I've always been a very fast typist; many people I've worked with have noticed and commented on my typing speed. An Indian contractor I was working with wanted to know how I got that fast -- had I taken a class or used some typing training software that he could use so he could become as fast. I told him it was just something that came naturally to me and that I didn't really think typing speed was very important for software developers, because actually typing in code is a very small part of the process. But it seemed to bother him a lot. He said that if he was typing in a "for .. next" loop and I was typing in a "for .. next" loop, I would get mine done faster. I kept telling him I didn't have any special tricks for typing fast and that he shouldn't worry about it. But he just wouldn't buy it; he genuinely seemed to believe I was withholding something from him so I would have what he saw as an edge over him. I've always thought that the importance he attached to typing speed was kind of strange.

There should be an algorithm for that.

Either pay-as-you-go will work as a sustainable business model and become the norm, or it won't. Debates among armchair economists won't affect the outcome. If IP stakeholders start attacking pay-as-you-go with PR campaigns, lawyers, and Congressional whores, then you'll know it's definitely working.

I used to work with an old guy whose job was to run the catapult on a carrier during the Korean War. He had some good stories about stuff they launched off the deck to "test" the catapult. The best one was an aircraft tractor that had been wrecked during a drag race below decks. Boredom and sailors don't mix.

a huge win for a slick lobbying campaign run by liberal activist groups and foundations. The losers are likely to be consumers who will see innovation and investment chilled...

Yep, typical Murdoch Street Journal editorial, didn't read the rest. I used to actually read the Journal when it was an objective paper with a conservative slant. Now it's essentially Fox Financial News. Much of their news writing contains Limbaugh-esque omissions and half truths. Their OpEd formula is to blame something on liberals in the lead paragraph, recite standard Republican Party litany, continue until trimmed for space. It's no longer the reliable source of information it once was. It's a very sad vandalism of an American institution by a mercenary bastard.

Think what the business world would be like if someone had been allowed to patent: "Process for storing products in boxes in a warehouse and later moving them to shelves in a retail store."

USPTO patent approvers should do that. Especially the thinking part.

No more long lines at the gene sequencing place!
No more frantically pulling everything out of the glove compartment looking for $1 million in change.
- sigh, that's all I got

Agreed. I bet the Ferengi version would be even more twisted and cuddly.

Probably the same way they rationalize getting their butts kicked trying to take over Deep Space Nine that one time. Epic fail, deeply disappointing.

It claims that a human female was somehow involved in this.

This will complement some of their other programs:
Operation Masked Government
Locate Open Leaks
Reduce Our Federal Loopholes

Just scrawl "Liberal Socialists Doing Scary Bad Stuff!" on the screen in permanent marker and look at it every five minutes.

Anybody know where the article went? The linked blog entry is tagged "leather case" and "crash" but says nothing about either.

There are already varying degrees of "public," for example a kid's artwork hanging on the wall in the school hallway is only semi-public, because access to the school is semi-controlled. But if something can be seen from the sidewalk, literally anyone in the entire world could walk by at any time and look at it, same as if it's on the Internet. I don't think your distinction between "public" and "on the Internet" makes sense.

Actually some pretty good music comes out of Nigeria. Especially if you like jazz.