Who said the Folks at the Patent Office Didn't Understand Parody?

There's a point you recognize when something is broken, and is impossible to fix.

Like when Altavista started spewing out junk sometime in 1998, and dropped from its position as the top search engine. Or when your favorite actor left that comedy Sitcom and they tried to go on without him or her.

The United State's Patent Office has issued some real garbage. But a Method and system for identifying people who are likely to have a successful relationship?

I wonder what George Washington, the first patent officer of the United States, would have thought of that one.

When a Corporate Giant Sees Profit in Litigation, Bring Popcorn

Corporate Counsel Magazine takes a look at a Dupont company Strategy that has the chemical giant at the plaintiff table:

Gauthier and Mariani told the 160 lawyers, outside counsel, and vendor representatives gathered in Wilmington that DuPont lawyers have let far too many litigation opportunities slip by. When suppliers overcharge, customers underpay, or rivals infringe on DuPont's patents, the company often looks the other way instead of seeking damages, either in court or out.

It will be fun seeing what happens when a Dupont feels that they've overpaid for all their copies of Windows. I want a ringside seat.

This is Not a Beta

An excellent point made a Signal vs. Noise on a mass proliferation of online Beta applications, titled For beta or for worse? appears to have resulted in it's very own Wired article - Mo' Beta Testing Blues.

I'll admit that I like it when journalism takes a lead from a blog. Especially when they add value to it like Wired does in interviewing a top interaction designer from Cooper.

This blog, however, is not a beta. It's never quite finished, and that's the nature of a blog. Expect change. Anticipate that I'll try to add more here, and every so often, even try out a new look.

The Strange Logic Behind Band Names

You may have heard the name Vandelay Industries before. There's an emo band of that name cranking out some music. But they aren't the first Vandelay Industries. That distinction belongs to a fictional company from a Seinfeld skit.

So, why did the band choose the name, and what difference does it make?

I don't think the band is the first one to come up with a name based upon a fictional company. I believe the band Steely Dan mined that territory years ago.

The only problem I can see? As noted in the article, the first 100 or so results in Google are Seinfeld references. Maybe some day the band will hit it big, and overcome their fictional competition for the top of the search results. I wonder what Vandelay manufactured.

A Stained Favorite Tie, and a Brand New Look

I looked down this morning, along the length of my tie, and noticed a stain upon it. It's one of my favorites, or should I say it was. Sometimes I do have a semblance of taste and a sense of style. A dark suit, a gray shirt, and this pink tie. It makes a heck of an ensemble.

And the tie had a big mark upon it. I don't know if I'll get it to come out. I had already been at work a couple of hours when I noticed, with most of the day in front of me.

I tried to go through my paces ignoring the noose around my neck, err.. tie. But, I know if I noticed, it's likely that other people did too. Sometimes you just have days like that. I guess worse things can happen. As clothing malfunctions go, that wasn't all that terrible.

While thinking about my ruined accessory, I contemplated a change to the design of this site. I wasn't really all that enthralled with the basic blogger template I was using here. I have another standard template now, but I think that it's a vast improvement. I like the look. With the recent Google updates to blogger, the default template styles are wonderful.

The slight modifications I performed to add some customizations also taught me a little more about following good practices while using cascading style sheets (CSS). It's always a pleasure to look at the html from a good designer.

I don't think I'll miss the old look here. I will miss my tie. I'm going to have to go out and do some shopping. Now that I've updated the online style sense, I have to make sure that I keep the offline one looking good, too. If clothes were only as easy as blogger templates...