Long lasting issues --

[kinzel]

Were you connected during the GIF patent attack? Sigh... Guess what -- now MP3s are at risk! ... the issue seems to be who owns the MP3 format... will all you podcasters have to pay up? Will all us podlisteners be on the hook, too?

Meanwhile, about trees. Right, some of you guys know we have an interest in trees. We plant trees from tiem to time, and we let trees grow, which has infuriated our ex-farmer neighbor who seem to think the only good tree is one on a log-truck on the way to the paper mill.

So, having said this, imagine planting a billion trees this year!

Comments

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

My mom comes from a farming background too and she just doesn't get why one would want trees on one's land. She also doesn't understand why someone would want to share her/his home with non-human creatures.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Is that am American billion (10^9) or a real billion (10^12)? *g*

As I understood the MP3 case, the technology is free for decoding but licenced for encoding, but that report seems to be saying that they are going after MS for using a licenced decoder (unless the Vista version contains an encoder as well). It sounds as though Alcatel are desperate, or are hoping for a juicy out of court settlement, but if they are taking on MS, Apple, HP and Yahoo they'd better have very deep pockets...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

I guess I could look it up somewhere, but if the British don't call 1,000,000,000 a billion, what do you call it?

Incidentally, the right "breaks" in numbering here in Japan are
10,000 - one man (pronounced mahn - long ah)
100,000,000 - one oku

so it goes ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, man, ten man, hundred man, thousand man, oku.

This endeth today's linguistic diversion.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Usually "a thousand million", although some of us still use "milliard" for 10^9. The British numbering is straight powers of a million, so billion = million^2, trillion = million^3, etc. The US system doesn't make any sense because a billion isn't two of anything (it's a thousand^2 times a thousand).

Does the Japanese system continue in factors of 10,000 agter oku, or doesn't it go that far?

(Unfortunately, due to very large amounts of US TV and reporting the US billion tends now to be used in Britain as well in most places, but there are still enough that use the real one to catch people out sometimes.)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Thanks! a milliard, eh?

When I was learning the American system, we simply were taught that it was million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, and so forth - based on counting millions, apparently, with that first one as some kind of odd one. Interesting how those early trained-in memories seem "natural" until someone points out that they have little rhyme or reason to them, isn't it?

The Japanese system does indeed have another factor of 10,000, but it is used infrequently enough that I can't remember it off the top of my head (since I learned the language as an adult, I have holes in my knowledge - sometimes gaping ones!).

MP3 patent issues

[(Anonymous)]

Burton from Montreal Canada

I see the patent trolls are roaming again. Didn't this also happen with JPG a while back. Companies that sit on a patent and does nothing with it while prevent others from using it are preventing innovation and technology advanced.
What would happened if MS decide to buy all the new patents relating to IT? I would think that many national governments will take anti-trust actions against MS. The time have come to update the patent process so that the patent trolls are eliminated.

[sambear.livejournal.com]

Good thing we have the LAME open-source Mp3 codec :)