Sometimes even the simplest ideas have to wait. Markus Kuhn, a computer scientist at the University of Cambridge, has been waiting patiently since 1995 to be able to exploit a simple bit of coding innovation.

Sadly for him, the intervening years have seen the technology this innovation was aimed at become obsolete. And he's in little doubt what's to blame: software patents.

Back in 1995, Kuhn had written roughly 4,000 lines of code as an open source implementation of the image compression algorithms used by fax machines. The trouble was, a single line of that code was covered by a patent awarded to Mitsubishi, for an image encoding standard known as JBIG1. 

That patent was hardly revolutionary, having been awarded for making a minor improvement to a separate piece of fax image encoding awarded to IBM. But it was enough to prevent Kuhn from being able to distribute an open source version of his standard.

“The JBIG1 standard is a good example of a technology that could have been made much simpler and a bit more efficient if the authors hadn’t had to justify to their employers the time spent on developing the standard with the prospect that users of the standard would have to pay licence fees,” he wrote in a blog post detailing his travails.

Meanwhile, as he explains, it would have been relatively simple to write an alternative image compression technique – but it would have been incompatible with the standards used by every fax machine maker.

The IT vendors have found ways to carefully craft these standards, ensuring all compatible implementations require a patent licence, said Kuhn.

“Patents were meant to protect investors, such that they could justify the often large investment necessary to introduce a new technology on the market. The idea was to encourage innovation. In the field of standardised file formats and computer protocols, patents are now the main hindrance,” he said.

The patents covering JBIG1 have now finally expired. But Kuhn argues that his experience illustrates the folly of software patents.

He had envisaged his code could help with the exchange of scanned documents over the internet, or even make paper archives accessible to everyone. Instead, patent rules saw his idea wither on the vine.

“There is a simple solution: amend patent legislation such that no patent licences have to be obtained solely for the purpose of compatibility,” he concluded.

In what will undoubtedly be seen as yet another sign of the shifting global economic sands, China has topped the US in terms of quarterly PC sales for the first time, according to the latest stats from IDC.

The analyst firm recorded shipments of 18.5 million units in the People's Republic in the second quarter of 2011, compared to 17.7 million units in the US. The US is expected to end the year on top thanks to strong festive sales, but China will triumph in 2012 and, given its inexorable growth, for years to come.

IDC predicted that China will ship 85.2 million units compared to the US figure of 76.6 million in 2012, or a market share of 21.8 per cent versus 19.6 per cent.

"China's lead in the PC market is a huge shift that reflects the rising fortunes of emerging markets as well as the relative stagnation of more mature regions," said Loren Loverde, programme vice president at IDC's Worldwide PC Tracker.

"While the immediate economic circumstances in the US and other markets had a significant impact on the timing of China's move into the lead, they have not changed the trend, but accelerated it."

The stats come after a tough few months for the US and eurozone economies. The sovereign debt crisis in Europe is showing no signs of abating, while the US had its AAA credit rating downgraded for the first time in its history, as politicians foolishly turned the economy into a points scoring exercise and failed effectively to address the underlying problems.

It's not a massive overstatement, then, to say that the People's Republic of China has finally taken up its position as the preeminent global economic powerhouse.

This will mean different things for different businesses in different sectors, of course. However, across the board it should reinforce the notion among those who haven't done so already that a Chinese outpost is now a necessity, not a nice-to-have.

Aside from providing a neat little snapshot into the growing wealth of a nation whose economic potential has still not been realised, the growing number of PC users in China will have the pound signs flashing in the eyes of tech entrepreneurs everywhere.

Jeff Kim, COO of CDNetworks, a firm which helps content providers expand their presence in the region, was naturally optimistic of the opportunities that lay behind the IDC figures.

"This is clear evidence that China's growing middle class, already known for its strong consumerism, is also highly computer and internet literate," he told us.

"We see the trend continuing as evidenced by the recent high growth in the amount of web site and application content that we serve to Chinese internet users on behalf of our content provider customers."

The big name vendors have certainly wasted no time. Apple is reportedly building a cheaper version of its iPhone for emerging markets such as China, while Nokia chose Hong Kong on Wednesday as the venue to launch three Symbian Belle-based phones, which it hopes will make a big impact on these markets and help turn around its fortunes.

For those interested in tapping the vast Chinese market, however, there are still big barriers, and businesses would do well to keep their eyes fully open before taking the plunge, as we've highlighted before on Frontline. Hong Kong and Singapore, for example, can provide a useful hub and stepping stone from which to eventually expand operations into China.

However, firms that continue to procrastinate in expanding their bases into Asia and eventually China, in industries from publishing and accounting to finance and technology, will be left behind as their more agile and forward thinking competitors speed past. And rightly so.

Most business intelligence (BI) firms talk up their mobile strategy in some shape or form, but one company is keeping notably quiet about its agenda, and that's Microsoft.

The small pure-play BI firms, such as QlikTech and Microstrategy, were the first to lead BI into the mobile sphere a couple of years ago.

Since then, many of the stack vendors have followed suit, most notably SAP with Business Objects Mobile in 2010, which is probably the most robust and pervasive mobile offering from all of the stack vendors, and supports the most mobile devices.

IBM follows closely with Cognos Mobile for the BlackBerry and the recent support it added for the iPhone at the end of 2010, while Oracle released Business Intelligence Mobile for devices running iOS earlier this year.

As each firm makes a mobile update, they are heralded as the only way forward for BI.

So what is Microsoft doing? Not much it seems.

Redmond's BI offering is available as part of the Office and SharePoint Server suites, and is built on the SQL Server platform, with Excel providing one of the main BI interfaces for users, as well as the dashboards from SharePoint Server.

When it comes to mobile, though, Microsoft BI runs only on the Windows platform, so that means compatibility with just Windows 7 devices.

Donald Farmer, the former face of Microsoft BI, who has now left to work for QlikView, said that when he left Microsoft in January this year the BI team was not thinking in mobile terms at all.

When asked what Microsoft's BI strategy involves, he replied: "Great question. I wish I knew!"

"Microsoft's mobile strategy is tied up with Windows 7. There was no mobile strategy that filtered down to individual teams while I was there. It's only such a large company that can release a product with no knowledge of its future strategy. You won't find Steve Ballmer losing sleep over BI," he told V3.

One customer, frustrated by Microsoft's lack of mobile strategy, has posted a comment on the company's BI Facebook page.

"What is Microsoft's mobile BI strategy? Please think beyond Windows 7 phones - it must work on all platforms," said Tricia Wilcox Almas.

"This trend is not going away and I need tools now. My clients will abandon their Microsoft bias if there is no offering and others are willing to fill in the gap!"

Microsoft told her that its strategy is to allow partners to build "a host of mobile apps to meet a variety of scenarios".

"You can expect more from us in the phone and slate form factors. More to come," the firm added.

Microsoft could not comment on its mobile BI strategy at the time this story was published, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the firm make an acquisition in the area to build out its capabilities.

Two men who used Facebook in an attempt to incite disorder during the London riots were jailed on Tuesday at Chester Crown Court.

Jordan Blackshaw, 20, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, were each sentenced to four years behind bars, even though the Facebook posts did not lead to any criminal activity.

Cheshire Constabulary Assistant Chief Constable Phil Thompson welcomed the verdict as a "strong message" to social networking users thinking about stirring up trouble.

"The sentences passed down today recognise how technology can be abused to incite criminal activity, and sends a strong message to potential troublemakers," he said.

"If we cast our minds back just a few days to last week and recall the way in which technology was used to spread incitement and bring people together to commit acts of criminality, it is easy to understand the four-year sentences that were handed down in court today."

Thompson claimed that the Cheshire police force had quickly realised the way in which social media was being used by rioters and looters to incite trouble and create fear in communities.

According to a report in The Guardian, Blackshaw and Sutcliffe-Keenan set up event pages on Facebook to invite 'friends' to "smash down" and riot, but neither page resulted in actual rioting.

Blackshaw is reported to have turned up to his event alone, where he was immediately arrested.

The sentences are just further worrying signs that the government and police blame social media sites for the riots, rather than addressing the underlying problems in UK society.

In a speech to the House of Commons last Thursday, prime minister David Cameron suggested that social media sites, and communication technologies such as BlackBerry Messenger, could even be banned during times of social unrest.

Clearly the authorities lack a firm understanding of social media, and have overlooked the good it can bring, such as how Facebook and Twitter united people to clean up the mess after the riots.

The authorities must also have used BBM and social media to track the would-be rioters, so a ban on these tools would end up making the job of policing harder.

It was easy for the police to track down Blackshaw and Sutcliffe-Keenan and use them as scapegoats, but reacting to the riots with sentencing which is completely out of proportion to the crime will only exacerbate the perceived social injustice against which many were rioting in the first place.

Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger were cited yesterday as helping rioters in London to organise in a much more agile way than police were able to deal with. But the the social sites have since demonstrated the good they can bring to a community when disaster strikes.

Frontline was on Twitter on Monday night tracing the path of the looters. At one point, someone tweeted that a group of youths were on a bus, and had announced that their next stop would be Muswell Hill. Sure enough, 45 minutes later the youths showed up in the area to wreak havoc.

The real-time power of Twitter has been a force for good in many situations, from inspiring anti-government protests in Iran, to being the first to report the safe landing of a stricken plane on the Hudson River.

It would be foolish for the police to ignore the benefits of Twitter, especially when their resources are heavily overstretched and better monitoring of the site could see officers allocated to trouble hotspots more quickly.

But perhaps more importantly, while the looters are focused on destroying communities, many citizens are using sites like Twitter and Facebook to rebuild them.

A Facebook group called Supporting the Met Police against the London rioters has been set up by Sean Boscott to show support for the police, and has now gathered nearly 550,000 members. Similar groups include Reclaim London, United Against the London Riots and Croydon Clean Up Crew.

Meanwhile a group on Twitter with over 70,000 followers is driving the clean-up operations today, letting people know where to head if they want to help.

"Shame on You," said the group in a tweet. "Our communities are standing united."

Even businesses have shown their support on Twitter for the clean-up. For example, the Giraffe restaurant chain offered free coffee to those helping this morning.

Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn is to reduce its workforce by replacing them with as many as one million robots over the next three years, according to reports.

Terry Gou, founder and chairman of the company, which builds products for several big name tech brands including Apple, Nokia and Sony, told the Chinese Xinhua news agency that the move will boost efficiency and cut costs.

Foxconn will increase its 10,000 robots to 300,000 next year and to one million in three years' time.

The news will come as a blow to the one million-plus Foxconn workers on the Chinese mainland, but it's unlikely that any cost savings will ultimately be passed on to customers.

Rising labour costs are ostensibly the main reason for the shift to robotic assembly of products such as the iPhone in future, but margins will still be extremely tight.

In an irony that staff will no doubt be aware of, one of the reasons for rising labour costs at Foxconn is the wage increases offered to some staff in the wake of a spate of suicides over the past year.

Foxconn maintains that the reason for the increase in automation is to move its employees "higher up the value chain", although whether the firm can really do this while keeping a grip on costs remains to be seen.

One thing's for certain, though: robots generally don't run the risk of incurring bad publicity by jumping off buildings.

Social networking firm Facebook has gathered journalists at its Palo Alto headquarters today for a major announcement rumoured to be a tie up with Skype.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg set the rumour mill into overdrive last week when he revealed that the firm would announce something "awesome" on Wednesday.

Some have guessed that it could be the launch of a dedicated iPad application, but it is more likely that Zuckerberg will announce some kind of deal with Skype which could give Facebook users the ability to make VoIP calls from the site.

The event is set to kick off in the next few minutes and we will be live blogging here:

0947 The world's press is currently camped out in the Facebook parking lot waiting to get into the event - good thing Silicon Valley is sunny today. It's looking like the start will be delayed until 1015, news that has The Wall Street Journal and others freaking out. Never travel without a wireless hotspot.

1005 We're in the building at least. Currently hanging out in the canteen waiting for the show to kick off. Hoping Skype will be here for questions, it could be a very interesting Q&A.

1015 Zuck takes the stage. This event starts the 2011 launch season, lots of fun stuff to announce in next weeks and months.

1017 Social networking at inflection point. For past five years talk has been around connecting people. That's interesting, but until recently there was an open question whether social networking would be mass-market. That chapter is done, he said.

1019 Past five years have been about user growth. Next five years will be about social applications. The leading companies are developing for social selling. No-one measures internet success in user numbers, so why should it for social networking?

1021 Sharing is exploding. People are sharing twice what they were last year, and will double sharing annually. It's not just a Facebook phenomenon; it's across the whole internet.

1022 Facebook now at 750 million users, but numbers aren't important. Moore's Law applies to sharing, so Facebook is looking ahead.

1028 Whole host of sharing apps coming up this year, with three today. First off, group chat in Groups that can be started on the fly. Secondly a new chat design, and finally the expected video calling.

1031 Video chat developed with Skype. No need to download Skype to use it, can download software in 10 seconds when calling via Facebook. No group video calls. Zuckerberg says Facebook will focus on the infrastructure and let third parties develop the apps. "Independent entrepreneurs will always be better than a company trying to do a million things." A not so subtle dig at Google.

1036 Video demo. There's a single click on the chat box and it fires up the video. Quality looks good, excellent frame rate but you'd expect that for a demo. Certainly looks smooth - hope I can block people.

1041 Tony Bates, chief executive of Skype, on stage. At peak times video calling accounts for majority of Skype traffic, and now averaging 300 million minutes a day. Skype has done the PC and mobile, now moving to social. May add paid services later.

1043 Zuckerberg wrapping up. Expect a lot more like this over the next few months and years. Now onto the Q&A.

1045 The inevitable question on Google+. He's ducked it. Well, he would wouldn't he.

1048 Skype getting questions on how this helps the company. Bates says they want a billion users, and this grows their services.

1053 Network load should not be too heavy. Skype app is a mini-client embedded in Facebook, and shouldn't overload the network. Zuckerberg says Facebook will build more datacentres.

1054 Facebook has a really good relationship with Microsoft. Having Skype owned by Microsoft gives stability for the future and makes it easy to partner. We've worked with Microsoft on Bing and host of other issues, says Zuckerberg.  

1058 It's all about sharing, Zuckerberg concludes. Applications are the biggest driver for this, then mobile and Groups very much last. The new changes should alter that, one supposes. Now off to try to get the questions answered that weren't covered. Signing off, and a full report on the news page coming soon.

Google has updated its Google+ privacy policy, warning users that they will have to make their profiles public or risk them being deleted.

The web firm feels that allowing people to keep profiles private will limit the usefulness of the social networking service, and has taken the decision to make everyone searchable.

"We believe that using Google profiles to help people find and connect with you online is how the product is best used. Private profiles don't allow this, so we have decided to require all profiles to be public," the company said on the Google+ site.

"Keep in mind that your full name and gender are the only required information that will be displayed on your profile; you'll be able to edit or remove any other information that you don't want to share."

Google warned that people who keep their profiles private will have them deleted on 31 July.

Many who signed up to Google+ are unlikely to leave simply because they have to make their profile public, but it's a strange decision and takes privacy controls out of the hands of users at a time of heightened sensitivity about such matters. 

Google already has a ridiculously complicated privacy policy for the Google+ Android app, which could see people unwittingly agreeing to allow their voice and location data to be collected.

Google's previous high-profile privacy blunders could also deter some from joining its social network.

The ill-fated Google Buzz was heavily criticised on launch for not allowing enough control over personal details.

Similarly, Google accidentally collected Wi-Fi data when it was mapping the world for its Street View service, and was accused of violating the rights of European and US citizens.

Google had a chance to differentiate its social network from Facebook, which has been heavily criticised for various user privacy blunders, but it seems rather depressingly that the search firm is heading in the same direction.