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Chip maker Marvell smacked with $1.17 billion patent verdict | 398 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
A monopoly isn't enough, you have to be able to use it.
Authored by: SilverWave on Sunday, December 23 2012 @ 08:10 PM EST
Interesting stuff about all kinds of monopolies, start with Rare Earth's and follows up with Tech.

A monopoly isn't enough, you have to be able to use it

Quotes:
"Specifically, it's possible to successfully exercise monopoly power only if that monopoly is not contestable"

"Or Google and search engines: we've got two investigations going on right now about whether Google is abusing its market position - one in the US and another in the EU. But this isn't the correct question at all. Sure, they're market-dominant: but if they really try to rook their customers can someone come along and challenge them? I would argue yes they could: not that anyone's been successful particularly yet but there's no obvious legal or technical reason why someone couldn't. It would only need a change in consumer taste for a competitor to beat them."

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The 2012 ABA Journal Blawg 100 still shows ? for total votes who won.
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, December 23 2012 @ 10:12 PM EST
http://www.abajournal.com/blawg100

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

A cure for gun violence?
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 03:09 AM EST
Behind the Connecticut Massacre
by JERRY KROTH

Each time there is an outbreak of homicidal mania, whether Columbine, Virginia
Tech, or Adam Lanza’s slaughter of twenty eight innocents in Connecticut, the
media directs us to stories about gun control and the need for better policing
of individuals with mental illnesses.

The larger context—that America is a society brimming over with violence—is
entirely lost in the discussion.

Let’s take a look at the forest for a change, shall we:

There are 192 million firearms owned by Americans, more than any other society
in the world. Our rate of death from firearms is three times that of France and
Canada, fourteen times greater than Ireland, and two hundred and fifty times
greater than Japan, where firearms are aggressively controlled.

The U.S. has more prisoners, per capita, than any country on earth—three times
more than Cuba, seven times more than Germany—and, indeed, we house twenty-five
percent of all the prisoners in the world.

As for media violence, by the time the average American child leaves elementary
school, they will have witnessed 8,000 murders and over 100,000 other acts of
violence, and, to rub more salt into these open wounds, the U.S. also leads the
world in the sale and rental of violent video games.

That litany of statistics comes to us compliments of our gratuitous
interpretations of the First and Second Amendments.

But the forest we are talking grows ever larger.

Since World War II, the United States engaged in over fifty military operations
abroad killing some four million people (Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, the list goes on). If you add in to
that total massacres by proxies and surrogates, the number flirts with five
million (Indonesia, Chile, Guatemala, and elsewhere).

We are the only country in the world seemingly perpetually at war. In 2011-2012
alone, the United States was killing people in nine different countries: Iraq
and Afghanistan with troops, Libya with rockets, Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen
with drones, Honduras with raids against drug cartels, the Philippines with air
support against insurgents, and most recently in Kenya as 150 Special forces
started their operations. No other country in the world can boast of so many
military involvements.

To remedy the horrors we saw in Connecticut should not be limited to screening
mentally ill individuals from purchasing Glocks—which is about as far as our
craven mainstream media wishes to venture. Instead we need to recognize the
massacres of Jonestown, Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Connecticut are merely
symptoms of a much more ubiquitous cancer.

To finally address this problem is to begin a long and arduous process of
cultivating a culture of peace. Such collective psychotherapy begins by treating
the patient on many fronts and in a multi-dimensional way: To forbid the sale of
handguns, nationwide; to ration the sale of ammunition; to prohibit the sale of
violent toys to children (Greece already does), to aggressively control the sale
and access of violent video games to children (Australia, Venezuela, Germany,
Switzerland, Sweden, and Brazil already do), and to prohibit the broadcast of
violent scenes, explicit or implicit, on network television during family
viewing hours, a practice already in effect in many European countries.

And, who knows, we might even take it one step further and retreat from our
aspirations of empire and global hegemony, close down our military operations,
and bring our vast armies and armadas home —over 400,000 Americans at last count
stationed in almost 1,000 overseas military bases.

Russia has ten overseas military bases. China none.

So much room to grow!

Imagine our progressive President, instead of limiting his compassion to the
shedding of a tear at a press conference, actually proposed comprehensive and
revolutionary changes and legislation that focussed not on the symptoms but, at
long last, finally started to address the disease itself.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/17/behind-the-connecticut-massacre/

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Nokia's Symbian & Meego sales increase at expense of Windows Phone 8
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 06:07 AM EST

Bad news for Nokia. Symbian and Meego phone sales are rising, at the expense of Windows Phone 8.

Communities Dominate Brands

When customers would rather buy obsolete phones instead of your latest and greatest, you are in big trouble.

Wayne
http://madhatter.ca

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

God Jul
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 07:07 AM EST
or Merry Christmas... :)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Soo cool: spacex- reusable-grasshopper-rocket-test-flight-video
Authored by: SilverWave on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 11:36 AM EST
SpaceX's reusable rocket lifts cowboy into the air and lands vertically

>Well that’s number 3, when is he going to make the rest of the Thunderbirds?

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Why Windows 8 started and failed for me
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 11:39 AM EST
It's Christmas Time, it's that time of year
People in high spirits and full of good cheer.
All night boozing and stopping up late
So why Oh why did I install Windows 8

A week in advance it was given to me
An original disk so dear brother you can see
What the fuss is about, dont you think it looks cool?
Go on install it dont be a fool.

It wont harm your computer, go on give it a try!
Though after only a few hours I'm beginning to ask WHY?
I was obviously wrong to dream of Microsoft Heaven
So I'm really glad I kept an install of my tweaked Windows 7

The only OS I've had to Google to shut down
Just 5 minutes after install and I wore a big frown.
Trying to find out how things should be done
This is a whole load of something, that I wouldn't call fun

So the next day I thought I would try once again
I tried to really like it but my efforts where in vain.
The only app I could find that could make me festively merry
Was an app from the store supporting Tom and Jerry

I know what I'll do I'll carry out an update
Not a good idea judging from the state
The computer it now just doesn't want to work
Almost tearing my hair out and going beserk

After much fragging about I'm back to square one
And I would like to say that Windows 8 has now gone
But it hasn't on an external drive it does reside
With a boot loader that is edited it's presence to hide

The only way to start it on power up is by hitting F11
Never to be Microsoft's offering of a stair way to heaven
Unlike the Zeppelin song never to be played with again late
At the place down below, not the OS pearly gate

My Mageia, Fedora, Windows 7 and XP
All work correctly on my lounge Tele/ PC
They all installed the software automatically for the twin tuner card.
But even for Windows 8 that was a task that was too hard.

May be it would be different on a computer with touchscreen
On my PVR system it left me, just wanting to scream.



As the updates were being applied to the Windows 8 installed on the second
drive, when finished and I reboot there was information in RAM that meant on
re-boot as I was going to go back in to Win 7 it completely screwed up the Win 7
as it tried to apply updates during the startup (Win 8 had said it had 100%
finished and didn't even insist on a need to re-start)

After using the MS suggestions to repair the 8 install it lost the boat loader
for 7 and XP on the same disk. Fortunately there are 3 different Linux
installs on the same system that could be used to fix the issues.

I should have spent the time more productively finding out why the TV tuner
works fine in 32bit Linux but not in 64bit Distributions. Mageia 2 scans
channels but no display and Fedora has a strong signal on scanning but finds no
channels.
Mandriva 32bit, XP and Win 7 64bit all work! Oh well a week off work to find
out why!

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Sansung suing Apple over Notification
Authored by: Charles888 on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 02:08 PM EST
I was wondering who managed to patent that, and when Apple
gets hit for it.

Of course, a BS patent that is no different than Apple's BS
patents. But, you reap what you saw, and once you start a
"thermonuclear war" everybody ultimately ends up with
radiation poisoning.

It has torn about who to root for, but at the end I think
that the best way to restore some sanity is to have
everybody left a little bloody - maybe that will make them
stop the nonsense.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The market speaks: Microsoft is a dinosaur
Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 02:10 PM EST
Link

Absolutely no surprise.

---

You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Apparently, gun lovers don't believe in freedom of speech
Authored by: JamesK on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 02:20 PM EST
Piers Morgan deportation petition gets tens of thousands of signatures

---
The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

leap-motion-gesture-controls. Wow... does this work with Linux?
Authored by: SilverWave on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 06:39 PM EST
This Tiny Gizmo Could Be A Very Big Deal In 2013 - And Beyond

A look inside Leap Motion, the 3D gesture control that's like Kinect on steroids

Why the Leap Is the Best Gesture-Control System We’ve Ever Tested

---
RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Christmas Presents
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 09:32 PM EST

Our family tradition is to open presents on Christmas Eve. This year my
wife gave me a new cane. Useful for someone like me, no?

Noticed a button near the handle - it's a sword cane! Talk about neat.

My wife is now driving my 25 year old son to the hospital. He wanted to find
out how sharp it was, and, well, he found out, so he's off to get stitches :)

Wayne
http://madhatter.ca

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

A place for the gun happy to be useful?
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, December 24 2012 @ 10:26 PM EST

I seen an article a month or so ago, about an unusual fishing derby in the northern USA. To go fishing for silver carp. These fish don't like the sound of engines, and will jump out of the water. And as they can grow quite large, it is an adventure to go in this derby with baseball bats, axes, swords and whatever else to kill the silver carp that launch themselves at you.

But really, these non-native fish need to go.

If gun legislation comes out to restrict assault weapon usage, for some people the penalty should be to travel to one of these rivers where the silver carp are taking over, with their assault rifle, and having to kill N silver carp. Where N is the number specified by the court as their penalty for having an assault weapon.

It gives them a last kick at the cat, and it helps get rid of a problem.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Gun stuff
Authored by: nsomos on Tuesday, December 25 2012 @ 01:07 AM EST
Things to think about

550 rapes and 1,100 murders prevented every day just by intended victims showing guns.

http://womenofcaliber.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/firearm-security-for-women/
cites Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 2000

From that same report

Of all violence with a weapon, the crimes committed with blunt objects/other weapons were the most often associated with victim injury (36%). Twenty-eight percent of the crimes with knives/sharp objects and 15% of crimes with firearms involved injury.

Offenders armed with knives accounted for 6% of all violence but 24% of all serious injuries having inflicted serious injury on about 1 in 8 of their victims. About 1 in 15 victims of offenders using a blunt object/other weapon and 1 in 22 victims of offenders with a firearm sustained serious injury.

This tells me that you are actually LESS likely to be seriously injured if your attacker has a gun as opposed to some other weapon.

Don't think that your local police force will protect you from criminal harm.

DeShaney vs Winnebago County 1989 Supreme Court decision

"... the constitution does not impose a duty on the state and local governments to protect the citizens from criminal harm"

For those who go on about 'militia' ....

McDonald et al vs City of Chicago

"Americans have an individual right to possess a firearm
unconnected with service in a militia,
and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes,
such as self-defense within the home"
- Justice Antonin Scalia, June 26, 2008

An eye opening 40 minute film "No Guns for Jews" http://jpfo.org/filegen-n-z2/ngj-download-view.php
Available in Various formats about 2/3rds down that page

FLV
http://jpfo .org/filegen-a-m2/movieplay-nogunsforjews-flv.php
Five part Youtube
http://jpfo. org/filegen-a-m2/movieplay-nogunsforjews-yt.php

If every willing and physically capable and mentally stable teacher and staff person were trained and armed, there would be a dramatically different outcome to such attacks. I would hope that any teacher willing to die to protect students, would also be willing to kill an attacker in self-defense.

We understand crowd-sourcing when it comes to certain technical efforts.

So can't we understand crowd-sourcing when it comes to security?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Google Apps Challenging Microsoft in Business
Authored by: Gringo_ on Tuesday, December 25 2012 @ 09:20 PM EST

Link.

Every one of these companies that invested in Google Apps has taken a firm step away from lock-in to Windows, and are candidates for switching to other platforms like Linux or even Google Chrome where appropriate. Then the saving will become several magnitudes greater.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Raspberry Pi and Windoze......
Authored by: tiger99 on Wednesday, December 26 2012 @ 11:35 AM EST
Christmas eve, a Pi and the usual necessities were delivered to two kids, 8 and 10. The 10 year old found which plug went where, and away it went. The TV had only composite video, so the kids matched up the yellow, red and white phonos, no problem, but the display was not quite right, so I edited /boot/config.txt or something similar, as explained fully in the book, uncommented one line, and it was then perfect. (EDID can't be read when using composite video so you get a default config which works, sort of, but not up to the standard that I would want people to be using.)

Christmas day, another kid, 12 years old was well pleased. The HUGE TV had umpteen HDMI inputs, so connection and auto-configuration was faultless. I had preinstalled the Pistore, so after finding a long enough network cable, he had a few new things including LibreOffice, OpenTTD and another game which I can't remember. On starting OpenTTD, we were greeted with all the usual sounds (cow, horse, train, sawmill....) in full stereo, and the screen was fantastic with 1920 pixels wide by height that I can't remember. It turns out that he has been using Scratch at home, and also thinks that LibreOffice will be very useful for his homework.

Meanwhile his father had to go out to work in the hospital, so his mother and a visitor, about 22 I think, were trying to get an mp3 file from Windoze on to an MP3 player. They started first, and when I left, had not succeeded. It seemed to me that the usual Windoze defaults, including the plain stupid, and conducive to serious insecurity, option of hiding file suffices was largely to blame, along with opening some inappropriate default app when a file is double clicked.

So, score is 3 happy kids for Pi and Raspbian, two very frustrated adults for Windoze.

M$ is a complete irrelevance. They should do the decent thing and close down their operation right now, as they have nothing whatsoever of real value to offer the consumer.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Linux Tablets
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, December 26 2012 @ 01:43 PM EST
> The year of the Linux tablet is,
> like the year of the Linux desktop,
> destined never to arrive.

The Register's funny way of saying Android != Linux

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Chip maker Marvell smacked with $1.17 billion patent verdict
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, December 26 2012 @ 08:23 PM EST
A jury said Marvell Technologies, which specializes in energy efficient chips, must pay $1.17 billion for violating two patents belong to Carnegie Mellon University.

[...]

The jury also ruled that Marvell violated the patents intentionally, which means Carnegie Mellon can ask the judge to triple the initial $1.17 billion verdict.

Jeff John Roberts, GIGAOM

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

WIndows 8 UI
Authored by: UncleVom on Wednesday, December 26 2012 @ 08:30 PM EST
You know the one that was formerly called Metro.

Well today as I was shifting stuff around the kitchen I came across a bag from
the Canadian Metro supermarket. (metro. ca)
AFAIK not related to Metro AG that reportedly threatened MSFT with legal action
over the name.

The bag is at least a couple of years old and I had seen and used them many
times before and all of a sudden it struck me. It's the same even the name!

I found a picture of one on a website.

http://lakesuperiornews.com/Environment/Cleanthosereusableshoppingbags.aspx

What do you think?

1. Coincidence.

2. Prior art, in the bag!

3. It is not similar and the Metro name was an internal project code name.

4. Hey a cheap case for my computer. $1 CDN plus tax at Metro.

5. I must remember to wash my Ultrabook.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Price Waterhouse Coopers sued in Iceland for Landsbanki failure
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, December 26 2012 @ 09:14 PM EST
Google translate

"The Prosecutor stated that the Board believes that the bank's auditors have caused damage through their actions, inactions and wrong advice. The company has not audited the accounts of the Bank in accordance with the rules and no reports of serious violations of the Bank's Board of Directors, shareholders and FME as it was supposed to do."

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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