I’ve been in a reading slump lately – I just haven’t felt like reading.  This happens sometimes and whenever I break my "at least two books a week" rhythm, I just roll with it until it changes. Yesterday was a three book day.  I absorbed the books into my brain as though it was meant […]

A few weeks ago MIT refreshed its OpenCourseWare project.  This project – in which MIT shares curriculum, lecture notes, exams, and other material from over 1700 projects – is amazing. The project was launched in 2002 by computer science professor Hal Abelson with 32 courses.  I took 6.001: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs from Abelson […]

I was delighted to wake up this morning. I’m delighted to wake up every morning, but this is a particular beautiful sunny Saturday in Boulder, Colorado which means I can cuddle up to my computer and catch up a little (ok – and go for a long run.) My inner feeling of delight was improved […]

I predict that 2008 will be the year that the software patent situation finally goes critical and the nuclear meltdown in the reactor begins.  Two things happened today that are notable: the gigantically stupid $1.52 billion judgment for Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft was overturned and a hard to find company named Aloft Media sued Microsoft and […]

In my never ending – often Don Quixote like – quest against absurd software patents, I must pause in the midst of my day and give a standing ovation to Judge William Schwarzer (San Francisco – Federal) for dismissing a lawsuit from Friskit Inc. against RealNetworks citing the Supreme Court’s April ruling in KSR v. […]

I am anti-software patents.  Lest you think I’m simply a reactionary, I’ve been thinking about this since 1987 when I started studying sources of innovation under Eric von Hippel at MIT as my research in a Ph.D. program which I never completed.  For the last 20 years, I’ve thought that copyright and trade secrets were adequate […]

Timothy Lee of the Cato Institute has an outstanding Op-Ed in the New York Times today titled A Patent Lie.  He makes an assertion that I strongly share: “But don’t software companies need patent protection? In fact, companies, especially those that are focused on innovation, don’t: software is already protected by copyright law, and there’s […]

I am often asked “what the state government in Colorado should do to help promote entrepreneurship and innovation.”  My answer is consistent – “education, education, education.”  I went to school at MIT and saw first hand how one of the best “communities of higher education” in the world (Cambridge / Boston) directly impacted Massachusetts activity […]

Our friendly neighborhood Supreme Court is having some fun discussing the current legal definition of “patent obviousness.”  It sounds like there were some entertaining snippets in the conversation as the Supreme Court considers rewriting it.  A change here would have a wide ranging impact which – in my mind – based on my previously stated […]