This looks to be very very similar to what the new Leopard file system is doing, only leopard seems to keep the changes in a "log" in each folder, where ext3cow makes tagged filenames (if I understand it right, I could be way off on that point). This ext3cow looks like it basically points changed data to the old file with the old data, not overwriting anything, and hides older versions of the incrimental data.
This will mean that the drive will slowly grow, but the incrimental-down-to-the-filesystem setup means very little extra data use unless you are completely re-building files constantly with completely new data, and snapshotting multiple times a day, or whatever.
It would be really easy I would think to make a frontend app for ext3cow to do the backups and be just as functional and easy to use as Time Machine.
Satellite has a number of issues, one of the primary being latency. The way satellite gets it's speed is by sending larger packages at slower intervals than cable or DSL and especially fiber. Add to that the fact that the satellites can't receive uplinks very well (it's stuck at 56k), and you're looking at an eventual maximum potential for the technology.
Plus, at least you can upgrade copper in bits and pieces. With satellite you have to send up a new satellite to upgrade the equipment.
I believe the "up to" is for the maximum potential, i.e. improving a 1 mbit/sec line (that's in the 1 to 25mbit range they mentioned) to a possible 200mbit connection. 200 / 1 = 200x improvement.
A 25mbit would probably also cap out at around 200mbit as well, it's not likely to get up to 5gbit just because you started with a 25mbit line.
So basically he's saying you can hit 200mbit over copper with this.
Try Gutsy Gibbon, apparently that all works now out of the box, plug in and go. I dunno myself, my iPod battery died and I haven't sent it in to Apple to get it fixed yet (What's that about anyways, sheesh).
Re:Two words why I absolutely cannot work with Ubu
on
Vista Vs. Gutsy Gibbon
·
· Score: 1
I work in an environment where everybody loves the dual+ screens, and you would not believe how many issues there are with them. And this is on standardized hardware, so everything is the same, start mixing things up and you're in for a world of hurt.
However, I seem to remember seeing some options in the video settings for setting up dual monitors which was about as straight-forward as windoze. Though "just working" like windows usually does would be nice.
I guarantee anybody using $500+ piece of software is also going to have a $2000+ computer in order to run it, and anybody dropping that kind of cash for a computer is almost certainly going to have broadband as well, especially since it is almost certainly for work related use.
Besides, Vista needs an internet connection to run anyway with their anal protection schemes, so if they've dropped the cash for Vista or a Vista ready computer, they either have or are planning to get broadband.
The world is heading to faster internet, not slower, so "In the future" all this stuff is very viable. And Windoze won't be necessary.
BTW, I personally switch from Vista to Ubuntu, cause Vista sucks compared to XP and I didn't have a legal copy of XP, so Linux it is! (Go on and infer that Ubuntu is better than Vista, cause that's what I'm implying) I'd still prefer XP at this time, however.
They both seem to give the impression that the 60ghz wireless is a step up from WiFi, which it is not. It's more like a step up from your USB cable to a wireless equivalent. It will never be used for networking computers for the same reason USB cables will never be used for networking. They have a few severe limitations that prevent this from ever happening. The biggest problem is the fact that ANYTHING in the way blocks the signal. It can't even penetrate skin more than a millimeter or so as far as I know.
The real deal is this is going to make things like video cables and other short connections to computers and devices pretty much obsolete. I personally can't wait till you can stack a few stereo, video, and game devices on top of each other, plug them into the wall, turn them on and they all connect together. Combine this with the wireless power that's going to be coming out in a few years, and things are gonna be pretty pimpin.
The conundrum... If a packet falls in an OSPF forest of Spanning Tress does it send an ICMP-Unreachable I think it actually finds a nice Spanning Tree Loop and lives out the rest of it's days in un-inhibitted tree-swinging bliss.
No need to phone home when you can keep on going forever!
...is the support. Now, I am windows at work as a desktop tech, so I know windows inside and out. I have Vista and Ubuntu on my personal laptop. I am actually in the process of permanantly switching to linux on my home laptop, because vista sucks.
Frankly, Linux can do more than any operating system out there with less hardware, and that's what I love about it. Vista was pretty much copying Beryl with their new interface, and they didn't even give half the features of beryl.
That's what I like about Linux, it is cutting edge and fully customizable. However, when it comes to support from the linux community, it is almost exclusively done in the terminal. Obviously this is because the terminal is the easiest way to configure and repair everything, but a user who is used to Windows and OS X is going to try to get help with something, freak out when they see a line of what looks to them like hacker programming code, and go back to safe, boring windows.
That's the problem as I see it. There are problems in every operating system, in Windows and OS X they are relatively easy to fix, in Linux if you don't already know the fix it can be a nightmare. I'm pleanty savvy enough to figure things out, but the average user doesn't have a chance in hell.
Every time the computer awoke from sleep, the volume control software crashed and had to be reloaded. I've installed Ubuntu, from Hoary to Feisty, on dozens of machines, both laptops and desktops. I have never had this problem, and none of my friends have come to me whining about it either. I grant that my evidence is purely anecdotal, but I find it a little too strange that he's having this issue which I've never even heard of, much less encountered. I've actually seen this quite a lot on the Ubuntu forums, and I've never had an issue with it myself, so I was never looking for it. So, it must be pretty darn common if I'm reading about it while looking for other issues.
Check that out, that's what your money buys you from Cisco.
Boston's Beth Israel Hospital went down due to a spanning tree protocol loop (caused by a network infrastructure that was improperly patched together). Cisco had a team on-site in under four hours working on the problem. They did a massive re-structuring of the major parts of the network in less than three days. They flew in two of their massive multi-switches to get the network working.
It's a cisco policy, I forget what it is called, but essentially if you need it they will spare no expense to get your company's network back up as soon as humanly possible.
Now, call up the guys running OpenWRT, and tell them your network is down. You know what they are going to say? Here are the forums and the docs that have all the info, good luck! If they are nice guys they'll even try to figure out what you need to fix it, but a problem like the Bethesda Israel network crash? Not going to be fixed over the phone.
This is nothing against OpenWRT, I think it's a great program and if I remember right it does most if not all of what a cisco router can do. However, you buy two things when you buy Cisco, you buy the horsepower for your application, and you buy reliability under ANY circumstance.
In otherwords, if you don't need that kind of reliability, why in god's name are you paying so much for a router?
This ISO vulnerability is really rather troubling also, since a lot of cisco routers out there are far from properly secured. So if all it takes is user mode, then there are quite a few systems that could be taken out by this. Of course if they were that insecure to begin with, it's really more of an option an attacker has to pick from to hose the router.
Staying out of the Politics and YRO threads may reduce your vitriol exposure by as much as 300%. Ask your doctor!
Can someone check my math? I get -200% vitriol exposure if 100% of your vitriol exposure is reduced by 300%.
Is this correct? If so, there must be some sort of un-detectable type of exposure that must be the complete opposite of vitriol, which I am dubbing Steve. Anti-vitriol may be a more scientific term, but Steve is such a pretty name...
There are also a myriad of state and federal laws that take precidence over anything written in a contract.
Basically, you can't sign away a protection or right in a contract. For example, one could word a contract that would effectively say that the other party agrees to be defrauded in some way. That doesn't mean the other party doesn't have the right to sue for fraud any more just because they signed that right away in a contract.
A lot of the crap in EULA's simply does not apply because consumer protection laws and others negates it.
Basically the shrink wrap case result means that yes, you are entering a contract agreement when you purchase shrink-wrap licensed software. That does not mean the contents of the contract are 100% enforceable or binding, or even legal.
D'oh! Preview button, gotta remember that.
Such clauses are usually considered unenforceable by the courts, and the rebate company would have to honor it regardless.
IANAL but I have had a contract management course, and clauses like that in a contract (a rebate is a form of contract, offer and acceptance is all that are required) are considered. It's along the lines of saying "I'm not liable" when you clearly are. If you were to press teh issue you'd almost certainly win, just depends on what it's worth to you.
It is just writing that is limited right? Actually, it "flashes" on both read and write, so while limiting your writes will extend the life of the disk, constant reading is just the same as constant writing.
There's a post above that explains it better but basically, flash writes by bursting a charge through an insulator to the storage bit, changing the charge. To read it sends another burst through the insulator and it reads the value based on what the final charge is (initial burst charge + what was in the storage bit).
It's the insulator that wears down, and once it does the storage bit can't store anything anymore.
Apparently Dr. Jerry Pournelle is a moron who knows next to nothing of the current state of Copywrite law or the DMCA.
IANAL, but here's how Pournelle should be handling it based on the cases I've heard of. If this becomes a "lengthy process" it is because he is on shakey legal ground already and is tiptoeing around it so as not to get his own pants sued off.
If one of his works has been illegally posted without his approval (note, if he used a CC license or some other odd license posting without his permission may not be illegal), he needs to notify the company that facilitated the posting (i.e. Scribd), and they are REQUIRED by LAW to take it down IMMEDIATELY. The standard that I have seen is less than an hour. If that does not happen, Dr. Pournelle needs to get off his rump, call a lawyer, and sue the pants off Scribd, because they would be breaking the law at that point.
If the posting is taken down, but the original poster claims the legal right to post, then he sends Scribd his address, etc, and Scribd sends that info to Pournelle and the posting goes back up. This must happen within 10 days of the original takedown notice. If not, guess what? Pournelle sues the pants off of Scribd.
That's 10 days max before either the posting is permanently removed or the issue is headed to court. Lengthy process my ass! The only reasons this could be "lengthy" are if either the poster actually has a potentially legitimate right to post Dr. Pournelle's works, or Dr. Pournelle is a moron and his lawyer doesn't know how this crap works.
There are no MPAA or RIAA strongarm tactics at work here. Rather, there are actual writers attempting to defend their copyrights. Actually this is about the SFWA using strongarm tactics to, in one fell swoop, eliminate both legitimate and illegitimate content from the website. The illegitimate content should go, and did go, as it should be. The legitimate content the SFWA had removed should never been touched. That's the issue.
People aren't necessarily pro-piracy, it's the fact the system is so stacked in the Copywrite holder's favor, that it is incredibly easy for an illegitimate party to get legitimate posts temporarily removed from a website, and often permanantly removed, that people are lashing out against these blanket takedown notices.
If an individual musician's entire album is being hosted on a site illegally, and he follows the DMCA guidlines, if it doesn't come down within 10 days that musician is going to be one rich futhermucker.
You sir, are a moron. He asked if there were any instance where spam could be considered a "good thing". Your only argument against him is that it's spam.
I'm sorry, but I think he knows that. You seem awfully proud that you can tell when someone is talking about spam, and so that I pat you on the head and give you a treat. Who's a good boy? Yes you are! Look it's spam! Find it! Sick em! Good boy!
Anyways, what about the case of a mass murderer? I would think spam could be very useful in a case like that, so long as it is a potentially imminent threat to those who receive the spam. I.e. people in Alaska shouldn't be getting spam about a murderer on the loose in Orange County.
That's still kinda iffy though.
A scientific theory is a logically consistent framework for testable hypotheses. Ummm... right, you realize that a hypothesis is a speculation, conjecture, or guess based on observations, right? A useable theory is just a framework of logical guesses that have so far proven to be reliable in explaining something that is happening in the physical world.
For an example inspired by another recent/. article, Einstein's theory of general relativity is known to be not 100% correct because of conflicts with other theories, like quantum mechanics, which are as equally substantiated within their niche as general relativity.
Basically, we know these theories are flawed, but they still explain many things within certain limits and are consistantly reliable within those limits.
That does NOT mean the true and complete explanation of the fundamental forces of nature (what general relativity and quantum mechanics deal with) is in fact anything like quantum mechanics and general relativity.
When a theory crosses into fact territory is when that theory can be proven to be correct. When this happens, a theory becomes what we call a Law of Nature. The fact is there are still quite a few problems with Evolution which it has never adequately explained.
Throw in the fact that the Theory Evolution itself has never been shown to be observeable, measureable, or repeatable, and you have to question whether or not it should be called "science", in the strictest sense, at all.
Since, I've got to either believe some hokey theory that says I came from bacteria, or a fish, or whatever it is these days, or I can believe in some super ultra mega dude who built it all, I think the second option sounds cooler and that's what I pick.:D
By this logic, should be now abandon...
Should be dismiss Linux... Sorry, together those make the strangest set of typos I think I've ever seen. It's almost like you're purposely saying "should be" instead of "should we", but it makes absolutely no sense...
Wierd.
Anyway, other than that, I think you've got a point.:)
According to Wikipedia, there was probably more than just a love for classical music in here; the demand for 74 minutes as opposed to 60 (which necessitated 120mm discs instead of 115) was strategic. Polygram (one of Sony's major competitors) already had an experimental facility set up to make 115mm discs, Sony didn't, and therefore it was advantageous to force 120mm in order to start the playing field off level
I don't believe the fact that Polygram had a 115mm factory was a major factor in going to 120mm, at best it was one of those "hey that's even better!" situations for Sony.
Why do I say this? Because Sony and Phillips produced the Compact Disk as a JOINT venture. Polygram was owned by Phillips. Had they produced the CD in 115mm format instead of 120mm, it would have been rather simple to facilitate a production deal that would put Sony at no disadvantage. And trust me, there's no way Sony would have gone in on the venture if they didn't have wording in the contract requiring something to that effect.
Besides, I'm no engineer, but I don't think a retool from 115mm to 120mm for a brand new technology that had never been produced before was really that big of a deal for Polygram.
Sooo... do you actually know anything about Einstein? If you did, you'd know he was incredibly socially awkward, as many people with a mind like his were. He was pretty much the type of person I would never expect to see revolutionising any organization, particularly a government organization.
Plus there's also the fact that I'm pretty sure Einstein never worked for the USPTO. Where the heck did that come from? If he did he'd probably get stuck in the mailroom or something. I don't know if you know this, but the USPTO deals with PATENTS and TRADEMARKS. Einstein was a theoretical physicist. Not really a whole lot to patent as a theoretical physicist. Only a device that employed someone's theoretical physics would be patented, and that's not what Einstein did.
You know, the more I think about this, the more I'm stuck on where the crap this came from. That's just odd.
Slashdot Mirror
This looks to be very very similar to what the new Leopard file system is doing, only leopard seems to keep the changes in a "log" in each folder, where ext3cow makes tagged filenames (if I understand it right, I could be way off on that point). This ext3cow looks like it basically points changed data to the old file with the old data, not overwriting anything, and hides older versions of the incrimental data.
This will mean that the drive will slowly grow, but the incrimental-down-to-the-filesystem setup means very little extra data use unless you are completely re-building files constantly with completely new data, and snapshotting multiple times a day, or whatever.
It would be really easy I would think to make a frontend app for ext3cow to do the backups and be just as functional and easy to use as Time Machine.
Cool beans man!
Satellite has a number of issues, one of the primary being latency. The way satellite gets it's speed is by sending larger packages at slower intervals than cable or DSL and especially fiber. Add to that the fact that the satellites can't receive uplinks very well (it's stuck at 56k), and you're looking at an eventual maximum potential for the technology.
Plus, at least you can upgrade copper in bits and pieces. With satellite you have to send up a new satellite to upgrade the equipment.
I believe the "up to" is for the maximum potential, i.e. improving a 1 mbit/sec line (that's in the 1 to 25mbit range they mentioned) to a possible 200mbit connection. 200 / 1 = 200x improvement.
A 25mbit would probably also cap out at around 200mbit as well, it's not likely to get up to 5gbit just because you started with a 25mbit line.
So basically he's saying you can hit 200mbit over copper with this.
Try Gutsy Gibbon, apparently that all works now out of the box, plug in and go. I dunno myself, my iPod battery died and I haven't sent it in to Apple to get it fixed yet (What's that about anyways, sheesh).
I work in an environment where everybody loves the dual+ screens, and you would not believe how many issues there are with them. And this is on standardized hardware, so everything is the same, start mixing things up and you're in for a world of hurt. However, I seem to remember seeing some options in the video settings for setting up dual monitors which was about as straight-forward as windoze. Though "just working" like windows usually does would be nice.
I guarantee anybody using $500+ piece of software is also going to have a $2000+ computer in order to run it, and anybody dropping that kind of cash for a computer is almost certainly going to have broadband as well, especially since it is almost certainly for work related use. Besides, Vista needs an internet connection to run anyway with their anal protection schemes, so if they've dropped the cash for Vista or a Vista ready computer, they either have or are planning to get broadband. The world is heading to faster internet, not slower, so "In the future" all this stuff is very viable. And Windoze won't be necessary. BTW, I personally switch from Vista to Ubuntu, cause Vista sucks compared to XP and I didn't have a legal copy of XP, so Linux it is! (Go on and infer that Ubuntu is better than Vista, cause that's what I'm implying) I'd still prefer XP at this time, however.
They both seem to give the impression that the 60ghz wireless is a step up from WiFi, which it is not. It's more like a step up from your USB cable to a wireless equivalent. It will never be used for networking computers for the same reason USB cables will never be used for networking. They have a few severe limitations that prevent this from ever happening. The biggest problem is the fact that ANYTHING in the way blocks the signal. It can't even penetrate skin more than a millimeter or so as far as I know.
The real deal is this is going to make things like video cables and other short connections to computers and devices pretty much obsolete. I personally can't wait till you can stack a few stereo, video, and game devices on top of each other, plug them into the wall, turn them on and they all connect together. Combine this with the wireless power that's going to be coming out in a few years, and things are gonna be pretty pimpin.
No need to phone home when you can keep on going forever!
...is the support. Now, I am windows at work as a desktop tech, so I know windows inside and out. I have Vista and Ubuntu on my personal laptop. I am actually in the process of permanantly switching to linux on my home laptop, because vista sucks.
Frankly, Linux can do more than any operating system out there with less hardware, and that's what I love about it. Vista was pretty much copying Beryl with their new interface, and they didn't even give half the features of beryl.
That's what I like about Linux, it is cutting edge and fully customizable. However, when it comes to support from the linux community, it is almost exclusively done in the terminal. Obviously this is because the terminal is the easiest way to configure and repair everything, but a user who is used to Windows and OS X is going to try to get help with something, freak out when they see a line of what looks to them like hacker programming code, and go back to safe, boring windows.
That's the problem as I see it. There are problems in every operating system, in Windows and OS X they are relatively easy to fix, in Linux if you don't already know the fix it can be a nightmare. I'm pleanty savvy enough to figure things out, but the average user doesn't have a chance in hell.
http://seclists.org/politech/2002/Dec/0004.html
Check that out, that's what your money buys you from Cisco.
Boston's Beth Israel Hospital went down due to a spanning tree protocol loop (caused by a network infrastructure that was improperly patched together). Cisco had a team on-site in under four hours working on the problem. They did a massive re-structuring of the major parts of the network in less than three days. They flew in two of their massive multi-switches to get the network working.
It's a cisco policy, I forget what it is called, but essentially if you need it they will spare no expense to get your company's network back up as soon as humanly possible.
Now, call up the guys running OpenWRT, and tell them your network is down. You know what they are going to say? Here are the forums and the docs that have all the info, good luck! If they are nice guys they'll even try to figure out what you need to fix it, but a problem like the Bethesda Israel network crash? Not going to be fixed over the phone.
This is nothing against OpenWRT, I think it's a great program and if I remember right it does most if not all of what a cisco router can do. However, you buy two things when you buy Cisco, you buy the horsepower for your application, and you buy reliability under ANY circumstance.
In otherwords, if you don't need that kind of reliability, why in god's name are you paying so much for a router?
This ISO vulnerability is really rather troubling also, since a lot of cisco routers out there are far from properly secured. So if all it takes is user mode, then there are quite a few systems that could be taken out by this. Of course if they were that insecure to begin with, it's really more of an option an attacker has to pick from to hose the router.
Can someone check my math? I get -200% vitriol exposure if 100% of your vitriol exposure is reduced by 300%.
Is this correct? If so, there must be some sort of un-detectable type of exposure that must be the complete opposite of vitriol, which I am dubbing Steve. Anti-vitriol may be a more scientific term, but Steve is such a pretty name...
To an extent that's true.
There are also a myriad of state and federal laws that take precidence over anything written in a contract.
Basically, you can't sign away a protection or right in a contract. For example, one could word a contract that would effectively say that the other party agrees to be defrauded in some way. That doesn't mean the other party doesn't have the right to sue for fraud any more just because they signed that right away in a contract.
A lot of the crap in EULA's simply does not apply because consumer protection laws and others negates it.
Basically the shrink wrap case result means that yes, you are entering a contract agreement when you purchase shrink-wrap licensed software. That does not mean the contents of the contract are 100% enforceable or binding, or even legal.
D'oh! Preview button, gotta remember that. Such clauses are usually considered unenforceable by the courts, and the rebate company would have to honor it regardless.
IANAL but I have had a contract management course, and clauses like that in a contract (a rebate is a form of contract, offer and acceptance is all that are required) are considered. It's along the lines of saying "I'm not liable" when you clearly are. If you were to press teh issue you'd almost certainly win, just depends on what it's worth to you.
There's a post above that explains it better but basically, flash writes by bursting a charge through an insulator to the storage bit, changing the charge. To read it sends another burst through the insulator and it reads the value based on what the final charge is (initial burst charge + what was in the storage bit).
It's the insulator that wears down, and once it does the storage bit can't store anything anymore.
Meh, you say potatoe, I say squash. ;)
I was too lazy to actually find the correct spelling.
IANAL, but here's how Pournelle should be handling it based on the cases I've heard of. If this becomes a "lengthy process" it is because he is on shakey legal ground already and is tiptoeing around it so as not to get his own pants sued off.
If one of his works has been illegally posted without his approval (note, if he used a CC license or some other odd license posting without his permission may not be illegal), he needs to notify the company that facilitated the posting (i.e. Scribd), and they are REQUIRED by LAW to take it down IMMEDIATELY. The standard that I have seen is less than an hour. If that does not happen, Dr. Pournelle needs to get off his rump, call a lawyer, and sue the pants off Scribd, because they would be breaking the law at that point.
If the posting is taken down, but the original poster claims the legal right to post, then he sends Scribd his address, etc, and Scribd sends that info to Pournelle and the posting goes back up. This must happen within 10 days of the original takedown notice. If not, guess what? Pournelle sues the pants off of Scribd.
That's 10 days max before either the posting is permanently removed or the issue is headed to court. Lengthy process my ass! The only reasons this could be "lengthy" are if either the poster actually has a potentially legitimate right to post Dr. Pournelle's works, or Dr. Pournelle is a moron and his lawyer doesn't know how this crap works. There are no MPAA or RIAA strongarm tactics at work here. Rather, there are actual writers attempting to defend their copyrights. Actually this is about the SFWA using strongarm tactics to, in one fell swoop, eliminate both legitimate and illegitimate content from the website. The illegitimate content should go, and did go, as it should be. The legitimate content the SFWA had removed should never been touched. That's the issue.
People aren't necessarily pro-piracy, it's the fact the system is so stacked in the Copywrite holder's favor, that it is incredibly easy for an illegitimate party to get legitimate posts temporarily removed from a website, and often permanantly removed, that people are lashing out against these blanket takedown notices.
If an individual musician's entire album is being hosted on a site illegally, and he follows the DMCA guidlines, if it doesn't come down within 10 days that musician is going to be one rich futhermucker.
You sir, are a moron. He asked if there were any instance where spam could be considered a "good thing". Your only argument against him is that it's spam. I'm sorry, but I think he knows that. You seem awfully proud that you can tell when someone is talking about spam, and so that I pat you on the head and give you a treat. Who's a good boy? Yes you are! Look it's spam! Find it! Sick em! Good boy! Anyways, what about the case of a mass murderer? I would think spam could be very useful in a case like that, so long as it is a potentially imminent threat to those who receive the spam. I.e. people in Alaska shouldn't be getting spam about a murderer on the loose in Orange County. That's still kinda iffy though.
For an example inspired by another recent
Basically, we know these theories are flawed, but they still explain many things within certain limits and are consistantly reliable within those limits.
That does NOT mean the true and complete explanation of the fundamental forces of nature (what general relativity and quantum mechanics deal with) is in fact anything like quantum mechanics and general relativity.
When a theory crosses into fact territory is when that theory can be proven to be correct. When this happens, a theory becomes what we call a Law of Nature. The fact is there are still quite a few problems with Evolution which it has never adequately explained.
Throw in the fact that the Theory Evolution itself has never been shown to be observeable, measureable, or repeatable, and you have to question whether or not it should be called "science", in the strictest sense, at all.
Since, I've got to either believe some hokey theory that says I came from bacteria, or a fish, or whatever it is these days, or I can believe in some super ultra mega dude who built it all, I think the second option sounds cooler and that's what I pick.
Wierd.
Anyway, other than that, I think you've got a point.
I don't believe the fact that Polygram had a 115mm factory was a major factor in going to 120mm, at best it was one of those "hey that's even better!" situations for Sony.
Why do I say this? Because Sony and Phillips produced the Compact Disk as a JOINT venture. Polygram was owned by Phillips. Had they produced the CD in 115mm format instead of 120mm, it would have been rather simple to facilitate a production deal that would put Sony at no disadvantage. And trust me, there's no way Sony would have gone in on the venture if they didn't have wording in the contract requiring something to that effect.
Besides, I'm no engineer, but I don't think a retool from 115mm to 120mm for a brand new technology that had never been produced before was really that big of a deal for Polygram.
Sooo... do you actually know anything about Einstein? If you did, you'd know he was incredibly socially awkward, as many people with a mind like his were. He was pretty much the type of person I would never expect to see revolutionising any organization, particularly a government organization. Plus there's also the fact that I'm pretty sure Einstein never worked for the USPTO. Where the heck did that come from? If he did he'd probably get stuck in the mailroom or something. I don't know if you know this, but the USPTO deals with PATENTS and TRADEMARKS. Einstein was a theoretical physicist. Not really a whole lot to patent as a theoretical physicist. Only a device that employed someone's theoretical physics would be patented, and that's not what Einstein did. You know, the more I think about this, the more I'm stuck on where the crap this came from. That's just odd.