If he really feels this way, why not have the damn conversation via email? And why point to it off your home page?

And as for the acidic comment directed to Bob Burke also on that home page, that’s fine that Dave feels no need to patent his work, but to be so overt in his expression that everyone else should agree with him lest they reveal themselves as greedy pigs… whatevers.

After seeing the boycott Amazon site, I wonder if there’s a site for boycotting car companies that obtain patents, or drug companies, or computer companies, or software companies…

And as for Michael Wallace’s statement, there’s actually a very strong argument that if you take away a company’s ability to patent their innovations, then there is less of a desire to innovate; if I spend time, money, and manpower creating something new, and then companies can just take the idea from me and not have to invest the same time and money in planning, then why would I want to innovate? And if I can just steal their ideas, there’s even less of a reason for me to stick my neck out.

I’m fairly surprised that Dave Winer points to the “Girlfriend Remote” on today’s Scripting News; it’s a pretty offensive little thing. (Similarly, the commercial for Focus Daily contact lenses that’s currently running, where a bunch of teenage girls say that you throw the lenses away every day “just like boys,” seems like it’s only tolerable because it’s girls ranking on boys; flip it around, and I doubt many TV stations would run it.)

If you’re even remotely interested in DVDs — the technology, the issues surrounding studios’ decisions about DVDs versus VHS tapes, and the movies that are released on the format — then the DVD Resource Page is for you. It’s Steve Tannehill’s (usually) one-subject weblog, it’s been around since September 1997, and it’s definitely worth a bookmark.

I cannot tell you how much the overprescription of psychotropic drugs in kids disturbs me.

The Mardi Gras silliness continues. Last year, 360 people were arrested for public indecency; this year, they’ve already started arrests, and are threatening shutting down the balconies on Bourbon Street from which people throw beads down to people. Maybe I’m sheltered, but I can’t recall anyone ever complaining about what goes on during Mardi Gras…