What is novelty?

I had always believed in the idea of doing something significant and highly original is the exemplary way to go in life; not only to serve for one's own pride or motives or fame, but also to be able to attain the fulfillment of contributing to the society.

And thus I recall the life is of Robert Kearns, the man who invented the intermittent windshield wiper which has been used in the automobile business since 1969 up till date, the man who invented the wiper system which had enables all of us to have variable speeds on the wipers that we are using in our cars today. He may not be a famous name to all of us, not as much as Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone or Einstein's discoveries, but nevertheless he is an inventor who fought for the right of his invention.

Kearns won a highly publicized lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company back in the 70s for infringement of the wiper patterns that he had created back in 1964. Throughout the trial, the motor company had vehemently denied that Kearns is qualified to call himself an inventor, as he has, according to them, simply 're-arranged' the pattern in a new way and that it isn't actually ground breaking or inventive or original.

However, there was a wonderful response by Kearns in regards to these claims. During the trial, Kearns (who is representing himself) asked his son to bring Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities to the court, and asked the witness in the stands (a Ford employee who made that statement of Kearns not being an inventor) whether he had read this book. After confirming that he had, like most people in the court have, Kearns recited the first sentence of the book, and then took up a dictionary and checked up each word in that one sentence. He asked the man in the stands that since all the words in that first sentence are words that come from the dictionary, would Charles Dickens' novel be considered a copy or a non-original work? Would it not make Charles Dickens an inventor? All the Charles Dickens did was, afterall, to arrange the words that were available to him in a new pattern to create this novel, and the work was definitely original. Why then, is Kearns' invention being rendered as not original enough?

Kearns added that an inventor is whichever person who manages to use what tools are available to him/her, and create something new using the tools. And in Kearns' dictionary, the bars are not too high to become an inventor- just look around you, make best use of the tools that are available, find what is your specialty and gift, and you might one day become a creator as well, and more than that, you might become a person who contributes to the society, and you would earn yourself the license to live a fulfilling life.

Robert W. Kearns won 18.7 million US dollars in that lawsuit against Ford. A 2008 Hollywood movie called Flash of Genius documents his travails in his fight to earn his right as an inventor. He rejected a 30 million US dollars out of court settlement despite his divorce and his flaundering career- just because Ford would refuse to damage their company's reputation by admitting they infringed his patterns.

He died in 2005 of brain cancer. He was 77, and dies was an inventor, a contributor to the society. Look at your windshield wiper, and this is the man who created the pattern that enables you to vary the speed of your wipers according to the intensity of the rain.

HawkEye in the beautiful game.

The past week has seen three very dubious refereeing decisions in EPL coming under heavy scrutiny. Paul Robinson should not have been sent off for his tackle of Park Ji-Sung in last week's match between Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion, Shaun Wright-Phillips should have been sent off along with Rory Delap in the match between Stoke City and Manchester City, and above all Frank Lampard should never have been sent off in the match between Liverpool and Chelsea. So, the inevitable cry in the football world has come again- we need a HawkEye to prevent bad refereeing decisions from affecting the game in the future.

HawkEye is a computer system, a tracking system that is already being used in tennis and cricket to determine where exactly the ball had landed or touched in slow motion. If you watch tennis, you'd know what I'm talking about. It was developed by the Roke Manor Research team in Hampshire, UK back in 2001.

So, there are reasons a plenty as to why we need a HawkEye in this beautiful game. But here is what would happen with a HawkEye.

First of all, it is very important as to how will the HawkEye be used in football. Whether it will used as a major refereeing tool or just to contest dubious decisions remains a big question.

Firstly, we know too well that players like to wave and protest at every vital decision the referee makes. In this case, will the referee alone be enough to determine which decisions deserve a HawkEye replay? Say the referee and linesman all ignored calls by players to have a HawkEye and it turned to be a costaly ignorance when television replays come up moments later, referees will come under the firing line yet again, won't they? So lets consider having a full-fledge HawkEye and the ability to challenge a call at anytime during a 90-minute game, how will that pan out?

Imagine:

Commentator 1: On to Luis Garcia...good first touch....Luis Garcia......!! Off the line!!! The Liverpool players want a goal!...

Commentator 2: Its given! The referee has give the goal John! Unbelieavable! It looked to me like Kalou got it off the line there!

Commentator 1: Oh, wait, now, John Terry is going to challange that decision!

(So the players stop playing and keep their eyes on the boards where a HawkEye is called for).

HawkEye shows the ball crossing one inch past the line...through a shadow description it appears there on the screen, IN. Liverpool players celebrate and Chelsea players look disgusted by that margin. Play has stopped for more than two minutes.


Imagine if the same thing happens for every offside decision, every decision about a push inside the penalty area, every tackle that deserves a card, or every dive! Play halts for two or three minutes, and what we get is a break to watch at a screen at the far end of the stadium to numerically tell us whats in and whats not, whats good and whats bad. Hello, this is football, or soccer, whatever way you call it!


(Look at the illustration here of example of a HawkEye, practically, that ball is out but because of one inch's length, its is being deemed IN as the official review, imagine the frustration the players must be feeling...there are also questions about how exactly accurate HawkEye actually is)

In tennis its okay because te players will have to steady themsleves at opposite end of the court before serving, so such a break hardly affects the match or its rhythm. In cricket, players take up their stations and one bowls while one bats. Again, a delay in decision-making can be tolerated. The game will break in order for players to station themselves back in the end of every game, which is about few minutes long. But football?? A 45-minute constantly flowing game, imagine how much the rhythm would be affected if we were to watch decisions being replayed and analysed while players wait to take throw ins or freekicks. Football is all about adrenalin, the constant virtues, if decisions are replayed and challenged time and again, probably counter-attacks would never exist in football. We will spend an extra 30 minutes contesting decisions, the player's rhythm will break at regular intervals, which is a real disadvantage if a particular team is attacking incessantly. It would be pathetic to watch. Unless there is a system that would allow referees to get instant feed on a decision that needs to be made, football should remain the same as it is. Dubious decisions are not good, but they are part of the game. Definitely HawkEye isn't a solution for refereeing problems.

Introducing MacBook Wheel

Apple has introduced a new revolutionary laptop that has no keyboards what-so-ever. It has been christened as 'MacBook Wheel' and the keyboard system is build after the platform of Mac's vaguely successful 'iPod' series. You just have to wheel around without typing on the keyboard anymore, now thats being flexible. It was unveiled at a recent Apple expo event and even Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, has apparently made a presentation of the 'wheel', which will definitely change our lifestyle completely from now on. :) :)

Just like how you use a touchpad to scroll your mouse around, this entire laptop's functionality is based on the touchpad concept, and if you wonder how you do type to text pads on it, you'll just have to scroll the way you scroll to type something in your 'iPod'- scroll, and a click on the alpabhet that you want (prolly they'll have dictionaries reccomending words at an instant, like the ones you have in your phones when you text message).

This is truly a revolution made by apple.

Just a reminder though, this breaking news was reported by the Onion News Network. Read it for yourself to know whats so special if the Onions report something, in case you do not know yet.

And, by the way, Steve Jobs have been suffering from what he branded as 'hormone imbalance' as he is losing tremendous weight in recent times and there are fears that his pancreatic cancer may be returning. So whats my point in mentioning Jobs' personal diseases here anyway?

Well, buddies, its because of this. So, who did the presentation for MacBook wheel that day?

Have a nice week. The world aint changing too fast yet. Lol.