It’s bad enough that I think I finally caught the cold that’s been running around the office for the last two weeks, but I’m almost out of cold medicine. So today, I went out to get some more. Something that I figured would be relatively routine. But thanks to the panic over pseudophredrine being used to made crystal meth (among others), I had to take a card to the pharmacist to get it. Since I have no luck, my first stop, to Rite Aid, was unsuccessful, as they were sold out of the Advil Cold & Sinus that I have come to rely on. So I go to Target. Good thing for me I got there during the slim four hour window a pharmacist was on duty today. Frickin’ cold!
Archive for December, 2006
Hassles buying cold medicine
Sunday, December 31st, 2006Eragon Review
Sunday, December 31st, 2006Went to see Eragon last week, at Victoria’s request. I couldn’t help but notice the large numbers of similarities to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. For example, Eragon was raised by his uncle, who is killed while Eragon is not at home, and then Eragon runs off with the local old coot, who turns out to be far more than he seems. This is the beginning of Star Wars, Ep. 4, where Luke heads out with Obi-Wan. (This is merely being pointed out for you youngsters who may not remember.) The creatures made of bugs and their leader who were hunting Eragon reminded me of the Nazgul and the Witch-King of Angmar from LOTR. While this movie was mildly entertaining, I did find myself doing head-nods towards the end.
Guard system for portable computer disk drive slot
Sunday, December 31st, 2006Title: Guard system for portable computer disk drive slot
Patent application publication number: 20060291154
Publication date: December 28, 2006
Filing date: June 23, 2005
Link to PDF: 
AIPW Summary: The guard system permits a slot-loading optical drive slot to be blocked, in order to prevent any objects from entering the slot. The guard is positioned inside the drive slot, adjacent to the opening, such that it can be easily moved between an open position and a closed position without affecting the operation of the optical drive (see Figures 4 and 5). The guard can be in place (i.e., in the closed position) when the computer is off, and in the open position when the computer is on. A sensor located inside the slot can be used to automatically open and close the guard, depending on whether a disk is being inserted (see paragraphs 0035-0040).
Chaos generator for accumulation of stream entropy
Sunday, December 31st, 2006Title: Chaos generator for accumulation of stream entropy
Patent application publication number: 20060291649
Publication date: December 28, 2006
Filing date: June 22, 2005
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: This method and system is designed to be a part of a fast elliptic encryption system for small devices (e.g., media players and mobile phones). Simply put, this method and system generates secure random numbers for use in a cryptography system. The problem with existing pseudorandom number generators is that they may get to a point where the numbers are generated in a pattern, at which point the security of a system relying on those numbers deteriorates. Small devices do not have the hardware capabilities to be able to generate longer pseudorandom numbers. The chaos generator includes a random source coupled to an entropy accumulator. The entropy accumulator generates a binary random input sequence, accumulates the entropy of the input sequence, and provides a binary random output sequence based on the accumulated entropy.
Method and apparatus for establishing a secure connection
Sunday, December 31st, 2006Title: Method and apparatus for establishing a secure connection
Patent application publication number: 20060294381
Publication date: December 28, 2006
Filing date: June 22, 2005
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: A method for establishing a secure connection with a peer device. Identities of trusted peer devices are stored locally in a device. If a device has not been stored locally as being a trusted device, the user of the device is prompted to access the requested peer device. Once the peer device is identified as being “trusted”, the devices establish a secure connection. Digital certificates can also be used to determine whether a peer device is “trusted”. This method uses TLS (Transport Layer Security) certificates (the successor to SSL) for security.
Binding user interface objects to application objects
Sunday, December 31st, 2006Title: Method and apparatus for binding user interface objects to application objects
Patent application publication number: 20060294470
Publication date: December 28, 2006
Filing date: July 31, 2006
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: A method for binding Web page definitional elements (i.e., HTML entities) to a back-end state. The Web page element can be bound to a variable, a constant, or a method. An example presented in the application relates to a Web page for entering and displaying information about users in a guest book application. Users enter their name and email address into Web page. The entered name and address are retrieved from the Web page and are added to an array of guests. One entry or all entries in the array can be displayed on one or more Web pages. This application also references related issued U.S. Patent Nos. 6,651,108 and 6,249,291, both of which were assigned to NeXT.
Hybrid low power computer mouse – December 26, 2006
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006Title: Hybrid low power computer mouse
Type: Issued patent
Patent number: 7,154,477
Issue date: December 26, 2006
Filing date: September 3, 2003
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: This is a low-powered optical mouse with an accelerometer. One problem with existing wireless optical mice is that they rapidly consume batteries; the patent estimates a 2 month battery life for an average wireless optical mouse. (I’m not sure the last time I changed the batteries in my mouse, but I think it’s been more than 2 months.) Another problem is that typical low-powered accelerometers lack sufficient resolution to keep up with the range of possible fast hand movements. To address these problems, this mouse uses the accelerometer all the time (for “dead reckoning tracking”), and uses the optical generator only part of the time, to verify the accelerometer’s readings. An error value is kept for the dead reckoning tracking, and if the error value exceeds a threshold, the optical generator is kept on. See column 3, line 54 to column 4, line 6.
Automatically resizing and repositioning windows in response to changes in display – December 26, 2006
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006Title: Method and system for automatically resizing and repositioning windows in response to changes in display
Type: Issued patent
Patent number: 7,155,682
Issue date: December 26, 2006
Filing date: August 16, 2002 (continuation of an application having priority back to May 11, 1998)
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: A method for resizing and repositioning (if necessary) windows in a GUI when the display parameters change. For example, if the screen resolution is changed, all of the elements on the screen may change size and position. If any of the elements (e.g., windows) would be clipped (not fully visible) based on the new screen resolution, the window is resized to fit in its original position on the screen. The resized window will have a minimum size, so the user can determine which window it is, even if the complete window contents are not displayed. If a window has to be repositioned to be displayed, it will be displayed at the minimum size. See Figures 2 and 7 for a begin/end comparison of how the method works.
Design for a headphone clasp – December 26, 2006
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006Title: Clasp
Type: design patent
Patent number: D534,065
Issue date: December 26, 2006
Filing date: August 24, 2005
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: This is a design patent for a clasp to hold headphone cords, to take up slack in the cord. See Figure 8 for the clasp in use.
Resolution independent user interface design – December 21, 2006
Thursday, December 21st, 2006Title: Resolution independent user interface design
Type: published application
Application publication number: 20060284878
Publication date: December 21, 2006
Filing date: July 21, 2006
Link to PDF:
AIPW Summary: Resolution independent GUI images can be created by using material map objects. The information in a material map object describes a GUI object such that the GUI object can be rendered at any resolution. The GUI objects are described according to class (e.g., pushbutton, check box, slider) and individual attributes of the object (like outline color) can be specified. Certain object attributes are predefined for certain screen resolutions (see paragraph 0025); however, any “non-physical” attributes are resolution independent. One example given uses an XML tree to define the material map.
