Do you have your robotic dog?
Perhaps if they had made robotic cats instead of dogs, Sony would have had more success with their artificial pets. But alas, Sony will soon
cease "reproduction" of the Sony Aibo, which leaves one to wonder what happens to support of future Aibos. Already you can control Aibo wirelessly (
with Sony's help), but will we see the support groups grow, or shrink? More open source sharing of how to control your dog, or less? As I have a "biological" cat, it doesn't make much difference to me, but the effect on the robot community will be interesting.
When to unify, when not to.
The Itanium Solutions Alliance is a group helping Intel build a next generation processor -- the alliance, formed last year, seems
stronger than before. Pretty big companies banding together, to build the future. At universities, we hear how this industry cross-licenses, shares, builds the future together. Yet there are other companies, building other chips, with more success. Why ally around one approach? Are there bets on the other approaches as well? Where would you put your money?
If you build it, something will come .
At
The Commonwealth's Club Should Books Be Free Online? event last Thursday evening, the "Google lawyer" essentially said that Google is building
books.google.com now, and is planning that the business model (where Google makes money) will come. Just as the business model emerged for Google, they think that if they prove that they can meet people's information needs in a variety of ways, there will be ways to make money. It's nice to have the cash to make this kind of a bet. Brewster Kahle from the
Internet Archive spoke about the
OCA, and how they are trying to build systems where people can "bind" on demand, where Google seemed to focus more on directing people to booksellers &
libraries -- as both acknowledge that reading online is not yet ideal. Let's get that digital paper here soon!
Stop the spyware
A consumer-centric (hey, let's help each other) site to
watch for and report spyware is up. What is surprising to me is that I don't see the legal conditions about what to post, what not to post - and how wrongfully accused companies may respond.
Valuing virtual assets
"If you haven't misspent hours battling an Arctic Ogre Lord near an Ice Dungeon or been equally profligate spending time reading the published works of the Internal Revenue Service, you probably haven't wondered whether the United States government will someday tax your virtual winnings from games played over the Internet. The real question is: Why hasn't it happened already?"
--
Journalist Julian Dibbell wonders whether gamers' online assets -- the wealth and weapons they accumulate in the virtual worlds they conquer -- should be counted as taxable income.
What kind of intellectual property, virtual property, future property, etc. will be valued, by whom & when? Lessons from the venture capital industry will soon be coming, I imagine, to the average gamer.
Check out the new GPL 3 draft
The GPL version 3 draft is out. Examine, watch & analyze.
http://gplv3.fsf.org/draft
Apple & trademarks
This week Apple
declined to let Microsoft put the Apple logo on a specially-designed (by Microsoft) Apple logo on their trademark -- the place on the keyboard where the "apple" key is. Apple also
declined to use Intel's "Intel" (new) logo on their new computers (which use Intel chips). Intel does indeed guard their logo carefully!
AIDS drugs pricing
How can the Clinton Foundation be successful in
negotiating lower prices for AIDS drugs in developing nations, when others fail? Do companies not wan to turn down Clinton, who may be the husband of the next U.S. president? Are they afraid of bad PR? All the companies already offer subsidies to patients in such countries. Congrats, Clinton Foundation, however you got it done.
Open Source Hardening
We ought to examine the
proposal for "open source hardening" grant where 3 organizations team up to look out for security in open source software. Balancing "open" versus "closed" ought to be an interesting act, as many organizations consider security proprietary. Examining the nature of proprietary within the "open" world is important, and this grant ought to be good to watch.
Personalization on the rise
Gap is redoing their stores to make it a
more "personal" experience -- more "my Gap" and less "generic Gap." You can already cutomize many websites to meet your needs, and virtually try things on. Individuals who had cable service from a certain provider can get one whole month of free service now because their cable provider sold their personal information. So, there is certainly a business model & intellectual property in customization. There are personal property rights in information about
you. When will consumers gain greater recognition for their individual information? Even though the European community has greater data protection law, I'm unsure of the scope of it, and if people feel better protected, better served. ?
