20 April 2008

Eco patent commons

Thought I'd share this site with you - the Eco Patent Commons was set up on January 2008, and is hosted on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) website.

Interesting idea - the rationale is to create a way for companies (or IP owners) to share patents for usage to enable energy efficient and environmentally sustainable processes to be adopted widely and quickly. Also, companies in similar industries can share and improve on each other's processes.

Why not publish the invention and make it public domain and free for all? I suppose this is a way of allowing the company to still exploit their monopoly on the IP for other uses or if it starts to have large commercial potential in the future, yet still get the environmentally friendly applications out there and used quickly.

The legal side of this is a bit difficult to understand in parts - especially the idea of when the non assert clause can be revoked should a company sue you for something else unrelated to the usage of the eco-patent. I would have thought an easier way of doing this would be to give a royalty free license to other companies to use the patent for the stated purpose only, but there may be legal implications to this I just don't understand. I assume this also is based on the Creative Commons, which I know even less about - maybe the Eco Patent Commons is based on some tried and tested legal systems used there.

Anyway, have a surf around the site to see examples of which patents have been pledged to the commons so far (31, mostly from IBM) - the Q&A section is quite good at clarifying some bits.

15 April 2008

(explanation of previous post title...)

So it seems you can get chicken pox even if you are immunised. Had to ask the Dr if she was sure E-chan had them, as the tiny red dots didn't seem like the pox I had as a kid, but she was sure. And sure enough, more appeared over the next few days. If you are immunised, and are one of the 20-30% who still gets chicken pox, the virus could be mistaken for a cold with a cough, as the pox symptoms are much milder....

But regardless, a week at home in quarantine is required. This of course coincided with C's Nanna dying, which requires him to take tomorrow off. So I'm off work first half of the week, and E should be clear to go back to childcare on Friday. It's hard explaining to him when he'll see his little friends again. It's also a bit of a challenge coming up with ideas to entertain when it's rainy outside, and hanging out with other kid is verboten, given we're trying to do the responsible thing and not give the pox to others. Oh and of course it's raining this week.

Anyone - who's had chicken pox - keen to come over for take away and knitting (or whatever) session this Wednesday night? I'll be on my own until C gets back from funeral, at about 9:30.

Contagion and cabin-fever

Stimulating conversation at a play dinner party...

Me: would you like some dinner?
E: !(nods enthusiastically)
Me: here you go then... (ladles out imaginary food into bowl for each of us, and pretends to eat)
E: Hot?
Me: Yes it might be a bit. (Blows on food) That's better!
E: Hot?
Me: No, warm now. (Keeps pretending to eat)
E: Hot?
Me: no, not any more - are you going to have some?
E: !(nods enthusiastically, pretends to eat)
Me: (makes pouring noise and pretends to pour drink in tea cups)
E: (Copies, smiles) Mummy!

10 April 2008

Mixed metaphor of the month

"Like pulling hen's teeth".

I came up with this one yesterday - perhaps not deliberately - but insist it is valid: it is for usage when a) something is rare as hen's teeth AND b) is as unpleasant as having to pull teeth.

Highlights and thoughts from the past week

Hope the boring title hasn't put you off already. It really was the best I could come up with. Work is ticking along OK, life is manageable, E-chan is scarily approaching his 2nd birthday, sleeping beautifully and alternating weeks where he eats like a horse and picks like a sparrow. Right now he is practicing blowing his nose (I just had to confiscate the tissues for fear of the whole box being emptied)!

  • Had a few days of angst, where I worried that I was insignificant to everyone except to my immediate family. But a beautifully social weekend cured me of that – chats with family, swimming with a friend, visiting a mum-friend who I never see because she works on days I don’t and vice-versa and seeing her little 22-month girl dazzle with special little dance routines and an amazing grasp of the alphabet, and a friend who I thought had dropped me from her xmas card list found me and “befriended” me on Facebook.
  • BABYSITTING, people! We’ve seen the light! Had our first evening out together, going out to dinner with friends, while a work colleague of C-chan’s baby sat E-chan. E-chan didn’t wake up and was fine with someone else being there. Dinner was fun, and entrĂ©e and dessert were lovely.
  • I had a video cam session with my nephew (and my brother and the rest of his family), where he wanted to talk trains with E-chan, but unfortunately he was napping, so I talked planes, trains and helicopters instead. After we had “hung up”, he rang me back on his own for no particular reason than to tell me that he was being cheeky!
  • Finished sewing something! (a quilt cover for E-chan)
  • The above was accomplished on a day I had all by myself when my boys went on a journey to visit C-chan’s Nanna, who is very sick. She had never met E-chan, and he is her only great-grandchild, so we thought it was time they went to visit. E-chan was a model child by all accounts – he greeted his great-grandparents by calling them “nanna” and “poppa” (without coaching), was friendly after a short period of shyness, and blew kisses goodbye. We are so proud of him – he seems to be a thoughtful child, who has some level of intuitiveness, as we certainly aren’t able to instruct his behaviour very much yet due to communication constraints. Apparently his grand-Nanna and grand-Poppa were happier than they have been seen in ages.
  • While at the child care centre yesterday, I heard a father telling a story about how his youngest child calls his older brother “weetbix”.... (!)
  • Discovered that “reasons you will hate me” is actually written by Marieke Hardy, whose book reviews I love to hear on First Tuesday Book Club
  • Have gone for a lunch time swim two weeks in a row! Feeling very virtuous!
  • And a final parting thought - it really has been too long since we’ve seen David Tennant on the television… must be months?

02 April 2008

New job starts with no hitches...

...apart from some of the usual administrative work & behind the scenes signing of forms lagging behind my actual new job commencement date.

So far so good. I even organised a meeting - set agenda and all that other related stuff - for my second day on the job. It feels more challenging in more of the right ways than my last job, without the menial tasks I used to have to do, but not so "in the deep end" with a far-too-broad-job-description challenging as per a job I once did. Most of the challenges I actually know how to go about, I just need to work out the whos, whens and whys. The boffins I work with seem to work on interesting stuff, so it should keep me stimulated.

Some good points:
- my new office is closer to that of some of my friends
- increase in incidental exercise due to increased number of flights of stairs I have to climb several times daily
- closer to a pub
- closer to E-chan's day care
- closer to gym and pool (handy for lunch time swims and pre-work gym sessions)
- only share office with one other person
- exposure to cutting edge research
- view from desk includes ferny rock garden and can also see sky

Some bad points:
- increased number of flights of stairs I have to climb several times daily (4 flights to get to lunch and coffee room!)
- office near a workshop with engine noises and oily smells
- moderate spider population in my office (but have only seen Daddy Long Legs so far)
- old brown carpet on floor
- nearest green space is being landscaped and will take probably 6 months to be finished
- evil vending machine nearby with double mini toblerone packets selling for only $2.20...