October 14, 2004
Garmin Sucks
Don't buy the Vista C or Legend C GPS Units from Garmin. I used to like Garmin, but it's hard to when I hear news like this, and as of November 7th, Garmin has still to call me as promised regarding this problem. Garmin really does suck.
What does this mean for you and me? GPS tracklog and waypoint downloading on Linux and Macintosh will not work. As Simon St. Laurent says, "Garmin will not work with a Macintosh and there does not seem to be an alternative according to the technical support at Garmin".
I called up Garmin myself, and spoke to Ben, a supervisor from technical support. Here is my summary.
Q: Do you consider Garmin a company that embraces the community?
A: We embrace technology.
Q: What efforts have Garmin made to get the GIS community to define an open standard?
A: I can't comment on that because Garmin is a publicly traded company.
I'm looking forward to finding out how or if they've made any attempts to embrace an open standard, or get the opinion of the GIS community at all. I think this is a stupid move on their part, and I will not buy any more Garmin products until I get an acceptable answer. I have a feeling their Public Relations department will not answer any of my questions.
October 02, 2004
Xybernaut IP Followup
I did a previous writeup on Xybernaut's Patent on a Collar Computer, which had a ton of prior art in my opinion. It's not that I don't like wearable computer manufactures, but it just seemed very creepy that such a 'generic' idea could be patented. I did no more than 1/2 an hour of research to find my sources on prior art, and I would expect Xybernaut and the Patent Office to do the same.
I forwarded it over to /. since they seem to like patent issues, and it got published. Here's an interesting tidbit about this company from MichaelH (puddingbowl.org):
He told me Xybernaut could see the downturn coming and that it had decided licensing and royalties were where it's at. To demonstrate the company's "innovative" strides in patent gamesmanship, he pulled out a unit that a hinged and retractable slot cover for a PCMCIA slot. It was a slot cover: It closed when the card was in place, and opening it caused the card to eject.
He said no one had patented anything like it, and that his crack team of attorneys were now vigilantly monitoring dozens of countries to make sure that if anyone did anything like it, they'd be on hand demanding royalties and a cut of the action.
When Xybernaut announces patents like this, I suppose we can take comfort in its consistency: It's going on four years of taking out patents and then watching for someone to run afoul of them so it can get down to its real business, which is making sure the only "useful art or science" left is patent litigation."
I had a similar conversation with the JonesCam people, except they didn't say anything blatantly stupid, like trying to patent closing covers. Hell, my floppy drive closes automatically. I understand companies try to protect themselves from heavy handed lawyers driving them out of business, but it really bothers me when I hear about companies that I would like to be a patron of- are more concerned about making money off of their heavy handed lawyers driving others out of business.
I welcome Xybernaut's response. I really haven't head any cool R&D out of that company in ages, and I think IP bullying is why.
July 31, 2004
Big Brother Awards
Haven't had much time to write this week, as this site is still just a hobby, my little passion. I did get to watch the news this week and saw several cool things hit the radar. If they're old news to you, sorry, I'll be publishing more rapidly next week.
The UK's Big Brother Awards, the annual contest and expose for most awful companies and individuals when it comes to privacy.
Ms Hodge won her award as Worst Public Servant for her backing of intrusive government databases and desire to monitor children by pervasive tracking systems.
...
Ms Hodge, MP for Barking and Minister for Children, has supported controversial proposals in the Children's Bill that aims to set up a database that will, among other things, hold data about children deemed to be at risk of becoming criminals." [BBC]
I really wish they'd expand their coverage to the United States, we have a bunch of nominees over here too.
[Link via near near future]