Posts by Jon Etkins

IBM overhauls rewards program for staff inventions, wipes away cash points

Times have certainly changed. Back when our team’s patent (https://patents.google.com/patent/US8122282B2/en) was filed in 2010, we each received an immediate bonus in our paychecks, followed by another a few months later when it was declared “high value”.

I don’t know when the immediate payouts were replaced by the points system, but it doesn’t surprise me one iota to see it now segueing to BluePoints.

For folks that may only ever file one patent application, BluePoints may actually be better than patent tier points that will never reach the next plateau, but tier points that had already been earned should have been converted into BluePoints instead of simply being discarded.

Photostopped: Adobe Cloud evaporates in mass outage. Hope none of you are on a deadline, eh?

Just another reason why I hate being forced into a subscription model. I would still be happily using the Lightroom I bought and paid for years ago, if it wasn't for the fact that it doesn't support the latest cameras and Adobe have quit issuing updates for anything except their pay-as-you-go portfolio.

When you play the game of Big Spendy Thrones, nobody wins – your crap chair just goes missing

Re: Manlock?

True, 'twas indeed a gender-neutral environment, but 'twas also the days before political correctness started to influence the language - manlocks would remain manlocks for a few more years.

RAF pilot awaits sentence for digicam-induced airliner dive

Now I understand

So *that's* what they mean when they tell you to put away your personal electronics because they can interfere with the aircraft's systems.

Remember those stupid hoverboards? 500,000+ recalled in the US after they started exploding

Great idea, let's pour water on a device with a ruptured LITHIUM battery.

Geek's Guide to Britain – now a book. Permission to geek out granted

We can haz Kindle version?

Geeks carry gadgets, not paperbacks.

Comcast's Xfinity home alarms can be disabled by wireless jammers

Simplisafe

Simplisafe, at least, sends an alert whenever it loses contact with a sensor. A sudden loss of contact with multiple sensors would be cause for concern, though AFAIK the base station won't automatically raise an alarm in such a situation - it would be up to the owner to recognize the situation from the flood of messages and call the cops him/herself.

Reg Oz chaps plot deep desert comms upgrade

Sophos UTM

Have you considered running something like the Sophos UTM software appliance on a cheap but reliable box at the remote site? Sophos makes a fully-functional, all services enabled, license available to home users, and I daresay they might be willing to work with you on this project. Their UTM provides most if not all of the functionality you're looking for, including filtering, authentication, QOS, hotspot, and remote management.

Password manager LastPass goes titsup: Users locked out

Re: Keep Calm - you don't need network access to use lastpass

Mine won't - I'm dead in the water until this is resolved.

Controlling XP's pagefile.sys on Eee PC

Is E: removable?

I believe XP will not allow you to place your swap file on a device which the OS recognises as being removable. After all, how could it possibly cope if the volume holding its active swap file was summarily removed?

Next generation Wi-Fi mired in patent fears

Nothing like RAMBUS

The CSIRO's patents have been known for years - they are also at the core of 802.11a and g (and are licensed as part of those standards).

If you read the CSIRO's letter (http://tinyurl.com/2wy23p) you'll see that what they're saying is that they cannot commit to licensing their technology to companies which are currently refusing to license it (and in some cases are actively suing the CSIRO).

The pre-n and draft-n manufacturers have only themselves to blame. Their "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" attitude may yet wind up sinking the ship.