Said to me at dinner last night: “There is a fine line between cynicism and bitching- you’re staying north of it.” — Rekha Murthy
Kathy Sierra is, as usual, dead on, this time talking about how dignity is overrated. I can’t wait to see her talk at GUADEC.
Spent a big chunk of yesterday at the first peer to patent workshop, which focused on issues of quality and reputation. Really fascinating technical and social design challenge- how to build a tool that can grow and harness patent-interested semi-expert communities without driving already stressed patent examiners out of their minds, or overly biasing them. Discovered that there aren’t that many key patent filings per year– it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to organize a small team to read every incoming software patent application and do a brief analysis for interest, broadness, possibility of existence of prior art, etc.