Buried in the mountain of court documents related to the patent dispute beween Research in Motion and NTP is a statement by the U.S. government that any move that would ban Blackberry usage in the U.S. could affect "essential" government services. (the full story - an exclusive, by the way - is in today's Financial Post.) In other words, the Blackberry has become such a crucial tool for Congressmen, Senators and lobbyists, it would be an unmitigated disaster if  NTP won an injunction banning its use. So what is the U.S. government saying? It either wants RIM and NTP to settle their dispute - with the encouragement of the courts - or they are planning a massive switch to Treos, which is very unlikely. If you're the investment group behind NTP, does the $450 million settlement offer look more attractive? Maybe RIM needs to sweeten the pot to make it happen or maybe RIM feels it finally has the upper-hand in a long and troublesome dispute. It is hard not to get the feeling  this dispute may wrap up sooner than later.

It's probably my fault given my enthusiasm to "apply" for new Web 2.0 services but it's getting out of hand. In the past few weeks, I've tried out Sphere, Flock, Tailrank, Rollyo, SearchFox, Wordpress, Slawsome and Remember the Milk. They're all interesting and some of them are even useful (Wordpress, for example, which has become the new platform for My Toronto blog although I'd like to see it offer some more bells and whistles such as statistics tools) but I feel like I'm at an all-you-can-eat buffet and my appetite is disappearing. What I need is a smart Web 2.0 "portal" - perhaps Emily Chang can evolve eHub? - where the best of the best can be presented to meet your specific needs. While eHub does a great job offering a smorgasbord of Web 2.0 services/apps, it's like looking at a Denny's menu where there are pages of choices. What I want is a old-style diner menu where you've got five or six daily specials. Maybe Michael Arrington's TechCrunch is already doing  what I'm seeking. As it now stands, there is just so much coming down the pipe, it's hard to know what these services do and if they're any good - unless they get all kinds of hype (Flock, for example). So where does this particular buffet "patron" do? Until an enterprising entrepreneur steps up to the plate, I guess I'll just keeping eating. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because who's going to complain about getting to try and use free services on a regular basis. The downside is it's difficult to stay loyal because once you start using a great "to do list" service, a new one soon pops up to tempt you away. Who said choice is good thing?!