I'm not sure why anyone would see any reason behind Amazon's move to hoard a bunch of gTLDs (global top level domains), other than pure greed. In a recent open letter (PDF) to ICANN, Association of American Publishers rightfully opposed granting Amazon the control of the .book gTLD. It states: In short, Amazon makes clear — Continue reading »
Electric Cars To Make Noise
📆 January 9, 2013
I don't like government regulation much but there are areas that concern health and safety where government regulation may not be a bad thing. Making electric cars a bit noisier is one of those areas (Electric Cars Must Make Noises Can Hear Under U.S. Rule). As a runner and walker I have been startled by — Continue reading »
Oracle's Java Bet
📆 June 11, 2012
A couple of weeks ago a judge finally ruled that Google hadn't violated any patents when it used the Java programming language in its Android OS. Good, finally someone wasn't intimidated by Larry Ellison and ruled based on logic rather than emotion. Word has it that the judge actually took some time to learn Java — Continue reading »
Chrome Blesses SQLite
📆 February 10, 2012
Here's an interesting piece found on the Chrome browser (v17). Fire up Chrome. Browse to chrome://credits/, scroll down to SQLite and click on "show licence" and this little praise pops up: The author disclaims copyright to this source code. In place of a legal notice, here is a blessing: May you do good and not evil. — Continue reading »
Amazon Fire and Silk
📆 October 1, 2011
So amazon finally announced its so-called secret product last week. With much fanfare the world was introduced the new Android-driven tablet called Fire, featuring the Silk browser. Oh, the Kindle is still there too, and at a huge discount to its more glorious days, but who cares about Kindle now. As usual there has been — Continue reading »
IT help Needed, Indian Style
📆 August 27, 2011
It's such a stereotype, but there's a reason why Indians are associated with IT (Information Technology). Obviously Indians are very active in the field and most likely they are biggest ethnic group in the IT industry. So where does a company go to hire IT people? In this case they post a giant want ad — Continue reading »
Patents attack Android
📆 August 5, 2011
I'm not naive to the point of believing that Google is all good and no evil, but in this case I side with Google. What the big patent trolls like Oracle and Apple and Microsoft are doing by burying Android in lawsuits and threats is stifling innovation and taking away choice from consumers. I'm all — Continue reading »
Software Patent Sharks
📆 July 24, 2011
This is superb reporting by NPR (link at bottom) on the murky business of software patents and how the real spirit of patent and copyright laws have been subverted by patent mills out to make a quick pile of cash. These days greedy companies get patent protection for the most ridiculous and obscure algorithms. Most — Continue reading »
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