James Foster

Whose Image is On the Coin?

2009-04-12T17:57:00.000-07:00

Following a recent technical presentation I ended up in a conversation with Ben Cooper (who was there to learn about Seaside). It turns out that in addition to sharing an interest in Smalltalk, we also have similar concerns about the government's role in managing the money supply. I described a paper I wrote many years ago and Ben asked for a copy. I sent him a scanned copy (I only had the paper in hard-copy format), and he arranged for Carrie Bellue to transcribe it and send me a soft copy. I've reformatted it somewhat and am now making it available for download as a PDF.

The basic idea is that private firms ought to be able to issue currency as long as it is not denominated in an existing government money. That is, a Wells Fargo Ducat should not be seen as counterfeit for a United States Dollar. The paper is a rather technical analysis of the legal issues.

Church Sermon

2008-12-19T17:24:00.001-08:00

Last week I got a call on Thursday evening asking if I would preach on Sabbath. You can watch a video of the service here.

What credit freeze?

2008-10-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

First of all, the financial storms over the past year have -- before last week -- been largely confined to securities markets and to interbank loans among commercial and investment banks. Bank loans to commercial and industrial business, real estate and consumers continued to expand nearly every month. Commercial and industrial loans exceeded $1.5 trillion this August, up from less than $1.2 trillion a year earlier. Real-estate loans exceeded $3.6 trillion, up from less than $3.4 trillion a year ago. Consumer loans were $845 billion, up from $737 billion. Credit standards are tougher, which is surely a good thing, but interest rates for creditworthy borrowers remain low.

See "'Wall Street' No Longer Exists" at Cato.

Is this a great court?

2008-09-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

In this article in the California Bar Journal, J. Clark Kelso states

There is no doubt that the majority decision pushed the ball down the field a little further than the California Constitution necessarily required. But that, after all, is what leadership is all about. That is what differentiates a great court — a court that is a full participant with the other branches of government and with the people in developing more mature understandings and interpretations of constitutional provisions — from other courts.

Using these criteria (leadership, great, mature, and participation), how would one decide that the court went too far or went in the wrong direction?

Google's Library Project

2005-10-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

James Robertson compares Google's proposal to digitize and index books (paper content) to Google's indexing web content, and suggests that they are the same issue.

It seems to me that when you post your copyrighted work to a web server, you are (by necessity) implying consent that the entire work (page) may be copied in a digital form by the client browser (and each of the routers between you and the client). If you include a link "Format for printing" then you are implying concent for the work to be copied onto paper. Even if you don't include the link, a case could be made for that implied concent for printing being provided. The implication comes from you instructing your server to respond positively to a request for a complete copy.

Google is not dealing with publishers who provide a full electronic copy to anyone who asks (web content). They are dealing with publishers who provided content on paper with a statement at the top saying "you have permission to look at this paper, and to store this paper in a safe place, but you do not have permission to make a copy of this paper in electronic or physical form." In this case, there is an implied consent to allow the paper to make an image on your retina, and have that image transferred to your brain. If you wish to memorize the content, you probably have that permission, but not to store it in an external medium.

One early concept of real estate law (that seems to apply to intellectual property law as well) is that property can be compared to a "bundle of faggots" (or sticks of firewood). If you allow rights to property to be divided up into smaller pieces, then the parties to a transaction can explicitly negotiate which ones are transferred. (With real estate this applied to things like "I sell you the surface of the land, but retain the mineral rights under the surface.")

While it seems to me that it would be in the publishers' interests to make their products more visible, I'm not comfortable with courts deciding that owners of property are required to bundle their property is specific ways. While this limitation is usually done in the name of public good or economic efficiency, I believe that the historical evidence is that legally enforced reduction in choices generally does not produce public good or economic efficiency.

Glamor Photos

2005-10-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

You might typically think of "Glamor Photos" as something a high school girl gets after spending much money and time working on make-up, clothes, etc. As we work on moving into our new home, Beverly found a picture on ClosetMaid that shows the result of spending much money and time on a different makeover.

Moving Day

2005-10-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday was moving day at the Fosters. We accepted the generous offer of help from the good folk at the Hillsboro Seventh-day Adventist Church. About half a dozen of them showed up shortly after 9am and worked for about 6 hours. In addition to helping pack, they carried boxes, drove vehicles, and kept us going. Beverly's parents came over at noon with three pizzas which were appreciated by all. On Monday, Candy came back over and helped Beverly find boxes with kitchen things. I've scheduled professional piano movers to come on Thursday to move the remaining item. It is nice to be in our own house--even if it is a mess and we can't find things!

Damning with faint praise (Java)

2005-10-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

"I've warmed up to it [Java] over the years, but still tend think of Java as a decent tool rather than something that I'm excessively passionate about. I can't think of a single time that I've coded Java without thinking at least once to myself 'this would be so much easier in Smalltalk'."
--Wayne Beaton, Eclipse Evangelist in EclipseZone

Patent on Proxy Objects

2005-10-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

Last night James Robertson posted a reference to a newly issued patent #6,952,706 to Apple Computer titled "Method for providing stand-in objects." The description claims invention in 2002 of techniques described in the 1995 classic Design Patterns (which I believe is one of the best-selling software books of all time). The process is one that has been used by GemStone/Smalltalk since at least 1992.

In a discussion of this patent at Macsimum News, one poster pointed to patent #6,368,227 issued in 2002 to a five-year-old kid from Minnesota for "Method of swinging on a swing."

Bait Cars

2005-10-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

kgw.com carried an AP report of a fleet of "bait cars" left in areas of high auto theft. The cars have video cameras that record the thief's action and location. "In the most recent case a 'bait car' was left in a high-crime area Tuesday night and was stolen nine minutes later."

Keys in hand

2005-10-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

We closed on the purchase of our new home on Friday and the contract provided for the sellers to have possession for an extra day past the closing. After sundown tonight we went over to see how things were doing. The home was clean and empty, so tomorrow we can start moving. Since we have a month more in the apartment, the timing should be fine.

The Second Disaster

2005-10-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

USATODAY.com has an article about how people often react to disasters--they gather up their old clothes and send them off to the impacted area. This is of little benefit to the victims and creates a burden on already stretched disaster response teams.

As a survivor of the Fargo Flood of 1997 I have first-hand experience with this problem. In the middle of all the other problems, our church school building was converted to a warehouse where semi-trucks would unload plastic bags full of donated clothing. (We had good souls from around the country show up offering to help. I remember giving one carpenter the job of sorting clothes.) It took months to get rid of the final scraps.

Signing loan papers

2005-09-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today John and Laura start classes at Walla Walla College and today Beverly and I signed papers for the purchase of our home in Beaverton. The closing is scheduled for Friday.

Thursday evening

2005-09-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

Laura arrived in Walla Walla this afternoon and is working with her roommate on setting up things. Beverly, John, and Laura are visiting some nearby friends this evening. If all goes smoothly, Beverly should return to Portland on Friday and the children will start classes on Monday.

Next week should be busy with finalizing the purchase of our new home. I've scheduled a roofing contractor to do some repairs (October 20) and I've scheduled another contractor to give a bid on installing drains to prevent water from collecting in the crawl space (October 3).

I've also been collecting recommendations from people at work on various healthcare providers.

Transition to Portland

2005-09-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Our home in Fargo sold last month and our family has been together in Portland until this week when John and Laura go back to Walla Walla College. Beverly and John went yesterday and Laura will go tomorrow. Beverly should return on Friday. We are scheduled to close on the purchase of our new home at the end of next week.