Slashdot Mirror
Fishing for Ideas
FyreWyr writes "Whether Microsoft is searching for new ideas, or supporting inventors outright is up for grabs, but they're stabbing at it with $300,000 for 12 spanking ideas (that's $25k each). But as with everything Microsoft, the devil's in the details, or rather, the fine print. At first, you'd swear it was "Brought to you by VISA" - the logo is ubiquitous - but the very last statement in the contest rules reads: "The sponsor...is Microsoft ... VISA...have not sponsored or offered this contest in any way". They also retain a spectrum of rights, and responsibily suggest that you go out and patent really good ideas first. Okay, how much does that cost again? (see end of this article)."
At least MS is honest and tells you to go and patent your idea, or they'll steal it from you. An honest thief, one could say... ;)
How about security for Microsoft? Now there is an idea.
http://www.maximum-cars.com - My little hobbie.
Step 1: Give idea to Microsoft.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!
For everything else, there's Mastercard!!!
RAH! MONKEY ASSAULT!
a Linux CD and a BSD CD.
:-)
Will I get the 25g's?
Software with frickin' laser beams on its head
Write decent software!
I think MS is being quite clever here (can't believe I just wrote that). The way I'm seeing it is that they are basically doing product development on 12 new products for $300,000. If you actually look at the amount of time/development that goes on in big coporation you will find that 90% of the things reasearched never come to fruition. Going from what MS is offering is that if they can just get one of these ideas of the ground then they might have a killer product for very little investment.
As for the rules well that is another discussion totally
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
"THIS IS LIKE 1984" is becoming the next "In Soviet Russia.." I swear I'm seeing it in half of the news stories on Slashdot.
Any idea to make bonsai kittens won't win. Apparently, your idea can be shot down for "improper use of kitty" ...
:)
(Watch the 'bad example' video
'offer expires 1983'
Hello, my name is John! This is my first time posting here, but I am enraged by the parent comment and most reply.
Shut the fuck up, you typical immature liberal Slashdotter! I have yet to see anything from the pseudoeffort of the side you seem to support that comes even close to competing with Microsoft!
-The Video Professor
http://www.videoprofessor.com/
They just send around the heavies and steal your ideas...
If you enter this contest make sure you give them a fake home address!
Sending my best software ideas to Microsoft isn't the first thing I would do, patent or no patent.
But anyway, there might be some supergenious to be found at kindergarten that you can ask. I mean, the kid must be young enough to have missed Netscape, and childish enough to trust the dev-l ehrm microcrush.
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even if you take into account Hofstadter's Law
Please somebody mod the above post Insightful or Interesting for comedy's sake...
"Surprise me"
By entering, each entrant forfeits to Sponsor all rights to content of his/her entry (including the essay) and the concepts embodied therein. Entrant unconditionally assigns and transfers to Sponsor all rights, title, interest and claim, which it now has or may in the future have to the entries or any element(s) thereafter including, without limitation, the copyright therein. Sponsor shall have right to use, alter, assign or dispose of such entries however it sees fit without approval of entrants. Permission is also granted for Sponsor to publish entry in perpetuity in any medium it may see fit including, but not limited to, website, television, radio and/or printed materials. Entrants shall not receive any compensation or credit for use of entries, other than that disclosed in these rules. Entrants agree to be bound by the terms of these Official Rules.
The idea must be new and unpublished, but at the same time, all your rights are belong to Microsoft. So, even if you own a patent or trademark on it, by entering, you are:
What a concept! Win by losing! That's the Microsoft way!
"Eustace? Eustace? Are you there? Are you there?" = John Leeming
I like that little detail in the contest rules.
Hey, if you can't inovate, then buy...... that's the Micro$oft way.
The classic game 'Jump To Conclusions' :)
:)
Yes, this is horrible this idea.
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
Most of the people are going looking to win the money to do something with it. Mostly it falls into two categories.
:P Unless they put Windows computers in the library and bring the kiddies and people up using their software of course!
1. Help myself
2. Help others
Not sure how MS is going to make more money by building libraries in Ghana.
Try this then, It's like a beowolf cluster from 1984 with friggin lazer beams in Soviet Russia. Hows that for a
Visit www.seriouslythough.com
inventors! inventors! inventors! inventors!
Microsoft finally ran out of things to steal from Xerox Parc and Apple!
They should GPL their software and quit ramming this intellectual property garbage down everyones throat.
All your metaphor are belong to Natalie Portman eating hot grits.
From what I can tell from the entries so far the competition isn't for technical ideas. It is mostly social ideas, like starting a school program or helping out in a third world country. I would not expect to see their target audience submit an idea for developing a new video compression technique.
I personally would not bash Microsoft or Visa for this one. The aim is promote MSN and Visa, not a way to get ideas for free. Besides, I highly doubt Microsoft would be able to patent a method for paying off Grandma's medical bills.
We have $50 billion dollars in cash, but we don't have a clue!
The existence of this contest says that they are even having trouble buying one!
"Maybe the little people have a clue!"
...because I'm not sure what the demand is for spanking ideas...
The sponsor...is Microsoft ... VISA...have not sponsored or offered this contest in any way
Not only that, it also states: "Puerto Rico... to... become the property of Microsoft Corporation"
I thought Microsoft was the source of all good ideas and they needed to protect their "Freedom to Innovate" from the wrath of the DOJ?
Allude to:
Orwell to be +5 insightful
Douglas Adams to be +5 funny
Never fails...
Yeah. Good idea. Let's make patents free, so anybody can patent thousands of things!
-twb
$300,000 for 12 spanking ideas
.NET Enterprise Servers
I suggest the following list all be spanked. I'll take the $300,000 thank you very much. (I know there are more than 12, just consider the rest freebies.) Actually, I think that a few of them be sent to bed without supper too, like Gates, Ballmer, Allchin, and Mundie.
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect
Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer
Jim Allchin, Group Vice President, Platforms
Orlando Ayala, Group Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Marketing & Services
Robbie Bach, Senior Vice President, Home & Entertainment Division/Chief Xbox Officer
Doug Burgum, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions
David Cole, Senior Vice President, MSN and Personal Services Group
John Connors, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Jean-Phillipe Courtois, President, Microsoft Europe, Middle East, & Africa; Senior Vice President
Jon DeVaan, Senior Vice President, TV Division
Rick Devenuti, Corporate Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Operations and Technology Group
Ken DiPietro, Corporate Vice President, Human Resources
Richard Emerson, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development Strategy
Paul Flessner, Senior Vice President,
Bob Herbold, Executive Vice President
Kevin Johnson, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Americas
Pieter Knook, Corporate Vice President, Network Service Providers and Mobile Devices
Mich Mathews, Corporate Vice President, Marketing Division
Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President, MSN Personal Services Business Group
Bob Muglia, Group Vice President, Enterprise Storage Division
Craig Mundie, Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer, Advanced Strategies and Policy
Jeff Raikes, Group Vice President, Productivity and Business Services
Rick Rashid, Senior Vice President, Research
Eric Rudder, Senior Vice President, Developer and Platform Evangelism
Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Office
Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Law and Corporate Affairs
Brian Valentine, Senior Vice President, Windows Division
David Vaskevitch, Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer, Business Platform
Hank Vigil, Corporate Vice President, Consumer Strategy and Partnerships
This happens in other arenas, in particular book rights and movies.
Richard Bach spent a lot of time and money buying the rights of his first couple books back from his publisher, but as I understand it he wouldn't have been able to publish those books without having given the rights away in the first place. Not that he did profit from the books even though he didn't own them.
I want to say the same happens in the movie industry, but I'm not sure.
The only real difference is that people will always want to know who wrote a book or movie, and don't really care about the individual behind research.
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
I'm 32, which is too old to have an idea. Apparently ideas come from 18-29 year olds...
These aren't ideas for new programs and stuff of that nature. I haven't seen a single idea on the site yet that deals with software.
Perhaps it's not what their aiming for, that they're getting, but then again, with catagories like "self-expression, community, and entrepreneur," I doubt that they are looking to do R&D like this.
Also, look at the ideas, "Go on a mission trip, open a medical practice, pay my bills," I don't know, but if they're getting something that they can sell out of this, I haven't seen it yet.
Not only that, but users on the site get to vote for ideas that they like and don't like. Then again, hiding all of the "long range wireless gigabit ethernet," behind "saving baby sea lions from brutal dinosaurs," might be a good way to keep stealing ideas under the radar... or perhaps I'm too slashdotted.
In Soviet Russia, your Natalie Portman eating hot grits are belong to all your metaphor.
the 'devil's' ruining the hole sideshow buy now.
25k? buy golly, that seems like a lot of monIE for just some billyonerror 'idea'. shucks.
does it pay off in worth less billybuks, or sum other such frauduleNT patentdead payper liesense stock markup bullshipping industrIE scammage?
lookout bullow. almost time to square up robbIE?
anonymouse? -40 too close to call?
consult yOUR creator regarding matters of the heart/mind/soul.
Better idea for Microsoft would be to give $25k worth of software to anyone with good idea. Who in the slashdot wouldn't want $25k worth of Microsoft sotware?
The problem in the world today is communication. Too much communication - Homer Simpson
It seems a far cry from the days of Q-DOS in 1981 when Gates and Co were trying to sell an operating system they didn't technically own at the time to IBM. They were a much more nimble company in those days and had plenty of ideas and developments to go scour and steal. Lately, however, the Standard Oil of the Computer industry is encounrtering the same problems as its turn-of-the-previous century counterpart: government is on its back, the "innovation" that got it where it is seems to have disappeared (Rockefeller consolidating oil pipelines and refineries together), and the public at large is disgruntled but left with few alternatives.
Microsoft is not run by idiots. They realize that if they are to compete against systems like Linux they need to innovate before Linux develops a truly AOL level interface that even Joe Schmoe can use...for free. Bad press and a worse reputation have finally gotten their attention, so their asking for ideas to investigate. It would seem that their age range (based on the prize offered) is 16-25, just the right age when people are thinking way outside the box and are not limited by knowledge of what should not be possible. These (maverick?) thinkers tend to give the most innovative ideas but also the ones that need the most work to come to fruition. If Microsoft can cull this source of innovation while reaping the profits from it, they could set themselves up as a potential warehouse for new tech ideas. A wiser plan would have been to offer 5-10% of all profits made from the idea in addition to the $25k since that would get more cynical programmers and worldly people interested, but the young and nieve seem to be the most easily exploited by definition. I have to wonder if this is not a sign of desperation by the Microsoft management though since they did drag in these same sorts of innovative thinkers by the truckload even 3 years ago. Even now they tend to snap up the best of the best offered by MIT and other major tech schools, but why would they need this sort of competition when they already have the best minds? Do those folks just have really good grades but an inability to think outside the box? Again, I have to wonder if this is not desperation for truly radical ideas as much as a desire to see what talent is out there.
As long as there is a Second Amendment, there will always be a First Amendment.
I want to do a really shitty operating system that has lots of security holes which I will take my sweet time to fix (if I fix them at all...). And the API (which will be designed by a retarded monkey after he's drunk a case of beer) will work only somewhat like the documentation and crap out with undocumented error codes when you do anything not exactly like the toy sample code.
Oh wait, it's been done...
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
Well I took one look at the contest rules and ran, but I wonder... are there any legitimate and serious idea competitions out there? Being a technology addict, I'm extremely interested in hashing ideas with people, and if there's an opportunity to be recognized or rewarded, so much the better.
I believe so much in the power of ideas that for quite awhile now I've been running an initiative within my company to solicit more ideas from employees, created an internal online open forum, and run bi-monthly "blue-sky" sessions open to any and every employee. All of which have been received extremely well, and are paying off in a big way.
So where are the others who are into innovation? Often times it seems like I'm the only one pushing the rock up the hill. Plus I often have ideas that are outside the scope of my companies business, and would love to bounce them off of someone.
From the site:
"I've been going to school for three years, and my family has struggled to keep me in school for all three years. My mother's house has been under contruction for majority of the time, but she hasn't been able to complete it because she is paying for me to go to school. I want to continue to a four year college, but won't be able to if I can't come up with the money. I want to start my own Public Relations company, but without a strong education behind me that makes it harder for me, and being a minority woman. I would be the first to successfully start a business, and be able to do things like promote for Microsoft, if they award me this prize. It will set my future up for a beautiful long lasting career"
I have been suggesting just this thing for Transmeta/IBM/SUN/HP for the last year. You will find it in a large number of posts here and LinuxToday (as a.c./dev@null). MS runs around and does it. While I personally think that MS has some of the worse coders and software in the world, they have the very best Lawyers and Marketers. My hat is off to you MS. If you win, it is becuase the good guys are so totally stupid and greedy. Perhaps, it also shows the total lack of imagination.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
so microsoft is paying for ideas now?
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
and the concepts embodied therein
I suppose they're thinking this is a brilliant PR campaign, but they're going to get a hell of a lot of bad press if they capitalize on someone else's great idea and only give him/her $25k.
Just another example of incredible corporate stupidity.
IAAL
1. Shut
2. The fuck
3. Up
4. Everyone else profits!
We've always known M$'s main skill was not in innovation, but rather in buying/borrowing technology and trying to grow it. At least now they're trying to do it in a slightly more honest and upfront way and actually pay for it before they take it.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Let's see:
- Hand
- Stick
- Bat
- Belt
- Mallet
- Large flat piece of wood
- Large flat piece of metal
- Large flat piece of concrete
- Crowbar
- Really big fish sticks
- Stale Noodles (Lasagna)
- War and Peace
I'll take my 12*300,000 = 3,600,000 dollars now, thank you. Not bad for 2 minutes of work. Oh, it's an adjective. Damn....for 12 spanking ideas...
Brilliant!
1. Tied up on a four poster bed, one limb on each post.
2. Use of a fish of some sort to perform the spanking.
3. Electromagnetic spanking device controlled by victim's brainwave patterns.
4. Caged.
5. First give the arse a carpet burn (spin them around on a rug), rub with vinegar, spank.
6. Spanking in the shower.
7. Spanking an inflatable Rolf Harris doll.
8. A game of naughty child / strict parent.
9. Use of a thin, splintering strip of wood.
10. Hot spanking: use cloth dipped in 'deep heat'.
11. Boiling oil/sugar*.
12. In the middle of the corridoor at work, to an unsuspectiong co-worker, and in full view, creating an awkward situation for all concerned.
* - Do not consume after use in this manor.
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
If you don't like the rules of the contest don't enter. It is nice that somebody pointed the rules out, but no one is being forced to enter either. Also, it's not like Visa isn't a duopoly with Mastercard. Is Visa somehow a really loveable company to everyone and now you're all crushed to find out Microsoft is involved?
"RIAA math"
"in library of congress units..."
"why do all Americans [generalize/think/do].."
"move to Canada"
"1...(2-n)...n. Profit!"
"BSD is/is not [alive/superior/dying/dead/not dead]"
Keywords:
Natalie Portman, Ellen Feiss, hot grits, boxen, leet, h4xors, pron, m$, RIAA, BSA, MPAA, windoze
Modifiers:
IANA..., IANAL, YMMV, IMHO, IMNSHO, ^H^H^H
$25,000 for an idea? Can it be about "world domination"?
I guess who will be applying...
A successor to SMTP, that would require validation of senders and not just act as a spam hub.... o.. wait.. nevermind...
Sure wish ISPs would use it...
-------
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
Seems they don't think too much of your idea if you're to young (29). Guess I'll just have to get some fake ID and TURN IN MY AARP Card...
They have finally succeded in making sure that no one makes a killer app again by stealing and killing off innovative companies. Whit no one to steal from they are pretty much a sitting duck cause hey, when was the last time something, anything at all originatet from Microsoft? I can honestly not remember a single app that isnt a ripoff. Even the BSOD is a blatant ripoff (though no BSOD have been so much advertised as MS own)
HTTP/1.1 400
I've seen this before, but never got the reference... I'd assume this was indirectly related to Captain Picard's Borgian transformation...
Dr. evil (from austin powers), of course! heh. see the obvious correlation...?
Sorry, SHAD0W, it's an Austin Powers reference. All that Dr. Evil wants (besides ONE MILLION DOLLARS -- pinky to mouth) is some sharks with some frickin <FINGERQUOTES>"Lasers"</FINGERQUOTES> attached to their heads.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
1. Ditch C# and VB as the back-end for ASP.NET code and use Brainf*ck, whitespace and/or Intercal instead 2. Rewrite Office in Lisp 3. Rewrite Windows in Haskell 4. Get into nuclear submarine business: with global warming and North Pole melting, PS (personnal submarine) will surely prove to be a great way to make money
Don't get me wrong
I went to the site, wasted a bunch of time there, and got to the instructions/post an idea page, where they gleefully informed me that those over 29 years old need not apply. Oh, really? Well, fuck them too.
I'll keep my ideas to myself, thanks.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
It's 25k for just pointing them into the right direction.
I say, if they pay for an idea, there is a chance they will take it seriously this time...
3.243F6A8885A308D313
Here's my submission:
Wait for someone to have a great idea, then steal it.
Oh, wait, they already do that.
Both Microsoft and Scientology like to grab the "regular guy's" inventiveness to use for their own ends.
Beware assholes bearing gifts!
...and some of the pitches...
I am sure Microsoft is chomping at the bit to get these ideas. These people are dolts for not patenting these gems. I am writing disclosures as we speak. Is "off roading" prior art?
-- Aumaden
Do they just say that they are tempet ideas and will not succeed, keep the cash, and harvest the idea? Banking upon your thoughts at no charge at all. Or, They are probably selling off the ideas that are not "Microsoft" oriented; the ones that win are plans of copying existing software programs and improving on them.
austintsmith.com
...that they were were seeing Google as more and more of a competitor and you will recall that Google had a similar contest to solicit ideas.
I suppose one could comment on such a drought of new ideas at Redmond that they have to start using ideas from competitors on how to get ideas.
-----
Cast a Cold Eye
On Life, on Death
Horseman, pass by
--W.B. Yeats' gravestone
This board is rabid. Back in about 1989 Apple ran one or two promotions like this. They retained all the rights too.
Lay off Microsoft. Not everything they do is wrong.
Talk about deja-vu...
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
The good guys thought the contest idea was stupid and greedy. It is you know.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
No, Visa is.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
I submitted this idea... unfortunately it has to get past screeners before it goes public, but I thought I'd circumvent the process and post it here...
Idea #7141
Title - Exploting Creative Talent
Keywords - exploitation evil empire conniving deceitful
Essay - I propose to set up a contest to exploit the ideas of America's most creative college students by setting up a contest that seems to be supporting creativity and innovation. I will offer these students a sum of money that may be sizable to them but in the real world is chump change. I will get them to submit their ideas and in doing so yield all intellectual property rights to me. Then I can use their ideas to make myself multiple millions of dollars. And I'll make sure to bury this fact in contest rules so that it's not inherently obvious. It's a great idea because it saves me the expenses of actual research and development, despite its deceitful and conniving nature. It is the beginning of my evil empire.
What do you think. Do I deserve to win $25 g's?
-jag
http://starboard.flowtheory.net/
You forgot a "friggin" before "their heads". And its "friggin", not "Frikin" :-)
Steal Slashcode, but add a functionality to prevent dupes?
Parent is proof that not even a simple joke is safe from brutal castration.
Aumaden, you are a fuckhole.
but you certainly got BEST POST.
I have a place to submit my idea of sending niggers back to africa... Oh happy day!!
The Microsoft Freedoom to Innovate Network
http://www.microsoft.com/freedomtoinnovate/
Wow, two news items, one of them is a fix to a big spam problem an another is about a court case.
In Soviet Russia, Natalie Portman has goatse.cx!
Microsoft is not a registered trademark of the mining company 56 kilometers northeast of Mexico, D.F.
This post constitutes opinions only, protected by the 1st amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Anybody who bashes this document or the country that is founded upon it is a piece of shit. Oh yeah, and my fucking employer ain't responsible for any of the fucking shit that I'm writing over here. So fuck off!!
they're stabbing at it with $300,000 for 12 spanking ideas
Did someone at Microsoft just see Secretary ?
Implement your good idea, release it with a GPL license to a friend or a lawyer or whatever, ask him to keep it quiet, submit to contest, win $25K, tell friend to release software[, smoke weed], win lawsuit on prior art[, smoke weed]. Repeat.
0x or or snor perron?!
Step 3: There is no step 3. Heh! There's no step 3!
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Seems to me like a cheap way to mine bright college kids for fresh ideas...
I hereby sell my soul, from hence until eternity to Microsoft Corp.
If you have a really good idea, there are ways to make money with it. This isn't one of them.
Here is a very interesting idea fishing site. Go fish. :)
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
In Soviet Russia, the news stories would see YOU Slashed in half!
Well You have to give it to bill anything to make an extra buck even if you have to shell out a couple if they give you credit for it.
Step1: Obtain vibrator so large it requires "D" cells.
Step 2: Insert it into their Back Orfice as far as it will go.
Step 3: Turn power switch on high.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit!
My idea isn't original, but is apparently lost on M$: designing a webpage with text instead of graphics only, so that the page loads before the contest ends.
Heh. Everyone should go hit the button for the dude that wants to pay off his loans, say "hi" to his mother, and maybe get a sammitch. I'd rather see MS pay through the ass for this guy to perform his mundane tasks, while MS gets absolutely no value.
I should've patented the method of obtaining a sandwich.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
http://www.aardvark.co.nz/daily/2003/0704.shtml
Well according to todays aardvark - xtra NZ gets the full use of any IP I transfer across their systems - including my personal emails.
I get to pay them for the priviledge !
Do something! Instead of complaining about the giant evil Microsoft, why not get on over to the Idea Submission Thingee and lay down a few cleverly crafted trolls? C'mon, you guys are smart enough to really tell some whoppers, and the best part about it is, most of those younguns will vote for your stupid ideas! Now get out there and clog up the gears. I promise you, it'll be fun.
Oh no...they're not going to fool me again. Not after I sent all that email!
Easy to navigate webpages, especially those dealing with contests.
Microsoft would never be doing it, if Apple hadn't already done it!
/me puts on "Microsoft 'Ideas' Promotion '03 = Apple 'Ideas' Promotion '89" t-shirt
~Philly
First, lead all senior management out of the Microsoft Headquarters onto the fine green grass of their Redmon campus.
Second, dress them in dunce-caps and hang signs around their necks reading things like "destroyer of innovation", "I give life to the endlessly voracious maw", and "technological rapist". All the while they are surrounded by children who beat them with sticks with nails in them, and whip them with venetian blind cord embedded with razor blades.
They are thus led to a pillory, whereupon stands a drunken axeman with a dull axe. They are sloppily beheaded, and their heads stuck upon sharpened sticks lining the entrance to the Redmond campus.
Their unknowing, soul-less minions are led out of their offices, beheaded with slightly less fanfare, their skulls stripped of their skullcovers, and piled into Kmer Rouge-like piles here and there.
Then the open source and free software crew throw a burning man festival amid their remains, dispensing martinis shaken with cracked ice, served with cheese/olive/cracker hors d'oeuvres trays, culminating with the burning to the ground of every structure on the redmond campus.
As dawn comes, the turf is plowed under, salt is strewn upon the grounds, and the Washington rains are left to turn the ruins into a muddy wasteland, never to be visited by man again.
But that's just me.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Instead of just the blue screen, MS and now give users a better experience. Here are some innovative ideas: 1. Green screen 2. Red screen 3. Maroon screen 4. Orange screen 5. Peach screen 6. Lavendar screen 7. Deep Blue screen 8. Yellow with black Polka dots screen 9. Multi-colored ButterFly screen 10. Rainbow coloured screen 11. Patent all the above colors/designs 12. Get royalty from world for using any such colors/designs anywhere
I was over at sourceforge, and saw a M$ advertisement for a contest for software for their Tablet Computer.
So anyhow, I went over and saw the same kind of thing there.
However, in that contest, they were giving away a couple free (okay, not free when you read what comes next) tablet computers to the winners who would write applications for the Tablet computer.
However, win or lose, if you entered, you guaranteed that you had full rights to the software, and transferred all said rights to M$ for nothing.
With that kind of a deal, I would say -- they could pull it off -- but not like this. What they need to provide is not a Tablet computer, but a guaranteed job / contract for 5 years, 40 hrs/wk, $50/hr.
Do that, and I could see them getting entries.
This way? Anyone stupid enough to enter is too stupid to be hired by Microsoft.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
So basically this is saying:
"All your idea are belong to Microsoft."
Please, people...tell "IN SOVIET RUSSIA" jokes the right way. Click here
However, win or lose, if you entered, you guaranteed that you had full rights to the software, and transferred all said rights to M$ for nothing.
That's absolutely no problem. Just publish you software on sourceforge under a copy left license before you submit your code. In that way, you can continue working on the free code.
If you publish under the revised BSD license, you can even make a closed version again of which you control all rights.
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
This way? Anyone stupid enough to enter is too stupid to be hired by Microsoft.
Given the quality of their software, I'd say anyone stupid enough to enter is probably MS management material.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Forgetting the smarmy PR department faux extemporaneous nature of all of the videos, the fact that most of the are holding the same microphone kinda gives it away.
It's obvious, if you spend all your time dreaming about way-out-things, then you have less time to jump through all those hoops and exercises and assignments, tests, etc.. that higher learning (at universities) loves to produce. Of course, it would help to be hyper efficient, then you could dream AND do your school work, but there are even fewer people who can succesully do both(this also applies to people who have to work at a boring job and dream about cool new ideas). The history of any new field say nanotech,(for instance), will follow a similar history to personal computers, lots of innovation, then the feild will coalless into engineering and scientific disciplins, of course nanotech allready is like a big science and engineering feild because of the equipemnt and knowledge required can only be obtained from university and industry, but it will probablly follow a similar trend as the pc industry did (but it would be cool if nanotech did a reverse evollution where future big university/industry/goverment(s) competition eventually give everyone a home nanotech replicator device and everyone could make their own nanotech products and research (especially if mediacl nanotech enabled everybody to get a cheap brain-boost effect)..in fact, everybody could look like whoever they wanted to look like (watch out hollywood..you thought pirating was a problem, wait till people can change their looks to the latest popular movie star look(at their local nanotech genetic rebuild clinic):(new microsoft add: Who do you want to look like today?..or..jeez, those werewolves, vampires, (this halloween) sure look real...) ((oops, sorry I'm daydreaming too much again..))
I don't think that Xerox Parc as we knew it exists any more. It seems to have been spun off and privatized - a move that takes it out of research. A scan of web pages for the researchers also seems to indicate that many have moved on at about the same time.
If this is part of a general trend across the U.S. to ditch research, then there will be a very, very high economic price to pay when the current cycle of research/development/production finishes.
Or given the trend in the media and even some pulications to replace logic with rhetoric and replace fact with opinion, it could be part of a larger anti-intellectual movement, albeit a kinder, gentler one that the sort envisioned by Pol Pot, Mao and others.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Paraphrased from opensource.org:
When MICROS~1 brings you flowers, they're likely to end up decorating your grave.
Call me cynical, but perhaps they think those over 29 don't have the knowledge, will or resources to defend the ownership of their creations? Just a thought.
- Scott
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
This has about as much value as those magazine picture contests, where you send in a picture of your dog drinking out of the toilet or whatever. That is to say, it might be entertaining, but don't expect to find the next Ansel Adams. In those contests the fine print states that you sign most rights over to the magazine.
This is also true for almost any other type of "mail in" contest: Video, Essay, Picture etc...
Usually you still retain your rights (i.e. you can sell the picture or whatever) but you can't limit the publisher on what they can do with the material. They can reproduce it, sell it (thus competing with you) or anything else they want.
This is necessary since otherwise, how would they be able to print your submission?
It sounds like MS might be going that extra mile and completely transfering rights to them (thus removing your rights), but I'm not sure on that.
Of course the bottom line is, If you really have a Good Idea(tm), work it out yourself, find a sponsor or sit on it until you can.
Later
=Shreak
Photos: Digital photos must be in .jpg format, must consist of a minimum of 240x180 and maximum of 480x360 pixels, and have a maximum file size of 60K.
Anybody else thinking about the same thing that I am thinking about? Write a credible essay. Then attach an incredible picture of your... you know what I mean.
Must be watching too much pr0n, 'cause I read the title of that as Fisting for Ideas!
Hey, the second word of the story was Microsoft, and if anyone's going to be fisting you...
by having one's idea bastardized
into another badly designed
Microsoftware product which needs
a bookshelf of 300 page 3rd-party manuals
to comprehend it.
The fame, the glory, the riches...
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
oops! My bad. Thanks, AC!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Yes, should have been "under 29".
- Scott
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
Winny and I lived in a house that ran on static electricity...
If you wanted to run the blender, you had to rub balloons on your
head... if you wanted to cook, you had to pull off a sweater real quick...
-- Steven Wright
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