A few months back, we discovered the blog of an anonymous IP lawyer called The Patent Troll Tracker. It had great info, and you've probably noticed that we're now linking to stories from that site on a fairly regular basis. Sometime before we became aware of the site however, the Troll Tracker got into a little scuffle with a bigshot patent attorney, Raymond Niro of the law firm Niro, Scavone. The Mises Institute has a recap of the situation, but basically the Troll Tracker had mentioned Niro in a way that Niro felt was unflattering, and Niro asked the Troll Tracker to identify himself -- not, apparently, for a defamation charge, but for patent infringement. How could a blog post (unflattering or not) be considered patent infringement? Apparently, the patent in question, owned by Acacia (who, you may recall is considered the worst patent system offender by the EFF), can be interpreted to mean that posting a JPG image to your site is infringement. It also happens that Niro is the patent attorney who has filed some of Acacia's patent infringement lawsuits, including against the Green Bay Packers for violating this same patent. Apparently, Niro also used the same claim of patent infringement against well-known patent critic Gregory Aharonian. It's an interesting twist on patent infringement cases to use an incredibly broad patent that covers "posting a JPEG to a website" to basically go after anyone you don't like. Somehow, I doubt that's what the founders of the patent system had in mind. Hell, I'd guess that it's not what anyone who had any part in writing patent laws had in mind.

Of course, Niro has run into something of a problem in trying to sue the anonymous Troll Tracker. It's that anonymity bit. So, apparently, he's now put out a $5,000 bounty to anyone who can identify the Troll Tracker. Law.com has more details on this as well as some other odd moves by Niro. Who knows if he will actually sue (though, the earlier stories suggest it's not out of the realm of possibility), but it's stunning that a bigshot patent attorney would be so afraid of an anonymous critic of patent system misuse that he not only would threaten him with patent infringement claims on such an incredibly broad patent, but also is willing to put up $5,000 just to find out the guy's identity. Yes, this is what our patent system has been reduced to. Thomas Jefferson is rolling in his grave.

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The software maker has about 40 people working on making Windows XP work on the One Laptop Per Child device, but significant hurdles remain and it's not a sure thing that the version will even be released, Microsoft says.

ESS is already involved in a lawsuit for providing uncertified software to California e-voting machines, but things keep getting worse for the company. Beyond all the other problems it's had with buggy machines and a defiant attitude towards anyone who questions the company, California has finally produced the independent security team review of the ESS machines used in California and it's not pretty. You may recall that all of the other e-voting machines were reviewed by independent researchers four months ago. ESS, however, wasn't included in that review because the company stubbornly refused to hand over its source code until well after the deadline, meaning that the review had to wait. However, the results are pretty similar to the other machines. The machine was clearly not built with security in mind, as both the software and the physical security were found to be lacking and easily violated in ways that would not leave much of a trace. At this point, none of this should be even remotely surprising. What still is surprising is why none of these firms will even admit that their approaches to date have fallen well short of what was necessary -- while committing to building new machines that actually have real security and accountability built in.

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What's the best way to solve a wicked problem -- by working in a large group sharing ideas via the intranet or as individuals? New research had some surprising results. It turned out that people working as individuals were at least as effective and possibly more so than those brainstorming in a group over the web when trying to solve 'wicked,' tangled problems. The quality of ideas from the people responding as individuals was "significantly better across all three quality ratings."

Canon, who make fantastic cameras, use the NFL to force professional photographers to choose between ethical behavior and no paycheck. Time to call them OFFSIDE!