Software Patents

I'm pretty much against software patents, they have just become an increasingly gamed legal battleground for the big companies - and will hardly ever protect the lone inventor where there intentions originally lay.

Here is a good Joel on Software post describing the rejection of one such patent, and the game behind getting patent approvals:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html

Microsoft Reorganisation

I do feel sorry for Microsoft - well a little bit.  For the first time in a long time they have some credible products, albeit playing catch up to other companies.  But no one cares for their platform or ecosystems they are building.  So what is a CEO to do, reorganise!

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2013/Jul13/07-11OneMicrosoft.aspx

Let's go guys!  I wonder how the minions felt at reading that e-mail.  Microsoft will not die quickly but there presence in expanding markets will decrease, so then will their revenues.  Seeing everything as an opportunity to have the Windows OS on it was a mistake.   You can call it something else, even if it is the windows kernel underneath.

Film: In the Mood for Love Directed by Kar Wai Wong

I art house film set in Singapore/Hong Kong.  Very stylistic and with great city life scene settings from the 1960s.  Best to read the plot on IMDB, I would have to watch again to pick up the the detail and fine points:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/

Operation Sleeper

I had to help move a double mattress yesterday.  Not between rooms, but moving it across town - 1 mile of carrying.

I did not think it was possible, just too big an item for two people to carry.  But amazingly we managed it, setting out very early 6:15 am - and doing the move in about 30 minutes.  We were very lucky with the weather, it held off.  Later on we went to the seafront and walked along there, by which time the wind had really picked up.

I think we now hold the record for mattress moving by hand...

Film: Black Swan Directed by Darren Aronofsky

A really dark film about the rarefied world of the elite ballerina.  Using the backdrop of a Swan Lake production, it shows the pressure to succeed, the self sacrifice, the competition and Darwinian nature of the ballet performer.

The dark aspects are truly dark and thought provoking - very unusual for a Hollywood film.

A good performance by Natalie Portman, who must have trained up for the role which is impressive.

Book read: The Algebraist by Iain M Banks

After having read the author was terminally ill, I decided to try and read one of his novels recommended by a work colleague.

So I read "The Algebraist", a good summary is here Banks revels in both the story telling but also the more comedic and logical conclusions of the fantasy world he constructs. The book is very long - and has a plausible plot, but also likes to draw upon absurdity of the everyday lives of the characters.

I'm not sure if I would read another, it definitely felt like a classic novel though - and deserves a place in the top 100 science fiction novels.

Film: Female Agents directed by Jean-Paul Salomé

A film based on historical events of a special operation to rescue a captured British geologist from France shortly before the D-Day landings.

The rescue happens very early in the film, and with the remainder being devoted to the assassination attempt on the SS guard who is close to working out the methods and location of the landing - essentially the discovery that temporary harbours were to be used.

A good film and account - slightly non descriptive title that makes it sound more plain a film than it turns out to be.