Saturday, November 20, 2004

What day are we on anyway?

Another day at the computer, pounding away at a self-imposed assignment. Hours pass and I do not notice. Outdoors, there is a transition from morning dark, to noon light and finally late afternoon dark, but I am oblivious. The only marker I have of the passage of time is in the traffic that I see outside the front window: from neighbors (in their night gear) picking up newspapers (why do people subscribe to the WStJ?), to obsessive yard pruners whacking away at the trees, to a child’s birthday party across the street, with the usual rush of cars dropping off eager attendees and, two hours later, the pick up flood, with parents walking their tired young ones back to the car, bending over them, asking “did you have a good time?” and the kids, wanting to kick the shins of the adults who ripped them out of a good game of “destroy everything in the house,” answering “uh-huh.”

Some people really do prefer to have the snowdrifts and short days and long nights...

For the rest of us, it's always a countdown toward spring.

So why would I choose to travel to the place pictured below in a couple of weeks, when I still have roses blooming in my back yard?

No answers today, just questions.

Madison, November 20 2004 Posted by Hello

Warsaw, November 20 2004

Poland is asserting herself and she has the swing votes to make a difference

For the American reader, it’s a small issue really: whether the EU should incorporate a certain patent directive (read here, via FistfulofEuros). But the important thing is that when Poland said “no,” the directive fell short of the needed votes and had to be scrapped.

As I understand it, companies pushing for it suffered a lost opportunity to basically patent any and all computer software. Internet users and innovators who build on existing programming models were the beneficiaries. But what really tickled me was to see Poland championing the public interest. A statement to be proud of:

"The questionable compromise that the EU Council reached in May was the biggest threat ever to our economic growth, and to our freedom of communication," said Wladyslaw Majewski, president of the Internet Society of Poland. "The desire of the patent system and the patent departments of certain large corporations must never prevail over the interests of the economy and society at large."