Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Apple Faces a New Lawsuit

Which of the following is Apple accused of using in violation of a patent?

a. Silica-based translucent viewing hardware.

b. Perforated enclosure grill for internal air-flow component cooling.

c. Software that let's a cell phone match an incoming number to a name.

d. Multi-colored spinning disk for indicating processor activity.
On my honor, one of them has reportedly been filed.
Answer at the bottom of the post.
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Master Jobst Fimil travels in that private plane the company bought for him. Apparently, that's expensive. Duh. Depending on where you read, that's either a really good sign or scary. I don't get it. I mean, I'm all like, dude, the company bought that for him to be able to, like, travel. You know? Like, on business? If he wasn't using it, they'd sell the flipping thing. If he uses it, it's gonna cost money. Dude. I never talk like that really, but I always wanted to try it. It even sounds more ignorant when it's written.

Kind of like a story about something as meaningless as how many frequent flyer miles His Steveness has accumulated in the company car. Talk about your journalistic packing peanuts. That has deadline written all over it.
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Maybe the iPhone SDK will be out next week. Something about the Enterprise, too. I skipped through the article and just read the important parts. Anyhow, I think at least Kirk and Spock are getting iPhones. After they get the kinks worked out of the push email, the rest of the crew will get them. Also, something about blackberries for dessert or maybe for lunch. Like I said, I just skimmed it.
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Over on BusinessWeak, who I've been rather snotty about lately, is a well reasoned post by Peter Burrows. I read it in the sincere hope that I'd be able to make fun of it. Basically he says if you're a day trader, Apple is not your friend at the moment. If you're a long-term, buy-and-hold investor, Apple is a fine stock to own. I'm the latter. So I agree with his basic tenets, if not all of his reasoning.

The stock market is stupid. Stock prices have no real basis in reality. If you go in with that understanding, realize that you can lose your ass, and be careful to buy good companies, the stock market can be a lot of fun and you can make some money. I've done alright.

Anyhow, the article is a fair read. I don't agree with all of it, but it's not stupid, either. I don't know who the hell he thinks he is. Now I have to go looking for something new to ridicule.

Maybe tomorrow.
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Answer: c.
I'll bet you two pairs of used Reeboks the guy who filed the complaint is trying to decide between Hillary Clinton and Ralph Nader for president. He's almost certainly less intelligent than an equivalent quantity of camembert cheese.

a. glass; the other two were gimmes.

Waitress, can I have a doggy bag for this?