I remember a time when the newsgroups were full of interesting discussions about interesting things. The people there were hackers and scientists, and they had a lot of strange fetishes, but were generally very intelligent and thoughtful.

Some of these people migrated to slashdot when it started. But now, I can't even read it anymore. It's become a cesspool. Not because of trolls or anything like that, but because of the people that everyone seems to mistake for hackers now.

I just read a post there, under a story decrying software patents, by someone asserting that your brain is exactly the same as a computer, and you could run DeCSS in your head, so the DMCA outlaws your thoughts.

The level of stupidity of these people is becoming really astounding. Everyone seems to think that the only purpose of software is artistic expression, and there is no difference between a program that controls a vat of chemicals and a novel. Really, give me a break. I have a nagging suspicion that many of these guys are actually 14 year old script-kiddies who want to think they're cool because they're talking about something anti-establishment or anti-corporate.

Sure, we'll just abolish software patents. In 20 years, the only patentable things will be computer hardware and motors. (Everything else will be software.) That will be swell for the world economy, and for the U.S. in particular. We don't really need all those Microsoft employees anyway; ship 'em all off to India and let 'em work for a living like people in the 3rd world. It won't matter, because benevolent hackers working as tour-guides or cooks will make all the software we need for free...

Sorry for the sarcasm -- it's not usually my style. I'm becoming less tolerant of stupidity though. Argh.

On another note, we moved a bunch of our stuff to our new apartment today with the help of some good friends. :) I can't believe I actually had the energy to do it. Tomorrow, we're supposed to finish getting the couches over there, but I still have to go over all my notes from last week's assignments, which were mostly insufficient, and do as much of next week's reading as I can.

I am going to be going non-stop from 7:00am to 1:00am again tomorrow. I did get a super humongous slurpee and 2 ice cream sandwiches from 7-11 today though. That was nice. :)

The night I wrote that last post, I slept 2 hours. The only reason I slept at all was because I made a judgment that I needed the lucidity that even 2 hours of sleep would give me for class. I made a trade-off between being well-prepared and being able to think fast in class. I still wasn't finished with my reading though.

But, as I said, whew. ;) I got through the first week of law school. I finally actually have a slight inkling of the direction I need to go in and the things I need to learn and focus on. This small sense I have finally gained was not easily forthcoming. Of course, the first case we had to read was from 1891, one I'm sure the lawyers out there are very familiar with: Vosburg v. Putney.

Let me just say that, it is evil and sadistic to make this the first case a law student reads. It works, it achieves their objective, but it's heinous. Why? I'll tell you why.

Basically, I had no conception of what judges do, what common law is, what a tort is, what role precedent plays, how often judges err, how they come to decisions, etc. I get this case, and it plays havoc with my mind on all of the above points. At the end of it all, I found myself wondering whether the case had any value at all other than to confuse law students.

The biggest question in my mind was whether this case set any important precedent, because the judge's reasoning was incorrect. Now, I think I realize that it did set an important precedent, because the judge's reasoning was not incorrect — it was just his application of that reasoning to the facts of the situation that was incorrect, thereby leading to an incorrect decision (I think).

But no one is telling me whether it's still open to interpretation or not. No one is telling me whether this case is considered a good decision or not... We're just supposed to think about it and make up our own minds, which is maddening because I know I'm probably going to be wrong.

At least now I know what they're trying to get us to do, which is to think about all these issues in depth. The trouble is, there is so much to read, I don't think I'll have sufficient time to just sit and ponder everything. It's like a crash course in Go or something. Very interesting, but insane.

I would like to post something organized about my courses and what we're doing, but it's too much to get all that together. This blog will have to be a mishmash of impressions rather than a beautifully-put together set of articles. But that's okay. Any assumpsit on my part regarding the content of my blog is not a legally enforceable contract due to the lack of signifcant consideration by readers. :)

Got to the law library at about 9am today, and did all the reading for my torts class, briefing the case and noting all relevant questions. I also had to brainstorm answers for a question previously asked by the professor in the syllabus. My class was at 3:30pm and I still felt unprepared. Class was a whirlwind of unfamiliar terms and a struggle with my own brain to keep track of the facts and issues of the case. He moved so quickly, I could barely formulate my questions before we were on to another issue altogether. I was frustrated, but I'm told it gets easier. Things are so nebulous with Torts and Common Law, I just don't know how to handle it yet. Fingers crossed.

I have 3 classes tomorrow, Contracts, Property, and Economic Foundations of Legal Studies. I have about 75 pages left to read just for Contracts and Property, and it's midnight. I have to read it all and then brief and summarize it all to prepare for class. I don't think I'll be sleeping much tonight, if at all.

I have a pot of coffee and a big pack of Chips Ahoy. Wish me luck.

I used to live right near Komazawa Park in Tokyo... Seeing this picture on Joichi Ito's blog reminded me all about those times in my life.

The park was built for the Olympics held in Tokyo years ago (in the 60's I think). Actually, I lived closer to Toritsu Daigaku station, but we often walked or rode our bikes up to Komazawa. I used to drive my RC car all around the little jogging path through the park.

I always thought the coolest thing I had ever seen was a concrete tower in the middle of the park with a moat around it, and little pillars coming up from the water to serve as stepping stones across the moat. It was always blocked off for some reason, but my friends and I always rode our bikes around there. It felt like a semi-deserted concrete ghost town... A magically dull and sullen Stalin-inspired post-apocalyptic future city... I would love to see a picture of that tower again. ;)

Welp, another day, another huge list of things to do. ;)

I finally got together all of my syllabi and assignments from various sites, and now I have to read them all and go through all the reading assignments. Unfortunately, 2 classes use Westlaw, 1 uses Lexis, 1 uses a professor's personal site, and 1 uses GMU's site to serve course information. It took me quite a while to find everything.

Of course, all the professors' contact info is buried in their syllabi, so I had to consolidate all that stuff for my own purposes.

Somehow, I have to try to do some moving today, and get all my reading done before Monday afternoon as well. Should be a challenge, but for good or for ill, I'm not too worried about it yet. ;)

Well, orientation has come and gone. I was pretty excited about it all, and it was fun -- I met some new people, learned a bit more about what I'm getting into, and realized I have a ton of stuff to read tomorrow.

Unfortunately, we've had a lot of other bad things happen today, such as speeding tickets, injuries, bad directions, and hurt feelings, so I'm not particularly happy or optimistic anymore. I hope things are better tomorrow.

Major power failure across Northeast

This is pretty amazing. I just found out about a huge power outage encompassing a number of cities from New York to Toronto. Apparently the subway is out in NYC, and people are all walking and driving out of the city.

Update:
MSNBC reports that the outage is, as far as we know, due to natural causes, not terrorism. They are showing live streaming video at the moment here.

They are showing that the streets are teeming with people attempting to find a way out of New York. All New York flights are grounded.

The Microsoft Case I mentioned recently, according to rumor, was taken on contingency. This means that the firm representing the plaintiff, who won a judgment of $520 million, will receive about a third of that money.

One might estimate that each lawyer of that firm could make over $10 million from this case alone, if it were divided evenly. Pretty astounding. But the plaintiff gained immeasurably as well. The plaintiff was able to sue the Microsoft behemoth and win, without putting up much of their own money, and therefore with very little risk. The law firm took a gamble that paid off handsomely.

Moral of the story: remember when you have legal problems that you may be able to get a firm to take your case on contingency.

I read a story in yesterday's Nikkei Shimbun (on the front page, no less), about the fact that Japan has surpassed Germany in number of international patent applications (I'm not sure about patents issued, but it's a fair guess that they've surpassed Germany there as well). Japan had something like 15,000, and the number for the first half of this year was 30% over the same period last year. The U.S. is way out ahead with something in the neighborhood of 40,000.

The article was also interesting in that it mentioned a number of times that Japan is now focusing on moving to strengthening its intellectual property from its traditional strength in manufacturing. The vast majority of patents are still for automobile and electronics products, but others are continuing to rise slowly.

I received an email from my mentor at GMU. She's a 3rd year student who studied chemistry and forensics, worked for a few years, then went to law school to study intellectual property.

It's nice that the school promotes this mentoring system. I plan to take advantage of it and every other chance I have for help. This may seem obvious to some, but I have a habit of trying to figure everything out myself, even when asking someone for help is the right thing to do. In law school, I'm sure I won't have time to be stubborn about this. I will have to ask others to lend me the benefit of their experience and knowledge.

They're having a happy hour tomorrow which I may try to go to, but I'll meet her on Saturday at orientation anyway... (Did I mention that the orientation is an entire day, and we already had to read a case in preparation?) Crazy.

Fox Sues Humor Writer for Using 'Signature' Slogan

This is really stupid. I guess no one but Fox can now claim to be "fair and balanced"? This use of the phrase seems on the surface to have little to do with Fox, and if it does it's just a satire anyway...

InfoWorld: Microsoft ordered to pay $521M in patent dispute

An interesting case. Apparently, Eolas went to Microsoft a while back and tried to get them to license their patents. Microsoft refused, and developed the technology anyway, which has now been deemed infringing.

$520m is not much for Microsoft, but I'm sure that Eolas is happy. ;)

Legal Affairs: July | August 2003

Legal Affairs, a magazine put out by Yale Law School, has a number of interesting articles about Law and Technology this issue.

Well, we finally finished moving all our stuff. It was not fun. It took an entire week of moving boxes from 7:00-11:00pm, and two whole weekends. I am glad it's done, to say the least. Of course, the ceiling of the bathroom we're using in my parents' house had to cave in this morning. The fun never ends.

This is also my last week of working full-time, since orientation for law school is this Saturday. Maybe on Sunday I'll be able to sleep in a bit, although I'll probably still wake up at 8:30 or something. I have this week now to try to get through some more of the summer reading. I finally ordered a new laptop, but I probably won't be getting it in time for school, so I'll have to use my old one until it comes.

The pace of this life is speeding up so tremendously, I'm starting to feel like a spectator in my own body.

This weekend we began moving out all of our things again in earnest. We're moving to a new apartment nearby to escape our landlord and a crummy apartment, and move into a much nicer place for a better deal. I'm exhausted.

We have to move everything to our parents' garage first, then into the apartment later, since our lease was up before we could move into the new place. So we're trying to move as much as we can ourselves, then get friends to help with the furniture next weekend.

After working on it most of the day Sunday, I took a swim in my parents' pool and relaxed a bit before going to meet Jeff and Sahala, who happened to be here for a wedding. It was cool to see them again. I think they'll be moving away from Austin in another year or so. Jeff convinced me I should spend my remaining time before law school finishing Final Fantasy X, which I had stopped playing... I agreed. I don't think I will do it though. Too many other 'important' things to do. I'll have to just get the latest cool stuff and play it all in 3 years when I finish school...

The weather has been oppressive here. Hot and humid. I can't wait for fall weather now: jackets and cool wind. :)