I would Never do this to you, never. I promise!

I was listening to a podcast on my earphones but I needed to make a cellphone call. I should have taken the earphones off, but I was lazy. I just slipped off the right earphone, put the cellphone that ear and called.

I was amazed at how easy it was to follow both the phone conversation and the podcast. My brain kept both ears and their sounds quite clear and separate. It was an exhilarating experience, but I was being unfaithful to the person on my phone call, and I knew it. Never again. I hope ...

Get a new game, download the corrections ...

When I was young, when we got a new game, we interpreted the rules as best we could, and we played it. Today, when you get a new game, the first thing you do is to download the corrections. If it's a computer game, there's bound to be a manufacturer's patch online to fix dreaded bugs. If it's a board game, apparently there will be official rules with thoughtful explanations online, interpretations, and maybe even rule changes.
I recently received a present, the fascinating board game Carcassonne, and soon learned that there has been much tinkering with the rules since my version of the game was published. What may have driven this process is how easy it is for web citizens and forums to provide feedback to the game's designers about what isn't working.
Anyway, when someone says to me, “Oh, you have Carcassonne, would you like to play a game?” My response will be, “Sure; which rule set?”

Programming for the two big I's (8): In the Zone:

(I'm continuing a story; for the previous installment, look back to my May 7, 2006 entry below.) We developed these program libraries to enable customers to play audio/video and display slideshows on the Two Big I's fancy chips, finishing only a little more behind the final "wing and a prayer" schedule. The last part of the project took somewhat more than six months. It was a team effort, with five other programmers contributing, and it totally consumed my thoughts. After a few weeks coming up to speed, I was constantly thinking about what to do next, and making excellent progress with only a few sideslips. My concentration was as deep as it has ever been. But I'm not proud about that.

Software comes and goes. But what about family? My wife and kids assured me that during those months I was "not there" even when I was home. They were living with a zombie. This is not the best tradeoff I ever made in my life.

A Car Without a Radio is like a ...

I was commuting and needed to buy a car. My great internal debate was whether to buy the radio separately after getting the car. There would be a gap of a few radioless weeks before I had time to make a good choice and get it installed, but I KNEW I could get a much better radio that way.
In the end, I settled for the auto manufacturer's radio, because I could not imagine commuting even one day without some radio voices talking to me and keeping me alert. I got a barely satisfactory radio, and frankly wished I'd held out to buy a better one later, but at least I was happy solving the commute problem.

But Now ...

The next time, if ever, that we have to buy a commuter car for me, I will buy the radio later. Those interim weeks won't be a problem! I'll load up on podcasts and listen to them instead. Hmmm. Or maybe I should just get the cheapest auto manufacturer's radio to listen to traffic reports, and otherwise rely on podcasts. Decisions, decisions ...

“This is Detroit. Cars get stolen." An aftermath:

“This is Detroit. Cars get stolen." Aftermath:
If you're in an automobile accident, you're advised to start driving again as soon as possible, to counteract the effects of mental trauma before it sinks in. (I was once hit by a drunk driver while making a left turn, and our car was badly damaged. Parts were unavailable due to a French dock strike, and I did not drive again for 90 days. When I did start again, I could not make a natural left turn for weeks; I could always feel an unseen car coming up on my left, and I made as wide-angled a turn as possible, as if unable to commit to going truly LEFT.) I think the same applies to having your car stolen at valet parking. (See my May 8, 2006 entry, just below.) You should use a valet again as soon as possible.

In fact my next encounter with valet parking was at a restaurant, fourteen months later. The valet lot was right next to the restaurant, and I was assured that it was hopeless to try to park on the street. I froze; I thought furiously, trying to remember everything I must do right to give my car to the valet. I placed my key in the ignition, got out and securely locked the car. And I did not have a second key.

Lunch (with friends) was ruined for me by the progress bulletins I received. Every ten minutes someone would come to our table to inform me that they hadn't unlocked my car yet, but they were still working on it. I knew they would not give up; my car was blocking entrance/egress to the valet lot! It took them fifty minutes to get it open.

What would you buy on a 100 Gigabyte DVD?

We're just starting to see the attack of the Larger DVD drives, intended to hold High Definition (HD) movies. But storage media are getting bigger and denser. What could anyone sell to fit on a 100, 500 or larger GB drive? If this question worries you - which I greatly doubt - thank goodness I have the answer.

Please imagine a movie "released" to 500GB DVD. Of course the movie has multiple sound tracks for different languages, but it also has different scenes with different ratings. You can choose to see the G version, the R version the X version. And in any case you can choose to see or not see the sex, violence, toilet humor or destuction of plants and animals.

Critics will love these multi-scene movies! They will argue about which version is the best, and when thr PG version seems just perfect, they will argue that the sex in the R version must have been totally gratuitous.

I'd definitely like to see the versions that, at least, leave out violence, toilet humor and car chases.

“This is Detroit. Cars get stolen:"

The Virtual Tourist recently mentioned my experience having a rented car stolen. I appreciate his fuzzing the details a bit to protect the anonymous, but I've decided to supply a few details of this rich, multilayered story.

In 1985 I spent a week in Detroit helping to prepare for the most expensive trade show booth in trade show history ($120 million for one booth for a single three-day show, in fact, and I'm not kidding). I had just returned from a day off and expected to meet several business associates I wanted to impress. I dropped off my big rental car at the hotel valet parking, not even stopping to take my suitcase out of the trunk, and hurried into the hotel to meet my associates. They were forming up to go to dinner, so I volunteered to drive four of them. We returned to the valet parking, where my car keys were not to be found in the valet office. I searched the entire car park (several levels, holding some 250 cars) while my associates drifted off without me. The car was gone.

I learned several fascinating things that night. The police wanted a precise description of the car including the Vehicle Id number. In Detroit at that time it was legal to shoot to kill car thief. They did not want to shoot someone over the wrong car.
Second, when you tell any rental car company that your car has been stolen, they want you to give them the keys. They get really, really upset if you don't have the keys; I think rental car companies believe that valet parking is a fairytale.
Third, when you drop your car off to a valet, make sure you get his name. What if he's an impostor and the valet company insists you never gave them your car? (I was lucky; they logged my car in before it was stolen from curbside two minutes later.)
And finally, while the police and the rental company are slowly and painstakingly taking your story, there's no point getting impatient and feeling that you deserve more sympathy. That's when I was told, “Look, this is Detroit! Cars get stolen here.”

Programming for the two big I's (7) The sad tale of the terrific chipset:

A while ago, I started a long story about my experiences working on a project that "two big I" companies developed together. The story starts there, and the previous installment is here.

Today's story is the sad tale of the terrific chipset. One of the two big I companies makes a living designing wonderful, complex chips. Our division's mission was chips that would play video and show pictures on a PC, in a year when this was still revolutionary. The hardware designers asked the marketing planners what the video chip should do. The marketers, basically, said "Everything!" At that time they could foresee most of what a video chip might be asked to do on a computer, but they could not prioritize, nor accept a design that would support only a few choice morcels of the full potential.

The hardware people responded by designing a pair of chips that, together, did Everything. They developed these chips and handed them off to the programmers. Can you see what's coming?

The video chipset that did everything was horribly complex to program (and expensive to manufacture, too). A customer programmer could easily misprogram it so as to hang a computer or even destroy a CRT. One of the big I's programmers was given the task of learning the hardware and writing a software package, a programming interface ("API"), that would make it possible for a programmer to use the video chips safely. He did this. In the process, he supported only about 50% of what the video chip could do.

His API was still to complicated for most humans to use. Another programmer studied this API and wrote two more APIs that used it, one for still images and one for motion video. He implemented a portion of what the first API supported, exposing perhaps 25% of all the magic the chips could do.

The other big I company realized that these two APIs - for video and pictures - were still too complicated to release to customers. (This is a fascinating issue that I will discuss in the future.) They insisted on one more API - to call the other APIs - that would only allow a customer programmer to do safe things easily. That was my job: an API to display pictures and play video EASILY and safely. I eventually doubled the total amount of software and supported less than 10% of what the hardware could do.

Why did each of us programmers support less and less chip functionality? In principle it was possible to support all of it, but it was very time consuming to allow more features while preventing the customer programs from issuing ridiculous command mistakes. Prudence, and a limit to programming resources, dictated a strategy of limiting functionality to whatever seemed safest to support.

The hardware designers knew what was going on, and they were wildly upset that the software was preventing access to most of their chips' capabilities. They could have designed a chip to do the little that I was supporting much faster and much cheaper.

I had no sympathy for them. I believed that Marketing (which was pretty happy with our eventual subset) should have prioritized in the first place. And the hardware designers should have refused to implement Everything when Marketing asked them to.

Putting Large Things on top of Smaller Things:

There's a Monty Python skit about a club devoted to putting things on top of other things. I've found it's more interesting to specialize: put large things on top of smaller things when the time is right. I can't really generalize about this, but I do have two good examples enough for a blog entry.

You're trying to store lot of pots, pans and utensils in a storage space. One of the items is a large baking pan. You might think you should put the pan in first ad put smaller items on top of it. But the sides of the pan create a boundary, limiting the size of what you can put next to it. Instead, put everything else in first, then put the baking pan, upside down, on top of everything else.

I was trying to fit a large dish into a crowded fridge and there seemed to be no room, until I carefully centered something smaller underneath it. The dish was now four inches above everything else on that refrigerator shelf, and it cleared everything, giving it lots of room.

Other real-life examples will be appreciated. Comments?

Going, Going, Up!

I remember a time when housing prices rose rapidly in our community. How rapidly? Let me tell you a little story. A couple we knew divorced. The house had to be sold, and the ex-wife, a real estate agent, placed it on the market at what we thought was an aggressively high price.
After a few months the house had not sold. She raised the price. In fact she raised it several times before selling it after nine months.

Hymne National:

Our president's comment on "Nuestro Himno" (a spanish version of Our National Anthem) was:
"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English,"
When I heard that, my immediate reaction was, I'd rather our national anthem was sung in every language. Now this might make you feel good: the Tucson citizen reports that:

Late last month, a young Tohono O'odham, Mike Enis, sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the State of the County luncheon in the O'odham language.

(I believe the American Indian word O'odham is pronounced something like “autumn.”) The reporter, Anne T. Denogean, wrote:

It was a respectful, solemn rendition that moved the crowd to silence, even after he was done. Though the words were unfamiliar, I felt the catch in my throat at the same notes that grab me in the original.

Pima County Supervisors' Chairman Richard Elías said this is the second year the song has been performed at the luncheon in O'odham and he's heard nothing but positive comments, that "it was beautiful and it was interesting."

Two languages down, more than sixty-eight to go!

Between the one gallon bag and the 13 gallon bag lies ...

Between the one gallon plastic bag and the 13 gallon plastic bag lies ... what? This dreadful gap in plastic kitchen bags causes leftover crises when the 1g bag simply won't fit over a serving dish. There ought to be more choice!
And yet there is more choice. In our local supermarkets, there's a larger and wider bag we can use, free, to pack our fresh fruits and veggies in. One form of this bag comes in large packs that lie flat and are easy to use. I tried to buy a pack at the super today.
I expected it to be cheap. After all, the store can afford to give them away with small amounts of green goods. But I was told, "This time you can have it free." I'm delighted, I'm all set to handle those difficult leftover storage problems, and I still wonder what they will cost next time.

SIDE NOTE: There is, of course, store advertising printed on every one of these bags. My wife feels that the print can seep through the plastic and affect the food. Comments, please?

Digital Watch with Two Time Displays:

Do you make a lot of phone calls to New Zealand? If so, you might really appreciate a digital watch with separate displays for two different time zones. But if you can add and subtract, you might find that second time zone display a liability.
My watch has displays for: time, data base, alarms, stop watch, countdown timer, and a second time zone. I use the first five displays a lot. But I think the real point of the second time display is to wreak havoc. It takes a lot of button presses to get to it, and sooner or later it will simply show a DIfferent TIme THat IS WRong, so it would be best if I could never see it; but that second time display insists on being visible sometimes, and it usually IS wrong, and it confuses me.

An interesting writer on the web: Alicia Anne Rhiannon Coppin.

While wandering about the Internet, I discovered a news writer (and engineer) I might never have heard of, named Alicia Anne Rhiannon Coppin. I was searching for instances of a misued phrase, "say la vie", which I had decided not to write about. Coppin was writing about it, here. And here are a few more of her articles: Bicycle Polo, free for all public biffies, Sleep Paralysis, Ambient HD video displays. And then there's her crazy collection of quotes, full of surprises for you if you've already read many pages of quotations.
(Kotorynski's Paradox:"You cannnot prove anything by example. You cannot prove anything by example. Let me repeat myself a third time: nothing can be proven by example. Let me give you an example..."
And here's another one: Mantis H.M. Cheng explains why he wants work done in pairs: "Some of you have asked me, 'Why do I need a partner? I'm so smart.' The reason is, your partner is an idiot!")

UPDATE: Rhiannon points out that the quotes page she links to belongs to: Alex MacGillivray (spelling approximate).

Management By Objectives (MBO) in real life:

I was a mid-level manager at a hardware/software company that suddenly embraced a technique called “Management By Objectives.” The President, VPs and directors received a presentation on it, they “got it”, and spent some serious cash and resources to send all us middle managers to a course on it. (Upper management did not feel they had time to take the course, but thought they might take it later.)

MBO is credited to Peter Drucker, who discussed it in his book The practice of management in 1954. The main tactic is that a manager works with each employee to define their work objectives for a year. The employee is involved in defining these, and they are described clearly in writing. People review these objectives during the year and update them if they get out of date. At year-end, the employee's work is reviewed against the objectives. People who fulfill or exceed their objectives can hope for raises, bonuses and promotions. Perhaps more important, this focus on objectives keeps everyone focused on real goals, if they know what the goals actually are.

We came back from the short course prepared to try out MBO, although, knowing our own company, we had misgivings about how it might work out. I had a conversation with my director:
“Do you understand the MBO course?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“Are you ready to try it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, what are your objectives for this year?”
“I'd like my objectives to fulfill a lot of YOUR objectives, not just be work I'd like to do. What are your objectives?
I had puzzled him, and he looked at me blankly. Then: “I don't know what the company wants to do this year. I'll get back to you.”

My director talked to his other direct reports, and they all gave him essentially the same answer. It wasn't that we had made a conspiracy; rather, we had learned in the MBO course the importance of making these objectives “top down” so that they were relevant.

That was pretty much it for MBO in our company. I was never asked to work to objectives. In the 1990's Peter Drucker nailed this particular situation very well. See the link just above for his neat quote.

SHouting a little in CAps:

As we all know, it is impolite to EMAIL, CHAT OR COMMENT IN CAPITAL LETTERS for emphasis. People tend to equate even a capitalized word or two with shouting. We're supposed to use bolding, or to write very, very skilfully instead.

I've accidentally found an alternative: Emphasis by capitalizing the FIrst TWo LEtters of the occcasional WOrd! There, I feel BEtter already.

"Reasoning" in English:

A recent letter to the NYT reminded me of my total frustration with attempts to win a logical argument in English (or any other human language for that matter). There is a wonderful field of math, the Logical Calculus, that deals with true and false statements and the conjunctions (if, and, or ...) that can bind them together. Logical calculus assumes you know the truth of simple statements. It lets you figure out if you have a well formed complex statement and, if so, whether it is true. You can track a whole logical argument that way, deciding whether the conclusion of the whole argument is true.

But human language is ambiguous. Words have multiple meanings, mean different things to different people. Sometimes "and" means "or". There are tons of evidence to quote from in the "real world" that often are in conflict. And we've all had the experience of reading beautifully framed arguments that come, reasonably, to opposing conclusions. The essence is - you've got to remember that no matter how convincing an argument sounds, it's not logical and it may not be true.

But we've all been trained to make, and to respect, good written rhetoric. So we've got to keep pinching ourselves to remember to DISrespect it. Bonnie R. Nelson and Robert S. Nelson (of Brooklyn) caught the New York Times in one of these logical conflicts. Their letter quotes from two editorials, but all you need is the letter, which I've quoted here extensively (I hope they and the NYT don't mind):

In "Blood and Oil" (editorial, April 16) you say "It is time for Nigeria's government to begin taking into account the plight of the people who live around the oil wells that have sustained the country for so long."

...

In "Hugo Chavez and His Helpers" (editorial, Dec. 10) you excoriated president Hugo Chavez ... for using "high world oil prices to increase funds for poplualr social programs for the poor, making him electorally unassailable." The letter writers want to know why the NYT supported opposite views in what were doubtless reasonable-seeming arguments.

(I'm sure that any polished writer can argue convincingly that the statements were not "opposite" at all when placed in context. Or that they were. Etc., Etc. Etc. ...)

If you like to cook Chinese or far east Asian food, here’s a tip (2)

Use rhubarb. Cooked long, it thickens your sauce and makes it tart. Cooked briefly, it’s a tangy stir fry ingredient. Eat the root but not the poisonous leaves!

Know your own PLU codes!

In the early 1980's, scientists expected to discover how to make genetic changes to fruits and vegetables to cause them to grow their own identifying bar codes on every item. At the time I think people did not realize how convenient it would be for low-wage laborers and robots to stick number codes on most items instead. You've seen the universal four-digit PLU codes that appear on most fruits and veggies. Here's an alphabetical listing. There are about a hundred entries for kinds of apples! It fascinates me that four digits suffices for a world-wide coding of vegetables and fruit.

So what happens when you bring one of the oddball items to the cashier for checkout?
(She holds your plastic bag up disdainfully.) "What's this?"
"Kumquats."
"How do you spell that?"
"K u m q u a t."
(A pause while they riffle through their list.) "I don't think it's spelled that way here ..."
And so on.

So I recommend keeping your own list, for the unlabeled and unusual sorts of food you will bring to the cashier. You want to be able to say: "Kumquats, code 4303!" (Don't you?)
Here's my own "hot PLU" list:

• 4235 plaintain
  
• 4303 kumquat
  
• 4309 lichee
  
• 4598 daikon
  
• 4662 shallot
  
• 4801 tomatillo
  
• 4802 dried tomato
  

Two New Psychological Illnesses:

I fearlessly predict the advent of a new psychological problem. It will show up within twenty years, I think, and you'll soon understand why it has never been seen before. The problem is that a few people will get quite upset, perhaps unable to function at all, when they can be fairly certain there is no one they know within, say, twenty miles of them. In the converse illness, people will be unable to function when, say 2,000 or more of their friends and acquaintancecs are within a few hundred feet.

In order to facilitate these illnesses, we need a few technological advances that are just now on the horizon. With the ability to locate people accurately, check them against databases of friend-relationships, and download statistics about who's nearby to PDAs, it will become possible to warn people when their dread condition occurs. And don't think they won't want to know about it!

WindowSuck!

I'm going to introduce you to the mysterious force of nature that I call Windowsuck. You may be aware of it already, or perhaps - as I was - only vaguely aware until now. I do not believe that Windowsuck is one of the primary forces of nature. I believe it is a simple corollary of something else, Murphy's Law perhaps.

You can easily test this force yourself if you live in a home with windows and window sills. I think sills are a priceless space for storage, but if you disagree with me, then please prepare for your experiment by closing a window and loading up a typical sill, perhaps with a coaster for a glass, some pill boxes, a pack of unpaid bills, a notepad and a stack of rubberbands. NOTE CAREFULLY that the sill is full of stuff that do not share physical space with the window itself! That is, by peering down you can verify that there is a little open space between the contents of the sill and the window. Now open the window and go elsewhere. Make sure no human or pet approaches the window for several hours.

when you return to the window, try to close it. You can't! Invariably, part of the stuff on the sill has drifted towards the window, and when you press the window down it will crunch on something. Windowsuck has worked its magic! (If you believe the prevailing wind direction is to blame, you can repeat the experiment on the other side of your home; you'll get the same results.)

I suggested above that I was only vaguely aware of this force, and I was always frustrated at having to rearraange a sill to close a window. But now that I know what's going on, I'll be more tolerant of this nuiscance. I think.

Agent. Operator! RECEPTIONIST!!

I was complaining to the Virtual Tourist about my attempts to reach a human being quickly when confronted with a corporate automated telephone answering (IVR) system. I'm not just being impatient, I have special needs. Recently I wanted to report a lost credit card I found on the sidewalk. The customer service number on the card asked me for MY credit card number; MY social security number; info I'm darned if I'll give out just because I found someone else's card. As I pressed zero I also said "Agent. Operator! RECEPTIONIST!!" because a voice recognition system is usually set up to respond to some word, but you've got to guess which one.

"There's a whole web site devoted to this," responded the Virtual Tourist. And so there is. A website intended to make it easier for us to reach a human, and to rate customer service as well. They have lots of good tips and specific info. Try them before you next call a faceless bureaucracy.

How good am I at developing software?

I'm sure many of you have noticed that I've made a living developing software. Naturally you're wondering if I'm any good at it. So it is with great pride, and not a trace of modesty, that I can inform you of the following:

I am: Mr. Software.

I know this because I once received a mass-mailed adverstisement, correctly addressed to "Mr. Tobias D. Software" at my home. I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to wear this sobriquet.

NOTE: Entry Corrected. It's a good thing my wife has an excellent memory.

You can plan ahead ...

You can plan ahead for anything; except for what will actually happen.

I want Big Brother to choose my TV Ads:

I would LIKE my TV system to figure out what shows I watch, figure out what ads might interest me, and then show me those ads. I worked for a while with a company that is implementing such a system. (People tend to worry that "Big Brother is watching You" in order to do ad matching, but the company I worked with arranged their software to keep big brother out of it.) It's a waste of my time to show me ads of interest to people who are much younger, or of a much different gender. But the mindless TV channels I watch now show me the wrong kinds of ads in the wrong kind of place.
When I watch TV, I see ads on the bottom of the screen for pay channels I have not subscribed to. I simply can't see their shows, AND I can't Tivo-skip over the ads because they occupy the bottom HALF of the screen while my TV show-of-interest proceeds. Big Brother, where are you when I need you?


Apologies for the short hiatus in blogging. I'll be back next Sunday.

Idiots, podcasts and white noise:

I've listened to radio for many years, and over time I became quite curious about my own listening preferences. I decided that what I desired from Radio was a certain degree of randomness, of surprise. I do know that I can't stand listening to a news station that begins to repeat the stories I've already heard, and I clearly prefer the rather mindless - but unpredictable from moment to moment - narration of sports announcers to the more intellectul fare of Public Radio.

Listening to podcasts has given me a new opportunity to test my desire for randomness, and it appears that I can be entertained by audio that approaches white noise. I enjoy Three Idiots and a Podcast, for example. Here we have three teenage boys who turn their microphone on and then just hang out, unwrap candy next to the mic or make weird noises. Not bad!

Then there's Two Idiots and a Podcast Mary and Karla, two young women who make a lot of noise and often convey no information at all. (I suspect I'd learn a lot more if I watched the video that goes with the audio, but I opt for the straight audio, very confusing when they are unwrapping gift packages, say.) Their Episode 14 is particularly hilarious. They had been reviewed by another podcast called Nobody Likes Onions, which didn't like Mary and Karla but resorted to the worst sort of ad hominewomen attacks, repeatedly calling them Fat Cows (check out the pics at their web site and you may disagree). M&K play back excerpts of the NLOnions review of their show with relish. At one point one of them more or less says, "Look, we're a Talk Show! We Talk!" But I disagree. I think someone who understands no English would greatly enjoy the wonderful rhythms, pitches and patters that spin off their voices; they are musicians first, speakers second.

Even better for me is One Idiot and a Podcast Rambling Retard Rampage. This podcast is done almost entirely by one 14 year old boy, "El Nacho", the child prodigy of podcasting. He tosses off remarkable comedic ideas, and charges ahead fearlessly fullsteam through all his whimsies. El Nacho's fascination with language produces all manner of word plays, rhythmic speech with bits of toothsome Spanish, French and Hebrew. And if you find his material too gentle and cerebral, preferring blood and guts, you can switch to his other podcast, "Mead and Ale" which he does with his sister Yayacolt. (If that title makes no sense to you, I think it's a terrible word play; try "Me d'Nail.") The first episode is about as gruesome as light audio can get, and other "Mead and Ale" episodes are too white noisy for me. But I DO seem to enjoy his rather random comedy.

Collecting Elephants:

Once we spent a week's vacation in the Virgin Islands. We shared several discussions with a couple who were about our age and rather well off. I was fascinated to discover that he had become a collector of elephant figurines. "That must be really interesting!" I volunteered. "No," he said ruefully, "Pretty soon you've collected your four basic types of elephant." (Sorry, I never found out what the four types were.)

Your Best Watch is your Cellphone. So?

My very nice digital watch needs a new wristband so I'm not carrying it. Instead, when I really need the time, I carefully pull my cellphone out of its beltcase, open it up and scrutinize its screen. I know that of all the objects I carry around (or see on a wall), none is likely to be as time-accurate as my cellphone. Although it IS a bit of a nuiscance to read.
But today as I pulled out my cellphone to check the time, I suddenly felt allied to stuffy rich middle-aged men of the nineteenth century, who consulted the time by reaching down into the special watch pocket of their suit and withdrawing their fancy windup watches. The watch was worn close to the body so that the oil keeping it lubricated would be warm and flowing; and those watch-checkers had to make a physical motion similar to mine to check my phone. The more things change ...

Tom Delay is Quitting Race and House!

The New York Times reports (April 4, 2006) that Tom Delay is Quitting Race and House. Now I know this is a political issue, so some of you will disagre with me but:

I will be very happy when Tom Delay is no longer in Congress, nor a white man.

(My link above to the NYT story is a special "for bloggers" NYT link and should function for a long time. Please mail me if it fails to work for you.)

A real-life Mashup:

I listen to podcasts a lot while walking. I'm often taking the same walk for the thousandth time, but it seems faster and more enjoyable if I have something to listen to. I'm afraid I tend to tune out my surroundings when the podcasts get really interesting. But today I had a different experience. I was walking past a row of trees in spring bud, leaf and bloom when I heard the lovely intro music to Claybourne. I experienced the music and the spring beauty together, and each enhanced the other. It was a bit like being in a movie, Elvira Madigan perhaps, along with its soundtrack.

In defense of Richard Stallman on "Intellectual Property"

Richard Stallman gave the keynote speech at the Turin, Italy, meeting on March 18 about the drafting of GPLv3. He started, startlingly, by criticizing the term "Intellectual Property". You can read the whole speech at Groklaw, but here's the opening salvo:

There is a term that some people use, which causes terrible confusion and should never be used, and that is the term "intellectual property". Now, I heard someone mention that term. I don't think he was explaining why that term should not be used.

It is devastatingly harmful to use the term "intellectual property" because that term implies the existence of something which does not exist.

Copyright law exists. Patent law exists. They have almost nothing in common in terms of the requirements that they put on the public. Trademark law also exists. It has nothing in common with copyright law or patent law about what it requires of the public. So, the idea that there is some general thing which these are instances of already gets people so confused that they cannot understand these issues. There is no such thing. These are three separate unrelated issues, and any attempt to generalise about them guarantees confusion. Everyone who uses the term "intellectual property" is either confused himself or trying to confuse you.

I've signed many consulting contracts in my time, and all of them included clauses intended to protect IP. Inevitably they did not define it, nor explain how it would be defined. IP in general seems to be something intangible that companies want to protect.

My Intellectual Property Lawyer (yes, they exist) taught me to insist always on a clear definition of what my clients want to protect. My favorite way does not attempt at all to define what IP is: I "agree that my customer can inform me in writing that some information is proprietary, and I will then protect it as specified in the contract."

Stallman argues clearly that there is no such clear THING as IP. It's in the eyes of the beholder. He would argue similarly I think, against using terms like "intellectual beauty" or "inherent beauty" or "beauty-value property", since these are obviously not abstractly definable. Perhaps what gives "Intellectual Property" weight in the current world is the fact that we keep using it.
- Precision Blogger