how bad our current patent system needs to be broken, to allow building companies just to do business on patent trolling? we see more articles about it but capitalsm doesn’t care. even when law enters the game, there’s often nothing that can be done
having SDN in mind, and developers influence on how todays internet works, i’m thinking what we’ll be doing in couple of years (and how pitfully unprepared are companies today to defend any sensitive data - financial, biological - in “web 17.0” world). will we be able to sustain development as a society, or it will be reserved only for those rich, at the helm of big corporations?
we already have proofs that you can’t outsource responsibility to amateurs if you have pros in place. but most of the times, it’s actually the other way around - software constructs are hilarious and built based on layering years of incompetent design, development and practices.
what you can observe already, is dimishing of companies that can’t evolve fast enough and change their business model - media in particular. after dramatic crash of multiple well recognized newspapers and magazines (also on our Polish ground, including technology magzines, and after falling constantly number of cable and satellite subscribers, more and more content developers - authors - seem to follow self-publishing model, both for books and music.
one of the good examples are also airlines. those companies will stop at nothing to cut down costs, including doing tricks with cabine seating (if you’re not lucky, you’ll pay couple of tens of times more than the soul next to you, because, well, you were looser!). this starts right at the registration process, changing process (if you can’t fly on specific flight or day) and ending up in grandoise “security controls”, which no matter how you look at it - is another chance to debase your existance in front of clueless “security guards”. there are literally thousands of stories how incompetent those people are (in general, i know there are some great individuals), but just on my example - i was able to fly (by my honest mistake of course!) to London number of times with things like screwdriver or swiss knife in my backpack. so, essentially, to fly anywhere, you have to waste FULL DAY just to go through buying ticket, going to airport, goint through all of the processes, board the plane, fly it, land, go through luggage claim and finally reach office or home.
in one of the CNN archives, couple of researchers found recently clip that was meant to be transmitted during end of world. it’s quite abstract idea, but when you also notice, that there was alternate narrative for US president if Apollo astronauts were to be stranded forever in space, you can immediately connect the dots. maybe this is the way we all should simply leave Earth alone?