Seattle candidate for Mayoress, Christal Wood, wrote a paper on astrology in 1997. In it she says she's been "deeply impressed by how accurate" her charts have been. Hey, it worked for Reagan.

The late Jerome Lemelson was the first post-modern inventor. He was granted 558 patents (only four less than Edison) and collected nearly $1.5 billion from 750 companies that license his patents. Yet it's hard to point to any invention of his. One of his former attorneys, Arthur Lieberman, says "In many cases, Lemelson didn't patent inventions. He invented patents." He filed a "machine vision" patent in the 1950s and artfully delayed its issuance for decades by repeatedly amending the application. Then he used it to sue modern day users of bar codes, even though they work entirely differently. With the aid of his lawyers, he played the patent game to perfection.

Joel on Software: Good software takes ten years, sayeth the Joel. He compares software development to wine. He makes an interesting point. It's probably true for large systems. There is a firmly entrenched way of thinking among programmers, that a good program is the brilliant work of an individual. The reality is that the best software takes hundreds if not thousands of good programmers (and testers etc.) years of work, paying close attention to feedback from customers and marketing folks.

Tired of those annoying X10 voyeur cam ads? Install AdSubtract. It's free for home use and does a great job of filtering out popups (and other ads as well). I've retired WebWasher in favor of this new goody.

Wired article on Cryonics
"According to a new book, The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession and the Everlasting Dead, techies make up a large percentage of those who have signed up for cryonic suspension." Interesting how the headline teaser reads "A large percentage of technologically adept humans are opting to have their bodies frozen after they die." This would be much bigger news, but of course it isn't true.

Canine Epilepsy Resource Center
All you ever wanted to know about Canine Epilepsy. A good resource for Plato - just reading this reminded me that we need to get his phenobarbital levels checked.

Sororities at Caltech!?
Well, not quite. We went to see the new movie Legally Blonde last night. I was startled to see that much of it was filmed on the Caltech campus - not exactly a place crawling with pink.

Two bottles of wine, both ancient. One was a fine Portuguese wine and other was just piss-poor.

Ducklings in Trouble, Mother Calls the Police

Loana says, "I am a girl like any other and, contrary to the rumours, I believe that I am not too dim.”

The Lavender Festival happens in Sequim next weekend. Might be a good excuse to take a jaunt to the Olympic Peninsula. They even have dog sitting available.

NanoInvestorNews keeps you up to date on all the latest in nanotechnology. This is an important upcoming subject for tech investors. I got this link out of a paper copy of The Economist, the wordy magazine that is my favorite for reading on airplane flights. One issue lasted me from Chicago to Seattle. In fact, I didn't even finish it, it had so much text. An issue of People wouldn't last until takeoff.

A real ‘air conditioned nightmare’ If your house is air conditioned, read this story. It's real scary.

We had dinner last night at the new Herbfarm restaurant. They have relocated to Woodinville, right next to the wineries, in a custom-built location. What a meal we had! It took about five hours to eat, with eleven courses. They came up with tastes you've never tasted before. And they were even able to accomodate Shelly being a vegetarian (no muss, no fuss). An excellent series of wines came with the meal, too.