Whether you're homosexual or not, the Supreme Court made an important decision today. In overturning anti-sodomy laws in Texas and other states, the court held that states may not regulate private intimacy between consenting adults. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. It is a promise of the Constitution that there is a realm of personal liberty which the government may not enter."

What's the difference between a merely mediocre manager and a spectacularly bad one? As Fast Company explains, the spectacular disasters often happen when admirable traits run amok. Identifying with your company is great, but treating company finances as your own is not such a good idea.

China spends a lot of effort filtering the Internet. Political dissidents are the primary target, but any news that shows China in a less than positive light is likely to get blocked, too. As a result, even non-political Chinese get very good at working around the filters.

One of Lawrence Lessig's better ideas has now been introduced as legislation. The Public Domain Enhancement Act would allow copyrights to lapse after fifty years unless the copyright owner pays a nominal $1 fee. Often, it's difficult or impossible to even find the copyright holder for older works (often the author's estate), making it impossible to get permission for reprints, adaptations, translations, and other uses. With this act, a copyright owner who cared enough about their work to pay the fee would be easy to find, while orphaned works would enter the public domain. I'll be writing my Congressman to support this act, and I hope you'll consider doing the same.

(For those not familiar with the background, the proposed act is one response to the Supreme Court's Eldred v. Ashcroft decision, which upheld a twenty-year retroactive copyright extension and cut off the flow of older material into the public domain. Lessig's site has lots more discussion of the relevant issues.)

For all those who seem to be finding this site via a search for memory prices, I've updated the Reference Section to include prices for 256 MB DIMMs as well as 128 Mb DRAMs. Enjoy!

Quantum computer developer D-Wave claims that quantum circuits will beat existing supercomputers in five years. Five years. Not a chance. Maybe their VCs need a tax writeoff?

While trying to sort out Jeri's problem with TrackBack, below, I found a good TrackBack introduction over at the Movable Type site. It explains the basics of how the feature works, but also includes examples of some more complex things you can do with it. Worth a look.

International Sematech is developing an economic modelling toolbox for the semiconductor industry. The model attempts to consider the interactions among technology advances, product demand, and capacity expansion. In May, at a symposium to introduce the model, G. Dan Hutcheson suggested that the industry actually matured in 1995. That year saw slower profitability growth and the beginning of the current softness of chip average selling prices.

3600 words since my last update, 131,180 since January 1. I'm not catching up, but I'm not falling further behind.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, someone left a snarky comment about a particular blog's ratio of personal to technical content. A minor storm ensued. Apparently some people are still unclear on the whole personal publishing concept.

To recap: it's my site. That means I get to decide what's relevant. If you like it and keep reading, great. If you don't, then I hope you find (or create) a site that is more relevant for you. If you would like more analysis of a particular subject than I provide here, I'll be happy to write a consulting proposal for you.

Public relations can be very expensive. A publicity tour here, a conference hospitality event there, and pretty soon you're talking real money. But covering the basics doesn't have to cost a lot, and can pay huge dividends.