Morfik Patents AJAX Compiler - Playing Games With Google
Slashdot is running a story stating that Morfik, an Ajax development platform we covered recently on Read/WriteWeb, has filed a patent dated September 2005 for the compiling of high-level languages into AJAX apps. The timing of the news is interesting, because Morfik is just about to release its version 1.0 - after 8 or more years of development.
To remind you of what Morfik is. Morfik allows developers to use high-level programming languages (which give the developer more power - e.g. BASIC, C#, Pascal) to create web apps. It does this by converting apps from high level language INTO Ajax code. The Slashdot story states that Morfik has actually patented this technology, as of September 2005. According to Slashdot the patent covers virtually any high-level language, including "Ada, C, C++, C#, COBOL, ColdFusion, Common Lisp, Delphi, Fortran, Java, Object Pascal, SmallTalk, Visual Basic, and Visual Basic.NET".
It seems that Google and its Google Web Toolkit is the primary target of the patent, because Google (more than any other big Internet company) relies heavily on Ajax apps.
Further, there is a general misunderstanding on how patents work and who it aims to protect. Startups are generally very small and easily trodden upon by giants who may not 'want to do evil' but nevertheless can kill them just by simply rolling over to sleep on their other side. Startups need some kind of flashing light so they have an opportunity to live and continue to contribute. Morfik is a startup and the patent is there to permit it to live and grow, presumably exactly what the author wants.
Morfik is making every effort to be the 'Robin Hood of Ajax'. For example, the pricing of Morfik is fully free for non-commercial use and chargeable only for commercial use. Does this sound like an entity which using its patent to try to prevent an industry growing? (Do search engine providers offer free advertisement for non-commercial entities and charge for commercial entities?) If there are any suggestions on how we can strengthen the marriage between open source and commercial entities we want to hear it. Please let us know."
Your Guide to Online TV Guides: 10 Services Compared
Following last year's backlash over Yahoo!'s re-design of their TV section, and in particular their television listings feature, many users felt left out in the cold. I was one of them. Having previously relied on the Yahoo! online television guide to know what was on the boob tube, I was annoyed when a simple and easy-to-use product was replaced with such a clunker (more on that in the review of Yahoo!'s TV page below).
So, I set off on a quest to find a replacement for Yahoo!'s television listings. At times, as I dug through the various online tv listings services, it almost seemed that there were as many ways to find out what was on TV as there were channels to watch! Below, in alphabetical order, are quick reviews of 10 such services that I tried (including Yahoo!'s).
Ed (Nikhil) : - The post is long and compares many TV Guides for the US ... but I see some Business Idea here ....If you want you can read the full post here ... but a business idea discussion is intended ...
http://www.readwriteweb.com
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