masenoproject.com

The proposed Patent Reform Act of 2007 will be coming up for a vote in the Senate in a few months. A similar version of the bill has already passed in the House.

The bill has certain relatively benign provisions, but let’s ignore them since they just cloud the argument and are of little interest to either side in the debate.

United States Senate

Let’s instead just cut to the chase. In lay terms, the bill makes it easier to challenge issued patents and harder for patent holders to obtain compensation through the U.S. legal system.

Regardless of how that sounds to you, make no mistake - this debate is between two opposing sides with their own interests at heart.

In one corner are big technology companies such as Apple, Cisco, Dell, Google, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. These folks make a living selling products and services. They say that patent abuses in the current system are stifling innovation.

In the other corner are technology licensing companies such as 3M, Qualcomm, Rambus, Tessera, and biotech and pharmaceutical companies. They say the act will limit patent holder’s rights and stifle innovation.

While each side claims the other limits innovation, the truth is that neither side cares about innovation; they are only concerned with their business model. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since a company’s duty is primarily to its shareholders, but it does bear mentioning here.

US Patent and Trademark Office

Here’s how I see it: Over time, U.S. technology companies actually manufacture fewer and fewer products. We are now under intense and growing competitive pressure from companies in China, India, Taiwan, etc. Our technology lead is being challenged like never before. Nobody seems to debate that.

That said, we continue to be the world’s technology leader because we invent. And the U.S. courts are the first line of defense for U.S. technology companies and inventors alike against all offenders, domestic or international. That’s right. When a U.S. company believes its patents are being violated, its first and best line of defense is to seek an injunction barring products that incorporate the technology in question from entering the U.S.

The proposed Patent Reform Act will therefore weaken the rights of U.S. patent holders, whoever they are, and wherever the offending company is, period. Moreover, it will have a ripple effect in international patent offices and courts, thus further weakening the patent rights of U.S. companies overseas.

So, forget all the special interests for a moment and look at the obvious. While some patent reforms might make sense, The Patent Reform Act in its present form will ultimately harm the competitiveness of the U.S. technology industry at a time when we can least afford it. And it only gets worse from here.

commentary

The news is out that Best Buy is selling Ubuntu Linux retail for $19.95. It’s a nice step forward for Ubuntu, but not for Linux. It used to be possible to buy Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux retail. That’s actually where I bought my first copy of SUSE Linux while working at Novell.

So, the real news isn’t that it’s being sold retail. The real news will be if it stays. Red Hat didn’t see the value in keeping a retail distribution of Linux. Will Ubuntu?

“I think that what you see in the space more than anything else is if you don’t keep innovating and moving forward you get in trouble,” Miller said in his talk on Thursday morning. “You can’t stop, you have to keep going, and (MySpace) didn’t keep going, it kind of stopped.”

The previous day, Van Natta made his first big appearance on the conference circuit since he joined MySpace and was tasked with a major turnaround. Van Natta unveiled a new music video hub as well as an enhanced set of marketing tools for music artists–some of which were built in with technology from iLike, which MySpace acquired this summer.

And on Wednesday night, the “new” MySpace was out in full form: a line snaked down three city blocks when music fans caught wind of the fact that the company had booked rock band Weezer for one of its “secret shows” concerts.

FAN just inked a deal with agency giant Omnicom, and more are on the way, he added. Miller also said FAN is the fifth-largest ad network on the Web, after the usual suspects–Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL–and that it’s hoping to get into fourth place soon.

SAN FRANCISCO–With both MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta and News Corp. chief digital officer Jonathan Miller taking the stage at the Web 2.0 Summit this week, there was naturally plenty of talk about the social site’s attempt to reverse its ill fortune of late. Once the biggest name in social networking, it’s long since lost that title to Facebook and is trying to reinvent itself as a destination for music and entertainment.

“MySpace started with an essence around certain things, and one of them was music, and meeting new people,” Miller, a former AOL exec who also joined News Corp. this spring, said on Thursday. “We’re going back to basics in that sense, but you’ve got to make it relevant to today and going forward.”

And in that time, he added, “we had two fantastic competitors emerge in Facebook and Twitter.”

It’s obviously too early to tell whether the “reinvention” will work. Some critics say that it’s too big of a task, especially given the state of the advertising market. But Miller spent a big portion of his talk at the Web 2.0 Summit hyping up the Fox Audience Network, or FAN, the digital advertising division that News Corp. first announced last spring.

“We kind of broke it out of MySpace and gave it a life of its own,” Miller said. “We’re just at the beginning of a coming-out party for FAN.”

Disclosure: I work for MuleSource, an open source software vendor.

It’s an interesting exercise to figure out how all these parts fit together and considering that the SaaS providers don’t have a reason to disclose what’s going on behind the scenes I bet there is a ton of other software that is not represented here.

Just knowing what I know about Mule’s adoption in SaaS companies I can tell you that we are enabling several businesses already. It would also be interesting to know how many of these cloud companies are using open source–especially MySQL and Spring as part of their environments

John M. Willis has put together a matrix of the major players in the cloud right now including some of the companies that enable and others that are just offerings.

Yahoo’s efforts at doing original content haven’t all panned out, but this site is more of a hybrid. Articles and original blogs will come from a range of sources, including Glamour, Epicurious.com, Style.com, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Women’s Health, and Good Housekeeping.

“This is really a key audience for Yahoo,” she said. “We’ve been calling them ‘chief household officers’ internally.”

On a quick glance, Shine looks more aesthetically appealing and less cluttered than the rival sites, despite the fact that Yahoo is not exactly known for simple site design. The site will be at http://shine.yahoo.com.

Eight editors are overseeing the various sections (such as home, parenting, fashion, culture, and career) and the editor in chief is Brandon Holley, former editor in chief of Jane magazine.

(Credit:
Yahoo)
Yahoo aims to be the top destination site in the lifestyles category, said Amy Iorio, general manager of Lifestyles at Yahoo. Women as a demographic is a good target, particularly given the number of women who use Yahoo (40 million women between the ages of 25 and 54 every month) and the fact that females tend to blog more than males.

Updated 8:45 a.m. PDT with site being launched.

Yahoo launched a new Web site aimed at women on Monday. The site, called “Shine,” will feature original blogs and content from major publishing partners including Conde Nast, Hearst, and Time.

Shine readers will be able to start their own blogs and that content, if deemed worthy, can end up as some of the featured content in different sections on the site.

You will also be able to get to your Yahoo Mail on Shine, and there is integration with Yahoo Search, Food, Health, and Astrology. But there could be even more integration with things like Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Answers.

The site will compete with iVillage and fashion- and celebrity-news heavy Glam.com, but its content partners and editors will set it apart, Holley said. Shine will distinguish itself by having more of an editorial voice than the other sites and by interacting more with readers, she said.

The site is Yahoo’s latest foray into vertical sites, which include the popular Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance, as well as Sports and Entertainment, and the much less popular Yahoo Tech and Yahoo Green. Shine is also Yahoo’s first targeting a specific audience and not just a topic.

The front page of Yahoo's Shine is clean and, at least right now, light on ads.

Intel is telling software developers to start thinking about not just tens but thousands of processing cores.

But the chipmaker is now thinking well beyond the traditional processor in a PC or server. Jerry Bautista, the co-director of the Tera-scale Computing Research Program at Intel, recently said that in a graphics-intensive environment the more cores Intel can build the better. “The more cores we have the better. Provided that we can supply memory bandwidth to the device.”

He said that Intel faces a challenge in “explaining how to tap into this performance.” He continues: “Sometimes, the developers are trying to do the minimal amount of work they need to do to tap dual- and quad-core performance…I suppose this was the branch most discussions took a couple of years ago.”

On Monday, an Intel engineer took this a step further. Writing in a blog, Anwar Ghuloum, a principal engineer with Intel’s Microprocessor Technology Lab, said: “Ultimately, the advice I’ll offer is that…developers should start thinking about tens, hundreds, and thousands of cores now.”

Intel currently offers quad-core processors and is expected to bring out a Nehalem processor in the fourth quarter that uses as many as eight cores.

He says that the more radical programming path to tap into many processing cores “presents the ‘opportunity’ for a major refactoring of their code base, including changes in languages, libraries, and engineering methodologies and conventions they’ve adhered to for (often) most of the their software’s existence.”

Intel Tera-scale multicore research

“Eventually, developers realize that the end point is on the other side of a mountain of silicon innovations…Program for as many cores as possible, even if it is more cores than are currently in shipping products.”

Now, however, Intel is increasingly “discussing how to scale performance to core counts that we aren’t yet shipping…Dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of cores are not unusual design points around which the conversations meander,” he said.

(Credit:
Intel)

The information security implications are worrisome, to say the least. Fortunately, you have some technological defenses against overly snoopy border agents.

Customs officials have been stepping up electronic searches of laptops at the border, where travelers enjoy little privacy and have no legal grounds to object. Laptops and other electronic devices can be seized without reason, their contents copied, and the hardware returned hours or even weeks later.

If you travel across national borders, it’s time to customs-proof your laptop.

To find out what they are, see the News.com Guide to Customs-Proofing Your Laptop. (And no, we’re not responsible if you end up cooling your heels in some Burmese prison for using PGP; check local laws and use good judgment.)

(Credit:
Electronic Arts/Maxis)

When designing characters for Spore, players will have a wide selection of body parts to choose from.

Attention gamers: If you’re looking forward to the taking a hands-on role with the forthcoming Spore, you’ve got work to do starting June 17.

That’s when Electronic Arts and Maxis plan to release the Spore Creature Creator, in both a free, downloadable demo version and a $9.99 retail version (or 9.99 euros, for buyers in much of Europe). The demo version will be available from Spore.com and also will be included with The SimCity, due to be released June 23.

For more preview images of Spore, see this CNET News.com gallery: Images: Conjuring creatures in EA’s ‘Spore.’”

Spore for the PC and the
Mac is set to debut September 5 in Europe and then two days later in North America, and a version for the Nintendo DS is also due at that time. A version for the
Nintendo Wii will come sometime later–it’s still in the “early prototyping phase,” according to the Spore FAQ.

The retail edition provides access to all the creature-making parts for Spore, while the demo version is limited to 25 percent of those parts. Gamers will be able to share their creations with friends, via routes including uploads to YouTube.

The hands-on work of shaping and painting fantastical critters with Creature Creator won’t be just a preliminary exercise, to be abandoned when Spore arrives in September. Gamers will be able to import their creations into the retail version of the game.

In Spore, a long-awaited game from Sims creator Wil Wright, gamers will get a taste of evolution, taking their characters from primordial existence to civilization. (Wright has set a high standard for success–The Sims recently logged its 100 millionth sale.) Besides the individual characters, Spore-ophiles will be able to establish tribes and conjure up buildings and vehicles, including UFOs.

Even better news: you can now subscribe to this show. Just add it up right here!

And as always, drop me a line or follow me on Twitter!

Welcome to hands-on Friday! Today I went hands-on with my HDTV — the Panasonic TH-50PZ77u. You’ll notice that the title screen adds a ‘0′ at the end of the name. Whoops!

• After the upgrade and expansion in Dresden and the build-out of the New York facility, The Foundry Company envisions expanding its global manufacturing footprint over time, if commercially justified, to also include new fabrication facilities in Abu Dhabi.

• Begin construction of the Fab 4X manufacturing facility in New York in the middle of 2009, directly employing more than 1,400 workers in upstate New York when the facility is in full operation.

• Have its principal headquarters in Silicon Valley, and its research and development and manufacturing leadership teams and ecosystems in New York, Dresden, and Austin, Texas;

• Elect a Mubadala designee as a member of its board of directors.

Upon closing, Mubadala will:

Upon closing, AMD will:

• Have equal voting rights with ATIC in The Foundry Company.

• Be consolidated with AMD for purposes of financial reporting.

(Credit:
AMD)

AMD's Fab 36 in Dresden, Germany.

Upon closing, ATIC will:

• Expect to increase capacity through completing the 300mm conversion of a second state-of-the-art facility in Dresden in 2009.

• Join the IBM technology development alliance for both SOI (silicon on insulator) and bulk silicon technology, greatly expanding the addressable market of The Foundry Company.

• Purchase for an aggregate of $314 million 58 million newly issued AMD shares and warrants for 30 million additional shares, giving it a total stake in AMD of 19.3 percent on a fully diluted basis.

• Have an exclusive supply agreement with limited exceptions to manufacture AMD processors and to manufacture, where competitive, certain percentages of other AMD semiconductor products.

• Have only AMD and ATIC as stockholders, each of which at the closing will have equal voting rights.

• Have a total enterprise value of $5 billion, consisting of AMD’s contribution of manufacturing assets and intellectual property (including its fabrication facilities in Dresden, Germany), intellectual capital and employees valued together at $2.4 billion; ATIC’s contribution of $1.4 billion in new capital; and $1.2 billion of debt assumed by The Foundry Company from AMD.

• Improve its liquidity through The Foundry Company’s assumption of approximately $1.2 billion of AMD’s debt, ATIC’s $700 million payment to AMD for ownership interests in The Foundry Company, and Mubadala’s purchase for $314 million of 58 million newly issued AMD shares and warrants for 30 million additional shares.

• Have a right to designate a representative for election as a member of the board of directors of AMD.

• Announce its permanent corporate name and identity.

• Excluding its consolidation of The Foundry Company for financial reporting purposes, improve its net cash position by $2.1 billion, through The Foundry Company’s assumption of approximately $1.1 billion in debt (net of approximately $100 million cash transferred by AMD to The Foundry Company) and cash payments from ATIC and Mubadala aggregating $1 billion.

Here are the full details of Tuesday’s announcement, as listed in the press release from AMD and ATIC:

Artist's rendering of the planned Fab 4X in New York.

In addition, Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development will increase its current investment in AMD to 19.3 percent. According to its site, six-year-old Mubadala’s “sole shareholder is the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.”

(Credit:
AMD)

• Own 44.4 percent of The Foundry Company on a fully converted to common basis.

ATIC, which is based in Adu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was formed this year. According to its Web site, ATIC is a tech investment company “wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi.”

• Have an exclusive supply agreement with The Foundry Company, with limited exceptions, to manufacture AMD processors and to manufacture, where competitive, certain percentages of other AMD semiconductor products.

• Be owned 44.4 percent by AMD and 55.6 percent by ATIC on a fully converted to common basis. ATIC’s economic ownership will increase over time based on the differences in securities held by AMD and ATIC, and depending on whether AMD elects to invest proportionately with ATIC in future capital infusions to support The Foundry Company’s growth.

Upon closing, The Foundry Company will:

The overall deal is expected to close at the beginning of 2009, the companies said.

• Have a board of directors whose membership is equally divided between representatives of AMD and ATIC.

Advanced Micro Devices is shedding its cost-intensive chip-manufacturing operations in a bid to stay afloat financially.

• Invest an initial $2.1 billion, of which $1.4 billion will be invested directly in the new company and $700 million will be paid directly to AMD.

• Have the option, but not any requirement, to provide additional capital funding to The Foundry Company in response to future capital calls.

• Have equal voting rights with AMD in The Foundry Company.

On Tuesday, AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Co. announced a broad restructuring plan that centers on the creation of a new entity, temporarily titled The Foundry Company, that will take over the manufacture of processors for AMD. Early word of the restructuring came Monday night.

• Commit a minimum of $3.6 billion and up to $6 billion in additional funds over the next five years for the upgrade and expansion of fabrication facilities in Dresden and construction of a new facility in upstate New York.

• Own 55.6 percent of The Foundry Company on a fully converted to common basis.

• Tightly focus on the design and development of the next generation of innovation based on the fusion of computing and graphics processing.