I spent the weekend in Austin with my dad who has written a nice post about his experience with me. We ate, hung out, ate some more, wandered around, saw a shitty movie, had a fantastic dinner with friends, went for a run, and enjoyed being together. We’ve been doing this for five years. My rules are simple – we go anywhere he wants and I pay for everything.
This weekend with my dad is one of the work-life balance things that I do on an annual basis. I’ve got several of these that make up the rhythm of my non-work life, including the annual Feld Men’s trip, my month in Alaska during the summer with Amy, and my quarterly "total disconnect" vacations with Amy.
As I sat on the flight home and reflected on the weekend, I realize how precious the 48 hours we spend alone together once a year are. My dad is turning 70 next month and – while he’s in great shape for a 70 year old – we both know that neither he nor I are immortal. We occasionally discuss heavy things like this, although this year we mostly just chilled out together.
Life is a special experience. I’m lucky I’ve gotten to spend so much time – especially as an adult – with my father. And I’m really glad that I figured out early enough the value of creating annual rhythms to keep things in balance.
I’m an abolitionist. I believe software patents should be abolished. I’ve started pounding the drum about this and am delighted to hear as many positive responses to my plea as I have. While a few people argue with me about the validity of software patents, most nod their heads up and down in agreement with me. I get plenty of skeptical looks when I say "software patents should be abolished" (as in – c’mon Brad, be realistic), but a guy needs to have goals, right?
Jason Haislmaier – an IP lawyer at Holme, Roberts & Owen – has written an relevant post titled So, Just How Patentable is Software Anyway? While Congress spins its wheels over patent report, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) is holding an en banc review for the In Re Bilski case. Jason does a nice job of covering the implications and the potential outcomes of this. He also tosses in some fun court gossip that one of the judges is hinting that there will be significant discussion about the patentability of computer software that will go all the way to the Supreme Court.
These are potentially important events in the troubled history of software patents.
Mitchell Ashley has an excellent post up titled Fail Early, Fail Often. I’m seeing a little more chatter about failure, introspection about how it feels, and suggestions about how to turn it into a positive (or at least effective) experience making the rounds.
As someone who has experienced a lot of success and failure, I’m glad to see more people talking about failure in the blogosphere. It’s a key part of the entrepreneurial experience. It’s also an integral part of life that cannot be denied. While it’s a lot more fun to succeed, it’s important to understand how to deal with failure.
My friend Bruce Wyman – who is the Director of Technology at the Denver Art Museum – turned me on to Gordon Ramsay‘s Kitchen Nightmares. Early this morning I discovered that Micah Baldwin – who runs Business Development for Lijit – is also a huge fan. Micah has a great post up for all entrepreneurs titled 5 Lessons Learned From Gordon Ramsay. Sometimes broccoli soup is just broccoli is a line I’ll be using for the next few weeks (until I discover a better one.)
While we are thinking about Lijit, Alex Iskold over at AdaptiveBlue just wrote about the integration of Lijit into the latest version of AdaptiveBlue’s BlueOrganizer. You can now Search Lijit Right From the Context Menu. I’m an investor in both Lijit and AdaptiveBlue and love how they fit nicely together like chocolate and peanut butter.
On my way into the office this morning, I heard Stay by Lisa Loeb on the radio. When I was growing up in Dallas, my parents were friends with Lisa’s parents and I was friends (for a little while) with Lisa’s brother Ben. Lisa was my brother Daniel’s age but they / we didn’t go to the same school so we rarely saw each other.
When I got to the office I typed Lisa Loeb into Wikipedia and quickly caught up on her musical career (both good and bad), her old boyfriends, and her TV experience. I also found out that she collects Hello Kitty stuff which I probably could have inferred from her choice in glasses, but was pleased to see confirmed by the brilliance of Wikipedia.
I decided to look up another childhood friend that is now a rock star – Aaron Comess (the drummer for the Spin Doctors.) Again, the Comesses were friends of my parents, Aaron was my brother’s age, and for a while I was friends with Andy – we didn’t go to school together, but I think we went to Sunday school (the Dallas reformed Jewish version of religious school) together. Unlike Lisa, Aaron doesn’t rate his own Wikipedia page.
Pretty cool – my bro hung out with two rock stars when he was a teenager. And Wikipedia helped bring back some memories while catching me up on the last 20 years.
I am delighted to see the addition of several new mentors for the 2008 edition of TechStars including Jeff Clavier (SoftTech VC), Matt Mullenweg (Automattic / WordPress.com), Dick Costolo (FeedBurner/Google), Eric Marcouller (MyBlogLog/Yahoo), Jeff Nolan (NewsGator), and Josh Hug (Shelfari). They join the incredible list of 50+ mentors for 2008 just waiting to help your new company this summer.
Eight of the ten companies from last summer are now profitable or have been funded beyond TechStars. Based on the applications and interest we have seen so far, this summer looks like it may turn out to be even more exciting.
The application deadline for TechStars is March 31. If you apply by March 3rd, we’d love for you to come and hang out with us on TechStars For A Day on March 5th.
Yes – I know that phrase is yucky. That’s why Eric Norlin needs your help. He’s put out A Call for Ideas and Language surrounding Defrag 2008.
If any of the above phrases speak to you, go to Eric’s post and give him your thoughts.
Philip Greenspun has an excellent essay up on the web titled Internet Software Patents. He sets the tone by suggesting that "the natural progression of an industry is innovation, consolidation, then litigation." Philip better be careful of he’s going to be spending a lot of time in East Marshall, Texas.
His decomposition of U.S. Patent 5367627 and analysis is straightforward and highlights the absurdity of this stuff. Philip also asks "Are computer nerds smarter today than they were in the 1960’s" and provides a nice annotated timeline of Internet and e-commerce.
Does anyone know if the USPTO examiners are allowed to use Google Patent Search in their evaluation / review process?
Ross loves it. I saw it yesterday and Vista looks great on it. I’m getting one.