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1761803 story

McDonalds Files To Patent Making a Sandwich 346

Posted by kdawson on Monday November 24, 2008 @08:45PM from the mayo-gets-its-own-claim dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "McDonalds has applied for patent WO2006068865, which carries the title 'METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH.' John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, can eat his heart out (unless that's been patented, too). Undoubtedly, some people are contemplating whether there's anything novel in this patent that is somehow obscured by its generic title. Feel free to examine their flowchart for yourself and see exactly how novel their sandwich 'subroutines' are. The good news is that, given that it only mentions generic sandwich making 'tool(s),' rather than any specific machine, it might not survive after the In Re Bilski decision, which was meant to put a stop to absurdities such as this. But until McDonalds's application is rejected or invalidated, make sure you don't use their flowchart when making sandwiches. After all, if you 'apply appropriate condiments to appropriate compartment,' you might infringe upon their IP."

1922999 comment

Comment Re:One of the major OSS problems (Score 2, Insightful) 272

by aukset on Thursday November 13, 2008 @07:50PM (#25754851) Attached to: How Long Should an Open Source Project Support Users?

If you're a business and you've spent 100 hours installing a piece of software across a network only to find updates and support drops a week later, that can work out to be very expensive.

You're also a very stupid business. It would be the exact same thing if you're a business and purchase proprietary software without a support contract in place. When that developer goes bust next week or decides to end of life that product, there isn't a single thing you can do about it.

Likewise if you're a student and a paper is due but you can't complete it due to a bug/error and the support section for the program you've used no longer exists, it's a big issue.

That is rather far-fetched. There are so many varieties of word processing and typesetting programs out there, many of them using open formats, that you will still have choices. What if Word starts crashing? You might find a workaround, you might be able to open the proprietary file in another word processor, but MS is under no obligation to provide you with support unless you pay for it.

Simply, F/OSS is not a business model, it is a development model. It is used to create a software product, a product which is provided as-is (source included), and is no different from proprietary software products provided as-is. Support is secondary in both cases, and paid for separately. Lack of support is not inherent or unique to OSS products.

1306399 story

Android Also Comes With a Kill-Switch 300

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday October 16, 2008 @11:28AM from the now-that's-not-very-open dept.

Aviran writes "The search giant is retaining the right to delete applications from Android handsets on a whim. Unlike Apple, the company has made no attempt to hide its intentions, and includes the details in the Android Market terms and conditions, as spotted by Computer World: 'Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement... in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion.'"

1291025 story

World Bank Under Cybersiege In "Unprecedented Crisis" 377

Posted by kdawson on Friday October 10, 2008 @12:34PM from the wolf-really dept.

JagsLive sends in a Fox News report on large-scale and possibly ongoing security breaches at the World Bank. "The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned. It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution's highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank's network for nearly a month in June and July. In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month. In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank's senior technology manager referred to the situation as an 'unprecedented crisis.' In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public." Update: 10/11 01:15 GMT by T : Massive spyware infestations might be good cause to reevaluate the TCO of non-Windows systems on the desktop.

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