Blackmoor Vituperative

All the things your phone doesn’t do, Droid Does. This is so cool.

By the way, the “Droid’ trademark which LucasFilm claims to own is completely bogus — “‘droid” is just an abbreviated form of “android”, which is the common English term for a humanoid robot. You cannot protect generic terms, which are terms that are the actual name of the associated goods or services. However, LucasFilm can (and has, and will) bully people into pretending this trademark is valid because they can sue you into bankruptcy. Another example of what is wrong with the laws in the USA.

I know what I want for Christmas: Eyeclops Nightvision Goggles. I have no idea what I would use them for. I probably would not even leave the apartment with them. But man, that is just too cool.

The Wall Street Journal has an open letter from Muhtar Kent, the CEO of Coca-Cola, Coke Didn’t Make America Fat.

He makes sense — far more than any politician or lobbyist I have heard in recent months. A pity that kind of common sense is so rare in the USA, or we’d not be in the physical, financial, and social shape we are in.

If you are considering migrating from another office productivity suite to OpenOffice (and if you are not considering that, you should), check out this Sun Microsystems on-demand webinar: tips and strategies for moving to OpenOffice.org.

I have this old image I found on the Internet , oh, it must be ten years ago, at least, of a female death warrior, or shadow knight, or death knight, who bears a passing resemblance to Lexa Doig. The problem is, I do not have the original: I only have a crappy, ten year old hardcopy.

If you can identify this image, or tell me where it came from, that would be just swell.

Edit: I found the original image, and replaced the poor scan above with the original. I still do not know where it came from. I wish I knew.

Red Hat has filed an amicus curiae brief in a major Supreme Court case. In the brief, Red Hat makes a strong case against software patents, arguing that the legal reasoning that led to software patents was flawed and that the pending Bilski case provides the Supreme Court with an important opportunity to rectify this long-standing problem with the patent system.

[…]

“Far from encouraging innovation, this proliferation of patents has seriously encumbered innovation in the software industry. Software is an abstract technology, and translating software functions into patent language generally results in patents with vague and uncertain boundaries,” wrote Red Hat VP Rob Tiller in the brief. “Under the Federal Circuit’s previous erroneous approach, the risk of going forward with a new software product now always entails an unavoidable risk of a lawsuit that may cost many millions of dollars in legal fees, as well as actual damages, treble damages, and an injunction that terminates a business. Only those with an unusually high tolerance for risk will participate in such a market.”

(from Red Hat tells Supremes: software patents stifle innovation, Ars Technica)

The issuing of patents was an experiment. That experiment has unequivocally failed. Getting rid of software patents is a good start.

On October 2, 1959, the first episode aired of what would turn out to be a seminal work of science-fiction television. For the first time the famous four-note musical motif played, and for the first time Rod Serling told viewers that they were “entering a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind.” Yes, it may be hard to believe, but today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of The Twilight Zone.

The first episode, titled “Where Is Everybody?” and starring Earl Holliman, was written by Serling and very much set the tone for the series: Holliman plays a man, dressed in an Air Force jumpsuit, who wanders about a town that seems to have no other people in it, though has evidence of very recent habitation (food on the stove, burning cigarettes in ashtrays, etc.). It turns out (SPOILER ALERT) that he is imagining the whole thing, and that he’s actually been put in isolation to see if he can stay sane for a trip to the moon.

It’s safe to say that every science-fiction TV series since owes something to The Twilight Zone: in the fall of 1959, even “Doctor Who” and “The Outer Limits” were four years away from their premieres. Serling proved that science-fiction had a place on television. Many of the episodes may be obvious, even trite; but there are many excellent ones. Some have become classics, such as “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “To Serve Man,” and “Time Enough at Last.” And who will ever forget that most-deadpan-voice-ever style of Serling’s?

A substantial number of the show’s episodes are available for free online (for viewers in the U.S., at least), and we at GeekDad encourage you to celebrate today by watching a few of them. That’s a signpost up ahead. Your next stop: The Twilight Zone!

(from The Twilight Zone turns 50)