Making a Murderer

If you like yelling at your TV, then Making a Murderer on Netflix is for you. There are very few reasons that I want to stay up past 11:00 PM. My wife and I stayed up until 2:00 AM to finish the series.

I'm sure we aren't getting all of the story, but the police, lawyers, and even the judges seem completely biased against Steven Avery and his nephew. Not just biased, but actively working to make sure those two are found guilty. That's a lot different then working to solve the crime and see justice done.

Cisco v. Arista

Cisco's statement:

In the thirteen years I’ve been General Counsel of Cisco, I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve initiated suit against a competitor, supplier or customer. 

It’s therefore only after thoughtful and serious consideration that we are today filing two lawsuits to stop Arista’s repeated and pervasive copying of key inventions in Cisco products. These suits cover key Cisco proprietary patented features and Cisco’s copyrighted materials.

Arista's response:

"The networking industry is in the midst of a revitalization as the value shifts from boxes to cloud networking software (a shift which is causing apparent consternation at Cisco). Arista is winning the software battle in the cloud, so Cisco has chosen to do what others did to it previously and is attempting to use the legal system to cover for its lack of innovation in software 

I was the General Counsel at Cisco in the 1990’s when it was being attacked in much the same way as Arista is today. Cisco faced this same challenge from the legacy vendors in the 1990’s, and the legacy vendors also wrongly used litigation to slow down innovation. I agreed with Mr. Chambers quote then and I agree with it even more now. “Symbolically it’s huge,” Mr. Chambers said of the suit. “It shows that some companies don’t have a way to compete in this new market.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/23/business/the-markets-market-place-cisco-systems-is-giving-up-partner-hunt.html"

Rules and Labels

From the UV-5R Yahoo Group:

"I purchased a 3600 mAhr battery from a Chinese vendor.

Got an interesting note from them.
It said that due to fire hazard, the China Post was no longer accepting high
capacity Li-Ion batteries for air shipment.

So the note continued... when you receive the battery from China Post via air,
please remove the sticker from the battery that says "Ni-Mh Battery" that covers
the originial "Li-Ion" battery information.

Well, that's ONE way to handle it."

If only all hardware changes were as easy as removing a label.

Anti-piracy Ad uses Priated Music

jjaron Remember those annoying "You wouldn't steal a car" anti-piracy ads? They pirated the music bit.ly/tMYfYbFri, Dec 02 05:49:38 from TweetDeck retweeted by arrington

Legal?

So a thunderstorm is within 10 miles of Neyland Stadium. They have shut the gates and told us that we cannot leave. I'm not sure if this is legal. I don't want to leave, but I am curious what rules apply.

Signs

WizardPC is on a roll at his new blog - Guns, Cars, and Tech. While covering some familiar territory, he hits on a key point:

"I’ve had business owners tell me that posting reduces their liability. It doesn’t:

(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter,reduce or eliminate any civil or criminal liability that a property owner or manager may have for injuries arising on their property."

So let's play a little logic game.

Why do businesses exist? To ensure our safety? No. To make money.

To make money, businesses cannot lose money. So, to protect themselves from lawsuits, they post signs prohibiting guns on the premises.

Except Section D above says they don't get any protection from doing that.

Therefore, if they post a sign, they don't mitigate the risk from lawsuits AND they alienate gun owning customers, therefore reducing their profit.

So it is only logical that business should not post signs prohibiting guns.

And I would like to add that...

Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
And signs don't save people. People save people.

Two Men Enter...

One company leaves Quake 3 Arena with trademark rights! I love it. Bloodless and cheaper than a lawsuit!

Via Slashdot.org

Towel Boy

If you read this post, you agree to be my towel boy. I'm sure this is legally binding unlike the confidentiality notices that are appended to e-mails.

Software Agreements

I feel like this sometimes, too. I especially hate dealing with the giant companies like Oracle. You can play by their rules or go home.