Sunday, February 27, 2000

Jakob Nielsen offers two strategies for dealing with the chilling reality of software patents, and I offer a third choice.

Lawrence Lee: Yahoo, Real Networks and AOL's Patents.

Bob Burk: "I totally disagree with your opinion. I happen to hold the patent on downloading software and executing downloaded software. My engineering team spent a year perfecting this technology, and it took 7 years after our patent filing before it was granted. Mind you, this fundamental software technology invention occurred in the late 1970's and early 1980's. It is amazing how many people feel our idea and great effort should be royalty free. US Patent 4,935,870."

My response: "I've invented lots of software techniques, often at great time and expense, and often believing that competitors would swamp me because once I did the design the implementation would be easy. Fortunately there are enough ideas that take a long time to implement that I have made plenty of money doing software. So you can lecture other people on this, but you can't lecture me. I hope you didn't make one dime off your patent. Greedy beyond belief."

Jeff Cheney has quotes from MSNBC's Silicon Valley Summit.

Finally, a picture of Megnut, and the bottom of her shoe!

Linux-Newbies: International Be-Nice-To-Newbies Month.

Michal Wallace: "I wasn't thrilled when Weblogs.Com sprang up to compete with Linkwatcher, but I'd hate to live in a world where you couldn't even try."

Joe Mahoney: Browsers in the afterlife. "I imagine that when you die, they issue you with a browser that renders fast.."

Project Cool emerges from ISP Hell. Welcome back!

I was the 11th person to sign up at NoWebPatents.Org.

Applelinks.com: Don Crabb Dies. Ouggghhf.

A prayer for Don. Life is short, make hay while the sun shines, and when a big tree falls there's room for lots of growth. Don was a big tree, for sure. Take a deep breath. Don was a good guy. Busy! Opinionated. He took on the flamers. He stood by the Mac through some dark dark days. I wish I could shake his hand and say "Good job Don!" Along with Cary Lu, who passed away a few years ago, I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to Don. If your browser works, where ever you are Don, Hello! And seeya soooon.

Roger Ebert: Computer expert Don Crabb dies. "Mr. Crabb would have wanted this article to end like this. For more information, go to www.doncrabb.com."

MattyG's TV and Movie Theme Songs site is getting some serious traffic.

Sunny Pre-Storm Walk: "It's pouring cats and dogs out now, windy and raining, it's a storm of a night. But yesterday it was very dramatic and *sunny*, the storm was coming in, but the light was just incredible. So I took my usual walk, this time with my camera, and learned something important that might seem obvious, but it was a revelation to me."

I have a new idea, is it worth patenting? It goes like this..

Daniel Berlinger: Archipelago is "a XML-RPC based editor for Manila web sites. Currently running on MacOS, I expect to produce a Windows version as well."

What is Intranets.com?

NY Times: "Yes, boys and girls, it's a lawsuit and custody battle over a puppet. But not just any puppet: the actual Howdy Doody marionette used on the show, which ran for 2,543 episodes from 1947 to 1960. In short, the eBay artifact of all time."

Foaf has a picture of a "Girlfriend Remote". Now that's a 9 on the brilliance scale. It has *two* mute buttons! (In case one wears out?)

The Girlfriend Remote has become a subject of discussion in the Weblog World. Excellent!

blackholebrain: "Whazzzzzzzup with all these ridiculous patents? I've read thru a lot of the commentary on Amazon, and have come to the conclusion that the reasoning behind Amazon's safari hunt for untamed patents is that they have yet to make money since they've been open!!!" Good point.

Wes Felter has tuned into Jakob Nielsen's patents and has a chilling quote from a Nielsen AlertBox. "Companies that don't claim their stake in the future will wake up in five years and discover that their competitors own all the patents they need to be on the Web."

Jakob Nielsen joins Senor Bezos on the asknot page.

IBM patent site: Method of exercising a cat. "A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct." Oy!

xmlhack: W3C plans XML protocol activity. "The W3C has announced their intention to pursue activity in XML-based protocols such as SOAP. Attendees at XTech 2000 will be able to give input to the planning of this activity."

NY Times: 10 Employees. No Headquarters. $45 Million Payoff.