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Exactly, watching SPJ presentation videos make you want to learn everything he's talking about... coz other kid's toy is always more interesting :)

I think if you are going to say either is discovered rather than invented, lisp and forth equally qualify. I am aware of the non-academic origins of forth.

I sort of think of it as the Lisp from a crazy parallel universe.

Chuck Norris solved Fermat's last theorem in the margin of a page. Chuck Moore factored out the page.

also:

Royalty Payments

Given the amazing level of interest, I feel obliged to discuss the issue that prompted this posting. I didn't ask to become rich and don't like to whine about not being rich enough. But I won't be cheated. The situation is that Dan Leckrone (TPL) has refused to pay me the royalties specified in our contract. He is spending millions each month, of which I get zip. Unfortunately, the proceeds are paid to him and he exerts full control. I've argued with him for years, the last 9 months thru my lawyers.

Income

The last payment I received was in July 2008. Since then he's boasted of another $1M in licenses. A review of my records indicates that I've received $11M over the last 5 years. I invested most of this money in residential real estate:

My former residence in the Sierra, now my cabin A house in Central California for my son A marvelous house I'm building at Lake Tahoe To do this, I relied on an income stream. My liquid reserves are almost exhausted and I'm pressed to fulfill my obligations. I'd like to keep spending and thus stimulate the economy. And I still need to support the SEAForth project. Commercialization Agreement

Patriot Scientific and I own what is called the Moore Microprocessor Portfolio; a set of 7 US patents and 15 foreign versions. We each own 50%. My agreement with TPL is complicated. Basically, I hired him to license and enforce the MMP patents. He was to receive 45% of the proceeds; that is, 45% of my 50%. Leckrone made a deal (2" thick) with Patriot that included 15% off the top for expenses.

I agreed to a deduction of 11% for TPL's investors. And he agreed to fund 45% of the SEAForth chip development project. So my share is reduced from 55% to 49.5% and further reduced by 55% of SEAForth expenses. He terminated SEAForth in January 2009, so that deduction is gone.

Leckrone has commingled funds in such a way the SEAForth expenses are hard to determine; perhaps $40M. They're mixed up with the expenses of other TPL projects. He has used this confusion to charge me arbitrary allocations for a plethora of expenses. This is the subject of an on-going audit.

Audit

My audit of TPL has documented MMP revenue of $260M. My 25% would be $65M. Deducting $25M for SEAForth expenses leaves $40M of which I've been paid $10M. So $30M is unaccounted for. I conclude that TPL owes me at least $20M of which he admits to $6M. These numbers will be refined and documented, but the conclusion will not change much. Massive unacknowledged debt.

Leckrone can resolve this issue at any time by agreeing to what he owes me and arranging to pay it. Else a court will decide.

from the guy's site on APR-06-2009:

Moore v TPL

TPL claims that posting this information will interfere with the MMP licensing program. I certainly don't want or intend to interfere. I have agreed not to. Our agreement stipulates that disputes be resolved by Arbitration. But Leckrone claims that exercising that right would interfere.

Patriot thinks an ownership dispute might affect the '336 patent re-examination. But the dispute exists whether I post it or not. And surely the validity of a patent is independent of who owns it.

These issues have been brewing for years. The only interest I've gotten in resolving them was with these postings. If I'm muzzled, I'll lose any hope of negotiating royalty payments and clearing my title to MMP. That will have to await Arbitration (6-9 months).

What to do? I'm thinking about it.

Here are the issues:

Royalty Payments

I'm not getting any. Patent Ownership

TPL has falsely claimed ownership of MMP. Commercialization Agreement Amendment

I post this because it's referred to by the documents Leckrone filed with USPTO. Those are incomprehensible without this context. This is the Agreement I signed in 2003, when I was still young and naive. I would not sign such a thing now.

I had known Leckrone for 15 years. I thought he was my friend; that our interests were aligned; that I could trust him and his judgement. I was wrong.

I'm not a lawyer, but this contract is bad. Every lawyer I've shown it to says it's unfair. It's verbose, complicated, redundant and probably inconsistent. Enjoy.