News: Browsers Hit A Legal Minefield

By | November 24, 2011
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 From the This Could Change Everything Or Mean Nothing Dept come reports that Microsoft (and presumably others) may have to redesign their web browsers after a US court found that Internet Explorer infringes another company’s software patent. The BBC reports that the World Wide Web Consortium, the body responsible for web standards, also released a statement saying that Microsoft “will very soon be making changes to its Internet Explorer browser software in response to this ruling.” The patent concerned describes a way of “automatically invoking [an] external application” and “providing interaction and display of embedded objects” inside a “hypermedia document”.
 
It’s not easy to figure out what happens next. Like all software patents, the BBC says, it is written in a complex legalistic style which makes it hard to determine just what it covers. However there is a general consensus within the web community that it would include clicking on a link to load a Flash movie or a video player, controlling an external application through a web interface and downloading and running programs inside a web page.
This means that core web technologies, including plugins for multimedia websites, Java applets, and even Microsoft’s own ActiveX controls, will be affected. Ouch.

News: Beware The Mobile Phone

By | November 24, 2011
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 I have long believed that we use mobile phones too much, considering what little we know about the effects on our health. Why is why I like handsfree sets and SMS. Most studies that say they’re bad for us have been pooh-poohed. Here’s another one to throw out because we don’t like what it says.
 
The Independent quotes a new study from Sweden as saying mobile phones and the new wireless technology could cause a “whole generation” of today’s teenagers to go senile in the prime of their lives. Professor Leif Salford, who headed the research at Sweden’s prestigious Lund University, says “the voluntary exposure of the brain to microwaves from hand-held mobile phones” is “the largest human biological experiment ever”. And he is concerned that, as new wireless technology spreads, people may “drown in a sea of microwaves”.

News: The End of Ebooks?

By | November 24, 2011
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 Could this be the beginning of the end of eBooks (books in software form)? Barnes & Noble no longer sell them, according to a notice on their website: “B&N.com no longer sells eBooks. If you are a Microsoft Reader customer, you will be able to download your eBooks until December 9, 2003, through your Microsoft Library. If you are an Adobe Reader customer, you have 90 days from your date of purchase to complete the download via the email link you received.”
 
 
B&N’s rather shoddy press corner doesn’t refer to the decision. My tuppennies’ worth: I’ve never been a big user of eBooks, but you would think they would be a natural fit for someone like B&N. The only assumption I can make is that until the biggies feel the issue of copying and piracy is resolved, it just doesn’t look profitable. Others disagree: an interesting look at the state of eBooks post B&N can be found at the teleread blog.

Offtopic: The Ogriin of Wrods

By | November 24, 2011
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 I know this is not the usual kind of fodder for loose wire, but it’s too interesting to pass up (and must have some application for PCs, no?): From Joi Ito’s excellent blog:
 
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pcleas. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
 
What I find particularly interesting about this is that no source is given, and yet the posting has already spread around the web like a bad smell. The Internet creates myths almost instantly — and some are harder to knock down than others. One reader on another blog has suggested the research comes from two California researchers, but on closer inspection that appears to refer to speech, notthe written word. Another poster suggests it has more to do with the redundancy of many letters in the English language but I’m not convinced either.
 
My tuppenies’ worth: we read logically. When we read, we narrow down the number of words that would make sense so by the time we get to a word, what that word could be is already quite limited. So if it’s misspelled, chances are we know already what it should be. Sure, part of it is pattern matching, so that we read a word as a whole, but if the sentence doesn’t make any sense, we quickly get lost.
 
 

News: One Victory For Ink Jet Companies

By | November 24, 2011
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 Somewhat bizarre ruling from a U.S. jury in favour of what I think are some rather dodgy practices on behalf of printer manufacturer HP. The Herald-Sun reports that the jury concluded that the average consumer purchasing a Hewlett-Packard printer did not expect that the cartridges provided with the printers would be the same as full replacement cartridges. It also concluded that Hewlett-Packard adequately disclosed to the average consumer that the cartridges provided with the printers would be half-filled with ink. This despite the fact that the only disclosure is on the inside of the box, according to techdirt.
 
Similar lawsuits have been brought in 32 other states against Hewlett-Packard, and the company has won 13 of them, all before the cases went to trial. The trial in Orange County Superior Court was the first of the class-action suits that went to a full trial.