hacking

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,110937,00.html

thats cool...an unemployed guy causes a 700,000$ damage to the pentagon and even faces the possibility of going to Guantanamo Bay.

but the real question is who should be blamed? the people involved in designing and implementing the security system of the pentagon for designing such a vulnerable system or the one who finds the defect...the wise move would be to hire that guy.

US patent and EU patent law

There has been lots of lawsuits based on patent conflicts. Recent one being z4 on MS and AutoDesk.

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,110690,00.html

The other rediculous one being, Netflix sueing Blockbuster. Reason: blockbuster copied its business model which is online renting. (but they have not patented that business model) But still by the US patent law, one can patent a business model. Patent basically means the right to monopolize an invention.

As far as I am concerned, these are not real inventions. These are just a sub set of some already implemented/invented process. For instance, online renting business model is not an invention atall but on the other hand concept of RENTING is an invention.

But the European law goes far beyond and invalidates most of the "inventions" considered worthy in US patent law. According to Europeans, mathematical methods, intellectual methods, business methods, computer programs, presentation of information etc are not inventions in the sense of patent law. It seems resonable to me. Most of those mentioned above are just a means to acheive an already invented process. The Europen law also gives a nice explanation for not including patents on softwares:

Programming is similar to writing symphonies. When a programmer writes software, he weaves together thousands of ideas (algorithms or calculation rules) into a copyrighted work. Usually some of the ideas in the programmer's work will be new and non-obvious according to the standards of the patent system. When many such ideas are patented, it becomes impossible to write software without infringing on patents. Software authors are in effect deprived of their copyright assets; they live under permanent threat of being blackmailed by holders of large patent portfolios. As a result, less software is written and fewer new ideas appear.



Moreover, should'n there be one universal patent law?

Major players and Open source companies

Finally Red Hat buys JBoss Inc, an open source middleware company. This news came as a surprise when JBoss is at its peak in the market share of the application servers. I was quiet surprised to see that Oracle was also one of the bidders. Last year, IBM bought Gluecode, a major contributor of the apache Geronimo project.

When the open source companies establish a name of its own, why would they want to be eaten away by big players? IBM would encroach into the Geronimo's customer base and somehow market them to use its own suite of products. But RedHat-JBoss is not as worse as IBM-Geronimo in the sense that they dont belong to the same business domain. This is like ebay buying skype. Configuring anything in Linux is pain in the ass as far as I am concerned. With Red hat buying JBoss, i think Redhat version of linux boxes will have better support of JBoss or pre-installed version of JBoss could be expected.

Cubicle - A dull place to work!

I really cant appreciate the "cubicle" culture in the work environment. Though you get your own space but restricts your interaction with other memebers of the team. I also feel like the overall productivity of a developer or, for that matter, any professional in a cubicle is worse than when he/she works in an environment without being enclosed in a small space surrounded by four walls.

My previous office had a nice work environment. it was like a big hall with 5 people working there with enough space for each and wide empty area in the middle. The interaction within the members was very effective and the productivity of each employee was amazing.

Why would anyone need privacy in the office??