Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 11th Feb 2011 16:00 UTC, submitted by aa
Well, well, well. The MPEG-LA is showing its true colours. After a decade of threatening to patent troll the living heck out of Theora, the company led by a patent troll has now finally put its money where its mouth is. Well, sort of. They don't actually have any patents yet, they're asking people to submit patents they believe are essential to the VP8 specification. Update: MPEG (so not the MPEG-LA) has announced its intent to develop a new video compression standard for the web which will be royalty-free. "The new standard is intended to achieve substantially better compression performance than that offered by MPEG-2 and possibly comparable to that offered by the AVC Baseline Profile. MPEG will issue a call for proposals on video compression technology at the end of its upcoming meeting in March 2011 that is expected to lead to a standard falling under ISO/IEC 'Type-1 licensing', i.e. intended to be 'royalty free'."
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Member since:2006-03-01
I know you're surprised, but I have to disagree on this one. I think the cat is already out of the bag, and the Internet (aka, Tubes) is responsible. Secrets are just too darn hard to keep, and the price of trying is not really worth it.
your post is made invalid by being based on a wrong assumption...
a patent is NOT made to keep a technology, a design/implementation detail or (in general) an "invention", secret - a patent is made and applied for, to make MONEY by binding those who need to reuse that same invention, and is DISCLOSED and PUBLISHED in order to do
thus a patent in the exact contrary of a secret...
Member since:2005-07-06
A few clarifications:
1. I realize the patent isn't secret, but until then, everything must be carefully guarded. In addition, having read patents, they seem to have a special "encryption" of their own, if you know what I mean.
2. In addition, I was also talking about the larger issues of IP, DRM and trade secrets. This applies to the super-duper key Sony has for the PS3.
3. Lastly, I also think the term secret can also apply to the process of hoarding, or "secreting away" something. The U.S. economy is based on hoarding, such as that done by the U.S. drug companies. They desperately need to keep others, especially around the world, from re-creating their process.
4. In the case of DRM, the content industry is desperately trying to keep something secret that allows them to control the content. This is certainly an area where the secrets do not last very long.
5. Back on topic, I think the real secret being hidden in regard to MPEG-LA and software patents in general, is that the processes involved are truly algorithms that have no business being patented in the first place. It is this landmine of "secrets" that is doing the most damage to innovation in technology.
News
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/15/13 23:03 UTC
"During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/15/13 21:46 UTC
"Wired has obtained a copy of a cease and desist letter sent by Google to Microsoft today, demanding Microsoft immediately remove the YouTube app from its Windows Phone Store and disable existing copies on consumers' devices by May 22. The YouTube app for Windows Phone - developed by Microsoft not Google - strips out ads and allows downloading, both violations of YouTube's terms of service." Incredibly petty. Just come up with a solution, you bunch of kids.More News »
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Member since:
2005-07-06
I know you're surprised, but I have to disagree on this one. I think the cat is already out of the bag, and the Internet (aka, Tubes) is responsible. Secrets are just too darn hard to keep, and the price of trying is not really worth it. Yes, the cart will keep on rolling down the street awhile, but the wheels are falling off. I don't think there will be a revolution, or massive law change. It just won't work. But I'm not saying daisies will suddenly sprout. The corps will find a new model, and they will still make massive amounts of money. I think the patent system will not be the way. I'm not sure what will, but a new one will arise. So this cart is falling apart, but there's a new one at the next stop.
And by the way, Linux IS a really good example. There was no year of the Linux desktop, and yet it is taking over the marketplace, it's everywhere. It's not on the desktop (much), but it's on the all the devices people are running out to buy. No one voted it in, there were no big transactions - it just kinda took over. Same thing here.
Edited 2011-02-11 18:04 UTC