On Friday, the judge overseeing the long haggled patent infringement case between Research In Motion (RIMM) and NTP Software gave the BlackBerry handheld maker a short-term reprieve, avoiding a service shutdown and sending sighs of relief out from Silicon Valley to Washington DC and beyond, as those who rely on the BlackBerry for everything from critical life-saving emergencies to those who hunt and peck at the devices like addicts saw their fears of being cut off quelled - for now.

The story of NTP vs. RIM is complicated. The short version is that NTP software owns patents regarding sending e-mail data to wireless devices, despite having never created machinery to take advantage of their inventions. When RIM developed their handheld BlackBerry, and NTP believed it to infringe on their patents, RIM was slow to respond, not taking the holding company seriously. While in the years since, NTP has seen many of their patents invalidated, as in parallel the case progressed, legal analysts are faulting RIM for not finding a way out of this morass before now, declining settlement proposals, and there remains the possibility that the millions of BlackBerry users out there may be forced to turn to the Palm Treo or another option. While RIM has offered a work-around, should they lose the case, others aren't convinced it's a workable solution.

I remember first being introduced to BlackBerry in 1999 or 2000 by a co-worker who had acquired version 1.0 of their product. It was black and bulky, but did send and receive e-mail. I wasn't too impressed - thinking that Handspring/Palm's offerings would eventually manage to handle e-mail in a more elegant package. As usual, I was wrong. BlackBerry took off. I've got one, and they're the standard at the office. I don't know of anybody who is rooting for RIM to fail. Everybody wants them to win, and finds this case to be a great example of the patent litigation system just being a tad nutty. At least, for once, it's a small company pushing a large company, and not a large bully using patents as a legal sword to stifle competition. There's sure to be some interesting developments in the coming months, so we'll watch and see.

Sometimes, you have to wonder if the business trades have anything resembling sources or financial acumen to provide real insight or scoops. This week, Barron's is suggesting that with Steve Jobs on board as the number one shareholder of Disney (DIS), following Pixar's acquisition, that Disney is ripe for the plucking for an acquisition by Apple (AAPL). Yes, you read that right. The article says that Disney is horribly undervalued, and that Jobs would take the opportunity to "take it out".

Anybody who's followed the world of Apple rumors for longer than say, since the iPod was introduced, can remember this rumor du jour being floated, but in the opposite direction. If it wasn't Disney buying Apple, or Sun (SUNW) buying Apple, it was Larry Ellison (ORCL) buying Apple, or in Michael Dell's (DELL) fantasy world, that Apple would shut down and give their money to the shareholders. Now that the Pixar deal is consummated, people are chomping at the bit for the next big move.

But look at the numbers. Apple has a $60 billion market cap, and Disney's is over $50 billion. Apple's cash on hand is in the $10 billion range. And does Apple really want to own ESPN and ABC and Disneyland, Disney World and the whole bit? Wouldn't Apple prefer to continue dominating the technology space in innovation, and leave media monopolies alone? Wouldn't a Disney acquisition eliminate the possibility of working with NBC's shows on iTunes, or working with Viacom/MTV? It would seem the conflicts and competition would outweigh a purchase of Disney - Pixar or not.

Steve Jobs has surprised us before. Apple's acquisition of Next resulted in Jobs' triumphant return to lead Apple to unforeseen new heights, but an acquisition of Disney? Only in a business reporter's dream world!

You know that sinking feeling that hits you when you realize you accidentally hit "Reply All" instead of reply, or accidentally sent an e-mail that hadn't been completed or edited, or the sudden realization you accidentally CC'd somebody with a similar name to the intended recipient? We've all done it. Now imagine the absolute horror that befell the admissions director at UC Berkeley's law school, after they told ALL 7,000 applicants they had been admitted - when in actuality, only about 800 will make it!

As written in a Computerworld story released today, that very thing happened during an innocent training exercise.

The story says, "Tom was demonstrating the e-mail software used by the school and was highlighting several features, including how the user can filter mail and set it to send messages to one recipient or many at the same time.That’s when he chose what happened to be a standard congratulatory message on being admitted to the university’s prestigious law school and accidentally sent it to all 7,000 students who have applied for admission to the law school."

Now let's think about this. Do you believe any of these prospective law students have access to a say... lawyer? Haven't they suffered unjust pain and suffering? Do you remember the absolute stress you felt when you were awaiting acceptance letters from college or any post-graduate programs? To ride the incredible high and devastating lows of learning you'd been admitted only to find it was a clerical error is just mind-numbing.

You can see the school's admitting the error here.

When I was applying to colleges, I had applied to UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UCLA, as well as BYU and Chico State (for backup). Through one of the UC's more arcane rules, they didn't accept my selected major to UCLA, and chose to refund my $40 admission fee instead of taking my alternate major. After trying to re-apply and get back in the running, I eventually found myself rejected by UCLA, and getting in everywhere else. Finding out I didn't get into UCLA, even when I could blame the bureaucracy for part of it, was crushing. I had a dream of going to UCLA with my best friend from high school (he got in), and had that taken away with a small envelope that told me how difficult it was to get in in the first place. Now, 80 percent of these applicants to Berkeley law school will get to learn they didn't get in - twice.

Just ten days ago, I wrote on here to say that my wife and I had wrapped up our 2005 taxes, courtesy of using TurboTax online. This morning, I had the pleasant surprise of logging into my Wells Fargo account online and seeing I had quite a bit more cash than when I'd gone to bed the night before. That's always good. The reason for it was that both our tax refunds from the state and federal levels were deposited automatically, getting me the money that was rightly ours in the first place back a lot more quickly. Now, with it not even being March, we can close the door on our 2005 finances.

Of course... that depends on whether our good friends at the IRS opt to open up the discussion at any point in the future. After all, it's their right to do so, but I say, bring it on. We're ready.

Every year, especially as the date moves closer to April 15th, you hear the inevitable belly-aching and gnashing of teeth over the stress of taxes, getting the forms right, making sure your deductions are in order. But I've never quite understood why. It's a right of passage. It's a challenge. There's some nostalgia involved - especially as I go through every single stock trade from the previous year. (I owned that? What was I thinking?) And there's definitely some self-satisfaction to finishing the task well ahead of time and with a minimum of fuss. I almost would beg for the sticker that says "I paid my taxes", the same way you get one that says "I voted", if you're one of the 38% of us who do that every couple of years or so.

At least today, I feel like we're financially secure. But almost all of the refund already has to be spent on bills that were outstanding, and simply catches us up. But today, I have cash - let's see if I can hold onto that feeling.