The Blackberry Lawsuit

One of the more interesting cases to appear on the technology front recently is the patent dispute involving RIM (Research In Motion) with its Blackberry handheld device, and its alleged patent infringement with the inventor of the technology, Thomas Compana Jr.

The immensely popular Blackberry device, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) similar to the ubiquitous Palm Pilot, has one big feature that sets it apart; the ability to send and receive email, contacts and schedules wirelessly without the need to be docked to a computer.

Unfortunately for Canadian owned RIM, the technology it uses allegedly infringes upon a number of patents registered by Thomas Compana Jr back in 1991. RIM made the case that it didn’t know about the patents at the time, but Mr. Campana’s company, NTP, argued that RIM simply did not research deeply enough before releasing the Blackberry product. NTP offered a license, but RIM’s lawyers decided that there was no infringement and declined the license offer. With this refusal, NTP filed suit against RIM. During the 13 day trial, the jury found RIM had infringed upon no less than 5 NTP patents.

The monetary damages in this 2002 trial amounted to $53 Million, but the bigger problem for RIM was the threat of an injunction, which could shut down the service for the estimated 4 million US-based Blackberry users, many of which are US Government personnel. RIM appealed and won a stay until December 2004.

This story has many strange twists and turns, but perhaps the biggest irony is that by the time of the settlement earlier this month for a whopping $612.5 Million, the plaintiff was no longer around to enjoy the fruits of his victory – he had died of cancer 3 years earlier.

The settlement caused RIM’s stock to jump 13% as Blackberry users around the US heaved a collective sigh of relief that their addiction, no less their investment, was not going to be shut down and rendered useless. It is interesting to note that NTP didn’t really want the system to be shut down, as it would then be ineligible for the royalties it was also fighting for. As it turns out the settlement rules out any royalties for NTP.

Interesting Blackberry facts:

• “Blackberry Thumb” is a new medical malady, afflicting many, caused by repeated use of the thumb scroll-wheel incorporated by Blackberry
• Blackberries are meant to increase productivity by giving users mobility, but many have become so addicted to email that productivity for many has actually decreased, so much so that the Blackberry has been nicknamed the Crackberry.
• Blackberry is planning to incorporate instant messaging such as Yahoo Chat into their devices, making them even more addictive, and also making them attractive to the younger “instant messaging” generation.

No Topic in Mind - Ramblings

Alright, I’ll admit it. This week it has been a challenge to come up with a topic, and I have let the deadline approach and ultimately pass as I stare blankly at the blinking cursor on my computer monitor. So I’ll just ramble and I hope you’ll come along.

For those of you who’ve ever wondered, “How does a rotary engine work?” or “What is Creationism?” the place for you is www.howstuffworks.com. This site does a great job of explaining things in understandable terms, and often the explanation is accompanied by an animated graphic. It is the animated graphics that really make things clear for me, being a visual person. I am also something of a gear head, and therefore naturally inclined to read about automotive topics. The HowStuffWorks feature topic this week highlights the Bugatti Veyron, a million dollar two passenger car with 1000 horsepower, a 16 cylinder engine that consumes 80 gallons of fuel per hour and goes 250 mph. Just the thing – I’ve been looking for a 250 mph car. HowStuffWorks takes you to the Bugatti website, where you can watch an animated graphic of those 16 cylinders pumping away in slo mo – pure nirvana for some (and me).

In the olden days (I actually lived in the olden days according to my grown-up niece and nephew), there were encyclopaedia salesmen who would wander door to door selling encyclopaedia sets, which were horrendously expensive; the salesman would kindly offer you a three year payment plan; by the time you paid it off, the encyclopaedia was three years out of date. In just over a decade it has become an obsolete model; I searched on the internet for a book set, and the best I could do was a 1994 leather-bound edition on eBay. In our modern times, encyclopaedias are mostly online or CD-based like Microsoft Encarta, but Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) is in my opinion the most interesting. Started in 2001, the content in Wikipedia is collaborative, meaning that the all-free content is contributed by anybody who knows something. Anyone with a computer can edit, correct or improve the information throughout the site, and membership is free. Wikipedia makes heavy use of hyperlinks, making it easy to jump to related articles. It also makes it easy to meander to a completely unrelated topic to the one you were initially interested in, but that is more a symptom of ADD than anything else. Wikipedia is huge, it has more information than the book set ever had, it is always current, and best of all it’s free.

The internet is like a giant brain organism, there is so much knowledge freely contributed and freely available that it blows one’s mind. The venerable Encyclopaedia book set is dead for good. I hope that books in general never go away, because there is something to be said for reading a good paperback in bed, or on the sunny porch, or on the bus, or at the airport. I wonder if the computer will eventually usurp the book, and provide us with some kind of electronic book device… At this time, I sincerely hope the trusty book is never made obsolete, but then again – I know I’ll never again own an Encyclopaedia book set.

Interview with Whistler Wired - A Connected Business

Every now and then I come across a business which is utilizing technology in interesting ways. Whistler Wired, a local tour business, is one of those. Run by Martin Kraut and Nathan McLeod, now in their 7^th year of business, I asked if I could showcase their business as a topic for this column. As I sat with Martin at his tidy home office for this interview, he appeared casual and relaxed sitting at his cockpit-like desk, the nerve-centre of Whistler Wired. At age 30, he is already a business veteran, and he knows a thing or two. Here is my report.

TechBabble: What made you think technology could enhance your business? Martin Kraut: We started with one computer and 2 cell phones. We knew we needed these core tools to start operating. We have upgraded at least 5 times, and now we have 2 desktop computers, a laptop and 2 PDA’s (with built in cell phones), mine is a Palm Treo 650 and Nathan uses a Blackberry. Of all these tools, the cell phone is still the most vital in this type of business. I even have a pay-as-you-go backup cell phone.

TechBabble: You use Outlook for scheduling and contacts, GPS to monitor the movement of your limousines, PDA’s to keep your schedules portable, and your website as your primary marketing tool. What is the specific reasoning behind each of these aids? Kraut: We keep our Outlook data on a public server for a monthly fee. This frees us from worrying about backing up, and it also gives us the ability to access our data from any computer anywhere. The PDA’s also give us a secondary form of backup and offsite access to data. The GPS allows us to record mileage and other data without the need for excessive paperwork, and it also allows us to track the movements of our trucks, thereby protecting our investment. The website, well this is a vital marketing element to this type of business and is indispensable.

TechBabble: Do you believe you could have built this business without these technologies? Kraut: Yes, but not nearly as efficiently. The essence of a business, any business, is relationship-building. The tools we use are primarily contact and communications tools. Communications technology has given us the ability to enhance and accelerate this relationship-building process. We can also accurately record what has been said, and schedule upcoming events and meetings accurately and instantly.

TechBabble: Of all the technology tools you use, which would you give up first? Kraut (looking stunned at this prospect): Well, I guess it would be the handheld PDA’s, because the core information database is Outlook; the PDA’s make Outlook portable, which is very handy, but Outlook is still the key. The loss of my PDA would be awful, but I guess we could get by without. The cell phone is still the most effective tool for getting things done, I would even venture to say ten times more effective than email.

TechBabble: How important is self discipline, and does technology replace discipline?

Kraut: Procrastination is like masturbation; in the beginning it seems like a good idea, but in the end you are only screwing yourself (laughs). Discipline is vital, and I am very disciplined about data collection, task lists, schedules and appointments. I save every business card and enter it into Outlook. New ideas go into Outlook. Even skiing and dating are scheduled into Outlook. I carry a notepad and pen in every jacket I own, just in case. Every day I create tasks and every day I prioritize and execute the tasks on my list. Technology only assists in this process, it does not replace it.

Note: If your business utilizes interesting technology and you would like to be the topic of this column, please contact me for an interview.

Linux Part III

Linux Part 3 – As you can see, my experimentation with Linux is not quite over. After writing last week’s column about my troubles installing Skype for Linux, I got an email the next day by a Linux user who knew how to fix the problem. Interestingly, the online version of my column posted by Whistler Question each week (www.whistlerquestion.com) was added to a Linux User’s Group (or LUG), and I got no fewer than seven responses in the two days after publication, all different, on how to fix the problem.

Without going into the details about how I eventually did get Skype running, (let’s just say that it’s been challenging, I tried so many different methods that I’m still not completely clear how I did it) I find it very interesting that there is such a fervent and dedicated community of Linux users who want to help each other. It has always impressed me that whenever I am looking for an answer to a computer problem, no matter how obscure, somebody somewhere has solved the problem and has taken the time to post his solution on a newsgroup, and that that answer can be so easily found on the search engines. (I say “his solution” not to be gender-biased, but it does seem that the majority of geeks out there are male). Linux User Groups are a great example of this community spirit.

Even though I remarked on the difficulty of installing applications on Linux (and trust me, no matter what they say on the user’s groups about how easy it is, it isn’t), the number of people who are willing to help is truly overwhelming. There is also a palpable undercurrent of disapproval for Microsoft Windows among the Linux community. The reasons are many: Windows is considered overpriced, is vulnerable to security problems, and until Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and ME were finally retired Windows was also very crash-prone; Linux by comparison is extremely stable and secure. Lastly, Microsoft’s licensing structure is so rigid that re-installing Microsoft software can be a nightmare if the user has lost his original installation CD and/or license number. And Good Luck getting help from Microsoft.

In stark comparison to Windows, it is entirely possible with Linux to have a fully functional and fast computer system with any software application imaginable, all for free and without licensing encumbrances, if one is willing to take on the learning curve. With any of the major distributions such as Red Hat, Debian, Suse, Mandriva or Ubuntu, you have most of the software you really need already included. Most people still use MS Office, Internet and e-mail more than anything else, and Ubuntu comes with equivalent applications built in, along with an abundance of games and utilities. OpenOffice (freely available for Windows as well) has all the features of Microsoft Office and can even read and write MS Office file formats. The only drawback with Linux that I can see is the incredibly complex approach to installing software – did I mention this already?

As I reached for last week’s Question, I noticed on the very same page that my column appeared on that there was a big advertisement for a new Linux User’s Group, right here in the valley, going by the name of Mountain Linux User’s Group, or MLUG (http://www.mountainlinux.ca/). Their first meeting will be on March 7^th, location as yet undisclosed, and I might just go and see what it is all about.