CKL's HotSheet What Non-Aardvarks are Pondering
	[Previous entry: "Surprise Me"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "The PDA is Dead. Long Live the PDA."] 05/18/2004 Archived Entry: "Googol vs. Google" Posted by CKL @ 11:22 AM PST From a Baltimore Sun interview with Peri Fleisher ("Who?" you say? Read on): [Q:] But you believe Google has an obligation to compensate you and your family for using the name coined by your great uncle, correct? [A:] Legally, that's an open question we're exploring. But ethically, courteously, yes. I see some hypocrisy there. They have ignored us. Other than changing a couple of letters on the name, they are capitalizing on it. This is a business. These guys are going to make billions of dollars. It's not a cute little thing. [Q:] As you know, Google now plans to make an initial public offering and expects to raise $2.7 billion. Does that fact make you more determined to be compensated? [A:] You don't need to give us anything. Just let us participate as insiders on the IPO. I don't think it's a lot to ask. Riiight. Ignoring the fact that the Google IPO will use an auction and therefore have no "insiders," there's no precedent for ownership of a mathematical concept or name. I mean, that would just be silly. As Jan Freeman of the Boston Globe says: Fleisher needs to get a grip. Her great-uncle couldn't have "identified" the number he called googol, which "existed" (as 10 to the 100th power) before his 1938 coinage, and in any case Kasner credited his 9-year-old nephew with suggesting the word... the 1930s [was] a good decade for Barney Google: The comic strip was flourishing, and Barney also appeared in animated cartoons and comic books. Did the mathematician's helper unwittingly pluck those "nonsense" syllables from the funny papers? Replies: 5 comments Please can you give me a gmail invitation. I have looked all over for one and I can't find one. Posted by trevor @ 05/20/2004 03:18 PM PST I would greatly appreciate an gmail invite Posted by danny @ 05/23/2004 11:35 AM PST Hi Dan, Do you have extra gmail invitaions? Can I get one from you? Thanks, Alan Posted by Alan Yu @ 05/25/2004 11:25 PM PST please send me a gmail invitation if you can. I will be forever grateful... Many thanks in advanced Posted by andrew @ 05/28/2004 05:06 AM PST Posted by @ 00/00/ 00:00 PST
	CKL's HotSheet Copyright © 1997-2005 by Curtis C. Chen. All Rights Reserved. Additional content copyright © 2005 by Loren A. Cheng