Patents

Well, like most other veterans out there, I'm at work today. Blackfive has a reprint of an old Mike Royko column posted that sums up some of my feelings about Veterans Day. Especially the "Why the hell am I at work while the Post Office gets the day off?" feeling. He also has lots of other excellent Veterans Day reading available. Go forth and read.

Me, I'm at work reading patents. I hate reading patents. Patents are engineering documents written by lawyers. Let me tell you, that's a bad combination. They're even more fun when you have to read them with an eye as to how to do the same thing without infringing. Or to see if you can change something slightly and claim it's a brilliant new idea. I have a great deal of respect for the patent attorney who is working on a case for us. He has an MS in engineering and a law degree. More importantly, he has to read patents for a living. I'd slit my wrists. It's bad enough when I have to do it, but if that's all I did? I'd go crazy. Well, crazier.