via fastcompany.com
Monday, May 30, 2011
Most Creative People | Most Creative People 2011 | Fast Company
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Ric Richardson Loses Microsoft Patent Claim | Uniloc | Australian Inventor
Ric Richardson ... dumbfounded at the judge's decision. Photo: Steve Holland
An Australian inventor, who was set to reap the lion's share of a mammoth $US388 million ($445 million) damages award from Microsoft, is now set to get nothing after the US judge hearing the case decided to ignore the jury's decision and hand victory to Microsoft.
Ric Richardson, who divides his time between Northern Rivers in NSW and California, is the founder of Uniloc, which sued Microsoft in 2003 for violating its patent relating to technology designed to deter software piracy.
The company alleged Microsoft earned billions of dollars by using the technology in its Windows XP and Office programs.
In April, a Rhode Island jury found Microsoft had violated the patent and told Microsoft to pay the company $US388 million, one of the largest patent jury awards in US history.
But on Tuesday in the US (today Australian time), US District Judge William Smith "vacated" the jury's verdict and ruled in favour of Microsoft.
In a telephone interview, Richardson appeared dumbfounded by the decision.
"It's such a shock that I really have to have my lawyers unravel this mess for me," he said, adding he could not comment further before taking legal advice.
"It was never about the money. It was about the ethics of it ... winning a court case is not winning the lottery."
The judge had ruled in favour of Microsoft in 2006, but an appeals court overturned his decision, saying there was a "genuine issue of material fact" and that he should not have ruled on the case without hearing from a jury.
But in his order today vacating the jury's decision, Judge Smith said the jury "lacked a grasp of the issues before it and reached a finding without a legally sufficient basis". The full judgment has been published online by seattlepi.com.
Fortunately, Richardson said he had not been on a spending spree since the jury's decision and had only bought a "chook shed".
He was recently featured on ABC's Australian Story and, for the past few months, he has been helping other Australian inventors get their ideas off the ground.
"I've had probably 400 people request help with their inventions and I've been working my way through them and just trying to help most of these people get over the humps that stop them from going beyond just having a great idea," he said.
Richardson reportedly came up with the idea for the patented technology during his former career as a sound equipment programmer for bands and singers ranging from INXS to John Denver.
The job required him to use pricey specialist software but there was no way to trial the software before buying it, which pushed many musicians into using pirated software.
Before getting into software development, Richardson, with his brother, invented the "Shade Saver" cords used to keep sunglasses attached to a wearer's neck. Profits from this invention were used to fund his Uniloc venture.
Richardson stepped down as a director of Uniloc in January this year, documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show.
He has sold some of his Uniloc shares in recent years but is still one of the company's largest shareholders.
Richardson's patent, one of many under his name, relates to work he did in the early 1990s and covers a software registrations system that allows software makers to create try-before-you-buy versions of their work.
Once users buy the software, they get a registration key that unlocks the full featured version of the software.
Uniloc claimed Richardson showed a copy of his software to Microsoft in 1993 but Microsoft did not license it, instead developing its own almost identical version and incorporating it into its products from 1997 or 1998.
Microsoft said that its system works differently from Uniloc's and that Uniloc's patent was obvious.
via smh.com.au
Friday, May 27, 2011
Hasselblad Squeezes 200MP Images By Shaking a 50MB Sensor
Hasselblad’s new H4D-200MS takes 200 megapixel images, which result in massive 600MB files. So big are these images that Hasselblad recommends you hook the camera up to a hard drive instead of using a memory card. The camera itself “only” has a 50MB sensor, though, so how does it do this magic?
To record these ultra hi-res images, the H4D-200MS actually moves its sensor, taking six individual shots and combining the results. It’s like making a panorama, only the photos line up way better because neither the camera nor the lens moves.
When taking the shot, the camera snaps six different exposures, moving the sensor 1.5 pixels at a time. This not only allows big images, it also gives better color information. Normally a camera has different colored pixels next to each other and it kind of averages out the various brightnesses of these pixels to guess both color and brightness. But because the Hasselblad moves its pixels around, each pixel site is recorded by a red, a green and a blue pixel. This should give great color accuracy, just like Sigma’s Foveon chips.
The downside is that this process takes 30 seconds to complete, so you’ll not only have to lock the thing down on a tripod, you’ll have to tell all your assistants to hold their breath.
You can also shift down a gear and shoot single 50MP images, as well as a four-shot version combo.
Care to take a guess at the price? Nope, try doubling that. That’s closer. The H4D-200MS will cost you $45,000. And if you have a crappy old HD-50MS lying around, you can pay Hasselblad $10,000 to upgrade it for you.
H4D-200MS product page [Hasselblad via DP Review]
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Fall from grace of Mr Billabong
"I was paranoid for the right reasons. Matthew was a liar and a cheater" ... Nicole, pictured, on Matthew's affair with Belinda Otton. Photo: Michelle Smith
Once fabulously rich, a surfwear boss is penniless, his marriage is finished and his ex-wife is accusing him of forgery, reports Cosima Marriner.
FOR 18 months Billabong surfwear boss Matthew Perrin swore he wasn't having an affair. His former wife recalls the Gold Coast multimillionaire looking her in the eye and swearing on their three children's lives that he had not strayed.
Whenever Nicole questioned her childhood sweetheart, he would allegedly tell her: ''You're paranoid. You're trying to destroy our marriage. Of course you trust me. We've been together since you were 16. There is no reason not to trust me.''
But Nicole couldn't let go of her suspicions. Her husband was always on the phone, would pull out of holidays at the last minute citing work, and constantly wanted to party.
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"Youre paranoid. Youre trying to destroy our marriage. Of course you trust me" ... Former Billabong boss Matthew Perrin, according to his ex-wife. Photo: Glen Hunt
Then there was the second phone Nicole learnt he was using to secretly text during their family holiday in Hawaii. And the diamond bracelet or the Gucci dress, two sizes too small for her, hidden in his suitcase.
There were the whispers she kept hearing that he was seeing a mother from their children's school. The secret phone bills which showed he was calling Belinda Otton, who had recently split from her husband. (Matthew claimed Ms Otton was suicidal and he was merely a shoulder to cry on.)
The Perrins tried marriage counselling and twice Nicole hired investigators to tail Matthew, but they did not find anything. Nicole told her husband she wanted to go back to their old, quieter lives, but he wasn't interested.
"The worst thing he could do to me would be to have an affair" .. Ex-wife Nicole Perrin, who subsequently found out her husband was having an affair with Belinda Otton, pictured. Photo: Michelle Smith
''We had children so young,'' Matthew allegedly argued. ''This is our time. We've got all this money. We need to start living.''
The Perrins had been living well since Matthew pocketed $66 million from the sale of two-thirds of his stake in Billabong in 2002. They enjoyed holidays on Hayman Island, skiing in New Zealand, a $130,000 Mercedes, horses, private schooling for the children, entertaining, and a $15 million Surfers Paradise mansion purchased in Nicole's name.
Now Matthew Perrin is penniless, his marriage is over and Nicole is fighting a court battle to stop the Commonwealth Bank repossessing her beloved family home. She claims her husband forged her signature without her knowledge to borrow $13.5 million against the house.
Nicole's version of events emerged in the Supreme Court in Brisbane last week when the former beautician and daughter of well-known bookmaker Laurie Bricknell revealed in brutal detail the unravelling of her marriage. She argues there is no way she would have agreed to mortgage her only asset just six months after finally confirming her husband's affair.
''Matthew … was the only man I'd ever been with,'' Nicole said. ''As far as I knew … it was the same for him. The worst thing he could do to me would be to have an affair.''
From age 24 Nicole had left it to her husband to handle the finances. But now she feared her marriage was about to collapse, she demanded access to all his bank accounts.
''I needed to know I had security for myself and my children,'' she said, breaking down in tears. ''He told me, 'You've got security. You've got the house. The house is yours and the kids.' No one will ever take it off you. I can't even take it off you.'''
On Boxing Day 2007, Nicole found proof of Matthew's adultery: texts on his phone from Ms Otton. Still Matthew denied it, until a confrontation with Ms Otton's ex-husband the next day forced him to come clean, although he claimed the affair had ended more than a year earlier.
''I was paranoid for the right reasons,'' Nicole told the court. ''Matthew was a liar and a cheater.''
Still, she opted to stay with her husband and try to work things out.
But in January 2009, Nicole noticed him acting strangely again. He was stressed, working long hours, and constantly making phone calls. He avoided eye contact and once, on the way to brunch, he pulled the car over and vomited by the road.
It was so reminiscent of his behaviour during the affair that Nicole was anxious. When Matthew asked her to meet him at a cafe, Nicole was certain he was leaving her.
''My mind was racing, thinking he's going to leave me, he's going to leave me. This is crunch now. He's going to tell me the marriage is over and he's going to leave me. I panicked. I thought I have to protect my children and I.''
She went to the Commonwealth Bank and transferred $10 million out of the family bank account to her personal account. She also withdrew $3000 cash. ''I went shopping for a little while,'' she told the court. ''I was trying to work out how to deal with Matthew telling me he was leaving me.''
When Nicole returned home, she found Matthew crying and shaking. ''He said … 'What I'm going to tell you is going to change our lives forever.' I said, 'It's all right, it's all right, I know you're going to leave me.' He said, 'No, it's far worse than that … I'm going to jail … I've done a lot of bad things. I've stolen money from people and I'm broke.' ''
Nicole told him not to worry. ''Whatever happens, we've still got our house. That's worth more than a lot of people have.''
Matthew had put his hands on her shoulders and allegedly said: ''You don't understand.''
At a crisis meeting with Matthew's two brothers, his China business partner, and Nicole's father, Matthew sat on the floor sobbing, head in his hands, as he revealed the extent of his financial strife.
He had been worth $150 million just the previous year but his business venture to buy up mini-marts across China, transform them into the equivalent of a Woolworths chain and float the business on the stock exchange had soured.
Now he owed $1 million to bookmakers, $4 million to family friend and former motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan, $1.5 million to fund manager SAI, and $13 million to the Commonwealth Bank. Worst of all, he had mortgaged the house without telling anyone.
''You can't,'' a hysterical Nicole shouted. ''The house is in my name. The house is in my name.''
Less than three months later, Matthew Perrin filed for bankruptcy with debts of $20 million. In September 2009, the Perrins separated. They have since divorced.
The Sun-Herald was unable to reach Matthew Perrin for comment. The case continues.
via smh.com.au
http://jantervonen.com/fall-from-grace-of-mr-billabongThursday, May 12, 2011
War Dogs
Dogs have been fighting alongside U.S. soldiers for more than 100 years, seeing combat in the Civil War and World War I. But their service was informal; only in 1942 were canines officially inducted into the U.S. Army. Today, they're a central part of U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan -- as of early 2010 the U.S. Army had 2,800 active-duty dogs deployed (the largest canine contingent in the world). And these numbers will continue to grow as these dogs become an ever-more-vital military asset.
So it should come as no surprise that among the 79 commandos involved in Operation Neptune Spear that resulted in Osama bin Laden's killing, there was one dog -- the elite of the four-legged variety. And though the dog in question remains an enigma -- another mysterious detail of the still-unfolding narrative of that historic mission -- there should be little reason to speculate about why there was a dog involved: Man's best friend is a pretty fearsome warrior.
Above, a U.S. soldier with the 10th Special Forces Group and his dog leap off the ramp of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during water training over the Gulf of Mexico as part of exercise Emerald Warrior on March 1.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Kenton Cool unboxes the Samsung Galaxy S II on Everest
via youtube.com
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