Linked List: December 26, 2013

Thursday, 26 December 2013

Headline of the Week 

Speaking of patents, this piece for GigaOm by Jeff John Roberts raised an eyebrow. Headline: “Google Sues to Protect Android Device Makers From Apple-Backed Patent Hell”.

First, it’s Rockstar whom Google is fighting — a consortium backed by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, and others. But given that Apple apparently put up $2.6 billion of the $4.5 billion for the Nortel patents that Rockstar now owns, “Apple-backed” is arguably fair. But “patent hell”? This is simply the U.S. patent system at work. There’s nothing egregious or extraordinary about Rockstar’s lawsuits against Google and Android OEMs.

Then, here’s the opening:

Google has filed a new lawsuit to challenge an Apple-backed consortium known as Rockstar that is using dubious patents to threaten its partners and customers in the mobile device industry.

Nothing in Roberts’s piece even attempts to justify the word “dubious” here. And he fails to address the elephant in the room: Google itself bid over $3 billion for these same patents — $3.14159 billion, to be exact, because Google’s executives and lawyers are such a fun-loving, clever bunch — which suggests that Google doesn’t actually consider these patents the least bit “dubious”.

’Twas(n’t) the Software Patent Before Christmas 

I was going to write about this brouhaha surrounding the new IA Writer Pro’s “patent pending” feature that highlights parts of speech — based on technology built into Cocoa by Apple — but this poem by Stu Maschwitz does a better job than any prose I could offer.

Quotes Uncovered: How Lies Travel 

C.H. Spurgeon, back in 1859: “A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.”

This line is often credited to Mark Twain and Winston Churchill (I credited Churchill the other day), but it looks like Spurgeon put the notion into this form first. And what an ironic quote for which to have to post a correction.

App Santa 

Speaking of holiday app discounts, the App Santa promotion has a few days left, featuring a lineup of terrific apps (including App Store Best of 2013 winner Vesper, available for just $2.99). Get more bang for the buck from the iTunes gift cards you scored yesterday — buy these apps while they’re on sale.

WinterFest 2013: Artisanal Software for Writers 

Great way to save money on a bunch of great Mac apps for writers: DEVONthink Pro, Nisus Writer Pro, Scrivener, Scapple, and Tinderbox are all available at a 25 percent discount with coupon code “WINTERFEST2013”.