Tag: Microsoft

i4i patent case redux

The One In Charge probably isn’t surprised. But you’d think Microsoft would accept defeat gracefully. Guess not.

The world’s largest software company wants all 11 judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles many patent and trademark cases, to review the long-running case against Toronto-based i4i Ltd, in the hope of overturning the original judgment.

Microsoft appealed the case last year, but in December a panel of three appeals court judges rejected its arguments, and upheld the federal jury decision.

That jury, in U.S. district court in Texas, ruled last August that Microsoft had infringed a patent belonging to i4i relating to text manipulation software in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Word, Microsoft’s word processing application.

Psalm of the Day

I’m going to do my best to stay up on the lectionary this year. We’ll see how it goes.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Psalm 2

1Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
2The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and his anointed, saying,
3‘Let us burst their bonds asunder,
and cast their cords from us.’

Who can read this without hearing Handel’s Messiah. I was reading a blog/Twitter conversation on “open content”. I need to mull over the various perspectives before weighing in on this myself. But the notion of “kings” and “rulers” and “nations” made me think about ownership issues with respect to the Internet. Who’s in charge here?

4He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord has them in derision.
5Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6‘I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.’

Then there is the probably dated view (or joke, depending on your point of view) that has Microsoft as the lord over all of us, or at least a software behemoth that lords it over the little people. What with the decade long monopoly lawsuit in the EU (I think) recently resolved, and with so much open source code out there, and “the Google” launching its browser and basically ready to launch its OS, the notion of one “lord over all” is a bit of a joke.
7I will tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to me, ‘You are my son;
today I have begotten you.
8Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9You shall break them with a rod of iron,
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’
10Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11Serve the Lord with fear,
with trembling 12kiss his feet,*
or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way;
for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Happy are all who take refuge in him.

I do enough Biblical study to be in the habit of inserting myself (or various other characters) into scripture. Whom do I serve? Whose feet do I kiss trembling as I do so? Hmm. When I think about this in the context of computing it seems so very anachronistic: serve Darth Vadar (aka Bill Gates)? Nah! It’s been a long time since I felt that I was a helpless slave of some computer brand or some computing system. What with hacks and tips and tricks, even when Apple was on its death bed back in the mid 90’s, there have always been “options” out there so that one doesn’t have to serve the OS with fear.