Teknovis

I was very surprised to read today that Openwave is going to sell all of its products and focus exclusively on its patents! See Openwave Puts Products Up for Sale.

I notice that Openwave’s web page now reads “Inventors of the Mobile Internet”, but maybe it has been like this for a while!

I have not decided yet if this is a good or bad strategy! I guess that it would be bad if Openwave pursues a patent troll approach. On the other hand, I wonder how much manufacturing Apple does (if any).

Tags: Apple, Openwave

I read a fascinating story about overspending in Irish Universities – ‘Worrying’ level of overspending at Irish universities, says TD.

The most surprising revelation related to UCC:

The deputy was particularly critical of the University College Cork’s €138,000 spend on taxis in the 12-month period.

It really is depressing to see (yet again) that some in the public service do not yet have an understanding of where their money comes from, and the price that we are all paying for it :(

I really would love somebody to be held accountable for this, but unfortunately accountability is not valued in Ireland :(

Tags: UCC

Google has been buying more patents to strengthen its IP portfolio. This time it bought over a thousand patents from IBM, according to Google buys another round of IBM patents as its Oracle trial nears.

I have heard that buying patents from IBM is like buying sweets in a sweet shop :) IBM is very willing to sell patents (albeit at a high price), and there are plenty for sale, but the difficulty is actually finding one that is useful!

Tags: Google, IBM

I read during the week that the Collins Dictionaries are now available online in Collins launches free dictionary site.

The dictionary site seems very nice, and I am going to try using it as my main online dictionary.

The address is www.collinsdictionary.com.

A humorous story for Saturday afternoon…

A group of 3,000 Swedish file sharers have succeeded in getting their organisation, called the Church of Kopimism, recognised as a religion by the Swedish authorities.

The full story is Sweden recognises church of file sharing as a religion.

Tags: Sweden

If you are one of the many hard working private sector employees in Ireland that earns the average industrial wage, and you are facing the prospect of paying substantially higher taxes in 2012, then you may be wondering what is the Irish Government doing with your money.

You might find the answer, or at least part of it, in the following article: Most public servants on under €60,000.

Almost 20,000 public servants earn €20,000 or less per annum; more than a third are paid €40,000 or less and another third get between €40,000 and €60,000.

So two thirds of Irish public servants earn more than 40,000€ per annum. As far as I remember, the average industrial wage in Ireland is approximately 40,000€. So this means that two thirds of public servants earn more than the average industrial wage!

The fact that so many private sector employees are supporting the privileged positions (inflated salaries, guaranteed job security, and defined benefit pensions to mention a few privileges) of their public sector counterparts needs to be considered in the context of a government that is only surviving due to a financial bailout.

Again this highlights one of major problems we have in this country, and it really cries out for reform!

Tags: Ireland

Happy New Year everybody! I hope that it will be a good one for you! I thought that I would start the year with something light-hearted :)

I have not been following the recent Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) arguments, but I know enough about it to know that I am against it :) Anyway, I came across the following humorous comment by Dave Piscitello:

If #SOPA passes, supporters will seek to change Internet’s TCP/IP to Trademark Copyright Patent/Intellectual Property

Enjoy!