Posts by Summa

Reading Comprehension

Back to remedial reading for you.

The survey did not say "100 per cent [of teens] will buy one of Apple's music players in the next year." It said that 19 percent planned to buy on in the next year. But 100% of those planned to buy an iPod.

You should also know that "planning to buy" and "wishing they had the money to buy" are much the same thing for teens. Last fall, 22% of teens said they planned to buy an iPhone within six months. Six months later, the percentage of teens who actually have Phones has not changed.

Pheeding phakes to phishers

Brilliant idea, A J -- 'cept some idiots will start using it on legit web sites and get themselves into a bunch of trouble for interrupting commerce. Next we'll see some article interviewing security experts telling us that we really should not be taking the law into our own hands and other such annoying pedantic tripe.

Better that you call your local law enforcement agency next time you see nefarious web activity. They'll hop right on it.

Pity the Reg

You'll publish almost anything these days, no matter how ridiculous. Sad, really.

Forestalling estoppel defense

"If Microsoft knows of exact patent violations, doesn't it have to bring them to court right away, as soon as it believes that it's IP is threatened?"

What MS *does* have to do is put alleged violators on notice, even if it doesn't file a claim again them. Otherwise, they run afoul of the 'equitable estoppel' defense.

'Equitable estoppel' is a tricky bit of legal business, but a key element says that a patent holder can't lead an alleged infringer to believe that the holder won't assert a claim against them, only to jump on them at some point down the road. Putting an alleged violator on notice regarding a patent violation is a way of preventing the violator from asserting this defense if and when you decide to make a claim.

What sales figures?

"and remember that Microsoft doesn’t split out the figures for actual sales to people that specifically want Vista, from passive “sales” included with new PCs."

At the release of their earning last week, they didn't release *any* Vista sales figures, even when Wall Street analysts asked. The general take on this is that Vista adoption rates, relative to the size of the market, are singularly unimpressive.

Bono call your office

If this was a small country instead of a California school district, we'd be having benefit concerts and international cries for relief. But in both instances the problem is the same on two levels: the wrong people are being hurt by stupid expenditures made at the top and the 'moral hazard' of offering relief is that you set an example for everyone else that bills don't have to paid.

Unlikely to be primary cause

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) has be shown to occur in parts of the U.S. where there is no cell phone service. The U.S. CCD Working Group does not consider this to be a likely primary cause. See http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/FAQ/FAQCCD.pdf