OpenTangent

The fact that the concept of intellectual property exists at all is, an indication that greed is a driving force in our global economy. A company that boasts about it's patent portfolio might as well have a marketing campaign declaring it's intention to stunt growth in technology. Microsoft is one such company and it doesn't just threaten, it's also willing to pull the trigger. With numerous lawsuits in it's wake Microsoft has clearly declared it's intolerance to competition, although they've been beaten in the patent game as well. Linux and all open source products for that matter are reasonably resistant to patent onslaught due to the nature of open licensing. I can comfortably say that Linux has been the single biggest influence in driving Microsoft innovation. Microsoft may not be able to destroy Linux as a competitor but that will certainly not stop them from trying to thwart it's success. Microsoft can still sue companies for using patent infri...

I'd like to compare three devices in the medium form factor category (netbooks/tablet PCs/e-readers). Two of them fairly well known and the last one not known well enough. Admittedly i'm somewhat biased towards the Touch Book because it's open source however the Kindle also runs on Linux. By default the Touch Book runs a customised version of Ångström called AI OS (Always Innovating Operating System). What sets it apart is the fact that the hardware schematics are also open source and are based on the Beagleboard . Kindle DX iPad Touch Book (Tablet) Touch Book (Netbook) Manufacturer: Amazon Apple Always Innovating Always Innovating Category: e-Reader Tablet Tablet Netbook Screen Size: 24cm 24cm 22cm 22cm Screen Specs: Black and white, electronic paper display Colour LED Colour LCD Colour LCD Resolution: 824x1200 1024x768 1024x600 1024x600 Processor: ARM (532MHz ) x86 (1GHz) ARM (600MHz) ARM (600MHz) Storage: 4GiB 64GiB 8GiB 8GiB USB Ports: None None 7 7 Keyboar...

Unbeknown to many; a battle has be raging in the world of internet standards. The dispute is around the HTML5 video tag which will remove the need for Adobe's proprietary Flash to display videos online. Currently YouTube uses the H.264 codec to compress their videos which has a very good performance rating but is encumbered by patents. Ogg Theora video compression format on the other hand, is open source and free of proprietary licensing and copyrights, therefore free of royalty obligations. The Problem with Theora is that it does not match the performance of the H.264 codec. Mozilla and Opera have decided that there is no question as to which codec should be the standard since the web is ultimately based on open standards. They have already implemented support for Ogg video and Google has quickly followed suit with their Chrome browser. Chrome however, also supports the H.264 codec putting Google on the fence with this dispute. Apple  is l...

Matt Asay and  Steven Vaughan-Nichols  are two of my favourite open source bloggers and this morning i read a post by Steven  that Matt has joined Canonical as their COO. For me this is fantastic news as Matt has a wealth of open source business knowledge that would fit perfectly into the Canonical ecosystem. I think both Mark Shuttleworth and Matt Asay should be commended on taking this step, i personally think it's a partnership that will benefit the technology sector (and it's consumers) greatly. I will be watching canonical closely in the coming years.

This morning i drove past a construction site in Rosebank in Johannesburg and saw some construction vehicles moving earth. I'm used to seeing Caterpillar written on the side so i took note of the fact that these were in fact Hitachi vehicles. That name sounded familiar but the logo wasn't familiar at all, it took a little while but eventually the reason dawned on me. I had heard of Hitachi on the radio recently because of the fact that the ANC has a large stake in the company. I need to point out that Hitachi Power specifically was in question because of it's involvement in the building of "much needed" power stations across South Africa. But it appears that the bribery goes further than the power division since the construction vehicles mentioned happened to be working at a Gautrain site which is obviously a government project. Basically our tax money is being paid to Hitachi which in turn is benefiting the ANC. Apparently our constitution does not cater...

I think it's important to briefly mention the importance of the 2nd of February in South African history. Today is the 20th anniversary of the announcement by  F.W. de Klerk that South Africa will become a democratic country and  Nelson Mandela  will be released from prison. It's a bitter sweet anniversary because while we remember how much potential the country held after that announcement no one would have hoped for the corruption ridden, haven for organised crime we live in today. While we may be free of apartheid we have sunken into the slum that the right wingers fought so hard to prevent. Winnie Mandela openly admits we are not living the dream we once had. Poverty, crime, aids and corruption are worse now than during apartheid and it's tearing the country apart. The ANC 's path of destruction must come to an end.