The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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Criminal Law
Criminal law notes, authored October 2004. 01_Introduction.pdf 02_Homicide.pdf Read more →
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Crazy about trade marks: John’s, Ron’s and the Federal Court
The Federal Court of Australia last week handed down judgment in Crazy Ron’s Communications Pty Ltd v Mobileworld Communications Pty Ltd, which was a dispute between two rhyming telephone vendors: Crazy John’s and Crazy Ron’s. Crazy John’s claimed infringement of two trademarks (one registered in 1995, the other in 1999), the former of which concerned… Read more →
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This is Not an Offer
Exams are upon us, and so, in the midst of fervent revision, a bounty of doctrines, methodologies, principles, and case law is accumulated and recorded. I make available my semester’s notes for other students or interested persons to use in their revision or personal study. The writings, in 12 parts, serve as a casebook-style introduction… Read more →
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US to Prosecute for Cyberstalking
Recent amendments to the United States Code are about to be tested by prosecutors in the District of Columbia, who have charged one Robert Murphy with 26 counts of using a telecommunications device ‘to annoy, abuse, threaten and harass’. The facts of the case reflect an increasingly common experience for ex-partners and employees: the accused… Read more →
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The Beginning of the End (of Bad Puns)
In a request filed by six Australian music labels to the Federal Court, access has been granted to documents and computer records of Sharman Networks, including source code and encryption technologies used by the infamous P2P file-sharing application, Kazaa. Universal Music, Festival Mushroom Records, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, and BMG Australia successfully applied… Read more →
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Universal Spam Solution Rebuttal
These days, it seems that spam (which has, despite being a trademark of Hormel Foods Corporation, fallen into common usage as a result of Monty Python) is an unavoidable consequence of having and utilising an e-mail address of some sort. Various proposals have been put forth, some legislative, others software-based, but all have failed to… Read more →
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Erudition Begins Again
In the days preceding the start of the Melbourne University semester, my sedulous to-do list has grown in length at a rate much faster than that at which I could check off completed items with a perfunctory grin of satisfaction. Indeed, as unfinished summer projects and crates of anti-static storage boxes (don’t ask) lie strewn… Read more →
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Counterfeit Circumvention Angers Photoshop Users
This thread in Adobe’s Photoshop Users forum details a rather unusual feature that debuted with the release of the latest incarnation of popular image-editing software Photoshop. The latest version uses an image-analysis algorithm to detect the presence of an image of United States or European Union currency, and disables access to the file. The motivation… Read more →
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Foiled Trains and Precious Dolls
This Japanese site has some remarkable panoramic images of the region’s passenger trains. Dozens of photos have been stitched together to produce a single image spanning the length of the train. This one, in particular, is quite cool. Amazon.com have a peculiar product in stock: Barbie and Ken as Arwen and Aragorn. Though their plasticised… Read more →
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Processor Forecast
After a period of inactivity, market leaders Intel and AMD have announced new processors with larger cache sizes and marginally improved clock speed, signalling the next iteration of the perennial battle for clock speed and performance. Intel’s Prescott processor, slated for release on 2 February, won’t be significantly faster than the current Northwood line clock-for-clock,… Read more →