Unified Patents, Microsoft, the Linux Foundation, and Open Invention Network are beating back open-source patent trolls.

Patent trolls, aka Patent Assertion Entities (PAE)s, have plagued open-source software for ages. Over the years though, other groups have risen up to keep them from stealing from the companies and organizations that actually use patents' intellectual property (IP). One such group, Unified Patents, an international organization of over 200 businesses, has been winning for the last two years. This is their story to date.

Aluminum doesn’t solder well, and that’s because of the oxide layer that rapidly forms on the surface. [Ted]’s solution is to scour the aluminum with some mineral oil. The goal is to scrape away the oxide layer on the aluminum’s surface, while the mineral oil’s coating action prevents a new oxide layer from immediately re-forming.

After this prep, [Ted] uses a hot soldering iron and a blob of solder, heating it until it sticks. A fair bit of heat is usually needed, because aluminum is a great heat conductor and tends to be lot thicker than a typical copper ground plane. But once the aluminum is successfully tinned, just about anything can be soldered to it in a familiar way.

[Ted] does caution that mineral oil can ignite around 260 °C (500 °F), so a plan should be in place when using this method, just in case the small amount of oil catches fire.

Windows Defender May Be Enough //

So what are the downsides of Windows Defender? Its bare-bones nature means you can’t schedule scans and have to manually opt to run one instead, which is something you may forget to do as often as you should. You’ll also miss out on features like sandboxing— which allows you to test programs you’re unsure about—along with VPNs, password encryption, and various other tools that help keep you safe online. //

When it comes to scanning for, detecting, and removing threats—any of the free or paid options will do the same job. Some of the extra features like password generation, sandboxing, VPNs, etc., may make you safer—and having them all handled by one program places less of a burden on your PC. But those features may not be something you’ll use. Sandboxing can be an incredibly useful tool when it comes to keeping your PC safe, as it allows you to install and run programs in a fenced-off area of your computer while you test them out. However, if you’re the kind of person who never installs programs you don’t completely trust, you don’t need a sandboxing program.