Posts from July 2007
July 28, 2007
How obvious is obvious?
KSR v. Teleflex: The Supreme Court's Big Patent Ruling
This is a really really big deal, as it's at the same time a way to get rid of dumb patents clogging up the courts, but also kicking innovation in the balls. If you want a sense of the importance the Supreme Court ruling in KSR v. Teleflex, read this article and this article.
I liked this comment the best:
The KSR decision is the ultimate victory of the liberal arts majors over the technical people. While inventors need substantial investment backing to protect their inventions, lyricists, authors, essayists, movie makers, music composers, etc., need only to declare a copyright. Inventors must submit their work to a bureaucracy that decides if the invention is "obvious" or not. Before KSR there was, at least, established criteria for deciding the question of obviousness. That is gone now. Now the bureaucracy can do what it wants.
In the artistic fields, how would an artist feel about submitting his work to a group, operating without criteria, that would decide if the ideas expressed were totally new or had evolved from some previous ideas (the prior art) before allowing a copyright to issue?
Empty the engineering schools. Technical people dream of the day when their good idea will get them a valuable patent some day. The dream, never a guarantee, usually doesn¡¦t work out but now there is no dream at all. I shall set aside my math, physics, chemistry, and engineering resources and work on my lyrics (to be copyrighted, of course) for a great hip hop song about the 9 Supreme Court hoes.
July 27, 2007
Air con
It's an idle hum
That makes my legs feel real cold
But it's worse outside
July 26, 2007
This is worth a look
These guys want to do something at my club...
Go Li Ning!
When I was 11 I had to have a pair of Pumas.
When I was 12 I had to have a pair of Ponys.
When I was 15 I had to have a pair of Reeboks
When I was 16 I had to have a pair of Cons.
When I was 18 I had to have a pair of Adidas.
When I was 20 I had to have a pair of Jack Purcells.
When I was 25 I had to have a pair of New Balances.
When I was 30 I had to have a pair of Nikes.
When I am 42 I have to have a pair of Li Nings.
These Li Ning stores are everywhere in China. The store girls are cute, the stuff is comfortable, and they are probably made in the same factory as the rest of the shoes I've been wearing all my life. Plus, they are uber cool.
July 24, 2007
Dream gig
I don't get to talk much music with my corporate crowd, but that doesn't mean I don't always think about it, even subconsciously when I'm asleep.
Last night I dreamt I had my soprano with me at some banker gathering, and someone urged me to play something, so I started playing the bass line to a mambo, and build from there. Before I knew it I had a nice arrangement worked up, and the bass player in the band at the gathering caught the changes, picked it up and let me deal with the melody.
I didn't know it while this was all happening, but I was actually playing "It's Only a Paper Moon," which was so disguised that I had no idea I was even playing it. I've never played that song as a mambo, or even heard it played as a mambo, but it worked out beautifully, and I woke up humming a nice mambo groove to get me moving in the morning.
July 16, 2007
What you gonna do?
What about the local media reports?
Like dumplings stuffed with cardboard?
Or local movies like Dumplings: Three Extremes?
The list could go on, but sometimes you just have to tell yourself, "I'm here, I have to deal with it. What other choice do I have?"
July 10, 2007
Hoop dreams
I was playing guard for a college basketball team, and was the only white guy on the court. Besides that, I was 20 years older than everyone else, and the shortest guy by at least 6 inches. We had no fans, and the coach didn't seem to have any problem with a huffing puffing old guy struggling up and down the court. Actually no one seemed to notice. When I got the ball, I either shot or passed. When someone came barrelling towards me, I got in the way. Those were my basic survival skills in the NCAA.
Given this sudden new predicament in life, I realized that there was no way to run with the pack, so I did strange things that made the fans laugh. I'd pass to the refs. I'd trip over the bench spilling Gatorade all over the other team. I'd fall crotch first into the TV cameras.
People started coming out. Just to see the show. And the team started playing better. Best of all I could even touch the rim.
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 
