Friday, January 16, 2004

PuppetTime Fans I got this email tonight. :-( Hello, As a long time Puppettime fan, it came as quite a dissappointment that puppettime.com is now a porn site. I just can't believe that cycore would let this happen. I have repeatedly emailed my disappointment in their mothballing of puppettime and have received minimal form letter responses. They did not respond at all to my less than diplomatic email regarding their inability to retain ownership of the puppettime name on the web. About a year ago I even encouraged Apple Canada to try to purchase Puppettime, and they sent my ideas down to the "decision makers" in California, but I never heard back. This software is the perfect app for apple to market their computers to the 11 to 15 year old market. Little else in their software library (except for listening to tunes) is targetted at this age group. We still use Puppettime in our technology lab with 13 and 14 year olds. (1200-1400 students per year over the last 3 years) Those who follow our manuals exactly are very successful, but for those who aren't as careful the beta glitches cause frustration. We were hoping that by now Cycore would get off its duff, but odds no longer seem good. We will probably phase out our Puppettime module this year to be replaced with an iMovie digital editing module. Because of our reduction in staffing we have to go to something which will run smoothly for all students, not just the careful ones. This saddens me as Puppettime is a one of a kind product offering students an experience that no other software that I know of is capable of. I hope cycore never makes it out of the red. Cult 3D who cares? Look it spins around and opens its doors. wow! Rob Davidson Bluewater Technology Centre (J.D.S.S.) Hanover ON Canada 10:16:27 PM    trackback []

Patenting reincarnation Patently absurd! In the Pipeline finds fault with the US patent system: And Now for Something Completely Different It's taken a team effort for things to come to this. Patent applicants have to write crummy applications; the patent office then does its part by granting way too many of them. And that leads up to this latest bolt of inspiration, whose examination by the PTO I would pay to witness. Prepare yourselves for US application 200400055535: "Process of Reincarnation." The patent is really bad, which is all part of the fun: Abstract: The invention consists of the process of reincarnation or rebirth resulting in immortality. Description: [0001] This invention resulted from my combining Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Newton's Second Law of Physics. [0002] Reincarnation is defined in Webster's Third New Inernational Dictionary as "rebith". Thus my invention is a process of rebirth or in other words immortality. [Knowledge Jolt with Jack] 2:50:06 PM    trackback []