Google Sued for $5B
Rates Technology, a little-known patent-holding company with a history of filing suits against large technology companies, said it will seek $5 billion in damages from Google based on unpaid royalties from a patent infringement lawsuit RTI filed against Google in New York.
Would it be more cost-effective to simply let contracts for “hits” on the RTI principals? Improve the gene pool and make better use of shareholder’s money all in one stroke.
For the humor-impaired – 1) note the category, 2) get a clue.
MercuryNews.com | 12/31/2005 | Royal honor shines on Apple designer
Jonathan Ive has been awarded the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or CBE, by Queen Elizabeth II who, according to the British press, fancies a silver iPod mini.
I think this shows incredible good taste on the part of the Queen. Who knew? 
White House Says Web Site Counts Visitors
OK, this is just silly … perhaps not-very-hard working “Journalists” looking for low hanging fruit.
File this under “So What!”. Perhaps the White House website counts visitors. Perhaps the White House website tracks the interests of an individual visitor. By itself this is harmless, and the last is information the folks maintaining the website can use to be more helpful. By itself this is simply not a problem.
Now if the website information was going into some universal surveillance database – which may well be the case given recent history – then that would be of concern. This sort of surveillance is more effectively done by installing what amounts to digital taps in the Internet. In comparison cookies and webbugs are pretty much both useless and harmless.
We have many far more serious problems to worry about.
from The Onion
Posted in Humor, Politics, Web
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Sexes gain equality on the Web
For men, it’s just, ‘Give me the facts,”‘ said Deborah Fallows, who wrote the report based on six years of Pew surveys. “For women, it’s ‘Let’s talk about this. Are you worried about this problem?’ It’s keeping in touch and connecting with people in a richer way.”
Is this part of a pattern?
“You never listen to me!” – is a common complaint men hear from women.
Often the subject of the complaint is confused, as it seems he is doing quite a lot of listening.
When out walking, I often see couples where the woman is talking – a lot – and the man is listening (with expressions that range from patient to slightly pained). It seems very much like the woman is attempting to load a program into the subject, and the complaint comes when the man – no matter how much listening he actually does – does not accept the program.
Are men shaped by evolution to be programmable by women?
NSA Web Site Spies On You
Since the NSA has been caught illegally spying on people recently. I hardly believe that the cookies are inadvertant.
This is so wrong on so many levels…
First, web browser cookies are not scary. In fact they are about as scary as … cookies (the kind you’d munch on). Cookies let a web site remember a bit about you from the last visit. This is something like a helpful shopkeeper who remembers you from the before, and does not waste your time asking the same questions on every visit.
Years ago, when the software folks at Netscape came up with “cookies” they were only trying to be helpful. They did make a mistake in that they did not at the time consider the ways in which the information in “cookies” could be misused. The problem was pretty simple – a bad site could read all your cookies, not just the ones created by their site. The fix was equally simple, and all current web browsers prevent bad sites from stealing cookies.
There is still a way in which cookies can be abused. Advertising outfits – the kind that put banner ads on lots of different pages – can keep a history of all the sites you visit on which they have ads. Given that advertising outfits tend to be a bit weak on ethics, this history may be more information than you would like them to have. One common (though not necessarily universal) feature of “spyware blockers” is the ability to block the less ethical advertising outfits.
How To Make A RFID Blocking Wallet
I wonder how long before this becomes a standard feature of wallets? All the maker has to do is incorporate a layer of aluminum foil.
100 % Duct Tape Wallets by DuckSkin VENICE
Pre-made wallets out of duct tape?!
Duct tape / Colored Duct Tape
For those of you who are serious about their duct tape. I admit to being tempted .
from UserFriendly
Yes, I do believe weblogs have forced those who practice “Journalism” (the profession) to work a little harder, and to not be as sloppy as often.
As an aside – the word “Journalism” is dervied from journal for which one of the offered definitions is “a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations”. Hmm – this sounds like a weblog. So if a weblog is a form of journal, then presumably we can say that those who keep weblogs are practicing journalism – by definition?
Of course in common usage “Journalism” (especially when capitallized) is often used to describe the profession associated with newspapers, magazines, and (sometimes) television.
So … those who keep weblogs are “journalists”, but not “Journalists”?? Is this something of a rather fine – or perhaps slight – distinction? This change from centrallized to decentrallized mass communication (from print to the Internet) is playing havoc with old definitions .
