Eloquent Incoherence

According to a study by researchers at Berkeley, 47 percent of venture-backed technology start-ups have immigrant founders. In Silicon Valley, a staggering 52 percent of technology start-ups have at least one immigrant as a key founder. Advocates of limiting immigration would do well to observe the role immigrants have played in building the world’s technological and entrepreneurial hub and the impact their contributions have had on the American economy.

From the San Jose Mercury-News.

I just bought an XBox 360. I’m not quite sure why I wanted to; I played video games a lot as a kid, but I haven’t been really into them for at least 10 years. The last console I owned was the original PlayStation, and I didn’t really play it all that much. Maybe it’s because I had no concept of a video game world that wasn’t dominated by Nintendo and Sega, and I equated Nintendo and Sega’s decline with a decline of the industry itself. I’m not used to the fact that Sony and Microsoft are now leading the race, Nintendo is hanging on for dear life, and Sega has thrown in the towel. Or maybe I just grew out of it. In any event, the hoopla over the original XBox, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, GameCube, PSP, Nintendo DS, or any of the other consoles that came and went over the years never really captured my interest. I just thought this batch–the 360, the Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii–was really cool for some reason. I may change my mind; I haven’t opened it yet and probably won’t for the next few days (the reason I bought it now instead of waiting until I was sure is because they were running a 3-day special on it). Or maybe I’ll exchange it for a Wii (the PS3 is just way too expensive).

I realize this decision won’t be good for my productivity, but I’m halfway done with 3L year and not under very much pressure anymore (at least that’s what I keep telling myself).

Research in Motion, maker of the popular Blackberry wireless handheld devices, has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Samsung over the latter’s new Blackjack smartphone. I’m not quite sure what RIM is trying to accomplish here; their case is weak at best and seems to revolve around the fact that both products contain the word ‘black’. Perhaps the NTP debacle has driven RIM bat-shit crazy.