Microsoft: Patent Troll

Desperation is never sexy. It is sad (if unsurprising) to see that Microsoft has stooped to becoming a lowly patent troll. They've been moving in this direction for a while, starting their patent portfolio as a purely defensive measure, but then trying to intimidate the Samba project, then financing SCO to be their stooge in a battle against GNU/Linux. But so far, they had just been using their patent portfolio as a FUD tool. But now they've turned a corner and decided to monetize their paperwork, shaking down big scaredycat organizations. Then they decided to subvert Novell. Now they're setting the stage to take their campaign wider and try to scare individuals.

It's a sad state of affairs for the once-proud company that released great products like Windows for Workgroups and Excel. No, Microsoft was never really innovative, but they were at least competently derivative: at one time they could take somebody else's concept and improve upon it. Remember how they took on Netware and destroyed it (with a better product)? Today all they seem capable of doing is screwing up their products and taking out their frustrations on their customers.

Microsoft is apparently taking theatrical cues from Joseph McCarthy. "I have a list here of 235 patents the communists are infringing." Of course they won't say what they are, because if they do, those patents will be immediately challenged with prior art and worked around by the open source community. Plus, their competitors will unleash hell with their own patent portfolios.

The funny thing is that if Microsoft still had decent prospects it wouldn't dare resort to this sort of two-bit shakedown operation. Microsoft made an empire by appropriating the good ideas of others and incorporating them into its products (then using cross-subsidy and vendor lock-in to exterminate the competition, the tools of a convicted monopolist). By doing so they added value and met the needs of the end user. But they seem incapable of doing that anymore, so now they resort to intimidation. It's a sad end to a once-proud company.

100 yummy web apps

The Freelancer’s Toolset: 100 Web Apps for Everything You Will Possibly Need lists most of the usual suspects (Basecamp, FreshBooks) but some unexpected goodies as well.

Body Text, Body Text, Body Text, Char

Body Text, Body Text, Body Text, Char
Originally uploaded by PaulSherman.

Paul says:

... how many usability issues can you find in this screen grab? Winner gets two crisp United States dollar bills, mailed to them in a No. 5 security envelope with an Elvis stamp affixed to it. (Fat Elvis only, sorry.)

My seven sins:

1) You can't see what you've selected in the collapsed combobox
2) It is hard to differentiate the styles vs indents vs fonts
3) Are there really as many styles as the scroll bar would imply? Egad!
4) What useful purpose is served by all of the styles being the same on every single line?
5) The combobox droplist obscures the entire window. What was I doing?
6) Provided you were able to select the perfect style, how would you ever find that one again?
7) Type-ahead to match in the combobox is useless if they all have the same label.

and a bonus answer:

8) Aiiiieee! Cash through the mail is always a felonious pyramid scheme used to fund terrorism!

Unexpected vacation; media abdication

Check out a satirical comic about Maher Arar's extraordinary rendition by Tom Tomorrow today on Salon.

I was in the states listening to National Public Radio when the Canadian government apologized to Arar for their role in his kidnapping and torture. Anne Garrels read a brief story about the case, saying that he had been deported to Syria "where he was allegedly interrogated." I had a moment of radio rage. Allegedly interrogated? Is that all it was? See, I was under the impression that the "allegations" were of torture. I didn't think there was even any question that he had been interrogated.

But you see, that's the state of journalism today. Even NPR which is supposedly so very liberal, independent and trustworthy has deteriorated to the point where it abuses language to avoid reporting news that government and corporate masters would rather not be heard. It seems like NPR is reporting news, because it still calls itself news and NPR once did something resembling news, but it has become little more than a pack of politicized corporate cheerleaders.

If you have been listening continuously to NPR for the past ten years or so you might not have noticed the change. With a little bit of distance you notice the ever-lengthening advertisements ("sponsorships") for pharmaceutical companies, defense contractors, and agriculture conglomerates (they started out as five-word blurbs, but then they grew inexorably – in length and frequency). The subtle shift in language when dealing with political matters is harder to quantify, but is definitely there. Evidence of partisan skulduggery at NPR is well documented, but you don't have to be a researcher to notice the effects in the types of commentators now invited to voice their opinions. Where opinions were once balanced and questioned, they now reverberate unanswered, especially when they deal with United States foreign policy and international investment, legal and trade agreements.

Media conglomeration in the US has resulted in less diversity of opinion and less real commentary in the official mainstream press. At the same time, public radio has been dragged down to the point where it provides no meaningful competition to commercial media organs. None dare call it conspiracy, because there is nobody left standing to do so. Instead, corporate cheerleaders with airbrushed makeup and great hair read sanitized newsbytes without context, and bejowled father-figures terrify and scold, providing judgments without bothering to inform. In short, certain interests control the medium and the message, and don't bet they're doing it in your best interests.

Another ode, in the Key of 36

Could everyone with brains 3ven hesitate? Horrible legal strategies, yes. 0verrun 4thright 8usinesses which ought've 8een 4sighted. Keep cognizant good knowledge will win over 0bstructions.

For the visually impaired, ⠼⠚⠼⠊⠠⠋⠼⠊⠼⠁⠼⠁⠼⠚⠼⠃⠼⠊⠠⠙⠼⠛⠼⠙⠠⠑⠼⠉⠼⠑⠠⠃⠠⠙⠼⠓⠼⠙⠼⠁⠼⠑⠼⠋⠠⠉⠼⠑⠼⠋⠼⠉⠼⠑⠼⠋⠼⠓⠼⠓⠠⠉⠼⠚ means ⠠⠇⠼⠊⠼⠋⠠⠕⠼⠑⠼⠙⠠⠅⠠⠋⠠⠝⠼⠋⠠⠕⠠⠛⠼⠚⠠⠎⠠⠉⠠⠎⠼⠙⠠⠉⠠⠉⠼⠙⠠⠺⠠⠅⠠⠎⠼⠓

Ode to corporate censorship

Dream 1 approach for 2ippering every 5ingle 6ood 5ecret. 1et 7oose a 7eopard 2 0bliterate, 2 alleviate losing control constantly. 0r 8etter 7eave alone 6enerous 9oodthinking citizens 4 ever 2 9ratify 6entlepeople.

update: This guy does it better:

Guy Kawasaki: Starting Up

Guy Kawasaki has some really good things to say about startups. His nine rules on how to innovate are good, and there's a video that covers similar themes (with slides). Thanks Derek!

Microsoft follows Adobe to open source

Microsoft has (not quite yet) announced that it will release source for Silverlight, following Adobe's recent move with Flex. Since Microsoft is only planning to support Windows and Mac for the runtime, Adobe has a slight advantage with the huge, lucrative Linux market [har]. Adobe's big advantage is that they are two years ahead and not Microsoft. Microsoft's big advantage is [er, wait, give me a minute, I'm sure I'll think of something... oh!] they 0wn your Windows box and can nuke the Flash player from orbit with Windows Update [diabolical laughter here]. They can't do that, though... it'd piss off their customers, and I guess they care (though they have a hard time showing it).

No Flash player on amd64 linux

The Adobe Flash player is only available in 32-bit binaries for Linux. Because the Flash player is proprietary, you can't fix this yourself. Although Adobe has released the Flex libraries under the MPL, that doesn't do us much good if we can't actually run anything. There's a petition circulating with over 10k signatures asking Adobe to flip a switch and fix this. No youtube on my living room TV unless I reinstall with a cramped 32-bit OS. Update: turns out you can install a 32-bit version of Firefox and the 32-bit flash player, or use ndispluginwrapper. Either way, it's a pain in the ass. Come on, Adobe, get with the program.

---

Update:

This is now available as flashplugin-nonfree in the universe repository on Ubuntu. It works, too. Thanks Adobe.

Ubuntu on Dell

It's now official: the rumours, buzz, and conjecture were correct, and Dell Computer will be shipping Ubuntu Linux on their machines. This is the cannon-shot, folks.

With official vendor support on the desktop Linux will get the sort of sustained device support it needs to be truly practical. Ubuntu is a great distribution: I've used it now for a year and a half, and it keeps getting better and better. There are a few details about which models. I'm wondering whether they be providing open source drivers (or just keep pushing non-free BLOBs).

For Ubuntu, today feels like 1990 all over again, when Windows was new, exciting, and fresh, and had a future ahead of it. The vendors are lining up behind it: first Sun made Ubuntu the first distro to get all of Java included as a first-class citizen, and now a hardware heavyweight is on board as well. Microsoft must have some friends or allies, but it's hard to see what leverage they have when customers are rebelling at the prospect of moving to Vista, and hardware vendors are once again giving them XP.