Posts by A 3

Apple is granted a patent on the rectangle. No, really

Applicability to UK?

In the UK you may register a design (it's not considered a patent) these are the rules...

For its registration to be valid, a design must:

* be new

* have individual character.

A design is considered to be 'new' if no identical (or very similar) design has been published or publicly disclosed in the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA). For example, a design would not be considered new if it had been 'published' on an Internet website viewable in the EEA before the date it was filed. However, you can apply to register a design in the UK up to 12 months after the designer first discloses it.

The term 'identical' covers designs whose features differ only in 'immaterial details'.

Individual character means that the appearance of the design (known as the overall impression) is different from the appearance of other already known designs.

This is assessed from the view of the "informed user", a person who is familiar with the kind of product in question, and the amount of design freedom will be taken into account.

You may not be able to register your design if:

* It is not a design by legal definition as described above

* It is offensive

* It consists of, or includes, certain protected flags and international emblems

* It is solely dictated by the product's technical function

(source : http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/design/d-about/d-whatis.htm)

In the UK I think Apple's 'patent' fails on almost every count plus the attempt to patent this is offensive. However I do encourage them to try, It will be amusing to see them humiliated in the press and their own web site again.

Anonymous takes down UK government websites in Assange attack

Vigilantes

Anonymous are simply vigilantes. I’m sure that they think what they are doing is justified, but I’m also sure that the KKK thought stringing up black men for looking at white women was justified. Your morals, whatever they say, are subjective and if you act as judge, jury and executioner in enforcing them on others, in contravention of democratically mandated law, you are basically evil.

Anonymous might start with just taking down web sites but give them time and enough self-righteous bile, and they will be running about with ropes, masks and burning torches.

The Great Smartphone OS Shoot-out

You should have included Symbian, it's going to be around until 2016, can you say that for all the others? If nothing else we could argue about why Nokia was right/wrong to drop it when compared to the others.

Ultra-cheap HP TouchPads to hit UK at 6pm

@Mondo the Magnificent

Somebody who just wants to use it to surf the web from the sofa, or who only intends to use Flash or HTMML 5.0 apps?

BBC IT project to save £17.9m cost it £38.2m net

@AC

I disagree, (in this case it was obviously crap) but in general and in the right cases outsourcing does save money. Those cases are where there are economies of scale to be made.

For example does it make sense that a company hire the developers and build and maintain their own payroll system, or turn the job over to a company that specialises in that? If that outsourced company is running payroll for 10 companies each with 10,000 employees then it is spreading the same development and maintenance costs over 100,000 employees. Those costs don't significantly increase with the number of employees served.

However what often happens with outsourcing is that companies want something specialist and custom built rather than just fit for purpose. Add to that, they are usually crap at actually specifying exactly what they actually want. In this case you have outsourced to a company that does not understand your business and has to make a profit on a system that can't be used by anyone else. This equals additional costs on getting it right and additional costs to cover 100% of the profit margin.

Where you want a custom system you should use internals to lead the development and maintain the system and backfill with outsourced contractors during the implementation phase.

Archos 101 8GB Android tablet

Agree

I've also had one since November and agree with the above points. Other things to add...

1) No USB charging, but the power adapter comes with 3 clip on plugs meaning it is really easy to use in UK, Europe and US.

2) The power plug into the device is far too long and acts as bit of a leaver making it easy to damage when plugged in. I damaged mine because of this and have to wiggle it about to get a connection now. A shorter right angled plug would have been a better design.

3) The plastic tip of the flip out stand (when out) is too brittle. Mine broke when pulling it towards me. The surface it was on, a hotel bed, not exactly heavy duty.

4) Can plug in a keyboard and mouse if needed, or a USB thumb drive.

4) Warning: in landscape mode it is just a little bit too wide to comfortably thumb type using the on screen keyboard. On the move twitter users should look at the 7" version.

Generally for my use case, browsing the web on the Sofa, watching a movie on a plane etc. it works really well.

Is US prudishness ruining the internet?

What!

"If concepts of personal freedom and social liberty were more ingrained in Anglo-Saxon culture"

What! Because we are a bit prudish about nudity? Kind of forgets all the ingrained victories for liberty since 1215, including Magna Carta, Parliament, the Bill of Rights, the American Constitution, Constitutional Democracy, Universal Suffrage, and 100 other freedoms the Anglo Saxons were among the first to champion. Europeans may have a liberal attitude to nudity, but this concept of personal freedom didn't stop the rise the regimes of Napoleon, Franco, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Ceauşescu, etc, etc.

Sure we have our setbacks, Charles I, McCarthyism, the last Labour Government, etc. but the long term trend is definitely in one direction, and cooperate America’s attitude to boobs, is an idiotic reason to question how ingrained concepts of liberty are in the Anglo Saxon culture.