Category: Software

The Danger of Software Patents

Thanks to Hans for the link:

Speech by Richard Stallman at Cambridge University,
25 March 2002

You might have been familiar with my work on free software. This
speech is not about that. This speech is about a way of misusing laws
to make software development a dangerous activity. This is about what
happens when patent law gets applied to the field of software.

It is not about patenting software. That is a very bad way, a
misleading way, to describe it, because it is not a matter of patenting
individual programs. If it were, it would make no difference, it would
be basically harmless. Instead, it is about patenting ideas. Every
patent covers some idea. Software patents are patents which cover
software ideas, ideas which you would use in developing software. That
is what makes them a dangerous obstacle to all software development.

Bug vision

Wired News: Bugs Taking Over Robot Guidance

“The principle is simply that, if the insect flies along a straight line, objects that are near it appear to whiz by much more rapidly in the eye than objects that are far away,” says Srinivasan. “Thus, the distance to an object can be inferred in terms of the velocity of its image in the eye — the greater the velocity, the nearer the object.”

Email Re-Defined

ZOÀ

From the site:
ZoÎ

The goal here is to do for email (starting with your personal mailbox)
what Google did for the web… The Google principle: It doesn’t matter
where information is because I can get to it with a keystroke.
So what is ZoÎ? Think about it as a sort of librarian, tirelessly,
continuously, processing, slicing, indexing, organizing, your messages.
The end result is this intertwingled web of information. Messages put in
context. Your very own knowledge base accessible at your fingertip. No
more “attending to” your messages. The messages organization is done
automatically for you so as to not have the need to “manage” your email.
Because once information is available at a keystroke, it doesn’t matter
in which folder you happened to file it two years ago. There is no
folder. The information is always there. Accessible when you need it. In
context.

Maya, Free for non-commercial uses

Alias Products & Services

From the site:
Maya Personal Learning Edition now available for Maya Complete 5

Maya Personal Learning Edition is a special version of MayaÆ software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use. It will give 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics (CG) an opportunity to explore all aspects of the award winning Maya Complete%u2122 software in a non-commercial capacity.