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Slashback: Franklin, Head-Mounting, Timing
I've broken two Timexes this month, this is just old hat now. Pete Brubaker writes: "A few days ago this story was posted to /. pointing to a NYTimes article about Sun's new asynchronous processor. The article, though informative, lacked detail. EE Times comes through and discusses this technology in quite a bit more detail."
If it won't fit in your overhead bin, it probably isn't wearable. If you were intrigued by the wearable computers mentioned in October, you can thankjoeboy4h for pointing out that "the 5th International Symposium on Wearable Computers will be in Zurich this October. Aside from being an excellent academic conference this is also the ultimate hack fest; lots of cool people all interested in hacking both hardware and software, most wearing their wearables, and some really incredible presentations. The call for papers is out now; it would be an excellent place for slashdoters to strut their stuff."
I hope they can webcast a stroll in the Alps with a well-outfitted wearables party ... now that would be a Linuxbierwanderung.
But for the record, would you say you're a "real American," Mr. Franklin? Ovidius writes "Need a historical precedent to argue in favor of open source and against the rash of insane technology patents? Tell people how Ben Franklin valued innovation over profits--in 1742 he not only published the details of his newly conceived Franklin Stove, but refused a patent on it on the principle that "as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."
Even when a London entrepreneur took out a patent on a poorly modified version of his stove, Franklin still did not pursue the matter, though maybe he would have if he had known where the use of patents in business would be headed 250 or so years later. The account is from chapter 10 of his Autobiography (which is available at the esteemed Project Gutenberg) :
In order of time, I should have mentioned before, that having, in 1742, invented an open stove for the better warming of rooms, and at the same time saving fuel, as the fresh air admitted was warmed in entering, I made a present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of my early friends, who, having an iron-furnace, found the casting of the plates for these stoves a profitable thing, as they were growing in demand.
To promote that demand, I wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled "An Account of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces; wherein their Construction and Manner of Operation is particularly explained; their Advantages above every other Method of warming Rooms demonstrated; and all Objections that have been raised against the Use of them answered and obviated," etc.
This pamphlet had a good effect. Gov'r. Thomas was so pleas'd with the construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declin'd it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.
An ironmonger in London however, assuming a good deal of my pamphlet, and working it up into his own, and making some small changes in the machine, which rather hurt its operation, got a patent for it there, and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it. And this is not the only instance of patents taken out for my inventions by others, tho' not always with the same success, which I never contested, as having no desire of profiting by patents myself, and hating disputes. The use of these fireplaces in very many houses, both of this and the neighbouring colonies, has been, and is, a great saving of wood to the inhabitants.
So who is more American, Ben Franklin or Bill Gates?"
I beleive a similar thing happened with Tesla who had pioneered the use of AC (alternating current). Basically he licensed it to Westinghouse. Westinghouse would pay Tesla an amount per person connected to the system.
:-)
At one point Nikola Tesla could have put Westinghouse out of business by insisting they paid him what he was owed. Instead he ripped the contract up with some suitably chosen words to the effect "it is better that the world has AC than I become a rich man"...
I think he died peniless
Regards
X
Secondly, it is fascinating to see the way every suggestion of this nature seems to be moderated up to 5. I think this is revealing more about the Slashdot readership's confused but striking agenda than we really need to know... what is it that produces this compelling need to view Ben Franklin in a more cynical, post-20th-century light? Is it so unthinkable to accept his words and concede the guy seemed to consider social benefit a greatly important thing, worth more than personal gain?
Honestly, it's a little shocking to me. I wouldn't bat an eyelash to see lots of slashdotters mocking Franklin for being a dumbass who'd never amount to anything, but it's very disconcerting to see what appears to be a broadly supported grassroots slashdotter _desire_ to rewrite the motivations of history...
Have you Americans ever been aware that if Franklin, Jefferson or any other of your founding fathers were alive today, they would be under continuous surveilance from NSA, FBI and who knows who else? And worst: for a good reason.
Those guys were, you guess it, revolutionaires. With clear ideas about freedom, call it freedom of speech, to innovate or from tyrans.
Do you imagine George Washington being lobbied by RIAA, Microsoft or any other company? Can you imagine his response to those guys?
Do you imagine Jackson taking bribes^H^H^H^H^H^H donations from interest groups?
Wake up!
If they were alive, they'd die again of sadness, just looking what America is now.
Franklin wrote that the reason why he didn't want to patent the idea was to encourage demand for the iron parts his buddy was making.
We have a different situation here in the 21st century; manufacturing is no longer profitable, competition cuts margins, unless you have a monopoly. It's information that's in demand - and the patent system as it stands today, gives companies a monopoly on the information. RAM manufacturers are fucked as it is, competing for razon thin margins. Then RAMBUS comes along, and decides to strap on the extra LARGE toy. . . What's more valuable? A $3 billion fab? or a patent on SDRAM?
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
The vast majority of his ideas can be put down to him being a memeber of the landed gentry in america, with considerable assets (many slaves) and the time and ability to be scholarly.
I think you are confusing Franklin with Thomas Jefferson. Franklin never owned any slaves, and in fact was the president of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. It is widely believed that this cost him the chance to ever be nominated for the President of the United States as it of course made him extremely unpopular in the South
how about an easy-for-dad divx player first? preferably one which doesn't require winelib dll hacks, since dad doesn't want to know about that sort of thing.
--
"Salk saw an opportunity to develop a vaccine against polio, and devoted himself to this work for the next eight years....When news of the discovery was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a miracle worker. He further endeared himself to the public by refusing to patent the vaccine. He had no desire to profit personally from the discovery, but merely wished to see the vaccine disseminated as widely as possible. "
How many thousands of lives were saved as a result of this decision?
W
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This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Bangor is no milestone by which to judge America, not by any means. Part of the beauty of America's melting pot is that wherever you go in America, the people are as different as the scenery. Here in Texas, where it's just as hot as Maine is dreary, the nightlife and culture is as thick as the humidity. Over in Miami, it's another scene altogether, with fiery Cuban clubs being a real night out. And over in LA, the Asian scene is amazing.
In Bangor, frankly, it's a bunch of white retirees. You're looking at the original immigrants there, and they haven't gotten any livelier in the last two hundred years.
What's your damage, Heather?
Yeah, well, Franklin is also credited with saying that "A penny saved is a penny earned," and it isn't like companies have been paying attention to that one either. Somehow I doubt the fact that one of the founding fathers liked Open Source is going to jump-start any patent debates. My boss is more likely to say, "Well, the guy also flew kites during thunderstorms."
What's your damage, Heather?
My only real annoyance at this article is that they make it out as if Sun invented the goddamn thing.
Wanna see who did? Go to:
The Amulet Group.
It's an offshoot of the ARM team.
Simon
Coming soon - pyrogyra
Contrast that to the succession of rulers from one generation to the next of the same family, which is what a dynasty is.
However, IIRC, America is the longest lasting republic, as it stands now.
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CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
How many days until ThinkGeek has a t-shirt with the aforementioned Franklin quote?
.0625
A - 1
B - 2
C - 7
D -
But the cynic says that patents were much more difficult to enforce in those days. Witness the number of patent infringements on the Cotton Gin-- its owner died penniless, despite inventing a machine that made cotton harvesting far, far more efficient. Perhaps Franklin, ever charismatic, realized he would look nobler without a patent, and realized that a patent wouldn't be worth much to him anyway.
-Ted
Much of rural America is inward looking, much like rural China/Russia/France/Britain/Wherever. Bangor has perhaps 35,000 people living in it. Sizable for a local culture, but certainly not the million people needed for a true global culture.
Culture is a reflection of the population. It's only natural that a smaller population is more inward looking-- there are fewer people from other cultures to provide new views on life. If you'd enjoy a more cosmopolitan life, visit Boston or New York.
That said, I agree that most Americans are "Americentric", even those in larger cities. But that doesn't mean they eschew other cultures. Americans merely claim other cultural phenomenons and absorb them into American Culture.
I believe the reason is that Americans have no reason to depend on other countries in the world (unlike even the first world countries, much less the third world). American politics does not depend as much on, say, the Middle East as the Middle East does on America.
Um, welcome to the world we live in, I guess...
-Ted
So who is more American, Ben Franklin or Bill Gates?
1) Bill Gates was born in the US, Franklin was not...Franklin was born a British Citizen.
2) The present tense of the verb to be is used, so Franklin technically *isn't* any more
3) Bill Gates represents what it is to be American pretty darn well. He is capitalistic and greedy. Franklin represents what it *was* to be American, idealistic and capable of creative thought.
So...maybe the question should have been phrased, "Who is more what we'd like to believe an American is?"
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
Benjamin Franklin was a well-known Deist of his time. Basically, the Deists believed that human nature and the universe was inherently good, which differed greatly from the concurrently-popular Puritan view.
Through this belief that the universe was inherently good, the Deists believed that the best way to worship God was to do good and service others. Franklin demonstrated his wish to help others through the establishment of the University of Pennsylvania and the first American library (excellent way to promote free knowledge). He also improved the quality of living in his favored city of Philadelphia by improving street lighting and sewage systems.
Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Franklin would not want to patent his useful stove invention - doing so would only hamper competition to provide cheap availability of his useful stove. Benjamin Franklin helped early American society in so many ways that he easily became the classic American hero we know today.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
First, Eazel launched Nautilus; Later the same day they laid off / slashed a bunch of folks, now they have "Contest Ware" to promote and generate development since they laid off those developers.
I suppose, but I wish there was a better way to do business.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I'm sure that Ben Franklin just didn't understand that he would stop innovating if he couldn't have a 17 year monopoly.
That's what patent proponents keep saying anyway.
I've broken two Timexes this month, this is just old hat now
How the hell do you break two watches that 'take a licking and keep on ticking' in 1 month? What could you possibly be doing in your spare time that creates such a watch dangerous enviroment?? I mean yeah, I fell into my rock tumbler once and ruined my Timex and my glasses, but don't tell me you did it twice in one month!!!
The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. --Robert Benchley
Incidentally, Clarke introduced the modern communication satellite to his readers by postulating a Soviet plan to put one above Middle America and bombard us with an endless and unjammable stream of propaganda and morals-degenerating quasi-porn ... kinda like what the American broadcast companies actually did :-)
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
I think Richard Stallman should consider using this as the motto of the Free Software Foundation. Heck, any open source endeavor!
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
It turns out that Ben Franklin was a great believer in globalisdation and Information exchange across the world. The vast majority of his ideas can be put down to him being a memeber of the landed gentry in america, with considerable assets (many slaves) and the time and ability to be scholarly.
Most of all, it is thanks to him being able to travel to London and partake in the enlightenment occurring in Europe at the time. Being from a backwater at the time, it was fortunate for america that there were such people with a global outlook.
Now, the funny thing is that soon after, motivated by the 1812 war with Britain and britain's victory in said war, america became isolationist and inward looking, even unto the highest levels of government.
Only in 1942 did America's foriegn policy at last become outward directed, but unfortunately its culture is still very inward looking.
As a Scottish girl used to the pleasures of my native Glasgow, I was very dissappointed in the variety of cuisine, nightlife and people here in Bangor, Maine when I first arrived. It seems that the melting pot is producing a terrible monoculture here in America!
Well, I think it is about time that American *culture*, and not just its government, became outward looking. This wouyld increase creativity and receptiveness to new ideas, and create a new renaissance of learning. The world is such a big place, and so varied! It seems a shame to ignore it. As an article earlier today was moaning about creativity in America, I feel justified in this.
Just think of Franklin. The Founding Fathers, who's ideals and lives I have been studying as an immigrant, would have been for it. I think we should do as they would.
--Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The