Apple Trademarked Glossy Chat Bubbles?

I just read this article on TechCrunch:

Developers, Be Warned: Apple Has Apparently Trademarked Those Glossy Chat Bubbles

You have got to be kidding... there is absolutely prior art here, I've been seeing them in in apps for years before apple released the iPhone that contains them.

This style and format belongs to other developers, some of which are under open license. There have been people doing the same thing as themes in apps for so long that I don't know how apple can get away with it.

Apple is really starting to bug me with this hocus-pocus they keep spouting.

Michael Bryant & Darcy Sheppard: Fight or Flight Reflex?

Update : Follow up post - Darcy Sheppard may have caused his own death

There is no doubt that the death of Darcy Sheppard was an unnecessary tragedy. It's also a tragedy that Michael Bryant now has to bare the consequences of the altercation between the two.

It will be interesting to see the rest of the facts and the outcome of the case, here are a few links that I'm getting my current info from.

• Former Ont. attorney general charged after fatal crash (Global)
• Toronto mayor refuses comment on Bryant (CBC)
• Former Ontario attorney general Bryant faces two charges after fatal crash (National Post)

Now there is not much information available, however we do have a few facts:

1. The cyclist attached himself (grabbed on) to the vehicle.
2. He was pulled or dragged or otherwise moved 100 meters down the road.
3. The whole altercation spanned only 1 minute.
4. The passenger in the vehicle called police during the incident.
5. The driver (Bryant) accelerated after Sheppard grabbed on to the vehicle.
6. Sheppard had dealings with police officers earlier in the day.

Based on those facts and without much else available yet, a couple of things strike me.

1. Sheppard must have been being aggressive and/or violent earlier in the day if the police were called to remove him from a location.
2. Sheppard demonstrated aggressiveness again when he grabbed onto Bryants vehicle during the incident.
3. Bryants unnamed passenger felt threatened enough to call the police.
4. Bryant showed a lack of judgement when he accelerated his vehicle down the street.
5. In order for the bike to strike the car, Sheppard would have had to have run into the vehicle. If the opposite had happened (car striking cyclist), the weight and momentum of the vehicle would likely not have left him standing so that he could grab onto the vehicle.

All of us who drive and ride bicycles have had words with others using the roads. However its pretty clear that Sheppard was being aggressive and violent. Bryant may have also been aggressive, however it's clear the passenger felt threatened.

I'm not sure if I had been the driver, I would have done anything different than Bryant did. Imagine your in a convertible an aggressive and violet man grabs onto your car... what do you do?

Would you feel threatened enough for your fight or flight reflex to kick in?

The lives of both families will be severely impacted because of "stupidness" on the part of both Bryant and Sheppard. However I'm not sure this could have happened any other way. When physical contact starts between two opposing aggressors, one will get hurt... maybe not always dead but certainly someone is going to feel it.

About time someone stepped up

I've been more and more concerned in recent years as hardware and software publishers begin to add "features" to the products I use, that allow them access to those same products without my consent.

Recently a civil action case has come before the US courts on just such an issue.

I think its high time that someone did, and I hope that other manufactures take note.

Jamming cell phones in schools won't solve the problem

An article in the Des Moines Register says that the school board in Iowa is considering jamming cell phone signals in their schools.

Not that people are actually allowed to do that for a whole host of reasons, however there are still a lot of people that think its a good idea, citing the fact that they managed to get through school without using a cell phone.

However, most of them miss the point. The fact is that our culture is changing and mobile communication devices are becoming an extension of our daily lives. Blocking those devices from working is not solving any problem.

What the schools should be doing is teaching the kids how to get on in the world they live in, which includes proper etiquette on the use of mobile technology.

Think about it, its no different than talking in class when you are supposed to be listening. There are protocols that the teachers go through, there are reasonable rules for the students and there are consequences for ignoring them... so why would a cell phone be any different?

It seems to me that there are a lot of people who are unable to adjust to rapidly changing culture, as there has always been.

Maybe the educators need to be educated.

Internet Explorer 6 - FAIL!

Today I am once again attempting to work around one of IE6's many issues.

I started wondering just how much money Microsoft has cost the world by trying to reinvent web standards as they saw fit back in 2001. Now there is no way that I can know exact numbers, but let's give this a shot with some reasonable values.

• IE6 has been around for about 8 years I think.
• Assume 6 hours a month dealing with IE issues
• Assume 6 million web/application developers (this number is likely much to small considering how many sites are up on the net)
• Assume an average developer's time is worth $30/hour (the range will vary from somewhat lower to a lot higher).

6 hours * 12 month * 8 years * 6000000 devs * $30
= $103,680,000,000.00

In other words, Microsoft has cost the world ~$103.5 billion, just because they wanted to do things their own way.

Delenda est IE6!

... and now, back to sorting out yet another IE6 feature...

Invasion of my Pockets

This month, Amazon remotely deleted electronic books from their customers Kindels. They then apologized profusely, saying it would never happen again.

They are not the only one with that sort of power. Apple has the same ability to delete applications it doesn't like from your iPhone.

Now I don't know about you, but it looks to me as if many companies are putting in those same features that we demanded they not put in over the last several years. Only they are doing it in a way that already exists when you purchase the product. If any software company put such a feature in, we would call it an invasion of privacy.

Apple says they are unlikely to use the feature and Amazon has claimed that they will never do it again, so why dont they just remove the feature now and be done with it?

I think the real issue here is why are we allowing them to get away with putting it in, in the first place?

I think we can expect to see more and more of this sort of thing, until nobody knows there was a time when it was against the law in most countries.

A product worth playing with

Every once in a while, I find a product that grabs my attention.

The Game Crafter is one of those. I love the concept... not only is it something that might actually work as a "social product", but I can see it being something I can do with my children on a rainy afternoon.