it took 9 years until the settlement ...

Microsoft has paid nearly 1 billion euros, or $1.43 billion, in fines since the commission’s initial ruling and could face up to 1.6 billion euros more, which began accumulating in December 2005 after Microsoft failed to provide the protocols. Ms. Kroes said she would decide before the end of the year whether Microsoft must pay the additional fines. | nyt

and the other side: ¿ms patent tax?

guy steele and richard gabriel: 50 in 50 (if you wanna feel the difference between radio broadcast and podcast, there it is: a conference speak is a multimedia event)

Heh, but what is programming, and what role do programming languages play in that process? We have learned a lot over the last five decades ... fortran, pascal, one and zero, and funky syntax ...

kathy sierra's talk also at oopsla and later in berlin (at least i know now what i can expect), yet there is more: the mythical man month author frederick brooks and john mccarthy: on elephant2000. also featuring pattie maes ... need to listen to