Status-Q

[Original Link] A highly abridged version of this article appeared in the IEE Review, Jan 2003. Unfortunately, as a result of the editorial process, significant typos and non-sequiturs were introduced, to the extent that I do not really wish to be associated with the published result. The original, however, makes much more sense and can be downloaded as a PDF here.

[Original Link] Bad news, this. A triumph of legal confusion and commercial influence over common sense.

[Original Link] Let's hope it won't have the Windows 95/98 bug that stops your machine after 6 weeks. Or the one which causes your date to leap forward or back a couple of days. Or the one which changes your time when you didn't mean to. Or...

[Original Link] I've been thinking about getting a TiVo for some time. This might push me over the edge.

[Original Link] Just discovered I have my name on

U.S. Design Patent D463,389. After two and a half years I had forgotten it was even in progress. Not sure what good it is; it's sort of like a regular patent without the claims... :-) And prettier pictures of the Broadband Phone can be found here.

Having just returned home after a month away, I'm reading all my mail. You know, the old-fashioned sort that doesn't follow you around the globe. One letter is a cheery note from my insurance company telling me that my home and contents aren't insured against the consequences of (a) war, or (b) terrorism. This doesn't bother me nearly so much as the fact that they felt the need to write and tell me....

Cicero said, "Not to have knowledge of what happened before you were born is to be condemned to live forever as a child".

I guess this applies to companies as well as to people.

[Original Link] Jon Udell and the local library.