Idea Lawyer Blog

Stanford offers so much to us here in Palo Alto/Silicon Valley. If you missed this talk, see the Dec 6 (below) on facial recognition cues. Perhaps by then I'll have played to oft touted new games, and some discourse informed by experience will ensue.

***SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM***
( http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_static?page=forum.html)

How Science Thinks: The Science and Engineering of Science and Engineering

Prof. Jeff Shrager
Associate Professor in Symbolic Systems, CommerceNet

Thursday, Nov. 29th, 2007
4:15-5:30 pm
Building 380, Room 380C (Math Corner)
MAP: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-380
(Parking in nearby lots at no charge after 4 pm)


ABSTRACT:

For over three decades cognitive scientists have been studying how science works and how scientists think. What have we learned about scientific cognition and about science as a human activity? How has this informed cognitive science more generally? How has it helped us build semi-automated discovery systems and better tools to support scientific practice and facilitate discovery? How does this all play with the Web 24.0 vision? (**) In this talk I'll use some of my own, and a lot of other people's research to lead a guided tour to some partial answers to these interesting questions.

Jeff Shrager is consulting associate professor of Symbolic Systems. His work spans human and machine learning and development, and both computational and "wet" marine biology and drug discovery. He current leads the Health Care Initiative at CommerceNet which is using Web 24.0 technology (**) to build Virtual Pharmaceutical Companies to address rare and orphan diseases.

(** If Web 1.0 is the current web, Web 2.0 the social web, Web 3.0 the semantic web, and Web 4.0 the programmable web, then Web 24.0 (1*2*3*4) is be the programmable social semantic web. I just made this term up for this talk, but it's actually rather appropriate, as you'll see!)

***

More upcoming events:

Dec. 6 SSP Forum: David C. Wilkins, Symbolic Systems Program, "Learning to Recognize Facial Emotions: Art Versus Psychology", 4:15-5:30 pm, 380-380C

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Today's New York Times has an article on stem cells, and an interesting issue concerning whether or not state research facilities will be liable for patent infringement on work that is close to cosmetic application (read: cash generating applications!). So look for a posting on this here soon.
Also coming soon: a parent of teenage son weighs in on Facebook, its use by teens, and observes how parents need to teach their daughters and sons about Internet safety.

Silicon Valley; Los Angeles....Netscape founder Marc Andreessen posted Patrick Goldstein (LA TIMES) column ostensibly on the Writers Guild. Goldstein touts the not so new concept of "writer entrepreneur" (writers have always been entrepreneurs - ask anyone who ever looked for an agent or shopped a script :) But I take issue with a glaring contradiction in Goldstein's loose draping of examples that masquerades as a point. Taking a dig at the Writer's Guild, he writes:

Real change in today's world comes from the energy and ideas of entrepreneurs, not from labor negotiations. To take control of their work, writers have to cut out the middleman. Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, who just struck a deal with NBC to air their "Quarterlife" Web-only dramatic series, will reap most of the rewards, since they own the show. Not every writer has the clout of that duo to attract outside investors. But as the Internet has proved time and again, game-changing ideas are more likely to come from an unknown 26-year-old newcomer than a fiftysomething veteran.

Who the heck is Goldstein dissing? Since when has "follow the money" failed to tie in some "fiftysomething veteran" somewhere in the process?

He continues:

The models are everywhere today, especially in the music business, where economic upheaval has given birth to a new array of artist-entrepreneurs. Radiohead and Prince have both bypassed the soul-killing tangle of retailers and promotion people by releasing their latest records themselves (with Radiohead using the Internet as its distributor, even letting its fans set the price of the record themselves).

My point: Prince is not an "unknown 26 year old newcomer" nor is Radiohead...
So I'm not clear on Mr. Goldstein's point...

If his point is that the tools for the Average "unknown" exist for posting homemade stuff on YouTube and MySpace - I agree. If his point is that out of this barrage of crap, some folks will connect with deep pockets and gain traction, I agree. But if his point is that the big business infra-structure of the film industry will be buried like Pompeii in the volcanic eruption of popular dreck now clogging the public digital highways- I disagree. How many of us sew our own clothes or cook when there are talented folks to do it for us that we may comfortably consume?
And call me curmudgeon, but frankly I have yet to see a "must-see" anything on the Web, and that includes copyright infringing material....

Or is he telling the Writers they need no Guild? Go naked into the snake pit of the media biz? Lose heart in the negotiation
and go it alone?
And since Mr. Goldstein thinks so highly of the entrepreneurial prospects of the Internet and Media...here are the points of the negotiation dealing with "new media" (excerpted from the WGA website)

Residuals for "new media" distribution. The Companies want new media distribution - such as ad-supported streaming or cell phone mobisodes - to be completely free. The Companies would pay no residuals at all.

Guild response:

The fair share of new media revenue that writers deserve should not depend on whether their work is sold, rented or streamed. That is why the Guild has made a simple proposal: writers should receive 2.5% of revenues from ALL new media distribution.

No coverage of writing for new media. The Companies' proposal denies the Guild jurisdiction over writing for new media: the Internet, cell phones and other digital technologies.

Guild response:

The Guild demands jurisdiction over writing for new media. Increasingly, there is no distinction between programs developed for television or the Internet. Without Guild representation, writers will be coerced into doing Internet writing for little or no compensation, without any of the protections of the MBA.

I'm on Mr. Goldstein's side when he argues for more entrepreneurship by writers. A decade ago your truly went in front of major entertainment firms with the vision that the new media would create a world where independents could circumvent much of the power of the big media companies, But I think he may be missing the
real point of the writer's strike: the big media players still control huge sections of the entertainment industry, and writers are not compensated with their fair share. The glib assertion that by taking outside money a writer WILL get a fair shake shows that Mr. Goldstein has not had intimate dealings with the average Venture Capitalist. Come to Silicon Valley. Mr. Goldstein - land of the VC and home of the brazen :)

see also: Writer's Strike

Video game as, ahem, "art?" Read New York Time writer Seth Schiesel's review of Mass Effect a new game for X Box released by Bioware. http://nytimes.com/2007/11/22/arts/television/22mass.html?ref=television

"What does your face look like when you're telling a lie? Or what are the visual cues when you are speaking in a beguiling, slightly flirtatious way?"
Mr. Hudson. the game creator, continues:
“We wanted to create a video game that had the potential to rival live-action movies in terms of cinematic, dramatic power. We wanted our characters to be able to just raise an eyebrow and have it convey a thought or emotion just as it could in a film.”

“If the action in our game is exciting, it’s because you care about the story situation,” he added. “And what makes the story exciting is emotion. And what makes emotion is wrinkles. When you take the wrinkles away, you just have parts of the face moving around like a cartoon, and it really takes away a lot of the subtlety we intuit in human emotion.”

I'll try the game soon. I confess this entry is a response/reaction to a review of a game I have not played. However, I expect that the voice quality (the game has 22,000 lines of spoke dialogue) will have a bigger effect on whether the story is compelling. Dolby revolutionized cinema when he insisted sound mattered in cinema. And in terms of "connecting" viscerally with "characters," sound - including that of speech or vocalizations (going out on a limb here...sure could use a research assistant) probably processed more directly/quickly/deeper in the limbic apparatus/ than visual.
Come on: am I the only one who has to turn the sound off to get through De Niro's fight scenes in "Raging Bull?" Or the only one to insist on listening to the original soundtrack in the output of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki? The original sound palette tends to match the director's vision....the dubbed in voices often are just not evocative, or at least leave one as removed from the director's intended experience as peeling hard boiled eggs wearing mittens.

The point about anthropomophizing aliens and establishing "connections" - gee whiz, the Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Prince anthropompophized up a storm with still pictures and text. Half or more the films I see these days I cannot remember a month later, yet the classic stories are easily recalled..and why is that?
So a bigger question I will have in mind when I go to play the game: is there a story that resonates with some fundamental, primary chord of human experience?

San Jose airport will be the gateway from my XBox buddies and Phoenix is the Wii oasis at my brother Dan's house for Thanksgiving family play. Video Games are a popular activity for all ages, as the post feast family tag football fades for lack of young blood and a surfeit of older bones. I am a self-confessed game herbivore, preferring pattern matching games to single-person shooter. A topic brought up a a dinner with some computer scientist friends concerning brain aging: does the perception of risk (a la Halo or Lara Croft in the Anniversary edition of Tomb Raider (where the height scenes in the ruins of Peru are vertigo activatingly "real") where a somatic risk response is induced (heart rate, GSR) a sufficient "risk" to encourage the neural activity that has been linked with healthy aging?
If so, I can cross Half Dome off my list and save on outdoor gear. Just pass the thumbpad, fire up the monitor screen, and save me some pie for later.

The New York Times send out a "news alert" about Barry Bonds which I received on my iphone...baseball fans need the breaking news I guess...just as interesting is this
post by patent law expert Dennis Crouch.
(check out Dennis Crouch at www.patenlyo for regular and comprehensive patent legal news and practice tips).
Dennis Crouch writes:

Ordinary Perjury Does Not Constitute "Fraud on the Court" Sufficient to Reopen Patent Litigation

Apotex v. Merck (Fed. Cir. 2007)

Enalapril (VASOTEC) is a Merck drug used to treat high blood pressure. In 2001, the CAFC affirmed that two Apotex patents allegedly covering the drug’s manufacturing process were invalid under 35 USC 102(g) (because the process had been invented and used by Merck prior to Apotex’s invention).

A year after losing, Apotex re-filed its case — charging Merck with alleged fraudulent discovery responses uncovered in a later trial.

Under FRCP Rule 60(b), a final judgment may be set aside based on the fraud or misrepresentation of an adverse party. Ordinarily, a Rule 60(b) motion must be brought within one year of judgment. One exception is the more serious ‘fraud on the court,’ which has no statute of limitations. Here, Apotex filed the 60(b) motion more than one year after the final judgment — and thus needed to show fraud on the court.

On appeal, the CAFC affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of Apotex’s claims of fraud on the court. False statements made by witnesses being examined do not typically constitute fraud on the court — rather, that charge is reserved to activities that harm “the judicial machinery itself and is not fraud between the parties or fraudulent documents, false statements or perjury.” Thus, in this case the alleged false statements made on the witness stand and in attorney argument “do[] not establish corruption of the judicial process.”

In San Francisco on Tuesday Nov 20th? Then run don't walk to the FREE/OPEN TO THE PUBLIC /NO Reservations Required!! Closing Keynote Session Gerontological Society of America, featuring Eric Dishman of Intel’s Health Research and Innovation Group
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Hilton San Francisco
333 O'Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 771-1400

Keynote Speaker Eric Dishman will discuss, and demonstrate some of the systems in the lab at Intel’s Health Research & Innovation Group. Panel Moderator Susan Ayers Walker, will lead a discussion.

Eric Dishman, General Manager and Global Director of Intel’s Health Research & Innovation Group, is responsible for driving Intel's worldwide research, new product innovation, and usability engineering activities in Digital Health. Located in the U.S. and Europe, his group focuses on developing information & communication technologies across the continuum of healthcare from hospital to home. Trained as a social scientist, Eric is also a Principal Research Scientist for Intel's Digital Health Group, bringing an ethnographic approach to Intel's research and product development efforts as part of the largest social science team in the technology industry.

Eric is co-founder and serves as National Chair of the Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), a cross-industry advocacy group to accelerate technology R&D for aging-in-place. He is co-director of ORCATECH with Dr. Jeff Kaye from Oregon Health & Science University—an NIH funded Roybal Center conducting independent living technology research. Eric helped to found—and is still active in—the Everyday Technologies for Alzheimer’s Care program with the Alzheimer’s Association. He is an internationally known author and speaker—and advises numerous associations, non-profits, companies, universities, & government officials—on personal health technologies, assistive technologies, telemedicine, and home healthcare.

Susan Walker, Founder, and SmartSilvers Alliance; Leading Technology Journalist for AARP.ORG and Founder of SmartSilvers Alliance
Susan is co-founder of the SmartSilvers Alliance. The goal of SmartSilvers is to "leverage technologies which foster active aging” with a mission to promote awareness and development of innovative, consumer-friendly products that cater to the unique needs of our expanding 50+ population, providing independence, mobility and quality of lifestyle. Susan is the lead technology journalist for AARP.ORG and is also an active board member of the MIT Enterprise Forum.

Continue reading "San Francisco: Intel, HealthCare & Boomers " »

I feel duped. The title was undeniably catchy: Computing and the Problem of Evil!!!
The speaker undeniably well-reputed: John Mitchell, whose citation rank is 31 of a cast of tens of thousands..he ranks as the 31st most cited author in the filed of computing...
The room comfy, the lighting good, and the talk - disappointing. Not because Dr. Mitchell was not a clear and compelling speaker. Not because the tales of teaming with the Secret Service and Homeland Security to apprehend thieves prowling the internet is not germane.
The work of defeating identity thieves is interesting and valuable. The internet user needs to be as conscious as a pedestrian crossing a large intersection without the benefit of traffic lights. I found myself squirming when Dr. Mitchell said a common silly thing for otherwise intelligent and cautious users to do is to re-use the same password, mainly because its easy to remember - ooopppps!!!! The audience, whose average age would be, say, "comfortably retired", seemed eager to know how to avoid spam and scam scoundrels, and other internet highway sneakthiefs. Perhaps I alone was disappointed.

Frankly, even though I read the talk description, I expected something else. I wanted a talk on "can computing/artificial intelligence BE evil."
Great title. Different talk.

San Francisco Bay Area eggs on its writer-lawyers. Two score and then some legal bloggers - a majority members of the bar, and several non-lawyers- convened this week to discuss blogging. Blogging is every monad's path to "self-publishing"- why wait for a staid and hidebound law review or journal, or to moonlight as a journalist and suffer editors, or hunt, spear in hand, paltry advance checks from wooley mammouth publishers, when one can cook up and promulgate any sort of stuff with the speed and reach afforded by "the web".
As varied as the wares of any corner news stand, some aim at headlines and circulation, with add revenue and a sense of competition with other mono-publishers. Some are activists, looking to expose injustice and trickery in the shady worlds of politics, corporations and power. Some scholars or academics, some business folk, some teachers, some educators, some public service-minded. Some are self-absorbed neo-narcissists, some simply egoists playing with another toy in a box of self-promotion geegaws. The symphonic Babel protected by Free Speech- cornucopia; gallimaufry; caviar and hash. Liberty sublime!
A current affair was pitched out for discussion: more "stuff" on the web than readers. The Sorcerer's apprentice is neck deep in self-replicating multi-media, a choking chaos of sound and fury signifying less to more.
A puny mew escaped me- an admitted desire to express something of enduring value- seemed plain-jane villein or cripplingly naive. A rustic woodcarver among legions of self-citing rapaciously linking Bots that persist and multiply in the Petri dish of cyberspace - a circulation with no lymphatic function. I flush - as cheery Abe Lincoln is reputed to have quipped: it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt.
And yet, decades ago in the last minutes of law school, I heard a voice: that of a competent yet, I confess, often dull to my revving motor-mind of the crass 80's, Constitutional Law Professor. Sending us out with shards of champagne on our hulls, he spoke of the "call to the Bar," of the profession of "Counselor" - a vital social role akin to physician and confessor. And the phrase that struck a persisting note: he enjoined us to "live a consecrated life." To use a verb form that did not then exist, if one should Google "consecrate" - one finds that to "consecrate" literally means "to set apart." A dedicated purpose.

Are the words of this old prof outdated rubbish? Mere pap to eager young JDs? And if not, in cyperspace, in cybertime, is it possible to "set apart" anything?

Screenwriter Nancy Oliver
has written a classic. In my estimation, Lars and the Real Girl is more poignant than "Its a Wonderful Life" and as winsome as "Harvey."
The 11/3 audience in Palo Alto was overwhelmingly adult, owing to the Saturday night showtime (and the paucity of things to do in Palo Alto - ahem). However, the themes are appropriate for all ages. Definitely a keeper, and a sign to look for more from Nancy Oliver.

God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History, edited, with commentary by Stephen Hawking....anybody reading this and want to discuss? Is the math history in "God..." as accessible as say, Bronowski's treatment of zero and the Pythagorean theorem in episodes of "Ascent of Man"?
Personal note of no particular relevance: I was at a Stoppard play in a London theater and Stephen Hawking was on the same balcony seat as I...that may be as close as I ever get to this person of reputation...some distance away in the dark :) he left at intermission, while I, having no better place to go on a solitary business trip back in the mid 90's, stayed till the applause died, and then went out to not find a non-smoking seat for one at an eating establishment.
As I recall, I gave up looking for a restaurant that would seat a single on Saturday evening, and bought a ticket for another play that evening, and ate a roll of breath mints I had in my coat pocket. I was told there exists (separate from or part of some "social network") a service that enables business travelers to "connect" with a dinner partner, to get a good table, and (ideally) enjoy companionable conversation. Data anybody?

Stanford hosted lecture entitled "Brainstorms: Computing and the Problem of Evil' is tomorrow, Wednesday Nov 7 at 7:30 - 9 pm, William R. Hewlett Teaching Center, Room 200. I'm planning to attend, along with folks I know from SRI. Check the blurb at http://csp.stanford.edu

Not quite Uma Thurman in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[Correction: "Even Cowgirl's Get the Blues" and thanks to a reader in LA for that tip], but here are thumb profiles, illustrating what "going for the burn" connotes when it's a coffee cone filter overflow on a dark Sunday morning....

the left thumb (did not know what the right thumb was up to)

The right thumb: suffered like Pompei the eruction of slurry

Notes: tricky to get these opposable digital self portraits holding the iphone
: the rug pattern backdrop is a highly stylized depiction of "paradise"

The Writer's Guild Strike, first in nearly 20 years, has not affected consumers noticeably. Perhaps most readers/consumers are oblivious to the strike, as they may be oblivious to the glut of blog content generally. We lack a sewage system in this digital river...the aggregate secretions of wetware clogging the collective zylem and phloem...How to purge and flush?
How to find the "pearl of great price"? What is worth reading..for that matter..what is worth an allocation of mindspace? Not unlike the daily challenge to the creative force: which creative urgings are potent enough to nurture- which are fed...and which whither..what to consume?
Tonight: Computers and Evil: lecture at Stanford University
On my list: Snorri Sturluson (Icelandic 13th century poet/historian) Prose Edda. (Check the Gutenberg Project).
Sharing: April 16, 2007 New Yorker article (author John Colapinto) on an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe called Piraha*, who are monolingual and consider any language other than their own "crooked head"

* A tilda over the last "a"