Googol may sue Google

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Source; Another (longer) source (w/ interview)

The family of Professor Edward Kasner, the man who came up with the word “googol,” a term used to describe 10 raised to the 100th power, in a 1940 book, is thinking of suing Google if not given the opportunity to have insider access to Google’s IPO. “His relatives claim that he is spinning is his grave.” “She said that although Google has bought attention to the name, it has not bought attention to KasnerÂ’s work. Google was not using the concepts, but just capitalising on the name.”

From Slashdot post:
“Why can you even sue over this? If it’s a mathmatical [sic] concept it should be public domain. It’s the equivilent [sic] of suing someone over using the word dozen. You can’t trademark a quantity can you??”

I personally think that Google’s acknowledgement of the history behind the word “googol” is enough. Googol isn’t even trademarked. And, as the link with the interview says, there is really no legal case that Edward Kasner’s family can bring against Google. They are just hoping to cash in on the hard work of others…

Someone on Slashdot mentioned that a similar court case would be for Parker Brothers to sue Microsoft over the word “Monopoly.”

Done with sophomore year of college!

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A successful year. I’ll get the grades from my other classes soon, but I do know for sure that I got an A in my US History 102 class. I wrote a pretty interesting paper on the Cold War. I’ll post that in my documents section ASAP.

Now I’ll have time to update my blog. I’m hoping to include an investing page, an updated photo album, a page detailing my experiences building a mythtv pvr unit, and I will create an ironman training blog. I’ll also have a section along the left of right columns, indicating the books that I’ve read or are reading currently.

2004 TREK Bikes Collegiate Road National Championships

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Better late than never I guess. I’m volunteering at this and though the hours will be very long, I’m really looking forward to it. I rode the road race course twice on Sunday (May 9th) with some friends. It is very, very hilly. But, what goes up must go down and I hit a new speed record on my bike. Next week I’ll update the picture of the week with an image of my new top speed on my cycle computer. On Saturday, I hope to position myself on the steepest part of the climb.

Woolly Mammoth Promotions, LLC, and the University of Wisconsin Cycling Club are proud to welcome the 2004 TREK Bikes Collegiate Road National Championships to Madison, Wisconsin over the weekend of May 21. Registration will be held all day on Thursday, May 20, with the Criterium, Road Race, and Time Trial to be held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively. Woolly Mammoth Promotions, LLC is a new-founded promotional company arising from past leaders of the University of Wisconsin Cycling Club. With a combined 22 years of experience among its board of directors, Woolly Mammoth founders have a solid base of event promotion of all types, ranging from Regional USCF Cycling Championships to theatrical endeavors.The City of Madison is also very pleased to be hosting the event. A “relaxed and groovy” college town located amongst 4 large lakes and surrounded by sharp bluffs and large hills, Madison is the ideal location for the Collegiate National Championships. Race course venues (maps, and profiles are to be released promptly on January 1, 2004) will be held in the following location:

Criterium (Friday, May 21): Downtown Madison. This mostly flat circuit winds through downtown Madison and the university campus with a start/finish located in the heart of State Street.

Road Race (Saturday, May 22): Black Earth. This area has played host to a variety of championship courses, including the 1976 Olympic Trials. The course can be described as a 15-mile, hilly loop winding through the well surfaced Wisconsin country roads.

Time Trial (Sunday, May 23): Black Earth. A fast and flat 32km out-and-back course.

Woolly Mammoth Promotions CEO Jeff Rose is very excited about the event. “Madison is the prefect location for the country’s best riders to compete; Incredible hills, well-paved roads, and a supportive community make Madison the perfect location for a challenging experience on the bike, as well as a great time when off,” says Rose. “Woolly Mammoth is putting on an event to crown the true National Champions. Riders will take on the nation’s best riders and enjoy incredible hotels, great food, and a beautiful city while they’re here!”

Source: http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=345
After the nationals weekend I’ll post pics from the races here:

Links: University of Wisconsin Cycling Club
Woolly Mammoth Promotions

Blogger’s New Look

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Check it out. Blogger has a sweet new look. It even now includes its own commenting ability. But I think the best feature is the improved style and layout of their site. One of the coolest features is that, even while in the middle of typing this, I can click “Preview” or push ctrl+shift+p and I will instantly get a view of how the post will actually look. Very cool. There is also a new thing called “post pages” where a separate html page is created for each post. This allows the comments to be included underneath the post but not clutter the main index page. It will also make linking to individual posts much easier and should help Google in indexing my page. But it’s getting late, so good night!

A Day In Life – Rock / Alternative / Emo Band playing in the Madison, WI area

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Check out their website here: http://dayinliferock.com/
And you can listen to and download three of their songs here: http://www.purevolume.com/ADayInLife

It’s kind of an interesting story. I was checking the aim profile of a girl from zoology discussion and I came across the dayinliferock.com site. I was shocked when I saw that Gina was the lead vocalist! I had met her on a trip to Cozumel between my Junior and Senior year in high school. It turns out that the girl from zoology is dating one of the guys in the band.

Check them out. The music is great! I hope that they eventually put up or sell more of their music. And, if they get enough music to fill a CD or two, they should check out http://magnatune.com/, an independent record label in which the artists maintain the rights to their music and get 50% of the profits instead of the scantly cents that artists get from the major record labels.

New Template

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As you can see, I’ve drastically updated the template for the layout of this site. I used a template generator from this site http://www.erisfree.com/d2/apart.php. You can create templates for not only Blogger, but also many other blogging programs. There is also the ability to skin this site with 3 different styles. Click the link and the site will automatically change to that style. I had saved my pervious template just in case something would happen, but I like this new layout so much better than I’m going to fully switch over to it. What do you think of the new design?

Investments Up in Smoke

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I take no credit for this, I just thought it was very interesting and am very glad that I don’t smoke.

http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04043021.htm?ref=btp

By Motley Fool Staff
April 30, 2004

The Surgeon General warns that smoking is hazardous to your health. According to the American Lung Association, smoking-related diseases take more than 430,700 American lives each year. That’s apparently not enough to get people to quit, though, not even Fools.

So we’ll add an addendum to the Surgeon General’s warning: Smoking is hazardous to your financial health. Smoking costs the United States approximately $100 billion per year in health-care costs and lost productivity. That’s $100 billion that could be put to much better use: schools, roads, job training, saving Social Security, a dependable voting system — even tax cuts.

But forget the good of humankind. Let’s think about you. How is smoking affecting your portfolio? Well, potentially in a pretty big way. And we’re not even talking about if you happen to own tobacco kings like Altria’s (NYSE: MO) Philip Morris or R.J. Reynolds (NYSE: RJR), which still face litigation concerns and problems with the European Union.

Think about the money you spend on cigarettes. Depending on where you live, you could easily be paying $4 per pack. Maybe you smoke a pack a day. That $28 a week translates into $1,456 per year. Instead of standing out in the cold for all those smoking breaks, you could have taken an annual trip for two to Cancun.

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Gmail invites on Ebay

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It is interesting that people are bidding upwards of $150 for a Gmail invite while it is still beta.

Last week when I checked, there were no gmail invites being sold on Ebay. I almost wish that I had sold one of my invites and walked away with a cool $150 (or more because I would have been the only one). Don’t you think that selling Gmail invites is sort of cheating Google though? I mean, they gave you those invites for free. They could have just as easily auctioned off their own invites and made a killing.

Google’s IPO Should have multipled by pi instead…

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The amount of the $2.7bn [IPO] offering contains an inside joke for the math-minded. The exact offering, $2,718,281,828, is the product of “e” and $1bn, where “e” is the base of the natural logarithm — a logarithm especially useful in calculus — and equals 2.718281828….
Source

Google really should have multipled by pi instead. 😉 Quote: Ryan Liegel

Google is awesome. My only concern over their IPO is that they will keep functioning the way they are now. When they go public, will they be allowed to make last second press releases as they did with Gmail? I sure hope so…

This article, Google does things differently has some interesting points. Larry Page (one of the founders of Google) says that “Google is not a conventional company…Don’t be evil…[The company’s aim is to] do things that matter [and do] good things [for people, even at the expense of short-term profit.]

I hope this type of attitude continues.

More Gmail invites. Klettke Warhol – My can of soup picture.

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I’m not sure if all Gmail users are getting this (or only users like me who constantly bother Google technicians with “suggestions” — see below), but I was just given two invites!! Sorry, they are all handed out already, but if I happen to get another few I’ll post it here and give them to the first people who leave comments. This works well because it will actually force people to leave comments, which no one has been doing for some odd reason.

So, I have no Gmail invites currently, but when I do, you guys will be the first to know.

Scott

BTW, I tried entering one of the contests to get a Gmail invite from a link below, but I didn’t win. I spent quite awhile using gimp to edit my soup can, fork, and spoon masterpiece. The piece of art is entitled Klettke Warhol. I think it should have won. What about you?