On this New Years Day weekend, an alert reader and blogger in his own right forces me to reflect on the timeless question posed in 1969 by the Firesign Theatre, "How can you be two places at once, when you're really no where at all?"
As Peter Quinn steps out of the spotlight, we owe him our thanks. And we should have respect for his privacy.
Out of a hundred "me too" articles is one that has something new and important to say
It's been 24 hours since I first reported that Peter Quinn had resigned as the CIO of Massachusetts. In this entry, I pull together all of the additional information of note that has appeared on line thus far, including further details regarding why Quinn resigned, an official statement regarding what Massachusetts will do next regarding ODF, and the first report from the Boston Globe. I also follow the bread crumbs that show how news travels from the Blogosphere to the traditional media when a story breaks - in a word, it travels "slowly".
I'm very sorry to report that Peter Quinn, the CIO of Massachusetts who has been at the center of a controversy relating to his efforts at the Information Technology Division (ITD) to adopt the OpenDocument format for the use of the Commonwealth's Executive Agencies, has resigned [Updated 12.28.05]
Fans of R. Crumb will remember Mr. Natural and his words to live by: Always use the right tool for the job. It's a good thing to keep in mind when you compare ODF and XMLRS
It's only appropriate that on the hundredth anniversary of Einstein's Miracle Year that NIST and MIT researchers have refined the proof of the great physicist's most famous theorum more precisely than ever before
Back on August 9, I wrote about the fact that a patent pool had been formed by some of the patent owners that believe that their intellectual property rights (IPR) would be infringed by the implementation of RFID technology. I was reminded of this entry when a reporter who was writing about the current status of that initiative called me up to explain how patent pools work. He's written what I think is a very clear update on this situation, called "The RFID Patent Pool: Playing Poker," which you can find here.
The blog entry in question was one of those that I write from time to time that seek to dig below the surface of what is generally perceived to be bad news in order to determine just how bad that news really is. In this particular case, I was pointing out that if the laudable efforts of those that had been working hard to create a royalty-free environment for RFID technology were going to fail, then the next best outcome could well be a patent pool.
In an ideal world, the answer would be "yes." Around these parts, though, the answer depends on the type of standard, time and circumstances, and your views on economic theory.
There was a lot of talking in the Massachusetts Senate Reading Room yesterday at the ODF/XML Open Format. And even some news