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So the French have said non and the Dutch are saying nee to the proposed EU Constitution. So be it. Again I say the concept is fine, but the execution was not. This idea will be back. 
Tim Bray on Patent Reform (one of my favorite subjects). "Whatever you think about patent law, as a longtime businessman I’m pretty convinced that the IP law profession, while it contains many good and intelligent people, is collectively a giant leech sucking money and time out of the community of innovators." Absolutely, this is where the bottom feeders go to feed. But we can't change people, so we must change the laws. Tim links a great article: defending against patent greenmail, which suggests the best defense is a good offense; initiate a patent review.
 Well, I knew this was coming, I just didn't think it was coming so soon: video4skype. "Dialcom's Spontania video plug-in is designed to be integrated with any 3rd party Internet-based communication solution. Dialcom selected Skype, the leading VoIP solution, as the first integration candidate. As a result of this, we are pleased to bring you Spontania video4skype, for free." Whoa. Now we can call it video over IP, instead of voice over IP. [ via Slashdot ]
BTW, Tom's Hardware has a new review comparing Skype to Vonage. They're both good, and have different characteristics. Nothing earth-shattering but if you're new to VoIP this is a great primer.
 I've noted these wonderful meta sculptures by Bathsheba Grossman before; Mark Frauenfelder just posted about them. I have a "120-cell" (pictured at left); which is a three-dimensional representation of a four-dimensional dodecahedron. There are actually 120 dodecahedrons arranged in a beautifully symmetric pattern (each dodecahedron has 12 pentagonal faces). Incredible.
 Jeff Atwood notes Google hardware circa 1999. You have to love it, now they have the largest collection of servers and disks in the world, but six years ago, 10 CPUs and 366 GB. Wow. I'm trying to remember the first time I tried Google; it might have been in 1999, because they were right across the parking lot from me when I worked at Intuit.
 Cafepress are selling a vi reference mug. I want one! Over the years I'm sure I've written more code using vi than any other editor, even though it sucks isn't very good. At one point I even wrote my own editor (!), called ice, and in the doc I noted "vi was a great influence on ice, because it was an ever-present reminder of what an editor should not be". [ via Rogers Cadenhead, who notes that he's lusting after one even though he doesn't use the program. ]
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