The Big Idea: Funding Eureka! - Harvard Business Review
by Nathan Myhrvold
"My company, Intellectual Ventures, is misunderstood. We have been reviled as a patent troll—a renegade outfit that buys up patents and then uses them to hold up innocent companies. What we’re really trying to do is create a capital market for inventions akin to the venture capital market that supports start-ups and the private equity market that revitalizes inefficient companies. Our goal is to make applied research a profitable activity that attracts vastly more private investment than it does today so that the number of inventions generated soars."

In reality, patents the way they are now are more trouble than benefit.
The problem is not the lack of market, it is obsolete rules.
The same rules that worked 100+ years ago are still used mostly unchanged.
That would be as regulating cars and air traffic by rules for driving trains.

What is required now is a universal expandable and specific LANGUAGE
that will not leave much space of "interpretation".
In such case, it would be possible to quickly inspect by computers
what is already "public knowledge" and what is really new.
If a solution is usable, open market will determine its value.
Protecting ownership should be a public service, like police,
nor a responsibility of individuals or organizations.

Such system would move much faster, and the profit will go to innovators,
both individual and institutional, not to litigators and "investors".

Since the role of defining simple and usable rules is up to government,
the best case scenario is that one or a few smart people propose simple system,
and convince public in its value, and then let government back this.

Something like: on the road one can drive on right hand side only.
Stop on red light, drive on green light. Obey traffic signs...
While red/green rule may be the similar for trains,
on the open road additional simple rules ("right only") are needed...

Patents as a tool do have value, should just be modernized to be relevant
for requirements of 21st century technology and global society.

Healthcare Napkins All
Health care reform explained in 4 simple pictures
"on back of the napkin"

links @delicious

InfoQ: Developing JavaScript Desktop Applications

Titanium framework/toolkit,
based on WebKit web browser engine

System on a chip (SOC) vs CPU...
ARM, Nvidia Tegra, Apple A4 vs Intel Atom

Apple A4 SOC unveiled - It's an ARM CPU and the GPU! - Bright Side Of News*

Apple's A4 Chipset Packs ARM CPU and Graphics

Nvidia Unveils Tegra: A Computer On A Chip

ARM based CPU is used in most SmartPhones
and Intel Atom in most of Netbooks...

Google Focuses on "Mobile First,"
...Google is now thinking about things in terms of 'Mobile First.'
Every product Google does now focuses on high-performance mobile phones.
Of course, the company will continue to do PC applications
and things that work in any browser,
but company's best programmers want to work on mobile...

RIM woos consumers with new WebKit browser for BlackBerry:
The open source WebKit browser engine is already found in

Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Palm's Pre phone (WebOS),

Google's Android phones

Nokia S60 and some other Symbian based phones (Samsung, LG...)

Apple's Safari Desktop Browser

Google'c Chrome browser

Adobe AIR (Flash desktop)

WebKit @wikipedia

Linux and Windows heat up mobile market | Software, Interrupted - CNET News

Intel and Nokia joined forces with their own Linux initiative, MeeGo.
MeeGo is an amalgamation of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo, two initiatives that never really took off on their own. The companies hope that by joining forces under the banner of the Linux Foundation, MeeGo will be for mobile what Linux has been for enterprise servers.

Windows Phone 7
Microsoft Blends Zune Media, Xbox Live Into New Phone OS | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

podcast about "managing change"

Chip Heath, Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business,
and co-author (with his brother Dan) of excellent book "Made to Stick"
presented ideas from his new book "Switch


@ Social Innovation Conversations | Stanford Social Innovation Review Quickcasts

more links @delicious

Tech Giants' New Way to Thwart Patent Suits - BusinessWeek
"Frustrated by litigation costs, Microsoft, Sony, and Nokia are paying third-party patent acquirers such as RPX to fend off patent lawsuits"

top 10 patent trolls target companies (slide show)...

IT Conversations | Tech Nation | Jeremy Rifkin
A podcast interview with the author about a new book

The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis

A very interesting and profound ideas about world, economy, history!
summary article
Excerpt from the book


My current understanding: the world is in a transition
to third industrial revolution. Each of such revolutions primarily
has changed ways of using energy and communications.
Both changes are required to make transition,
and when they happen societies change significantly...

related links @delicious

Google Buzz
Extending google mail to be a hub of social networking tools...
Similar to twitter, with automated integration...

Buzz allows users to choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a small group of friends each time they post. Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, YouTube, Blogger, and Twitter are currently integrated


my buzz links @delicious

Google Fiber for Communities: Think big with a gig
Google planning to provide ultra-fast (1GBps, fiber)
internet connection to communities...

links @delicious

All About Linux-powered Devices - Linux for Devices
A place to find interesting new hardware for tinkering...
Google Android seems to be a popular platform...

YouTube - Parisian Love
Google advertising itself... nice...

Tech Giants' New Way to Thwart Patent Suits - BusinessWeek

On Jan. 28, Microsoft signed up for patent insurance. It's not insurance such as you might get for your car or house, but a startup called RPX provided what's probably the closest thing to it for tech giants. Companies such as Microsoft, Sony (SNE), and Nokia (NOK) pay RPX annual fees to avoid patent-related litigation. The fees depend on each company's revenue and can range from $35,000 to $4.9 million per year. The 14-month-old RPX is one of the first companies to offer the service, It's already signed up 30 members, including IBM (IBM), Cisco (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and Samsung.

An Electric Boost for Bicyclists
Born in China, Electric Bikes Gain a Toehold in the West - NYTimes.com