Month: June 2011

Categories
Hoops

Jester James

Sports Illustrated: “James said after this Finals loss that “I pretty much don’t listen to what everybody has to say about me or my game or what I’ve done with my career,” but this is the same guy who tweeted last year “Don’t think for one [minute] that I haven’t been taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me this summer. And I mean everyone!” So it’s a bit late for him to say he doesn’t care.”

Congratulations Cleveland, the dog and pony show that was “The Decision” didn’t quite work as expected (what arrogance). Remember, there’s always someone better than you. This year it was a team of players.

Clevelanders reaction? Well, I’m sure you could guess how they feel.

Categories
Hoops

Congratulations Dallas Mavericks

Sports Illustrated: “Dirk Nowitzki had on a champagne-soaked white T-shirt and a championship cap he wore as if he were a 12-year-old in a fireman’s hat. He walked down the hallway of the enemy arena with a bottle in his right hand and the Finals MVP trophy upside down in his left. He was the one who had arrived.”

What more do you need to say? Team over individuals, that needs to be said.

Categories
Business

Trolls are trolls

EFF : “The licensing fee Lodsys claims to be seeking – 0.575% – may seem low, and, in many instances, will come out to less than the cost of defending a lawsuit: that’s how the troll business model works. But paying the fee, especially in these circumstances, looks a lot like paying a tax on innovation. What is worse, for some developers it will be enough to make their business unsustainable.”

Patents are bad for innovation.

Categories
Business

Company Names

Before naming Apple Core Labs I struggled to come up with a name. Kim and I tossed around a bunch of different names, I wish I still had the list.

I’ve actually thought about renaming Apple Core Labs. Why? Well, a friend asked a couple years back if Apple had a problem with the company name when I submitted RxCalc. No, they didn’t say a word. After all Apple Core Labs is a zero in the world of business.

Anywho, I’ve been kicking around names, and thought about sharing them here, but that’s for another day.

Categories
fun

Lodsys Troll Spotted In The Wild!

The Lodsys Troll!

SOMEONE CALL THE TROLL HUNTERS!

Categories
Hoops

Raise the Rim

Chicago Sun Times: “Because the current 10-foot rim, which has been at that arbitrary height ever since James Naismith nailed a peach basket to the lower railing of the balcony at Springfield (Mass.) College in 1891 has ‘‘grown’’ too low.”

The author, Rick Telander, is calling for a 10-4 to 10-8 high rim. I say take it up to 12 feet. For kids coming out of college it would be the equivalent of a college baseball player moving from an aluminum bat to a wood bat in the pros. Some kids can’t adjust and wash out.

Could you imagine a 12 foot rim? People would have to rely on jump shots again. Then again, some of these beasts could jump that high.

It’ll never happen. Fans like the dunks, and after all, fans keep the game in business.

Categories
MLOTW

Movie line of the week answer

Good morning movie liners. Alas, we had zero takers for yesterday’s line.

The correct answer was…

The Long Kiss Goodnight

See you next Thursday.

Categories
MLOTW

Movie line of the week

Watchin' it on the big screen!Wow, having Monday off threw me off schedule! I just about forgot, it’s movie line day!

Here’s the line, good luck!

No, no, I sock ’em in the jaw and yell, “Pop goes the weasel.”

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

Categories
Hoops

The Big Aristotle Retires

The Big Shamroq
Sports Illustrated: “BOSTON (AP) He was a prolific producer of rebounds and record albums. And nicknames, too, as if at 7-foot-1 and 350 pounds he was too big for the simple “Shaq” that made him an instantly recognizable, one-name star in all of his endeavors.”

Shaquille O’Neal is my favorite modern day player, period. The game will miss him, as will I.

ESPN, or TBS, you’d better hire this guy.

Categories
Business

The Troll that wouldn’t die

Lodsys: “We stand firm and restate our previous position that it is the 3rd party Developers that are responsible for the infringement of Lodsys’ patents and they are responsible for securing the rights for their applications. Developers relying on Apple’s letter do so to their own detriment and are strongly urged to review Apple’s own developer agreements to determine the true extent of Apple’s responsibilities to them.”

Special place in Hell for lawyers. Yep.

Who was sued? Glad you asked.

  1. Combay
  2. Iconfactory
  3. Illusion Labs
  4. Machael G. Karr
  5. Quickoffice
  6. Richard Shinderman
  7. Wulven Games

Something to note, Iconfactory’s Twitterrific for Mac was called out, as well as Illusion Labs Labyrinth for Android. So this extends beyond iOS. Who’s next? Is Windows Update covered by this? What about all the apps that do automagic update?

FOSS Patents: “Unfortunately, I was right. Today — on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 — Lodsys filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (the place in which I predicted that it would do so) against seven little iOS app developers. Lodsys asserts two of its four patents: U.S. Patent No. 7,620,565 (“the ‘565 patent”) on a “customer-based design module” and U.S. Patent No. 7,222,078 (“the ‘078 patent”) on “Methods and Systems for Gathering Information from Units of a Commodity Across a Network.” Note that Lodsys so far emphasized the ‘078 patent, although Lodsys always mentioned its other patents as well.”