* Posts by Gobhicks

210 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Feb 2008

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Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is dead at 56

Gobhicks

US Patent 8,032,843, issued October 4, 2011

US Patent 8,032,843, issued October 4, 2011

Inventors: Ording; Bas (Sunnyvale, CA), Jobs; Steven P. (Palo Alto, CA), Lindsay; Donald J. (Mountain View, CA)

Assignee: Apple Inc. (Cupertino, CA)

Claim 1

A method for displaying graphical representations of launchable applications on a display of a device comprising: displaying on the display a visible mechanism for launching one or more launchable applications, wherein the visible mechanism comprises multiple user-activatable graphical representations that respectively correspond to multiple launchable applications; detecting a position of a user input proximate to at least one of the graphical representations; in response to the detecting, increasing in size the at least one of the graphical representations; and increasing one or more of the remaining graphical representations to one or more respective sizes, each size being at least approximately inversely related to a distance between the respective one of the remaining graphical representations and the detected position.

No comment

It won't be his last. Steve is named as an inventor in numerous patent applicaitons still pending.

Belgian buccaneers invade Rockall

Gobhicks
Headmaster

Re Anthrax

You're thinking of Gruinard Island, which is actually less than a mile offshore and was quarantined from WW2 until 1990.

China's patent EXPLOSION could leave West behind

Gobhicks
Headmaster

Actually...

... a PCT "International" patent application does not turn into an "International" Patent. You need to prosecute it to grant separately in each country where you want protection, ending up with a bundle of independent national patents. The main benefit of a PCT application is to keep your options open at relatively low cost before committing to the expense of those individual national applications.

Larry Page sees 'tragic' future for Google

Gobhicks
Devil

The dream of reason...

... produces monsters. AKA the law of unintended consequences.

Accidents of history and the vagaries of fortune do it too. A runaway success like Google, and like Microsoft before it, creates a virtual monopoly/monoculture that ultimately isn't good for anyone without a vested interest.

Celebrating the 55th anniversary of the hard disk

Gobhicks
Pint

Lest we forget

Let's also blow a trumpet for Rodime, the Scottish-based company who (arguably) invented the modern HDD as we know it.

'Apple is not going to change,' new boss says

Gobhicks
Devil

IMHO

The iPod/iTunes would never have gained traction without Gracenote, and subsequent history would have been very different.

Seven Dwarfs password gag declared Fringe's best

Gobhicks
Meh

uh-huh

Comedy is a serious business. Funny that...

NASA Legonauts set for Jupiter voyage

Gobhicks
Happy

Title

From New Scientist’s Juno story:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20765-waterscouting-probe-to-take-off-for-jupiter.html

“… no one knows what matter does at the extreme pressures inside such a massive body.

“These pressures are estimated to be 50 million Earth atmospheres, says Bagenal: "Think of 100 elephants standing on top of each other with the bottom elephant standing on one foot – on a stiletto heel."”

50*10^6 A = 1 hecto-jumbo-mono-something?

Jupiter spacecraft mounted atop bloody big rocket

Gobhicks
Alien

Come on you Reg

Oi, where's the Reg's own First Earth Trojan story?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14307987

Fingerprint scans learn to spot chopped-off fingers

Gobhicks
FAIL

News?

see US Patent 5737439, published in 1998.

Grenade-gasm autogun gets Raoul Moat Taser shells

Gobhicks
Mushroom

@ Thomas 4

If you need to fire a million rounds a minute ... you're probably in WWZ.

On counterfeits, fakes and Apple stores

Gobhicks
Linux

FWIW

The salesbod in the second pic is kinda square shaped with rounded corners, but he's leaning over quite a ways so probably no IP infringement...

NASA kills comms with deceased Mars rover

Gobhicks
Unhappy

Godspeed

I haven't felt this sad about a robot since the first time I saw Silent Running as a kid.

End user productivity revisited

Gobhicks
Stop

Too long...

I started to do this but lost the will to live half way through.

Microsoft, Nokia, HTC fight Apple's 'App store' trademark

Gobhicks
Headmaster

Tricky fella, Johnny Trademark

FWIW and whether you like it or not...

There are "trade marks" and there are "registered trade marks".

If you can successfully register a trade mark you gain certain statutory rights. You generally can't register a trade mark that is not "distinctive", so generic words that are descriptive of your goods or services usually can't be registered as trade marks. However, an inherently non-distinctive trade mark can acquire distinctiveness through use, over time. You can register it if you can provide evidence that it has come to be strongly associated with your particular goods and services. This usually needs years of consistent use and substantial turnover figures.

You can apply the "TM" superscript to anything you use as a trade mark, whether it's distinctive or not, and over time you will acquire some common-law rights in the mark (as distinct from the statutory rights you get from registration). It's much harder to enforce such rights, but the "TM" discourages others from adopting similar marks.

M$ applied "TM" to WINDOWS for many years before they were able to register it successfully.

IMHO, Apple don't have enough use to have "acquired distinctiveness" in App Store, and the more that others use similar termionology in the meantime, the weaker their case will become.

Boffins develop method of driving computers insane

Gobhicks
Happy

Excellent

Try simulating LSD, THC, DMT and psilocybin and let's see if it becomes self-aware.

Vote now for the best sci-fi film never made

Gobhicks
Grenade

Pavlov's Dogs

"Sci-Fi related list" and they're like fanbois on a Jobs bigjob.

ARM jingling with cash as its chips get everywhere

Gobhicks
Headmaster

>ARM Licenses technology...

I think you'll find that ARM develops and licenses fully realised technology solutions, not just patents.

Microsoft's Word fight opens in US Supreme Court

Gobhicks

Best form of defence...?

There's certainly plenty of quibble-room here, but using a large patent portfolio for commercial leverage is at least partly a defensive strategy, even when done, um, "proactively". Depends how big a chessboard you want to look at, maybe?

Gobhicks
Headmaster

For the record...

The issue in this case is about what the standard of proof should be when a defendant argues that a patent is invalid on the basis of information that was not available to the Patent Office when it decided to grant the patent. A granted patent is presumed to be valid unless the defendant can make a convincing case that it is not. If you are arguing that the patent is invalid because the Patent Office got it wrong on the facts that were actually available to them you have a much tougher job than if you are arguing that they got it wrong because they were not in possession of the most relevant facts.

M$'s patent portfolio is primarily defensive - they rarely sue other parties. They have much more to lose from poor quality patents being asserted against them than from their own patents being weakened.

Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy look-and-feel

Gobhicks
Headmaster

It's Like This, M'Lud...

... rounded corners and uniform arrays provide stress distribution that reduces icon-fatigue, which can otherwise lead to catastrophic GUI failure. This is an old and obvious solution to which the Plaintiff can claim no exclusive rights. The defence rests.

Stardust comet hunter drifts off into space

Gobhicks
Unhappy

Sob, gulp, choke

... no, no, I'll be alright - just give me a minute....

Scarface blows onto Blu-ray

Gobhicks
Happy

Two Words:

Modern Shakespeare

All the truly great movies have massive flaws, and ham goes with the territory.

Wi-Fi security befuddles clueless home users

Gobhicks
Unhappy

@ LaserJet 4L

Cheers Jase - I guess I drank the Plug'n'Play Kool-Aid too long ago.

Gobhicks

Thanks

Vista has LJ4 and LJ4+ drivers, but not LJ4L. The 4 and 4+ drivers work with the 4L, up to a point, for plain text.

Does anyone remember when a printer was a proper tool and not just an entry point for an eco-hostile consumables revenue stream?

Gobhicks
Unhappy

I've tried...

Believe me: I'm not thick. I've tried to secure my wifi. Once I switch on any kind of security available on my router I can't get anything to connect at all. My router's a few years old - older than my laptop, Wii and phone. I can't get the kid's DS to connect to it any which way. Maybe a firmware update would help, but the fear of it screwing everything up puts me off. Am I supposed to buy a new router just to keep the neighbour's kids off my network? Is there actually any hope of finding a security protocol that suits all my devices? I've got two wirelss printers also but I've given up on ever printing wirelessly.

And my perfectly good HP LaserJet 4L is still redundant for lack of a Vista driver!!!

Raygun dreadnought project reports 'remarkable breakthrough'

Gobhicks
WTF?

@Lee

Mirrors don't reflect, they scatter.... only able to see your own retinas...???

I thought the idea that light pours out of the eyes went out with the ancient Greeks?

Your face absorbs some light and reflects the rest in many directions (diffuse reflection). A mirror reflects some of the light from your face back onto your retinas. A real mirror diffuses a bit of light to be sure, but the whole point of a mirror is that it exhibits specular reflection - light from a single incoming direction is reflected in a single outgoing direction - angle of reflection equals angle of incidence. If you want to reflect a beam back to its source you need a retro-reflector.

Jobs moves to the heavens with Apple TV

Gobhicks
Stop

Carbon Footprint...

... of billions of personal media streams???

Boffin-botherer's LHC doomsday case thrown out on appeal

Gobhicks
Stop

14-hour collision sequence

Ah, well, you see right there... what was it about the LHC not doing anything that didn't already happen in nature?

ROBOT KILL-CHOPPER GOES ROGUE above Washington DC!

Gobhicks
Black Helicopters

Squawk

Budgie - now there was a band. Spookily, the cover of their album "Squawk" featured an SR71 spyplane with a bird's skull grafted onto the front...

ISS cooling pump refuses to come quietly

Gobhicks

Sounds like a job for...

... Harry Tuttle!

Eagles singer wins case against US politico

Gobhicks

On Parody

Yes, parody can be fair use in copyright terms, but that means a parody OF the work in question, as a kind of comment or criticism of the original work and/or its author. I'm pretty sure what went on here was not such a parody but rather a mere adaptation, and that any comment or criticism embodied therein was not directed at the original work itself or DH himself.

Solar plasma aurora storm ongoing debate

Gobhicks
FAIL

sigh

You'll find there actually is quite a big difference between ingesting unnatural radioactive fall-out material that then emits radiation from inside your body and being exposed to the natural solar radiation that makes it past the magnetosphere and through the atmosphere.

Just sayin'...

Brits trump Ruskies with flying horse

Gobhicks

Have none of you...

... ever seen Apocalypse Now! ? - ox slung under a Huey...

Francis Coppola must really hate oxen, he had one chopped to bits later in the movie (sorry, I mean he filmed a local ceremony that just happened to be going on anyway...)

3-million-km-long comet plunges into Sun

Gobhicks
Happy

Re: That's no comet

Well I was there - see above - it was properly awesome

Gobhicks
Alien

Pyrotechnics

This incident clearly contemporaneous with Disaster Area's recent gig on Titan.

Steve Jobs uncloaks the 'iPad'

Gobhicks
Heart

Rejoice

Only a masochist would read this comment thread, so I haven't

Dan O’Bannon dies at 63

Gobhicks
Unhappy

Teach it phenomenology

Sad news indeed. Dan deserves sainthood for Dark Star alone.

Mystery co. sues Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle...

Gobhicks

Oh dear

Apart from anything else, the claims of this patent suffer a fatal flaw common to many software patents, especially early ones.

None of the claims are directly infringed by either a user or a provider. The method claims include steps performed by the user, the user’s computer and the provider’s computer. The system claims include the user’s computer and the provider’s computer.

Philip K. Dick's kid howls over Googlephone handle

Gobhicks

The nexus of the crisis

Speaking with some degree of expertise, this is a non-starter as a legal complaint, but it's still a win-win for the Dicks and Google - free publicity for both.

IBM tries to patent offshoring

Gobhicks
Thumb Down

Bilski

In actual fact, the US Patent Office has got a lot tougher on algorithms and business methods. Look up "Bilski", a Federal Circuit court judgment that established a new "machine or transformation" test for patentable processes.

EPO to give definitive ruling on software patents

Gobhicks
Stop

Here we go round the mulberry bush

It's always nice to see informed debate on complicated subjects. It's a shame it never seems to happen.

The Enlarged Boards of Appeal of the EPO *are* the ultimate legal authority - of the EPO. There is no existing route to appeal a decision of the EPO Boards of Appeal beyond the EPO.

There is no such thing as the European Patent Court.

The effect of the exclusion from patentability (in Europe) of "computer programs as such" has been the subject of a long-evolving legal debate. Given that patents exist and aren't likely to go away any time soon, defining the line between patentable inventions that involve the use of computers and non-patentable computer programs is an important socio-economic issue. If the "antis" want to have any impact on the debate, they need to be a whole lot better informed and and whole lot less prone to basing their arguments on meaningless propaganda.

Whether the present referral to the Enlarged Boards of Appeal ultimately sheds any light on the whole sorry mess is another matter altogether.

Feds seize biker gang's trademark

Gobhicks
Pirate

FYI

US Registered trademark:

Word Mark MONGOLS

Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: ASSOCIATION SERVICES, NAMELY, PROMOTING THE INTERESTS OF PERSONS INTERESTED IN THE RECREATION OF RIDING MOTORCYCLES. FIRST USE: 19690120. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19690120

Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING

Serial Number 76532713

Filing Date July 28, 2003

Current Filing Basis 1A

Original Filing Basis 1A

Published for Opposition October 19, 2004

Registration Number 2916965

Registration Date January 11, 2005

Owner (REGISTRANT) Mongol Nation UNINCORPORATED NON-PROFIT ASSOCIATION CALIFORNIA 705 W. Foothill Blvd. Azusa CALIFORNIA 91702

(LAST LISTED OWNER) SHOTGUN PRODUCTIONS LLC LTD LIAB CO CALIFORNIA 1028 NORTH LAKE AVE. PASADENA CALIFORNIA 91104

Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED

Attorney of Record Michael R. Doram

Type of Mark SERVICE MARK

Register PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

Ballmer on banking crisis: No one is safe

Gobhicks
Stop

@twatdangle pedantry

I think you’ll find that as originally used heretofore vis-à-vis Mr Blaine, “twatdangle” is a noun, referring to the event of a (metaphorical) twat being dangled. If you think “twatdangle” is a verb, is it transitive or intransitive? Try conjugating it and see how much sense it makes.

In any case, the usage of twatdangle vis-à-vis Mr Ballmer WAS clearly erroneous, but not for that reason.

Frenchman's pedalo dirigible Channel attempt blown out

Gobhicks
Unhappy

Quel Dommage

What a risible dirigible.

Game sharer gets £16K fine

Gobhicks

@mark@gobhicks

** No, according to the companies, we're buying a license.**

What exactly do you think that means, “to buy a license”? A license is an agreement between two parties, whereby one party (licensor) grants certain rights to the other party (licensee). That presupposes that the licensor has exclusive rights that are under his control: for a software license, the copyright in the software. Buying a license means buying permission to do certain things that the licensor could otherwise stop you from doing, in this case on the basis of copyright. If there was no copyright, why buy a license?

**And installing and using software is not copyright controlled in ANY Berne signatory. So using the software is not copyright controlled. Much as the software sellers would like otherwise.**

WIPO COPYRIGHT TREATY

adopted by the Diplomatic Conference on December 20, 1996

Article 1

Relation to the Berne Convention

(1) This Treaty is a special agreement within the meaning of Article 20 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, as regards Contracting Parties that are countries of the Union established by that Convention. This Treaty shall not have any connection with treaties other than the Berne Convention, nor shall it prejudice any rights and obligations under any other treaties.

Article 4

Computer Programs

Computer programs are protected as literary works within the meaning of Article 2 of the Berne Convention. Such protection applies to computer programs, whatever may be the mode or form of their expression.

And

Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs

1. In accordance with the provisions of this Directive, Member States shall protect computer programs, by copyright, as literary works within the meaning of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. For the purposes of this Directive, the term 'computer programs` shall include their preparatory design material.

And

(UK) Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

3 Literary, dramatic and musical works

(1) In this Part –

"literary work" means any work, other than a dramatic or musical work, which is written, spoken or sung, and accordingly includes –

(a) a table or compilation other than a database,

(b) a computer program,

(c) preparatory design material for a computer program, and

(d) a database;

** Copyright being a civil infraction has to show harm done.

So the software company is due £0 from each filesharer.**

I didn’t express a view about the level of damages awarded in this case. I only pointed out that a court has the right to award damages on a basis other than the actual loss to the copyright holder.

**1) Nope, if you can take it you can have it. We then go into laws but according to the law, filesharing is a civil tort and you can only claim financial losses as proven.**

OK, if I may clarify: if you can’t afford a license for a piece of software, you have no right to copy/use/supply it.

**2) Yes, we know OSS relies on copyright. This has **** all to do with this.

… except for the many that clearly want to have their cake and eat it.

Gobhicks

Do some research, everyone, please!

“Back on this license thing. It appears that although the software is copyrighted it's the license you pay for. Couldn't the defence be along the lines that sure you distributed the software but that has a monetary value of zero as it's the license that has the value not the software. You'd still get hit for costs but once it was established that the license owner gets nothing it would stop further actions.”

<sigh> Paying for a software license gives you the right to do certain things with the software, as defined in the license, that otherwise would infringe the copyright in the software. The existence of the copyright and the sanctions available for infringement of the copyright are completely independent of any license. Proof that you accepted the terms of a license and then breached the terms might make it easier for the copyright owner/licensor to take action against you, but copying/using/distributing copyright-protected software without authorisation from the copyright owner is copyright infringement regardless. It’s the copyright in the software that gives value to the license, not the other way about.

Anyone with a serious interest in copyright issues should start at the UKIPO website

In reply to other points made above, copyright is essentially a private right: it is for copyright holders to enforce their own rights through the civil courts and out-of-court settlement is positively encouraged, before an action is even raised if possible.

As regards “punitive damages”, in the UK:

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

S97 Provisions as to damages in infringement action

(1) Where in an action for infringement of copyright it is shown that at the time of the infringement the defendant did not know, and had no reason to believe, that copyright subsisted in the work to which the action relates, the plaintiff is not entitled to damages against him, but without prejudice to any other remedy.

(2) The court may in an action for infringement of copyright having regard to all

the circumstances, and in particular to -

(a) the flagrancy of the infringement, and

(b) any benefit accruing to the defendant by reason of the infringement, award such additional damages as the justice of the case may require.

Note also:

“Deliberate infringement of copyright on a commercial scale may be a criminal offence. This activity is usually known as copyright piracy and is often linked to wilful infringement of trade marks known as counterfeiting where criminal offences also exist. Piracy and counterfeiting are therefore often also referred to as intellectual property or IP crime.”

(UKIPO again)

So what we’re talking about here is not really “copyright piracy” as it is usually understood.

PS If you can’t afford it you can’t have it. It’s that simple.

PPS Copyright is the basis for OSS, whether you like it or not, and however ironic it might be. “Copyleft” would be meaningless if copyright didn’t already exist.

T-Mobile dates BlackBerry Bold launch

Gobhicks

Warp factor 23

Not being a trekkie per se, I could be wrong but is "warp speed" not the speed you have to reach by conventional drive before engaging the warp drive, for which the "warp factor" then needs to be specified?

I always hated using hyperspace when playing Asteroids (once turned the clock 26 times by sheer rock-blasting; i.e. no saucer-lurking, which I also hated)

Ah, simpler times...

PS why can't I get my 'Berry out of its holster when it rings without losing the call half the time...

Privacy watchdog hoists Google by its own petard

Gobhicks

Hoist this

Whatever, I just want to claim the prize for the best contemporary usage of the expression, "hoist with his own petard", in response to the news that a colleague from our German office had been delayed because of an unexploded bomb at Schipol airport...

CERN declares Large Hadron Collider perfectly safe

Gobhicks

Larry Niven

- a sign of old age? I hope not. Still baffled why there's no TV/movie/game franchise for Niven's Known Space. I once saw one of his short stories (might have been The Soft Weapon) used as the basis for a Star Trek cartoon, but apart from that, nada, unless you count wookies as a rip-off of the mighty kzin.

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