Microsoft Offers Further Open Source Patent Threats

October 9, 2007
1 minute read

Again Microsoft is trying to bully open source distributions and projects to buy into their patent protection that Novell has already sank money into. Microsoft Offers Further Open Source Patent Threats – An anonymous reader writes “Via Groklaw comes comments from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer at a UK event, in which the company once again threatens Linux distributions that haven’t signed up with their program. ‘”People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to compensate us,” Ballmer said last week … Ballmer praised Novell at the UK event for valuing intellectual property, and suggested that open source vendors will be forced to strike similar deals with other patent holders. He predicted that firms like Eolas will soon come after open source vendors or users. Microsoft paid $521m to settle a patent claim by Eolas in August.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot. [Slasdot]

Again Microsoft is trying to bully open source distributions and projects to buy into their patent protection that Novell has already sank money into.

Microsoft Offers Further Open Source Patent Threats – An anonymous reader writes “Via Groklaw comes comments from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer at a UK event, in which the company once again threatens Linux distributions that haven’t signed up with their program. ‘”People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to compensate us,” Ballmer said last week … Ballmer praised Novell at the UK event for valuing intellectual property, and suggested that open source vendors will be forced to strike similar deals with other patent holders. He predicted that firms like Eolas will soon come after open source vendors or users. Microsoft paid $521m to settle a patent claim by Eolas in August.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[Slasdot]

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Vision Robotics’ harvesting machines edge closer to the farm

by
June 24, 2007

Vision Robotics' harvesting machines edge closer to the farm - Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In just eight short months, the automated harvesting machines at Vision Robotics have apparently come quite a ways. Currently, funding is flowing in from growers' associations who are "very nervous about the availability and cost of labor in the near future," which has allowed the company to move forward in developing a pair of robots to pluck fruit from trees or vines. The duo would work in succession as the first robotic "scout" would scan the area and construct a 3D map with the location of each item that needs captured; the "harvester" would follow behind and pick the fruits that its eagle-eyed teammate mapped out. The firm has reportedly reached the build phase on the complex machines, and while a prototype or two should be ready to rock by next year, we're unlikely to see these go mainstream before the next decade.

[Via Wired]

Gallery: Vision Robotics' harvesting machines edge closer to the farm

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Bitcoin Miner

byJordan
May 26, 2011

Purchased 2x Sapphire 5830’s and a 1000W OCZ refurb. Did you like this article?

by
June 24, 2007

This is a very interesting application, if you have lots of domain names that you're looking to sell. This application can do everything for you.

Domain Name Portfolio 0.6.2 (Default branch) - Domain Name Portfolio is a Web based application to help domain owners better organize their portfolio. It allows you to list your domains with their expiry date, registrar, price, status, and category. It also allows visitors to your portfolio to contact you about a given domain. License: GNU General Public License (GPL) Changes:
A bug in the emailer class which caused a parse error was fixed.
[FreshMeat]

by
June 23, 2007

ZAP announces mysterious high-performance electric car - Filed under: Transportation

ZAP (which stands for Zero Air Pollution) announced another new entry to its electric car stable, an as-yet-unnamed sedan that will apparently sell for $30,000. The California based company claims their new model will reach a top speed of 100 mph, and will have a 100-mile range between charges. But here's where this story gets really interesting: ZAP announced a different model back in January which still hasn't seen the light of day, and AutoblogGreen questions whether the company has been using press releases as a method of increasing their stock price for short term cash-flow. Competitors like Tesla have prototypes on the road, but no such luck with ZAP, which certainly raises a number of questions, and definitely gets you thinking about the word vaporware.

Read -- ZAP press release
Read -- AutoblogGreen's take on ZAP

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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