beforetheend.org

Among the changes are a centralized hub page designed to allow members of a group to gather and converse, as well as a searchable roster, according to a post in TechCrunch, which notes some of the changes may go a long way in addressing concerns about buggy management features on the Groups site.

Make more room for the virtual Rolodex…

LinkedIn on Thursday night folded several changes into its Groups platform that are designed to enhance the social-networking site’s group and user management features.

On 12/1/2006, the Patent Office issued a restriction requirement. A restriction requirement requires the applicant to select one invention for one patent, and, if he wishes to pursue other inventions, to pay additional application fees for processing those inventions. On 12/12/2006, Mr. Ohman elected to pursue Group I, which was the design using the phrase LIVESTRONG.

In his comment to yesterday’s post, Mr. Ohman notes that there is “no mention or claim of the divisional patent (LIVESTRONG) in this suit.” Technically, that statement is true. The only patent asserted in the lawsuit Mr. Ohman filed against the Lance Armstrong Foundation is the one claiming the “BARKSTRONG” design. The two continuing applications filed on 10/2/2007, presumably one of which is the divisional application referred to by Mr. Ohman, have not issued as patents and are not currently available to the public. However, Mr. Ohman’s reference to a “divisional patent (LIVESTRONG)” implies that he is presently seeking to obtain a design patent for the “LIVESTRONG” design. Because no such patent has issued, there is of course no such patent at issue in Mr. Ohman’s current lawsuit.

On 5/21/2007, in response to the rejection by the Patent Office, the applicant submitted an amendment, in which he cancelled the LIVESTRONG and PURRSTRONG drawings from the application, and changed “FIG. 2″ for BARKSTRONG to “FIG. 1.” The applicant’s stated reason for this change was that “[t]he Office Action objected to the specification, claim, and drawings due to informalities.” See Response at 5. The response made no mention of the pending 103 rejection.

Remarks Made in Election of Fig. 1

(Credit:
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)

On 2/21/2007, the Patent Office issued a rejection to the claim. Page 3 of the rejection states “[t]he claim is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over the “LIVESTRONG” logo depicted on the Lance Armstrong Foundation website as of May 6, 2004.

The entire prosecution history can be viewed by those interested in the details on the PTO website. USPTO Public Pair Portal. The record shows that on 2/21/2007, the Patent Office did reject the then-pending claim to a pet collar with the LIVESTRONG marking, citing to evidence of LAF’s prior use of the design on its web-site. The record also shows that in response to this rejection, the applicant cancelled two figures and renumberd one so as to claim the BARKSTRONG marking instead of the LIVESTRONG marking.

The claim to the BARKSTRONG design was then allowed. On 10/2/2007, before the patent issued, Mr. Ohman appears to have filed two continuing applications, numbered 29/292,189 and 29/292,189.

The only patent that Mr. Ohlman’s complaint alleges has been infringed is United States Design Patent No. D556,389. Mr. Ohman filed the original application that gave rise to this patent on July 6, 2005. The application number was 29/233,646. In the application, he tried to obtain claims to pet collars with three different marks: Fig. 1 - LIVESTRONG; Fig. 2 - BARKSTRONG; and Fig. 3 PURRSTRONG.

Mr. Ohman responded to yesterday’s posting, expressing concerns as to the accuracy of its content. In an email message to me, he said that his design patent was amended because the USPTO simply asked him to choose one design of the three he originally filed, that he was not “forced” to amend his claims, and that the Patent Office did not refuse anything. See Yesterday’s Posting. He also stated that he felt the information in yesterday’s posting to be defamatory and libel. It was certainly not the intent of the posting to cause any hurt feelings. But, the discussion of the prosecution of Mr. Ohman’s patent-in-suit is factually accurate. To make the record on this site clear and complete, I’ve prepared the following summary of the prosecution history of the design patent that Mr. Ohman asserted in his lawsuit against the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Representatives from Microsoft deferred deadline extension questions to Yahoo. And a Yahoo spokeswoman declined comment.

In order for Yahoo to extend its March 14 deadline for shareholders to nominate an opposition slate, it would need to do one of two things. Yahoo could change its bylaws and extend the notification period to a time closer to when the annual shareholder meeting is held, which currently is expected to be sometime between May 18 and July 7, or it can set its meeting sometime beyond July 7, thereby extending the notification period.

Yahoo has the option of extending the March 14 deadline for shareholders to nominate an opposition slate of directors for its next annual shareholder meeting, though it is expected to maintain a hard deadline.

Full coverage
Microsoft’s big bid for Yahoo Click here for the latest on the software giant’s attempt to buy the Net pioneer.

My bet is that Yahoo will extend the deadline, giving it more time to contemplate its options in a manner seen as friendly to Microsoft. Think if it this way: how easy is it to carry on a civil conversation and negotiate a deal when the other party’s 10 thugs are beating up on you?

Adding to that stress is the fact that its other reported options, including a News Corp. investment deal and an AOL tie-up, are considered long shots by industry observers and analysts.

And while the days are counting down for Microsoft to have its slate in place, odds makers say they wouldn’t be surprised to see University of Southern California corporate-governance professor Duke Bristow show up on such a slate. Bristow has served on other proxy fights before, including Oracle’s slate in its drawn-out fight for PeopleSoft. I’m not aware of Bristow’s stance on Microsoft’s bid, since phone calls and e-mails have not been returned.

“The smart thing to do would be to extend the deadline, if they don’t want to talk yet but they don’t want to force Microsoft’s hand,” Jenkins said.

Microsoft has until March 14 to name its opposition slate of directors, and proxy solicitors say the Redmond giant should have no problem finding folks to fill out a 10-member slate. Yahoo’s entire 10-member board is up for re-election at the next shareholder meeting. The date of the meeting has yet to be selected.

In the next two weeks, observers of the Microsoft-Yahoo courtship will get a telling signal as to whether it’s headed for a shotgun marriage or a friendly embrace.

Yahoo has plenty of reasons to enter a friendly deal and wrap up talks ASAP. It’s not only facing seven lawsuits from angry investors who argue that Microsoft’s initial bid of $31 a share was fair, but it also noted in its regulatory filings that Yahoo employees, management, and executives are distracted by the Microsoft bid.

Yahoo, which is incorporated in Delaware, has a hard deadline for shareholders to name candidates, unless the company changes its bylaws or delays the date of its shareholder meeting, said Stephen Jenkins, a director with Delaware law firm Ashby & Geddes, which has represented a number of clients in proxy fights.

“It’s unlikely but not out of the realm of possibility to extend the date to nominate directors,” said Bruce Goldfarb, chief executive of proxy solicitation firm Okapi Partners. “I don’t see the motivation for Yahoo to do that. They could still negotiate after Microsoft files its slate. There’s little reason to extend the date, unless they are already negotiating a friendly deal.”

But for now, its ClosedClip, not OpenClip. Even communities must apparently bow to Apple. Code is law, to borrow Larry Lessig’s phrase, and Apple controls the iPhone code.

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Well, that didn’t take long. As soon as people started to get excited about open-source OpenClip, and its ability to bring copy-and-paste functionality to the
iPhone, Apple found a way to shut it down with its 2.1 firmware.

Of course, OpenClip is open source, and perhaps enterprising developers will find a way around the 2.1 firmware. Or maybe (gasp!) Apple will actually deliver the copy-and-paste functionality many have demanded.

Also worth reading: our Laptop Border Guide, which helps you prepare for the possibility of customs agents searching or seizing your laptop.

Speaking of green, Asus has greened its laptop cases by offering an eco-chic bamboo finish. Also, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool released a list of laptops it deemed “environmentally friendly.” (Granola geeks should also check out our section on Green Tech.)

Finally, the MacBook Air is so thin and light that a Newsweek columnist suspects his missing review unit got thrown out with a pile of newspapers. CNET News.com’s Ina Fried knows the feeling.

In the rumor mill: new processors for Intel’s Core 2 platform will reportedly be released in two waves, with mainstream chips arriving in June and low-voltage versions rolling out in September. September is also the rumored launch date for the first quad-core mobile processor, the 2.53GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9300.

Product announcements for the week included a refresh of Gateway’s mainstream M-series systems. The march of the Penryns continued with updates to Dell and HP laptops. MSI announced a potential Eee PC-killer that will feature either an 8- or 10-inch display. (Speaking of the little guy, Asus expects two-thirds of the Eee PCs shipped this year to be running Windows. So much for the notion that the laptop would help drive the adoption of Linux.)

In other news, Acer advanced its plans for world domination with the announcement of two multimedia-oriented laptops in the brand-new Gemstone Blue series. Aside from their crazy media control console, the laptops’ key advancement is their 16- and 18-inch displays, which should be better for viewing HD content.

We’re a little more than 48 hours out from that great holiday whose sacred rites (for me, at least) include tucking into a Dublin Coddle and washing it down with a perfect pint of Guinness. (For strict Catholics, the holiday comes even sooner.) So that you can head out for your preholiday warm-up drinking, here’s a summary of this week’s laptop-related news. Just remember: Friends don’t let friends drink green beer.

In reviews this week, we offered up two painstakingly researched and thoroughly well written laptop reviews that just happen to lend themselves to one-word summaries. The Fujitsu LifeBook E8410? Overpriced. The Axiotron Modbook? Novelty. (You’re welcome.)

Have a great weekend, and remember to celebrate responsibly!

The extremely expensive A950 series, which also includes a 55-inch version, earns the right to charge so much because it employs LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to create the light behind the screen, whereas most flat-panel LCDs use florescent lights. The difference is that LEDs can be dimmed or turned off in dark areas of the screen.

Below you’ll find the settings we found best for viewing the Samsung LN46A950 in a completely dark room via the HDMI input with a 1080p, film-based source. Your settings may very depending on source, room conditions and personal preference. Check out the Picture settings and calibration FAQ for more information.

One more note: Longtime readers of my reviews have come to expect them to be accompanied by picture settings that enable viewers to set up their TVs as I did for the review. Unfortunately, a (hopefully temporary) glitch prevents the publication of settings for the LN46A950 I reviewed. So, I’m including my picture settings below instead, and hopefully we’ll get that glitch cleared up soon.

Last year I noted that the LED-backlit Samsung, while capable of producing some very deep black levels of its own, suffered from some blooming effects–where especially bright objects on dark backgrounds are surrounded by a dim glow–and worse-than average off-angle performance. So did the company correct these issues in its second generation?

As anybody who pays attention to the ubiquitous Samsung ads that run in CNET’s home theater section can tell you, last year I called the picture quality of the company’s LN-T4681F a “breakthrough” for flat-panel LCDs. I didn’t resort to such highly descriptive language in my review of its successor, the LN46A950, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t impressed. It can produce the deepest shade of black of any flat-panel LCD I’ve reviewed so far.

–Setup menu
Entertainment: Off
Energy saving: Off

Detailed settings submenu
Black adjust: Off
Dynamic contrast: Off
Gamma: +1
Color space: Auto
Flesh tone: 0
Edge enhancement: Off
xvYCC: Off
LED Motion Plus: On

White balance submenu
R-Offset: 26
G-Offset: 27
B-Offset: 26
R-Gain: 25
G-Gain: 19
B-Gain: 15

Read the full review of the Samsung LN46A950.

–Picture menu
Mode: Movie
Backlight: 10
Contrast: 97
Brightness: 44
Sharpness: 0
Color: 53
Tint: G50/R50

Picture options submenu
Color tone: Warm2
Size: Just Scan
Digital NR: Off
DNIe: [grayed out]
HDMI black level: [grayed out]
Film mode: [grayed out]
Blue only mode: Off
Auto motion plus 120Hz: Off
Smart LED: On

The following product is available:

On Sale Now: $1,479.95 - $1,599.89
View the latest prices for Samsung LN46A950

In a separate survey of 12,000 US business people, Microsoft’s “brand power” dropped from number one in 1996 to number 59 in 2008. That precipitous drop doesn’t bode well, obviously:

Which billions do you want, Microsoft? Yesterday’s or tomorrow’s? It seems you can’t have both.

…[A] decline in and of itself is not indicative that a company is losing its mindshare or reputation among customers. However, what’s significant in Microsoft’s case is that the decline has been consistent over a number of years, and has plunged dramatically in a brief time. “When you see something decline with increasing velocity, it’s a concern,” [the CEO of the surveying company] said.

A group of international marketers cites Apple and Google as two of the top-four brands that they “can’t live without.” Microsoft? “Microsoft is the top brand they wanted to argue with and also the top name they wanted to rebrand.”

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The article goes on to point out several possible reasons for the decline, but I think it’s an inevitable result of hoarding past monopolies without building a future in tomorrow’s most relevant markets: Web and mobile. Indeed, Microsoft’s hoarding of the past is precisely what keeps it from branding the future. Apple’s surging brand value is precisely related to its stakes in the future.

On Facebook, people freely access different applications that require a username and password, so those apps can easily tap into their accounts. McAfee also saw an increase this past quarter in the “popular” Facebook malware Koobface.

McAfee said it uncovered AutoRun malware in more than 27 million infected files during one 30-day period alone this past quarter, earning it the No. 1 spot of all malware detected worldwide.

Twitter too has seen its share of threats. In April, the site was hit by a JavaScript worm that exploited a hole to infect user profiles. The same month, a French hacker was able to gain access to the account of a Twitter product director.

Zombies and botnets are on the rise, said the report, indicating that more computers are being hijacked to send spam and malware. McAfee recorded almost 14 million new zombies in action over the second quarter, a rise of more than 150,000 new zombies each day, another record.

(Credit: McAfee Avert Labs)

By country, the amount of worldwide spam originating from the United States has dropped steadily over the past three quarters, but the U.S. still leads in spam production at 25.5 percent of the global market. Brazil, Turkey, India, and Poland have also seen sizable increases at producing spam.

McAfee releases its Threats Report each quarter. The first-quarter report was published in May.

Another major threat reported by McAfee is AutoRun malware, which is triggered automatically when a person plugs in a USB stick, memory card, or other external device. The Trojans PWS-OnlineGames and PWS-Gamania and two viruses named W32/Sality and W32/Virut have propagated through removable cards and drives.

The use of sites like TinyURL by tweeters to shorten a lengthy URL can also pose a problem, said McAfee. Users have no idea what Web site the TinyURL redirects to until it actually opens.

Social-networking sites are another popular target for cybercriminals, noted the report. The openness of social networks often puts them at risk.

(Credit: McAfee Avert Labs)

Spam and botnets have hit their highest levels ever, according to McAfee’s second-quarter Threats Report, released Wednesday. McAfee’s Avert Labs says spam recorded in the second quarter shot up 80 percent compared with the first quarter of the year.

Zombies and botnets can thank all the unprotected home computers, notes McAfee. More home users are setting up their PCs as remote access machines and as Web hosts, leaving those PCs increasingly vulnerable.

This follows a brief reprieve from spam following last year’s shutdown of the McColo ISP. June alone saw the largest amount of spam recorded by McAfee, surpassing the previous monthly high in October by more than 20 percent. McAfee now estimates that spam accounts for 92 percent of all e-mail.

“The jump in bot and spam activity we saw in the last three months is alarming, and the threat from AutoRun malware continues to grow,” said Mike Gallagher, senior vice president and chief technology officer of McAfee Avert Labs.

(Credit: McAfee Avert Labs)

As the Web 2.0 Expo concludes today in San Francisco, Webware editor Rafe Needleman takes stock of the latest turn in the fast-changing chronicle of Web-based start-ups. Also, he tells you how to vote for your favorites in the annual Webware 100 competition. Listen now:

Download today’s podcast

Telcos said testing plan to offer PCs to businesses

Senators introduce bill to curb mobile spam

The once and future app store

Google in talks to buy Twitter?

When detonated, common explosives now used in military and industrial applications such as TNT and RDX generate toxic gases that pollute the environment. They’re also dangerous to handle: They don’t like to be dropped or bumped and are super sensitive to electrical sparks.

(Credit:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t M?nchen)

Chemists at the University of Munich made tiny bombs from two tetrazoles called HBT and G2ZT, which not only proved more stable than conventional explosives but more powerful as well, according to researcher Thomas Klap?tke. Here’s a video that shows it in action.

To make them safer and reduce environmental dangers, German scientists have turned to tetrazoles–synthetic compounds that derive most of their explosive energy from nitrogen instead of carbon, as do many conventional explosives. Tetrazoles are already used to generate the gas to fill the airbags in some
cars.

New environmentally friendly, nitrogen-based explosives could deliver more of a bang while being safer to handle than traditional charges, according to chemists at the University of Munich in Germany.