Again, sorry for the protracted absence, but I've been taking the Company Jet (a/k/a Southwest Airlines) to work a little more than usual this month and haven't had a lot of time to pontificate.

While I consider myself a savvy business traveler, as in all aspects of my life, I try to keep complacency from taking over and driving me to an "I know all there is to know on this subject" attitude. With that in mind, when my videographer told me of the great hotel deals he was getting on Priceline, I made a mental note to try it out next time I was trekking to depos on my own dime (which seems more and more the norm lately). Sure enough, his advice was golden.

I had a three-day job in Austin, so I put in for four-star downtown accommodations for fiddy bucks a night. Bang!, got the Hyatt on Town Lake for less than it costs to fill up my Yukon... and with a little charm, got the desk clerk to put me on the eighth floor overlooking the water. Another three-dayer in Dallas last week, same drill, got the Hyatt again for peanuts.

Now, there are some drawbacks, mainly you pay for the entire stay when you book it, and you can't change or cancel your reservation. My solution is to reserve everything at the last minute. If I'm driving to Austin at night, regardless of whether I'm met with Bull$h!t Court Reporter Annoyance #23, "Oh, that cancelled yesterday, didn't anyone call you?" I'm still gonna need a hotel. Also, you don't get the frequent flyer points, but would I rather routinely save $100 a night on my room or have my Marriott Platinum status back? Hmmm, you do the math.

Besides, would Captain James Tiberius Kirk lie?

"If you don't get what you want, it's a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price." - Rudyard Kipling

I've sat through more Engate seminars, panels and vodka-fueled bitch sessions than I care to remember, and though every reporter in the country has their own distinct heinous opinions about the guys at Engate, the overwhelming sentiment, ever since the institution of its tokens, was that there was an extra warm circle of hell reserved just for the friendly folks at LiveNote.

Now, LiveNote's story has always been that the token system was simply a way for those who wished to cave under the Damocles sword of threatened extortio -- I mean litigation to pay the piper, thus, for a fee, providing a clean conscience for all of us working reporters. Trouble was, this also guaranteed an undisclosed revenue stream for LiveNote and neverending cashflow to keep Engate's machine rolling. Thanks almost completely to the realtime software we had faithfully recommended to attorneys for almost a decade, we reporters were now funding Engate's litigation against our own kind.

It goes without saying that when this press release (a portion of which I've reprinted below) crossed my desk this week, it warmed me way down in the cockles of my heart. It's always a great day when you live long enough to see those who've wronged you have to take a bite of a sh!t sandwich of their own creation.

LiveNote Makes Realtime Tokens Optional, Maintains License For Those Who Desire Protection Against Engate Patents

San Francisco, CA (August 27, 2004) LiveNote, Inc. announced today that realtime users may now opt for a token-free version of its new LiveNote Version 9.0 software, enabling the receipt of a realtime transcript with full interactive functionality without the use of a token.

LiveNote's announcement follows closely behind a July 30, 2004 opinion by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that 11 of the 22 challenged claims in Engate's patent portfolio are invalid on the basis of prior art. The Engate v. Esquire Deposition Services litigation is now in its fourth year.

Last year, LiveNote secured a license to the entire Engate portfolio of patents and introduced a "token" requirement into its realtime software, thus ensuring immunity against Engate enforcement actions for those users that upgraded. Only realtime connections established with the use of tokens are Engate Compliant and receive the benefit of LiveNote's license to the Engate patents.

"We cannot tell realtime users that the threat of patent enforcement actions by Engate has passed," said LiveNote President Will Robberts. "Only some of the patent claims at issue have been invalidated, and many more Engate patent claims were not even raised in the current litigation. The judge has already reversed his ruling on one of the 11 invalidated claims, leaving it instead for a full trial that is now set for February 2005. However, in light of the latest developments, we are pleased to be able to leave the choice in the hands of our users," Robberts continued. "When we released Version 8.3 with the token system last year, a considerable majority of our major clients chose to upgrade to secure protection from the Engate patents. Now all LiveNote users can choose whether or not they wish to be Engate Compliant while benefiting from the many enhancements of Version 9.0"

"Though those that are betrayed do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe." - William Shakespeare