Eclectic Views

    
And the bad timing of the month award goes to the just-received
  HP Newsgram: September 2006
with its section
  "HP is committed to respecting your privacy."

Or perhaps it's just board members who should worry.
  

    

   Microsoft Improves Its (Financial) Security

The 64-bit version of Windows Vista, the upcoming successor to Windows XP,
will include code to prevent third-party modifications to the core software
of the operating system, known as the kernel. Billed by its creator as a
security feature, it will also prevent third-party anti-virus utilities from
functioning, just when Microsoft is entering the business of providing its
own software packages in that field, neatly excluding competition in the
"$4.4 billion-a-year market for desktop security software". Companies such
as Symantec, McAfee, and F-Secure have publicly observed the potential
effect on their business in newspaper ads and communications with the
European Commission as well as the committee overseeing the US antitrust
settlement after year-long negotiations with MS reached an impasse. Another
change to come is making the "Microsoft security console" un-replaceable by
another security company's version, which they are also unhappy with.
Microsoft's VP for security dismisses the objections as coming from firms
with "the largest vested interest in the old way of doing things" and says
the changes are a response to "customers' pleas". He opines that third
parties just "need to continue to innovate". A Gartner analyst says of the
actions, "they are removing choice in the name of security" (hmm, that
sounds familiar). Even Trend Micro, a Microsoft partner that provides the
virus-scanning facilities in MS Hotmail and has kept understandably mum so
far, notes that having a single provider "could limit the diversity of
security-protection tools" and observes "I'm not sure that a company that
has had as much trouble securing its users from malware as Microsoft should
be going it alone."
  

    

   Bang Bang, You Have Reduced Functionality

Responding to persistent rumors that Microsoft's new operating system
Windows Vista will include a "kill switch" that shuts the computer down if
it believes the OS license is invalid, a company spokesman says in essence
"Well, not exactly, if you use a narrow definition of kill switch". The
power will not be turned off or the screen go black; instead the suspect
will be denied the use of features like improved graphic displays for the
first 30 days, and if he remains unrepentant after that "the system will
curtail functionality" further by disallowing the opening of files from the
desktop or the use of MS Outlook e-mail software, and permitting only an
hour of Web browsing at a time.  Just about long enough to download Linux.
Similar measures will be incorporated into the new Longhorn server software
as well as "other products". Pressed on the number of cases where legitimate
copies of Windows XP were falsely labeled piracy, a MS spokesman claimed
"The false positive rate for WGA Validation failure is a fraction of one
percent, and in these cases a bug was at fault."
  

    

> Just about long enough to download Linux.

hahaha!
  

    
I like it that they consider denying the use of Outlook as a punishment.
  

    
There are Linux CD's you can boot and run applications from without
messing up the hard drives.  You might be able to use one of those to
transfer your files to another machine or something before doing anything
more drastic.
  

    
Yup ... Knoppix is a good CD bootable Linux.
  

    

   Quote Of The Day

Responding to a 94 percent drop in Sony's quarterly profits from a year ago
and concern over massive recalls of its combustion-prone batteries, chief
financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda says "in the long term we would like to
improve the products so people feel safe using them".
  

    
In the short term, eh.
  

    

   Arachnology

MIT and Britain's University of Southampton are to create a "joint research
program in Web science" under the direction of Tim Berners-Lee. The new
field is described as shifting "the center of gravity in engineering
research from how a single computer works to how huge decentralized Web
systems work", including the social effects and something called services
science, which studies the anthropology of collaborative networks and their
effects on productivity and economic issues. One focus of the discipline
will be privacy: per the story, past efforts have addressed access
restrictions on databases, but with people baring all voluntarily on
FaceBook, MySpace, and the like - but not wanting all the dots connected -
the old approach is not enough. Not to mention all those stolen laptops that
seem to contain everyone's shoe size and who knows what else. And RFID tags.
One suggestion is a set of rules on how (at least legitimate) recipients of
data such as businesses and government agencies use the data, backed by
principles of "accountability and sanctions". One observer sums the
situation up as "Computer science is at a turning point, and it has to go
beyond algorithms and understand the social dynamics of issues like trust,
responsibility, empathy and privacy in this vast networked space."

Some details on the new field are available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/technology/6109332.stm
  

    

   Microsoft Pays $348 Million For Linux

Trust Redmond to shell out a third of a billion for something the rest of us
get free.  MS will give Novell $240 million "in subscription fees to use the
Linux software and an additional $108 million ... for use of patents".  The
deal is part of last week's partial truce between Windows and Linux, whose
terms are still sort of unclear to me; I find it hard to believe Microsoft
has suddenly become all warm and cuddly and non-competitive.
  

    
With Vista on the verge of shipping?  This is passing strange...
  

    

   Guaranteed To Fail Or Your Money Back

The rate of unsuccessful attempts to obtain a mail-in rebate (because the
form wasn't filled in right, or the wrong part of the box was sent in, etc.)
is called "breakage" in the industry.  Though undesired by consumers, the
phenomenon seems to be considered a Good Thing by manufacturers who get to
pretend the price is lower.  Parago, a processor of rebate offers, went so
far as to take out a patent in 1999 for clients who want "procedures to
maintain a sufficient rate of breakage"; its system "provides a user-
friendly interface, yet retains hurdles sufficient to maintain breakage".
[Note: The article cites a blog at http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/
as authority for this; I couldn't verify it there but I think it is patent
#6847935.]


   Pepper Your Thanksgiving Turkey Today

From http://seasonshot.com:
"Our environment is the basis for the sport of hunting. Without a healthy
environment how would our hunting fare? Why damage the very thing that
allows us to do what we love? Season Shot is the answer. This is the first
truly environmentally safe ammunition, Season Shot stands out above the
rest. Using fully biodegradable shot, Season Shot ('Ammo with flavor') is
the right choice to protect what we love."

 Cook a game bird in one piece
 No shot left in the bird
 Season on impact

Coming soon in these flavors:
  Cajun
  Lemon Pepper
  Garlic
  Teriyaki
  Honey Mustard
  

    
Oh for the love of Pete.  

An important question:  Does it work on humans?  Paging Mr. Daumer.
  

    
We could be on to something here.

How about a cannon that fires a stewpot?
Or for vegetarians, a curry-coated sickle?
  

    
> "breakage"

AKA "fraud"
  

    

   Microsoft In Charm Offensive?

Following close on its truce with Linux, the software giant is announcing a
second play-nice initiative. The Interop Vendor Alliance is "financed by
Microsoft and is starting with 22 corporate members" including NEC, Novell,
Siemens, Software AG, and Sun.  MS partners and licensees and "platform
vendors" are eligible to join and "share information [but not proprietary MS
code] to solve common problems" such as enabling single sign-on to multiple
apps with one ID and password.  Hmm, I thought that was a security issue.
The announcement is to be made today in Europe, where Microsoft has been
found guilty of "withholding vital information about Windows" from rivals
and to have "deliberately restricted interoperability between" Windows PC
clients and servers with another operating system.  Microsoft SVP Bob Muglia
says the goals of the alliance are "much, much broader than what has been
mandated by the European Commission; this is about the long term." So please
to ignore those pesky legalities while they focus on the distant horizon.
The CTO of Linux vendor Red Hat summed it up by observing that MS is "moving
in the right direction" but that the actual results to be expected are
unclear so far.
  

    

   A Holiday Quiz

Myron Olesnyckyj, the general counsel, senior vice president, and corporate
secretary of Monster Worldwide, parent of the monster.com search site, has
been dismissed "for cause".  The cause was:

 a) he took all the good jobs at the company for himself

 b) nobody could spell his name

 c) something to do with back-dating stock options
  

    
I really, really want to say "B."
  

    

   The Supreme Court Tackles The Obvious

Consider the gas pedal. You press it down, more fuel goes to the engine and
it runs faster, if everything is working right. Electronic engine controls
enable the pedal action to be adjusted for the height and comfort of the
driver. In the past this adjustment has been accomplished mechanically, but
auto-parts maker KSR International has a version that uses an electronic
device instead. Not so fast, says rival Teleflex; we have a patent on the
idea of using electronics in place of a physical device.  To be patentable,
an idea must be new (not thought of before), useful, and - at issue here -
not obvious to a person who is familiar with and possesses an ordinary
amount of skill in that field. The trial court agreed with KSR that the
simple substitution of an electronic sensor for a mechanical link was
sufficiently obvious to invalidate Teleflex's patent; but the US Appeals
Court for the Federal Circuit chose to apply a different test and reversed
the judge. Their test is whether there previously existed a demonstrable
"teaching, suggestion, or motivation" that would have led someone else to
the idea. That in turn is a matter of fact for a jury to decide, which means
big long expensive trials, not just in the auto industry but for software,
microprocessors, you name it. The USCA test also raises the question whether
the Federal Circuit, which hears all patent appeals, has "leaned too far in
the direction of never seeing a patent they didn't like". That quote from
Justice Stephen Breyer may be what led the Supremes to take the rare step of
hearing a patent case. Their decision could lead to a major change in how,
or whether, many patents are litigated. Stay tuned.
  

    
> whether there previously existed a demonstrable "teaching, suggestion, 
> or motivation" that would have led someone else to the idea

Would that include description of the idea in fiction?  If so many, many 
things would be unpatentable for having been suggested by science fiction 
authors decades before they were technically feasible.
  

    
Wasn't there a patent application for a way to raise sunken ships using air
bags that was ruled unpatentable because of a Donald Duck comic where they
used ping-pong balls?
  

    
> Would that include description of the idea in fiction

I expect the key here is the phrase "would have led someone else to the
idea"; for example, a story about interplanetary travel based on giant
rubber bands might not be enough.  As for the raising-sunken-ships idea,
seems to me the patent application would include the concept of inflating
the bags with a surface-based air hose or something which might distinguish
it from the Disney concept, but if it didn't...
  

    <scribbled by satyr Wed 6 Dec 06 12:26>
  

    
The impression I had, when I reached adulthood, 30-something years ago, was
that only implementations were patentable, not general ideas.

Was I wrong, or has that concept gotten lost along the way?