Virtual Quill

The ruling from the patent office was an affirmative one for Ms. Eyeshine. Mr. Hammer’s whole strategy was to play on the gender prejudice against her in the field, which may have worked if she hadn’t had the full weight of Herd Thinners Inc. behind her. The mere presence of R.L. led to a quick and speedy hearing. Mr. Hammer’s protestations to take it to a higher court were made literal when the Herd Thinners lawyer chased him up a tree.
With the patent safely in hand, Ms. Eyeshine’s claim to the process is unchallenged. Now the hard part begins. Turning any kind of invention into an actual product is a long, torturous path, filled with regulatory hurdles, funding issues and the always fickle nature of the marketplace. The good news for her is that the main headaches now belong to her major investor, Herd Thinners, Inc. They’re the ones who have to shepherd the invention through the journey.
I think that’s the first time anyone’s ever used the word “shepherd” in conjunction with “Herd Thinners, Inc.”
My guess is that Ms. Eyeshine’s process will end up mainly being used in mass transit since it requires at least one passenger who has fur. That eliminates a large number of potential buyers...including humans.
This week's question: now that summer vacation is here, where humans like to do for holidays?

I write this just after drying off from my shower. What flea-barf lacks in quantity, it makes up for in smell. Yuck.
Anyway, now I'm clean. It's been an interesting week, starting the minute I got home from Beige U. for the summer. Immediately after
throwing my stuff in my room, I went across the street with Kell to Ms. Eyeshine's house.
Since I already knew that Ms. Eyeshine had three different computers since she left Manxwell Hammer, I suspected he'd gotten into her files through her E-mail account. After checking the basics, that was confirmed when she divulged her password which was a single word that was easily guessed. Just substituting a few numbers for letters didn't stop him from gaining access.
At this point I should caution everyone on both sides of the portal to be extra careful when choosing passwords. It can trip up anyone, even someone as smart and savvy as Ms. Eyeshine.
I set up a new E-mail for Ms. Eyeshine, but we kept the old compromised account which Ms. Eyeshine then filled with erroneous data. I can only guess what happened when he applied that data to his demo.
At any rate, the failure of his demonstration led to a hearing in which the terrain favored Ms. Eyeshine....mainly because she had R.L. and the full weight of Herd Thinners, Inc. protecting the investment they'd made in her. I'll write more next weekend on the outcome.
I'll be limited in my responses this week, so you'll all mainly have to talk amongst yourselves. What are intellectual property rights like over there?

The answer: Aby Eyeshine. Oh, there are plenty of electric cars around, not to mention hybrids, but it was Ms. Eyeshine who found a way of continually recharging the battery with static created by rubbing the fur of the passengers. (It can only be the vehicle’s passengers, of course, since the gentle stroking would cause drivers to fall asleep at the wheel.)
She’s been working on this ever since she finagled R.L. into funding her research. (She also got an expansion of her auto shop out of the deal.) She was very excited, until she actually applied for the patent.
That’s when she found out that a patent for the same process had been granted just the day before to Manxwell Hammer, a manx cat to whom she’d been engaged a decade ago in Silicon Valley. She was furious, and she also felt violated. Obviously he’d had access to her various computers for all these years.
I got all this from Kell, asking me to come home right away to investigate. I have my theories of how he did it, but I won’t know until I get inside her machine.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about her invention. While any reduction in fossil fuel usage is a positive development, there wouldn’t be much electricity created by rubbing my quills!
Today's question: How many of you are done with school for the summer? I am!

I had to wish Kell a Happy Mothers Day from afar, as I don’t return from Beige until later this week. I sent her a text, an E-card and virtual flowers. I heard that Coney gave her something a bit more “hands on.”
She’s still looking for ways to “assist” with Ms. Eyeshine’s social life. She really can’t help herself; it’s her canine nature to enthusiastically rush into situations where she thinks she can make a positive difference. That impulse ordinary infuriates most felines, which is one of the many reasons the two genuses have such conflicts. That it doesn’t seem to bother Ms. Eyeshine is a mystery, but it’s not one that I’m going to get involved in.
That canine habit on Kell’s part is the main reason that I regard her as the true maternal influence in my life. Angelique was the adult female in the household in which I was raised, but she was so distant I never regarded her in anything approaching motherly terms. Gran had similarly removed herself from regular contact with me. When Dad married Kell, for the first time an adult female regarded me with actual interest. Maybe if I was an English major I’d have words to express how incredible that was to experience.
As for my biological mother, well, she’s on the other side of the portal. Which leads to this week's question. How do humans celebrate Mothers Day?

While I’m studying for final exams and completing my lab work in the genetics department here at Beige, the big news back home is the grand opening of Ms. Eyeshine’s expansion of her auto shop.
She got the money from Herd Thinners, Inc., making her one of the few individuals to come away from a negotiation with R.L. and live to tell about it. In addition to servicing the Herd Thinners fleet of cars and vans (required to transport fresh kills), Aby is also experimenting on alternative fuels. That makes Herd Thinners an investor in green technology. (Kell says R.L. hates the adjective Green; he thinks it sounds herbivorous.)
Gran and Elanor are still handling the business side of the auto shop, and they’ve discovered they make a good team as their managerial skills complement each other. The expansion means extra work for them, including hiring new staff. In this economy they have no shortage of applicants.
Ms. Eyeshine, meanwhile, is cool and composed throughout everything. She’s unflappable, calm and collected no matter what seems to get thrown her way. While felines do have the ability to land on their feet, that level of poise is rare for even them.
This week's question: What types of alternative fuels show promise on the human side of the portal?