Every Shadow of a Shade of an Idea...

Just so, 126 years later:

U.S. Supreme Court
Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 U.S. 192 (1883)
Decided March 5, 1883
MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the Court.
It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to [...]

I Do Want to Write!

I love Brenda Ueland and her book, If You Want to Write. Her passion is so infectious, and she inspires me every time I read her encouraging words.
As I think about what I might write on this blog and what I might do with my life, this passage seems particularly helpful right now:

I tell you [...]

Kevin Kelly: Evidence of a Global SuperOrganism

Haven't read the whole article yet, but good stuff so far:

I am not the first, nor the only one, to believe a superorganism is emerging from the cloak of wires, radio waves, and electronic nodes wrapping the surface of our planet. No one can dispute the scale or reality of this vast connectivity. What’s uncertain [...]

Randy Pausch on the World Book Encyclopedia and Wikipedia

Some or many of you have probably heard about Randy's Pauch's "Last Lecture." Randy is a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He gave a stirring and inspirational talk on September 18, 2007, titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." I was emailed a link to [...]

Power of Example (and the Long View)

Martin Sexton
Power of example
My mama said it and I heard
She says one ounce of action
Beats a ton of words.
-- Martin Sexton, "Hallelujah"
Richard Stallman

[...] I didn’t write a whole free operating system, either. I wrote some pieces and invited other people to join me by writing other pieces. So I set an example. I said, “I’m [...]

Jeremy Allison on Innovation and Patents

Jeremy Allison is fast becoming one of my heroes. Not only for the great technical work he has done with Samba, but also for his principled support of free software. He quit Novell in protest after they signed their patent pact with the devil, and he and the Samba team gave an early [...]

Thomas Jefferson on Patents and Freedom of Ideas

Started reading Unbounded Freedom and ran in to a great excerpt from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to Isaac McPherson in 1813 about the nature of ideas. It's not the first time I've run across it, and like my Ben Franklin quote it has seen a lot of use in patent discussions, but it's [...]

Ben Franklin on Patents; in which he provides a Selfless model for Sharing and Cooperation; Inspires us with his Generosity; and Lends Moral Authority to the Principles of Free Culture...

I'm still reading Franklin's autobiography and wasn't surprised to learn of his position on patents. I right away wanted to post the blurb here for the world to see, although a Google search quickly revealed that this is an often-quoted passage:

In order of time, I should have mentioned before, that having, in 1742, invented [...]

How to Write?

Some people say you should be assertive. Don't be wishy-washy. Don't use watered-down language ("it kind of seems like..."). Don't be afraid to own your opinion. Blah blah blah. I think this is good advice. (Although I don't think Brenda Ueland would approve of the negative tone.) [...]