Back in 2006 Ross Anderson (Professor of Security Engineering at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory) announced on his blog that he had published the full contents of the first edition of his book “Security Engineering
Now the second edition of Security Engineering
Erm, I don’t know quite what got into this person!
The purpose of this invention is to provide an improved method of proposing marriage to an individual. The method of proposing to an individual generally comprising the steps of meeting the individual; exchanging names with the individual; dating the individual (not necessary); drafting a government document having a proposal to marry the individual incorporated therein; and showing the government document to the individual. The government document may be a patent application. The patent application may claim the method by which the proposor will make a marriage proposal to the individual. The proposor could then use the method claimed in the patent application to propose to the individual. The patent application could be the actual marriage proposal.
Thankfully it’s rather restrictive on whom it applies to..
[0022] In the drawings, the method for a proposor to propose to an individual is generally referred to by the reference numeral 10. Method 10 generally comprises the steps of meeting an individual; exchanging names with the individual; drafting a government document having a proposal to marry the individual incorporated therein; and showing the government document to the individual. Preferably, the government document is a patent application. The patent application may claim the method by which the proposor will make a marriage proposal to the individual. The proposor could then use the method claimed in the patent application to propose to the individual. Furthermore, the individual is preferably named Ellen Renee Colyer (hereinafter “Ellie”) and the proposor is preferably named Ryan Thomas Grace (hereinafter “Ryan”). Ryan is more fully described as set forth hereinbelow. Ellie generally comprises a kind, loving individual who has not only been a large support for Ryan during many pressing times, but has also been a large influence on how Ryan approaches life (more so than Ellie will ever let herself realize).
…and the exact method is something that few people will (hopefully) try…
[0014] After drafting the government document, the government document is shown to the individual as generally defined by the showing step. The showing step may comprise placing the government document in a limousine where the individual can find the government document. The proposor could then arrange to have the limousine meet the proposor at a predetermined location where the proposor presents a diamond ring to the individual.
As geeky as the proposal may seem it appears to have worked!
[0045] In the ideal situation where Ellie accepts the diamond ring, Ryan should sign the patent application and deposit the patent application with the United States Postal Service. Preferably, the United States Patent and Trademark Office receives the patent application and, upon examination, issues a patent on the same.
The wedding reception will be a scream..
Dear Microsoft,
RE: OOXML
Due to massive irregularities in the voting process in ISO, the requirement to use patented media formats such as MP3 and the sheer inappropriateness of using the fast-track process for your massive XML document format OOXML I will not accept it as an agreed ISO standard, even though you managed to con enough people into voting for it.
Chris
Nokia and TrollTech (the people who write QT, the widget library that KDE uses, and who are a supporting sponsor of LCA 2008) are working out a purchase agreement (PDF joint letter).
Given that Nokia don’t seem to have a clue about open standards (Theora “proprietary” indeed) this doesn’t sound like a particularly promising deal to me. 🙁
I’ve not been following SCO’s stock price recently, it’s been pretty bad since the heady days of around $4 per share, but a Groklaw newspick from their RSS feed just piqued my attention by pointing at the Yahoo chart for SCOXQ.PK (delisted from NASDAQ, trading on minor markets) which shows SCO trading at barely over 5c a share.
From Ars Technica (early December):
Imagine a world in which a single industry could control an entire continent’s access to particular web sites, force ISPs to install expensive deep packet inspection gear that would search the complete Internet data streams of millions of users, and force Internet applications to conform to its design parameters or risk being blocked. If you’re a European consumer, this might sound like a paranoid dystopia, but it’s actually a vision of paradise—if paradise were designed by the IFPI.
What are they after ? Terrorists ? Paedophiles ? Drug runners ? Not quite..
In a recent memo to European legislators, the worldwide music lobby laid out its vision of a world in which all ISPs adopted three “feasible and reasonable options” to help address copyright infringement on their networks.
Not surprisingly the EFF has something to say about this (PDF)..
Don’t panic about the possibility of Internet censorship here in Australia, here comes the cavalry!
The U.S. State Department has been given $15 Million by Congress to develop anti-censorship tools and services which could help Internet users breach electronic firewalls
A Texas judge today faced a widespread rebuke from her fellow lawyers for refusing to keep her courthouse open after 5pm to hear a last-minute death row appeal. The prisoner was executed hours later. […] His lawyers had suffered a computer breakdown and were unable to file the appeal within regular working hours, and had begged Judge Keller for more time. Ms Keller refused.
They wanted an extra 20 minutes..
The government of the Republic of South Africa has published (( on the RSA Open Source Software in Government website )) the latest version (4.1) of its Minimum Interoperability Standards (MIOS) for Information Systems in Government, which now includes ODF as their document format:
The main thrust of the framework (in line with international best practice), is the adoption of a structured approach with regard to information systems. To achieve this approach, and to ensure the enhancement of interoperability across Government, a minimum set of standards are included in this document as a required Government-wide standard. To this end, this updated version of MIOS contains an explicit definition of Open Standards as well as the inclusion of the ISO (International Standards Organisation) Open Document Format.
It also says that they will consider open source software favourably for their IT systems:
In developing open information systems, open source based solutions are to be considered before proprietary ones
This is expanded upon in their new Policy on Free and Open Source Software use for South African Government, which codifies it as:
1) The South African Government will implement FOSS unless proprietary software is demonstrated to be significantly superior. Whenever the advantages of FOSS and proprietary software are comparable FOSS will be implemented when choosing a software solution for a new project. Whenever FOSS is not implemented, then reasons must be provided in order to justify the implementation of proprietary software.
2) The South African Government will migrate current proprietary software to FOSS whenever comparable software exists.
3) All new software developed for or by the South African Government will be based on open standards, adherent to FOSS principles, and licensed using a FOSS license where possible.
4) The South African Government will ensure all Government content and content developed using Government resources is made Open Content, unless analysis on specific content shows that proprietary licensing or confidentiality is substantially beneficial.
5) The South African Government will encourage the use of Open Content and Open Standards within South Africa.
They are also being reassuringly pragmatic about it, rather than dogmatic, as the justification says:
This is not to say that FOSS/OC solutions are currently available or appropriate in every situation or for every user, a reality accommodated in the revised policy.
So, all in all, quite a positive outcome!
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over this one..
A company sues Cisco for infringing a patent. Just one problem, they filed the suit the day before the patent was granted!
It then appears they realise their faux pas and so persuade someone at the court to alter the docket to the day after, so it will match the patent issuance date!
With much thanks to the excellent Patent Troll Tracker blog for the news and to Dennis Crouch’s Patently-O blog for the complaint.