Slashdot Mirror
Pop Up Ads in Space
modder writes "A Russian inventor has patented
ads in space.
Shouldn't this violate some sort of
International Space Law?" Remember the first time your dad took you out at 1am into the backyard with a telescope? With Your kids the conversation will be something like "Follow the Swoosh to Arcturus, Drive a Spike to the AT&T Logo"
Does this mean that the radio show is back in action?
Wheeeee
Wait for the first "Want your willie to be THIS BIG??" spam stretching for hundreds of kilometers across the horizon.
Jokes aside, why do people put up with intrusive advertising as a given? How much of your money spent on a 1 litre soft drink goes directly towards advertising the product back to you? I read some time ago that "big 3" North American automakers spend approximately US$1500 (averaged) on advertising for each vehicle sold.
Ultimately you foot the bill & suffer with the barrage of adverts, they reap the sales & expense write offs.
Trolling is a art,
Not that I can see, but the search feature was broken when I looked. I did browse around and find this:
Seems to refute the assertion, until other information can be found.
Even if it were some sort of violation of International Space Law, why would a patent violate that? Describing and protecting a method should not be a violation of a law, actually doing it should be a violation of the law.
Note: the views of some storm-troopers may differ from mine
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
To paraphrase Lois Lane, I will *personally* lead the army that wipes space ads out of the sky.
--- Ban humanity.
I think Pizza Hut has some prior art from 1999 on this one unless that Russian was behind the deal.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
From communism to advertisements in space :) Still a sad commentary on capitalism and society, when not even space is safe from advertisers.
One foul up and we could all end up being told to "go stick your head in a pig"
Can't Chairface Chippendale claim prior art on space ads?
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
Let's not get all worked up yet, it's just an idea some wacky russian had.
Stay tuned for new sig...
I wonder to what extent the patent is attributable to the numerous examples of this kind of behaviour in traditional science-fiction and popular media such as Futurama?
Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Gates M'dna wgah'nagl fhtagn.
He hasn't patented the idea of adverts in space, as the precis suggests, he's patented a device for displaying them. A fairly important distinction
Worried you might not keep your virginity forever? Try new Linux(TM), guaranteed twice as effective as LARPing
By Pampered Chef, only $19.99.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
The article says it would use solar reflectors mounted on satellites to create the messages. In other words, each reflector could be considered a pixel in the display. I suppose it could work sort of like a giant DLP monitor. Now we just need a giant color wheel that could double as a space station.
Phoenix
Did he just point to a Coke can and say "Like this, but big!"
Haven't you heard of a Ferengi Emporium class porn server relay station before?
Various forms of space art have already explored the concepts and while they haven't used them specifically advertise, they already use reflectivity and the blackness of space outside the atmosphere so that the works can be seen.
This sounds like the "carbon powder rocket to the moon" perversity mentioned in Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon." I can imagine some companies running more discreet ads that they paid to keep the skies clear.
http://isometric.spaceninja.com/_/the_future_of_ad vertising/
:)
Antisatellite weapon have some uses.
I know I can barely see the stars at all in the city. Is this only going to work to advertise to rural areas?
I think Pepsi and Pizza Hut may may already have done this. (Could one say a spaceship 'pops up'?)
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
Fine, I'm filing the provisional patent application for space based laser to be used to block these pop-up adds. There is no property law that applies to space. Therefore, if he put's an ad up there we should blow it up.
Here's an image of the Crab Nebula supernova. It was invoked as part of an ad campaign for Jerry Bruckheimer's "Armageddon". A pretty big pop-up if you ask me
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Throw that system up there! I can't wait to hack THAT Jumbotron and put MY message across the whole sky!
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
Now AT&T can have finally have a Death Star circling the planet!
8==8 Bones 8==8
Perhaps this guy was hoping the patent examiners hadn't read too much science fiction but couldn't ``Buy Jupiter'' by Asimov count as prior art?
:-)
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
I mean, we're nerds, isnt it? Nerds just dont go much outside. And now they call that "News for nerds" !? Sheesh!
"...a generation of kids has grown up thinking Trance is the shittiest music since country and western." - Paul van Dyk
No, not any more... yet another modification to US Patent law to "help out the little guy".
Last night, I walked outside for a bit because it was such a beautiful evening (night). I looked up into the sky and just froze for about 10 minutes. The starlit night sky was just breathtaking and I couldn't help myself from just staring up and my flesh was acrawl with goosebumps. The ultimate humbling experience. For a moment, I left the confinds of my earthly hell and felt at peace amongst the bright pinpoints of light.
I get enough of the human race here on earth, let me have the sky as my own sanctuary, please keep your popup ads to yourselves.
OT III documents + advert visible to entire world = several very pissed off $cientologists
Shouldn't this violate some sort of International Space Law?
Even if if didn't violate a law, there are some things so repugnant that they shouldn't be done.
-Colin
there are adds running in peoples dreams.
The one guy from the past is complaining and the others ask how they advertised in his time.
'BillBoards, radio, TV, loudspeaker, busses, snailmail, email, telephone, buildings, sidewalks, flyers, t-shirts, hats, underwear,.... but never in our dreams'
here's another to add to the list...
'And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo Every day you meet quite a few...'
What does this have to do with Geeks in Space, the long-dormant Slashdot radio show?
This is miscategorized! And here you got my hopes up that there would be a new episode after all these years...
Too expensive for "first in" advertisers, and the language barrier would cause too much uproar. (How many people will be pissed off to see chinese ads filling the sky?) And yes, I know there are certain things (AT&T, etc.) have fairly universally recognizable logos.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
Zorglub did this already in 1961, although with limited success.
Plenty of prior art in Science Fiction, for the general problem; this guy could only patent a technique, not the general idea.
One of the best ones I saw was a short-short by, I think, Arthur C Clarke, which obviously dates from the Cold War days. General panic in Washington when the Soviet Union manages to paint the moon Red, displaying the power of Communist technology. Don't worry, say NASA. A few daya later, the Coca-Cola "swirl" appears across it, displaying the power of Capitalist technology.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Shouldn't this violate some sort of International Space Law?
Maybe I'm wrong but I think it is permitted to have patent protection on an illegal invention.
-Sean
Where's the radio show, eh?!
I remember some friends describing a trip to the then USSR and saying that Moscow is very dull and gray but they couldnt put their finger on why. They eventually realised that there was no advertising. More recently when they saw some footage of some Moscow riots there were loads of adverts plastered all over the place they commented how much nicer the place looks with bright colours and lights.
Im sure we will have the same situation in the future where you go for a holiday in some poorer country and complain that the space just looks balck and boring.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
At last, there will be, literally, advertising "space" salesmen. I'm looking forward to advertising "time" sales scoring a similar achievement...adding a new dimension, so to speak, to the ad game. I just don't want them thinking too much about "air" though.
My other machine is a lever.
That's no moon! That's a space station!!!
A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
This would be the equivalent of projecting an advertising image on a natural landmark or such.
Imagine taking a pic of the family with Niagara Falls or (insert landmark) in the background and having a momento for the rest of your life to 'Drink Coca Cola' hovering above your heads.
It's visual pollution.
-Oy Vey
I'd rather drive a spike through the AT&T logo...
Stéphane "Alias" Gallay
Now, where did I put this witty quote?..
We already look up at the night sky and see pictures. This method may have been developed by the ancient Babylonians, but is nevetheless well over 5 thousand years old. Called "constellations" today, any patents that may have existed on how these images told the stories that they did have long since entered the public domain.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The day some asshat decides to pollute the night sky with a pop up that cant be killed is the day we find out if war can be declared on a company. Several million slashgeeks will figure out a way to shoot this would be obscenity down from earth. Our governments our bound not to destroy each others satelites, but private citizens are not. Especially when they start shooting from international waters.
Speaking as someone who lives in a big city (London), I can hardly even remember what stars look like. A combination of light-pollution, smog and good, old-fashioned English weather mean that they are hardly ever visible.
So neither will the adverts be.
Cool: a use for pollution! As an ad-blocker.
--
What short sigs we have -
One hundred and twenty chars!
Too short for haiku.
Marketing drones - "We've perfected a technology that would allow us to put a giant billboard into space. Picture it, Dick: your advertisement would be seen by everyone in the entire world! Of course, there would be catastrophic tidal waves, but the upside: kids love to surf!"
Suit - "That would be a choice demographic..."
Dick - "Gentlemen....surf's up!"
In Corporate America you see Space in Ads...
/. community!!. It's community, not communism!
----------
Join orkut
the CAN-STARs act.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I already miss the late-night walks with my girlfriend under a clear sky with bright stars.
.... coke"
Also Disney will have to rewrite their x-mas song "When You look uppon a
Lars Bo Wassini
Why am I not surprised that Jerry Bruckheimer would use a totally unrelated phenomena to plug his movie about an asteroid bearing down on earth? This is the guy whose Japanese fleet was sailing along with nuclear subs for escort before the attack in Pearl Harbor... Criminy.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
about the Son of Star Wars program favored by GW Bush is that at the very least, it WILL have one use:
Shooting down space spam.
(probably not, but it's fun to imagine it)
I have no problem with him putting ads on my sky, providing he lets me put ads of my choosing on his house, car, forehead, etc.
Talk about invasive.
Sweet informative mod.
At the Whitehouse:
--Mr Nixon, Mr Nixon, the Russians painted the moon red, in honor of communism. What should we do?
--Don't worry, Henry, our boys will think of something.
Next morning at the Kremlin:
--Comrade Brezhnev, Comrade Brezhnev, the Americans painted "Coca Cola" on top.
It would make one HECK of a Bat Signal!!!
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
This won't bother me. I've installed Google atmosphere, which contains space popup blocking.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Your system tray time may be wrong! Switch to space time (continuum) now!
If necessary, this will have to be stopped using the concept of ecological conservation. Every inch of nature's beauty does not need to be crammed with advertisements.
Years ago, a friend and I thought of using lasers to paint logos on the moon.
Of course, at the time, we were both working at Amazon and worried that they would try to steal and patent our idea. So we didn't do it.
So when the German company "Em Wolb" writes that in giant letters readable from earth, or the Japanese cup noodle "Sruoy Pu" produced giant letters on the sky, what will the aliens see? I mean - they see it from the other side, and read it backwards. This is the end of man kind! Prepare to be invaded by furious aliens!
Aah.. geek humor, and I'm only on my third cup of coffee.
Underholdning.info
What a tease! I thought there was going to be a new GIS episode!!! No magical riffing stylings of CowboyNeal or dynomite drop-ins by Nate MixMaster Oostendorp?
;-)
It's just not fair!!
Have a Happy.
A practical use for StarWars Technology!
-
You've been mooned since the day you were born. Now, all of a sudden, you're concerned?
Next thing you know, AOL will be putting a satellite in orbit to throw one of those damned wooden cd cases down at your location.
all we need to do now is create the dupey and vacation in elbonia.
The bad news is that this creates massive tidal waves. But the upshot--kids love to surf!
You know, that's a choice demographic...
welcome our new advertising overlords
This is not my opinion. Actually, it's not even an opinion. And I'm nowhere to be seen near it
This is a very different device being claimed here, one that can project light down to earth, not just painting something on a rocket.
So true. Mod me Embarassed!
But now that I look at this, I wonder about its practicality. The mirror constellation will either need some very large mirrors to project sunlight over "intercontinental" distances or only work for small areas at a time. (a flat mirror in GEO would only create about a 200 mile diameter cone of visiblity on Earth)
Also, he will have a bit of a trade-off on the orbit for the system. LEO will put his satellites in Earth's shadow soon after dark (his sats will compete with dusk and then go dark). LEO is also hit-or-miss on whether the sats are flying over the target audience at exactly dusk (perhaps a resonant orbit would work). GEO provides better light and is stationary above the target audience, but the constellation will need to be much bigger (span hundreds of miles) and the mirrors much bigger to create a visible sign.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I remember Bugs Bunny cartoons "Duck Rogers" with Daffy and Porky riding around in space doging space billboards... Perhaps WB should be awarded this patent?
That's no moon, that's a space station!
I can't shake this mental image of the International Space Station with a giant Drink Coke logo scrawled across the side... (Come to think of it, private funding for such projects isn't such a bad idea: "This launch brought to you by Levitra - if we can get a rocket up, imagine what we can do for you!")
:wq
They were inflatable mylar structures with a VERY LIMITED lifespan, say, a month tops.
If someone wants to spend a billion dollars to have a logo a quarter of the size of the moon for a few weeks thats only really visible in rural areas, let them.
Folks have been chomping at the bit for this kind of stuff for decades. Ever since those big foil sphere satellites in the 60s were visible from earth.
Pizza Hut is prepared to spend a billion to the Russians for their logo up there, the producers of the Lord of the Rings contacted folks about putting an inflatable ring in orbit to hock their movie. The Eiffel Tower corporation wanted a space sculpture to commemerate their anniversary. There was talk of putting something up to celebrate the millenium..
It's going to happen. Whether you want to call it 'art' or 'advertising'.. Best to lay the ground rules now.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
The reason no company has decided to put up ads in space is that it would deface the only untouched place man has in this world, generating bad publicity rather than revenue.
[Please sign here]
Perhaps, some day, space will be safe from Communists.
They have to make a law .. SOON ... that makes it so you can only patent a physical item .. not "the right to " ie. the right to put adds in space, or the right to have a back button on your web page ...
There will be a South-Westerly breeze of 12 mph...
Pepsi-rise will be at 6:14am and Nike-set will be at 8:48pm...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Which in turn will generate a considerable amount of thrust so it will not stay in one place.
Classic solar sail.
In btw, this is feasible as a side effect for a solar sail ship. You make your sail advertise pepsi and get some dosh towards launch costs. Considering that solar sails are more then 17 years away (life of the patent) I do not see anything to worry about.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
I hate spam so much that I wish the worst, most painful death onto the person that sends it to me. If ads were to ever to ruin my clear starry nights, I won't hesitate to join any army that wants to wage war against the country/government that legalised it.
Not that I believe this will actually happen!
Btw. I think if it does work, it is a great invention. It would have many applications useful to humanity. Such as "Watch out! Big boulder comming your way!". I'm saddened that the inventor couldn't come up with something better than trying to make tons of money.
Obtaining and holding this patent is not necessarily a bad thing. Under the right circumstances, the usual reservations about patents could work to the common good in this case. If the holder is incorruptible and dedicated to the common good, he will simply charge a royalty of (apologies to Dr. Evil) One Hundred Trillion dollars for each instance of use. Presto. That particular mode of advertising has now been precluded, or, what's the worst thing that could happen - someone actually comes up with a $1E14 payment, gets his precious ad, but the patent holder now has unlimited funds to apply to feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, curing the sick, etc.
:-(
Naw, I didn't think so. That's not how capitalism works
The patent will expire before he's ever able to make it a reality.
Shop smart, Shop S-Mart.
Still, despite the obvious comical aspects, I'd hate to see this sort of thing come into being, and I expect these people to agree with me on that.
--
(with thanks to subgeek)
SIGBUS @ NO-07.308
There was a short sci-fi story about such an idea implemented. It started with astronomers noticing some stars moving a bit too fast, then faster and then stopping, forming an ad for some soap. Eventually the battery in the device run out and the sky was restored. Sadly, I don't remember the name of the story or the author. :(
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Where is the novelty in this patent? That idea has been around almost as long as rockets and satellites have been part of science fiction.
Who wants to take bets on how long it will be before theres a hacking contest to put the goatse guy picture up there.
This was the ship that Lister and Cat found on an asteroid/moon with Kryten waiting in it (and also the one that Kryten caused to crash by "washing" the computer).
Americans, by and large, have bought hook-line-and-sinker the idea of perceived value. With an entire nation of walking Gap ads, chatting up their "peeps" on a Nokia cell-shackle, how else can you arbitrate but with quality of marketing?
Trendster: Check it, Kiki. I got me an nGage.
Kiki: Eeew.
Trendster: Whatever.
[two weeks later]Trendster: Yo, Kiki. I got me an iPod.
Kiki: Marry me.
Trendster: Solid.
... the free market takes hold!
Sorry, I have nothing more productive to say today.
--
Adverts were once banned from the internet, as well. Also (at least in the U.S.) there were never any commercials at the beginning of movies shown in a cinema, just coming attractions. There was just too much money to be made. Same applies to Space, or any other forum/medium once its use becomes more mainstream.
CASSIUS
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
BRUTUS
But yonder stars tell me wonderous Enzyte shall make us underlings no longer!
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I thought there finaly was a new episode. What a disappointment!
"It is not because no one sees the truth that it becomes a mistake" (Mahatma Gandhi)
Remember the first time your dad took you out at 1am into the backyard with a telescope?
No, I never knew my dad. He left before I was even born and I only know his first name. One person in my family owned a telescope, but never used it and I wasn't allowed to touch it.
How about causing several stars to supernova that are lined up in such a manner where their light all reaches Earth at the same time and spells "Coke"?
Just a fantasy of mine....
sine puella vita suget
Arthur C. Clarke anticipated this (as so much else!) with one of the Tales from the White Hart.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
What does "CHA" mean?
It's a good thing he patented this now, because of two reasons:
1. Is so adead in time that the patent will expire. Or:
2. This will soon be a reality, but because of the patent there won't be much of it.
http://www.sfwa.org/news/vheinlein.htm
Looks like its time for someone to start a new do it yourself ground to space missile site.
I don't see how this is much worse than billboard ads, or ads hidden inside content such as movies. It's fascinating to see people get in an uproar over the notion of space ads, and yet we continue to allow people to invade and pollute our minds here on Earth.
It is time that we restore the sanity. The concept of sellers having to shout and try to attract attention in order to sell their product is outdated. The inefficiency and waste involved in flooding the environment with your advertisements to make a few sales is tremendous and not worth the price.
We now live in an age with the technology and distribution power so that we can essentially reverse our advertising methods. Rather than the seller going to the potential buyer, the buyer can go to the seller. We can designate specific areas, which can be privately or collectively maintained, and use these as advertising directories where sellers put all the info about the products, reviews, and any snazzy marketing tricks in these directories. This is how I currently shop anyways, by using the power of the information I *ACTIVELY SEEK OUT* to decide what to buy. By implementing such a method we will eliminate the need for intrusive ads, and will probably cut some of the fluff from our product lines as well.
In Soviet Russia space pops up in adverts?
how long is a whale penis? do whales actually have penises anyway?
We might as well send ads to space while we're at it! I can just imagine a very wide grid of these ad satelites displaying a marque not only towards earth, but towards the sky. The latter might say something like "We welcome our new alien overlords!"
...today's "Foxtrot" touches on the same subject! He just needed to change the very last speech bubble (Jason's) to say "Maybe there will be...."
(3/11/04 if you need to look through the archives)
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Heinlein wrote a short story involving this concept back in the '40s -- a businessman convinced one company to back his privately financed moon shot by claiming that a rival company was planning on painting their logo on the moon's face.
To swim, only to die at the edge.
I remember hearing about this sort of thing for some time now. Anyone I have ever mentioned it to, showed signs of either discomfort or outrage with the idea. If most people in the world are disgusted by the notion, how will they react when it is put into practice? How will this affect the company doing the advertising?
Perhaps, the reaction will be like that to spam. With zero or little marginal cost with respect to an increasing audience, a large enough number can be reached so that the venture will be profitable even if only a small percentage react positively.
But, they are treading on rather sacred ground. The heavens. I will not be suprised if action is taken against the advertiser that is even more viscious than the lengths some people go to against spammers! Will the extra revenue be worth it? If not, maybe only those who do not fear bad press will have the incentive to use it.
The skies belongs to everyone and to put up a message of any type is just some violation on too personal of a level to even describe.
How long before some person or company secures the rights to a machine that blocks out the sun like the device Mr. Burns made in The Simpsons so we have 24/7 advertisements?
i think using space for advertising is just horribly wrong, but this could be pretty useful for other situations- such as giving directions to the public in the event of a disaster that affects a large area ...or for psy-ops in a war- no more dropping hundreds of leaflets, just paint a giant death's head in the night sky and say "surrender or die!" actually, i'm not sure how i feel about the last one... :)
This guy is going to be rich.
The moment all the big companies are based on Mars, they will have to pay him to place billboards on the side of the road to Mars!
42 + 1 = 42
stupidity of the idea aside, I am tired of people being able to patent Ideas. You should have a certain amount of protection time to come up with something, perhaps, but if you don't, you should be fined by the patent office.
The whole point of patents (I thought) was to protect the little guy so that he had time to create/establish his idea.
And software and business method patents are bullshit to begin with.
'Lay down your arms' enscribed in the sky from horizon to horizon, could make an effect for the army of an invaded state.
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
I'm going to start up a company that paints stars in the night sky. Invest now!
I say we pay for an enormous light and aim it directly at the reflectors to block it. That will take advertisers offline (at least until the govt does the horrible thing and regulates space advertising).
"When deep space exploration ramps up, it will be corporations that name everything. The IBM Stellar Sphere. The Philip Morris Galaxy. Planet Starbucks."
This idea is nothing new: the Coca Cola company almost put a massive ad in space by painting the moon with lasers from Earth, as a Texas-based advertising firm described. It never happened due to incredibly poor taste, no matter how cool the technology. I'm sure this method will meet a similar fate.
I believe so. There's nothing to preven rogue states that have capabilities to send rockets to space (there are many of them) from blasting into space space-spam.
The light from our cities have completely blotted out the stars. So as far as astronomers are concerned, this scheme doesn't make a big difference. I presume this space-spam will probably be targetting cities anyway.
As for people in the cities, a night in the open could once again be a night under star light, even if the stars are man made, and they spell out pr0n sites.
Indefinitely Detained US Citizen
... anybody can shot it down too.
;^)
Beside any French people here remember: "Z comme Zorglub" ?
Except for the silly fact the commercial it was written backwards. It worked beautifully!
So there is prior Art.
Ernest J.W. ter Kuile
... who was immediately reminded of Chairface Chippendale?
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
The 2000m high LCD projection screen, powered by Microsoft's Windows 2020 operating system and launched only last year, suffered a catastrophic outage this morning. Up until 10:06am Pacific time, the screen had been displaying "Microsoft - We're Taking You Here Today" when observers on the ground noticed a flickering of the screen for a few seconds before the screen totally failed.
A NASA spokesperson today stated that scientists are still trying to understand the causes behind the failure and expect some progress within the next 48 hours.
In the interim, contributors to the venerable Internet discussion forum "Slashdot" declared this event as "Microsoft's Blue Skies Of Death".
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
OK, let's get them out of the way...
Arthur C Clarke =- "Watch This Space"
Grant Naylor - Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
Any others to add?
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
There was a Dilbert episode about this.
The pointy haired manager wanted them to launch a billboard into space. When they did it bumped into other satellites breaking technology and forcing society back to the middle ages.
What a brave new world we live in. With such people's in it.
When space itself is fair game for Spammers and the only way to see the stars is to be OFF THE F*CKING PLANET.
At least there's still day-time.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
In The Man Who Sold the Moon, Robert A. Heinlein's billionarie hero D. D. Harriman gets us to the moon, by any trick he can come up with including selling the idea of using carbon black to turn the moon into a giant advertisement. In the story, the ads never happen, and as I recall he never really planned on doing it anyway.
Unfortunately, I suspect we will see ads in the sky soon. Unless, of course, light pollution in urban skies makes such schemes economically unsound. Who knew? Those of us in the country may finally have a reason to be glad that you can't see the night sky in the cities anyway.
Steven
Turn your Little Dipper into a Big Dipper.
But why is the rum gone?
Disguise the Limit
Extract: "Old Loony plans to make like a Greek and build Celestial Spheres around the Earth with stars painted on them and the moon projected onto the inner sphere by a laser spotlight! And you stand there, nodding your head as if this were a perfectly sane ambition! Then you tell me he wants this done because he thinks the universe as it stands is 'aesthetically displeasing'. This from a man with the aesthetic sense of a flame-thrower. He's mad, Mike, and you're mad to go along with him. The environmental lobby for one would sooner eat whale than let us build these spheres."
Somebody kill this guy in a horrible way before anyone with money gets any ideas!!
granted it's a sci-fi cgi cartoon... but if advertising in space was done anything like it is on the show... I wouldn't be surprised to see floating billboards with holographic/moving picture adverts...
Well I'd be surprised, because it won't be in my lifetime... but I digress..
*shrug*
e,
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
...has his pubic region invested by the fleas of a thousand camels.
Stars are wonderful examples of not only fusion, but photon production, chemistry, atomic structure, light in general, and many more advanced science topics. Nerds are into science, and thus most of us look at the night sky to ponder stars, the universe, "extra-terrestrial" life, and to some extent, even philosophy, on a relatively frequent basis.
And so begins the era of billboards in our airspace....airvertising all around in the next 5-10 years..bladerunner here we come
Humans really do suck. I mean, really. We are a scourge upon this
galaxy...
The heat from below can burn your eyes out
I can't, but whatever it is, it would immediately need to be put next to the entry for "backlash" in the dictionary. You can bet the thing would be torn down asap. But I suspect that such an event couldn't help but spur a conversation on the extent to which advertising saturates our society -- it might even lead to the tide of logos receding, just a bit (and for just a little while).
I agree with everything you said except for three words, "my own sanctuary". The sky is a sanctuary, as you described it, for thousands of people. And I believe, knock on wood, that if this idea were to get to the point at which it would begin to look realistic, we could get a petition started and signed with enough names that companies wouldn't take part in it.
I would have patented ads in space. Heck, we should patent anything that looks like it could be used for more annoying advertisements...
Reason? You don't need to *use* the patented item yourself, but it's very useful in making somebody else stop...
When company X says "We're thinking of burning an ad into the face of the moon with a laser, everybody will know about us then," you might have a valid retort...
"black and boring?"
Have you ever SEEN a clear night sky, outside of some light-polluted city or suburb?
The awe and beauty of the night sky gets washed out by crappy advertising and you tell us "you'll get used to it."
"The walls of the Grand Canyon were so dull and stone-colored. Now these billboards for s%$tburgers and cheap hotels make it so colorful and exciting!"
"This unspoiled meadow was so boring. It's SO much livlier now that it's littered with colorful flyers from local chiropractors and 10 minute oil change places!"
Screw That. F$#k that noise.
Stefan
Tought it looked funny when i looked in my telescope this morning...
"Piracy - also illegal in zero G! MPAA"
And in other news, I've patented the idea of advertising on the inside of your eyelids. Now the trick is to get the government to force people to have my procedure done to everyone...
If this is the future of advertising, then in the future you won't be able to look in any direction without seeing some kind of commercial (in some places that's already true). You could close your eyes of course, but then they would probably invent some technique to induce these images directly in your visual cortex...
Suddenly I'm feeling a little more in favor of us putting weapons in Space. I can just see it now... "Natural Male Enahc.... BOOOM!!!" YEA BABY!
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
I remember reading some story that had stars rearranged to form an advertisement for coke actually. I don't remember which story though, which is rather unfortunate.
At least the massive amounts of pollution made by these companies will haze this out.
Probably the whole moon is an advertisement. They want to sell spacecraft, you know.
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me. Oh, wait a minute...
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This patent will never hold water. The idea is an old one. Proposals like this appear from time to time, and are promptly shot down by the horrified masses. I wish the patent would survive, however, because it will be a deterrent to anyone wanting to do this. Though one has to wonder how a patent will really stop someone from starting a space advertising company on, say, the Cocos Islands and floating messages over the rest of the patented world?
"People would be able to see writing in the skies from the Earth no worse than they see the stars,"
(Quote from the inventor, as given in the original article)
Kind of makes the whole concept pretty useless as an advertising delivery vehicle. As it is now, with all the light polution around urban centres, people in the cities and suburbs can't even see the stars at night. If the quote is true, doesn't that mean that the ads will only be visible in rural and unsettled areas? The only living things that will see the big orbiting coke can are going to be cows and caribou.
There's also a Clarke short story (maybe Venture to the Moon?) that mentions an advertisement on the moon. I think it was using an experiment that sent a cloud of sulphur into the moon's 'atmosphere'
"For anyone living on Earth the result would be mind-fizzingly spectacular. One hundred and twenty-eight stars would appear to go supernova simultaneously, burning with such ferocity they would be visible even in daylight.
"And the 128 supernovae would spell out a message.
"And this would be the message:
"'COKE ADDS LIFE!'"
I grew up in Colombia and remember fondly countless nights spent in awe looking up at the stars; imagining, wondering.
There are people out there working hard making sure that lawmakers, corporationes, etc, are made aware that for the most part, economic development and dark skies, don't neccessarily have to be at odds; that with a few careful measures, a significant amount of light pollution can be avoided.
For more info, a useful site is
DarkSky.org
Ok we need to launch that scientist and his idea right to the sun. Ugh "Hey son, lets go look at the pretty stars, hmm a budweiser add. Ok son, enough of that. Lets try and sleep. Oh wait the sky is filled with ads, now there is no darkness!" -Avi P.S. I am feeling a strong case of Highlander 2 coming about
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
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I suddenly see the need for Bush's space-based weapons systems!
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
You can shut off the radio, choose not to watch TV, or go to web sites with banner ads, and choose to avoid magazines and newspapers, but it is THE sky they are talking about vandalizing. Even if the grafitti changes, it's still grafitti. And you can't escape it. You will see porno-spam and Ciggarette ads in the frikken sky! The one and only sky there is to look up into for chrissakes!
I always thought isreal would start putting advertising on that giant wall it built to cut palestine in half - i could just imagine the coke logo running along it.
Advertising is basically graffiti except someone paid for it, corporate greed makes me sick.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Ahh time to stock up on a variety of cruise missles and ICBM's, that way I can take em down faster then they put them up.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
while I'm on a wide open prairie field, trying to teach my children the constellations?
I for one want to tell our new night-sky advertisers to fuck the hell off.
l33t h4x0r w45 h3r3!!!!!!
Everyone keeps bringing up coke but no one has mentioned "Coke adds life".from the scifi series, red dwarf. Coke causes a hundred carefully timed supernova all over the galaxy so that all the light arrives on the same time and says "Coke adds Life" in the sky day or night for a few weeks.
anyone who would tarnish my view of the night sky. I like to go backpacking and hunting. One of the best parts of a trip is looking up at the stars and seeing the galaxy without interference from city light pollution. Stretch a big banner add across that view and I will be pissed. If it were cheap enough to be worthwhile for advertisers, then it would be just as cheap (or cheaper) to launch a small missile to blow the add out of the sky.
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Try one of these locations to live if you don't like ads in the sky.
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http://uk.dk.com/static/cs/uk/11/features/russe
Wow 1.5" huh...that's at least three times as long as yours though.
This news makes Cowboy Bebop seem all the more realistic.
There's a lucrative living to be made in business-to-business advertising. Billions of dollars are spent every year on telemarketing, direct mail, and trade shows to sell products that aren't directly consumer-advertised products.
Generic brands fit into this, too. Generic-brand companies compete for corporate agreements with supermarkets to sell their own 'no name' cereals, cookies, baking goods, etc. *Many* dollars are spent send reps to the four corners of the earth with samples, literature, anything they can do to market directly to the store in question.
Don't think for a second that advertising costs are any lower, or margins are any higher, just because it's generic. Usually the only thing different is that the production cost of the item is lower; it's just unnecessary to market a name to the consumer, because the ones buying generic are just looking for the lowest cost item that isn't completely indigestable.
Don't kid yourself; *every* consumer product is advertised/marketed in some form.
"What the hell's that Pepsi ad doing in my skyline?" (Takes aim, presses the big red button. Moments later, the Pepsi sign shatters to a million pieces) "Ah, that's more like it."
-Vendal Thornheart
I think it would be time for some Civil Disobedience. Perhaps this very scenario was what Thoreau was envisioning! ;)
-Vendal Thornheart
A Red Dwarf book possibly? Certainly that was the mission of the Nova 5 (Kryten's original ship).
I want to enable this to use blinkenlights, then play Space Invaders on this!
meh
And we can see shooting spam as the spamellites hurtle to Earth.
Patent law, like all laws of mankind, have a jurisdiction within which they are enforceable, usually the borders of a nation. Who's patent laws extend their jusidiction to space?
Now if you painted an advert on the rocket while on the ground you could be at risk, but what if the construction of the advert happened once you were in space?
nope, a prototype isn't needed in american patent law. This is how things like perpetual motion machines get patented (true story, do some googling).
I don't own the patents to any of this technology, but what about using Hypersonic Sound transmitters to transmit audio ads directly to our ears. This could be done using GPS to direct exactly where the beams should go. The GPS tracking system could then use RFID to derive not only location, but demographic information, preferences, and such to direct target advertising to individuals. Hows that sound?
Make something ID10T proof, you'll make a better ID10T.
"Oh it's the Skoal Big Dipper! At one time back before space ads it was just called the big dipper though."
"Where's the Long John Silvers Pisces? That one's my favorite!"
If someone can put advertising garbage satellites in space I'll pay money for someone to develop a spaceship to go up there and shoot them down, or maybe just rearrange them, then shoot them down later.
Reminds me of "Cowboy Bebop" with all the space ads in that show.
Finally, a use for all of those old ICBMs! Rick
Dr. Rick
- "It's such a fine line between clever and stupid" (Nigel Tufnel)
- Zort! (Pinky)
"People would be able to see writing in the skies from the Earth no worse than they see the stars," he said.
Considering how bad light pollution is in most urban areas, it's tough to see all but the very brightest stars on any given clear night. Perhaps the silver lining to this absurd idea is that space advertisers would work to reduce light pollution caused by regular outdoor advertising so the majority of the population could actually see their ads in space.
Just a thought...
By no means is the thrust considerable. However, if oriented properly, the thrust is consistent, which makes it highly useful as a solar sail.
Our founding fathers removed the guys in charge. Be American. Vote incumbents out.
If only I had not already used up my mod points... Will the Brits please create some more Red Dwarf episodes/movies--and no using American actors/directors/producers. As an American I see enough of that humor, I want my Red Dwarf done correctly thank you.
Our founding fathers removed the guys in charge. Be American. Vote incumbents out.
Get the patent on some annoying, intrusive advertising method that will be possible in the future.
Announce that you will licence it for $100 Billion.
Earn the praise and grattitude of people who thank you for preventing the annoying, intrusive advertising.
I can just see the Martian headlines now... Earth destroyed by asteroid hidden behind the space ad. I am sure that earth based astronomers just love this invention...
...In Shepherd Mead's hysterical novel, "The Big Ball of Wax," this idea was not only predicted, but the constellation "Pepsi" was described.
Mead's experience on Madison Avenue showed in his expectation that such advertising would remain long after its utility was gone. His main character noticed the dot over the i in the constellation "Pepsi" had moved out of place and had been over the "s" for so long no one even paid attention.
This book, which has been very hard to get for years, is a delightful sendup of the advertising culture. I consider it to be much better than Mead's better-known parody of business-advice books, "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying." While considered racy in its day, it probably wouldn't raise any eyebrows today if you created a Saturday-morning cartoon based on it.
Eternal vigilance only works if you look in every direction.
Probably nobody will notice this post but if you want to look for prior art there was a comic book where the villain's goal was to put advertisement on the moon.
He used hypnotised henchmen talking drawkcab (backward, that is) which led to a slight problem
.
"The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
So all those popups will have to pay the U.S. to have their "billboards on our land."
The article doesn't give much information about the specific technique which is probably what matters in the case of patents, although it does at least say the following:
There are some clear similarities, at least, in the form of ideas and business intentions, from over a decade ago. If nowhere else, it's documented in a couple of International Dark Sky Association Information Sheets that are campaigning against a former company's ideas to put giant billboards into orbit in association with, among other things, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. See Space Billboards Threaten Night Sky and Grass Root Opposition to Space Billboards.
Neither article is dated on the site, although references in the text of them dates back to some time around 1993. The IDA would likely have records of the original publication date and the events in question.
As a side note, the idea of putting advertising in Earth orbit like this tends to sicken me. I really hope that nobody goes for it.
ALDI is a german based grocery discounter.
... Karl is number 3, Theo number 14.
While ALDI has some ads today, it has extremly few. And they hadnt at all in the beginning.
They just advertise their special sales every week in a normal newspaper ad.
That's it.
No TV ads, no billboards, no radio spots, no sponsoring.
They aim to have good quality and low prices.
EVERTHING else is secondary.
Shop decoration? Shop mobilar? Product choice? More than two cash registers? Electronic scanners? Credit cards accepted? Air miles? Consumer counseling?
Forget it all.
An ALDI store is two manual cash registers and ~600 different products (40000 is normal in the industry) to choose from that are mostly still in the boxes the fabricant packed them into.
They therefor break almost all rules of marketing.
Now look at the Forbes list of the worlds richest people for the two owners, Karl & Theo Albrecht.
You dont have to look far
So refusing to advertise in order to get lower prices CAN work, it can even work EXTREMLY well. At least for stores that have a local consumer base and can use mouth-to-mouth propaganda.
Besides, more generally, restaurant dont advertise either. And I'm hell sure NOT to go to the few that do, as I know I will pay for the ads. A good restaurant doesnt need ads, they already get them for free from guides, so a restaurant that does advertise is most likely mediocre or worse.
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof for my post which this sig is too small to contain.
But there is a choice, public radio and puclic television. They ask you directly for money in annoying (but predictable) blocks of time that is easily tuned out. Plus, all of the rich people can -rockefeller endowment, etc. can feel good that they provide a public 'service' by donating. Of course your local intellectual elitist donate $50 every now and then too as they drink overpriced coffee (pinky extended). Public TV/Radio is a viable choice.
"When deep space exploration ramps up, it will be the corporations that name everything: the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Gallery, the planet Starbucks."
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer." -Adolf Hitler
"We are one Nation, we are one People." -The One 'leader'
Wasn't this concept already shown in a Dilbert animation a few years back, where he tried to launch an advertisement into space and ended up knocking all of the world's sattelites out of alignment and sending Earth back to the dark ages?
I live in a small city and the lights from the city alone are too much to obscure the beautiful view of the night sky. I certainly do not want to see Pepsi, Apple, or Microsoft ads when I go to gaze at the stars.
-illumina+us "I put on my robe and wizard hat..."
Having read most comment posted, I couldn't resist replying so everyone can read this. If the satellite is ever deployed, and controlled by a remote signal... and is hackable (I bet someone will find a way to do it), I plead to those who are capable that when the time comes, put the goatse image on it... So situations such as follow might happen.
Little Girl >> "Mommy, what's that man doing to his poo poo hole?"
Mother >> "What man... OH MY &@!%$&%!&@#$&%!@%#$!"
Astronomer 1 >> "Check this out, I think we just found a super massive black hole."
Astronomer 2 >> "Let me see... all I see are a bunch of black thing."
Astronomer 1 >> "Let's zoom out a little..."
Astronomer 1&2 >> "HOLY F***!"
The man featured in goatse >> "Hey! That's my ass up there."
In US, you can easily buy enough major firearms to wipe out your neighbourhood but a few little fireworks are banned.
It is possible that he filed a registration patent in Russia. However a registration patent is filed essentially as a copyright would be, when you file what amounts to be an invention disclosure. This simply provide one "proof" that the purported "invention" existes as of the date filed.
If one wishes to "enforce" a registration patent, one must prove in court, during litigation, that the registration should be accorded legal rights.
It's unfortunate that news sources don't take the time to research stuff like this.
Stop undressing me with your eyes. I'm ugly naked.
In order for it to be visible it will have to exceed the size of most solar sail projects by an order of magnitude. At that size the thrust will become considerable (besides being consistent).
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Bush is a weenie totalitarian incompetent scumbag dictator fascist mastermind of terror around the world. I would like nothing better than to see the United State of America get its ass kicked by Osama bin Laden, Al Quaeda and the palistenians.
Furthermore, Republicans are fascists, Margaret Thatcher is a dirty whore, Reagan is animatronic ductwork, and Noam Chomsky is God incarnate (or a reasonable facsimile thereof). Right-wing fundies are bigots and homophobes and smell like onions. Conservatives strangle children in their spare time and just aren't, under any circumstance whatsoever, cool.
I think it's time to send all non-centrist, closed-minded people to a hell of their choosing. Too many people think it's "ok" to not be tolerant and open-minded. That's just not acceptable. We need to silence those people, with tanks if possible.
Just my $0.02.
IMHO.
You'll probably think I'm a Troll...
I'm just not sure...
LOL WTF!!!111one
Did I mention my opinion was humble? Cuz it is. That's why I'm broadcasting it to everyone on Slashdot. Cuz it's humble and stuff. Really, I'm open-minded. Please?