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...specifications are open in this way, however. The formatting instructions for Microsoft Word documents are locked up in a filing cabinet somewhere in Redmond, Washington, and Microsoft isn’t interested in sharing it. This means if you want to write or read Word files, you have two options: you can pay Microsoft, or you can guess. Most people take the first of these avenues, buying Word and never looking back. Others, such as those who created a program called Open Office, have had a good amount of success at reverse-engineering Word documents. However if Microsoft changes anything...
...they do now in most cases. eBay wants judges to have more discretion, which could weaken patent holders' bargaining power. "The only thing that will bring a major company to the table is that in the end they have to [negotiate]," says Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer for Microsoft, who runs a patent-acquisition shop and knows a bit about how big companies wield power...
That helps the bureaucracy, but it won't end the patent arms race. "Companies know that it's easier to get patents and that patent protection is more powerful than it was in the past," says Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner. Microsoft alone filed 3,000 patents in 2004. Which is fine, say experts like Lerner. The problem is that companies also file patents defensively, to stymie competition. "There are large firms that used to be big innovators, but no more," he says. Those large firms, he says, aren't much different from small-time trolls...
Like Bill Gates, who started his charitable foundation shortly after Microsoft's antitrust trial, Scott happens to be burnishing Wal-Mart's image at a time when his company's reputation is under siege. He acknowledges that he launched the plan partly to shield Wal-Mart from bad press about its contribution to global warming. "By doing what we're doing today you avoid the headline risks that are going to come for people who did not do anything," he says. "At some point businesses will be held accountable for the actions they take." Meanwhile, should Wal-Mart succeed...
...Desktop management. Research by Mary Czerwinski at Microsoft indicates that a very large computer screen can be helpful in keeping you focused, especially if you keep your main task in the center, your e-mail to one side and a secondary document or task to the other side. If you arrange it right, you can scan to see who's sending you e-mail and decide whether you need to read it right away or wait for later, lessening the interruption. Managing your old-fashioned desktop is a good idea, too. Having some uncluttered space around you actually makes...