DevTopics

You've spent thousands of hours developing a new software program. Now how do you ensure that your competitors don't copy your program and steal your market? The sad truth is you can't, as Apple discovered when Microsoft "borrowed" its graphical user interface to build Windows and corner the PC operating system market. But there are steps you can take to give you an edge over your competition and make it more difficult for others to copy or steal your work. You can protect your software with patents, copyrights and trademarks. Continue reading »

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tags: copyrights, Patents, trademarks

Although PC software piracy declined in many countries in 2007, piracy increased in fast-growing PC markets, resulting in an overall rise of piracy from 35% to 38%, and dollar losses that increased by $8 billion to nearly $48 billion.  The annual study was conducted by IDC and released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

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Popularity: 5% [?]

To be a “most important” innovation, an innovation has to be an idea that is very widely used and is critically important where it applies. - David A. Wheeler

It's not easy choosing the best innovators in an industry defined by innovation. The nature of software is such that the technologies, systems and products completely refresh every decade or so. The triumphant invention of just 10 years ago is now considered "legacy" or even obsolete. So making a lasting impression in the software business is a tough task indeed.

Following is my list of the top 10 software innovators of all time. Inclusion on this list doesn't mean the person came up with every idea or wrote every byte of code. Rather, these are the people whose leadership, ideas, designs and products propelled the software industry forward by leaps and bounds. Their innovations affect us greatly even today.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor for a fixed period of time in exchange for disclosure of an invention.  The patent enables the inventor to exclude others from making, using, selling or importing the invention. (wiki)

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Popularity: 6% [?]

In response to my original article, "101 Great Computer Programming Quotes," José M. Aguilar doubled the fun with "101 More Great Computer Quotes," which was translated, edited and republished here by Timm Martin (and Google Translator) with permission from Mr. Aguilar.

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Popularity: 70% [?]

"Hello, Mr. Consumer, we offer amazing new widget software that will save you time and money! It can do X, Y, and Z. You can download and install it from our website. Oh, and by the way, you need .NET 3.5. What's that? It's a 200MB separate download from Microsoft that takes an hour to install and… Hello? Hello? Mr. Consumer?"

Welcome to my world as a commercial software developer who uses Microsoft .NET. Continue reading »

Popularity: 10% [?]

Tags: .NET, Microsoft-.NET

Joseph Weizenbaum, who invented the famous "virtual psychiatrist" computer program Eliza, died from cancer on March 5 in Groben, Germany at age 85. 

> How does that make you feel?

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Popularity: 6% [?]

Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Eliza, Weizenbaum

A very interesting article by ZDNet's Larry Dignan describes in detail how software may have led to the downfall of New York governor Eliot Spitzer.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Several patent reform organizations have joined forces to abolish software patents.  The End Software Patents (ESP) coalition aims to eliminate patents that do not specify a physically innovative step, which would likely include many of the software patents granted today.  The coalition was founded by the Free Software Foundation, Public Patent Foundation, and Software Freedom Law Center. 

The ESP coalition will fight software patents on two fronts:

1. Assist companies that challenge software patents in the courts and at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
2. Educate the public about the severe problems with software patents, with the ultimate goal of eliminating many software patents

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: End Software Patents, Patents, Software, Software-Patents, USPTO

Senryu (literally 'river willow') is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku, with three lines of 5-7-5 syllables.  Senryu tends to be about human foibles, while haiku tends to be about nature; senryu is often cynical or darkly humorous, while haiku is serious.

Assembled from the Internet is a collection of senryu about software and computers:

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags: Haiku, Senryu