Federal money for bike commuting

I caught the tail end of this NPR story this morning. Marin County was awarded $20m to promote bike commuting. Adoption will still lag because unfortunately most of our modern cities and communities are just not laid out in favor of bikers or pedestrians. They were built based on auto transportation. The distances between pointA and pointB become too long for people to seriously consider anything but driving. Also, the car has made us expect quicker arrival times. It takes longer if we walk or bike. Nevermind that obesity is an epidemic in this country. What's more important? Getting there faster or dying of diabetes?

Fear of willfulness...

While the brew-haha over Microsoft's latest patent lawsuit is decidedly not a news story (also see Slashdot), I did learn more about the absurd nature of software patent law.

In fact, searching for potential patent problems can actually leave a company financially exposed: if a lawsuit concludes a patent was infringed, a company or individual that knew about the potential infringement must pay triple the financial damages compared with an unknowing infringement.

"The fear of willfulness is so great that often firms instruct their engineers not to look at patents," (from CNET)

How stupid is that? The image I have in my mind when I read these stories about software patent litigation is that of pin-stripe suited lawyers in imaginary WWI trenches lobbing big paper stacks across to the others trenches. "Take that! That's my patent!" "Boom! Here comes my patent right back at you!" :)



Obviously a very broken system in need of repair. But in the meantime it keeps many a patent attorney and IT tabloid reporter employed. :)