20/11/13 11:15
The Patent Wars
Recent reports are of a patent lawsuit taken out by a company called Rockstar against a number of tech companies including Google, Samsung, Asustek, HTC, Huawei, LG Electronics, Pantech, and ZTE.
This has caused some degree of uproar in the technical press as Rockstar is a consortium of Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Ericsson and Sony and the action is against Google (who do no evil! )
There are a couple of big issues here.
One is that Rockstar purchased the Patents in question from a defunct Canadian company (the fact that it is Canadian is irrelevant) and is now using them as weapon against their competitors.
Secondly, Apple has in the past been vocal against so called patent trolls (companies who purchase patents and then use them against target companies) as has Microsoft.
Thirdly, Google bid heavily for the Nortel patents but lost out to Rockstar.
My thoughts
I do not like the idea of Patent Trolls. I think that a patent should be nullified when the company who owns the patent goes bust or is purchased by another company. Any acquiring company could then re-submit a patent application if appropriate.
In any situation like this there are muddy waters. Is Rockstar being defensive or acting as attacker?
A potted history shows that Google (through its subsidiary Motorola) and Samsung have been active in using patents against some of the Rockstar consortium. Some of these patents have been so called FRAND patents (which they should not have used - according to many international courts) and other patents which have been held to have no basis.
Samsung have been found guilty by a US court of using Apple’s innovations without paying for them.
Microsoft makes a lot of money from patent licensing fees from companies selling “Android” products (Google’s mobile operating system).
Google and Samsung have a history of using innovations made by other businesses without consent. (1)
When talking about patent trolls I can take a leap and say that since Google paid vastly over the odds for Motorola and all its thousands of patents it was acting in a way very similar that of a Patent Troll.
I would suggest that Rockstar wanted to buy the Nortel patents as a defensive measure.
I can only speculate how Google would have used the patents had they won the auction. I cannot believe that they would have done anything but use the patents aggressively.
I base this on their aggressive use of the Motorola patents which they purchased just after they failed to buy the Nortel patents.
I suspect that Rockstar have decided that Google, Samsung and others should not be allowed to act in the aggressive way they are doing without consequences.
In the case of Google the patents could affect the whole basis of their Android operating system.
I do not believe that the current lawsuits will result in the demise of any of the companies but I do hope that the legal system moves swiftly enough to be effective if there is found to be breach of patent law which is tantamount to stealing.
(1) As do many other tech companies - it is the scale that is the differentiator here.
20/11/13 10:42
Stealing on the Internet
On a recent podcast, a commentator lamented on the fact that people rarely look at adverts on the internet. Furthermore, he actually called people thieves because they block adverts from appearing on their web browsers.
Thieves? I was sceptical, so decided to try and analyse it.
Broadcasters/ podcasters use adverts to monetise their work.
They have adverts appearing on their associated web sites and during their podcast shows.
Advertisers pay the broadcaster / podcaster because there are viewers looking at the web site and listening to the show and hence the logic dictates that they will look at the products advertised and hopefully buy.
The next step in the logic is, in my opinion, questionable.
According to some, if you automatically block the adverts in your web browser you are guilty of stealing the content of the broadcaster. How, I hear you ask? The broadcaster will have reduced advertising revenue based on the fact that you can no longer see the advert.
Hmmm! Here's where I have trouble...
A great number of people view TV programs on a DVR. Adverts are skipped as a matter of routine.
Do you fast forward through the adverts on a podcast?
How many people skip the adverts in their weekly magazine?
Do you stop and stare at billboard adverts when passing?
If you use advert breaks in a TV program to make a cup of coffee rather than to watch the adverts are you stealing the content?
I definitely don't think so.
Advertising is so pervasive in our modern world that who can blame us for 'tuning out' from the bombardment of adverts?
If this 'tuning out' includes an automated process then I would suggest that this is just another manifestation of a desire to avoid the distraction of adverts.
In our modern, busy society, I am happy to find any way in which to glean a little time back for myself. If people accuse me of stealing - I can only think that I am stealing back my own precious time and I'm okay with that.
06/05/13 21:34
Evernote is a service for taking and managing notes.
Its main feature is that it lets you store any notes that you think are important / necessary, all in one place. No need for sticky notes all over the place. Keep text notes, photo notes, PDFs and other files together in one place - indexed and searchable.
Your notes are available on all your devices (computer, iPad and iPhone and android devices) and they will sync seamlessly between devices when you are connected to the internet.
You can jot down your ideas, take photo notes, add audio notes, make lists - to dos or shopping etc. and much more. (I like to use the text dictation functions on iOS and OSX)
You can organise your notes into different notebooks and apply several tags to the note depending on the subject of the note and how you want to store it.
For example, if you have notebooks entitled "In-tray", "To-do", "Filed" etc., you can apply tags and sub-tags to the notes such as:
work
articles
marketing
invoices/receipts
home
recipes
repairs
entertaining
phone
immediate
soon
errands
Shops
diy
Some users may prefer to keep a notebook for each activity, eg
Work
Home
Sports
Holidays
etc. and keep the tags to a minimum.
It really is up to the individual user to define the way they want to collect process and organise their notes in order to get things done. The system is very flexible.
Capture - Manage - Remember
Your notebooks are searchable ( by key word, by tags or by title) so it is very easy to find a note previously made.
You can share a note via message, twitter, Facebook, mail, (or other apps ) or you can copy or print your note.
You can send or forward emails to your Evernote account. For example, if you receive an email with a meeting itinerary, you can forward the email to your appropriate notebook ready to make notes or action points during the meeting.
When you create a notebook you have the option to share the notebook either as a public notebook or with nominated people. If you share with someone who doesn’t have an Evernote app, then they can access Evernote via their web browser.
The main point about Evernote is that all your notes are in one place, grouped and (hopefully) organised. The notes are on the cloud so don't take up storage space on your iPad or phone.
What do I use Evernote for?
Business uses:
* In meetings I often make a brief note of an item of interest or make specific notes relevant to a particular task. After the meeting I will dictate (or write) my thoughts on the meeting. This makes it easy to review the minutes of the meeting or to refer to the notes if there is any discussion relevant to the topics discussed.
* I will start project outlines in Evernote. It is easy to create a new notebook or tag and make notes about the project. Later, review of the note in Evernote allows me to extract the main salient points to a fuller project plan.
* I will create specific to do lists (mini projects) as an aide memoire.
* I will photograph receipts for minor expenses and can attach a note of the purpose of the spending and who was with me at the time.
* I take clips of web pages as ideas for projects or articles and insert them into a note.
Personal uses:
* I keep notes on holiday plans eg places to visit on a weekend trip to Paris and keep web clips of flight prices etc.
* I create lists of gifts for Christmas, birthdays, holidays etc. (you can make a bullet list, a checklist or a numbered list).
* I keep PDF copies of insurance documents in a notebook. These can be referred to or printed as required.
* I take photos of meals to keep as recipe ideas.
Other
*If I was more collaborative I could keep notes in a notebook and have an assistant organise or act on the notes using the sharing feature.
I have saved several search parameters which allows a quick repeat of a search. eg find all notes created in the last week; find all notes with a specific tag; find all notes with no tag attached.
Why use Evernote?
It is good to keep notes in one place. In the physical world I tend to have lots of notes all over the place. It is good to have notes in one place and, assuming I maintain a systematic notebook and tagging system, I can always find what I need.
The free service from Evernote has most of the features that I need in a note taking app. (except the offline notebook).
However there are upgrades.
For £35 per year you can upgrade to a premium account which gives 1Gb of content per month (from 60mb), attachments up to 100mb per note, searchable PDFs, and offline notebooks. This is especially usefull if -like me- you use the iPad. (There are other features - see the Evernote site) Evernote.com.
If you have business needs for Evernote, there is now a business version which gives more collaboration tools, Business notebooks and Business libraries.
This service costs £8 per user per month. I think it is worthwhile investigating this service as it would cost less than £1,000 per year for a 10 person company. Think of the savings that can be made in IT admin, and business servers let alone the benefits of closer collaboration.
See Evernote.com/business/features.
05/05/13 22:49
Spreadsheets
I have used spreadsheets for a very long time. I remember “Viscalc” and “Multiplan”. Visicalc was such a revelation. You could enter your information into a series of cells and the application would add up the numbers.
I recall that there were not that many functions (+,-, X,/). Certainly not the gazillions of functions that are now available. Also you only had one sheet available. There was no auto-save.
Today, apart from the extra functions (95% of which are not used by 95% of users -my experience but not scientific), spreadsheets are not much different from 30 years ago.
-the underlying programming has changed but the user experience is pretty much the same.
Three years ago I used Excel every day and I regarded myself as prety competant at creating and analysing complex spreadsheets. Currently I am using Open Office (Free) and Numbers (£13.90) for spreadsheet work but I recently had the need to use Excel (£150 for Office) on my mac, and boy it was confusing. The first thing I did was switch off the ribbon “feature”. It just seems to replicate the menu items and is a confusing visual distraction.
Anyway, to continue.
A lot of users take information from their accounting systems and manually input it into a spreadsheet for further analysis. There is a danger that an input error occurs either in the placement of data or typing incorrect data, thus resulting in incorrect and possibly costly mis-analysis.
For example if the spreadsheet called for an input of an exchange rate and the user types 1.56 instead of 1.65 then a significant error will occur. This type of mistake may be difficult to spot.
There are a few ways to reduce the likelihood of input errors:
A) Use a separate input sheet which is simplified and easy to navigate;
B) Graph inputs to help check for consistency of data;
C) Use error traps to ensure data is within predefined limits.
95% of functions are not used
As to the possibility of incorrect calculations this is slightly more difficult especially if the spreadsheet is large and complex.
Every spreadsheet must be extensively checked to ensure that it will produce the correct result. This is best done independently of the writer of the spreadsheet.
Do not assume that all spreadsheets are related to financial accounts or budgets. They are not. There is a huge range of applications from engineering, product development, property analysis, etc.. Some of these will be critical to a business and thus the spreadsheet will need to fully checked before it can be relied upon.
Many spreadsheet applications can be more useful if they are mobile. If they can be completed on site eg while with a customer, while inspecting premises or during an interview, the data collection can be easier and more accurate and also the data can be transmitted immediately to an office for further processing.
This has been possible for the past few years with laptop computers but this year the real question is “can the application be used usefully on a tablet or phone?”
It is easier to hold a tablet than a laptop. It can easily be shared with others (whereas a laptop is more personally focused).
In many cases the application will work on a tablet and so, not only does this allow the user to get away from a desk, it allows more immediate analysis of issues.
