After much ado recently about stupid patent applications and controversy over the actual purpose of the (US) patent system, the New York Times has come out in favour of what every sane person knows: patents are supposed to encourage innovation, not to prevent competition.
Over the past few months we've seen more and more examples of attempting to brainwash kids into believing that all the new-fangled spy technology destined to restrict our freedom is actually a good thing.
Although I've not really written about it before, watching the torrent of patent abuse and anti-Google lawsuits has had me entertained for a good few weeks. In particular, a bunch of Belgian newspapers objected to Google's indexing of their content citing 'copyright violation' and demanded royalties, ignoring the fact that far from really benefiting Google […]
I feel like I should take this opportunity to express delight that Top Gear will go on, and that Richard Hammond is recovering well. I was in Wetherspoons half-drunk when I noticed the news on the big widescreen tele that he'd been in a big crash. I always wished I'd followed Top Gear more closely […]
I moaned about Tesco's self-service tills ages ago. So long ago, in fact, that my moaning predates this blog so there's no link I can give you. But basically I grew concerned, having scanned my shopping and having been forced to take a plastic bag for a handful of items, I swiped my debit card […]
Just weeks after Facebook signed a hastily-prepared Microsoft ad deal and went super-stalker on its users by trying to enter the big scene with new high-scale features, it's going as far as to consider selling to Yahoo!. Apparently a sale has been on the cards for a while although it's the first I'd heard of […]
So Tony Blair finally decided to announce he'll leave within the next 12 months. Well, aside from the fact that I have ceased to care about Britain's politics because I'll be getting out of this place as soon as I can set roots in a friendlier country, here's a thought for you.
Earlier in the week I reported on the extensive changes to Facebook which had a huge proportion of people – in numbers heading towards a million – up in arms. Well, it seems the continued outrage and growing online media coverage forced the creators of the social networking service to re-think their ways. They did exactly what they should have done in the first place: given the user control.
The new bizarrely-named 'Feed' (which has nothing to do with RSS or Atom or XML at all) is the replacement of the default "you've just signed in" homepage, which lists every move/edit/action taken by your friends in recent days. This includes new wallposts (profile comments), added photos, information added/removed from their profile and newly created friendships.
Marred this month by exteme bad luck on counts of badly designed antenna bolts the weekend before the planned August launch, a tropical storm, a lightning strike, a partial rollback to hangar and now electrical failures just hours from T minus zero, one wonders how NASA could ever have claimed to be ready for this mission.
