Practical Technology

for practical people.

April 21, 2011
by sjvn01
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Idiotic Anti-Linux & Google Patent Decision

All good patent trolls know that you sue in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Texas (EDTX). It’s known for its pro-patent judges that speed patent cases along their docket to the patent holders’ victory. That’s not just me and my anti-patent buddies speaking. No less a figure than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has described the EDTX as a “renegade jurisdiction.” It’s no wonder than that patent troll Bedrock chose the EDTX as its battlefield for its attack on Google, and a host of other companies, over a violation of its patent, which appears to be used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

In the case, the EDTX jury on Bedrock Computer Technologies, LLC vs. Google, Inc., awarded Bedrock $5 million. That’s chump change by patent troll standards, but Bedrock has also sued, among others, Yahoo!, MySpace, Amazon, PayPal, Match.com and AOL There’s money in those companies and Bedrock wants it!

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April 21, 2011
by sjvn01
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Who has, and who doesn’t have, IPv6 Support

First things first. If you work in a small office/home office (SOHO) or are just interested in IPv6 at home, you don’t need to start switching over yet. Big businesses and large organizations are the ones that really need to get on the stick with IPv6. That said, I know many of you don’t want to wait to get your feet wet in IPv6 so here’s what’s what with IPv6 support in common SOHO server and desktop operating systems and network devices.

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April 21, 2011
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu Linux 11.04’s Target Audience: Casual Windows Users

Do you use Windows not because you like it or there’s some specific Windows-only application that you must use but because it’s what came on your PC? If that’s you, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, wants you to try their soon to be out Ubuntu 11.04 Linux desktop.

When I talked with Canonical marketing manager Gerry Carr, I hadn’t expected him to say that. Over the last few years, Linux desktop vendors haven’t really tried to take on Windows head-on. Oh, to be certain, I think the Linux desktop is great. I’m writing this story on Mint 10, an Ubuntu variant, and I use openSUSE 11.4, Fedora 14, and MEPIS 8.0 on other PCs and laptops. But, I know most people are content to use Windows because that’s what comes on their PCs. Carr thinks though that with Ubuntu 11.04’s new desktop interface and a few other tricks up Canonical’s sleeve, Ubuntu can win over “casual Windows users.”

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April 20, 2011
by sjvn01
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Microsoft gets Novell’s Patents rights but must share them with Open-Source Software

Well, this is almost certainly not the Novell patent deal that Microsoft and its CPTN Holding Partners-Apple, EMC and Oracle-wanted . The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced today, April 20th, that in order to proceed with the first phase of their acquisition of certain patents and patent applications from Novell, CPTN Holdings has altered their original agreements to address the department’s antitrust concerns. In particular, “The department said that, as originally proposed, the deal would jeopardize the ability of open source software, such as Linux, to continue to innovate and compete in the development and distribution of server, desktop, and mobile operating systems, middleware, and virtualization products. Although the department will allow the transaction to proceed, it will continue investigating the distribution of the Novell patent to the CPTN owners.”

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April 19, 2011
by sjvn01
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Microsoft Patent Case in the Supreme Court’s Hands

We often think of Microsoft as being the aggressor in patent lawsuits. Who can forget their efforts to patent smilies or, more recently and seriously, its anti-Android patent lawsuits. But, remember that Microsoft has often been found guilty of violating patents itself in such cases as against Uniloc. Now, Microsoft has made its last moves against i4i in the Supreme Court over its violation of I4I’s XML patents

This is serious stuff. At one time, a U.S. District Court had ruled that Microsoft couldn’t sell any version of Microsoft Word or Office that could create .XML, .DOCX, or .DOCM files. Had that injunction been enforced immediately, there would have been a time during the fall of 2009 when you couldn’t have bought Office 2007 or 2010. That’s no longer in the cards because Microsoft removed the offending code in December 2009, but besides wanting its $200-million fine back, Microsoft wants, according to Thomas Hungar, of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, who represented Microsoft before the Supremes. “Microsoft wants the patent system strengthened, and the patent playing field fair and balanced.”

What Microsoft and friends means by this is that the courts should use a lower burden-of-proof bar for patent violations. As it stands now, if you’ve been accused of violating a patent you must show “clear and convincing evidence” that the patent is invalid. Microsoft wants the burden of proof to be lowered to “a preponderance of the evidence.”

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April 19, 2011
by sjvn01
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How far has the Internet come with IPv6 Adoption?

This won’t come as any surprise to anyone in the network business, but Arbor Networks has just published a study of “native IPv6 traffic volumes across multiple large carriers” and found “only a small fraction of the Internet has adopted IPv6. ” We are so hosed.

Oh, no one’s going to try to Google “Lady Gaga” tomorrow and find that her YouTube videos are gone. But, if you’re in charge of a business, you’re eventually going to need more Internet addresses and the IPv4 address cupboard is bare. Indeed, the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), which is in charge of all Asian Internet addresses, is now down to the last IPv6 crumbs.

The situation isn’t a lot better in North America. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) tells me that, “ARIN has seen a steady, if not, slight decline in the number of IPv4 request since IANA reached depletion of their IPv4 pool in early February 2011. However, ARIN has seen a substantial increase in the number of IPv6 requests since that same time. Currently, ARIN has over 5 /8s of IPv4 address and expects this will last through most of this year and possibly into next year.”

When things get really tight with IPv4 addresses, which at this rate will be in the late fall of 2011, ARIN may start restricting IP [Internet Protocol] allocations. In the meantime, you can try to buy IPv4 addresses, but that’s a short term solution. The bottom line is we’re running out of IPv4 addresses and we must start switching over.

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