Archive for 2006

Multi-way peer to peer synchronization – December 21, 2006

Thursday, December 21st, 2006

Title: Apparatus and method for peer-to-peer N-way synchronization in a decentralized environment

Type: published application

Application Publication number: 20060288053

Publication date: December 21, 2006

Filing date: June 11, 2005

Link to PDF: PDF document icon

AIPW Summary: An apparatus and method for synchronizing data across multiple data stores (as shown, multiple communication devices such as a computer, PDA, mobile phone), including version history of the data. The version history allows tracking of how each data store has modified the data. Priorities can be assigned to each data store, such that the data as represented by one data store overrides the others during synchronization. If there are two data stores with the same priority, user input is required to resolve the conflict. When two data stores synchronize with each other, the complete data history is also synced. By synchronizing the data history along with the data object, the most recent version of the data object can always be readily identified.

No patents issued on December 19, 2006

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006

Another slow day. No new patents issued to Apple today.

Your assignment: Contemplate possible new names for an Apple-branded cell phone (if one ever gets released).

ABC cancels Day Break

Monday, December 18th, 2006

Those bastards!

ABC has apparently canceled Day Break (see the Zap2It story), giving me yet another free hour per week.

This makes the third show that I’ve enjoyed to get canceled this season without completing (the other two were Smith and Vanished). There really weren’t enough episodes of Smith that were shown to provide any indication whether it would be good or not. As for Vanished, that was the largest collection of horrible acting I have ever seen. Wooden actors delivering equally wooden dialog. Yet for some reason, I was hooked by the plot, which up until they killed off Agent Shelton, was rather predictable.

Apparently, Entertainment Weekly was right in their Fall TV Preview issue, when they proposed the question “Are TV audiences ready for this many serialized shows?” (OK, since I can’t find the article online, I’ll have to approximate the quote.) In case you haven’t guessed yet, the answer to that is “no”.

No new patent applications published on Dec. 14, 2006

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

Sorry to disappoint, but Apple did not have any new application publish this week. Just have to wait until next week.

New patents issued on December 12, 2006

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Four new patents issued today.

  1. D533,348 PDF document icon for a case.
    This is a design patent for the iPod sock. Not much else to say; it speaks for itself.
  2. D533,347 PDF document icon for an electronic device holder.
    This is a design patent for an iPod sleeve.
  3. 7,149,695 PDF document icon for a method and apparatus for speech recognition using semantic inference and word agglomeration.
    This invention relates to speech recognition and being able to discern a command word from a spoken segment. Semantic inference is also applied, such that a spoken command can be accurately interpreted and executed without requiring the speaker to use a particular phrase. One example given is the phrase “make a new spreadsheet” would be interpreted for the pre-defined command “open Microsoft Excel”.
  4. 7,148,415 PDF document icon for a method and apparatus for evaluating and correcting rhythm in audio data.
    This invention permits the correction of rhythm irregularities or inconsistencies in audio data.

Discussion of applications published on December 7, 2006

Monday, December 11th, 2006

Links to the full PDF documents are attached; PDFs were done via Pat2PDF.org

  1. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20060277235 PDF document icon
    This application simulates performing a variable shift operation in a processor that is not able to perform a variable shift for certain operand sizes or are unable to perform variable shifts. The previous ways of simulating shifts involved various kludges using simpler shift instructions, mostly requiring loops which took a relatively long time to execute. This invention uses one shift function to perform all types of shift operations. Interesting thing to note is that this application uses Intel processors for its examples; it includes the “applicable to any other type of microprocessor” catch-all language so as to not limit the scope of protection.
  2. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20060274905 PDF document icon
    This invention provides sound effects for user interface functions in a portable media player. In one embodiment, if no audio is being played, the sound effect is played without modification. If there is audio being played, the sound effect is modified such that it can be heard over the currently playing audio. (See Figure 4, paragraphs 0041-0045, and independent method claims 1 and 13.)
  3. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20060274042 PDF document icon
    This application is about the Mighty Mouse (not having one, I didn’t recognize it at first glance from the drawing on the cover page). If you’re curious as to how the Mighty Mouse actually works, this is the place to start looking.

It’s the end of the world as I dreamt it

Monday, December 11th, 2006

I had a very weird dream a few nights ago. I typed this up the next morning, and promptly forgot to post it. Anyway, it went something like this:

A nuclear missile was coming. According to the GPS coordinates (I don’t know how “they” knew where it was going, but they did), it was going to hit my living room. But “my” living room was at my parents’ house. For some reason, we did not flee, but decided to hang around. There was some unknown woman there who had a micro-sized SUV (it looked like a squished Scion, all boxy).

While we were waiting, the road or a large group of motorcycles was getting louder. Looking out the window, there was (surprise!) a large group of motorcycles coming, and driving across the lawn towards the driveway. The leader of the group was a scraggly, sickly looking guy, who gravitated to the squishy-looking SUV.

“This thing is awesome! I’ve always wanted one of these!” he said.

Jump cut to:

Me buying cheesesteaks in some kind of indoor market. It could be Reading Terminal Market, but looks more like the market from the episode of Day Break two weeks ago. Anyway, I order one wit (see the WikiPedia entry is you don’t know what that means), American, peppers, and mushrooms for myself, and I forget the orders for everyone else.

I’m then trying to drive across a bridge, but I am stopped by the police. There’s fog or smoke at the top of the bridge, and they aren’t letting people go any further. I look off to my left, and there is another bridge, but the vehicles are driving under it somehow, like there’s another roadway underneath it, but above the body of water (I think it’s a river).

Looking off to my right and slightly behind me, I see a city skyline off in the distance, but with the buildings spaced somewhat far apart. There is some smoke coming from that direction, but I can’t tell if it’s regular city pollution/steam/smoke or fire-related. I then notice a running path coming from the city towards where I am on the bridge, and see a few people I know running towards me.

Cut to: me walking along the bridge, going behind one of the support struts to go to the bathroom. There is a radio playing somewhere, with the news on.

“Channels 2, 4, 6, and …” Static fills the air.

“Channels 5 and 10 are reporting …” More static.

Then I wake up, having to go to the bathroom. It’s 5:37 am, just a few minutes before the alarm goes off so I can go running. I have no idea how it ends.

Nicole Ritchie busted

Monday, December 11th, 2006

This would have been funnier if it was for alcohol: at 85 lbs., she could’ve been over the limit just by sniffing a cork.

Instead, she chose the pot and pills route. Less humor in that. Bitch.

New published applications, December 7, 2006

Thursday, December 7th, 2006

Three patent applications were published today:

  1. 20060277235 Performing variable and/or bitwise shift operation for a shift instruction that does not provide a variable or bitwise shift option
  2. 20060274905 Techniques for presenting sound effects on a portable media player
  3. 20060274042 Mouse with improved input mechanisms

Further discussion on these applications over the weekend. Application #3 looks to be the most interesting.

Apple, Microsoft, the “iPod patent”, and the facts

Tuesday, December 5th, 2006

(Originally written on August 17, 2005. Updated to correct links and typos and to add issued patent information on December 5, 2006.)

As a long-time Apple user (I got an Apple IIe in late November 1983, and have had an Apple-branded computer on my desk ever since) and a registered patent attorney, I always find it interesting when people discuss Apple’s patents and patent applications. For the most part, people get things wrong, but I believe that mostly stems from not knowing how to properly read a patent. It seems that most people read the Abstract of the patent and then comment from there. That’s the equivalent of reading the dust jacket on a mystery novel and knowing who the killer is. But that discussion is for another time.

This writing was prompted by the stunning flurry of insanely incorrect and wild conclusion-jumping articles that have been written about one of Apple’s iPod patent applications. A Google news search from August 17, 2005 revealed over 225 articles written on the subject. Some of the articles, such as those from AppleInsider and Macworld, even get around to talking about the application and that it’s under a final rejection. Macworld and a few others also managed to get some quotes from patent attorneys.

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