Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2016/02/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Herbert Kanner kanner at acm.org Question Authority and the authorities will question you. > On Feb 26, 2016, at 12:12 PM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu> > wrote: > > Thanks for the story and the pics (the last one is too grainy, I think you > were over-enthusiastic with the adjustments). > > Intellectual Ventures are indeed patent trolls. I consider them scum. > > Cheers, > Nathan > > Nathan Wajsman > Alicante, Spain > http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/> > http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu > PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws > <http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ > <http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/> > Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator > <http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator> > YNWA > > > > > > > > > > > > > >> On 25 Feb 2016, at 02:52, Herbert Kanner <kanner at acm.org> wrote: >> >> >> Over eight years ago, at the instigation of Bill Gates, the Science >> Museum in London approached Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Technology >> Officer for Microsoft, for financial help in completing the Babbage >> Difference Engine. The Museum had built the larger component, the one >> that did the actual arithmetic. The additional financing was to enable >> them to build the smaller but very complex component that would print the >> results on a paper roll and, most important, create a mold in soft >> plaster of paris, that when hardened would enable the creation of a >> full-page plate, ready to go into a printing press, by pouring molten >> type metal into the mold. >> >> Nathan made the London Museum an offer the just couldn?t refuse. He said >> he would finance the building of two copies of the missing part and one >> more copy of the original part, saying that he wanted to have that (five >> ton) machine in his living room. >> >> It never got there. Len Shustek, the Chair of the Computer History Museum >> (Mountain View, CA) Board of Trustees persuaded him to lend it to us for >> a year. Every December 15th we asked for an extension and got (exactly) a >> one-year extension. For eight years, I?ve done the lecture part of a >> lecturer-demonstration of the machine at exactly 1:00 every Saturday with >> rare exceptions. I?ve also been a member of a six-person maintenance >> group doing monthly maintenance: mostly lubrication but occasionally >> solving problems which at best caused the machine to jam and at worst, >> broke parts. >> >> A gentlemen named Tim Robinson has been head of the maintenance group. >> Without him, we could not have operated this equipment. He not only had a >> deep understanding of this amazing mechanism, even having built a version >> out of a Mechano set, but more than once he created a solution to a >> problem by making a unique fix over a weekend in his home machine shop. >> >> This December 15th the blow struck. Nathan said he wanted his machine >> back. As far as we knew, it was not going to be in public view, but was >> going to sit in a laboratory building that is part of his company: IV >> (Intellectual Ventures), known to a lawyer friend of mind as a patent >> trolling firm. >> >> Tim?s initial reaction was to prepare a one-page summary of suggestions >> for safely starting the machine without breaking anything. Then he met >> Mike, that head of the instrumentation shop of Nathan's laboratory. When >> it became clear that Mike was highly competent and very proactive?he >> joined our crew in hours of work mothballing the machine and even took >> some precautions we had not thought of. Immediately after meeting Mike, >> Tim produced a ten-page detailed document on start-up recommendations. I >> should mention that Mike was hired away from the University of >> Washington, where he was the head of a similar shop. >> >> I got to talk to Mike for about a half-hour while waiting for the roughly >> 300 people to clear out after the last-ever demonstration. I got the >> impression that Nathan delves in anything that interests him?ain?t money >> nice?and that the patents he collects are licensed out to selected >> companies that are doing things in the hoped for public good, e.g. >> climate change, internet access in developing countries, etc. >> >> The day before the mothballing of the machine for shipment, a >> professional video crew spent the day filming Tim explaining the machine. >> I believe this crew are employees of our Museum though knowing the >> history of our CEO, they could have been liberated from PGS. While a >> number of volunteers were watching from a distance, I braved a carefully >> walking on the set with my M even though the working crew appeared to >> have a still photographer using a fearsome looking SLR. I walked with >> great care not to get in anyone?s way and to freeze between when the >> director said ?action? and when he said ?cut?. I was surprised to find >> myself tolerated. So I found out later were the other observers. It was >> difficult shooting, partly because of floodlights aimed in all >> directions. I shot over eighty frames and finally selected six. I?ve no >> idea what that other still photographer got. >> >> >> Tim is fully visible in all but of these shots. He has a beard, a >> pony-tail, and is wearing a red shirt. >> I also took some shots the next day of the month-balling of the machine, >> but haven?t yet looked at them. If any good, I?ll post a few later. >> >> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004486.jpg.html >> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004486.jpg.html> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004502.jpg.html >> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004502.jpg.html> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004515.jpg.html >> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004515.jpg.html> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004529.jpg.html >> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004529.jpg.html> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004527.jpg.html >> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004527.jpg.html> >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004559.jpg.html >> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1004559.jpg.html> >> >> >> >> Herbert Kanner >> kanner at acm.org >> >> Question Authority and the authorities will question you. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >