With Both Hands - Comments

Ben Espen comments on The Goodreads 100

Ben Espen — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:03:25 +0000

I wish I could say I never met anyone who enjoyed Ulysses, but my uncle once went to Dublin for Bloomsday

Tom comments on The Goodreads 100

Tom — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:00:08 +0000

I'm laughing in agreement about ~~Ulysses~~.

Ben Espen comments on Railside Report and Publicly Funded Research

Ben Espen — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:45:01 +0000

Nice graph, thanks!

Tom comments on Railside Report and Publicly Funded Research

Tom — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:57:03 +0000

Somewhat related, the Patently-O blog has a graph depicting the rise of Copyright:
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/01/patent-versus-copyright.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

In my brief estimation, the presence of patents have been more-or-less the same for the last century, whereas copyrights have become an ever increasing pain in the butt.

Ben Espen comments on Railside Report and Publicly Funded Research

Ben Espen — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:05:27 +0000

I agree, the patent system seems to fill it's purpose well. Sometimes I do wonder about copyright though....

Tom comments on Railside Report and Publicly Funded Research

Tom — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:00:40 +0000

I'm a bit sensitive when others (not you, not here) attack patents as being some form of theft from the public without acknowledging/understanding the benefits of the associated public disclosures. A strong patent will cite as much related information as possible, putting the citations all in front of the Examiner and on the face of the patent. The cited non-patent literature can be pulled from the publicly available file history as a PDF. No paywalls, no surcharges. The patent itself will outline the weakness of the prior art, describe their solution, and enable other skilled practitioners to do the same.

I often think of all the great stuff that was introduced to the public 15 years ago and patented 20 years ago. In 1998 we had Multimedia Extensions (MMX) for the Pentium Processor, HIV Protease Inhibitors, PDAs, Viagra, most of the tools for modern internet, and sliced bread. If I was enterprising, I could make Pentium II chips in my garage and nobody could stop me (in the general sense, setting aside practical considerations). And that's great.

On Sep. 16, the K-Cup coffee pod patent expired, and the market has recently exploded with generic pods and competitive brewing machines. The K-Cup owners recouped their investment and now I drink my coffee one cup at a time, fresh. And that's great.

As always, my response here stumbled around before going anywhere, but my point is that the limited monopoly offered by the government for protection of patents comes at the cost of quality disclosure to the public, and that's great.

MM comments on Mother Road Brewery wins gold at US Open Beer Championship

MM — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:34:56 +0000

Thank you for the post. We are excited for our first brewery medal. Cheers!

Tom comments on Conan in Symphony

Tom — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:19:52 +0000

What daring!

What outrageousness!

What insolence!

What arrogance!

I salute you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-QCKv37_bI

Ben Espen comments on Concealed Carry in Establishments that Serve Alcohol

Ben Espen — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 03:45:18 +0000

I have no idea whether that is true, but it would be a nice side effect.

Samatha@Nanny Background Check comments on Concealed Carry in Establishments that Serve Alcohol

Samatha@Nanny Background Check — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 06:14:23 +0000

I heard that the concealed weapons permit in the State of Arizona is doing well. Since having it requires a certain person to have a background check, criminal and fraud cases had lessen ever since the permit was approved.