Dan Gillmor blogs Apple’s “Trade Secrets”. “Reporting on business, if this bad ruling is upheld on appeal, will be a great deal harder in the future.”
Andrew MacNeill posted something similar on his blog, and I started a reply in a comment there, thought a blog entry might be better, and (scope creep!), it grew into a full-fledged essay. I’m still working on that one, and it’s a bit scatter-brained, but wanted to save it to disk before it vanished into the ether… net.
Computerworld News reports “Burst, Microsoft reach tentative settlement in antitrust case. Burst.com had filed its lawsuit against Microsoft in 2002, alleging that the software vendor stole patented technology and trade secrets concerning Internet-based video-on-demand for its Windows Media Player.”
This’ll be a real disappointment if it comes to pass, although Microsoft likely had little choice. Burst had pretty damning evidence that not only had Microsoft infringed on Burst’s intellectual property, but also alleged some pretty explosive evidence that Microsoft had systematically and intentionally destroyed email records to hide those earlier violations. This has been a crusade of the columnist known pseudonymously as Robert X. Cringely in columns here and here testify.
Ed Foster’s Gripelog column this week asks “Why You Should Stop Before You Click. This week the Americans For Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT) coalition announced its “Stop Before You Click” campaign promoting its 12 Principles for Fair Commerce in Software and Other Digital Products. But what does AFFECT mean by all that? After we stop before we click, what do we do next?”
The Twelve Principles read like a great start on a new relationship between commercial software vendors (and electronic consumer products) and their customers. Here’s some of the preamble:
When you buy an off-the-shelf product for yourself or your business, you expect the law to provide you with some basic rights. For example, your car will work as advertised. Or you will be allowed to legally sell the television set when you upgrade to a new one and you wouldn’t expect something as simple as lending a book to a friend to create any problems for you.
It might surprise you to learn, then, that the rights you are accustomed to when you buy traditional goods and services may not apply when you purchase digital products.
Vendors ought to study these ideas.
It seems that Apress is offering some of their older titles for free download. I snagged a copy of their “Programmers Introduction to PHP 4, ” a 4 megabyte, 478 page PDF. It looks like the full version of the book. The download site also offers the source code. The book includes a plug for the newer edition of PHP5 and MySQL, released in June of 2004. This is a smart move on Apress’ part. Hope it pans out for them financially.
Computerworld News notes that “It’s official: FBI scraps $170M Virtual Case File project. FBI Director Robert Mueller, in testimony yesterday before a House subcommittee, confirmed that the agency has scrapped its $170 million Virtual Case File initiative.”
Another one for the record books, another huge project crashing against the rocks. I do wonder if projects this large have a tendency to fail at a greater rate or if it is “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” that attracts all of the attention. In nearly twenty years of software development, I’ve only been involved in a few projects that were shuttered before they shipped. My experience is anecdotal and statistically insignificant, of course. Has anyone managed to collect a broad study of size vs. success?
This morning somebody asked, “Do you compost?”
“No,” I replied. “I’m just aging normally.”
[The Doc Searls Weblog]
At the Intel Developer Forum last week, Intel showed off a concept home media case and got some attention from the trade press in a pitiful “Me, too!” effort to try to make Intel-based machines as cool as the Mac Mini.
“Thus far, the concept PC is just a piece of plastic, literally, although its design showed a clock display and optical drive in front, with ports such as USB, optical audio and FireWire in the back.”
You wonder who they are learning innovation from…
Imitation may be flattery, but what’s next? Intel imitation Rolexes?
Hint: it’s not the pretty box. It’s the features, the included software, the slick operating sytem that Just Works ™, the ease of use, the slick marketing and, yes, cachet that makes the Mac Mini what it is. The $499 (and up) price tag and the pretty box are just facets of that. Intel needs to learn to think different-ly.
Fixed the problem we ran into in last week’s class, as detailed in the updated blog entry. As with most computer problems, it was just a matter of zeroing in on the symptoms, eliminating causes, researching, and then systematically changing settings until the problem was solved, reviewing, restesting. Took Bill and I around three hours this morning to nail it down.
The hard part is to not change six things and see if the problem goes away. Maybe it does, but you’re no closer to knowing what caused the problem. Change one thing, test, change another, test, take notes. When you’ve got it working, unchange everying back and figure out which changes mattered and which didn’t. Repeat on another system to confirm. Whew.
The Doc Searls Weblog posts Markets are Relationships, Part N. “Anyway, here’s the problem: Google is an advertising company, more than a search company. That’s becoming clearer with this feature, and the company’s apparent lack of interest in the feedback they’ve been getting.”
Insightful column, with many references and links to other thinkers on this matter. I’ll be interested in Google’s response.
Doc missed the boat on the last item, though: “Note: Microsoft dropped whatever-it-was [later: SmartTags] that Autolink does as well. Why? Because Microsoft listened to its customers.” I don’t think so. I think Microsoft dropped SmartTags from IE and from visibility because they were taking too much flack in the media. Like HailStorm or Palladium or other MSFT maneuvers, they are alive and well and being repackaged, renamed and slip-streamed into other products. Keep an eye on them.
I’ve attended a couple of professional get-togethers lately (like BOFs Birds-Of-a-Feather at LinuxWorld) and running these meetings is tough. Typically, you’ve got a lot of smart people with a lot of interesting things to say, and a lot of smart people who might drag the discussion off-focus. Halley describes a classic problem here, but notes the next day that things are improving.
I’m hoping to make a few visits this year to what Dave Winer calls UnConferences, and hope the benevolent dictators in charge of these events take note. Imagine – a conference where people actually confer!