Darth Vader patents copper-eating spiders

Once again, we discover that there is nothing like a good software patent application. (You can read the emphasis in that sentence however you like):

Patents!! AAARRGH!

Mark Splinter

You wrote: "Basically, it organises a digital music library using a hierarchy of, you guessed it, common descriptors like album, artist and song title." ... like I use to organize the vinyl on my shelf back in the '70s. I had no idea I could get a patent on my technique.

lance bland

re Creative,

Well I hope they bloody well win. The sooner a ridiculous patent like this seriously affects a company big enough to manipulate the government into fixing the patent laws the better.

Pity I can't benefit myself from the hundreds of bleedingly obvious ideas I have everyday to fix Microsoft product design flaws.

Stu Paulin

Hello. Does Creative really have a case or is this all just a waste of web space? Thanks for your reporting and opinions. Mike

Michael Vallance

That's the patent?!? Ridiculous!!

Apple's own system allows for the same kind of navigation: a hierarchical ordering of files and folders. Where's the bloody novelty in that? It started as a little tool that allowed for this kind of navigation in the pre-X world of Apple systems.

They must have acquired it or the rights and they've been using it in OS X. Creative [what's in a name, right?] now claims that they found a 'new' way of navigating for files? That's a laugh!

If Creative gets away with this, I'm filing a patent for the wheel.

Anon

Let us know how you get on with that...

On a similar topic, the EC names the date for its public patent hearing:

The public hearing (set for the 12th July) has been on the way for a few months now, and has been delayed at least once. Whilst organisations like the Open Source Consortium and the FFII have been invited, we are still 'curious' as to the people who have been allowed to speak (or 'intervene' as it's known in Brussels). Apparently, we will have "the opportunity to intervene during the final open debate starting at 16:40 where 3 minute interventions are foreseen.", which is... er, generous...

Naturally, organisations like CompTIA are out in full force on the day before, laying on a very nice 'free lunch' to inform EU officials just how much European businesses really, really would like Software Patents please.

As I have pointed out to the DG Internal Market and Services on numerous occasions, small and medium sized businesses (representing by far the biggest slice of the European economy) have yet to be consulted. We hope that this time round both the European Parliament *and* the productive part of the European IT economy's views will be taken into account, but won't hold our breath...

Regards,

Mark Taylor President, Open Source Consortium

What a difference an ocean makes. The old Europe vs. the US debate resurfaced this week, as shadow chancellor George Osborne started singing the praises of our zippy entrepreneurial cousins across the pond, to the detriment of the pondering, slow, stages of Europe.

Traditionally the intellectual class has not been a fan of capitalism, even in America. I don't believe this is because of a deep heart-felt empathy for the working class or consumer rights, it is because capitalism marginalizes the status of intellectuals in a society that respects action more than words.

The computer industry is a prime example of a massive success story, in which the academic community was largely on the sidelines, frustrated by their non-leadership role and the failure of industry to vet their ideas by those who perceive themselves to be the experts.

There is a broader cultural attitude about freedom, and opportunity here [in the US] that is still developing in other nations. It is still difficult to foster entrepreneurial sprit in societies where school testing and class birthrights play such a powerful role in a person's destiny, and in which socialism and entitlement undermine the incentive to strive for individual advancement.

Somehow the Europeans have to learn to look to their potential John Carmacks (creator of DOOM and Quake), and not just to their universities if they want to establish a more inventive culture. Carmack never went to college, and in Europe, he would have been a bricklayer, not a millionaire computer-game inventor.

DonPMitchell

Some interesting points, but America as classless society? Do us a favour. Even we've seen Frasier.

There's another thought I miss in these endless discussions about why the US is so far "ahead", which is a dull but perhaps pertinent question: Does the economy exist to serve the people, or do the people exist to service the economy?

In the first case (the more 'European mode'), the economy and tax systems are geared towards providing a certain standard of living to all inhabitants of a country. This is particularly true for western Europe and Scandinavia. In the second case, the social and economic "spread" among citizens becomes huge, as the economy becomes the driving force of the society.

I would say there are clear cases to be made for both, but I know which I prefer...

Edwin

I'm not American, but I married one a bit over a decade ago. I am from the southern tip of Africa, and I've been in Europe (including England) and I have seen the cultures at work.

Europe is polite, restrained. As in the old-world cities of Africa, in Europe people care about doing things the right way. Things happen in their time and tide. One might think of it as an attitude of social caution.

In the USA I struggled at first. I had the good fortune to marry into a family from the Bronx, and my mother-in-law told me early on: "Ya gotta hustle, kid!" She was right. America has no sympathy for the fallen, it celebrates those who grabbed the most, the fastest, and it's assumed that success, as a matter of course, does not come without some stains.

The dark side of this is that America is aggressive pushy, rude, and outright dangerous. The meekest yank I've met would be an outspoken character by European standards.

So why are Americans successful in pushing the envelope? They are aggressive, take-no-prisoners, risk-takers. You bust out? Tough break. Declare bankruptcy, clean the blood off, and get stuck back in.

If one looks back at the European heroes who changed the world, many of them might echo the same ideas. Napoleon, William the Conqueror, Robert the Bruce.

The bad news is that this won't change in less than a generation. The good news is that there's a substantial population in Eastern Europe which is hungry for new things, and which might just be feeling its oats.

Best of luck with that aggression thing. Perhaps rugby should be played more ...

"Before he gets too carried away with this idea, there is one more question he might ask of those Europeans fond of slow food and shopkeeping: Could they be bothered?"

Probably not. Besides, as the French demonstrated earlier this year, we like the status quo.

Cheers

Peter Chan

Lastly, since we couldn't leave things on quite such a serious note, we come to the very important issue of arachnid telephonic terrorism. Yes, the penchant Manchester spiders have developed for telephone cable:

As a [telecoms brand] engineer, i am not familiar with the eating habits of our 8-legged friends (that we encounter alot at the tops of poles)

But i would like to let you know that DSL can work on a faulty line even when one of the two legs is dis'ed (cut) which could be due to corrosion or a number of things... this is something that seems to baffle alot of people. But does show how reliable DSL can be when voice wont work. (i bet tho, that u can even still use VOIP - note: just my theory)

- Anon

There *might* just be something in the story. According to the Telecoms museum in Amberley Chalk Pit Museum our good old British spiders spin webs that do not conduct electricity, however the webs of American arachnids do, and can short out telephone cables. That is why traditionally we used porcelain insulators in Blighty, but Americans used domed glass insulators which get too hot & uncomfortable for the little blighters. So could the gentle folk of Manchester be suffering from immigrant arachnids? Perhaps the Daily Mail should investigate....

- Colin

The link between copper eating spiders and the green goo at Aldershot is fairly obvious. BT engineers who are bitten by copper eating spiders dissolve into green goo. This is just another example of a fairly well known phenomenon whereby some poisonous creatures do not manufacture their own toxins, but rather absorb and concentrate them from sources in their diet.

However, have no fear as the authorities are certain they will soon have this problem well in hand. The new ID card will be made resistant to copper eating spider toxin, thereby permitting terrorists and other illegal residents to be identified and tracked even if they are a bit greenish and gooey.

- Michael

Interestingly, spiders seem to be attracted to radio frequency energy. This gets particularly interesting where satellite dishes are concerned. When they manage to get into the (warm, dry, secluded) space inside the feedhorn of the LNB on the end of the arm of the dish, they discover that they suddenly become dead at the focal point. Sadly, the microwave attenuation properties of a pile of dead spiders can become a major problem to the performance of the receiver.

Why do I mention this? Because ADSL uses radio frequency energy, while voice comms don't. Given that spiders conduct RF quite well, but audio frequencies almost not at all, this means that a pile of dead spiders can conceivably allow DSL to work, but kill voice calls entirely. Admittedly, I've never been a BT linedude, but still...

- J.

Lovely. That's all for today. ®