Posts about Cool Links
June 15, 2008
I'm #18,479 from China
April 06, 2008
Who do we shoot now?
Paul Denlinger has a great blog entitled The China Vortex, and says some really interesting things. I told Paul I liked the way he got into a topic, made a point, and got out, not talking down to his readers.
I've known Paul for a long time, and he's the one who convinced me to get a Mac when he said "Did you know it's built on the BSD kernel?" That was all I needed to hear because my admin had set up BSD servers on Linux boxes many years ago, and they were unbelievably fast and stable, running on anything.
Anyway, recently he wrote something I found very amusing. "So, while Chinese factories have on occasion exported defective products, the US has exported defective financial products. And the US government participated because Treasury sold T-bills which were backed by these defective financial instruments."
Quality Fade: American or Chinese, Which is Worse? - Check it out.
February 09, 2008
Better than free
I found this article by Kevin Kelly fascinating not only for his ideas on digital product, but for how to make yourself worthwhile in a super competitive and crowded market like China.
"When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable."
October 11, 2007
A Look at the Fortune 100 and Patent Litigation
I found this very interesting, and wanted to share it with any IP geeks out there. An anonymous person called Troll Tracker (who it seems works in the industry in a firm somewhere) has made a ranking of Fortune 100 companies by how many times they have been sued since 2006, and whether it's by their competitors or what people call patent trolls, more specifically non-practicing patent holders without a product.
The reason why it's interesting is because of the push for patent reform bill that was passed by the House and is now going to the Senate. This is a knee jerk reaction lobbied by hi-tech, insurance, and financial companies who have recently been hit hard by patent litigation rulings, who argue that patent trolls are the cause. Pharma and chemical companies do not support the bill interestingly enough. If you read further, you get to Troll Tracker's interesting conclusion.
I of course, am firmly on the side of the individual inventor, who is screwed by this new bill, and am tired of all this bogus patent troll whining by larger companies who just want to maintain their IRR irrespective of how the law has worked well for years. It makes me even more committed to stick to my guns and "stick it to the man" when possible. Remember, these are guys who are used to getting their way. Now they think they can just reboot the legal system, and start all over again with things in their favor.
Just to add some fuel to the fire, here's an interview from Sky Radio's progam called "America's Premier Lawyers" with a top lawyer from McDermott Will & Emery who is asked to talk about patent trolls, and amusingly he essentially says flat out that they're not really an issue as the larger companies have much more patent prosecution and litigation between them. (To hear this, you have to go to this link at Sky Radio and scroll down to "Stephen J. Akerley - On Patent Trolls -Companies That Produce No Products Or Services" since their page embeds javascript meaning I can't link directly to this page)
Aerospace/Defense: 7 companies, 10 lawsuits
Automotive: 4 companies, 21 lawsuits
Chemicals/Food Processing: 9 companies, 7 lawsuits
Energy: 8 companies, 7 lawsuits
Entertainment: 2 companies, 5 lawsuits
Equipment/Machinery/Metals: 3 companies, 3 lawsuits
Financial/Banking/Securities: 13 companies, 16 lawsuits
Grocery/Drugstore: 5 companies, 19 lawsuits
Health Care: 9 companies, 13 lawsuits
High Tech/Telecom: 13 companies, 192 lawsuits
Insurance: 12 companies, 12 lawsuits
Pharma/Consumer: 4 companies, 28 lawsuits
Retail: 9 companies, 87 lawsuits
Transportation/Freight: 2 companies, 10 lawsuits
"Overall, out of the 430 patent cases filed against Fortune 100 companies, 138 were filed by competitors (32.1%), 54 were filed by Universities, individual inventors, or research organizations ("U/II/R") (12.6%), and 238 were filed by non-practicing entities, which I will call patent trolls for the sake of this study (55.3%)."
How did it break down by industry?
Pharma/Consumer: 28 lawsuits, 24 competitor, 4 U/II/R, 0 trolls (0%)
Chemicals/Food: 7 lawsuits: 6 competitor, 1 U/II/R, 0 trolls (0%)Aerospace/Defense: 10 lawsuits: 7 competitor, 1 U/II/R, 2 trolls (20%)
Retail: 87 lawsuits: 44 competitors, 17 U/I/RR, 26 trolls (29.9%)
Automotive: 21 lawsuits: 4 competitor, 6 U/II/R, 11 trolls (52.4%)
Grocery/Drugstore: 19 lawsuits: 9 competitor, 10 trolls (52.6%)
Health Care: 13 lawsuits, 5 competitors, 8 trolls (61.5%)
Equipment/Machinery/Metals: 3 lawsuits: 1 competitor, 0 U/II/R, 2 trolls (66.7%)
High Tech/Telecom: 192 lawsuits, 35 competitors, 24 U/II/R, 133 trolls (69.2%)Energy: 7 lawsuits: 1 competitor, 1 U/II/R, 5 trolls (71.4%)
Insurance: 12 lawsuits: 2 competitors, 10 trolls (83.3%)
Entertainment: 5 lawsuits: 0 competitor, 0 U/II/R, 5 trolls (100%)
Transportation/Freight: 10 lawsuit, 10 trolls (100%)
Financial/Banking/Securities: 16 lawsuits, 16 trolls (100%)
"Now does anybody wonder why Pharma and the Chemical companies are on one side of the patent reform debate, with High Tech, Insurance and Financial on the other? The two groups are seeing completely different patent litigation. The Pharma and Chemical companies are seeing lawsuits by their competitors, at the rate of about 1 per company every 3 months. High Tech, on the other hand, is seeing primarily patent trolls, and at a much faster rate. The High Tech industry is seeing far more patent litigation, too."
September 29, 2007
H.R. 1908 is a big deal!
As an IP holder, I've been keeping a close eye on the House reform bill which effectively is kicking little guy innovation right in the balls. It's hard to believe this kind of stuff is happening right under our noses and most people aren't even aware. Innovation is the foundation the US was built upon and now this is seriously threatened.
If you have any interest in this issue, here's an excellent article written by William R. Hawkins, a Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the U.S. Business and Industry Council.
September 01, 2007
A good quack
I like my duck. Usually roasted lightly in a Beijing hutong. Sometimes chopped into bits on a platter with some shredded ginger. Sometimes in an old cartoon. Sometimes all lined up in a row.
So I had a good quack reading 'Haiku a Bitter Duck Might Write'
My favorite:
Daffy and Donald
may be more popular, but
the truth? Two big queers.
June 26, 2007
Bong hits for Jesus
The third to last paragraph is the funniest.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/25/free.speech/index.html
November 01, 2006
But of course
I always knew this. I just called it the "The FTMP way to better sax."
Wired: From an evolutionary perspective, why have humans developed music?
Levitin: There are a number of different theories. One theory is that music is an evolutionary accident, piggybacking on language: We exploited language to create music just for our own pleasure. A competing view, one that Darwin held, is that music was selected by evolution because it signals certain kinds of intellectual, physical and sexual fitness to a potential mate.
Wired: How does that play out in rock 'n' roll, for example?
Levitin: (Research has shown that) if women could choose who they'd like to be impregnated by, they'd choose a rock star. There's something about the rock star's genes that is signaling creativity, flexibility of thinking, flexibility of mind and body, an ability to express and process emotions -- not to mention that (musical talent) signals that if you can waste your time on something that has no immediate impact on food-gathering and shelter, you¡¦ve got your food-gathering and shelter taken care of.
October 29, 2006
It tastes like chicken!
The Cantonese eat everything. Literally. Walk through a market in Guang Zhou and you will begin to understand the variety of animals they eat.
If you are wondering what cat or rat or bat or some other not so savory creature might taste like, you might be interested in this article by Joe Staton at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard.
"Why do most cooked, exotic meats taste like cooked Gallus gallus, the domestic chicken?"
October 22, 2006
Go Wide young man
Andy Kessler wrote this interesting article on Recognizing That There Is No Difference Between A Media Company And A Technology Company.
Geez, I wish Chinese VCs would read this. I've been trying to sell them this for 10 years. I've had this same discussion over the years with telecom companies, record companies, internet companies, TV companies, and have mostly gotten a lot of glazed looks.
October 05, 2006
Busted!
"Yes, that's right, I said take off your pants young man!"
October 02, 2006
Making sense of English
I was reading CNN.com which is like my daily newspaper update, and saw this ad on the side. It didn't make sense to me.
"In 10 years time most of the world's car will be manufactured in China."
I am assuming they mean "world's cars," but then I started thinking, hey, this is a huge media organization, and they probably don't make mistakes like this. So maybe they are talking about a collective car owned by the entire world - the world's car - sort of like a college car owned by a bunch of roommates.
If that's the case, can I borrow it on Thursday?
April 23, 2006
Good job Pierre
My buddy Pierre got on the front page of Le Monde yesterday in an article about the necessity for French Wines to develop a different strategy to sell better abroad.
This article extensively mention a new brand. And of course they keep mentioning Pierre's new company.
Now send me that case of bordeaux!
November 17, 2005
I don't think this works in Chinese
I'm curious if this works when radicals are placed in different places within a character.
BTW, how do you get radicals into a different place within the character?
September 14, 2005
So can I wear my cap sideways now?
The hard drive is the new bling?
According to the pimps at Hitachi, it is...
March 04, 2005
And the Grammy for engineering goes to...
This is bizarre and sad, and hopefully not another epilogue to Ray Charles' tough career.
February 13, 2005
Motherfu$%# cocksu%$ing sh%tface idiot as$hole
Ok I admit it. I enjoy swearing, and I also enjoy teaching Chinese people how to swear effectively in must-swear situations.
What's your favorite swear word?
February 06, 2005
Brian Funshine flash fooling around fun
Brian Funshine sent me this hilarious link of him in a flash English teaching movie.
I sent him my updated lyrics:
I am watching watching watching the video now, the video now...
I am watching watching watching the video now, the video now...
I am watching watching watching the video now, the video now...
I am viewing in Mozilla, to see what it will do
Cruising all around to check the open source view
I am watching watching watching the video now, the video now...
And incidentally, while you are watching, you might pick up that the melody is from the American Civil war, which happens to also be a song I had to play in the freezing cold at high school football games, and most recently for the Jin Ma Jiang (The Golden Horse Festival).
January 21, 2005
26 more ways to leave your lover...
My extra additions:
Play with your piss, Chris.
Tell her you like to be spanked, Frank.
Keep watching those reruns, Christian.
Rent out her sublet, Brett.
Disconnect her wireless lan, Dan.
Slap on the cologne, Jereon.
Act like a wai-guo-ren, Ben.
Say she's got ass like J-Lo, Corrado.
Tell her she makes you want to heave, Steve.
---------------
1. Leave up the lid, Sid.
2. Throw his clothes on the lawn, Dawn.
3. Keep wetting the bed, Fred.
4. Stab her and a waiter after nightfall, Orenthal.
5. Send her to Capitol Hill, Bill.
6. Tell him you prefer your battery- operated toy, Joy.
7. Put on her teddy, Eddie.
8. Vote him off the show, Flo.
9. Throw a toaster in the tub, Bub.
10. Find another Cruz, Cruise.
11. Stop taking your Paxil, Axl.
12. Tell him you're really a man, Jan.
13. Tell her you're attracted to men, Ben.
14. Tell her about her odor, Fyodor.
15. Have an affair with an intern, Vern.
16. Call her a skank, Hank.
17. Dump her on "Springer," Klinger.
18. Marry her off to another wacko, Jacko.
19. Keep saying, "Dude, you're not gettin' a Dell!" Adele.
20. Dress like a girl, Merle.
21. Say she looks fat in those pants, Lance.
22. Tell her Ashcroft won't let you leave, Steve.
23. Run off with her mother, Strother.
24. Bust a cap in her kitty, P. Diddy.
25. Add small quantities of mercury to her dinner every night over a period of several years, making her slowly, but surely, insane, Wayne.
26. Make too many bad rhymes, Tom.
From strangecosmos.com
January 07, 2005
Chick cuts one
My friend Chick cuts one loose...
December 22, 2004
Why cyclists wear black
As a cyclist, I though this was pretty funny...
From: James Seng
November 12, 2004
Conspiracy! Arafat still alive - World mourns passing of Ringo Starr
October 31, 2004
Good financial advice
I was looking through Forumosa today and saw this post.
Forumosa.com Forum Index >> Business & Money
rassie: I saved some money during the past 2 months. How can I double it before spending it again.
Bu Lai En: Save for another two months.
Now that's funny.
October 28, 2004
A dream come true?
Today I happened to stumble upon this interesting headline: "Mexico Drafting Army Of Cats."
This seemed especially relevant because a dozen years ago I sat down on a pebbled beach one morning in Nice, France, with my future wife, Irene, and told her about this really amazing dream I had the night before. "You have to write it down!" she said. So I did, and actually got it published in a book.
Here you go..."The Great French Cat Army."
October 27, 2004
#1 in something...again
Hey, this is quite a month. 3q2u is #1 on Google again for this interesting combination of words - "gooey scented erasers." Woo hoo.
October 23, 2004
Double-u-tee-eff?
Jeroen told me about this hilarious flash animation done by some 18yr old kid. Nike thought it was way cool, finds the kid, and has him do a whole Nike series of similar animations for them. Nice sell out.
Note: When you watch the first animation, there's a blatant I-know-nothing-about-Asia-at-all-doh blunder, where he talks about the Chinese, but depicts them bathing in an onsen under a Japanese flag. I found that pretty funny. Maybe this is the true hidden Chinese psyche. It sure is for the Taiwanese.
October 18, 2004
Bush + Busey + Ferrets = ?
"Leave it to Bush" is a weird little flash cartoon that uses ferrets and the real voices of Gary Busey and George W. Bush to make a point about campaign finance reform. Or butt sex. Or maybe both.
[From: memepool.com]
October 17, 2004
#1 in something
Hey, it always nice being #1 in something.
Today 3q2u is #1 on Google for the search term "cool jail entertainment."
You never know what you will become #1 for...
In other news:
--the weather is finally to the point where you can actually put on something when planning to go out rather than thinking about taking something off.
--it didn't rain for the first Double 10 day in 15 years.
--my dogs have learned that chasing scooters out of our alley is cool jail entertainment.
--tonight the staff are going to Sound of Music. I'll pass and veg at a coffee shop or hang out with Jerry, or maybe just sit on the corner of Ren Ai and Keelung and watch traffic. The hills are not alive for me tonight.
--I've transferred some of my jazz improvisational skills over to shot making.
When Keiji and Eiji were in town (see below) we drank far too much, and part of my 3rd stage of enlightenment was creating shots based on the names of famous jazz standards with some color in them. (On Green Dolphin Street, Society Red, Kind of Blue, Black Nile, etc). 2 of the shots were actually delicious, and will probably make it to the Living Room menu.
September 29, 2004
Next gadget
I want one of these.
July 23, 2004
Go Lance!
Nike has captured how great it is to ride a bike.
July 08, 2004
Inventive Americans
Who was the most important American inventor of the past two centuries?
I found this forum link on the MIT Technology Review. There are votes for Kettering, Tesla, and Edison.
I'm in favor of George Washington Carver. I like my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
May 19, 2004
Shower Curtain Quirks
Q: Why does the shower curtain blow into the bathtub, not out into the room?
This always annoyed me. Now I know.
April 29, 2004
Love and other catastrophes...
They should have added one more, "I Wanna Be Your Dog," Iggy Pop.
April 15, 2004
Rare candor
in a rare moment of candor, Washington insiders discuss the size of their penis sizes...
March 31, 2004
Do you know your porn star name?
Find out your porn star name!
I'm Peppy Tomari...
February 01, 2004
Sneeze sexy?
Japanese women in bikinis sneezing is way out there.
January 29, 2004
Root of SARS found
Dr. Christian Holm, noted genome reseacher has posted his findings about the root of all SARS.
January 25, 2004
Cool jail entertainment
I dunno, I appreciate well built sites. My online entertainment for today is The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Division of Community Corrections in Lexington, Kentucky.
The past 24 hours booking section is very amusing.
The virtual tour allows you to see what your incarceration will look like.
You can see what jobs are available.
You can find the ladies' man who has absolutely no luck with moving vehicles.
...and the guy who never learns.
...and the bar fly junkie ex-strip club dancer from the 70's.
..and even the happy jazz drummer who knows the booking procedure all too well.
January 06, 2004
2nd Level of Hell
I have come to a place mute of all light, where the wind bellows as the sea does in a tempest. This is the realm where the lustful spend eternity. Here, sinners are blown around endlessly by the unforgiving winds of unquenchable desire as punishment for their transgressions. The infernal hurricane that never rests hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine, whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them. I have betrayed reason at the behest of my appetite for pleasure, and so here I am doomed to remain. Cleopatra and Helen of Troy are two that share in my fate.
2nd level is a bummer. It's hot. People are rude. But Cleo and I have this thing going on. (If only she would leave that damned snake out of the bed...)
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished me to the Second Level of Hell!
I'm at the Second Level with my lustful friend Christofu who forced me to commit sinful acts with him in college, and never ever updates his blog:
| Level | Score |
|---|---|
| Purgatory (Repenting Believers) | Very Low |
| Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) | Low |
| Level 2 (Lustful) | Very High |
| Level 3 (Gluttonous) | High |
| Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) | Moderate |
| Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) | High |
| Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) | Low |
| Level 7 (Violent) | High |
| Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) | High |
| Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) | High |
Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test
January 04, 2004
I'm JFK
OK, so it's Sunday, I'm zoning out looking at people's blogs, and I stumble across "What Famous Leader Are You?" and I know deep in my bones I'm either a Roosevelt or JFK, but I take the test anyway, and of course, and there you have it, I'm JFK. Just read "The Switch" from a few days ago for pure blonde proof.
I've never figured out whether it's pronounced "Moe's (like owned by one of three stooges) or Moss (like that guy out of Bonanza), but the one down the hill from me is open until 2am most days, which means that if I get out of the club early enough, I can catch the best burger in town, the muo si la bao or the Spicy Mos Burger. They have lots of jalapenos and 
