A bipartisan group of senators and House members introduced legislation Wednesday that would make the biggest changes to the U.S. patent system in over 50 years.

I'm not holding my breath but this sounds promising...

[I dunno... i want to read the whole thing, but my gut reaction is that this doesn't sound appealing to me. As much as I think the PTO needs reform, i'm not sure this is it... -k]

Patent reform bill may have a chance

California is one step closer to joining a national movement that would change the way that the Electoral College works without amending the U.S. Constitution.

AB 2948 by Assemblymember Tom Umberg, Chair of the Assembly Elections Committee is a simple bill that would have California join in an interstate compact with other states to award our electoral votes to the Presidential candidate who won the national popular vote.

[ I like this. It seems like a decent way to handle the situation. I have some concern over the fact that some states could be effectively forced to adopt the plan as long as enough other states do so, but not much concern.

Fundamentally, I've always been displeased with the all or nothing nature of the electoral system used by most states. This feels like a workable alternative.

Now, does anyone want to run some numbers on the likelihood of this becoming the reality? It requires enough states to sign on to comprise a majority of electors. California has 55 of the 270 needed. Where are the other 215 likely to come from? How likely is it, really?

The ratio of electoral weight vs. population weight is very interesting. If you plot it, you notice that the 15 most populous states all have a lower than 1.0 ratio. They weigh proportionally less than they would in a direct voting situation. On the other hand, I calculated Wyoming to have a 3.18 multiplier. (Georgians, you're at 0.96, whereas NY, CA and TX all sit at 0.85 - that's 26% of the population having 22% of the voting power.)

The only useful opposition I can think of, then, to a more direct method is that small states will be reduced. Ultimately this isn't a convincing argument for me, because while representation (a la Congress) ought to enable small states to compete, I think electing a president shouldn't be about states, but about people. ]

California Assembly Passes Electoral College Reform - California Progress Report

As you can see in News Picks, there is big patent news today. For a long time, we've been complaining about the patent system, particularly as it affects FOSS. It turns out, someone listened. The New York Times' John Markoff has the story, as does Martin LaMonica. Here's Andy Updegrove's take and ComputerWorld.

One might suspect that the success of Groklaw had no small part
in this coming about.

3 Initiatives to Improve the Patent Mess Announced

"There are two worldviews that are in conflict," Mr. Thompson said. "I do feel that even though Christians are 86 percent of the population, they have become second-class citizens."

[ Ah, hmm. If "christians" have become second-class citizens, it's because they've stopped following actual Christian ideals. When I look at the main voices of "christianity" in this country, I don't see a lot that represents Jesus Christ. The bible? Yes, very much so. But you can't just thump the bible, read it in whatever way you want, and claim to be Christian. Sorry. -k]

In Pennsylvania, It Was Religion vs. Science, Pastor vs. Ph.D., Evolution vs. the Half-Fish

] The first wave of exit-poll data reaching my desk comes
] from a variety of sources. In some states the sources
] disagree about the specific margin by which a candidate
] leads, but never about which candidate is out in front.
] Some of the confusion may stem from the mixing of morning
] exit-poll numbers with early afternoon numbers. With
] those provisos and the understanding that the early
] numbers are predictive of nothing without their
] accompanying computer model, here's what I've heard:

Slate is leaking exit poll data.

[ Don't forget the extra large grain of salt. Exit polls are notoriously shady. -k]

Early Exit - A squeaker!

] Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general, has
] recently taken on a procession of corporate powers from
] Wall Street analysts to mutual funds to insurance
] brokers. Now he is casting his eyes on the music
] industry, particularly its practices for influencing what
] songs are heard on the public airwaves.

[ Spitzer is one tough motherfucker, man. The dude does not abide. -k]

Record Labels Said to Be Next on Spitzer List for Scrutiny

]
] Microsoft, has lost the first round of its legal battle
] over its ownership of the word 'windows'. It was a key
] point in its trademark battle with the Linux distributor
] Lindows.

[ Ah, the pitfalls of choosing a generic word to be your trademark... -k]

Microsoft doesn't own the word 'windows' judge rules

] "I just got out of the hearing. The outcome is Judge
] Wells will be issuing an order within the next week. She
] wanted to take her decision under advisement.
]
] "Some quick observations. Mr. Marriott argued for the
] side of IBM again and Mr. Weiss argued for SCO. Counsel
] were in chambers for 28-30 minutes. IBM stated that SCO
] had not complied with the Judge's order for discovery.
] SCO has said they have and now want their motions
] granted. Darl was not in attendance."

The suspense is killing me!

Judge to Issue Order in a Week: IBM Says SCO Didn't Comply

]
] Since Darl McBride compares SCO to the RIAA, perhaps he
] should take note of something that just happened in the
] current appeal of the Morpheus and Grokster case. One of
] the three judges told the RIAA attorney to stop using
] "abusive language", such as calling file-trading
] "piracy".

Wow!

Judge Tells RIAA Attorney: 'Stop Using Abusive Language, Like Calling File Sharing 'Piracy''

] SCO earlier this month sent a letter to the 535 members
] of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate from
] company President and CEO Darl McBride, raising concerns
] about open-source software and its General Public License
] (GPL), the company confirmed on Wednesday.

Yikes!

[yeah, SCO seems to be totally grasping at straws now. Tomorrow (today maybe?) is the day of reckoning when the court determines if SCO actually complied with the discovery motions as ordered. It seems likely that they have not done so, and that they're due for a serious smackdown. or at least, we'd like to hope that's the case. -k]

SCO Goes to Washington in Linux Battle