"While the court referral has attracted the lion share of attention, my weekly technology law column reports that there is an alternate secret strategy in which Canada plays a key role. According to recently leaked documents, the EU plans to use the Canada - EU Trade Agreement, which is nearing its final stages of negotiation, as a backdoor mechanism to implement the ACTA provisions. The CETA IP chapter has already attracted attention due to EU pharmaceutical patent demands that could add billions to provincial health care costs, but the bigger story may be that the same chapter features a near word-for-word replica of ACTA." Democracy? Bah humbug!

"Microsoft and Perceptive Pixel Inc. (PPI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire PPI, a recognized leader in research, development and production of large-scale, multi-touch display solutions." Yes, Jeff Han is now a Microsoft employee. This demo still amazes me - from 2006. Before the iPhone. Before Android. Before the iPad. Remember that the next time you wind up in a discussion about who supposedly invented what.

Sorry for the delay in writing a story about this, but here we finally are: Nokia's MeeGo (or Maemo or whatever it's called this hour) is getting its successor. Yes, MeeGo, the short-lived but beloved platform running on the unicorn phone, the Nokia N9, will continue onwards in a slightly different form. Its new home? Jolla - a company formed by former Nokia chief operating officer Marc Dillon, who was the principal engineer for MeeGo/Maemo at Nokia since 2006.

Jeff Atwood: "In the post PC era, Microsoft is betting the company on Windows 8, desperately trying to serve two masters with one operating system. The traditional mouse and keyboard desktop is no longer the default; it is still there, but slightly hidden from view, as the realm of computer nuts, power users, and geeks. For everyone else, the Metro UI puts an all new, highly visual touch and tablet friendly face on the old beige Wintel box. Will Microsoft succeed? I'm not sure yet. But based on what I've seen so far of Windows 8, its pricing, and the new Surface hardware - I'm cautiously optimistic." So am I. However, a lot - and I mean a lot as in 'everything' - will depend on the quality of the Metro applications. So far, the quality has been utterly abysmal, both for first and third party ones. Microsoft is promising Metro application goodness for RTM, but I'll believe it when I see it.

"Analyzing one of American corporate history's greatest mysteries - the lost decade of Microsoft - two-time George Polk Award winner (and V.F.'s newest contributing editor) Kurt Eichenwald traces the 'astonishingly foolish management decisions' at the company that 'could serve as a business-school case study on the pitfalls of success'."

"In this tiny ebook I'm going to show you how to get started writing 6502 assembly language. I think it's valuable to have an understanding of assembly language. Assembly language is the lowest level of abstraction in computers - the point at which the code is still readable. Assembly language translates directly to the bytes that are executed by your computer's processor. If you understand how it works, you've basically become a computer magician." More of this, please.

Mozilla has announced it's ceasing development on Thunderbird; one more version will be released, and it'll be security updates from then on. "Most Thunderbird users seem happy with the basic email feature set. In parallel, we have seen the rising popularity of Web-based forms of communications representing email alternatives to a desktop solution. Given this, focusing on stability for Thunderbird and driving innovation through other offerings seems a natural choice." Makes sense - I mean, there's only so much you can do with something that needs to send and receive mail, and I can't imagine Thunderbird having a lot of users. Strange, almost Microsoftian obtuse announcement, by the way.

Iain Marlow interviews Thorsten Heins: "While the core technology of BlackBerry 10 is ready to go - outside developers are already working on an array of applications - I decided that the way some features worked together and the related software integration needed more attention and refinement. The goal of BlackBerry 10 is to bring some of the best technologies in the world together in a seamless environment. Simply put, I could still see some of the seams. We decided to delay the launch of BlackBerry 10 to give us ample time to integrate software, test, and polish the final product." While I wonder if RIM can take such a delay, I'm glad Heins understands the importance of polish. since many PlayBook owners appear quite content with their device, I'm very curious to see what BB10 will be like.

Since I want to get this out of my system: here's a set of proposals to fix (okay, replace) the current failing patent system. No lengthy diatribe or introduction, just a raw list.

Interesting charts by Horace Dediu: "As a result the Mac began to whittle down the advantage Windows had. The ratio of Windows to Mac units shipped fell to below 20, a level that was last reached before Windows 95 launched. It's as if the Mac reversed the Windows advantage. This was an amazing turnaround for the Mac. But the story does not end there." Too bad Dediu didn't include Android devices in his charts. The picture would change dramatically, and would downplay the important of either Windows or Mac/iOS. We're in a three-horse race - not the two-horse race Dediu paints.

Seeing applications on iOS that were updated these past few days crash, for no apparent reason? Marco Arment found out why: "Last night, within minutes of Apple approving the Instapaper 4.2.3 update, I was deluged by support email and Twitter messages from customers saying that it crashed immediately on launch, even with a clean install. This didn't make sense - obviously, Apple had reviewed it, and it worked for them. My submitted archive from Xcode worked perfectly. But every time I downloaded the update from the App Store, clean or not, it crashed instantly. Lots of anxiety and research led me to the problem: a seemingly corrupt update being distributed by the App Store in many or possibly all regions. And this is happening to other apps, not just Instapaper, updated in the last few days."

Both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, the usual means through which Apple itself spreads rumours, have reported that a 7" iPad will be launched coming October. It's pretty obvious why Apple would leak this information now - to hinder the launch of the Nexus 7. According to Gruber, it would sport a 7.85" 1024x768 display - quite a step down from the 1280x800 7" display on the Nexus. Still, this is about the operating system, not specifications, so it doesn't matter all that much. I wonder what Jobs would think of this 7" tablet. Oh wait.

The only MeeGo device to ever be released, the Nokia N9, has been updated to MeeGo/Harmattan 1.3. Among the improvements are improved performance, updated applications, improved NFC support, improved copy/paste, and more. In other news, the team behind MeeGo and Maemo is now leaving Nokia, probably making this the last update for the N9.

While our beloved readers from the United States celebrate their independence (have a good one, guys and girls), the European Parliament has just voted against ACTA with an absolutely overwhelming majority: 478 against ACTA, 39 in favour (and 165 abstentions). I'm raising a coffee to this one, kids.