GM Contract Flooring
A patent represents a grant from the United States government to an individual for the exclusive right to make, use, import, sell, and offer to sell an invention. In order to obtain a patent, an inventor must prove that the invention is new, useful, and not merely an obvious improvement over what was already known.
It's a small wonder that the Linux operating system remains vibrant in multiple industries and is poised to make a dash for more consumers' desktops, considering how often misunderstandings get in the way of its advancement. For instance, Linux was not immediately recognized as a real OS in the way that consumers and business owners viewed the Apple computer or IBM PC in the early days of computing.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who are the greatest geeks of us all? That question -- posed in an Australian iTnews article, "The Top 10 Greatest Geeks of All Time" on Monday -- sparked quite a discussion in the blogosphere last week, garnering more than 1,300 Diggs and 280 comments by Friday.
That blur you saw at the edges of your vision just now? That would be the Internet continuing to move at light speed to your cell phone and other mobile devices. So Adobe's argument is, how can anything move that fast without Flash? The company is staging its MAX 2008 conference in San Francisco this week.
A virtual affair is ending a real-life marriage in southwest England. Amy Taylor filed for divorce when she discovered her husband cheating in Second Life -- an online community where players adopt personas called "avatars," mingle with others and teleport themselves into a series of artificial worlds.
Recently, I stopped by a local T-Mobile store, the home of the new G1 phone. This is the so-called Google phone, the mobile device with Google's Android operating system. Many in the press have anointed the Google phone as a potential "iPhone killer." That is, a device capable of knocking the iPhone off its pedestal as the most desirable and most well-reviewed smartphone on the market.
So here we are. Home prices and incomes are falling, foreclosures are rising, layoffs are multiplying, and wealth is evaporating. Everyone is looking for signs of stability, but each new day brings new despair and uncertainty. Amidst the reckoning, it's hard to imagine the future, but regardless, it will arrive soon enough.
Beleaguered server and software maker Sun Microsystems said Friday that it will lay off as many as 6,000 employees, or 18 percent of its worldwide workforce, over the next year. Sun's announcement appears to confirm fears that the economic turmoil that has overtaken the financial services and manufacturing sector has now spread to the technology sector.
The sour economy is causing industries and individuals alike to tighten their belts in just about all areas of spending, including software. Downloading free and low-cost open source software is often an attractive alternative to proprietary commercial products. The potential for enterprises and other users switching from high-priced software to open source alternatives poses a new opportunity.
Virtual worlds provide not only a new universe in which brave explorers stake their claims, but also a new legal landscape in which the colonists are often at odds with the natives from the "old world." How do real-world laws apply? How do traditional concepts of intellectual property -- patents, copyrights, and trademarks -- apply in a virtual world?
Terra Soft Solutions, the developer of Yellow Dog Linux, has been acquired by the Japanese software firm Fixstars Corporation, a developer of Cell Broadband Engine solutions. The new company, now known as "Fixstars Solutions," is operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of Fixstars and will maintain its entire product line from a regional office in Loveland, Colo., where Terra Soft is based.
