Posts Tagged ‘Software’

Software Patenting

April 24th, 2010 Admin

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure defines software patenting as “patent on any performance of a computer realized by means of a computer program”. Richard Stallman, who co-developed the GNU-Linux operating system, says that ‘Software patents are patents which cover software ideas, ideas which you would use in developing software’. The term ’software’ is somewhat difficult to define. Usually it is categorized as either ‘applications programs’ or ‘operating system programs’. Both application and OS software may be patented.

The issue of whether patents should be granted to software has generated much debate. If you wish to apply for a software patent, you should be aware of the arguments for and against software patents.

It is necessary to understand the difference between patent and copyright to understand why software patenting is questioned by many people. Traditionally, software has been protected under copyright law as the code of program can be treated as a literary work. Any code that is written is covered by copyright as a work of literature under the Berne convention.

People began to patent software because copyrighting was deemed ineffective against protection of ideas in the case of computer programs. Patenting allowed developers to prevent other parties from using software that they had patented even if those parties had developed similar software independently. Moreover, it prevented others from using methodologies used to create the patented software. If we take the example of a code that adds numbers, a person who creates another code to add numbers does not infringe the copyright of the first code. However, if the concept of adding numbers is patented, no one else can write a code to add numbers.

The above example shows how the progress of the software industry may be held up if anyone is issued a patent with regard to ideas. Usually the patent granting authority makes sure that a patent is not granted on an idea that is obvious to experts of the field.

If you have developed software that is patent worthy, it may be good idea to apply for the patent as soon as possible. This is important because in most countries, patents are granted to people who apply first, regardless of who invents first.

Before you initiate the software patent application process, study the records available at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to make sure that the invention is indeed novel. Often a patent attorney is appointed to go through the patents that have been issued. These patents are known as ‘prior art’. The attorney should also be able to suggest the correct breadth of a patent. If a patent makes very narrow claims, it will not provide adequate protection against competitors. If the claims are too broad, the application may be rejected.

If you think that you need software patent protection, you must remember that protection is territorial and software patent laws differ from country to country. It is always advisable to consult a patent attorney before one proceeds with software patenting.

The author is a Legal Consultant having a deep knowledge about legal services & working with a reputed Legal Process Outsourcing Firm.

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The Right Software Solution for you

April 16th, 2010 Admin

The Right Software Solution For You

Selecting any software, will depend on the size of your company, your experience, cost of software, etc. Salesmen, glossy brochures, online demos, company response times, colleagues/peers will further influence you choice.

Commercial Software

Licences may cost according to implementation/installation type, user access type, number of users, software functionality, or a combination of some or all In return you expect regular software updates, telephone/email support, access to a community of users, access to a knowledge base, ability to report faults and to request enhancements, etc Select your supplier carefully

Free Software

Open Source Software: will be provided under the http://www.gnu.org/ (in this case, ‘Free’ is closer to ‘free speech’ rather than ‘free goods’!). Open source is normally associated with GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X. But there now plenty of Open Source software for Microsoft Windows. Though you may be able to get help at forums, you may need to pay for expertise if you don’t have it.Free ‘Lite’ Versions of Commercial Software: These are normally limited functionality in some way: (you can’t import, print, export, …). Alternative, all the functionality will be there, but you would be limited to the number of records you can deal with. Support may not be provided or may be limited. Personal Editions: These are provided free for personal use but not for commercial use. Trial Versions: OK, it’s not ‘free’ but the trial period will help you decide if its worth paying for without spending a penny/dime. Depending on the providers marketing strategy, you will normally get one month’s free trial.

Take into consideration (generally and in no particular order)

what platform and configuration does the software need to run on?do you need expertise in-house? If not, then do you have access to it?your own experience – are you/you company new to this?take salesmen’s promises with a pinch of salt – they normally normally get paid for sellinghave you considered an online solution? you don’t have to worry about hardware, networking, installation, maintenance and other activitya champion may be needed within your company don’t forget backupswhat are the on-going / annuals costs?use / create comparison charts for standard and non-standard featuresexactly what training is required, for which staff, during what times and at what costs?remember its easier to justify expenditure during the initial purchasesimilarly, its easier to negotiate a better deal before you sign on the dotted line are there software demonstrations available? Even better, trial versionsis it possible to carry out a phased implementation?what support/help you you get?what documentation will be provided? Online FAQ’s & knowledgebases?references – any established supplier should be able to provide you with references who are able to tell you about their experience with the supplier and systemthe system is flexiblewhat additional software (not provided by the supplier) will you need to buy/installdoes the system have ‘add-on’ partners?did I mention backups? - make sure you test your backed up data regularly as you wouldn’t want to find out your backups are ‘pants’ just when you need them! what is the vendor (software creator) like? Remember the supplier may be gone in another six months.scrutinise any SLA’s (service level agreements) to ensure you will get what you are paying for.

Choosing Your Software Supplier – make sure:

you like themthey clearly document what you are gettingthey understand you / your industry and your requirement (and not what they want to sell you)they have user groups and forums (i.e. nothing to hide)the small print isn’t too small nor lengthycheck out their offices – do their staff look happy?

Conclusion

Software costs will vary. Your supplier should have no problems showing you how and why they are a good partner for your company. Don’t be afraid to ask questions – not to trip them up, but to get answers to issues important to you. Allow resalable time for the task of selecting the right software for you. Negotiate hard – before you sign is the best time for getting a good price and/or goodies (training, consultancy, health checks, etc) thrown in.

Keywords

choosing software, selecting software, choosing a software, choosing accounting software, choosing the right software, criteria for selecting software

References

Selecting Software, Choosing Software from RCS Limited, an IT Training Company.

Sandra Rodrigues writes for RCS Limited (http://www.rcs-limited.co.uk) an IT Training Company.

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LTR 43.3: Open Source Software for Libraries

April 16th, 2010 Admin

open source

Image taken on 2007-06-07 08:22:10 by misterbisson.

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Sharx Security SCXSC100LN4USB 4 Channel USB Digital Video Recorder DVR and Remote Internet Access System with Windows Driver and Software

April 15th, 2010 Admin


Product Description
This USB 2.0 based system converts your XP or Vista laptop into a complete 4 channel audio / video surveillance digital video recorder (DVR) for 4 CCTV cameras. The included SecurityCenter software allows viewing and recording of up to 4 security cameras on your computer, with or without motion detection. The included SecurityPlayer software allows remote internet access.

Unlike most 4 channel video capture cards this USB 2.0 box also captures 4 channels of audio a… More >>
Sharx Security SCXSC100LN4USB 4 Channel USB Digital Video Recorder DVR and Remote Internet Access System with Windows Driver and Software

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Free Software Movement

April 12th, 2010 Admin

Motivation

The software desenvolvedores in the decade of 70 frequently they shared their programs in a similar way to the beginnings of the free software. In the end of the same decade, the companies began to impose restrictions to the users with the use of contracts of software license.

In 1983, Richard Stallman began the project GNU, and in October of 1985 it founded Free Software Foundation (FSF). Stallman introduced the concepts of free software and copyleft, which were specifically developed to guarantee that the users’ freedom was preserved.

Ideology: the differences between Free Software and Open Code

Many defenders of the free software argue that the freedom is valuable not only of the technical point of view, but also under the optics of the morals and ethics.

It is in this aspect that the movement of free (headed by FSF) software stands out of the movement of open (headed by OSI) code, that it emphasizes the technical superiority in relation to software proprietor, at least in potential.

The defenders of the open (also known as Open source in English) code argue regarding the pragmatic virtues of the free software instead of the moral subjects. The basic disagreement of the movements is in the speech.

While the focus of the movement headed by FSF calls the attention for values moral, ethical, rights and freedom, the movement headed by OSI defends a more pleasant speech to the companies.

With that, the movement of free software condemns the use and software proprietor’s development, while the movement of open code is connivent with software proprietor’s development.

The official definitions of free software and of open code they are the same, however written in different ways. OSI defines the open code using the definition Debian of free software, that is just a detalhamento of the 4 freedoms of FSF. This way every software of open code is also a free software.

The movement free software used to take a position on works that are not softwares and their respective documentations, but some defenders of the free software believe that other works that serve to a practical purpose should also be free (see Free content).

For the Movement of the free software, that it is a social movement, it is not ethical to arrest scientific knowledge, that it should always be available, for like this to allow the humanity’s evolution.

Already the movement for the Open Code, that is a movement more returned to the market, it nails that the software of that type brings several technical and economical advantages. The second appeared to take the companies adopt her/it the model of development of free software.

As the difference between the movements “Free Software” and “Open Code” is just in the (Free / Livery and Open Source Software) argument on behalf of the same softwares, it is common that those groups join in several situations or that are mentioned of a form agregadora through the acronym “FLOSS.”

Related movements

Inspired in GPL and in the proposals of the movement of the free software, a repository of public licenses was created, called Creative Commons, whose we have if they apply to varied creative works, as creations artistic colaborativas, texts and software. However most of these licenses is not recognized as really free for FSF and for the movement of free software.

The free software is inserted in a wider context where the information (of all of the types, not just software) is considered a legacy of the humanity and it should be free (vision this that is shocked directly to the traditional concept of intellectual property). Coerentemente, many of the people that contribute to the movements of Open Knowledge. I move of the free software, sites Wiki, Creative Commons, etc. . they are the scientific community’s part.

Scientists are accustomed to work with processes of mutual (or for equal) revision and the developed content is joined to the global scientific knowledge. Although cases exist where the patents of products related to the scientific work are applied, the pure science, in general, is free.

Software Freedom Day

On September 20 the Day of the Freedom of the Software (Software Freedom Day) is commemorated all over the world with events involving the users’ communities and desenvolvedores of free software.

Softwares Free notables

Below it is a list with the free softwares more known and used:

* Operating systems: GNU / Hurd, GNU / Linux, BSDs.

* Development tools:

Compiler C: GCC.

Compiler Pascal: Free Pascal.

Debugger GDB.

the Library standard of the language: C.

the advanced Text editor: Emacs.

the Tools for development in Flash and ActionScript: SWFTools

the development Platform: Eclipse (programming in Java and PHP) and NetBeans (Programming in C, C++, Java, Python, UML and other).

* Programming languages: Python, Java, Perl, PHP, Moon, Ruby, Skunks and Tcl.

* Servants:

the Servant of names: BIND.

the Agent of transport of messages (e-mail): Postfix sendmail.

the Servant web: Apache.

the Servant of files: Samba.

the Servant and email customer: Evolution.

the Servant of applications: Zope and Apache Tomcat.

* Databases relate: MySQL, Postgres.

* Programs of graphic interaction: GNOME, KDE and Xorg.

* Applications:

the Navegadores Web: Firefox, Konqueror and Google Chrome.

the office Package: OpenOffice.org.

the Word processors: OpenOffice.org Writer and AbiWord.

the Editor of presentation multimédia: OpenOffice.org Impress

the electronic Spreadsheet: OpenOffice.org Calc and GNumeric

the System of database administration: OpenOffice.org Base

CAD, (computer aided design) QCad.

the vectorial Drawing: Inkscape, Sodipodi and OpenOffice.org Draw.

the Desktop publishing: Scribus and OpenOffice.org Draw.

the Editor of images: Gimp.

the Editor web: Aptana.

EaD, Education the distance: Moodle

the Manager of Content (CM): Opencms, Drupal, Plone, WordPress (CM very used in blogs) and Joomla.

the Three-dimensional Modelling Blender3d, Wings3d

Renderização (static image): Yafray, POV-Ray

the Accessibility: Virtual Magnifying Glass.

the audio Edition: Audacity, Ardour

the Edition of musical scores: Rosegarden

the Publication in the Internet: SPIP

the Players multimédia: VLC and Mplayer.

* Mathematical system: Scilabe Máxima.

* Editorial business systems: TeX, Latex and MiKTeX

* System wiki: MediaWiki (system of wiki of Wikipedia).

* Telephony: Asterisk.

* Video composition: Cinelerra, Kdenlive

* Education: Gcompris [multidisciplinar], Tuxpaint, Tuxmath, etc.

See larger lists in the directory of the Foundation of the Free Software and in other several sites of projects in the Internet.

Luis miguel love software especially the POS Software system. Visit my blog at Point Of Sale Software and see the Software POS

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