As usual the summary tells a tiny bit and its not the whole story so from the article here is your answer:

A group including Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG) and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) agreed to buy patents from bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co. for about $525 million, gaining the right to use the digital technology to capture and share photos.

The group is led by Intellectual Ventures Management LLC and RPX Corp. (RPXC), Kodak said in a statement today. Google, Apple and RIM are among the 12 companies that will license the patents in the deal, according to a court filing. Under the terms, Intellectual Ventures will split the payment with the licensees.

Facebook Inc. (FB), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) also are part of the group, the court filing shows, along with Samsung Electronics Co., Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), Fujifilm Holdings Corp. (4901), Huawei Technologies Co., HTC Corp. (2498) and Shutterfly Inc. (SFLY) The auctioned patents -- more than 1,100 related to the capture, manipulation and sharing of digital images -- were previously estimated by advisory firm 284 Partners LLC to be worth as much as $2.6 billion.

“This is a fraction of our overall patent portfolio,” said Chris Veronda, a spokesman for Rochester, New York-based Kodak. “We retain ownership of about 9,600 other patents for our ongoing businesses.” The agreement resolves all patent-infringement lawsuits between Kodak and the 12 licensees, Veronda said. That includes suits Kodak had against Apple, RIM, Fujifilm, HTC, Samsung and Shutterfly. In a May filing, Kodak had said Apple alone owed it more than $1 billion in patent royalties.

I disagree, it is only seemingly about vengeance because it isn't handled correctly. You say lets take that mass murderer, sure let consider him. He did it, he admits it, he is not remorseful. He is clearly dangerous, why risk keeping him around? He is exactly the case the death penalty should be for. It shouldn't be handed out willy nilly, but reserved for cases where there is clear evidence. Perhaps require a confession, and not in the interrogation room but in the court room, perhaps require video of the crime (shootings in public), eye witnesses can be wrong and have proven unreliable in several cases so maybe we just have to have either a confession or video. That may mean that 99% of the death penalties handed out in the US are invalid, I am ok with that, cancel them unless they meet the new requirments.

The key is once you raise this bar, no more years and years of delaying and waiting. If you have his confession, why put it off. Once the trial is over, the sentence given, 30 days. Then a single bullet to the head and its over. Why risk keeping someone as dangerous as that mass murderer around, and why risk innocent people guarding him. Why pay for the criminal to live when all they represent is a huge risk should they ever decide to have another go, on a guard or even another inmate.

Could the wrong guy cop to a crime? Yes, he could lie and the person who did it could have given him enough info to cover all the bases and allow an investigation to conclude that he was the criminal instead of the actual person. There is no fool proof system, if my family member copped to a crime and got the death penalty when I knew they were innocent, I'd still support the death penalty.

You talk about forgiveness, but there is nothing for me to forgive. I didn't know any of the victims, or their families, or their friends. What I know is, there is a person who is a known danger, truly dangerous to all of those around him. Why take the risks?

You give MS far too much credit for owning game studios. Look at the number of MS owned games, much less AAA titles, for 2012. It is underwhelming compared to days past, especially if you drop the Kinect games. Then compare Xbox with Games for Windows Live, its very sad. I can't imagine ever buying things from GFWL, instead of Steam. I would always choose Steam if available. While MS could go back to creating great games on their own, I don't see them writing the checks to create new Age Of Empires/Mythology, Mechwarrior, Flight Simulator etc games.

I suppose MS could spend the money needed to get GFWL to work as well as Steam, then make enough AAA games that are only available on GFWL in order to draw customers. I just don't see them doing it, ever. I can't imagine them investing in Windows as a gaming platform while they have Xbox. I agree that Steam is expendable if someone produces an equivalent product, but noone has really, not even close. I think if anyone had a shot it would have been Stardock post Gamestop but in the end they would rather also make money on Steam Wallet card sales as well.

The MicrApple XPad 72OsX HD, coming this holiday season!

I agree with your assessment of there being more than 1 type of "Question Guy", and as someone who really hates some of those types...

I am taking an Assembly Language class right now, and there is a question guy. Luckily he is not types 2 or 4, as those are for me the worst. He does meander into 3 a lot and that's where it is an issue for me. When the professor is teaching I am following, I have no issues with focus, and its good for me. Then along comes a question, which almost always will be added to mid answer. He seems to always want to talk about C, and there is a lot of "In C..... global variable..... pointer...". My problem is just that, my problem and not his fault, is about focus. I feel like the long questions he asks that just go over what the teacher said or then go into these seemingly random hypothetical situations make it hard for me to focus on the new material being taught. That's why I cringe when he asks a question. If its a short clarification or something I don't have any problems getting back on task, but the meandering comparisons to C make me drift off and it gets harder and harder to get back. The people I sit near take bets on how many minutes these offshoots go, it averages 5-6 per. I just wish he would teach a section and then take questions afterwards and not in the middle, but I know everyone learns differently so I just gotta find a way to focus up after a long mental walk around the C/pointer/variable/memory map lane that seems to happen 2-3 times per class. It doesn't help that after class is a lab, which the questioner never attends.

Luckily our teacher seems to never have issues with #4, as he always shows something and then says "Oh, and now you say 'but professor Tak, I don't believe you, I don't think that works', well lets do it then and find out" and I think he does a fantastic job of showing what he means rather than just telling us "I said so and my PhD means I can't be wrong!"

Where doe the ROFLCopter come in though?

I drive my Prius in Ca at ~75mph. I have the speeding tickets for the two times I was doing 84, now I dont do that. I still get 43-46mpg per tank.

You can, its how I get all of my wife's photos off her Kodak Camera. I just tell the Easyshare software to die in a fire and goto My Computer and browse to the camera from there.

Really? You think its like a window washer doing the work on your car first then asking for money? Perhaps I misunderstand the current situation, but he doesn't seem to have installed it and the company doesn't seem to be using it already. I think it is much more akin to the guy who I pay to do my lawn deciding on his own time to design an irrigation system on his own time then comes to me and says he has designed it, and he would like to implement it but he wants to charge me for the design time. I can choose to pay or not, if I don't he doesn't owe me the system. He simply wasted his time designing something I didn't want to purchase. Again this assumes that the submitter has NOT deployed the system already, if he has its a whole different situation much closer to your perception.

My community college does not have mandatory remedial classes for anyone. When you sign up you take aptitude tests and the results of those tests determines your starting levels in math and English. Don't all colleges employ a similar system?

I personally prefer a teacher because in the time it takes me to read and practice a new concept in programming a teacher can show me two and I'll have learned them both. Now once you factor in the other students who ask about how they personally write code and how the teacher will score them on the tests, it is no longer as efficient, but still preferable for me to have someone on hand who knows the material so well and can automatically steer me away from certain common pitfalls.

You replace TV with Netflix, and you maintain a relationship with the theater. My brother and his 4 kids have TV and replace the theater with Redbox. I myself don't use Redbox because I love going to the theater but I don't have a gaggle of children to incorporate into a theater trip. I think that's the thing about Redbox you weren't quite grasping, that for those who want the top 100 and newest titles only, it is a theater replacement, not TV replacement. I think that is how the Redbox model differs from Netflix beyond nuts and bolts, but conceptually. Just a thought.

You are missing the mastermind behind all of this. The entity that needs to drive usage, and consumption in order to reap profits..... the electric company! They enable piracy, porn, and terrorist communication! How do they get away with it!?!? Down with electricity!!!

I got my email as well, but its been probably 5 years since I played any game on there, and I signed up for EQ at launch. I'll double check the info today when I get a chance to make sure it is nothing important, ie old CC, change password etc.

^^This! I have a Blu-Ray player (PS3), and I have maybe 15 discs bought since I got it, 3 years ago. The fact that I cannot bring them with me wherever I go and be assured that they will be watchable is a small factor, but a factor none the less. For me, it is the few discs I have gotten from Netflix with ads that I couldn't skip direct to menu, none of the menu buttons seemed to go past them. You have to hit next chapter/FF to go past them. That was enough for me to decide it was not worth paying for content that was going to force me to watch or deal with ads. In addition most DVDs are available for ~$15, whereas most Blu-Ray releases are ~$30 locally. Admitedly I don't have a 1080 display other than my monitor, but I do have a great 50" 720p TV, it has mattered a bit to me that I am not getting the full visual upgrade, but I can't afford another TV right now.