Posts by Doug Franklin

Powerline networking pops up in Parliament

It could be worse

"... we measured more than 100V AC between the earth pins of sockets on each side of the hall ..."

It can be a lot worse than that. I was installing networks at a US military base back in the 1980s. The building in question was originally built in the first decade of the 20th century. The other half of it was added during WW2. The voltage difference between earths/grounds on opposite walls of the same flippin' room were over 400VAC. They weren't even fed from the same substation. And God help you if you didn't have a voltage isolation unit in your mains supply when a battleship or aircraft carrier switched between on-board and land power.

Java daddy says Sun engineers ran 'goofiest patent' contest

Sun v MS: License, not patents

Actually, it was a license dispute (adjudicated a violation), if I recall correctly. Sun argued that the Java redistribution license didn't permit the sorts of modifications that Microsoft made. Microsoft argued that it did. The Court found in Sun's favor and awarded Sun a (large, in Sun's estimation, small in Microsoft's) sum of cash plus a permanent injunction against specific behaviors by Microsoft within the context of redistributing Java or its (legal) derivatives. But that was a lot of pints ago, so my memory may not be correct.

"Mixed Mode" Patent

My interpretation of the "Mixed Mode" Patent is that it describes an undeniable, irrefutable, unavoidable "process and system" that is "prior-arted" by exactly every programmable computer that has ever come before. At its core, every physical (hardware) execution unit interprets instructions of various types. So do software execution units. The granting of that patent was beyond inexcusable. It represents a complete disconnect between the USPTO (and examiner) and the history and practice of software development. It's as obvious to an "experienced practitioner" as the stupidity of the Evans and Sutherland "Cursor XOR Patent" from the first half of the 1970s or so. E&S was granted a patent on using the boolean exclusive-or operation to put a cursor on a screen and then remove it without disturbing the underlying image. I don't believe in software patents, but I might entertain a counter argument, were it not for the imbicilities that continually come from the USPTO.

Microsoft yanks Windows code on GPL violation claim

Hosed Code

"Microsoft never fully explained why this happened, but promised changes to add "clarity" around what projects are hosed on CodePlex."

Some would argue that any projects hosted on CodePlex are necessarily hosed.

Free Microsoft security tool locks down buggy apps

Rerun?

Is this a rerun? I'd swear that Microsoft, or someone, released a very similar tool a couple of years ago. Or maybe it's just wishful thinking in hindsight.

US Army unit deployed to home front

Steven Kraft

But it's not May!

Ironically enough, I just read that book a month or so ago ("Seven Days in May").

eBay: don't come on our US site without protection

Adios

Well, that was the straw that broke the camel's back, for me. I haven't done much on ebay the last couple of years anyway, because it's not nearly the deal it used to be and the risk seems to be higher. But I've cancelled my account after this crap, and I won't be using their services again.

Did the width move for you, darling?

Small Fonts Bite

Please go back to using fonts sized based on my browser's settings. The small font sizes in the redesign SUCK!

Oh, and BTW, a page rendered in a web browser is not a printed page and you just flat don't have and shouldn't try to exercise pixel-perfect levels of control over it.

I've been a Reg reader for a long time but the redesign has made it hard enough to deal with that I probably won't be much longer.