K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
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The KDE community is excited to accept 51 students into the Google Summer of Code program this year. Their projects will touch KDE on almost every level, and integrate the students into our community. Some are likely to become longtime KDE contributors. The next month will be spent on community bonding, getting to know the people and the code behind the project they’ll be working on. From May 23rd until the end of August, they’ll be working with their mentors to complete their own projects.
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GNOME Desktop
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Switching to GNOME 3 is both an opportunity and a distraction. On the one hand, it is the opportunity to put aside some annoying behaviors in earlier GNOME releases. On the other hand, GNOME 3 is a distraction because its changes can get in the way of long-established work methods.
As a result, you need to weigh GNOME 3′s pros and cons carefully before deciding to make the new desktop part of your everyday computing — unless, of course, you are the sort who automatically rejects or embraces change simply because it is new.
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There are claims that Gnome 3 is too dumbed down for Linux users. I have to admit I’m a little frustrated at not being able to test Gnome 3 properly, because my CD drive is failing, causing my Fedora 15 beta live Gnome 3 session to crash regularly.
One of the main objections to Gnome 3 seems to be the lack of minimise and maximise buttons on windows. However, I have been able to try out the way Gnome 3 handles windows, and it seems intuitive and more efficient in a minimalist way than the previous method. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler,”* said Einstein, and to my mind the Gnome team have done this: “Made of easy” indeed.
Of course there is no bottom panel to minimise windows to. Grabbing a window and bumping it up to the top panel will automatically maximise the window; grabbing it again and pulling it down will minimise it to the desktop.
Simple. And elegant.
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Faenza icon theme for Natty PPA has already been updated and now its the turn of Equinox themes for Ubuntu 11.04 to be released. And the latest Equinox theme pack, created by Tiheum(who also created beautiful Faenza icon theme) comes with 3 brand new themes – Equinox Dawn, Equinox Dusk and Equinox Midnight respectively.
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Linux desktop is on a roll. First came the revamped KDE 4.0 which took the level of User Interface(UI) fit and finish of Linux desktops to another level. Then came the GNOME Shell and Ubuntu Unity desktop interfaces. But one thing they all lack, especially GNOME Shell and Unity, are good looking and user friendly login screens. And here are some very interesting login screen mockups for GNOME.
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Toorox is a Gentoo-based installable live CD that features your choice of KDE or GNOME desktops. It comes with lots of useful applications including system configuration tools, easy package management, and proprietary code installers.
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New Releases
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MEPIS 11 RC3 comes with Firefox 4 and Konqueror as its browsers, K3b for burning media, Amarok to play sound files and several video players (KMplayer and GNOME Mplayer.) It also has the GIMP to edit images and for its office suit, it includes LibreOffice 3.3.2. KDE partition manager has substituted GParted since MEPIS 8.5. Faithful to its tradition, MEPIS 11 can be used as a rescue CD or as a live OS should you decide not to install it.
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Desktop effects are deactivated by default, but they work once enabled.
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PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family
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oday the second beta of the inaugural release of Mageia was released. This release has received lots of bug fixes and software updates as well as a nice theme change. The development branch is now frozen until after final which is due in little over a month.
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Overall, Mageia is looking good. Other than the package manager, all other software and tools seem to work fine – not that I tested everything for this quick look. I’m certainly looking forward to final release.
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Red Hat Family
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Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company’s economic output. That’s because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.
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Debian Family
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Canonical/Ubuntu
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Before you proceed to download and install Ubuntu you need to check few things.
1. Your PC must have a working CD/DVD drive for installation through CD/DVD
2. If you have a netbook please check that there is a USB port which can be used to install Ubuntu 11.04.
3. Check if your PC (especiallay desktop) supports USB boot. Majority of laptops and netbooks support boot from USB. However, desktops usually don’t support USB boot. In case you have a desktop PC, we recommend using CD/DVD method.
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The first step is to make some space in the system to install Ubuntu. So I booted Windows 7 and from the “computer management – disk management”, I managed to shrink the windows partition to 60 GB.
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Continuing our series of articles on the benefits of open source software and how computing for free is a very real possibility that many users are engaging in right now around the world, it’s time to take on board the full implications of migrating from Windows to Linux, in this case the Ubuntu platform.
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Flavours and Variants
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Clement Lefebvre and the community behind the Linux Mint project announced yesterday, April 25th, on their official blog that Linux Mint 5 LTS (Elyssa) operating system will reach end-of-life on April 28th, 2011.
Today we are sorry to announce that starting with April 28th, 2011, the Linux Mint 5 LTS (Elyssa) operating system will no longer be supported with security or critical fixes, and software updates. This comes right after the EOL (end-of-life) announcement for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron), issued by Canonical two weeks ago, on April 11th.
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Phones
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OLPC
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That makes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s decision to name a 44-year old Japanese venture capitalist who attended, but did not graduate, from two American colleges as the director of one of the world’s top computing science laboratories an unusual choice.
On Tuesday, the university plans to announce that Joichi Ito, known as Joi, will become the fourth director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, which was originally founded by the architect Nicholas Negroponte in 1985 and has since become recognized for its willingness to take risks in developing technologies that are at the edge of the computing frontier.
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Tablets
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APOTHEKER Well, there is the app store, for which we will get something, there are some additional services for which we probably will be able to charge something for. And if we add additional features on top of WebOS, it’s a little bit early to talk about them right now, we might be able to charge something for that as well.
FORTUNE: If you’re going to enable your PCs to do more, yet you said your tablets and your smartphones will be purely WebOS, why not make that a heterogeneous experience as well?
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If you must have a great tablet, and you’re willing to pay the price for it, Apple’s iPad 2 is still the one to get. But, if you’d like a good tablet at half-the-price, the newly firmware renovated Barnes & Noble Nook Color may be all the tablet you need.
Today, April 25th, as has long been expected, the Nook Color got its 1.2 update. This transforms the Nook Color from being an e-reader to being a low-end Android tablet by replacing its operating system with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and adding an App Store.
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Sony announced a pair of Android 3.0 tablets that integrate Sony’s Qriocity video and audio, Sony Reader ebook content, and Playstation Suite games. Due to arrive this fall, the Sony Tablet S1 is a 9.4-inch model with a wedge-shaped design, while the S2 offers a folding clamshell format with dual 5.5-inch screens that can be viewed as a single display.
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If you travel frequently, it can be frustrating to have to use a system that doesn’t have your favorite open source software already installed. Fortunately, many of the most popular open source applications come in portable versions that you can take with you on a USB thumb drive or other portable media.
What makes an application portable? These apps can run from any portable device (a thumb drive, CD, DVD, portable hard drive or other device) without needing to be installed directly on the hard drive of the system you’re using. They also don’t leave behind any files on the host system, and they don’t interfere with other software installed on that system.
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Outsiders often criticize free software because it offers too much choice. Choice confuses people, they say, and free software would be more efficient if everyone concentrated on improving the best application in each category instead of developing alternatives. To me, this argument has always seemed conditioned by monopoly, but recently I found reason to believe that it couldn’t be more wrong.
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This contrast shows the practical value of redundancy. Superficially, redundancy seems wasteful, and a common short-sighted view is that you can improve efficiency by getting rid of the redundancy. When all is well, that view may even have some validity.
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Brazil, April 25, 2011—Last week, billions of people around the world celebrated their faith on a Nazarene liberator and his miraculous victory over death. On the 21st, Brazil also remembered the death of Tiradentes, martyr for the country’s independence, who survived only in memories and in history books. Our gift, hereby announced, doesn’t contain Easter Eggs, that symbolize rebirth, resurrection or the creativity of computer programmers, but it has to do with one of the two certainties in life. Although it doesn’t avoid death, it enables escaping from an unfair tax charged by the Brazilian government in the form of freedom. We offer IRPF-Livre, 2011 version, a Free alternative to the illegally privative software imposed on Brazilian taxpayers to prepare their annual Income Tax returns (IRPF).
http://www.fsfla.org/~lxoliva/snapshots/irpf-livre/2011/
IRPF-Livre, that we have maintained since 2007 as part of our campaign against the deprivation of freedom by governments through Imposed/Tax Software, was updated in accordance with changes in legislation and the undocumented file formats required by Receita Federal do Brasil (RFB).
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Web Browsers
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It wasn’t that long ago that things were as dull as used dishwater when it came to Web browsers. Then, along came Firefox and suddenly it wasn’t just an Internet Explorer world anymore. Today, in 2011, Google’s Chrome Web browser, not to mention Apple’s Safari and Opera Software’s Opera, are all good choices for your Web browser.
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Mozilla
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There is always a period of time after you requisition hardware that you are a little nervous about performance. Very happy to report that Firefox is scaling very well and we have jumped over the magic number of 100 concurrent users in FF.
The only open issue right now in regards to Firefox is that it still is having an occasional oddity in regards to NFS. From watching patterns, it seems like if you are downloading a big (1GB+) file and writing it over NFS, the server get’s sluggish. It never comes to a crawl, but has a noticeable slowdown. I was able to make this work better by downgrading from NFS4 to NFS3. I’ll see if I can figure it out and submit a proper bug report.
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I believe this server could easily handle another 100 users, and can easily be upgraded in terms of RAM.
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I doubt if many people will be convinced to use Firefox because it somehow makes the world a better place. Consumers and companies are far more pragmatic in their decision processes. We want something to work, and hope to get it at the lowest possible cost.
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Healthcare
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On the site linked below, you can listen to an interview with Dr. Karl Maret. Dr. Maret is the president of the Dove Health Alliance, a nonprofit foundation that focuses on the creation and promotion of global research and education networks in Energy Medicine.
Dr. Maret trained in both electrical and biomedical engineering before his medical studies. He has recently begun educating physician groups specifically on the biological impacts of communication technologies, such as cell phones and wireless technologies.
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Business
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Semi-Open Source
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According to Alfresco, Activiti is an independently-run and branded open source project that will work independently of the Alfresco open source ECM system.
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FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
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Here are the highlights of this month’s changes:
* Support has been added for the uCLinux port to the C6X target. Specifical support for the DSBT shared library format has been added to both gcc and the binutils.
* GCC now has a command line option “-std=c++03″ to enforce the ISO 1998 C++ standard revised by the 2003 technical corrigendum.
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Openness/Sharing
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Open Access/Content
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A massive database cataloging the human genome’s functional elements — including genes, RNA transcripts and other products — is being made available as an open resource to the scientific community, classrooms, science writers and the public, thanks to an international team of researchers. In a paper published in the journal PLoS Biology on April 19, the project — called ENCODE (Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements) — provides an overview of the team’s ongoing efforts to interpret the human genome sequence, as well as a guide for using the vast amounts of data and resources produced so far by the project.
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Programming
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Standards/Consortia
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Google is announcing a new community cross-licensing initiative for its WebM open source video format this morning, which includes backing from major CE makers like Samsung, LG Electronics and Cisco. Google open-sourced WebM about a year ago, hoping to establish an open and royalty-free video format for the web that could eventually replace today’s de facto web video standard, H.264. The cross-licensing initiative is meant to ensure that companies interested in using WebM aren’t scared off by threats of patent litigation.
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Security
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Privacy
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Apple Inc. (AAPL) was accused of invasion of privacy and computer fraud by two customers who claim in a lawsuit that the company is secretly recording movements of iPhone and iPad users.
Vikram Ajjampur, an iPhone user in Florida, and William Devito, a New York iPad customer, sued April 22 in federal court in Tampa, Florida, seeking a judge’s order barring the alleged data collection.
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Sony suffered a massive breach in its video game online network that led to the theft of names, addresses and possibly credit card data belonging to 77 million user accounts in what is one of the largest-ever Internet security break-ins.
Sony learned that user information had been stolen from its PlayStation Network seven days ago, prompting it to shut down the network immediately. But Sony did not tell the public until Tuesday.
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Sony Corp. (SNE, 6758.TO) said Tuesday a hacker had obtained customer information, possibly including credit-card numbers, of members of its online PlayStation Network, a potential problem for the quickly growing field of online gaming.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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Copyrights
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Copyleft crusader and Harvard professor Larry Lessig gave a new talk at CERN last week about copyright and how it has affected open access to academic or scientific information, with a bit of commentary about YouTube Copyright School. As usual, it’s blistering commentary. “It’s time to recognize that free access – as in ‘free’ as in speech access – is no fad, and it’s time to push this non-fad war broadly in the context of science,” says Lessig.
Whereas copyright tends to focus on protecting artists’ ability to make money from their work, scientists don’t use similar incentives. And yet, her work is often kept within the gates of the ivory tower, reserved for those whose universities or institutions have purchased access, often at high costs. And for science in the age of the internet, which wants ideas to spread as widely as possible to encourage more creativity and development, this isn’t just bad: it’s immoral.
Colbert Vs. Wikipedia
Credit: TinyOgg
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04.26.11
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, OIN, Patents at 4:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Explanations given to clarify that Linux is not under siege and that OIN helps deter Microsoft, leaving it using patent trolls and proxies for the attempted taxation of GNU/Linux
Microsoft feeding patent trolls with “anti-Linux patents” (not our own term but a term that was widely used at the time) is not a conspiracy theory, thanks in part to proof obtained by the OIN and the Linux Foundation [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. As we showed before, the patent troll-led MPEG-LA is batting for Microsoft’s and Apple’s benefit, directly aiming at Google as well (there is reactive defence from Google). Google’s GNU/Linux servers, the free codec, the free Web browser, and Android are some of the lucrative targets these days. It is a subject which we tackled repeatedly over the past week [1, 2, 3], more latterly because of Microsoft Florian and his FUD about a patent ruling which will most probably be overruled.
Here are some interesting details about the source of the lawsuit:
Can’t let it pass without comment: A mystery-company called Bedrock Computer Technologies sues Google in the Eastern District of Texas for infringing on a patent. And that patent names Linux! It’s also going after Yahoo, MySpace, Amazon, PayPal, Match.com, and AOL (What??? Does AOL use Linux?).
You can just about throw a dart and hit a tech blog reblogging the story today, but I like Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols & Paula Rooney’s take on it the best: “Idiotic Anti-Linux & Google Patent Decision” says it all.
It’s almost a parody of a patent troll case. “Bedrock Computer Technologies” has a website, and what’s on that home page? A showcase of technologies for sale by them? A shopping-cart section where you can actually buy something from them? Nope, just an Art-Deco logo straight out of Atlas Shrugged, linking to an email drop – I take it whomever’s job it is to read the mail from that drop is having a jolly time hosing it out today. Bedrock is a patent troll, and they don’t give a thin damn who knows it.
Given the geography of the case and given the depth of Google’s pocket, this is more noise than signal. This will go away. It is a timely lesson, however, regarding the ridiculousness of software patents and it can rekindle this important debate.
Well, guess what? Even Microsoft boosters acknowledge that it’s not as serious as Microsoft Florian tried putting it and Groklaw has this productive suggestion and constructive response which seeks to eliminate software patents as a whole. It is the only real solution. From the introductory summary:
This article provides a detailed factual explanation of why software is mathematics, complete with the references in mathematical and computer science literature. It also includes a detailed factual explanation of why mathematics is speech, complete once again with references. My hope is that it will help patent lawyers and judges handling patent litigation understand these fundamental truths, so they can apply that technical knowledge to their field of skill.
Case law on software patents is built on a number of beliefs about how computers and software work. But as you will see, when you compare the technical facts presented in this article and in the authoritative works referenced, with expressions in case law on how computers and software work, you will find they are often in complete opposition. I believe this is a foundational problem that has contributed to invalid patents issuing.
If you are a computer professional, I hope you pay attention to another aspect of the article, on how the lawyers and judges understand software. This is critical to understanding their point of view. After reading case after case on the topic, I have concluded that the legal view of software relies on beliefs that are in contradiction with known principles of computing. Computer professionals explain their profession based on an understanding that is, on its face, the opposite of a few things the legal profession believes to be established and well understood facts. Moreover, the law is complex and subtle. Computer professionals don’t understand it any better oftentimes than patent lawyers understand software, and so they can make statements that make no legal sense.
I believe that coming to a clear and fact-based definition of what an algorithm is can help both sides to communicate more effectively. So let’s do that as well.
Brian Proffitt says that there is “no reason to worry about Linux” because this patent verdict can be overturned quite soon. To quote his column:
I was on the road in Boston late last week, and thus was unable to easily write something up on the April 15 jury finding in the case of Bedrock Computer Technologies, LLC v. Softlayer Technologies, Inc. et al.
That’s the catchy name for the patent infringement lawsuit launched in 2009 by Tyler, Texas-based Bedrock against Softlayer and CitiWare Technology Solutions, LLC, two Texas-based software companies, and a few firms that are decidedly not from Texas: Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc., MySpace Inc., Amazon.com Inc., PayPal Inc., Match.com, Inc., AOL LLC and CME Group Inc. The suit alleges that a patent that Bedrock owns, US 5,893,120, is infringed by the defendants in the suit, because such a method is employed by the Linux operating system and as major users of Linux, the defendants are liable for damages.
Back on April 15, after a five-day jury trial, the Federal jury in Tyler, Texas indeed found in favor of Bedrock and specified that Google owed the company a huge, staggering amount of $5 million in damages. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)
Patent law followers will note the location of the trial venue. The United States District Court Eastern District of Texas is well-known as a favored district for patent infringement suits. It is no coincidence, surely, that Bedrock’s founder David Garrod opted to start his company, which exists only as a holder of patents like 5,893,120, in such a patent-friendly location.
Proffitt’s former colleague, Sean Michael Kerner, reminds us of the role played by the OIN, which has no built-in immunisation against patent trolls (e.g. those whom Microsoft feeds), unlike large companies that wage patent wars under different rules. To quote Sean:
Patents remain a source of risk for the open source ecosystem, though the Open Invention Network (OIN) is doing its’ part to help reduce the risk.
The OIN launched back in 2005 as a group tasked with acquiring patents and then licensing them back to the open source community on a royalty-free basis.
OIN has continued to grow over the years, and for the first quarter of 2011, the group grew by over 70 new licensees including HP, Facebook and Juniper Networks.
Since those who bemoan Linux (and constantly spread patent FUD about it) also smear the OIN, surely there is something about the OIN which worries Microsoft; it acts as a deterrent. For example, Microsoft is not suing OIN members for patent violations, assuming they join early enough, unlike TomTom. The monopolist can use patent trolls to file these lawsuits however. Microsoft is, after all, the genesis of the world’s biggest patent troll. It cannot deny this fact. █
“In a world where there are $500 million dollar patent infringement lawsuits imposed on OS companies (although this is not completely settled yet), how would somebody like Red Hat compete when 6 months ago they only had $80-$90 million in cash? At that point they could not even afford to settle a fraction of a single judgment without devastating their shareholders. I suspect Microsoft may have 50 or more of these lawsuits in the queue. All of them are not asking for hundreds of millions, but most would be large enough to ruin anything but the largest companies. Red Hat did recently raise several hundred million which certainly gives them more staying power. Ultimately, I do not think any company except a few of the largest companies can offer any reasonable insulation to their customers from these types of judgments. You would need a market cap of more than a couple billion to just survive in the OS space.”
–SCO’s Strategic Consultant Mike Anderer
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Intellectual Monopoly, Law, Microsoft at 3:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Champion of anti-competitive practices wants laws that further assist those practices
THE company from Redmond never changed. It’s just an abusive monopoly which subverts the law in order to perpetuate this monopoly and evade prosecution when it breaks the law. As the i4i case (that’s still in the news) helps show, Microsoft wants the law to bend over and always serve Microsoft, even become temporarily void when Microsoft breaks some particular law such as patent law. Watch how Microsoft’s lobbying blog is once again pushing monopolies, this time on design. They try to use some cynical joke called “World Intellectual Property Day” (there is no such property) to push for further restrictions, using the same blog where they lobby for software patents:
Strong design protection in the online environment will help drive continued innovation and differentiation in the cloud.
They even use the “cloud” buzzword to pressure in favour of more monopolies. Who are they kidding? What an unethical company. See, that’s what distinguishes companies like Google, for example, from Microsoft. Google is in many ways going against all those intellectual monopolies (copyright maximalists, artificial limitations and restrictions, patent lawyers, etc.), whereas Microsoft wants more protectionism. It’s all about taking from society as much as possible when it comes to Microsoft. In fact, recall what Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer wanted to do to their colleague when he was ill. Ballmer may have just validated the story by making these statements:
On his recent discussion with Steve Ballmer about the book: No one has disagreed or contradicted any fact or any memory to me. … Steve said, “Yeah, those things did happen, some of those things did happen,” like I recount. I think obviously if you’re in a leadership position at Microsoft, and I’m giving my critique of the future, or the challenges for the future, I guess I should say, those are areas that Steve’s focused on, and is sensitive about, and he talked a little bit about that.
Guess who is using intellectual monopolies against Google right now? Microsoft has helped fuel copyright battles against Google and now it launches patent attacks on Android, too. A lot of sites will insist that Google and Microsoft are fundamentally different because at Microsoft, scarcity has always been the business model; for Google it’s abundance. What is better for the public (over 99% of which is not lawyers)? █
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Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 3:06 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: GNU/Linux is driving Windows off the road, gradually but surely; Microsoft continues to deceive nonetheless
AS we repeatedly show and remind our readers, Windows-related profit is on the decline, so Microsoft resorts to cheating in the SEC filings, pushing into newspapers all sorts of fake numbers. Katherine from IDG and ECT explains that “Linux Wins Big” as “Microsoft Reveals Windows Decline” and she provides supporting evidence:
3. Microsoft Reveals Windows Decline
Microsoft is nothing if not a master at trumpeting its own horn, and recently it’s being doing just that over the 350 million copies of Windows 7 it says it has sold since the software’s debut.
One thing it apparently forgot to mention, however, is that that’s not so good. In fact, it doesn’t even keep up with the total number of PCs sold, as my Infoworld colleague Woody Leonhard noted today.
One needs to add that it’s not Vista 7 , it’s just licences issued/assigned (not necessarily used) and it includes Windows XP, which Microsoft counts as Vista 7 in order to game the numbers. It is easy to see why Windows is losing inertia. As one of our new regulars in IRC put it in his blog recently, Windows is broken and the “Windows ecosytem is broken”, too, whereas Google’s Android, for example, is doing extremely well and growing rapidly.
Over the years that I have provided IT support, I have always pointed out the options available i.e Mac, Windows, Linux (and in some cases a BSD). Familiarity tends to sway users towards Windows despite the problems. Another issue tends to be that “the must have” application for which no alternatives exist (except for other proprietary apps) are only available on Windows. When I dig a little deeper into how these apps are written I tend to be horrified at how they are put together. In the VB6/.net etc etc world sometime Client/Server can mean “lets map the executable to the server, run it over the network and tell the customer to get a faster network/computer/switch if it doesn’t work properly” .
One thing that is becoming increasingly common is to find that many of these apps are still written with legacy develop environments or libraries which is translating into not working well or at all in Vista & Windows 7. It seems to be that many of these apps aren’t coping well with the transition from smb 1 to smb 2 – strangely the average Windows techy appears to have no concept of this. My work with Samba has recently been helping me solve Windows problems!
So to translate the above into something less “geeky” – The Windows ecosystem is broken, littered with layer upon layer of legacy must have software. Its the more established businesses which suffer more from this, newer businesses with less software baggage do not have to weigh themselves down.
Adoption of Vista and its successors has been utterly poor in businesses and now that we discover some major wins for GNU/Linux in business desktops, there is reason to believe that a lot more of it is coming. In fact, based on information that cannot be made public just yet, a lot of desktops are going to see proprietary software stripped off. Sometimes it starts by running Free, cross-platform software on top of Windows, which in turn makes swapping the platform with GNU/Linux quite trivial. Microsoft knows that. █
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