The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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Google (tr verb): see search
On Thursday, Merriam-Webster and Oxford University Press announced the newest additions to their respective dictionaries. Among new science and technology words are agritourism, biodiesel, mouse potato, ringtone, spyware … and google. The word google is defined as a transitive verb meaning ‘to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on… Read more →
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Equity and Trusts Law Notes
This announcement will be of interest primarily to fellow law students. In preparation for next week’s examination, I have uploaded the entirety of my Equity and Trusts notes and summaries to this website for your perusal and edification. It is a somewhat unfortunate tradition that most law students keep their materials to themselves. In an… Read more →
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Creative Sues Apple over iPod User Interface; Apple Counter-Claims
Creative Technology, manufacturer of digital music players, last Monday announced that its United States subsidiary, Creative Labs, has commenced proceedings against Apple in a United States federal court for alleged patent infringement. The United States Patent and Trade Mark Office issued the relevant patent (‘the Zen patent’) to Creative on 9 August 2005. According to… Read more →
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Do Not Call Register legislation introduced
The Do Not Call Register Bill 2006 and the Do Not Call Register (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006 will facilitate a national register allowing individuals to opt-out from receiving unsolicited telemarketing calls. According to ICT Minister Helen Coonan, the Bills are an important step towards maintaining Australians’ privacy: ‘This [Bill] gives those who dislike the intrusion… Read more →
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Seagate Nears Completion of Maxtor Acquisition
Seagate Technology, manufacturer of storage computer hardware, has almost completed its acquisition of Maxtor Corporation, a one-time competitor in the consumer and enterprise hard disk drive market. Apparently, the merger — announced late last year — has now been approved by shareholders and will close within the week. The deal is valued at around US$1.9… Read more →
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Microsoft Announces Additions to Office Dictionary
With Microsoft Word 2007 due for release later this year, the development team has recently been finalising the list of locale-specific words to be added to the default spelling dictionary. For this version, Microsoft has decided to expand the global lexicon, recognising such delightful ‘Aussie’ slang as ‘bogan’, ‘sheila’, ‘bonza’ and ‘sickie’. Whether such words… Read more →
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Casinos Decry Online Gaming Prohibition
It seems the United States gaming industry is unhappy with an old statute that has the effect of preventing electronic gambling. ‘It represents an enormous opportunity’, said Alan Feldman, spokesman for US-based MGM Mirage, the world’s second-largest gaming operator. ‘And it is an opportunity that is being completely handed to foreign companies right now.’ Standing… Read more →
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Injunction to Restrain Alleged Patent Infringement by eBay Denied
The Supreme Court of the United States of America has unanimously rejected an application by MercExchange seeking a permanent injunction against eBay to restrain its conduct of online auction services allegedly in contravention of MercExchange’s patents. The case concerned the following facts: At issue are two patents filed for in 1995 by MercExchange, which began… Read more →
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Lawyers Pose Health Risk: Study
Saw this chuckleworthy piece over at Overlawyered: A team of researchers led by Richard Gun, visiting research fellow at Adelaide University, ‘has found patients who engage a lawyer after receiving their injury are five times less likely ever to return to work.’ They also appear to suffer more pain and for longer periods than accident… Read more →
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Hacker Faces Criminal Liability for Identifying Security Flaw
After pointing out a hole in the security of a USC database, a computer expert finds himself on the short end of the legal stick. McCarty allegedly dug into the USC database and retrieved seven personal files, which he then anonymously passed along to SecurityFocus.com. That site contacted the university, which shut down the server… Read more →