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I just had to go search for more info on RFID implants because sooner or later bills will be proposed by somebody that they be introduced, initially on a voluntary basis....

Back in July silicon.com reported the following: "Tommy Thompson, the Health and Human Services Secretary in President Bush's first term and a former Governor of Wisconsin, is going to get tagged. Thompson has joined the board of Applied Digital, which owns VeriChip, the company that specialises in subcutaneous RFID tags for humans and pets. To help promote the concepts behind the technology, Thompson himself will get an RFID tag implanted under his skin." http://networks.silicon.com/lans/0,39024663,391505 25,00.htm/

December 2003 - Subdermal RFID chip provokes furore http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12/04/subdermal_ rfid_chip_provokes_furore/

October 2004 - FDA approves computer chip for humans - nice pic of an implant next to George Washington... http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6237364/

This article was followed up in November 2004 http://slate.msn.com/id/2109477/
Verisign thoughtfully provide a method to save you getting your child swapped in the hospital. "The number of total switching incidents is as high as 20,000 per year in the U.S." But don't worry. In this case the tag is not implanted... http://www.verichipcorp.com/

...unlike the VeriKid service provided by the Mexican distributors of verisign technology: http://www.solusat.com.mx/index1.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60771, 00.html

Although RFID implants have their detractors...

http://www.spychips.com/
http://www.notags.co.uk/page26.html
http://www.rfidconcerns.com/
http://www.shire.net/big.brother/digitalangel.htm
http://whiterose.samizdata.net/archives/cat_identi ty_cards.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/impl anting_chip.html

...they seem to be popular with body piercing fans: Amal Graafstra Gets an RFID Implant http://www.bmezine.com/news/presenttense/20050330. html
And the odd geek or two: http://www.x11.net/wiki/index.php/My_RFID_Implant He has mp4 video footage of the implanting procedure. It doesn't sound like he will want to remove this implant anytime soon - OUCH!

The Mexican Government - "Mexico's Attorney General required the Mark of the Beast in a 160 people. Thousands more are now planned..." http://www.tldm.org/News4/MarkoftheBeast.htm

And the European Parliament! "Brussels: 'Implants to track people are OK'". http://management.silicon.com/government/0,3902467 7,39128836,00.htm/

"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely" Lord Acton (1834-1902)

While the United States continues to be the world's worst source of spam, computers there are relaying far fewer junk emails than a year ago, according to Sophos.

I was expecting this to be settled by now.

According to http://hardware.silicon.com/storage/0,39024649,391 26916,00.htm:

"Sentiment about the format rivalry varies, depending largely on the size of porn producer. Smaller outfits seem to prefer HD DVD for its lower cost, while larger outfits tend toward Blu-ray for the capacity."

Hey guys - how many times do we have to tell you: SIZE doesn't mean that much!

The way they've done it is interesting. They've basically said "it's illegal - but you go find the guy, then we'll prosecute.". Which, in the cases of companies like EBay, they might just do. Now of course, you're right, there's no way we can reach the Nigerians (etc) yet, but there are plenty of Americans out there doing it. And those that are stupid enough to defy laws within their own country where they can be easily pinned - well, at least you're getting some of them. http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/the spamreport/0,39025001,39125582,00.htm http://itvibe.com/news/2560/ Yes, there are stupid people out there. It's our duty to help protect them, not say that they deserve to be ripped off for being stupid and greedy. When Arnold makes California his own country and goes and invades Nigeria, then you'll be glad we have a law!

...do what you must but please don't support these labels.

And so for the first time today, we are introducing two new features to iTunes. First we will be introducing RIAA Radar labels on all tunes listed in the iTunes application. If the copyright of the song belongs to an RIAA member it can be flagged and will be by default... Just so you know who loves you ;-) The second feature is by far much more important. We will be introducing collaborative filtering at the iTunes Music Store. You see, the labels have left us no choice here. They won't let us sell you the music you know you like, so we'll help you find music that you'll love but you didn't even know existed." < cuts to new iPod commercial with steamroller driving over massive piles of CDs to the tune of We're Not Friends>

The labels believed that once one company forged a path, everyone else would follow leaving them king of their little fiefdom. Unfortunately for them, Apple was more like an ice breaker in the Arctic. They made their own path and the sea froze behind them. I was of the opinion that they were trying to kill iTunes because they see it as a genuine threat. After reading this article, I am convinced the labels are genuinely too stupid to realize their extremely precarious position. This is, in fact, not a strategy to kill iTunes because of the threat it presents. This is just greed. They really are that stupid. Too bad they don't see the end coming. It'll be like they've been shot in the back of the head. No crys of "Please, please don't kill me! I'll do anything you want! Just don't *BANG*" kind of thing you'd get if you shot them in the face. It's a shame too, because they really deserve to be shot in the face.

There will be no labels for new music soon. Bands will go direct to fans through iTunes, keeping the copyrights to their creations, and making six times the profit margin the old labels would have paid them. They will make the same money going 'gold' as they would have going 'platinum' the old way. You are witnessing a turning point in music history. Music is about to become very diverse and interesting again. Get ready for something besides the same old cookie cutter 'alternative' crap you've been hearing for the last 15 years.

As pretty much all relevant ISPs (that is, the ones that are still in business) have discovered, truly unlimited high-speed internet is not a good, sustainable business plan at the moment.

Not sure about that.

Symantec the-company-that-sells-security-software-oriented- to-Microsoft-products says Firefox isn't really that much more secure than IE:
http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39 152423,00.htm

But Symantec the-company-that-sells-security-information (through its controlled company SecurityFocus) says IE 6 SP2 has 57 unpatched vulnerabilities, compared to Firefox's 3:
http://www.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?l=1 &c=12&vendor=Microsoft&version=6.0%20SP2&title=Int ernet%20Explorer
http://www.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?l=1 &c=12&vendor=Mozilla&version=1.0.6&title=Firefox
http://www.symantec.com/press/2002/n020717.html

Hmm, conflict of interests...?

You can't just fob it off with a blah blah yada yada...this is a serious issue, as Symantec pointed out in a report on Monday: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39 152423,00.htm,

although soon afterwards the pres of Mozilla europe retorted: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39 152480,00.htm.

I don't work for silicon.com, that's just what my google search lead me to...that said, this symantec things been in my RSS feeds a lot recently...

You can't just fob it off with a blah blah yada yada...this is a serious issue, as Symantec pointed out in a report on Monday: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39 152423,00.htm,

although soon afterwards the pres of Mozilla europe retorted: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39 152480,00.htm.

I don't work for silicon.com, that's just what my google search lead me to...that said, this symantec things been in my RSS feeds a lot recently...

I admit, they do seem a bit one-sidedly influenced.

There are several unpatched vulnerabilities in IE 6, according to Secunia. The security monitoring company has issued 85 alerts on the web browser since 2003; 19 of those security bugs remain unpatched, according to Secunia's website.

In addition to the Windows security fixes, Microsoft on Tuesday plans to release an update for Windows that it deems high priority but is not security related, the company said.

Perverted priorities and Microsoft. Film at 11.

Full story.

In another article on this, a record company spokesman is quoted:
"We're disappointed they won't accept the umpire's decision. It can't be fair to build a business on somebody else's work," he said.

I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV, but I know Unbelievably Blatant Hypocrisy when I hear it.

looks as if skype is opening up their API
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39 151654,00.htm

I think that the idea of the open source community owning enough patents to scare the the big guys is a good one and seems to be the basis of this plan:

http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/ope nsource/0,3800004943,39151281,00.htm

If MS and all others are clear that filing a patent suit against and FOSS project will result in 10 claims against them for infringment of patents owned by the community it will stop this nonsense. Realistically, almost any FOSS project can manage at least one patent of at least the quality of most of the recent filings, so let's get off the stick an file them. It's not selling your soul, it's just making sure that the system collapses sooner rather than later.

So what exactly makes this post (Score:5, Informative)? Do you just post links and paste the content to sites that aren't necesarily relevant?

Well, in that case:

http://www.silicon.com/networks/webwatch/0,3902466 7,39117865,00.htm

snippet:
---&---&---
Aussie man encodes his last will onto a digital watch

People have been known to hide their wills in some pretty unusual locations, but concealing one in digital form inside a watch may take some beating.

Australian technology lawyer and open-source advocate Jeremy Malcolm is testing the validity of digital wills in Australia by placing his last will and testament, complete with digital signatures from himself and two witnesses, on a DUGI watch that includes a 128MB USB memory key.

While government agencies have made increasing efforts to promote digital signatures as a valid means of transacting business, those efforts haven't yet extended to divvying up your worldly goods amongst the squabbling relatives.

Malcolm said: "There is no explicit recognition of digital signatures as a way of signing your will."

So will the will be valid?

The short answer is 'probably'. The longer answer, as Malcolm explained, is: "It relies on section 34 of the Western Australian Wills Act which says: 'A document purporting to embody the testamentary intentions of a deceased person is a will of that person, notwithstanding that it has not been executed in accordance with section 8, if the Supreme Court is satisfied that the deceased intended the document to constitute his will'."

"Basically, it means that you can get by with a will that isn't executed properly if you can prove that you did intend it as your will," he added.

A longstanding supporter of open-source software, Malcolm used GnuPG to encrypt the digital signatures.

"In the event of my being run over by a bus, my will and the three detached digital signatures will be available on my watch," Malcolm wrote on his blog. "That is unless the bus ran over my wrist, in which case all bets are off."
---&---&---

Malcolm sound like an attention-grubbing water-head.

Boy that felt good to get out.

• Hackers steal your phones to ring up bills
• New improved spyware tactics that behave like trojans
• Latest court rulings on hackers who use keyloggers
• Huge ID Theft Ring Affects at least 50 banks
  
  

On your first point. The Windows VM is in no way horribly slow, in fact it's a very elegant VM, comparable to Java, although not as mature. VM's however, are bloated by definition compared to native code. Show me a substancially better VM out there than .NET. Java is good, and mature, but inferior in concept... and available on windows from the same primary vendor I might add which is not an advantage for Linux. The NT SMP has always been the best in the business, orders of magnitude faster than Linux until the 2.4 kernels. SMP reperation was the big push for 2.4 precicely because of how much NT kicked it's ass. The NTFS File system has no peer in security; it's the best, hands down, and not too shabby on speed either. I have no idea why you picked NT's strongest points as examples here. You could have chosen examples like GNU/Linux being leaps and bounds ahead in cluster support, standardization of code, small footprint, intelligent RAM allocation and file caching, HID responsiveness, a sane file locking strategy, better all around browsers, better interoperability, etc... but Net Stack, VM, SMP and File System are things that NT did right. Where Windows truely excels, however is the proliferation of highly polished workstation applications, ease of configuration and live updating. And games, but that's just the popularity of the platform speaking. there are many examples of linux security holes. Try being on the gentoo mailing list for a bit, you'll see how secure this "bullet proof" OS is. Security is an issue for everyone right now and open source is just as vulnerable. Windows gets targeted more than Linux because it controls much more of the machines out there making for a target rich environment. Recent reports have not shown OSS to be substantially more secure. You can however make an arguement that at least with OSS you have the chance to close the holes yourself or do your own code audits, which IMO is a very nice bonus. And as for your last point, my arguement was not in speed of development. Both OS's have been progressing rapidly. I simply said that just because MS approximates release dates and misses them does not, by itself, show development to be slower on Windows. Linux does not set dates at all, so it is an unfair comparison. And before you peg me for a windows enthusiast, I'm typing this on Firefox, from my gentoo workstation, mantained via CFEngine on my primary server, alongside my performance cluster of gentoo boxes, behind my Linux firewall. I've got 2 machines here (out of 18) that run Windows. 1 is a test machine I use to verify my products still work under Windows, and my girlfriend's laptop. I much prefer Linux, as it is a much more sane development environment and is perfect for all my clustering needs, and I happen to think it's the best OS out there for my uses. That doesn't mean that Windows isn't ahead in a few areas.

I'd call BS on a lot of what he says. From another article:

"I found a list of officers' names," he claims, "under the heading 'Non-Terrestrial Officers'... What I think it means is not earth-based. I found a list of 'fleet-to-fleet transfers' and a list of ship names. I looked them up. They weren't US Navy ships. What I saw made me believe they have some kind of spaceship, off-planet."

McKinnon, however, said he can't remember much about the project as he had been "smoking a lot of dope at the time".

http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39 150245,00.htm

So when the press writes of Chairman Bill receiving a poem from a little girl who has memorized his RedBook^H^H^H^H^H^HMSCE exam or pays attention to the smoke and noise generated in this case by Michael Taylor, they can't pay attention to other things. For example, that mainstream sources are starting to acknowledge that the future is open source. There's probably a good dozen things including but not limited to sw patents, failed security, underperforming sales, etc. that MS would rather not have in front of people.

http://management.silicon.com/government/0,3902467 7,39145066,00.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/04/brit_sacke d_for_newsnight/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1520 588,00.html

http://management.silicon.com/itdirector/0,3902467 3,39117645,00.htm

This is not unique to India, several countires (including the US) do this in other areas (agriculture is a big one).

Google?????
Oh come on, wake up, they've been censoring content on behalf of the Chinese Govt WAY before MS have. Google are the new MS, when will people wkae up and smell the Googleoffee

http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39 124444,00.htm

From IT Myths: Does the 'Beast of Brussels' know everything about us?

'The Beast' is actually the invention of Christian fiction writer Joe Musser, who included it in his book Behold a Pale Horse in 1970. In the book a gigantic three-storey computer is located in the administrative headquarters of the then Common Market.

Said machine was supposed to track all world trade through monitoring the buying and selling of every citizen on the planet. The self-programming 'Beast' would use unique digital numbers given to every human being and invisibly tattooed by laser on the forehead. These could be seen by infrared scanners at "special verification counters" - or cash tills, to you and us.

So just how did this obscure 1970s sci-fi vision of the future turn into a long-standing urban myth constantly peddled as the truth? Well silicon.com tracked down Joe Musser and asked him that very question.

He told us that the book was turned into a film, called The Rapture, which is apparently still available through GF Communications.

I have been doing a lot of close work with IBM and a couple of other electronics companies in the past few weeks. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Jobs is just being foresightful (imagine how much we could make if we all were?) and anticipating that IBM has been moving out of the direct manufacter business.

There are a couple of key things that have happened that have made this seem impending. The first of course, was the divestiture of the IBM Laptop division to a Lenovo in China. (I'm so glad I have one of the last US made ones). Then, in April, IBM's Q1 numbers missed their target, resulting in a 8% drop in IBM stock. This was due to product delays, drop offs in sales around the world, and rising pension costs. Then at the end of April, Avnet Inc. announced that it was going to buy Memec, LLC, which is the world leader in semiconductor distribution and on-demand design.
The word on the street though, is that the mainframe and midrange areas are not going anywhere, and the AIX world is booming with business, so they are smart to keep their focus on their stable lines.
All of this, plus the interesting fact that IBM is focusing all of its efforts and attention not only on 'short-term' support contracts, but the repeating big customer - Professional Services. This is a cash-cow industry, if done right... We'll see how things progress. It really looks like IBM is starting to try to emerge from the Electronics Industry that brought them into the 21st Century.
Just my $2.00. Hey, it's 2005, inflation, ya know?
Jho

So well said, and that is coming from a top software innovator who could have single handedly block the advance of small software houses (in United States, at least) had he taken measures including software patents, as Carmack was the first to employ many new ideas.

Software patents are nothing less than shameful, as they allow the patenting of IDEAS. It blocks innovation instead of seeding it.

A good example on how shameful the software patent system can be, and that even the simplest ideas can make its way to the patents.

If you are a programmer, you will know that while there may be infinite approaches to a given problem, the most optimized solutions will very much look like eachother. Even though you may build your solution from scracth, it is highly probable that in some part of the world, someone may have similarly solved your problem. You should then pray that he hasn't patented it if you are ever going to make your solution public, as by doing so, you caused 'losses' to him by giving away his marvellous idea. Worse if you used it in a commercial application that you want to sell. You may never know what part of your software has 'already patented' ideas. And once you get sued, good luck trying to find prior art, because it is up to you, and not the patent institution who issues patents.

A good example of abuse of patents is E-Data. They said, once they are done with the big firms, they will go after the medium and small sized businesses..

My examples are mostly from the web, but the basic idea is all the same.

Software patents are there to protect the big and powerful from the rise of the weak, which allows them to crush competition before there can be any. Patents are mostly enforced for the good of big firms, as they don't like competition from the "weak and small", they want to be on the top of the food chain. Big firms with their horde of lawyers can deal with these issues, buying licenses or settling up with the patent issuer, or dismissing the case by finding prior art as they have the resources.

It is sad to know that there are shameless firms like E-Data, waiting the right moment to strike and make money off their patents, most of which cover so simple and basic ideas that leaves no space for different solutions, hence giving them unfair advantage.

Hope they are alteast trying ! http://news.com.com/EU+puts+funds+toward+global+re search+on+open+source/2100-7344_3-5721867.html http://software.silicon.com/applications/0,3902465 3,39130772,00.htm http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activitie s/opensource/index_en.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/26/eu_grant_o ss/

My crystal ball predictions:

MS files patent on XML and then sues others for using "their" technology. Oh, wait...deja vu?

here...
here...
here...

Open standard? My ass. If MS has their way, XML will be THEIR technology and you can use it if you pay for it. At the very least, it seems that their patent licensing allows you to read their format.

Conservative U.S. Politicians Want Adult Sites Forced to Move to .XXX
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39 130895,00.htm

Next thing ISPs will block all .xxx domains and you'll need to phone their tech support to gain access.

M'oG went to PJ's mother's home, harrassed her, and then published her address and photos of her home on the Internet. No one did anything like that to any SCOX board member, and if they had, the linux community's name would have been dragged through the mud in the media.

SCO chief suffers another denial of service - on his phone.

According to this article on silicon.com, Firefox is still growing! As of April 29th, Firefox had captured 6.8 percent of the browser market and IE slipped to 88.9 percent market share. Break out the champagne, folks!

Uh yeah, nice article. Glass half empty...

Have Linux "zealots" ever put up personal info on how to find Darl McBride's mother, with pictures of her home and the number on her mailbox so any stalker can find her readily?

Perhaps not his mother but his (and his wife's) home address and phone # were posted on Slashdot. It led to the harrasment that they were bitching about in the first place.

References:
one
two

• Search Engine Low Down - Google Tests Cost-Per-Impression Pricing and Targeting for AdWords
• San Jose Mercury News - Google changing the way ads are created, priced
• Silicon.com, UK - Google steps into banner ad world
• Houston Chronicle - Google testing systems that place ads on specific Web sites

Unfortunately, I don't see anything about this on Google's press release page yet.

--
Conversions of Currency Rates of Exchange

Cough or he could do the moral and ethical thing of giving them to the local library for nothing

Ha. He could give it to the Grainger Engineering Library at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where a copy was stolen this week.

Thanks for the info. The good news is that the bill didn't kill the network.

The original 118-118 adverts featured two 70s style 'atheletes' running around and telling people they'd "Got your number" with each runner having the number 118 displayed on their costume. Personally, I found them mildly irritating.

The Honda advert itself was based upon a Swiss film entitled Der Lauf der Dinge (The way things go). The same Honda advert inspired some Cambridge students as featured previously.

As for the 118-118 advert, the company (officially called The Number) was taken to the regulatory body for communications, OfCom, by David Bedford who claimed the runners were designed to look like him. David Bedford won, and the runners' appearances were changed.

One way to save their credibility would be to support the fight against software patents in Europe, as opposed to pressuring politicians to support their introduction.

Napster, the main challenger to Apple in the online music market, last year cracked Apple's DRM to make songs from its web song shop compatible with the iPod. While Napster's Pence did advocate a more open approach from Apple, he said mandating one through government was not necessary.

Clearly: Jo "don't know" Best.

Developers: Idle Loop Optimized
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the more-efficient-use-of-clock-time dept.
seebs writes "Every so often someone makes a joke about optimizing the idle loop, but this article actually does it. " It's about time too- that process has been eating up clock cycles for to long.

Science: Positive Proof of Water on Mars
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the now-we-can-put-that-one-to-rest dept.
pauliecronopolis was one of many people that noted that the popular Astronomoy Picture of the Day page has photographic proof of water on mars. It will be a little difficult for those of you who don't have a degree on geology to spot the evidence, but with a little efort, I think you'll be able to make it out.

Apple: Monkeys Don't Like Macs
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the but-they-fling-a-helluva-poo dept.
sebFlyte writes "silicon.com is reporting on a new twist on some oft-done probability research, into the suggestion that an infinite number of monkeys will eventually produce a perfect script for Hamlet , given typewriters (or indeed keyboards) and enough time. The researchers claims that the monkeys used in their test preferred using systems running Windows XP to those running Mac OSX. Which begs the question -- do only monkeys use windows, or can even monkeys tell macs aren't worth bothering with?"

ePlus
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the - - dept.
anonymous writes "

"

Magic Supersecret Anagram T-Shirt
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the black-is-the-new-pink dept.
Jesus Christ Himself, No Really The One Who Died For Your Sins On a Big Wooden Cross a Couple Thousand Years Ago and is a Little Cranky that You've Only Gone To Church Twice so Far This Decade wrote in to say "Hey you guys should check out the Magic Supersecret Anagram T-Shirt. It'll really blow your mind. It's available from ThinkGeek. (TG is owned by OSTG, the parent company of Slashdot, so activate all conspiracy theories now). You can also look into the new iPod accessory iCopulate which allows intimacy between mp3 players never before fantasized. And for the suit that has everything, Executve Pong.

Think Geek Shafts O' Poo

Apple: Steve Jobs to Become Ikea CEO
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the third-times-the-charm dept.
RLewis1241 writes "According to The Register, Steve Jobs seems to be broadening his horizons: "IKEA will employ Jobs as "acting CEO", from next month. The technology icon will maintain his twin CEO roles at Apple Computer Inc. and Pixar Inc. but will also take command with a wide-ranging brief at the retail giant""

The doctors wrote software that integrates the ipod.. And had their employers buy them ipods..

Pure Geuinus..

article 1

article news.com.com

...31 individuals believed to be serial music peer-to-peer uploaders.

The problem is, by default, most P2P clients have uploading turned on. So unless you take proactive steps not to 'share', you're in violation. And of course if everyone did that, there would be nothing to download.

Don't forget that Redhat's CEO Matthew Szulik Also recommended that desktop users use Windows instead of Linux around the time that they dropped their desktop distributions in order to focus on enterprise Linux.

Redhat lost a fair amount of goodwill from the community with that decision and that announcement, as long term paying (and non-paying) customers were left high and dry without an upgrade path and with the clock ticking on support.

From the commercial perspective it was also a miscalcuation on Redhat's part. Leaving the desktop Linux space left the field open for their competitors, Novell's Suse notably benefitted, as did other commercial distributions that ex-Redhat users migrated to.

Redhat's realisation of their mistake is the reason the Fedora project exists. That they were quite willing to drop their long term customer and community base when they thought we were no longer an asset should be noted by those chosing to use their products.

No....Steve Ballmer runs the show. Has for a while.

can get you sent to prison. A dude made porn sites that were common typos of Disney and Disney names, ie targetting children. He got thrown in jail....

Remember, Ballmer said that iPod users are thieves and that the most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'.

i would like to see his response to the rampant "thievery" by the company's own loyal staff.

Then again, Ballmer probably can't put his money where his mouth is, coz his foot is blocking the way.

Yes, but oddly enough many of those patents are *not* software related.

Neither are Microsoft's

UK tech police: Cash-strapped and ineffective January 26 2005 by Will Sturgeon A UK high-tech crime buster has warned that his investigations are being severely hampered by a lack of money and has said funding could still be pared down further to the point that police units such as his become untenable.

...

Noble said the funding available doesn't even stretch as far as providing him with a car

...

Noble also admitted the police still have a long way to go before they are up to speed on the various ways in which cybercrime can manifest. While each of the 45 constabularies in the UK now has a dedicated cybercrime investigator, Noble admitted these individuals may still be the only person who comes close to understanding a technical complaint, citing a "sorry, we don't do computers" culture among front desk and uniformed police.

And even if companies do get through to the dedicated computer crime investigator, they may be surprised by the level of expertise. Noble warned that many will be novices on many types of cybercrime and complete strangers to some.

"You might speak to an officer on one high-tech crime unit with a complaint about a DoS [denial of service] attack and he really might not know where you are going with it.

"You may have to help him out because he's going to need you to be the expert."

http://whitepapers.silicon.com/0,39024759,60022567 p-39000444q,00.htm

They also have another look at what things will look like down the line.

Your link is just about as shady as it gets. Look, it doesn't matter what patents IBM files.

It does matter that IBM is actively trying to expand the borders of patentable subject matter, and actively lobbying (both at patent offices and with politicians) to get the broken US system introduced in Europe.

Has IBM (in recent times) used it's patent portfolio to squash competition or to do generally evil things? No.

How many small European software companies do you think can play the patent game? Do you think IBM does not know this? IBM knows that no-one else can compete with them in the patent race, and even if someone else has a patent, they can get access to a cheap/free license because of the tons of patents they have.

See the remark at the top of page 4 of this testimony to the European Commission. That reference dates back to 1990, but there is no reason to assume that they stopped leveraging this competitive advantage while at the same time obtaining more and more patents, and starting to enforce their patents more actively from 1993 onwards (see slide 13, the curve does not flatten because R&D spending declines, but because patent license income goes up).

IBM has invented a good chunk of the technology out there today. The article mentions pursuing patent claims against Oracle, well, IBM invented the relational database!

Yes, and IBM tried to claim it invented case conversion using a lookup table (click on the patent number to get the pdf). Fortunately, there was prior art.

You also seem to assume that because someone did something first, they have a natural right to a monopoly on doing that. They don't. Patent law is a purely economical law which introduces artificial monopolies in the market. You only do that if you find out the market is running completely haywire due to the absence of such monopolies. IBM's early software work was not patented either, simply because there were no software patents. Did IBM suffer because of that? Of course not, they benefited a lot from he fact that the creators of VisiCalc hadn't patented "the database", even though they "invented" it.

Software patents are not necessary to keep the software market at large innovating or functioning correctly. Even enquiries by pro-swpat institutes like Max Planck and Fraunhofer show that competition is the main driving force to keep innovating. If you don't innovate, your competitor will and you lose.

Time to market and copyright give you a small lead time advantage, and the fact that the resulting monopolies are either fairly narrow but long (copyright) or broad but short (trade secret) means that the industry can keep moving at a high pace and does not require the high transaction costs associated with patents (and without requiring huge cross licensing deals between large companies).

A lot of companies exist and make lots of money based on technologies that IBM invented but did not pursue.

And IBM makes a lot of money on innovations from other people. Additionally, you don't hear about the individual cases where companies like IBM press other companies into paying for licenses, unless they go to court (which is only a very small fraction, who can fight IBM in court?). Companies also do not publicise that kind of things, since the fact that they have to pay 1% to 5% of their revenue on a product to IBM (or anyone else) is not good publicity.

Exactly because such cases are not publicised by anyone, there are

Read this for a different perspective on that.