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A New Species of Patent Troll
Geoffrey.landis writes "According to the Wall Street Journal, there's a new species of patent troll out there. These new trolls sue companies that sell products with an expired patent number on them. That's right, it's against the law to sell a product that's marked with an expired patent number. The potential fine? $500. Per violation. And some of the companies have patent numbers on old plastic molds that have made literally billions of copies. Using whistle-blower laws, 'anyone can file a claim on behalf of the government, and plaintiffs must split any fine award evenly with it.' You've been warned."
Nevermind I found the preference setting. I would edit my message but I can understand why *that* particular feature isn't allowed.
Of course, but partial documentation is better than none at all, wouldn't you agree?
Then you're being extraordinarily myopic. I see publicizing the technologies used to build a product as a positive thing. You can't deny that stamping a patent number on a product fails to do that, surely? And given that a patent could expire the day after you buy a product, why would you take a list of patents on the back of a product as meaning that the patenter still has a monopoly anyway?
Because I type fairly quickly, and because Pudge and CmdrTaco are fucking idiots, I can't post this right now (oooh, it's been THREE MINUTES since I responded to someone else, I must be a hacker with nothing to say!), so instead I'm going to waste some of their bandwidth and storage space by adding this Wikipedia article. Hope you're OK with that.
Advanced Passenger Train
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The Advanced Passenger Train (APT) was an experimental tilting High Speed Train developed by British Rail during the 1970s and early 1980s.
The introduction into service of the Advanced Passenger Train was to be a three-stage project. Phase 1, the development of an experimental APT, the APT-E, was completed. Phase 2, the introduction of three prototype trains, known as the APT-P, into revenue service on the Glasgow - London route, did occur but enjoyed limited service due to bad publicity. Phase 3, the introduction of the Squadron fleet designated APT-S, did not occur. The knowledge and experience gained enabled the construction of other high speed trains, including tilting derivatives.
Contents
* 1 Background * 2 Demise * 3 APT today * 4 APT versus TGV and Shinkansen * 5 Further uses of APT technology * 6 References + 6.1 Notes + 6.2 Bibliography * 7 External links
Background
In the mid to late 20th century, British Rail express services compared unfavourably with France's TGV and Japan's Shinkansen. Experience with High Speed Trains on the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh had shown that reduced journey times could produce a significant increase in passenger numbers, but that line was largely straight and suited to high speeds. Other lines, such as the West Coast Main Line (WCML) from London to Glasgow, were not straight enough to support high speeds with conventional equipment. Lateral forces would be just too high around corners; passengers would not be able to stand upright easily, and items would move on tables. Because slower trains also use the same tracks, superelevation (banking or "canting" of the track around curves) could only be utilised to enable speeds up to 125 mph (201 km/h). In order to permit a top speed of 155 mph (249 km/h), and thereby cut journey times, British Rail's engineers at the Derby Research Division developed an advanced active tilting technology, using hydraulic rams controlled by spirit level sensors to tilt the passenger cars into the curves so that no lateral forces would be felt. Numerous engineers involved in the project had an aeroengineering background. Not only was the train designed to tilt but it was also articulated and had hydrokinetic (Water turbine) brakes. The latter feature is often overlooked but was in fact just as significant as the tilting concept, because it enabled the train to stop within the existing signal spacings. The fact that under operating conditions it failed to do so, was one of the main factors in the train being withdrawn.
Some of the senior managers in British Rail at the time were unwilling to put all their eggs in one basket, and so initiated a parallel project to design a train based on conventional technology as a stopgap.^^ This was the Hig
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