Sunday, February 24, 2013

Patents

The patent system worldwide is broken and here in the USA its about to get even worse.  A new law that goes into effect March 16 2013 will change the patent system from "first to invent" (FTI) to "first to file" (FTF).  The difference in these systems is that FTI attempts to ensure the true inventor has rights to his work.  FTF on the other hand allows whoever files first to have rights tot he invention.  With FTF it is no quite possible for people to steal and patent the inventions of others.

Even before this awful FTF policy, the patent system was seriously broken.  In reality the one with the most money to spend on patents and litigation wins.  While the patent system was intended to accelerate technology growth while properly compensating the true inventor it now does more of the exact opposite.  The patent offices worldwide are allowing just about anything to be patented.  Most of the patents granted in the last several decades are not for novel ideas at all.  Many of the ideas will never even work.  There are small companies that do nothing but patent around existing work of others for the sole purpose of suing for a living.  The system takes money out of consumers hands and gives it to rich and powerful law firms and lawyers.  The very fact that Microsoft makes more money on the initial sale of an Android device than the real creators of Android is disgusting.  Android is free and open source.  The general public pays it no attention, not realizing the price they are paying.  In my opinion, software and algorithms should never be patent-able at all.  Nor should we patent other not novel ideas.  Before something is even given a patent it should have to pass a real test to show it is really a novel idea.  Maybe something like this.  Have the problems the patent solves presented to a class of college students in the same field (say at least 30 students).  If 1 or more students comes up with a similar idea then the invention is not novel and does not get a patent.  For instance, the idea that a smartphone is a rectangular device with rounded corners is patent-able is ridiculous. 

When a person or small company actually does come up with a legitimate novel idea that is worthy of a patent, all it takes is good lawyers and rich companies to patent around it.  What I mean by that is you can make patents that essentially lock the original patent in a cocoon such that it can not be implemented without depending on the other patents around it.   The real inventor is eventually paid a small amount for his work.  Sure, there are some examples where this is not true.  However it has been getting worse over time.  

The patent systems worldwide cost consumers far more than they think and puts the money in the hands of rich and powerful companies, law firms, and lawyers.  It is stealing from the real inventors and making the rich richer.

Here are a few related articles:
Some Thoughts On Fixing Problems In The Patent System
Are Patent Problems Stifling U.S. Innovation?
America's dysfunctional patent system is stifling innovation
Is The Patent System Broken? Well, Amazon's Just Patented The Sale Of Second Hand Goods

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Bionic's finally get Ice Cream Sandwich

Finally the ICS (Android 4.0) gets pushed out to the Motorola Droid Bionic.  One of the first great new features I noticed was the ability to disable bloatware.  In fact, you can even uninstall some of it now (Blockbuster for instance).  That you can't remove can at least be disabled which removes it from everything so you can't see it, it does not upgrade, and it is not offered as an app to launch for shortcuts.  Very nice.  Next best thing to just a complete uninstall.  It now acts totally different in the lapdock. It no longer uses the internal lapdock browser at all.   It just launches webtop.  The webtop is nice though and now Firefox and Chrome run on the Bionic.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Weather station up and running

I finally got the weather station up and running in my new place.  My temperature/humidity sensor was bad so I replaced it.  I also set up all the websites like I had before.  Here is the page ( http://jimroal.com/wxdata.htm ) where you will also find links to the other pages where I push data.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Career advice to kids graduating High School

We have some major shortages of people to fill high-tech positions in science and engineering these days.  Engineers here in the Midwest are in such demand right now that we struggle to fill the positions.  Estimates put unemployment in Engineering below 1%.  Normal unemployment is usually considered optimum around 4% from normal attrition, people not fitting well with the job, etc.  At the same time I hear about these crazy new degrees some schools are offering that have no chance of ever landing a decent job and many graduates with them.  Schools keep raising tuition yet they are filthy rich already.  The greed from schools is very disgusting.  Getting a 4 year Bachelors degree can now run about $50k/year for a $200k total.  Often kids pay that for a degree that will not earn them even $40k a year.  They can never pay it back for that.

I think the root cause starts early in life when we tell our kids to get a job they enjoy.  While the statement is true, it is very misinterpreted.  Yes, you should get a job you enjoy but don't confuse that with a job that actually pays and has a great future.  When finding a career you would enjoy start by looking at the best paying jobs with the lowest unemployment.  As you look down that list find one that sounds interesting to you.  In other words, first find a job with low unemployment and great pay and benefits.  Then from that list, find one that interests you.  Don't confuse your hobbies with a career.  Sure there are a few people that become football stars, race car drivers, and actors.  That vast majority trying for these things do not succeed.  It is fine to aspire to those jobs.  It is even good to try to attain it but you need a backup plan.  Go ahead and play football in college and be the best you can be.  However, at the same time work towards a degree that pays and has low unemployment.  If you get to your senior year and you are the top football player, then you might have a chance.  However, you always have the degree to fall back on in case it does not work out for you.

Should you go to college at all?   If you really have no idea what you want to do, maybe not.  Maybe it is best for you to just go out and get a job.  See what the world is all about.  Eventually you will decide a career is in order.  Once you are serious, then you can really apply yourself in school.

Where should to attend college?  Not the place with the best parties!  Actually the school you choose is less important than the effort you put into learning and getting good grades.  As long as the school is accredited, and they give real grades, all are pretty close in my book.  Ivy league schools are a rip off.  Not even worth the extra money.  While they are often very good schools, they overcharge.  Instead choose a good college where you can learn and not brake the bank doing it.  There is nothing wrong with starting at a community college and transferring to a university and this can save money.  I did that myself.  Just make sure you line up the community college and university to make sure the credits all transfer.  Also, most counselors are pretty much worthless.  Instead of following their advice, go directly to the person leading the department at the university where you plan to get your degree.  Some of the professors in your major as also good.  You want someone who is an expert in the field you plan to get the degree in to help guide you through college. 

I have interviewed many people.  Interviewees are often surprised when I am as interested in the job they had while in college as I am with their school work.  Many people will not put these jobs on a resume thinking it will detract from their resume.  Some people believe this will somehow reflect negatively on them.  When I start asking question about jobs they have had, they finally start telling me about some of their experiences.  What we are looking for as employers is a person with good work ethic and discipline.  The only place to demonstrate many of these attributes is in a job.  Interviewing a recent graduate with no work experience is hard and hiring that person is a gamble.  It really does not matter what the job was.  Working as a McDonald's cook, or a janitor, or changing oil at a Jiffy Lube is nothing to be ashamed of.  Not working at all generally is. I have heard from other people who interview say the same things.  In fact, I have heard from several that won't even look at a candidate that has no work experience.  Again, any job is better than no job.

One way to get both work experience and some experience in the field of study at the same time is through internships.  I can't stress enough how important this is and what a great opportunity it is for both employer and potential employee.  Find an internship at an employer in your field of study and interest.  This gives you an inside view to what this job really is.  You may find that it was not what you thought and you might change majors.  More likely, you will find it is not the grind you thought and in fact it can be very fun.  After working there you and the employer know each other much better and, assuming things went well, you could have more internships and finally a job by graduation. 

When you finally get to the interview, be open, energetic, and honest.  What we want to see as employers is that you are actually interested in working here to provide benefit for the company.  Engagement is the key.  We want to see your interest in what we are doing.  An ideal candidate would ask questions about the work we do and what their role will be in it.  I want to see them thinking about actually working here and building a career.  Energy and enthusiasm.  The people who move up the fastest in a good company are the ones who provide the most value and those are always the most engaged employees.  What I mean by engagement is that you understand what makes the company successful and you truly enjoy working hard to make it even more successful.  That success comes from providing real value to your customers.  Seeing your customers also succeed is itself engaging.  Real top performers is non labor careers are driven by purpose, autonomy, and mastery.  Here is a video that explains it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJr9QajdCNc

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Removing Bloatware from your Android

I finally did it!  I rooted the Droid 3 and ripped out all the nasty bloatware Verizon forced on me.  I feel quite liberated.  My battery life has doubled.  The device is faster and more reliable since it has more available RAM too.  I even removed all those locked bookmarks from the browser.

Here is how I did it:

1) Gain root access to the device.  There are several one-click root solutions out there now for most phones.  I used this one: http://www.psouza4.com/Droid3/

2) Rename the bloatware .APK and .ODEX files in the system/app directory on the device.  That is well documented here: http://www.androidcentral.com/removing-bloatware-your-motorola-droid-3 .  One thing I did a bit different was to use ES File Explorer to rename the files.  It is a free app on the Android Market and it support root access.  You can just navigate to the system/apps directory and rename the bloatware apps files by adding the .bak to the end.  This makes it an easily reversible process and you can choose what you keep.  In order to access the root with ES File Explorer, you need to enable it in the settings.  In ES File Explorer click the menu key, then scroll to the bottom where it has Root Settings.  Check both boxes ("root explorer" and "mount file system").

3) Remove the locked bookmarks from your browser.db file in the /data/data/com.android.browser/databases/ directory.  That process is explained here: http://androidforums.com/commando-all-things-root/408698-browser-removing-verizon-locked-bookmarks.html

Thanks to the world wide web we have rapid information sharing and collaboration to make things like this happen fast and then share it around the world.

Before the de-bloat I would have to plug in my phone at lunch time under normal usage.  Now I no longer both.  I can go 16 hours unplugged with normal usage and stay above 60%.  Many days I still have 70%.  I am using the Motorola extended battery (BF6X).  I installed the extended battery just after I got the device because I could not go 1/2 a day without plugging in.  It got really bad.  Something happened that caused the phone to chew up about 6GB of data that month.  I suspect it was the Verizon backup assistant.  I don't use that service after having a very bad experience with it messing up my contacts.  I did a factory reset of the device and my battery life and data usage improved.  Then a couple months later I had to do a factory reset again because my battery life was terrible again.  After the resets, the battery would improve.  Now that I have rooted and de-bloated, those issues appear to be behind me for good.

I didn't remove any of the Motorola Blur apps.  I actually like most of them.  The voice command is very good, much better than stock Android.  I also left My Verizon in there as I actually do find value in that.  ZumoCast is a very good app so I kept it as well.   All the VCast crap is gone though.  VZ Navigator is gone too.  NFL mobile is gone as is City ID.  I can remove any pre-installed software I want easily using ES File Explorer.

The facing camera in the Droid 3 has never been the most stable.  Skype and GTalk would sometimes just not initialize.  Now that camera does not work at all.  It tries to open but then fails to initialize.  I found a few others that have not rooted this device that have the same problem.  I have not yet found a solution but honestly I never used that camera anyway.  The main camera still works great.  Video IM is mostly a gimmick anyway and it does not work at all on 3G.

For now I am still running the stock ROM.  I will probably hold out until a stable build with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4) is available for this device.


Friday, December 30, 2011

What to do with your old Android smartphone

Today's smartphones are actually computers.  In fact, they are much more powerful than desktop PC's were just 10 years ago.  Unlike ordinary mobile phones, smartphones still have many uses even when they are no longer activated on a cellular network.  I have captured a few ideas below.
  1. Use it as a music/video player.  Many people paid good money to buy iPods back in the day.  Today's Android phones are more powerful and more flexible than an iPod.  You can use the WiFi connection to use Android Market, Amazon, Pandora, Tune-In Radio, Napster, or many other music services to buy and stream music and videos as well as free radio.  Use the Bluetooth A2DP streaming to listen to music using any Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) receiver.  You can also share and control your music using DLNA.
  2. Use it as an OBDII scan tool for your car.  For about $25 you can buy a Bluetooth OBDII scan tool on eBay.  Just do a search for ELM327 Bluetooth on eBay and you are sure to find many.  There are several OBDII scan tool apps available on Android Market.  Torque is one of the best.  You can read and clear your fault codes and turn OFF your Check Engine light.  You can also read engine parameters and much more.
  3. Use it as a Skype phone.  Have a home WiFi and use Skype?  You can use your old Android phone to make Skype calls just like you do on your PC.  Just download the free Skype app from Android Market.  The same is true for Google Talk and Google Voice.
  4. Use it for GPS navigation.  Most Android devices also have GPS receivers in them.  The newer versions of Google Maps for Android support map cache.  Before you go on a trip, cache all the areas you will be traveling.  You can use Google Maps on the PC to set up your destinations and routes too. 
  5. Use it as a camera/camcorder.  These devices are compact but have decent cameras in them.  They make a very handy camera for photos and video.  They will also capture the GPS location of the photos and video which is very handy.  Once you get to a WiFi connection, you can post them to Google+, Facebook, Picasa, or many other photo and video sites.
  6. Use it to play games.  There are many games out there that don't need a constant data connection. 
  7. Use it like you used your old PDA.  You can create and edit documents, spreadsheets, etc.  The calendar also still works and it will sync with your Google calendars. 
  8. Use it as an alarm clock.  You can also use the timer app.  There are many great alarm clock apps on Android Market.
The phone is just one app on the Android phone. I don't tend to use the phone much.  I spend most of my time on my mobile device using apps and data services.  All of that will still work except you will need a WiFi connection.  It is no longer as mobile as it was when it had an active cellular and data plan.  I have often wondered if the cellular companies would let you active it for data only?  If you could, then you would only be missing cellular phone (although Skype would still work fine) and SMS/MMS (text and media messaging, although GTalk, email, Gmail, etc would all work fine).  Everything else would work fine.