Technology

More on Patents

This entry was posted in Constitution Economics Patents Technology on by

Jonathon Krim explores some of the problems with patents and the US Patent Office in this long Washington Post article.
Regular readers already know that I take a very dim view of some of the patents being approved. For instance, see here, here and here.
Krim tells us that

Patents are granted for inventions deemed unique, useful and non-obvious, and the system has periodically yielded curious inventions, such as a diaper for pet birds.

There are some types of patents that have only sprung up in the last 20-30 years:

Software patents, for instance, can protect a single line of code that tells a computer to do a specific task.
Internet method patents, meanwhile, allow companies to protect broad ways of doing business on the Internet, rather than a specific product or its underlying technology. These controversial patents include Amazon.com’s method of “one-click” shopping and the use of online shopping carts.

Most of these types of patents should never have been issued.
Apparently the Patent Office has a huge backlog of applications and argues that they need more money and more staff to get them processed. There is an easy way to reduce the flow of applications and thus get a handle on the backlog: simply stop issuing these types of patents.
Via beSpacific.

Voting Machines

This entry was posted in Constitution Democracy Election 2004 Technology on by

Please do not forget that there are issues with electronic voting machines that must be resolved before these machines can be trusted.
John Williams of Thudfactor has posts here and at OSPolitics (which includes a neat simulator) that discuss some of the issues.
Ask for audited open source software and clear paper trails now.
Via Notes on the Atrocities.
Update: Talkleft notes that Florida will not require paper trails (surely no one is surprized by this) and Jeralyn provides several links to good reference material.

Two faces of Michael Powell

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Domestic Terrorism Economics Federal Government Internet Regulation Technology on by

Yesterday Michael Powell said the following (PDF) in remarks opening a forum on Voice over IP:

As one who believes unflinchingly in maintaining an Internet free from government regulation, I believe that IP-based services such as VOIP should evolve in a regulation-free zone.
No regulator, either federal or state, should tread into this area without an absolutely compelling justification for doing so.

This is the same guy that recently supported the implementation of the broadcast flag and willingly accepts it as his duty to use regulation to push the implementation of HDTV which may be nifty high quality but, nevertheless, should be left to find its own way in the market. We will either embrace it or ignore it.
Something that could bring the development of VoIP to a grinding halt is this push (requires free registration) by the FBI and the Justice Department to have the FCC assure that they will be able to eavesdrop on our VoIP calls:

The FBI and Justice Department want the FCC to classify Internet-based telephony as a traditional telecommunications service, which would subject it to federal laws requiring carriers or software companies “to develop intercept solutions for lawful electronic surveillance.”

It is time to just say no to these folks.
Via beSpacific here and here.
Update (12/3): For more on the FCC’s VoIP forum see The Knowledge Problem.

Protect your Data

This entry was posted in Technology on by

Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s hard drive failed which is not something to wish on anyone.
However, there are benefits for the rest of us: the comment threads to these two posts which provide lot’s of good information on data recovery and backups.