One simple thing that the US Patent agency could do that would save
corporations millions of dollars is use first to file, instead of first
to invent. The entire concept of the patent office is to give people an
incentive (a temporary monopoly) in exchange of sharing information
(their patented ides.) To me, it seems unjust to reward someone who
invests something and doesn’t share that knowledge with society.
By using first to file, bona fide research and development companies
wouldn’t need to squander man hours signing and countersigning
notebooks for fear of losing a patent. These R&D companies would
have more pressure to file quickly and disclose to society new and
improved information. There would be a lower chance of companies
sitting on documented ideas, hoping that they will become part of
industry standards and focusing on increased licensing revenue.
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One of the largest casualties of Prohibition was the local microbrewery. While the larger breweries were able to weather the drought, smaller US microbreweries were forced to close. Fortunately today they are making a great comeback. Even Kurt Vonnegut’s maternal grandfather lost his fortune when the microbrewery that he managed was closed.
One of the largest casualties of the Industrial Revolution was the apprenticeship system. Instead it’s been replaced the public education system. Which is adequate in general, but certainly not as efficient nor as effective as the apprenticeship model. Even in Academia, you can see it with the PhD program where there is generally a tiered system, where professors teach post docs, post docs teach PhD students, etc. This is where much in depth knowledge and critical thinking is learned.
The inefficiency of the public education system has been tolerable because there has been a wealth of middle class jobs available. These jobs didn’t demand the best thinkers, reasoners, nor communicators. Now that the world is flat, these jobs are starting to disappear and disappear fast. The question now is how educate people for jobs that currently don’t exist. Much like the Wizard of Oz, I believe the answer is in a system we’ve have all along.
Although I’ve never been part of an apprenticeship program, I’ve been fortunate to be part of mentorships. In college, Brian R. although he is younger than me, he had programmed a lot more than I had. He taught me how to build a computer, about void pointers, etc. We also built a Beowulf cluster at USU. Pik, Erikrj, Zach, Nafai, and RBM mentored me to some degree as well. I had three great professors who went the extra mile to help me out and give me great advice. Alex Boldyrev who hired me to work in his lab and helped secure funding for the Beowulf cluster continues to help me. John Hubbard is a great personal mentor, he still introduces me to great music to this day and has all kinds of great suggestions. I would never have graduated without the help and mentorship of Steve Allan.
At Merck, I had the privilege of being mentored by Ira Hoffman, the kid’s a genius. He helped me learn about HTS informatics, something completely new to me. Rick P. helped mentor me along with the scientists there, Aqua, Jason, Erica, Becky, Stacey and surprisingly Kevin H. I’m still using the information that I learned there in my professional life.
Last but not least my current card carrying mentor is Martin Leach. He has helped me out in numerous ways. Putting me in contact with the right people at the right time, giving me great advice even if I didn’t want to hear it, and sharing his insight to the future of scientific computing. He has even suggested some of my favorite books.
related links
www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
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This is a spoof of Lipinski’s rule of five, however this is focused on weightloss. These are just observations that I’ve made while losing over 50 lbs. They are:
- Run at least 5K a day or at least 5 days a week (Running is the only exercise that helps me to lose weight);
- Eat at least 5 times a day (try to eat ~300 calories per meal/protein bar);
- Eat at least 5 cooked, egg whites a day (focus on protein and building muscle); and
- Eat yogurt 5 times a week (focus on culturing good bacteria).
Oh yeah, the usual disclaimer please talk to your doctor before reading this post and/or trying any of my advice.
I recently decided to use skype instead of my vonage system. It’s a little more portable when I’m on the road in my cell phone-less existence. My major gripes about skype are these:
1) Making calls from to a phone number, which is one of the few ways skype makes money; therefore, this interface should be intuitive. Yet, there’s no apparent way to save a real phone number as a contact. The best way I’ve found to deal with this is to enter the event history and click on the number.
2) I couldn’t tell an easy way to define a default country. I’m currently in the USA so I’m usually calling numbers here, as opposed to when I was in Brazil. The worst case for using a default country is to have to change the country, which is the best case of not having a default country.
I’m not sure how the Milwaukee Brewers plan on winning:
I have many sins, however, being a Yankees fan (who is not from NY) is not one of them. I definitely respect them and their desire to win. That said, the 00’s have been great to baseball fans.
Are you as paranoid as with passwords as me? Do you ever feel like cybercafes are just like public toilets? If not, congratulations… but with me I dream of Google allowing people to use One-Use Passwords. That would make logging in public places a lot more sanitary.
Dear American: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson
http://www.greenlightcommunity.com an amazing resource for building a better life. Keith Ferrazzi, the author of Never Eat Alone, has started this community and it’s truly wonderful. This is simply the best online resource for learning the ins and outs of networking that I’ve found.
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