Ask Slashdot: Working Hints for a New Telecommunter? (Posts one commenter: "I've tried this before, and the only way to get it to work is to start off by killing every single member of your family.")

I've been following the Bikram yoga IP dispute Donna spotted Thursday ("Hot, sweaty and scandalous," Salon) for awhile, since the studio being sued is the one five minutes from my home where I've practiced for some seven years. (More: "Yoga's Bad Boy," the Yoga Journal; "Yogis Behaving Badly," Business 2.0.) The case has some fascinating issues—the worst kind for litigants, of course. Bikram wants to create a Starbuckian experience of consistency and quality. But while Starbucks might be able to halt unauthorized sales of "Frappuccino," does this mean it can dictate and profit from all sales of blended coffee, syrup and ice? Things are further complicated by the ancient and spiritual nature of the yoga asanas. As for me? I'm off to stretch and sweat.

John Parres now has posted Kevin Sites' audio account of his capture at Kevin's blog.

[Update] Who knows why (CNN?), but the post with the audio link apparently got pulled. (Chilling indeed.)

[Update] Although not visible on the main page, at this writing the archive link still works. [via Dave Winer]

Genie Tyburski takes on Andrew Orlowski about his accusations that Google must have tanked the PageRank of his "Second Superpower" column. (Kevin Marks had a fine response to the original, supposedly PageRank–hijacked piece.) I might add—with a nod to RB—that while theoretically it could be possible for Google to have an incestuous relationship with bloggers (euphemistically speaking), as I understand it having a "narcissistic" one would be a wash of a different color.

Eeek, I'm still so busy at work! This state of affairs looks to persist until the end of the month or so, at which time we may try to sneak off for a long weekend somewhere. (Pity the hapless server who will have no idea how imminently likely I am to detonate unless he or she comes through with that piña colada now.) I'll do my best to keep hurling links and the occasional text at you in the interim, e.g.:

• Finally got around to listening to the Fast Company Google article ("How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows") last night on my way home. Aside from being a great read, it had this bonus bit of information—that Peter Norvig, creator of the dead funny (no pun intended) Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation I so enjoyed when Ernie linked it awhile back, also is Google's "director of search quality, charged with continuously improving people's search results." In other words, a god-like human, I do obeisance in his general direction.
• It was fun to catch Rael Dornfest last night, Google Hacking on The Screen Savers. His article has some eminently worthwhile tips, and I'm buying the book.

Tech TV suggests w.bloggar (Windows) and Kung-Log (Mac) as applications to run on the desktop to provide a more full-featured blogging interface. These strive to afford more editing flexibility than your blogging tool may offer. They'd also address the occasional "lost post" problem.

New to me; new to you?

• Alisa is a state government attorney in Indiana, writes Tales From The Shark Tank and is a friend of Dorothea's.
• Jim Dedman is a lawyer in Houston with, among other things, news that the "Citizen Kane of '80's breakdancing movies" finally is available on DVD. [via the Blawg Ring]
• Madden and Soto is a criminal defense law firm in Mobile, Alabama, and its blog features legal news and a panoramic view of its office. [via Ernie Svenson]
• Screaming Bean is a law student somewhere chilly, who is discovering "[t]hat the combination of blogging and DirecTV is bad bad bad." [via the Blawg Ring]
• Mr. Blawggie recently moved from the U.S. to Israel, is seventeen, studying law and business, and has some more dire distractions to contend with: "There was a suicide bombing today... luckily there were no deaths (not yet, anyway)." [via the Blawg Ring]
• One of Chris Zammarelli's many projects is TheCaucus.net, which includes, in its Library of Caucus, a swell law blog directory. [via Ernie Svenson]

Joseph Menn's All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster will be out this month from Crown Business. The L.A. Times Magazine has a lengthy excerpt.