As LWN and everbody else reports (prolinux.de here), Microsoft is active on the OS front. From the LWN article:

Microsoft is starting to rattle the patent saber in a more serious way. “But [Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith] does break down the total number [of patents] allegedly violated – 235 – into categories. He says that the Linux kernel – the deepest layer of the free operating system, which interacts most directly with the computer hardware – violates 42 Microsoft patents. The Linux graphical user interfaces – essentially, the way design elements like menus and toolbars are set up – run afoul of another 65, he claims. The Open Office suite of programs, which is analogous to Microsoft Office, infringes 45 more. E-mail programs infringe 15, while other assorted FOSS programs allegedly transgress 68.”

While that might well be true, MS so far doesn’t seem to specify *which* patents exactly are infringing. It is going to be interesting how that plays out in the future.

This week we had a rather informal barbeque with our colleagues at Lake Zurich. We just met on some public green and had a little party. It turned out to be a rather nice event.

On Friday we had… a little chair party, again. This time we celebrated the acceptance of a paper which had taken 3 years from submission to acceptance. Pizza in Zürich, then some beers in the Züri-Bar. When I took the S-Bahn from main station it was about 5:30am. I managed to fall asleep in the train during the 5 minutes it takes to get home and woke up about 20 minutes later in illnau. So it was 6:30 when I finally came home. Almut was already awake and reading the papers… 🙂

Needless to say, I was very tired on Saturday

Last weekend we hired a Scooter (Honda 125) and drove to Lake Constance. Konstanz, Radolfzell, Meersburg, Ravensburg. This is a fantastic area.
We stayed in Weingarten close to Ravensburg and went back the following Sunday. The weather was beautiful and it was much fun. We drove 360km and some bikers actually greeted me :-).