Have Laptop Will Travel

Microsoft Loses Office Patent Appeal

Originally posted on June 19, 2006 @ 5:02 pm

Back in 2005, Microsoft was told to pay Carlos Amado $6.1 million for violating Amado’s patent, which covered technology to link spreadsheets and databases. Amado developed the technology while at Stanford University, and patented it in 1994.

The 2005 ruling had stayed an injunction against using the technology pending appeal, but had ordered Microsoft to put into escrow money to cover sales of additional infringing products. Currently, Amado’s attorney said that the escrow account contains over $65 million. That’s a lot of cash.

As of last week, the original verdict which was handed down by federal court in 2005 in favor of Carlos Amado was upheld by a United States Court of Appeals. That’s exciting news for Carlos and bad news for Microsoft. It looks like Carlos will be sitting pretty for a very long time.

I wonder how much of the $65 million he will actually receive and how much of it will go to his lawyer. Either way Microsoft will be taking a pretty big hit in the pocket.

Google’s Web-based Spreadsheet Application

Originally posted on June 5, 2006 @ 4:47 pm

Google is expected to launch a Web-based spreadsheet application sometime tomorrow, a move that would be latest challenge to Microsoft. Can you smell what the Rock’s… uh, I mean can you smell what Google’s cooking? Hehe.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the Google Spreadsheet would follow by a couple of months the company’s purchase of Writely, a Web-based word processor.

Last month I posted about the Google Dell partnership in which Dell agreed to ship 10s of million of computers with Google software installed.

As you can tell, Google is really becoming a serious threat to Microsoft. Yay! I’m all for it because even though I use Microsoft products, I’m all for Open Source and freedom of information. Google likes to share the knowledge. Microsoft likes to corner the market and charge way to much for their products.

Many people think Google is evil but I don’t agree. Why you ask? Because from what I know, Google buys or develops great technology, then they give it back to the people free of charge. To me, that’s not evil. Microsoft should take a step back and look at how Google does things. Bill and his crew might learn something new. I wonder if Bill Gates owns any Google stock?

Adobe and Google team up for Toolbar

Originally posted on June 21, 2006 @ 9:26 pm

Earlier today Adobe announced that it’s offering the Google Toolbar to its customers as a free download.

This is a great way to take Google search with you anywhere on the web. You can access Google search capabilities from any website, block pop-ups, see search suggestions as you type, personalize your toolbar by adding buttons from your favorite sites, and more.

Check out the Official Adobe Press Release for more information.

Enlightenment On A Spring

Originally posted on June 18, 2006 @ 1:00 am

So I’m roaming around at a local gift shop down by the wharf and I come across a section dedicated to bobble head figures. These things are a lot of fun. You can stick them on your dashboard in the car or put them on your desk and watch as their heads bounce around on a spring. At times these things can be more fun then a barrel full of monkeys.

Dashboard Jesus

Enlightenment on a spring – Dashboard Jesus. HAHAHAHAHA. I would have never imagined seeing a Jesus bobble head but as you can see from my picture, someone had a lot of time on their hands and created one. Yay for creative thinkers.

I didn’t buy it, but now that I’m thinking about it, I should have. Maybe the next time I’m in the store and if it’s still around, I’ll pick one up so I can start to get my enlightenment on a spring mojo flowing.

In Search For Hidden Oil

Originally posted on June 2, 2006 @ 9:17 am

With oil prices hovering around $70 a barrel, a French company will use a supercomputing system, with 113 teraflops of capacity, to compete against a Houston company in a quest for hidden oil.

According to a news report IBM will be deploying Europe’s most powerful seismic supercomputer to help Compagnie Generale de Geophysique search for oil in dead zones, such as salt domes. The system will include IBM’s dual-core JS21 blades and will be the first major implementation of the new 64-bit UNIX blade. That is going to be a really fast machine.

I had no idea that oil could be trapped under salt domes but doing some research I found out some very interesting things about salt domes and how they trap oil.

I wonder how long it will take to actually get the oil and make use of it? Gas prices are crazy and they don’t seem to be going down.

A friend of mine has started running biodiesel which is great for the environment. It even made his car run a little more smoothly.

What’s so great about biodiesel you ask? Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

The only drawback is biodiesel costs a lot to make and I only know of one gas station in my local area that sells it. The price is actually very close to normal gas prices but it is better for Mother Earth.