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4. oktober 2004
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Scream gone
Blogger Random Pensées (just added to my sidebar blogroll) has an update on the robbery of two Munch paintings in Norway more than a month ago, including the iconic Scream.
The police has no friggin clue who took them, or where the paintings are.
So there we are.
11:52:45 PM 
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Software patents must die!
A US federal jury has ruled that Sun Microsystems violated Kodak's intellectual property when it developed and introduced the Java programming language.
Kodak wants to send Sun a bill for a whooping $1bn, half of Sun's server and storage (!) profits from early 1988 to mid-2001. Remember that Sun is essentially giving away Java.
The court will set the damages later. And Sun will of course appeal the ruling.
Here is an old story about the original case.
If I understand this correctly, sometime in early Jurassic (e.g. 1993ish), Wang created some patents describing specific behaviour of objects in computer programming. Wang never did anything about this, to the best of my knowledge, and neither did Kodak that acquired the patents when it bought Wang. Programmers, like those working at Sun, were blissfully unaware that someone, somewhere, had come up with the idea of patenting various aspects of object oriented programming, which was very hot even before these patents were filed .
Welcome to software patent hell!
Over the last decade, computer companies, including total hasbeens, have filed a massive amount of computer software patents, covering practically every aspect of what a computer chip can do with its bits and bytes. It will be darned near impossible to do anything for small (and even bigger) software companies without infringing on these patents. Only the big can even attempt to defend against these legal sharks and, as Sun just learned, even they risk losing in court.
This is a total disaster in the making for the computer software industry, and the only solution I see is that software patents must cease to exist.
10:17:23 PM
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Documents: Saddam had WMDs, al-Qaeda links
CNS News has an "exclusive" story saying that Iraqi intelligence documents it has obtained and translated
show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq. And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists inside its borders.
This surely begs for an independent investigation and confirmation. Consider me skeptical.
And why is, excuse me for saying so, this hot material landing in the hands of the rather obscure CNSNews?
The government official also explained that the motivation for leaking the documents, "is strictly national security and helping with the war on terrorism by focusing this country's attention on facts and away from political posturing.
"This is too important to let it get caught up in the political process," the source told CNSNews.com.
That almost makes sense.
9:51:22 PM
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Dan Rather a worse fact checker than Michael Moore
Josh Marshall:
According to Steve Clemons, at a speech over the weekend at the University of Central Arkansas, Michael Moore said that he had been offered the 'Killian memos' during his work on Fahrenheit 9/11, but passed on them, considering them unreliable.
It boggles the mind to think about what it takes to make Michael Moore consider some juicy anti-Bush documents 'unreliable.' Maybe he received the Word document as an email attachment?
PS: If it had really been MooreGate (rather redundant, of course), we couldn't have used that nifty superscript in RatherGate.
9:29:20 PM
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The good and the bad
If you have missed some of the war on terror news over the last week or so, Winds of Change.NET has a solid roundup.
9:21:08 PM
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UNRWA boss: Hamas members on our payroll
Tim Blair:
The United Nations doesn't include Hamas on any terrorist list. But it does include Hamas on its payroll
In the UN, corruption is not a bug, it's a feature.
8:58:33 PM
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Odell interview
Dean's World has an exclusive interview with Van Odell of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Very interesting.
Exclusive content - that is something the blogosphere needs more of!
8:53:53 PM
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Samarra an Iraqi Midway?
Phillip Carter is certainly not the guy to be easily swayed by good news from Iraq, but even he thinks the impressive performance by the Iraqi troops in the Samarra assault can be a tipping point in the war.
However, there may be a more important trend to discern from this victory — something which transcends the tactical or operational importance of any individual city. This is the first time the Iraqi forces have participated in a major engagement and done reasonably well. They didn't run away from the sound of the guns, as they did earlier as they were loading up to go to Fallujah. They didn't break under fire. And while I have been told they fought for fairly limited objectives in fairly limited circumstances, they still did well. Granted, we're only talking about two battalions here — roughly 1,000 - 2,000 soldiers. But this little victory could be what turns the tide for Iraqification, because it will show the capabilities of the Iraqis when they're well-trained, well-led, and employed correctly.
Little victories like this can have a major psychological impact on the force. I'm not sure I would compare this to the Battle of Midway, for the strategic import of the Samarra battle pales in comparison. But it may work in much the same way, by conferring some much-needed momentum on the effort to train Iraqi security forces.
Strong words, coming from him!
We must at any rate remember that there was a long way from Midway to VJ-day.
8:31:42 PM
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SpaceShipOne makes it!
SpaceShipOne has reached the 100km (62 mi) altitude considered the limit to space for the second time in a week, claiming the $10M Ansari X Prize. The craft landed safely, this time after only "a little roll."
Congratulations!
The space ship has been repainted in the logo of the Virgin Group, owned by Richard Branson, the British zillionnaire who has licensed the technology and who plans to open up space for commercial sightseeing trips.
5:20:58 PM
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A smell for Nobel
US scientists Professor Richard Axel and Professor Linda Buck have received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for explaining the human sense of smell.
(Yes, my headline stinks. I know.)
4:47:09 PM
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Storm with bad sense of direction
We're actually having Lisa, a tropical storm originating in the Caribbean, paying us a visit here in Bergen right now. Obviously she must have gone terribly wrong somewhere to end up in the far north. Luckily, she lost most of her energy in the Atlantic, but there is a lot of rain.
PS: Local newspaper article with picture!
3:46:29 PM
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© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.11.2004; 14:35:07.
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