The May Report: 12/5/2010: When Mercury is going into retrograde, things go haywire in technology which may explain why Comcast is out of commish for 2 million people tonight and why Facebook is changing its format in the morning; Augmented reality is hip these days; Advice for entrepreneurs on how to talk to developers; No idea if it is true, but rumor has it that Paul Humenansky has been arrested — hey, if Kara Swisher can rumor monger, so can I

Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944.

Assistant editor: Melanie Adcock, iPHONE: 312-259-0610, melanie_adcock@msn.com

If you missed an article, go here: www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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Subject: Early And Often Offer for May Report Readers
Date: 12/3/2010 8:41:39 A.M. Central Standard Time
From: mike@earlyandoften.org
To: ronaldmay@aol.com

Ron,

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

– Editor’s note, by Ron May
– Augmented Reality is hip these days!- Plus, advice on how to network with developers!, by Melanie Adcock
– Advice for Entrepreneurs- Networking with Developers: Break the ice, get their info, and start a conversation!, by Melanie Adcock
– Former COO of Divine Arrested – Paul Humenansky
– Dave McMurray on the Google-Groupon story
– Phil Wyatt on the situation Groupon is in
– Katy Lynch: Appreciates the big list of parties
– Anonymous: Liked Ron’s report on Groupon Friday night
– Most Popular Baby Names of 2010
– Google has worse problems than Groupon- leaked info about Chinese Hackers has hit the mainstream media with an introduction by Melanie Adcock
– Top Ten of Patent Trolling plus a book recommended to Ron at the LES convention on the Wright Brothers who may have been among the first trollers
– Miscellaneous notes (2 messages)
– Telework: The Triple Bottom Line – Tuesday, December 07, 2010 from 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM (CT) – Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) 233 S. Wacker, Suite 800
– Sunday, January 9, 2011: Book Release Party for Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts and Establishing Price Structures
– Indiana High Speed Rail in the News
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Venture Capital / Angel Investor / Entrepreneur event

When: December 8, 2010 – 8:30am to 8pm

Where: SYNC Technology Center 322 S Green Street, Suite 300 Chicago, IL 60607

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The Funding Feeding Frenzy is the ultimate experience for CEOs and founders of fast growing companies to get connected with other entrepreneurs and investors to help take their businesses to new heights of success. The FFF is a unique opportunity to network with those ready to recognize the potential your company holds. Join us for the “Meet the Money” VIP Lunch, “Big Splash” Cocktail Reception and some of the most interesting and exciting fast growth companies in the Chicago area.
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The Scoop section:
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Editor’s note, by Ron May

* First, Channel 5 is just now reporting at 11:05pm Sunday that Crain’s is reporting that Groupon’s rejection of the Google deal will mean more hires in Chicago and no loss of jobs. If the deal had happened, Groupon might have lost hundreds of jobs here.

* Correction: It is Gery Chico, not Gary Chico as I have been writing. My info. is that he was supposed to be hired at Arnstein & Lehr after he left the failed Altheimer & Gray, but some information came to light that nixed the deal. I’m trying to find out what the problem was. It could have had to do with liabilities that Altheimer had on leases, etc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altheimer_%26_Gray

* I have some good inside info. for you on sales at a major retailer on Michigan Avenue but let that wait until tomorrow morning.

* I also have some interesting info. on one major Chicago entrepreneur who is not a fan of Rahm. But that will wait until tomorrow.

* Dave Culver told me Friday night at Sip@TheSync that they have 19 companies set up for their Funding Frenzy event on Wednesday the 8th, and 14 had already paid as of the time we spoke.

* I called Melanie during the ads on 60 Minutes between the first and second segments on Mark Zuckerberg of FaceBook but she can’t watch TV. (She can use her TV for watching movies only.)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

Anyway, Melanie wrote the following and then her Comcast crashed. That was about 8pm and Comcast told her that 2 million people in the area are without Comcast tonight because a server went down and it will be two to four hours before the problem is fixed. It is almost four hours now and nothing has been done to fix the problem. Paul, I told you Comcast was risky.

Melanie dictated to me what she wrote and I put in my recorder. I am now transcribing.

“Zuckerberg likes hot peppers. So do I. Based on the 60 Minutes segment tonight, FaceBook will once again change its format which will prompt a bunch of grumpy status updates from my friends on FaceBook. FaceBook is announcing these changes on the brink of Mercury going into retrograde. As those of you who follow astrology know, this is a time when technology goes haywire.

For the most part when sites make layout changes, people gripe for a week or so, then move on. It did not look to me like any of the changes to their layout were all that spectacular — nothing a tech savvy person can’t handle.

It will give you more sections to indicate your interests as well as point out the important people in your life.

The last thing I need is a bunch of friends all wanting to be on my “important list.” I didn’t do that in 2nd grade and I’m not about to start now — thank you very much.

The fact that Mark Zuckerberg is sweating less in this interview (compared to two years ago in the Kara Swisher interview when he sweated a lot — but I told Melanie that it could have been the lights) still doesn’t exactly put me at ease.

The big thing that looks to be the game changer is something called FaceBook messages which combine text, FaceBook and e-mail all into one.

They call it the e-mail killer and some say it directly targets gmail. It’s about time — e-mail is antiquated anyhow.

The coverage highlights Google and FaceBook fighting over search and how people find things.

The key difference is that a Google search will deliver publicly findable information but a FaceBook search will provide information from your friends.

This year people spent more time on FaceBook than Google and Google has spent millions of dollars to keep their employees there and not go to FaceBook.

FaceBook has two hundred people they took from Google.”

That is what Melanie had written when her system went down.

I told her that my friends are not necessarily the experts I want to consult.

We agreed on that. If it is about technology, Melanie told me, she doesn’t care what her mother says, but if it is something about living in the countryside, she wants her mom’s opinion.

I would listen to friends (if I have any) for recommendations on books, movies, TV shows, etc., but if I am buying a tape recorder or deciding on what to do about the link problem for TMR, friends and even my brother don’t count for much. For those things, I want to talk to experts. The same goes for health issues. Friends generally give uninformed advice.

You can log onto the 60 Minutes site and view the new FaceBook makeover at www.60minutesovertime.com

Melanie just called at 11:12pm to say that the 800 support number for Comcast is not working at all. No way to make any selections.
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Augmented Reality is hip these days!- Plus, advice on how to network with developers!, by Melanie Adcock

From: Melanie Adcock
Subject: USE THIS ONE- Augmented Reality is hip these days!- Plus, advice on how to network with developers!
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 08:20:31 +0000
To: ,

Augmented Reality is hip these days!- Plus, advice on how to network with developers!

Review of Chicago Android’s Augmented Reality Event featuring Uki D. Lucas and Mark Perona

By Melanie Adcock

The word from Chicago Android: Augmented Reality indeed hot these days I slid into a seat next to Antonio Wells from Android Tapp and As Seen On Phone at the Chicago Android event last week at the Sync Tech Center just as Uki Lucas was encouraging a rapt group of 25 experts to take a look at Flex and Flash Development for Android 2.2 which supports Flash (Apple does not support Flash). Uki shared his opinion that Windows 7 stinks. He showed and demonstrated the Barnes and Noble’s Nook Reader 2.2. To see a list of Nook Reader features check out this link: www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/features/index.asp He is currently in the process of trying to hack it. He said it’s a fantastic tool and the reason why this great product only has 20% of the market share is because they did not open it up to developers. In Q1 of next year they are going to change this.

The future of Android looks bright and Uki shared that the OnStar System www.onstar.com is run on the Android platform- something I did not know. The car dashboard market has big potential with App development in his view. In the future the Android platform will expand from smart phones to include appliances like microwaves, washing machines, and others. The future also holds seeing more tablets in cafes instead of laptops.

Onto Augmented reality- firstly, what is it? Augmented reality (AR) is defined as live direct or indirect view of physical real-world environments enhanced by additional sound or graphics. For a more in depth definition please visit:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality

While brochurewear is big for Apps right now much like it was big for websites in the 90′s, computer vision however is going to be the next big thing in development. According to Uki, GPS by itself is now lame because there is so much more you can do with it if you add Augmented Reality. If you are in a large trade show or at a location like McCormick place often times GPS won’t work but you can use other ways of augmenting reality through wireless radio. Augmented reality applications use GPS very much, along with cell radio tower triangulation, to determine your location. Right now it is possible to write an App that is similar to the Terminator movies and the ability to scroll through vision. With face recognition, and cameras running over faces, Android makes this a reality. To learn more about mobile Apps for Augmented reality check out this list for top 5 Augmented reality Apps: compixels.com/441/top-5-augmented-reality-apps-for-android and this list for Augmented Reality Apps for iPhone: www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/best-augmented-reality-iphone-applications/ Layar claims to be the first Augmented reality App and you can download it on either the iPhone or Android platform: www.layar.com/

After Uki’s presentation coding ensued as developers learned Camera Preview and Overlay with Mark Perona. www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-perona/4/220/192

Mark is patient, knowledgeable and answered questions the developers had. Eclipse and Android SDK were used for this exercise. Things like compass and points of interest were discussed along with frame layouts and adding ids. I found some cookies in the the kitchen and brought them out to the developers as they toiled away. I spoke with Markus McGee, a developer at Model Metrics who is currently involved with mobilizing salesforce.com on the blackberry. We discussed salesforce.com admin training, CRM super users, and how cool Adam Caplan, CEO of Model Metrics, is. Markus McGee is the second cool developer I’ve met recently who’s currently working at Model Metrics. Their team over there is cookin’. I also talked to Oudaya Carounanidy, Senior Architect at Comnet International, a guy who works at Intel, and another developer who is looking for a new job.

We also talked about all kinds of ideas for Camera Preview and Overlay and how it can be used: football games, museums, tennis games, product recognition in warehouses, watching things online from wars throughout the world, spying on last minute Christmas shoppers on Michigan Avenue, parades, etc. The one thing we wondered was wether or not you can record the overlays along with recorded video because it would make a nice addition to an annotated YouTube video. It was a fun event. I hope if you are not a developer you will consider going to future Chicago Android events because I certainly learned a lot at this event. It will open your eyes to who is really doing the down and dirty work to propel next generation technology. To get more information about Chicago Android’s events you can e-mail info@chicagoandroid.com Chicago Android chicagoandroid.com hosts numerous events geared toward hackers, developers, and geeks alike. Their events are great to attend not only for developers but if you need to meet developers.

This weekend Uki Lucas is releasing “Chicago Local,” an AR app that sounds really interesting. More details on that to come.
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Advice for Entrepreneurs- Networking with Developers: Break the ice, get their info, and start a conversation!, by Melanie Adcock

Advice for Entrepreneurs- Networking with Developers: Break the ice, get their info, and start a conversation!

By Melanie Adcock

Often I hear at business related networking events from entrepreneurs who are dying to meet developers. The reason why they fail to do this is because they are going to the wrong events! If you want to meet developers you must go where they go and carefully, skillfully take the time to develop a strong network of talent to build your company product. I wrote this section because I see a real need for this out there in the trenches. I’ve also heard developers say things like all of their friends are busy starting their own companies, but often times the business end is started by a non-developer. I like talking to all kinds of people so I thought this might help someone somewhere get what they need to accomplish their business goals. If you call yourself a CEO of a tech start up, I believe it is your responsibility to know more developers than I do. To help enable this I decided to write down a few networking tips for how to meet and talk to developers:

-Attend Hackathons, developer meet ups, events and parties that are geared toward developers. If you know nothing about what’s being presented try to research it a little before you attend the event.

-If you can, ask developers questions about programming. If you’re going to a developer event listen carefully to what programming languages are mentioned in the presentation and ask intelligent questions referencing them.

-Start simple and ask them if they are learning something new at the event and if it’s their area of specialty. Ask what programming languages they know and what they are doing with them.

-Next move to harder questions like: Is (Mobile Android Programming) easier to learn if you already know (Java)? How many .net developers are actually interested in programming for the Windows 7 Phone? Ask them what they think of Limewire getting shut down www.pcworld.com/article/208895/limewire_shut_down_permanently.html or their views on their favorite open source software en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source.

-If you’re planning to buy a new laptop, tablet, or smart phone ask their advice on what kind to get.

-Developers are not always the outgoing types who make it a priority to get everyone’s business cards. More than a few times I’ve seen developers carry around cards of their sales staff and hand those out instead of their own. Have a pen and paper handy and be prepared to write down their e-mail and number if they don’t have a business card.

-If you are an entrepreneur looking for talent let them know your ideas and what type of partnerships you are looking for. There are many talented hard working developers who have a full time job but will take on a side project in something they are interested in. Finding that good match can give a developer an interesting project to work on at the same time as giving your software idea the attention it needs to get off the ground. Conversely, many talented creators, inventors and programmers are out there inventing their own products. You might stumble across a fantastic idea of theirs you want to support.

There is also the other side and I could give some advice for the developer on how to get out there, have a greater social presence, and network more effectively. I thought about it and I’m not going to do that. Why ask leopards to change their spots? If they’ve taken the time to get good at what they do, everyone will want to meet them and the need to be more social isn’t as critical. Let’s let them be who they are and enable everyone else to meet them. Go forth and schmooze, everyone!
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Former COO of Divine Arrested – Paul Humenansky

From: Mike Stevens
Subject: Former COO of Divine Arrested – Paul Humenansky
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 18:04:05 -0800 (PST)
To: VeronicaFilipowski@gmail.com
Cc: Ron@TheMayReport.com

Veronica,

Humenansky has been arrested on porn charges! I’ll keep you posted.

Michael.
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Dave McMurray on the Google-Groupon story

From: dave mcmurray
Subject: re: Groupon news this morning
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 06:40:31 -0800 (PST)
To: ron@themayreport.com

Hi Ron – I hope this note finds you well, what with all the holiday parties you’ve been attending recently. No doubt you’ve already seen this, but…wow:

www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1204-groupon–20101204,0,6762706.story

Regardless of what’s been said so far regarding Groupon, if this story is true, then you must admit that this is a supremely ballsy move on their part, and makes quite a statement regarding the confidence they have in their business model’s future, both for the near and far – term. Perhaps they’ll become the Chicago company that makes up for all of the other local ideas that previously wound up going elsewhere to become success stories.

Regards,

David McMurray
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: dave mcmurray
Subject: whoops, sorry about that
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 06:43:12 -0800 (PST)
To: ron@themayreport.com

Didn’t see your recent missive last evening – never mind.
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Phil Wyatt on the situation Groupon is in

From: “Phil Wyatt” Subject: RE: The May Report: 12/3/2010: Well, no offense intended, but if you haven’t heard it by now, you’ve probably been under a rock since 6:30pm Friday night: Groupon has pulled out of the Google-Groupn deal in favor of an IPO next year and Kara Swisher is no
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 13:06:52 -0600
To: “The May Report”

Hi Ron:

The Groupon saga is not over yet. Assuming that there is an IPO in Groupon’s future, look for the following activities:

1) Within two months of the IPO, Google (and maybe others) are going to come back with a vengeance.

2) Expect Google (or others) to offer between $8-10 Billion as the stock would be too expensive after the IPO.

At that point, all the current owners of Groupon stock have to do is make a rational sell decision:

Do I make more money selling to Google now, or do I take a chance on the IPO and I make my money back sometime in the future by hoping my Groupon stock takes off?

The big problem with Groupon (and other social media darlings) is that the current valuations are way out of line with reality and they may drop to earth (4-5 times last years gross revenue) within a few years after the IPO.

If I was one of the VC’s or other major stock holders, I’d sell to Google.

Phil Wyatt
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Katy Lynch: Appreciates the big list of parties

From: Katy Lynch
Subject: The May Report — holiday parties
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 14:35:01 -0600
To: melanie_adcock@msn.com, ron@themayreport.com

Hey Ron, Melanie.

Just read the last May Report (12/3). Thanks so much for including all of the upcoming holiday parties this year. (It gets tiresome trying to research every single one individually, so cheers for compiling and providing an informative list!)

Hope to see you both at some of them!

Cheers,
Katy

–

Katy Lynch
—————
President | Founder | Social Media Assassin
SocialKaty, LLC

www.socialkaty.com

203-216-7366
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Anonymous: Liked Ron’s report on Groupon Friday night

Subject: Fwd: MAY REPORT
Date: 12/5/2010 9:50:45 P.M. Central Standard Time
From: Name withheld.
To: ronaldmay@aol.com

———- Original Message ———-
From: Name withheld.
To: Name withheld.
Date: December 5, 2010 at 1:50 PM
Subject: MAY REPORT

Ron’s never been so excited. I felt a charge when reading the groupon report and I’d already heard about it through other sources. His report was exciting and newsy. Kudos to him.
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Most Popular Baby Names of 2010

Most Popular Baby Names of 2010
by the editors at BabyCenter (Subscribe to the editors at BabyCenter’s posts)
Dec 2nd 2010 9:00AM
118Comments

Filed under: In The News, Baby Names, Research Reveals: Babies, New In Pop Culture, Research Reveals

What’s your name, baby? Credit: Getty Images
BabyCenter released its list of Top 100 Baby Names of 2010 today and there’s a new queen in town.

Sophia takes the number one spot this year, pushing Isabella out, while Aiden continues his reign at the top of the boys’ list for the sixth year in a row.

New to the top 10 this year: Abigail and Liam.

Top 10 Girls’ Names of 2010
1. Sophia
2. Isabella
3. Olivia
4. Emma
5. Chloe
6. Ava
7. Lily
8. Madison
9. Addison
10. Abigail

See all 100 top girls’ names of 2010.

Top 10 Boys’ Names of 2010
1. Aiden
2. Jacob
3. Jackson
4. Ethan
5. Jayden
6. Noah
7. Logan
8. Caden
9. Lucas
10. Liam

See all 100 top boys’ names of 2010.

What inspired parents this year? Pop culture, sports, and politics. Here are some of the top baby name trends of 2010:

* Glee “gleeks” are now naming their kids Quinn, Finn, Jenna and Lea in droves.

* Mad Men fans are reviving the retro cool of Betty, Freddy, Roger and Don.

* Mama grizzlies, inspired by Sarah Palin, pushed Bristol, Willow and Piper way up the list.

* Olympics fans are going for the gold with names like Shaun, Bode and Apollo (or Apolo, the way skater Apolo Ohno spells it).

For more about the top baby names of the year, the hottest trends, which names are up and down, and more, see BabyCenter’s Top Baby Names of 2010 Special Report.

Want even more baby name info from the experts at BabyCenter? Click here to watch BabyCenter editor-in-chief Linda Murray chat about the wonderful world of baby names.

The Most Popular Baby Names of the Year
ParentDish The Most Popular Baby Names of the Year
ParentDish
BabyCenter’s annual Top Baby Names of the Year list is based on some 350,000 names of babies born in 2010 whose parents registered the site. It also combines names that sound the same but have different spellings (such as Sophia and Sofia) to create a true measure of popularity. To look at names growing in popularity, researchers at BabyCenter looked at trends since 2005 and gave each name an overall score based on its progression in the rankings and average year-over-year growth.
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Google has worse problems than Groupon- leaked info about Chinese Hackers has hit the mainstream media with an introduction by Melanie Adcock

From: Melanie Adcock
Subject: Google has worse problems than Groupon- leaked info about Chinese Hackers has hit the mainstream media.
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 08:17:33 +0000
To: ,

Google has worse problems than Groupon- leaked info about Chinese Hackers has hit the mainstream media.

No offense to everyone talking about the Groupon deal but I’m sure Google is only too happy to talk about Groupon as opposed to the latest story featured in the New York Times alleging serious problems with Chinese hackers. I’m sure any story about Google that takes attention away from alleged Chinese hacking supported by the Chinese Government is a good thing for Google. The New York Times Article reprinted below shies away from putting Google in their headline, but writes in great detail about Google’s troubles with China. Fox News, on the other hand, does a shorter version of the story with the title, “U.S. Cable: Chinese Leaders Behind Google Hacking.” Read more: www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/04/chinese-officials-google-hacking/#ixzz17DiBIOdJ What will happen to Google’s stock price as a result of this information getting out? It looks to me like this information has far greater potential to be damaging to Google than a failed deal with Groupon. -Melanie Adcock

Cables Discuss Vast Hacking by a China That Fears the Web

www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/world/asia/05wikileaks-china.html

December 4, 2010

Cables Discuss Vast Hacking by a China That Fears the Web
By JAMES GLANZ and JOHN MARKOFF

As China ratcheted up the pressure on Google to censor its Internet searches last year, the American Embassy sent a secret cable to Washington detailing one reason top Chinese leaders had become so obsessed with the Internet search company: they were Googling themselves.
The May 18, 2009, cable, titled “Google China Paying Price for Resisting Censorship,” quoted a well-placed source as saying that Li Changchun, a member of China’s top ruling body, the Politburo Standing Committee, and the country’s senior propaganda official, was taken aback to discover that he could conduct Chinese-language searches on Google’s main international Web site. When Mr. Li typed his name into the search engine at google.com, he found “results critical of him.”

That cable from American diplomats was one of many made public by WikiLeaks that portray China’s leadership as nearly obsessed with the threat posed by the Internet to their grip on power — and, the reverse, by the opportunities it offered them, through hacking, to obtain secrets stored in computers of its rivals, especially the United States.

Extensive hacking operations suspected of originating in China, including one leveled at Google, are a central theme in the cables. The operations began earlier and were aimed at a wider array of American government and military data than generally known, including on the computers of United States diplomats involved in climate change talks with China.

One cable, dated early this year, quoted a Chinese person with family connections to the elite as saying that Mr. Li himself directed an attack on Google’s servers in the United States, though that claim has been called into question. In an interview with The New York Times, the person cited in the cable said that Mr. Li personally oversaw a campaign against Google’s operations in China but the person did not know who directed the hacking attack.

The cables catalog the heavy pressure that was placed on Google to comply with local censorship laws, as well as Google’s willingness to comply — up to a point. That coercion began building years before the company finally decided to pull its search engine out of China last spring in the wake of the successful hacking attack on its home servers, which yielded Chinese dissidents? e-mail accounts as well as Google’s proprietary source code.

The demands on Google went well beyond removing material on subjects like the Dalai Lama or the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Chinese officials also put pressure on the United States government to censor the Google Earth satellite imaging service by lowering the resolution of images of Chinese government facilities, warning that Washington could be held responsible if terrorists used that information to attack government or military facilities, the cables show. An American diplomat replied that Google was a private company and that he would report the request to Washington but that he had no sense about how the government would act.

Yet despite the hints of paranoia that appear in some cables, there are also clear signs that Chinese leaders do not consider the Internet an unstoppable force for openness and democracy, as some Americans believe.

In fact, this spring, around the time of the Google pullout, China’s State Council Information Office delivered a triumphant report to the leadership on its work to regulate traffic online, according to a crucial Chinese contact cited by the State Department in a cable in early 2010, when contacted directly by The Times.

The message delivered by the office, the person said, was that “in the past, a lot of officials worried that the Web could not be controlled.”

“But through the Google incident and other increased controls and surveillance, like real-name registration, they reached a conclusion: the Web is fundamentally controllable,” the person said.

That confidence may also reflect what the cables show are repeated and often successful hacking attacks from China on the United States government, private enterprises and Western allies that began by 2002, several years before such intrusions were widely reported in the United States.

At least one previously unreported attack in 2008, code-named Byzantine Candor by American investigators, yielded more than 50 megabytes of e-mails and a complete list of user names and passwords from an American government agency, a Nov. 3, 2008, cable revealed for the first time.

Precisely how these hacking attacks are coordinated is not clear. Many appear to rely on Chinese freelancers and an irregular army of “patriotic hackers” who operate with the support of civilian or military authorities, but not directly under their day-to-day control, the cables and interviews suggest.

But the cables also appear to contain some suppositions by Chinese and Americans passed along by diplomats. For example, the cable dated earlier this year referring to the hacking attack on Google said: “A well-placed contact claims that the Chinese government coordinated the recent intrusions of Google systems. According to our contact, the closely held operations were directed at the Politburo Standing Committee level.”

The cable goes on to quote this person as saying that the hacking of Google “had been coordinated out of the State Council Information Office with the oversight? of Mr. Li and another Politburo member, Zhou Yongkang.” Mr. Zhou is China’s top security official.
But the person cited in the cable gave a divergent account. He detailed a campaign to press Google coordinated by the Propaganda Department’s director, Liu Yunshan. Mr. Li and Mr. Zhou issued approvals in several instances, he said, but he had no direct knowledge linking them to the hacking attack aimed at securing commercial secrets or dissidents’ e-mail accounts — considered the purview of security officials.

Still, the cables provide a patchwork of detail about cyberattacks that American officials believe originated in China with either the assistance or knowledge of the Chinese military.

For example, in 2008 Chinese intruders based in Shanghai and linked to the People’s Liberation Army used a computer document labeled “salary increase — survey and forecast” as bait as part of the sophisticated intrusion scheme that yielded more than 50 megabytes of e-mails and a complete list of user names and passwords from a United States government agency that was not identified.

The cables indicate that the American government has been fighting a pitched battle with intruders who have been clearly identified as using Chinese-language keyboards and physically located in China. In most cases the intruders took great pains to conceal their identities, but occasionally they let their guard down. In one case described in the documents, investigators tracked one of the intruders who was surfing the Web in Taiwan “for personal use.”

In June 2009 during climate change talks between the United States and China, the secretary of state?s office sent a secret cable warning about e-mail “spear phishing” attacks directed at five State Department employees in the Division of Ocean Affairs of the Office of the Special Envoy for Climate Change.

The messages, which purport to come from a National Journal columnist, had the subject line “China and Climate Change.” The e-mail contained a PDF file that was intended to install a malicious software program known as Poison Ivy, which was meant to give an intruder complete control of the victim’s computer. That attack failed.

The cables also reveal that a surveillance system dubbed Ghostnet that stole information from the computers used by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and South Asian governments and was uncovered in 2009 was linked to a second broad series of break-ins into American government computers code-named Byzantine Hades. Government investigators were able to make a ?tenuous connection? between those break-ins and the People’s Liberation Army.

The documents also reveal that in 2008 German intelligence briefed American officials on similar attacks beginning in 2006 against the German government, including military, economic, science and technology, commercial, diplomatic, and research and development targets. The Germans described the attacks as preceding events like the German government’s meetings with the Chinese government.

Even as such attacks were occurring, Google made a corporate decision in 2006, controversial even within the company, to establish a domestic Chinese version of its search engine, called google.cn. In doing so, it agreed to comply with China’s censorship laws.
But despite that concession, Chinese officials were never comfortable with Google, the cables and interviews show.

The Chinese claimed that Google Earth, the company?s satellite mapping software, offered detailed “images of China’s military, nuclear, space, energy and other sensitive government agency installations” that would be an asset to terrorists. A cable sent on Nov. 7, 2006, reported that Liu Jieyi, an assistant minister of foreign affairs, warned the American Embassy in Beijing that there would be “grave consequences” if terrorists exploited the imagery.

A year later, another cable pointed out that Google searches for politically delicate terms would sometimes be automatically redirected to Baidu, the Chinese company that was Google’s main competitor in China. Baidu is known for scrubbing its own search engine of results that might be unwelcome to government censors.

Google conducted numerous negotiations with officials in the State Council Information Office and other departments involved in censorship, propaganda and media licensing, the cables show. The May 18, 2009, cable that revealed pressure on the company by Mr. Li, the propaganda chief, said Google had taken some measures “to try and placate the government.” The cable also noted that Google had asked the American government to intervene with China on its behalf.

But Chinese officials became alarmed that Google still did less than its Chinese rivals to remove material Chinese officials considered offensive. Such material included information about Chinese dissidents and human rights issues, but also about central and provincial Chinese leaders and their children — considered an especially taboo topic, interviews with people quoted in the cables reveal.

Mr. Li, after apparently searching for information online on himself and his children, was reported to have stepped up pressure on Google. He also took steps to punish Google commercially, according to the May 18 cable.

The propaganda chief ordered three big state-owned Chinese telecommunications companies to stop doing business with Google. Mr. Li also demanded that Google executives remove any link between its sanitized Chinese Web site and its main international one, which he deemed “an illegal site,” the cable said.

Google ultimately stopped complying with repeated censorship requests. It stopped offering a censored version of its search engine in China earlier this year, citing both the hacking attacks and its unwillingness to continue obeying censorship orders.

James Glanz reported from New York, and John Markoff from San Francisco. Andrew W. Lehren contributed reporting from New York.
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Top Ten of Patent Trolling plus a book recommended to Ron at the LES convention on the Wright Brothers who may have been among the first trollers

[Editor's note: Ron May here. This book was recommended by a couple of people I talked to at the LES conference in September. They said that the Wright Brothers were big time trollers and the history of their attempts to keep Curtis Airplane from getting use of their patents is the subject of the book.
www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Sky-Hammond-Curtiss-Airplane/dp/book-citations/B000C4SPSI While looking for another book someone recommended on the trolling topic, I came across this.]
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www.popten.net/2009/02/the-patent-trolls-top-ten-patenttrademark-abuses/

Top Ten of Patent Trolling

By Jamie Antonisse on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 · 1 Comment

A patent troll… what an insane concept. The name conjures up a whole awesome unwritten world of Corporate Fantasy. Tax elves, Vice-Associate Unicorns, Minotaur LLCs… damn, I think I’ve got a series to write!

(Stay on topic, Jamie)

As someone who’s working in a relatively new field, I’m a little conflicted about patents. Obviously, its important to reward people for their hard work and genius with a slice of the profit. However, the notion that our ideas are private property has been taken to some amazing extremes. Patent trolls are people who try to use the patent and trademark systems to put their stamp on everything possible, sometimes even things they didn’t actually make. They do it to make a buck, and of course everyone has to make a buck, but the results range from the ridiculous to the frightening.

The ten most out-of-control patents and trademarks I’ve run across after the jump.

10. Happy Birthday

You probably know about this one… ever noticed how rare birthday parties are in movies compared to, say, Christmases? That’s because “Happy Birthday” was a song written this century. Time Warner bought up the copyright, hiked the price to a billion dollars a use, and patrolled their claim vigorously. As a result, I can’t think of a cinematic B-Day chorus since Tom Hanks went to that Italian restaurant in “Big”.

I’m putting this at #10 because I don’t actually think it’s all that unfair. Sure it annoys me that a tradition falls afoul of IP law, but it only seems wrong because the tune is so widespread. If I write an amazingly catchy funeral song, I should be able to control commercial uses of it, even if it is bellowed over every casket.

9. The “Moving Helper”

In my search for crazy patent/trademark issues, I learned something new: apparently U-Haul is kind of a dick company. First they sued some guy for libel when he wrote about their crappy service, then they sued a small moving site Hire-A-Helper for using the terms “Moving Helper” and “Moving Help” in on their site. Apparently U-Haul has a trademark on those terms… effectively blocking anyone else from talking about being a moving company. Luckily the State of Arizona threw their weak sauce claim out.

8. The Wheel

A dude applied for an Innovation patent for the frakkin WHEEL in Australia, 2001. And he got it. For a few sweet minutes, he could live the Aussiemerican dream and SUE EVERY CAR. This would be higher on the list if it hadn’t been a prank… the guy was just doing it to show the flaws in the system. I’d say he succeeded.

7. Basmati Rice

Here’s where it starts to get nasty. A Texas company called RiceTec (way to make rice sound antiseptic and intimidating) was awarded a patent for basmati, allowing them control over all US production and forcing farmers to pay a fee if they grow or sell it. Unfortunately, this strand of rice happens to be the major food source for a large chunk of South Asia. It took several years, but Indian farmers were finally able to prove that the rice claimed by RiceTec had already been around for centuries. Crazy, no?

6. Anything with the word “Monster” in it.

If Skeletor was a corporation, he would be Monster Cable(TM). We’ll overlook the fact that they charge up to 10x the price for equipment that is identical to everything else out there… we’ll even overlook the fact that they sue their competitors simply for making decent-looking audio cables. We’re going to focus on the fact that they have upheld their trademark by taking action against every brand that uses the word Monster in it. This includes (I’m not making this up): Monster.com, Disney (for Monster’s Inc), the Monster Vintage clothing store, Monster Energy Drink, the Monster Seats at Fenway Park, and a local putting green called Monster Golf.

5. The idea of an “Avatar”

We’re back into the realm of actual patents now, with a gem from Worlds.com… apparently, in the year 2000, they were awarded a patent for the concept of an online avatar… and just this year, they’ve announced plans to start enforcing it. This is a great example of a patent which is insanely broad, and can only hurt creativity in a field. How many different online games and services would be squashed if this got upheld? We’d all be playing World of Warcraft through a sweet new email interface.

4. M. Genitalium

First, let me put you at ease: your nutsack has not been trademarked. Some scientists working on the Minimal Genome Project have been working on creating the most basic lifeform possible. That’s pretty cool. What’s less cool is that they have placed a patent on this baseline species, and they have allegedly done so before it’s even been finished.

At least it’s just a bacteria, right? Oh wait…

3. The Harvard Mouse

Nope. Harvard fiddled with mouse DNA and claimed a patent on the “oncomouse” that resulted. Keep in mind, we’re not talking about the process for MAKING this little guy… the species itself is the protected property of Harvard in the US and Europe (Canada overturned the app). The decision explicitly excluded the patenting of altered humans, but that didn’t stop us from patenting…

2. The Human Genome

Check out the link… one fifth of human genes are already patented. There’s a gold rush going on at this very moment… if you discover a sequence and show how it can be used, it’s your intellectual property, even if it exists in millions of people. So if anyone wants to use, modify or treat a sequence in the human body that controls aging, they have to pay a hefty fee to someone who located it.

That is a far cry from Happy Birthday.

So what could top patenting the building blocks of life itself, the reproducible code which COMPOSES the brains which came up with the notion of intellectual property in the first place?

1. Patent Trolling

This is the reason I wrote the Top Ten List in the first place, a patent which eats its own tail and just keeps chewing. While all the patents I’ve mentioned so far are ridiculous, at least they are all rooted in invention and production. Leave it to Halliburton to come up with the most awful patent of them all.

To paraphrase the app as I understand it: Halliburton (yes, that Halliburton) has patented the idea of finding great ideas (“trade secrets”) that are used but not patented. Then they patent them (without knowing how the things they are filing for even work) and throw some lawyers at the company that came up with the idea in the first place in hopes of reaching a hefty cash settlement.

Yes, really. The U.S. patent system, developed 200-odd years ago to help inventors share trade secrets, has finally reached its bizarre sci-fi-logical conclusion.

They are patenting the abuse of the patent system.

Filed under Top Ten · Tagged with
Comments
One Response to “Top Ten of Patent Trolling”

1.
JeremyKotin says:
February 5, 2009 at 11:34 am

Absolutely fascinating. It’s amazing how many things slip through the cracks. You should definitely read “The Telephone Gambit” which very concretely challenges Alexander Graham Bell’s claim to the patent for the telephone against Elisha Gray. It’s a well written bit of narrative history on patent law, a quick read and absolutely nuts to think that Bell got away with it…
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Miscellaneous notes (2 messages)
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#1: From: MGlotz@aol.com
Subject: Re: The May Report: 11/25/2010: So far, so good. Mike Rhodes was in Hinsdale …
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 14:53:53 EST
To: ron@themayreport.com

IMO I think the guys that are running Groupon are the same ones that Banq HALO a few years ago TURN OF EVENTS Martin Glotzer

In a message dated 11/25/2010 2:55:33 P.M. Central Standard Time, ron@themayreport.com writes:
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#2: From: Melanie Adcock
Subject: RE: The May Report: 12/3/2010: The long awaited list of about 30 Holiday parties; More on Google-Groupon and PR professional Vanessa Horwell defends Pay to Play blogs
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 04:10:27 +0000
To: , ,

Tom- Thanks for writing your comments to The May Report. I thought they were really insightful and enjoyed reading them. -Melanie

From: ron@themayreport.com
To: melanie_adcock@msn.com
Subject: The May Report: 12/3/2010: The long awaited list of about 30 Holiday parties; More on Google-Groupon and PR professional Vanessa Horwell defends Pay to Play blogs
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 13:58:45 -0600
___________________________________
Telework: The Triple Bottom Line – Tuesday, December 07, 2010 from 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM (CT) – Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) 233 S. Wacker, Suite 800

Subject: RE: Telework: The Triple Bottom Line – Tuesday, December 07, 2010 from 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM (CT) – Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) 233 S. Wacker, Suite 800
Date: 12/5/2010 6:42:42 P.M. Central Standard Time
From: melanie_adcock@msn.com
To: tatvshow@yahoo.com, ronaldmay@aol.com

Hey Bruce, What’s going on? Thanks as always for sending these things over. I read all of them and we really appreciate it. I think we ran a notice for this event already but it might not hurt to run it again. I would really like to go to this event but I have a job interview on Tuesday morning at the same time and also an interviewing a company about piracy for TMR after that. Ron really helps make life fun.

Ron, are you going to go to this event? I sounds really interesting.

-Melanie

Melanie Adcock
iPHONE: 312-259-0610
DROID: 312-833-1825
E-Mail: melanie_adcock@msn.com
Facebook Fan Page: bit.ly/MelanieAdcockFacebookFanPage
Bio: bit.ly/MelanieAdcockARC
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/melanieadcock
Twitter: twitter.com/melanie_adcock
Facebook Profile: www.facebook.com/melanie.a.adcock

——————————————————————————–
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 14:57:42 -0800
From: tatvshow@yahoo.com
Subject: Telework: The Triple Bottom Line – Tuesday, December 07, 2010 from 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM (CT) – Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) 233 S. Wacker, Suite 800
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
CC: melanie_adcock@msn.com

teleworkforum2010-autohome.eventbrite.com/

Telework: The Triple Bottom Line
Tuesday, December 07, 2010 from 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM (CT)
Chicago, IL
Ticket Information
TYPE END QUANTITY
Telework: The Triple Bottom Line – People, Profits, Planet 1d 7h 20m Free 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Event Details
Think outside your old office box. Explore telework as a commuting alternative and business strategy. Local businesses will share their teleworking success stories, and wel hear how telework can reduce both pollution and commuter trips in the Chicago metro.

Kick up your competitive advantage. Learn more about this all around win for your company, your employees, and the Chicago region.

Featured Speakers

State Senator Pamela Althoff
Co-chair General Assembly Environmental Caucus

State Representative Michael Tryon
Member of the House Environment & Energy,
House Mass Transit Committees

Mayor David Pope, Oak Park
Chairman, Clean Air CountsCo-Chair,
Mayors Caucus Environmental Committee

James Brooks
Director, Talent & Employee Engagement, Cisco

Delta Emerson
SVP, Chief Organizational Development Officer, Ryan Inc.

Donna Para
Senior Director Workplace Solutions, McDonald’s Corporation

Lindsay Pomeroy
Real Estate and Facilities Manager, Midwest District, Microsoft

Kyra Cavanaugh
President, Life Meets Work

Eve Pytel
Assistant Director, Clean Air Counts

Featured Discussions

Telework Imperative for the Future Competitiveness of our Region
Environmental and Quality of Life Implications of Telework
Business Best Practices in Telework Programs
Taking Action to Increase Telecommuting Practices
Telework Proclamations in Illinois
Additional Event Information

This program is free of charge, but advance registration is required. Please RSVP by December 1, 2010 to be assured entrance.
Seating is limited.
View Event Agenda here.

Questions? Call 888.462.5691.

Bruce Eric Montgomery
Executive Producer & Host
Technology Access Television
200 S. Wacker Drive, 15th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606-5865
(312) 725-8601
tatvshow@yahoo.com
www.tatv.org
www.twitter.com/techaccesstv
www.facebook.com/brucemontgomery
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Sunday, January 9, 2011: Book Release Party for Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts and Establishing Price Structures

From: “Tim Smith”
Subject: Alrighty, it is time to get the news out now.
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 15:12:54 -0600
To:
Cc: ,

Ron & Melanie -

Can you post the following event in your Holiday Calendar … though not a holiday event, it is the pricing book release party of the year.

Book Release Party for Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts and Establishing Price Structures

Sunday, January 9th 2011

5 – 8 PM

Buckingham Athletic Club

440 S. La Salle, Suite 300

Chicago, IL 60605

Come celebrate with Tim J Smith of Wiglaf Pricing (Author) and Michael Roche of Cengage Learning (Executive Editor) as we launch the definitive text for the coming decade on pricing strategy. Networking sponsored by Wiglaf Pricing.

For details, visit www.wiglafpricing.com/images/logos/Pricing%20Strategy%20Book%20Release%20Party.pdf

Tim Smith, PhD

Managing Principal, Wiglaf Pricing

Author, Pricing Strategy

2607 W Augusta Blvd

Chicago, IL 60622

Mobile: +1 312 953 9831

Office: +1 773 395 2983

www.wiglafpricing.com
__________________________________
Indiana High Speed Rail in the News

From: “W. Dennis Hodges”
Subject: Indiana High Speed Rail in the News
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 06:54:06 -0600
To: “Indiana High Speed Rail Association”

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Please see the following link to the Indianapolis Star regarding a story on high speed rail in Indiana. Thank you!

www.indystar.com/article/20101204/LOCAL/12040342/Group-seeks-Indiana-link-in-Midwest-high-speed-rail-network?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com|default|t

Also please consider joining our advocacy as we work to fund and implement the Midwest Regional Rail Network

www.indianahighspeedrail.org

Dennis

W. Dennis Hodges
Indiana High Speed Rail Association
2711 West 61st Avenue
Merrillville, Indiana 46410
Voice: 219.793.3370
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END OF REPORT