* Posts by jdv

9 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Sep 2010

Why the 'Dancing Baby' copyright case is just hi-tech victim shaming

jdv

Re: SOS, DD

I really don't know this. Could you please explain why you think this is true? Could you point me to any cases where the EFF was clearly not representing the interests of the general public? (And no, this case is not it; I very much believe that they were the good guys here...).

Fanbois designing Windows 10 – where's it going to end?

jdv

Re: Design by Comittee!!!

From TFA:

> Don’t worry global Taskbar fans, you can have it your way with just a settings change: Settings app > System > Multitasking > Virtual Desktops.

David Attenborough warns that humans have stopped evolving

jdv
Holmes

> Those that can better fit into that environment are likely to prosper.

The question is whether being likely to prosper is the same as having a higher chance of breeding. My hypothesis is that it isn't.

Galaxy S4 way faster than iPhone 5: Which?

jdv
WTF?

> The test results will also be a disappointment for BlackBerry ...

What, you don't think they ran their own benchmarks? Perhaps they just made the right trade-off; that big quad core CPU in the GS4 might not actually be that useful for anything but running artificial benchmarks, and the money and power saved that way can be used for other things.

Sony: Can't beat Apple and Samsung, so let's be the Other Guy

jdv
Facepalm

Names...

Whatever else Sony does, they should change the naming of their phones. All those phones named with silly letters, an no logic at all to it, complicated by a new top model twice a year... It is impossible to keep any idea of what's out there. Samsung an HTC are much better there.

Bill Gates: 'Microsoft didn't MISS cell phone' bandwagon

jdv

NPE's are a symptom of a broken patent system

If patents were what they should be, NPE's would not be such a bad thing -- they would just be one way that inventors could monetize an invention. NPE's would not just sue people, but actively market their patents to try to get actual manufacturers to use (and thus license) the inventions they have under their control.

Unfortunately, it is far to easy to get patents on simple things, and having a patent gives you far, far too much power to extort companies and enterpreneurs that have already invested heavily in using an idea that they didn't know was patented. The costs of inadvertantly infringing some nonsense patent are far too high, and it is almost impossible not to do so.

These root causes have to be fixed, and the NPE problem will go away. Conversely, you cannot fix things by just attacking NPE's, because they are just a symptom, and not the root problem.

Why the Apple-Samsung verdict is good for you, your kids and tech

jdv

Apple presumable also spent a lot on the development of their product, and so their product should be protected against copying it. But: Samsung ALSO spent a lot in development of their phones, the did NOT simply copy the whole thing - they are now being punished for copying a few very specific characteristics of Apples product; not for copying the whole thing. Unfortunately, while the infringement was a few small characteristics, the punishment is proportional to copying the whole thing.

That is the big difference: in pharma the patent is for the end product of those millions in investment, while in tech the patents are for thousands of very small details, which nevertheless are used to block entire products from the market and extort unreasonable amounts of money. Suppose that in pharmacology, each small sub-group of a molecule or sub-step in a process would be patentable -- then nobody would be able to develop any more drugs. That is what's happening in the tech industry right now.

At the very least, patent law should be changed so that small features of a product cannot be patented, or of they can, the amount of damages should stand in relation to the total profits as the development effort of that feature is in relation to the development of the entire product.

CO2 warms Earth FASTER than previously thought

jdv

Re: Relax...@ Big Yin

Oh. Well, that's all right, then.

Oracle offers Java distraction to Google fisticuffs

jdv

Actually...

Oracle is trying to decide whether or not to deliver a JDK7 /without/ projects Lambda, Jigsaw, and some of Coin in min 2011, and then deliver those features later as JDK8 in mid 2012.