Dvorak News Blog

The Death of Software

By Uncle Dave Sunday September 16, 2012

If we lived in a more sane world, patent lawsuits would not be a growth industry. But we don’t, and they are. In fact, they’re an extremely high growth industry, as illustrated in a new report (pdf) from PricewaterhouseCooper.

Remember the days when patents were to help spur innovation, new developments, startup businesses? Your Uncle Dave used to be a software engineer once upon a time. I was employee #4 at Intuit in 1984, and started my own little software company and helped start another in the 90’s. But while I’ve toyed with the idea of writing apps for iPhone and Android, the patent BS that exists today means I wouldn’t even try. You’ve either got to be very rich to defend against the patent trolls and ‘legitimate’ patent holders or a fool to even try. Here are just two recent examples:

Minecraft developer Mojang is being sued for alleged patent infringement in the development of the Android version of the popular game, Eurogamer reports. The lawsuit is being filed by Luxembourg-based Uniloc, a group which specializes in copy protection technology and has a history of suing small companies on the basis of patents.

Here is a GENERAL description of the concept of a “Patent Troll.” (I intend this for general information only, and am not trying to accuse any specific party of fitting such a description.)

Here are some specific points with regard to Unilocs’ lawsuit against Laminar Research (my company and sole source of income to me, and my family). Here is what I believe to be the cost of that suit.

Does Uniloc plan to sue anyone ELSE that sells Android or iOS Apps in the future?

Friday, I went to the courthouse for jury duty and was brought in as a potential juror on a civil case (not patent related). One of the reasons I was excused, I believe, was during voir dire when one of the lawyers asked if anyone thinks there are too many lawsuits. I almost laughed out loud while I raised my hand and said yes. Suing has become, too often, simply a way to make money rather that producing anything, and patent lawsuits are the fad of the day.

Are Mormons Christian?

By Marc Perkel Saturday September 15, 2012

184 Comments

Mitt Romney is now saying that if he is elected president, he will emphasize the role of God in American society and will not “take God out of the public square.” But that raises the question as to whose God will have a role in American society.

Corrupt Michigan Republicans Squelch Gary Johnson

By John C Dvorak Saturday September 15, 2012

25 Comments

Ad is inaccurate. HE WILL NOT be on all state ballots. Nor will he get a shot at the debates for similar reasons.
The following is the letter that went out to members of the Libertarian Party of Michigan regarding the inclusion of Gary Johnson on the Michigan ballot. This epitomizes the problem with rigged American politics and the apparently corrupt two-party system with ideologues on both sides not allowing an opinion that varies from the Repub-Dem Military Industrial elites. No alternative perspectives allowed! You are either for Obama or Romney! Or else.

Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 10:09 PM
Subject: Help Us Keep Gary up and Running

Fellow Libertarians,

In the past 10 days a lot has happened with our Libertarian Party of Michigan presidential ballot status! I am writing to report what has happened, and to ask for your help.

Last week Thursday the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan refused to place Governor Gary Johnson on the ballot as our presidential nominee. The Judge accepted the arguments of Secretary of State Ruth Johnson and the Michigan Republican Party that Michigan´s “sore loser” law applies to keep Governor Johnson off the ballot, even though it was not applied to other presidential candidates in the past, like John Anderson.

We immediately appealed the decision to the Federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. When the Sixth Circuit refused to expedite the case, yesterday we appealed to the US Supreme Court. Justice Kagan issued an order that the State respond to our appeal by 5 pm today.

Within minutes of the Judge issuing his opinion in the Eastern District case, the Secretary of State sent us a letter denying ballot status to our “contingent” presidential candidate, Gary E.Johnson of Texas. You will recall that at the LPM convention on June 2 we nominated him in the event Governor Johnson was denied aplace on the ballot. Ever since, we had been requesting confirmation he would be placed on the ballot, but the Secretary of State refused to say until she issued this recent letter. Now the State insists we should have no presidential candidate on the ballot.

Tuesday of this week we sued Secretary of State Ruth Johnson in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan to place Gary E. Johnson of Texas on the ballot as the LPM´s presidential nominee. The State had the audacity to argue to the Judge that it is ´too late´ to consider our case, even though it waited three months to deny Gary E. Johnson ballot status. The State also claims we can´t show irreparable harm to support a decision in our favor ´because Gary E. Johnson has no chance of winning.´

The briefs are filed and fortunately the Judge in the Gary E. Johnson case is treating us fairly. He has scheduled a hearing for this coming Tuesday to consider our demand to place Gary E. Johnson of Texas on the ballot as our presidential nominee.

I can´t begin to describe the commitments so many Libertarian activists have made, in time and money, to fight this attempt by theState and the Republican Party to strip the Libertarian Party of Michigan of its ballot status. I´m hoping you see the need and theurgency to stick it to the state by contributing now to support their efforts.

We might not win either of these cases, but we sure have made life Hell for Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. Governor Johnson is reaping publicity from our fight all across the country, with hundreds of news reports, including an article in the New York Times and stories on network news programs.
Yours in Liberty, Denee Rockman-Moon, Chair, Libertarian Party of Michigan

Stellar Wind Domestic Spy Program

By John C Dvorak Friday September 14, 2012

35 Comments

Could be total bullshit. Could be fair warning. Could be a promotion for the TV show Person of Interest. You decide.

Ram an Apple Store Today!

By John C Dvorak Friday September 14, 2012

23 Comments

“A Los Angeles man accused of crashing his SUV through an Apple storefront in Temecula [California] in a brazen burglary last week pleaded not guilty Wednesday, Sept. 12, to multiple felonies,”

Mitt’s Major Meltdown!

By Eideard Friday September 14, 2012

130 Comments

Mitt Romney broke our deal…Perhaps he didn’t know he’d made it, although, really, I thought it was pretty clear.

Tax Cuts For Wealthy Help Economy? Not So Much.

By Uncle Dave Wednesday September 12, 2012

168 Comments

So, tax cuts to the non-wealthy, who vastly outnumber the wealthy and are more likely to spend it immediately on things that will stimulate the economy, is better? That doesn’t sound right.

Congressional Republicans and their party’s presidential nominee have both pushed plans to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans in hopes that such a move would stimulate the economy and aid the recovery from the Great Recession. A new study, however, indicates that tax cuts for the wealthiest earners fail to generate economic growth at the same pace as tax cuts aimed at low- and middle-income earners.

The study, conducted by Owen M. Zidar, a former staff economist on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and a graduate student at California-Berkeley, examined economic growth in the states with the most high-income earners. Zidar reasoned that “states with a large share of high income taxpayers should grow faster following a tax cut for high income earners” if the tax cuts had the economic effect conservatives claim.

What he found, though, is that the effect of tax cuts for the rich was “insignificant statistically,” as Reuters’ David Cay Johnston reported:

American Ambassador to Libya Killed in Riots

By McCullough Wednesday September 12, 2012

192 Comments

Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed in an attack on the Benghazi consulate and a safe house refuge, stormed by Islamist gunmen blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad. Gunmen had attacked and set fire to the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of last year’s uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, late on Tuesday evening as another assault was mounted on the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

California-born ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed in the assault, but it was not clear how or where he died. U.S. consular staff were rushed to a safe house after the initial attack, Libya’s Deputy Interior Minister Wanis Al-Sharif said.

An evacuation plane with U.S. commandos units then arrived from Tripoli to evacuate them from the house. “It was supposed to be a secret place and we were surprised the armed groups knew about it. There was shooting,” Sharif said. Two U.S. personnel were killed there, he said. Two other people were killed at the main consular building and between 12 and 17 wounded. The attack raised questions about the future U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya, relations between Washington and Tripoli, the unstable security situation in post-Gaddafi Libya and whether more protests might erupt in the Muslim world over the film.

The amateurish film, promoted by a U.S. pastor, portrayed Mohammad as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake. In one clip posted on YouTube, Mohammad was shown in an apparent sex act with a woman.

Maybe we should think twice when aiding the overthrow of foreign governments….the devil you know kind of thing? Just a thought.

UPDATE: And here come the drones, first we set them up then we have us a tidy little war. The MIC wins Again!

Are You Preparing to Riot For Food?

By Uncle Dave Wednesday September 12, 2012

38 Comments

Oddly enough, Obama can’t be blamed. Wonder how that happened?

What’s the number one reason we riot? The plausible, justifiable motivations of trampled-upon humanfolk to fight back are many—poverty, oppression, disenfranchisement, etc—but the big one is more primal than any of the above. It’s hunger, plain and simple. If there’s a single factor that reliably sparks social unrest, it’s food becoming too scarce or too expensive. So argues a group of complex systems theorists in Cambridge, and it makes sense.

In a 2011 paper, researchers at the Complex Systems Institute unveiled a model that accurately explained why the waves of unrest that swept the world in 2008 and 2011 crashed when they did. The number one determinant was soaring food prices. Their model identified a precise threshold for global food prices that, if breached, would lead to worldwide unrest.
[…]
CSI expects a perilous trend in rising food prices to continue. Even before the extreme weather scrambled food prices this year, their 2011 report predicted that the next great breach would occur in August 2013, and that the risk of more worldwide rioting would follow. So, if trends hold, these complex systems theorists say we’re less than one year and counting from a fireball of global unrest.

So That’s How Microsoft Did It!

By Uncle Dave Wednesday September 12, 2012

16 Comments

Click pic to embiggen

The squares weren’t the only thing when they released this last month. Check out that stylish font! How imaginative and magical it all seems!

OOPS! DNC’s Backdrop Tribute to Veterans Featured….Russian Navy

By McCullough Tuesday September 11, 2012

38 Comments

From the Navy Times:

On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message. But there was a big mistake in the stirring backdrop: those are Russian warships.

While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America’s best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above. These were the very Soviet-era combatants that Nathman and Cold Warriors like him had once squared off against. “The ships are definitely Russian,” said noted naval author Norman Polmar after reviewing hi-resolution photos from the event. “There’s no question of that in my mind.”

Naval experts concluded the background was a photo composite of Russian ships that were overflown by what appear to be U.S. trainer jets. It remains unclear how or why the Democratic Party used what’s believed to be images of the Russian Black Sea Fleet at their convention. A spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee was not able to immediately comment Tuesday, saying he had to track down personnel to find out what had happened.

16 Year Old Students Pro Ron Paul Video earns him an A+….and a Visit from the Goon Squad

By McCullough Tuesday September 11, 2012

37 Comments

The video clip above, which promotes the presidential campaign of Congressman Ron Paul, was put together by Justin Hallman as part of a project for his American Government class. The video helped earn Hallman an A+ pass and his teacher enthused about how impressed he was with Hallman’s efforts. About a month later, Hallman was shocked to receive a knock on the door of his family’s home from two FBI agents, including Special Agent Matthew Bowman. Hallman provided us with images of Bowman’s FBI card which he left at the property when Hallman decided not to answer the door.

When Hallman’s mother called the number on the card she was told by Bowman, “We need to talk to your son.”

A Convenient Interview

By Uncle Dave Tuesday September 11, 2012

13 Comments

First it was “Mark Owen” on 60 Minutes and a book. Now this on the 9/11 anniversary and just a few short weeks before the election that just happens to remind us that one of the candidates is ‘responsible’ for killing bin Laden? What an astonishing coincidence of timing and luck!

The Pakistani doctor involved in the US search for Osama Bin Laden has been quoted as saying he was unaware of his role in the al-Qaeda chief’s death. Shakil Afridi reportedly told Fox News from jail in Peshawar that after the 2011 killing he had been kidnapped and tortured by Pakistani intelligence. He also reportedly said the ISI agency regarded the US as its worst enemy.

But Dr Afridi’s lawyer told the BBC he was not confident about the authenticity of the interview.Samiullah Afridi said his client was kept under “very strict security”, and was even prevented from seeing his family and lawyers for months at a time. “How a journalist can set up an interview with him in jail is beyond my comprehension,” the lawyer said.

Prison officials contacted by the BBC were taken by surprise by reports of the interview, but did not rule out that a phone could have been smuggled into his cell.
[…]
He was sentenced to 33 years in jail in May for funding and supporting a militant group, but correspondents say it is generally acknowledged he is being punished for helping the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Isn’t 33 supposed to some sort of code for something?

AIG stock sale repays bailout – US Treasury makes a profit

By Eideard Tuesday September 11, 2012

20 Comments

American International Group Inc. (AIG) shares valued at $18 billion were sold by the U.S. government, converting a four-year bailout into a profit for taxpayers.