tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94453922024-03-23T11:54:40.884-06:00Bruce HaydenJust my musings. Politically, a little right of center. By profession, I am a patent attorney, specializing in software and electronics (www.softpats.com). I can be reached at bhayden at softpats.com, ieee.org, or highdown.com.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.comBlogger1068125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-9888920304687000162008-09-07T15:31:00.000-06:002008-09-07T15:33:08.104-06:00Obama as SarumanObama as Saruman (LOR):<blockquote>“…Those who listened unwarily to that voice could seldom report the words that they heard: and if they did, they wondered, for little power remained in them. Mostly they remembered only that it was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire awoke within them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves…”</blockquote>Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-48558819756714065802008-09-06T18:45:00.003-06:002008-09-06T18:51:43.276-06:00Obama and Palin riding their bikesAn example why Obama is in trouble. <br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWXZdIYLeax1ilLkRnOfqlj0Yz4D9KnAurkcDs_6f0PYDyoO85_ycMbaN0d8IndWUEk_pvLkMccrs8UDNwgxttLTye5BrL87UjBVDw7z7d71Sjl8amFUMrWaDBRMxUIYQZ33gMQ/s1600-h/obama_rides_bicyclecopy.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWXZdIYLeax1ilLkRnOfqlj0Yz4D9KnAurkcDs_6f0PYDyoO85_ycMbaN0d8IndWUEk_pvLkMccrs8UDNwgxttLTye5BrL87UjBVDw7z7d71Sjl8amFUMrWaDBRMxUIYQZ33gMQ/s400/obama_rides_bicyclecopy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="Obama on bicycle, Palin with motorcycle" /></a>Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-6236416001485037962008-09-02T00:15:00.001-06:002008-09-02T00:16:40.750-06:00U.S. hands back a quieter Anbar Province - International Herald Tribune<a href="http://iht.com/articles/2008/09/01/mideast/iraq.php">U.S. hands back a quieter Anbar Province - International Herald Tribune</a>:<blockquote>RAMADI, Iraq: Two years ago, Anbar Province was the most lethal place for American forces in Iraq. A U.S. marine or soldier died in the province nearly every day, and the provincial capital, Ramadi, was a moonscape of rubble and ruins. Islamic extremists controlled large pieces of territory, with some so ferocious in their views that they did not even allow the baking of bread.<br /><br />On Monday, U.S. commanders formally returned responsibility for keeping order in Anbar Province, once the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, to the Iraqi Army and police. The ceremony, including a parade on a freshly paved street, capped one of the most significant turnabouts in the country since the war began five and a half years ago.</blockquote>This was the province that two years ago was considered lost, but thanks to the Surge and the Sunni Awakening, it has been pacified.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-20594349054066333202008-07-17T12:12:00.003-06:002008-07-17T12:21:22.556-06:00Vista searching - using my Mac to find stuff on my Vista laptopLast night I lost my toolbars in Visio 2003 on my laptop. I figured, no problem, I have saved the local configuration files, etc. for the various Office products. So, I figured that one of the files I needed to replace was Visio11.pip. That shouldn't be hard to find, should it? It probably would have taken maybe 5 minutes to scan my 40 gb hard drive under Windows XP or 2K. But Vista? Couldn't find it. Period. Couldn't even find the old version on the desktop. <br /><br />So, what did I do to find it? I mounted my hard drive on my desktop Mac, and then used the Mac Finder Find command. It took about 5 minutes across the network for my Mac to find the files that Vista couldn't find on the system running Vista.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-70809705864532021622008-07-16T19:21:00.010-06:002008-07-16T20:17:25.368-06:00Status in IraqCurrent status in Iraq, thanks to <a href="http://www.mnf-iraq.com/">MNF-Iraq:</a><br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyx_J6AM1vJ09SXoCt5KKSznpf1PS9VkEdFC-EW4PHSdPLGLuiFqy9f6jWqssHt7S83R9wJIxd1tKdTDCycdXIBWO4guKj_K-Zlis3-7ectVTBKtoIOv8Oq1b1QLxH43SCMEpng/s1600-h/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P1.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyx_J6AM1vJ09SXoCt5KKSznpf1PS9VkEdFC-EW4PHSdPLGLuiFqy9f6jWqssHt7S83R9wJIxd1tKdTDCycdXIBWO4guKj_K-Zlis3-7ectVTBKtoIOv8Oq1b1QLxH43SCMEpng/s400/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223788088907254498" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOOPHQ_xAyhmAEFmO8VZuHEsl4Bjq7qalEkgsSPlkjD2UqH2Ojt5Za_fLBQ72a1FEFY_HTdC0ChB4-WF1nghyphenhyphenB5u31o1iaCoPpP3qguwoe3-sEMjj2az3OaQ6ynjyraGOXCteoBQ/s1600-h/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P2.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOOPHQ_xAyhmAEFmO8VZuHEsl4Bjq7qalEkgsSPlkjD2UqH2Ojt5Za_fLBQ72a1FEFY_HTdC0ChB4-WF1nghyphenhyphenB5u31o1iaCoPpP3qguwoe3-sEMjj2az3OaQ6ynjyraGOXCteoBQ/s400/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223787976039306130" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq7IvQusDxiEP_krW3UU6zqw2UmgVmxE3CQCBeL7gz9rJA05-QXG6flhfV68ZEwhTwczQu4Qd6xT_TLKakmn1zRH-6TZJtXsUh7a5YPygAyGl9I1S-e13RFt0zlfrL3b0U8NUqwQ/s1600-h/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P3.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq7IvQusDxiEP_krW3UU6zqw2UmgVmxE3CQCBeL7gz9rJA05-QXG6flhfV68ZEwhTwczQu4Qd6xT_TLKakmn1zRH-6TZJtXsUh7a5YPygAyGl9I1S-e13RFt0zlfrL3b0U8NUqwQ/s400/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223787871299724338" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHjobCXpNuhooH8h7FkFMQnIweW4vm4o0nOscdlz-JUIkeKaHJ9QesAXUKXUJ20bsVLEe37_o2mSqmb-4yojBIbL8Zls8Opg5YvUXeBNEI8RDi3ZlaSkBE4jgOORFyexfcYxhLQ/s1600-h/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P4.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHjobCXpNuhooH8h7FkFMQnIweW4vm4o0nOscdlz-JUIkeKaHJ9QesAXUKXUJ20bsVLEe37_o2mSqmb-4yojBIbL8Zls8Opg5YvUXeBNEI8RDi3ZlaSkBE4jgOORFyexfcYxhLQ/s400/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223787564136858258" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQOZw75dBTuw4sLZzhrSKsrAaPqL3-ghgQepRKNbG7Fr5YWQSq-VU-TT27vSGDrursF0ijKTZx5rUI2FqhlrhFC5kpBO0qTvd_vNyeGAl8E-hNRy0Y9iC4IzRcCGkDXlvu8DW1w/s1600-h/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P5.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQOZw75dBTuw4sLZzhrSKsrAaPqL3-ghgQepRKNbG7Fr5YWQSq-VU-TT27vSGDrursF0ijKTZx5rUI2FqhlrhFC5kpBO0qTvd_vNyeGAl8E-hNRy0Y9iC4IzRcCGkDXlvu8DW1w/s400/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223787439223384866" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIQx4spaxBVut4WQKhyphenhyphenjm0ktJAxduUObNn2aY_9B0KnoleykBmS82Uw_7__itwAOiPVm2V6l297tGVhxZT7uPeFSBT-MtX5hcgJhSgTyZQfgYiXa_wYi9_56ZwM074pKbmvCoRmQ/s1600-h/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P6.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIQx4spaxBVut4WQKhyphenhyphenjm0ktJAxduUObNn2aY_9B0KnoleykBmS82Uw_7__itwAOiPVm2V6l297tGVhxZT7uPeFSBT-MtX5hcgJhSgTyZQfgYiXa_wYi9_56ZwM074pKbmvCoRmQ/s400/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223787303490203362" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6gexySe-HGsO9_gIrGT3SZw_moPNSvjnFhEO3WTubVB3GTxPgzNgmgeKV_ZDozpTObdAaAcAFvgiPUnd4DBmc1nTnl-lJW9d_tuxdeOfRezgR4YUHuFho5bZrywPEF0UyBmNQw/s1600-h/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P7.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6gexySe-HGsO9_gIrGT3SZw_moPNSvjnFhEO3WTubVB3GTxPgzNgmgeKV_ZDozpTObdAaAcAFvgiPUnd4DBmc1nTnl-lJW9d_tuxdeOfRezgR4YUHuFho5bZrywPEF0UyBmNQw/s400/MNF-I_Stats_07052008.P7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223787144873072898" /></a>Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-83478412209781708342008-07-15T19:40:00.006-06:002008-07-16T20:01:35.054-06:00Saturday bomb scare closes 395 in Minden<a href="http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20080715/NEWS/918798647/1001&parentprofile=1049">Saturday bomb scare closes 395 in Minden</a>: Highway 395 at the north end of Minden was closed for two hours Saturday while bomb squad officials checked out a suspicious vehicle parked at Stewart Title after the driver was arrested on traffic charges. <br /><br />Here is a picture of the car:<br><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAe-kCYECi1_cWynQdLykmxRgJ3wP809C4ILYYjeUoUsEdKroktKgoYsr2Hut56_GLHmVPktosKu1967exuwY6lJANE9T835IM2scq8Ly32IKZLTvVaduWek5pt19uk1qelW47PA/s1600-h/bomb1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAe-kCYECi1_cWynQdLykmxRgJ3wP809C4ILYYjeUoUsEdKroktKgoYsr2Hut56_GLHmVPktosKu1967exuwY6lJANE9T835IM2scq8Ly32IKZLTvVaduWek5pt19uk1qelW47PA/s400/bomb1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223421248680342402" /></a><br>And a picture of the wacko driving it:<br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaqQbPwldTZPRjwYk7Iq_jguEShw1Tox2VkrSekiES5jRt12DlFBCABm8Lf7RqSaI7JVmgKDw05jILEuUjpiqV54qQXIZTp85MywDkML8fGzmonUF9kArvnJ5zg3aNF-LAayavlA/s1600-h/bomb2.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaqQbPwldTZPRjwYk7Iq_jguEShw1Tox2VkrSekiES5jRt12DlFBCABm8Lf7RqSaI7JVmgKDw05jILEuUjpiqV54qQXIZTp85MywDkML8fGzmonUF9kArvnJ5zg3aNF-LAayavlA/s400/bomb2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223421084282052578" /></a><br>What is the relevance of this?<br /><br />I took a job about nine months ago in Minden as a patent attorney with Sierra Patent Group, which was merged into Lewis and Roca LLP in April. And our offices are upstairs from Stewart Title. <br /><br />I worked Saturday, but didn't see the commotion in the parking lot. It may have happened before I got in, or while I was upstairs. If the later, if I had known, I would have had a ringside seat for all the excitement.<br /><br />Update: It turns out that I was at work at the time, but the general consensus was that if I had looked out the office window, I probably would have been cleared out of the building, since it was adjacent to what was believed at the time to be a potential bomb.<br /><br />Here is one of his business cards, picked up today from the parking lot:<br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicwQjC-5HM_L_Kj9QA_6Vwi-KNck4crG-NhNZxH34efUDJuap13v0XrA6Ha8TqyfM-m18FxdLbzLmDQCAH8EeW9apSeBGR0sYcLG_GEO6Rf3GTacfTYRxdJF90WIepwPqKB61xXQ/s1600-h/S75BW-108071618470.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicwQjC-5HM_L_Kj9QA_6Vwi-KNck4crG-NhNZxH34efUDJuap13v0XrA6Ha8TqyfM-m18FxdLbzLmDQCAH8EeW9apSeBGR0sYcLG_GEO6Rf3GTacfTYRxdJF90WIepwPqKB61xXQ/s400/S75BW-108071618470.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223796826320954770" /></a>Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-26938051405660488022008-04-24T21:40:00.001-06:002008-04-24T21:41:58.360-06:00Microsoft Profit Drops; Forecast May Miss Estimates<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQ7_iN1SxJ.c&refer=worldwide">Microsoft Profit Drops; Forecast May Miss Estimates</a>:<blockquote> Microsoft Corp. declined 5 percent in extended trading after it reported an 11 percent drop in third-quarter profit and forecast earnings that may miss analysts' estimates as Windows software sales fell.<br /><br />Net income dropped to $4.39 billion, or 47 cents a share, from $4.93 billion, or 50 cents, a year ago. Revenue was little changed at $14.5 billion, matching analysts' estimates and disappointing investors looking for more after industry reports showed better-than-expected demand for personal computers.<br /><br />The world's biggest software maker said sales of Windows for PCs sank 24 percent and revenue from its online advertising unit came in at the low end of its projections. Microsoft's report contrasted with positive comments from chipmaker Intel Corp. and computer company International Business Machines Corp.</blockquote>Could it be that Windows Vista sucks and as a result, a lot of people are not upgrading?Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-77359725306165062362008-04-24T21:34:00.000-06:002008-04-24T21:34:23.464-06:00Quake shakes downtown Reno; no damage immediately apparent<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/ap_on_re_us/reno_earthquake">Quake shakes downtown Reno</a>. I flew into Reno about 6 hours earlier, and was about 50 miles south of the quake and didn't know it had occurred until four hours later - which is probably a good thing.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-53240100507876955122008-03-09T19:01:00.001-06:002008-03-09T19:02:22.604-06:00Professor Lessig Is InMark Hemingway (National Review Online): <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDNhMzdlZDcwNTVlYzRiMzZkZDMxMzAyMmU5ZDg2MjY=">Professor Lessig Is In: Not running for Congress, but having an impact</a>. Lessig views himself as a liberal Democrat, but is now concerned with the inherent corruption of money in politics, and the quid pro quod we now see between political contributions and legislation, etc. <br /><br />What is hard to fathom from someone who seems to understand that the bigger the government, the more corrupt it is, how he can be a liberal Democrat, where the governing tenet seems to be that more government is better, and that government can be called upon to solve all of society's ills. And, if government failures are pointed out, the answer is invariably that those in government are corrupt, and that if smarter people were running things, government would work just fine. <br /><br />If Lessig continues along this route, he is likely to end up in the group most hated by the left, a neo-conservative, sometimes defined as a progressive mugged by reality.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-69083669051077328602008-02-26T18:45:00.002-07:002008-02-26T18:45:42.944-07:00Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global CoolingDailyTech: <a href="http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monitors+Report+Worldwide+Global+Cooling/article10866.htm"> - Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling</a>:<blockquote>Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming<br /><br />Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snow cover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.<br /><br />No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.</blockquote>Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-24035799601390433592008-02-25T19:23:00.001-07:002008-02-25T19:24:50.606-07:00Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age<a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289">Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age</a>:<blockquote>Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.<br /><br />The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."<br /><br />China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.</blockquote>Thank goodness that the consensus has won, and we all now know that Global Warming is going to end the world as we know it.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-149011773555341182008-02-11T16:29:00.000-07:002008-02-11T16:29:43.922-07:00Warming temps should end worst cold snap since 2000<a href="http://newsminer.com/news/2008/feb/11/warming-temps-should-end-worst-cold-snap-2000/">Warming temps should end worst cold snap since 2000</a>: <blockquote>While it was 48 degrees below zero at Fairbanks International Airport on Sunday, the coldest temperature recorded so far in Fairbanks’ worst cold snap in eight years, forecasters were calling for a significant warming trend beginning today.</blockquote>What ever happened to Global Warming?Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-46748847506996084302008-01-31T11:56:00.000-07:002008-01-31T11:56:51.018-07:00Sun's low magnetic activity may portend an ice ageBrits at their Best: <a href="http://www.britsattheirbest.com/001645.php">Sun's low magnetic activity may portend an ice age</a><blockquote>The Canadian Space Agency’s radio telescope has been reporting Flux Density Values so low they will mean a mini ice age if they continue.</blockquote>Uh oh. Has anyone told Al Gore about this yet?Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-74613672772338518842008-01-17T23:59:00.000-07:002008-01-18T03:33:56.290-07:00The Lewinsky DecadeBest of the Web Today: <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120058281612497651.html?mod=Best+of+the+Woneeb+Today">The Lewinsky Decade</a> starts out: "<span style="font-style:italic;">Ten years ago today came the most <a href="http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2002/01/17/20020117_175502_ml.htm">interesting Drudge missive</a></span>:"<blockquote>BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: 23-YEAR OLD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, SEX RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT<br /><br />**World Exclusive**<br /><br />**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**<br /><br />At the last minute, at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, NEWSWEEK magazine killed a story that was destined to shake official Washington to its foundation: A White House intern carried on a sexual affair with the President of the United States!<br /><br />The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that reporter Michael Isikoff developed the story of his career, only to have it spiked by top NEWSWEEK suits hours before publication. A young woman, 23, sexually involved with the love of her life, the President of the United States, since she was a 21-year-old intern at the White House. She was a frequent visitor to a small study just off the Oval Office where she claims to have indulged the president's sexual preference. Reports of the relationship spread in White House quarters and she was moved to a job at the Pentagon, where she worked until last month.</blockquote>The rest is history. Bill Clinton was impeached, but not convicted. Monica's name became synonymous with oral sex. Hillary is running for president. The Republicans are in trouble. And Drudge is still one of the most reviled names on the left of the blogosphere, while Republican candidate Mitt Romney admitted checking it out a couple of times a day.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-16383140694012773272008-01-17T08:47:00.000-07:002008-01-17T08:56:39.642-07:00The Economics of MarriageInteresting article by the Undercover Economist, Tim Harford: <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2182089/entry/2182090/">The Economics of Marriage</a>. This should be read in concert with the <a href="http://bhayden.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-country-for-young-men.html#links">previous article by Megan McArdle: No Country for Young Men</a>. Together, the two articles make a lot of sense out of marriage, divorce, sex, college, and the pill. <br /><br />One of the interesting points here is the viewing of marriage through the lens of comparative advantage, and going all the way back to Adam Smith's pin makers. He posits that one of the reasons that we had stay-at-home moms for so long was that women had a comparative advantage in child raising, and that the combined wealth of both in a marriage was (often significantly) higher when the two specialized, just as Smith's pin makers did. When I was born, men would average 50 hours a week working outside the house, and women would average a similar number of hours in the home. But one thing that happened is that the 50 hours expended in the home has dropped significantly through automation. What he didn't mention, is that it also dropped considerably through smaller average family sizes (and, thus, fewer kids around the house, for a shorter period of time). Thus, the eon long bargain between men and women has broken down, resulting in significantly increased divorces, etc. Megan would point out that this caused the value of a college degree and profession to increase significantly for women.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-42515485965495022842008-01-17T08:35:00.000-07:002008-01-17T08:56:22.535-07:00No Country for Young MenMegan McArdle has a great article out on marriage and retirement of the Baby Boomers: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/aging-boomers">No Country for Young Men</a>. This should be read in connection with the <a href="http://bhayden.blogspot.com/2008/01/economics-of-marriage.html#links">next article: The Economics of Marriage by the Undercover Economist</a>.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-65990456033757622672008-01-15T20:56:00.000-07:002008-01-17T08:57:07.377-07:00Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software<a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3193480.ece">Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software </a>. Initially, I thought that this was a patent claiming computer operation by, for example, brain waves. But instead, it just hooks up the user of a computer to leads so that his employer can monitor heart rate, perspiration, etc. Much less cutting edge, and, more worrisome because of its ability to be misused. It shouldn't have any patentability problems whatsoever, indeed fewer than the typical software patents filed by MSFT.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-28332039074038367482008-01-15T20:48:00.000-07:002008-01-15T20:48:08.783-07:00Mike Nifong Bankrupt<a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0115084nifong1.html">Mike Nifong Bankrupt</a>. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. I did find interesting the $180,009,081.71 figure for total non-priority unsecured debt. Nothing like pulling a figure out of thin air, and then putting it through calculations to give such an exact sounding total.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-16506882247909886802007-11-01T08:10:00.000-06:002007-11-01T08:45:16.199-06:00Insanity at the USPTOFew outside the patent bar realize what has been going on over the last month or so in the realm of patents. It has been insane, and was supposed to have culminated last night, midnight EDT. <br /><br />Some time last winter or spring, the USPTO published some new rules for comment. The rules would have drastically changed patent practice, esp. in the realm of patent prosecution and claiming. By far, the biggest change in my 17 years of patent practice. Continuations, Continuations-in-Part (CIP), and Requests for Continuing Examinations (RCE) were to be limited to one or so per application. Claims were to be effectively limited to 25 total and 5 independent claims, with insanely onerous consequences for crossing those limits, making any patents crossing that line very expensive likely unenforcable. And to make matters worse, claims from applications filed about the same time with the same inventors would be combined for this purpose, leaving it up to the applicants and their attorneys to show that they shouldn't be combined by the USPTO. Oh, and the rules would be mostly retroactive.<br /><br />No surprise then that almost all the comments were extremely negative. So, with all the negative comments, the agency published the rules in August in the Federal Register, to become fully effective today. <br /><br />The rush was on. Continuations, CIPs, RCEs, and divisionals that could be filed before the deadline were filed. Of all those, only the pure continuations were easy. The RCEs required amendments to respond to prior office actions. Claim sets of pending applications were cut down to the 5/25 limit. <br /><br />Meanwhile, the USPTO was fumbling around. All cases exceeding the 5/25 claim rule were pulled from examiner's dockets, but then some were restored based on the hue and cry of practitioners, since the rule would only apply to applications that had not received their first Office Action by the 11/01/07 deadline. <br /><br />Because of the nature of the new rules and their effect on pending applications, at least three law suits were filed, the major one being by SmithKline Beecham, one of the biggest drug companies, filed in the ED of VA. The drug companies were especially concerned because they were likely to get hit the worst, though big companies in other industries were panicked too. The USPTO responded and was able to set the hearing for yesterday, Halloween, the day before the rules were to go into effect. And with this delay, a number of groups, including several former commissioners of the USPTO, filed amici briefs, universally condemning the new rules.<br /><br />So, that was where we were sitting early this week, as the patent bar was filing applications, etc. as fast as they could. No one could take the chance that that Court would let the rules go into effect today.<br /><br />In the end, sometime in the afternoon, the Court issued a preliminary injunction against the rules going into effect, at least until the Court could conduct a hearing on the merits. So, technically, I could have called it a day at that point, and gone out to celebrate. But I didn't, wrapping up what I was planning on finishing, and taking my leisure today. <br /><br />I would say that the big problem here was the staffing of the top of the USPTO by people who were not patent attorneys. Clinton's USPTO commissioner, Bruce Lehman, was a copyright attorney instead, but at least he did put patent attorneys in right below him. There seems to be a vacuum in the understanding of patent prosecution at the top of the agency right now, and that resulted in this attempt to implement rules that would have had de minimis effect on the patent prosecution backlog, but dramatic effect on the cost and enforceability of patents ultimately issued under the new rules.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-89547037152344093352007-11-01T08:09:00.000-06:002007-11-01T08:10:20.766-06:00Yon: Iraqi Islamic Party says, “Al Qaeda is Defeated.”More good news in Iraq by Michael Yon: <a href="http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/iraqi-islamic-party-says-al-qaeda-is-defeated.htm">Iraqi Islamic Party says, “Al Qaeda is Defeated.”</a> I love the end of this:<blockquote>“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans</blockquote>Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-61526087476940530052007-10-25T16:33:00.000-06:002007-10-25T16:33:16.133-06:00Man Sues Casino over $1.6 Million 'Jackpot'ABC News: <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3772215&page=1">Man Sues Casino over $1.6 Million 'Jackpot'</a> is an interesting situation. A man appears to win a jackpot at an Indian reservation slot machine. But then, the casino refuses to pay, claiming that it was a slot machine malfunction. If this were Nevada or Atlantic City gaming, he could probably sue the casino, but this is an Indian reservation with its own court system.<br /><br />But the article misses the ball here. The slot machine was made by, and likely owned by, International Gaming Technologies (IGT), which is by far the biggest slot machine company in at least the U.S. A couple of years ago, it was estimated that the company was making several times the winnings here a month on its Wheel of Fortune game, so it has the money.<br /><br />So, the logical answer to the guy's problem would be to sue IGT in U.S. District Ct. in N.M., and essentially ignore the casino, on the theory that IGT is the real party at interest, and under tort theories of negligence, fraud, etc., since: 1) they likely own the slot machine, and 2) it was apparently their software that screwed up.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-63788853833675471962007-09-18T09:24:00.000-06:002007-09-18T09:30:49.655-06:00Snow (#2)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLRa8yIOay7vnnnWQFrQthPiEondXxr4OdoxsbNPpXJ2E7Mfwq_-731MgopzFMB5ZOYl2_Lq2HuZLet-MK8C5-X3NWQ-qdoMg0BXEefmC0gq_tu8asp5aVwPDR7gOyvuD6BApjWg/s1600-h/IMG_0224-V2.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLRa8yIOay7vnnnWQFrQthPiEondXxr4OdoxsbNPpXJ2E7Mfwq_-731MgopzFMB5ZOYl2_Lq2HuZLet-MK8C5-X3NWQ-qdoMg0BXEefmC0gq_tu8asp5aVwPDR7gOyvuD6BApjWg/s400/IMG_0224-V2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111565671727910018" /></a><br>Today, the clouds are gone and we have our normal blue sky. Some of the snow seems to have melted, with most of the snow appearing to be above 12,000 feet.<br /><br />This is a picture from our balcony in Dillon looking south-west towards Breckenridge. The mountains shown are in the Ten Mile range and these peaks are the top of the Breckenridge ski area.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-44491941525575192022007-09-17T11:18:00.001-06:002007-09-17T11:28:58.787-06:00Snow!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPdK1LfUYLJ98HFAJjVqVkRzjieSD8WYb4M-hwg9bUS4sj_LfVWIgSq98EsWha1zIzLPtopJo3cNEg420nHHcLFmZhGhkv_LBZUh8AJKoCrwLKGeH6C6AFaVu-Mi843c_j4y_9yg/s1600-h/IMG_0223_V2.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPdK1LfUYLJ98HFAJjVqVkRzjieSD8WYb4M-hwg9bUS4sj_LfVWIgSq98EsWha1zIzLPtopJo3cNEg420nHHcLFmZhGhkv_LBZUh8AJKoCrwLKGeH6C6AFaVu-Mi843c_j4y_9yg/s400/IMG_0223_V2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111223886820428914" /></a><br>Looks like the first snow of the season here in Summit County, Colorado. The photo was taken just now at about 9,000 feet, so my guess is that the snow line is about 10,000 feet or so, which is about the base elevation of most of the ski areas in the county.<br /><br />You know when you are nearing ski season when you start having ski swaps. This last weekend, there was one in Breckenridge to benefit Team Summit ski and board team. Team Summit is a successor of the various ski area ski teams, including the Keystone ski team, which in turn is a successor to the A-Basin ski team that I raced for in high school, almost 40 years ago.<br /><br />I managed to survive the ski swap with only buying a new helmet and gloves. Last year at the Vail ski swap, I ended up buying two pair of skis, two pair of poles (identical, for when I break one), and a pair of boots (not for me). I did try on some boots and looked at skis, but already have one almost new pair of AT skis and should have new AT books on order - and the boots have both AT and Alpine soles that can be interchanged. <br /><br />So, ski season is just around the corner. I expect to be on skis by the end of October, maybe six weeks from now, and my brother will be even sooner for race training.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-80846418851246088612007-09-15T09:33:00.000-06:002007-09-15T09:39:53.112-06:00Althouse, Blogger, Firefox, and Vista<a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/">Ann Althouse's blog</a> does not seem to work well with Firefox. It seems to freeze Firefox under Windows Vista, and possibly just eats up resources under XP and Server 2003. It is a weird problem since other Blogger blogs don't seem to have this problem. <br /><br />As a result, I run IE 7 under Vista just for her blog. But, that means that I also use it for articles launched from the Althouse blog, and some of them do the nasty stuff that caused me to move to Firefox in the first place (such as pop-ups, and installation of questionable software). <br /><br />Ultimately, I expect to dig through her blog and figure out the problem, if, and when I have the time...Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9445392.post-56050935218673378562007-09-15T09:32:00.000-06:002007-09-17T11:29:32.270-06:00Why haven't I been updated?ZDNet: <a href="http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12554-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=38728&messageID=709963&start=0">Why haven't I been updated?</a> exposes that Microsoft is apparently updating its Windows Update software without informing its customers that it is doing so - even when they have selected knowing about updates. <br /><br />One of the first things that I do with a new Windows system, whether on a new computer or after I install it, is to totally turn off automatic updates. But most MSFT customers don't know that you can do this, or how to accomplish it, if they did want to. And most of them are not as paranoid as I about having stuff put on my computers that I don't know about. MSFT EULAs would seem to give them the legal right to read anything on a computer running their Windows OS, and that is frankly scary to me, in my belief that sometimes my interests and those of Redmond sometimes diverge. <br /><br />That said, it does appear that at least as late as Windows XP, Windows Update wouldn't be updated without permission if no updating is selected, since I have occasionally had to update this feature before I can update the rest of Windows.Bruce Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10815293023158025662noreply@blogger.com0