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EFF Patent Project Gets Half-Million-Dollar Boost from Mark Cuban and ‘Notch’
December 19, 2012 — xanthippaFrom the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
‘
San Francisco – America’s broken patent system needs major reform to protect innovators and the public. Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is announcing a major new boost to its patent work: a half-million dollars in funding from entrepreneur Mark Cuban and game developer Markus “Notch” Persson.
“The current state of patents and patent litigation in this country is shameful,” said Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. “Silly patent lawsuits force prices to go up while competition and innovation suffer. That’s bad for consumers and bad for business. It’s time to fix our broken system, and EFF can help. So that’s why part of my donation funds a new title for EFF Staff Attorney Julie Samuels: ‘The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents’.”
Cuban’s $250,000 donation also funds the hire of a new attorney experienced in patent reform and high profile patent litigation: Daniel Nazer, who will join EFF in January as a Staff Attorney. The rest of EFF’s seasoned intellectual property team includes Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry, Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl, and Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz. The team is also assisted by EFF fellows Michael Barclay and Jason Schultz.
Persson’s separate donation of $250,000 cements EFF’s ability to tackle the systemic problems with software patents. With a blend of lawyers, technologists, and activists, EFF will push for reform in the courts, through activism campaigns, and by educating the public and politicians about what is wrong with software patents and what needs to change.’
Read the rest here.
Big Brother is listening – on the bus
December 18, 2012 — xanthippaMore from Binks, the Webelf
November 16, 2012 — xanthippaHere is part 2 of his post: thoughts on Remembrance day and freedom.
Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
November 6, 2012 — xanthippa‘We are unable to confirm whether or not something fraudulent has occurred, but the story seems to lean towards a malfunction. Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Senior Staff Technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology, has claimed that it is a miscalibration of the touch screen, though Centralpavote’s personal account directly contradicts that statement, pointing towards a malfunctioning piece of hardware, incorrectly implemented software or, in the worst case scenario, intentional voter fraud.’
Read it and weep: incompetence or malice, it does not really alter the fact that with electronic voting, without backup paper ballots, there is no way to verify whether the results the machines are reporting accurately reflect the will of the people. Where such an accountability vacuum exists, fraud is sure to follow soon – it’s human nature!
Sad, just sad…
Russian attack submarine sneaks inside the 200 mile territorial limit on the East coast of the USA
November 6, 2012 — xanthippaThis time, it’s no Marko Alexandrovich Ramius trying to defect, either!
From Washington Free Beacon:
‘A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine cruised within 200 miles of the East Coast recently in the latest sign Russia is continuing to flex its naval and aerial power against the United States, defense officials said.
The submarine was identified by its NATO designation as a Russian Seirra-2 class submarine believed to be based with Russia’s Northern Fleet. It was the first time that class of Russian submarine had been detected near a U.S. coast, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of anti-submarine warfare efforts.’
The same article cites something that is potentially even more disturbing:
‘Meanwhile, the officials also said that a Russian electronic intelligence-gathering vessel was granted safe harbor in the commercial port of Jacksonville, Fla., within listening range of Kings Bay.
…
“A Russian AGI [Auxiliary-General Intelligence] and an SSN in the same geographic area as one of the largest U.S. ballistic missile submarine bases—Kings Bay—is reminiscent of Cold War activities of the Soviet navy tracking the movements of our SSBN’s,” said a third U.S. official, referring to the designation for ballistic missile submarines, SSBN.’
It only gets worse:
‘The submarine deployment followed stepped-up Russian nuclear bomber activity near U.S. borders last summer, including the transit of two Bear-H strategic bombers near the Alaska air defense zone during Russian strategic bomber war games in arctic in late June.Then on July 4, in an apparent Fourth of July political message, a Russian Bear-H flew the closest to the U.S. West Coast that a Russian strategic bomber had flown since the Cold War when such flights were routine.
In both incidents, U.S. military spokesmen sought to downplay the threat posed by the air incursions, apparently in response to the Obama administration’s conciliatory “reset” policy of seeking closer ties with Moscow.
U.S. and Canadian interceptor jets were scrambled to meet the Russian bombers during the flights last summer.’
In other words, specifically in response to Obama anemic projection of woosiness power, Putin’s Russia has placed air, surface and underwater military assets within US territorial jurisdiction…all without any response from Obama’s eviscerated military!
No wonder Putin has thrown his support behind Obama in the 2012 election!
Sure, the Bolsheviks are not in power in Russia any longer, but Obama and his Mensheviks are winning the long-term war in America – and dictators like Putin know how to exploit this very weakness!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 