totally agree with that - the patent system is badly broken and the bar needs to be much higher with respect to what is patentable. I think that applies to hardware and software equally.
Android is neither apple nor M$it's an open source user interface developed by google (although they did buy up the company that originally started developing it if I remember correctly) that uses the Linux kernel (kernels are the software that gets the hardware inside your computers to work with each other)
Interesting interview with the jury foreman here...Addresses quite a few of the questions posed on this thread...
Quote from: tomtom on August 28, 2012, 05:57:31 pmInteresting interview with the jury foreman here...Addresses quite a few of the questions posed on this thread...No it doesn't. The foreman really didn't do his job properly. He holds a bullshit worthless* patent for something with masses of prior art and made the jury ignore prior art to 'speed things up' when the validity of nonsense patents lay at the heart of the case.The jury awarded damages for things they had decided did not violate any patents etc., irrespective of the punitive/not-punitive damages backtracking still ignored the judge's instructions simply on the basis that they reached a decision before they could possibly have even read and understood them.Proper discussion here with way more quite frankly, ridiculous details of the whole farce*This isn't really true; apparently nonsense patents with bags of prior art can be worth $billions...
I'm amazed people are so worked up about this - its just two massive companies trying to screw each other over... Its not like either of them are stopping a solution for disease/poverty/world hunger from being used.......
Some algorithms are pretty damn clever and there is no reason why they shouldn't be protected.
still think there are huge benefits to open source software that benefits all developers (and ultimately end users too).
Google (for example) sell advertising, but do it through the canny medium of a search engine/mail/other services.. FaceAche do the same, except through the medium of a popular, handy (for some) vacuous portal for whatever, like, innit etc..
How do I get paid for my job if I am giving away the source code to it ?
Yes, there are many OSS projects that run and get donations and can support some engineers financially. However, there are far more that are in no way financially viable and are just ran as a hobby or as something that a company created on route to something else and are happy to just give it away.
Many of the main developers of large OSS projects still contribute in their spare time and their main job is writing paid software.
Will check it out, its not so much the swyping, but the words it suggests/the dictionary and me not checking (due to trying to write as quickly as I normally type).
@tomtom : so having your software open source hasn't resulted in tons of others offering assistance, but if it had been closed source what difference would there be? It would still have been you doing the development anyway so what, if any, has been the disadvantages of sharing your source code?
cons are made no £ from it. Pro's are not having liability or to provide support..
In related "Apple really are a bunch of cunts" news:http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/sep/03/bruce-willis-apple-itunes-library
Quote from: slackline on August 29, 2012, 01:04:21 pm@tomtom : so having your software open source hasn't resulted in tons of others offering assistance, but if it had been closed source what difference would there be? It would still have been you doing the development anyway so what, if any, has been the disadvantages of sharing your source code?tomtom responded on twitter with...Quote from: tomtomcons are made no £ from it. Pro's are not having liability or to provide support..So I'm wondering how much time was freely spent responding to queries from the c.200 people who have used the software and whether charging for this time spent might have resulted in an equivalent revenue had the software been closed source and license charged?