Cody Taylor

eldavojohn writes “You might have heard or felt that there is little left to patent these days but IBM begs to differ. They came in at over four thousand for the year of 2008. Now, this isn’t a good metric to measure success or progress but for those of you who like to keep track: ‘IBM said it earned 4,186 U.S. patents in 2008, more than triple the number of patents earned by rival Hewlett-Packard. Microsoft Corp earned 2,030 patents, while Intel Corp had 1,776 and Hewlett-Packard 1,424, according to the report, which compiled data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics had the second-highest number of patents at 3,515.’ You can find the original source of this study here as well as 2007’s data and even 2006’s data.”

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BuhDuh writes “The New York Times is carrying a story concerning that well known bastion of legal authority, the ‘Foreign Intelligence Surveillance’ court, which has ruled that the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program was perfectly legal. It says, ‘A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, is expected to issue a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a court order, even when Americans’ private communications may be involved, according to a person with knowledge of the opinion.'”

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oldwindways writes “An Ohio teen was found guilty of murdering his mother and shooting his father in the head after they took away his copy of Halo 3. One has to wonder if this is going to have any effect on the games industry. Clearly, the AP thought they could stir up something controversial by asking the IP owner for a statement: ‘Microsoft, which owns the intellectual property for the game, declined to comment beyond a statement saying: “We are aware of the situation and it is a tragic case.”‘ I suppose the good news is they did not accept his insanity plea, so no one can claim that Halo 3 drove him insane. Even so, I don’t think anything good can come out of this for gamers.” Unfortunately, it seems somebody can claim that the game was a contributing factor; the judge who presided over this case said he believes that the 17-year-old defendant “had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever.” GamePolitics has further details from the judge’s statement. It doesn’t help that the boy’s lawyers used video game addiction as a defense.

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The Mac clone maker being sued by Apple Inc. because it installs Mac OS X on generic Intel-based systems said it bought copies of the operating system from Apple which can’t tell it what to do with legit copies, court documents show

Researchers at the University of York have investigated large swarms of up to 10,000 miniature robots which can work together to form a single, artificial life form. The multi-robot approach to artificial intelligence is a relatively new one, and has developed from studies of the swarm behavior of social insects such as ants.

Wide Angle writes in with a PBS report on tough economic news from Ireland: Dell announced that it will relocate its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland to Lodz, Poland. “Dell’s announcement… is a severe blow to the Irish economy, which has been hit hard and fast by the global economic crisis. Dell is Ireland’s second-largest corporate employer and the country’s largest exporter. Nineteen hundred shift workers will lose their jobs. …Dell’s closing is not a result of the economic downturn, but of a pattern all too familiar in the United States — corporations’ perennial search for cheaper labor. Since 2000 several companies, such as Procter & Gamble, Intel, Gateway, and NEC Electronics, have moved manufacturing jobs from Ireland to China, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. When Poland joined the European Union in 2004, it became an attractive place for companies to set up manufacturing plants. … However, Ireland has managed to maintain and attract… ‘knowledge-intensive jobs.’ Google’s European headquarters are based in Dublin, and Facebook announced late last year that they would locate their international headquarters there. But the overall economic picture for Ireland is bleak.”

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