Signal instead of Whatsapp — I told you so

I told you so.  Four months ago I told you so.  I told you to drop Whatsapp and switch to Signal in my article It is time to switch to a new end-to-end encrypted messaging app.  Now in January of 2021 lots of people are finally realizing they should switch to Signal.  

Please recall this article (August 23, 2020) in which I explain how to be smart about what kind of phone number to use as your user ID for Signal.

If you’d like to try messaging me with Signal, drop me a note at my email address with your Signal identifier telephone number and I will fire off a Signal message to you.

 

What to call it?

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(Corrected thanks to alert reader Jarek Markieta who pointed out that 1, 4 and 9 are squares of the first three counting numbers, not cubes.)

(Not one but two alert readers immediately pointed out my mistake about the metal from which the top of the Washington Monument is made — aluminum and not gold.  See comments below.  I have corrected this.)

What word may correctly be used to describe this object?  People call it a “monolith”.  That’s wrong.  People call it an “obelisk”.  That’s wrong. What can we call it? Continue reading →

Nasal cycle

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I was puzzled and intrigued to learn about something called “the nasal cycle”. Maybe it will turn out that most of my readers already knew about this, but I certainly did not. It turns out that in all mammals, including humans, there is an autonomic mechanism by which a first nostril’s breathing path constricts for a while and the second nostril’s breathing path remains open. Then after a while the second breathing path is the path that gets constricted and the first breathing path opens up. In most healthy humans, this back-and-forth constriction usually takes place in a cycle of about five hours, with two and a half hours during which one nostril gets preference and another two and a half hours during which the other nostril gets preference.  Or, maybe I am just making this up!  Could there be such a thing and people would not already know all about it? Continue reading →

Today is the day! Mexican Institute of Industrial Property joins DAS

As I reported to you (blog article) on September 15, 2020, today is the day that the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property joins DAS.  It is both a Depositing Office and an Accessing Office.

Once again I note that the logo for IMPI is a Möbius strip!  

IMPI is a Depositing Office for:

  • patent applications
  • utility model applications
  • industrial design applications

In addition, RO/MX is a Depositing Office for purposes of PCT applications filed in RO/MX.

This offers a reminder that Mexico is one of the seventy-six Offices that provides utility model protection.

IMPI is an Accessing Office for:

  • international design applications (Hague applications) filed at the IB
  • industrial design applications
  • patent applications
  • utility model applications

Which intellectual property firm in Mexico is the most trendy, modern, and up-to-date?   Send me four DAS access codes:

  • a DAS access code for a Mexican patent application
  • a DAS access code for a Mexican utility model application
  • a DAS access code for a Mexican industrial design application, and
  • a DAS access code for a PCT application filed in RO/MX. 

I can then post Certificates of Availability (with a few digits of the application numbers blurred) for those four applications, and I will then be able to recognize your firm as the most trendy, modern and up-to-date intellectual property firm in Mexico.