Author: Carl

Posted on

A speed test for you to try

(Update:  see our new speed test here.)

When I check into a hotel or log in at a public wifi location, I sometimes do a “speed test”.  The goal of course is partly just to make sure that I have successfully logged in or have successfully entered an access code.  And to test to see how fast the Internet connection is.

I am tickled to be able to report that we at OPLF have set up a speed test which everyone can use.  The speed test, unfortunately, requires that your system has “Flash”.  Most smart phones and tablets do not have Flash.  So the speed test is generally available only for laptop and desktop computers.

Who would like to receive a free super spiffy OPLF digital multimeter?  Maybe you already have an OPLF digital multimeter?  This one is new and more spiffy.  In addition to the features of our original digital multimeter, this device measures current and has an audible continuity indicator.  (It can be set to beep when there is continuity.)  This new device does auto-ranging;  with our original multimeter you had to select the range.

So if you’d like to receive one of our super spiffy new OPLF digital multimeters, just be one of the first three people to post a comment in which you report the results of at least two speed tests — a speed test result using your favorite speed test that you have used in the past (a speed test hosted by someone other than OPLF) and a speed test result using our new speed test.  It would be interesting to see how the results compare.

Posted on

MBHB and Schwegman — making the profession better

Last week I blogged that I was astonished (in a nice way) to learn that the Schwegman firm will be providing in-person continuing legal education free of charge in a few weeks in San Jose, California.  Schwegman will actually be providing two days of free training — a first day about best practices for patent docketing, and a second day about the Patent Cooperation Treaty.  The patent docketing class will be all day on February 22 and the PCT class will be all day on February 23.

Schwegman is not, however, the only firm doing such nice things.  McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP, perhaps better known as MBHB, has offered many free-of-charge continuing legal education webinars.  I have just now signed up to attend their most recently announced webinar, which will take place on February 22.  The title is Patent-Eligibility Update: Abstract Ideas in the Federal Circuit and USPTO.  To learn more about the webinar, or to sign up, click here.

OPLF has offered some free CLE webinars in the past, and, inspired by Schwegman and MBHB, we will offer some free CLE webinars in the near future.  If you want to be sure of hearing about the free CLE webinars when they get scheduled, be sure to subscribe to this blog.

Who would like to join me in complimenting Schwegman and MBHB in their public-spirited activities?  Post a comment below, and share this blog article with someone whom you know at each of the two firms.

Posted on

Hotel thermostats

With this blog posting I am launching a new article category “travel”.  It’s prompted by a recent Wall Street Journal article that confirmed what I had been suspecting for quite some time.  Yes, many modern hotel thermostats, the kind with a digital display, are rigged.   Continue reading “Hotel thermostats”

Posted on

Sharing blog articles on Whatsapp

(Note:  I do not recommend Whatsapp any more.  I now recommend Signal.)

Long-time readers of this listserv will recall my suggestion that the smart way to do messaging is not through cell service text messaging and is not through most of the available messaging apps.  As I wrote in this blog article, in my view by far the best choice is Whatsapp.  Whatsapp is encrypted from end to end.  Whatsapp gets through any firewall, no matter where you are in the world, and nobody can eavesdrop on the messages.  You can use it for messaging but you can also use it to send attachments, including large files, again safe against eavesdropping.  No other messaging app or service is quite this safe against eavesdropping.

This icon is not clickable! If you are using a smart phone or tablet, please click on the icon below.

Just now I have added a Whatsapp plugin to this blog.  If you are viewing this blog article on a smart phone or tablet, you should be able to see a Whatsapp button (like the icon at right) below this posting.

Here’s the fun part.  The first three readers who successfully share this very article with me using the Whatsapp share button below (visible only if you are using a smart phone or tablet) will win a prize, namely a spiffy OPLF digital voltmeter.

To do this, you will need to install the Whatsapp app onto your smart phone or tablet (if you have not done so already) and then you will need to add me to your Whatsapp contacts list (if you have not done so already).  Then you will need to view this blog article on your smart phone or tablet, and scroll down to the Whatsapp share button, and click on it.

Posted on

Would you like to attend the E-Trademarks reception in Barcelona?

Will you be in Barcelona this May at the time of the annual meeting of the International Trademark Association?  If so, maybe you would like to rub elbows with the savvy and alert people who belong to the E-Trademarks Listserv.  Maybe you would like to attend the Seventh Annual E-Trademarks Listserv reception.  To attend the reception you will need to have one of these spiffy ribbons (see at right) attached to your meeting badge.  To receive one of these spiffy ribbons, just scan the QR code in the ribbon.  Or you can click here.

Posted on

SSL progress for www.oppedahl.com

We at OPLF should have done it a long time ago … but finally today we have implemented SSL (“https”) for our main web site www.oppedahl.com.   In addition we have configured the SSL on https://www.oppedahl.com so that it uses PFS (perfect forward secrecy).  The domain name itself has for several years now been protected by DNSSEC.

One reason that a webmaster should implement SSL is that Google and the other search engines give a small boost in page ranking to a web site that supports SSL.

But the more important reason to implement SSL is simply to make web connections more secure.  Among other things SSL eliminates eavesdropping on a web connection.

If you haven’t already done so, you should implement SSL (and PFS, and DNSSEC) on the web sites that you operate.

 

Posted on

Save the date — AIPLA’s PCT Seminar 2017

The dates have been set for the 21st annual AIPLA PCT Seminar.  The Seminar will take place in Arlington, Virginia on Monday and Tuesday, July 24 and 25, 2017.

Save the date for this seminar.  There’s nothing quite like this seminar, which has representatives of patent offices as well as experienced private practitioners.  Here are comments from two who attended:

“Each and every presenter was incredibly knowledgeable and provided us with invaluable information.”

“Excellent panel.”

Have you attended one of the twenty previous AIPLA PCT Seminars?  Did you find it helpful?  Please post a comment below.

 

Posted on

Building a guitar compressor pedal

The other day we had soldering class at Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC.  Everybody at the firm received a nice soldering station and soldering tools and a toolbox to keep everything in.  We assembled several do-it-yourself kits that required soldering.  Some of our people already knew how to solder and got through the kits pretty quickly, and others got to learn how to solder for the first time.  Continue reading “Building a guitar compressor pedal”

Posted on

A curate’s egg

Bishop: “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr Jones”
Curate: “Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!”

I’ve been teaching patent law as an adjunct professor at University of Denver law school for some twenty years, and every one of my students over the years has heard my recommendation that they subscribe to The Economist. I think The Economist offers a very helpful non-American perspective on events of the day.

Today, reading The Economist, I learned the term a “curate’s egg”.  As Wikipedia explains, a curate’s egg is something that is mostly or partly bad, but partly good.  The term has its origin in a cartoon published in 1895 in the British humor magazine Punch.  Drawn by George du Maurier, it pictures a timid-looking curate eating breakfast in his bishop’s house. The bishop says:

I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr Jones.

The curate, desperate not to offend his eminent host and ultimate employer, replies:

Oh no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!

A Google search for the term “curate’s egg” yields over a hundred thousand hits.