P.T. Barnum, meet Lush Rimjob

Patented

This great essay/article puts into perspective much of the intellectual property shenanigans currently the source of so much confusion in the virtual world.

In light of the recent Microsoft-Novell imbroglio, it’s interesting to get into the way-back machine and revisit the Apple-Microsoft GUI wars, GIF enforcement, the rise of the patent trolls, and how today the open source GPL addresses IP by spinning it on its head.

Fascinating.

Refreshing Candor

The CEO of Seagate, Bill Watkins, who hails from Texas, had a few drinks with a Money mag reporter and let it rip. Excerpts:

[on] Sarbanes Oxley: “CEOs who whine about Sarbanes Oxley don’t belong in their jobs. Come on guys, get over it.”

[on] The M&A boom: The Valley is no longer “about building a company and a culture. It’s about making money for the top guys. If you look back to Intel (Charts) and Fairchild, they set out to build a company that would become massively large. Google (Charts) was another good example. They waited a long time. They wanted to build a big company. People don’t think like that now.” That includes, Watkins continues, YouTube. “YouTube is like eBay. The founders didn’t know what they were doing. The consumers just took hold of it.”

[on] The HP pretexting scandal: When I ask if anyone really cared about this story outside of the media, Watkins shakes his head. “Wall Street certainly didn’t. I saw it and thought, it’s good to know there’s a board of directors more dysfunctional than mine.”

Very entertaining, and insightful too. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.