Google V Oracle: Everyone Wins — For Now

Oracle's lawyer Annette Hurst is getting absolutely battered on Linked In for her butthurt blog post about Oracle's loss in its case against Google. Basically, her arguments not only demonstrate a lack of understanding of how software actually works in operation, they depend on ignorance. Since maximalists tend to use such arguments, it's worth taking a look at them and discuss what it means for open source and freeware.

Oracle V Google: "API Is Property"

Oracle and Google are back in court fighting over the API used in Google's Android operating system. The implications are huge; allowing copyright on API effectively puts a tollbooth on innovation and any item with Java code in it is vulnerable to charges of infringement. Can you imagine the consequences? I can. Let's take a closer look.

So You Want To Be A Web Designer: What You Should Know

I've been fooling about with HTML, CSS, and PHP for years as an amateur, setting up small specialist forums, then moving on to galleries, blogs, and other CMS (Content Management Systems). I even had a go at setting up a ZenCart ecommerce site but the owner wanted to tack on some pages and a gallery as well. The result was a multi-platform site that I could probably have done better on WordPress. When temp work dried up and I had to claim benefits, the benefits advisor suggested I turn my hobby into a business. This is what I learned.

Alternative Browsers: Seamonkey, Maxthon, And Opera, Oh My!

Well you'd have thought that the browser wars had already ended and Firefox declared the winner, but on the internet, it's never really over. When the browser I've been championing for years, Cometbird, let me down by going all slow all the time for no apparent reason I decided to wait and see what the developers would do about it. The answer, it seems, is either "Wait for Firefox to sort it out" or "Lose interest and quit." I'm unwilling to put up with bad service so I tried some other browsers out. This is how I fared.

My New PC

My E-System PC, like a faithful old retainer, had been doddering along in Windows Vista Home Basic as best it could. The trouble was, its old Celeron processor was beginning to feel the weight of its years and was finding it hard to keep up with my demands.