USPTO will not act; I'm not even sure they should having read many of the posts above.
Polititians will not act, same reasons.
If you want to invalidate software patents then you must make the current system unworkable. Some examples might be...
1) Target a high-profile software patent and patent dozens of things that overlap with it.
2) Target a high-profile patent and re-publish the guts of it as math in some respected math journal
Use some means to pick the high-profile patent so that it is not just a vindictive stab at a targetted company - maybe something that gets voted on as being particularly egregious or something that would benefit lots of people if it were busted.
I'm sure that with a little thought, the patent process could be used against itself.
I am converted. Truly, if they managed to put the Codex Sinaiticus online.
Even if the book does not have an ethernet port, and relies on 1600 year old SLIP it's tremendous foresight that the original illuminators had to even include a comm port of any kind. Fair play to them.
My only concern is that if it's firewall has not been updated in many centuries, won't it get hacked.
And of course, the natural curiosity - does it run Linux ?
I thought Antoine de Saint-Exupery's books were a little wierd, but the reason my son learned to read was not to read for its own sake, but to get to the fantastic riches that lay within books.
If you can forget about the mechanics of programming and find some project that will engage your son and, co-incidentally, need programming to make it come about. I think you will have an eager programmer.
I suggest something cool and physical, like a rocket altimeter, or an electic field sensitive music synthesizer, or a camera trigger to photograph a glass jar smashing or a light display, or something that balances weirdly with one of those solid state gyroscopes. Something the Mythbusters would be proud to do and your son will enjoy.
And then find a suitable embedded system to implement them in. Perhaps from silabs.com. They have some good cheap systems that will easily sequence lights or measure bubbling potion fluid levels and are inexpensive enough to blow up from time to time ($20 or so).
you love love love lego because it is different from duplo. It's got lots of cool themes that capture imagination and the product is so high quality that it's damn near impossible to separate some of the pieces when they're snapped together..
I think the creative marketing and design justifies an elevated price, even if the physical product alone had not.
It must also help to have the dealership channels that Lego have.
Snap it all together and there are lots of reasons why Lego can get more for their product than others can.
I was struck by how the children in Cuba were attending school, not selling "chiclets" on the buses like they are in almost every other S. American country.
How relaxed people were in the streets of small towns. It makes many parts of America look impoverished and paranoid by comparison.
Cuba has to be careful not to get truly shafted when the Embargo is lifted and the property market is liberalized - it won't be the regular Joe who does well out of it.
The rest of the Caribbean is bracing to be shafted when the Embargo is lifted. Who will want to visit lovely Trinidad and Tobago when there's Cuba!!!!! to roil in.
It will be interesting to see if the Cuban government can stand up to Organized crime. In comparison to that, the US Embargo is a nit.
So far, women are the only humans who can give birth (excluding warped definitions of birth that only exist on/.)
But they are most definitely not the only ones that can raise children well.
The alternative to being a stay at home mother is not usually child abandonment and it does not make anyone a bad parent to use good resources to help raise children - including spouses, extended family, childcare facilities etc.
I think it's easy to forget that flexibility in how to earn money is a blessing. There is rarely so much flexibility in how to raise a child. There should be more good options, including more support for whoever is out of the workplace raising the children.
How many of us are available for call any time day or night. Where's my work:home balance.
How about fixing that ?
The truth is, that without my wife bearing the brunt of raising the kids, I would not be able to do the job I do as a married man with children. It would be impossible.
Can't we fill it with concrete, let it gradually build up to an obit around Earth and Mars using Ion power - perhaps over a decade or two, and then lasso it as it passes Earth (with a stretchy lasso obviously). Perhaps another job for the space cowboys.
When we get to mars we just re-enter to slow down.
Repeat for the journey home.
Then again, perhaps I should leave the rocket science to the brain surgeons...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but being right means you're not paranoid
USPTO will not act; I'm not even sure they should having read many of the posts above.
Polititians will not act, same reasons.
If you want to invalidate software patents then you must make the current system unworkable. Some examples might be...
1) Target a high-profile software patent and patent dozens of things that overlap with it.
2) Target a high-profile patent and re-publish the guts of it as math in some respected math journal
Use some means to pick the high-profile patent so that it is not just a vindictive stab at a targetted company - maybe something that gets voted on as being particularly egregious or something that would benefit lots of people if it were busted.
I'm sure that with a little thought, the patent process could be used against itself.
If you purchase music and get caught making copies three times, you should be banned from ever purchasing music again.
I am converted. Truly, if they managed to put the Codex Sinaiticus online.
Even if the book does not have an ethernet port, and relies on 1600 year old SLIP it's tremendous foresight that the original illuminators had to even include a comm port of any kind. Fair play to them.
My only concern is that if it's firewall has not been updated in many centuries, won't it get hacked.
And of course, the natural curiosity - does it run Linux ?
mysql uses elves too - we're saved !
/usr/sbin/mysqld /usr/sbin/mysqld: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.4.1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped
~ # file
Stripped elves at that - kinky...
When I was a kid we had these 'friction' cars, you pushed them along the floor a few times while they "revved" up and then let them go.
That's the technology I want, with a big robot to "re-rev" them at every intersection.
The best cars made sparks too.
I thought Antoine de Saint-Exupery's books were a little wierd, but the reason my son learned to read was not to read for its own sake, but to get to the fantastic riches that lay within books.
If you can forget about the mechanics of programming and find some project that will engage your son and, co-incidentally, need programming to make it come about. I think you will have an eager programmer.
I suggest something cool and physical, like a rocket altimeter, or an electic field sensitive music synthesizer, or a camera trigger to photograph a glass jar smashing or a light display, or something that balances weirdly with one of those solid state gyroscopes. Something the Mythbusters would be proud to do and your son will enjoy.
And then find a suitable embedded system to implement them in. Perhaps from silabs.com. They have some good cheap systems that will easily sequence lights or measure bubbling potion fluid levels and are inexpensive enough to blow up from time to time ($20 or so).
If altitude training works, why not smog training ? At last the Kenyans will be beaten by the New Jersey runners.
Failing that, I suppose they could pump O2 into the stadium and pool to boost performance.
Don't smoke...
Don't have the backing of microsoft telling the C series execs what to think.
They should rename themselves Masonsoft.
they're made of ABS so that they hurt as much as possible when you step on them with bare feet.
Masochists everywhere would be up in arms if they moved to a softer plastic.
you love love love lego because it is different from duplo. It's got lots of cool themes that capture imagination and the product is so high quality that it's damn near impossible to separate some of the pieces when they're snapped together..
I think the creative marketing and design justifies an elevated price, even if the physical product alone had not.
It must also help to have the dealership channels that Lego have.
Snap it all together and there are lots of reasons why Lego can get more for their product than others can.
So do the same mainframes control the police chasing Wall-e and Eve ?
When someone makes a discovery - like, say, a new atomic particle.
How do you prove it was there before they discovered it.
And if you are able to come up with a proof. Why does it then matter whether they discovered it at all ?
But aren't the Cuban government afraid that Congress will send crack troops crawling through the system of tubes to invade ?
Or is congress concerned that the Cubans may crawl through a tube and settle in MAE West instead of Key West.
I was struck by how the children in Cuba were attending school, not selling "chiclets" on the buses like they are in almost every other S. American country.
How relaxed people were in the streets of small towns. It makes many parts of America look impoverished and paranoid by comparison.
Cuba has to be careful not to get truly shafted when the Embargo is lifted and the property market is liberalized - it won't be the regular Joe who does well out of it.
The rest of the Caribbean is bracing to be shafted when the Embargo is lifted. Who will want to visit lovely Trinidad and Tobago when there's Cuba!!!!! to roil in.
It will be interesting to see if the Cuban government can stand up to Organized crime. In comparison to that, the US Embargo is a nit.
But we don't need to suppress internet in China - they have their own great firewall.
Esmirelda; the cells, the cells...
So far, women are the only humans who can give birth (excluding warped definitions of birth that only exist on /.)
But they are most definitely not the only ones that can raise children well.
The alternative to being a stay at home mother is not usually child abandonment and it does not make anyone a bad parent to use good resources to help raise children - including spouses, extended family, childcare facilities etc.
I think it's easy to forget that flexibility in how to earn money is a blessing. There is rarely so much flexibility in how to raise a child. There should be more good options, including more support for whoever is out of the workplace raising the children.
I realize, but don't care.
Undoubtedly the late stages of pregnancy and the early stages of Motherhood are challenging, but we are talking about a few months.
I don't think that motherhood alone is a serious barrier to getting a PhD.
The challenges of getting good childcare, and having sufficiently supportive male partners - now we're talking...
Oh - but implementing social programs would cost money - but enforcing quotas is "free"
What's this 8 hours a day thing ?
How many of us are available for call any time day or night. Where's my work:home balance.
How about fixing that ?
The truth is, that without my wife bearing the brunt of raising the kids, I would not be able to do the job I do as a married man with children. It would be impossible.
The Title 9 information that arrives at my house is full of hot chicks in Lycra.
Hopefully this new bill won't mean that they'll instead be pictured in poorly chosen "business casual" dress with polyester ties.
Can't we fill it with concrete, let it gradually build up to an obit around Earth and Mars using Ion power - perhaps over a decade or two, and then lasso it as it passes Earth (with a stretchy lasso obviously). Perhaps another job for the space cowboys.
When we get to mars we just re-enter to slow down.
Repeat for the journey home.
Then again, perhaps I should leave the rocket science to the brain surgeons...
All because Andy Dufresne just had to build that damn law library...
Oh wait - I'm failing to separate fact from fiction...
Oh wait...
That always works. permanently locks doors when you want them locked, opens them when you want them opened.
it's foolproof