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Microsoft loses $290 million patent battle, begins searching couch cushions

Desiderata

 

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak you truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

 

Rust is Red

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Roses could be blue.

Exception test. 

Copyright: The Elephant in the Middle of the Glee Club

Copyright: The Elephant in the Middle of the Glee Club: "The absence of any mention of copyright law in Glee illustrates a painful tension in American culture. While copyright holders assert that copyright violators are ‘stealing’ their ‘property,’ people everywhere are remixing and recreating artistic works for the very same reasons the Glee kids do — to learn about themselves, to become better musicians, to build relationships with friends, and to pay homage to the artists who came before them. Glee’s protagonists — and the writers who created them — see so little wrong with this behavior that the word ‘copyright’ is never even uttered."

(Via feed/http://yaleisp.org/feed/.)

Nachmittagsflug von Bern nach München findet statt

Die Vulkanaschewolke aus Island beeinträchtigt auch den regionalen Flugverkehr. Der Flughafen Bern-Belp hat am Freitag beide Flüge nach Paris annulliert. Die Flüge nach München verkehren planmässig. [From Nachmittagsflug von Bern nach München findet statt]

Email, Privacy and Buzz

I am trying to understand the buzz about Google's BUZZ. People are complaining about its alleged violation of privacy. Me is thinking. Google email, gmail, is free. Gmail is not a package deal that comes with a subscription that you pay for. To use it you agree to the Terms of Service, usually referred to collectively as the Terms. Have you read the Terms?

Along the line there is one little paragraph that reads as follows:

"8.4 You understand that by using the Services you may be exposed to Content that you may find offensive, indecent or objectionable and that, in this respect, you use the Services at your own risk."

By the way, your content is also Content. You do get what you pay for. Now, Google does take your privacy seriously, they have to. Quite simply, their whole business model rests on their ability to guarantee your privacy. That said, when they introduce a new service, it often is far from being optimized and perfected, so as the rule of development goes, shit happens.

The thing is, when you get all excited about Google's latest gadget and you can not wait to use it, you are taking a risk, and it is a risk that you agreed to take. Google is being google, it is developing and experimenting with a general purpose technology in the field of communications.

Personally, I would be a blundering idiot if I did use only Gmail. I use Gmail, and I like the features in Gmail, however some clients have their spam filters so tuned that all gmail ends up in spam. Guess what, both for private and professional reasons, I have other email accounts. Does this remind you of something from the past? Remember hotmail? Remember yahoo mail? They are still all around... let somebody else explain that one.

Calm down, google's buzz is brand new and it is up to you to decide what risks you want to take. If buzz is not for you, do not use it, there is a nice convenient little "turn off buzz" at the bottom of your inbox. It is that simple. But... hey, curiosity killed the cat. It still does.

Knowledge

Knowledge

Francis Ford Coppola : « Tout est faux et rien n’est inventé »- Ecrans

Francis Ford Coppola : « Tout est faux et rien n’est inventé »- Ecrans

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Originally uploaded by trafal.

analog

tatoos

scribes...

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wordle

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The Eighth Art

Meet Nexi

Shift08: Lisbon, Portugal

thinking

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Alwin's crocs and my old shoes; Riein, Graubunden, CH at Remo's birthday feast

writing on the wall

first

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iphone: mobile comedy

it was a comedy of events and i ended up with an iphone last friday before 10 in the morning without having to stand in line. yes, the 3G version of the iphone now decorates the array of technical arsenal at my disposal.

about two years ago i had had one of my fictional characters moan about such a device while in lisbon at the first shift conference. since friday i have had my greasy fingers on a device that comes close, but only close to being the smart thingy with one button and the ability to connect me to another human and a whole slew of machines all over the planet. it is slipery as a bar of soap, and is is sleek like something or other that is sleek, but the battery charge lifetime sucks big time. i was afraid of this issue with the battery, and if i had thought a bit longer, comedy or not, i would have waited for the third version of the iphone hardware.

in short, www.me.com is what makes the iphone worthwhile. the real issue that i have with it is the battery. please, somebody invent a battery with a better capacity and while at it some better power management!

the new iphone is most remarkable for what is does NOT have:

1. no manual: just a brief pamphlet that tells you that it actually has a few more buttons than the ONE that i wish for in my dreams. it has in total 4 buttons, each of a different species, all multifunctional and to complete the i/o repertoire, it has two female plugs besides loudspeakers and microphone. i like that it does not have a manual, it makes it a toy to explore. of course i am fascinated by the two cross-head screws swiftly hidden on the lower edge... however there is something of a hang up with the guarantee if i do start to play with those.
2. no keyboard: the touch screen is a blast to explore, especially once you discover that all those hours practicing the piano and the guitar were not in vain after all. it is easy to get the hang of it, but one does need good motor coordination and a gentle touch. but because the box does not have a keyboard, it gives you the possibility of having multiple keyboards. so, after getting totally annoyed that i was getting german spelling propositions while writing while operating the whole with an english interface, it finally dawned on me to go to the general settings and switch on the four keyboards for the four languages that i use. i have gotten used to the swiss qwertz keyboard and lost the habit of the english qwerty keyboard, so i had set the keyboard to german, not french since that is different from "french swiss" and that is what i usually use on the mac.
3. no video calls: i am surprised. this thing has umts capability, but no video calls? ok, my previous phone [sony ericsson] has the possiblitity, but i have never made use of it.
4. no functioning bluetooth: it is blind as a bat when it comes to toothing. but then bluetooth is a great technology killed by IPR avarice; bluetooth is going the way of the dodo bird. it is something that does not stick within my habits. i have replaced bluetooth wireless devices with cabled ones... (but then this might be just me).
5. no fancy 6 Meg camera: really! i love 2 Meg cams, they are just the right size for snap shots and visual notes and make great digital lomo wannabes. size is not everything, not when it comes to the number of pixels in a phonecam.
6. the alarm will not wake up the phone if it is turned off: finally! after all, i can turn off the SIM card and sleep undisturbed from disoriented people calling me at 3 in the morning while the iphone plays the role of a modest itouch in sleep mode.

what do i like about the iphone?

the kid was born not really knowing how to walk, and when it opens its mouth it stutters in several languages, but this is the first kid that moves the internet to the mobile. its hardware, software and service providers will all have much to learn as the millions of users co-educate the kid into what could be a really fun and useful object.

most applications and the device itself seem to operate from a principle that i call permissiveness. the apps and the modalities that i have tried so far have given me the option to be transparent about location - that gps is sweeeet! - but it does not force me to. the apps ask permission to publish my location in addition to the fact that location can be turned off in the settings. i like this very much. i really do not always want to share my location, if nothing else because on occasions i want the illusion that nobody knows where i am. i confess, i am a control freak, but not a privacy freak.

concerns

swisscom's price plans seem passable at first sight, but for those who travel and roam a lot, given the ease of use of the device, there might be some bad surprises in the months ahead. for me, this would not be the first time that i have ridiculously high charges coming from roaming. after all, it is a pain to change SIM cards when changing country, and this diddy does come SIM locked, an idea that i find totally ridiculous and so old school, that it is not funny. what would a network operator have to lose if it unlocked the SIM cards? (i know the old school arguments to answer this question, they just do not compute in my cpu)

update: of course the other major and very obvious concern has already been picking up some traction: unlimited data plans

btw, the internet just went mobile on friday.

my favorite apps: moo and alarm free [you can find them in the app store from the iphone]

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