It's $35 now, you do it all online, and it only takes you about 6 months to get your certificate. It's really cheap and really easy. There is no reason not to do it if you have anything that has even a remote chance of being infringed by somebody.
I wonder how much just keeping the legal system running and churning through all these cases costs in tax dollars for a US citizen...
Not that much, actually. While they are highly visible, these types of ridiculous, frivolous lawsuits are actually a pretty small minority of court cases. One of my law school professors did an analysis one time for a law review article, and if I remember correctly, a plurality (possibly even a majority) of filings were contract cases (i.e., companies suing companies). But those don't get all the press.
They must keep the good food a state secret, because when I went to Mass., everybody just wanted me to try the "[BLAND WHATEVER] with Lobster." Sure, there's some novelty value to saying, "Yes, I ate macaroni and cheese with lobster," but I still would have killed for a good habanero.
Yes, my bad. But how's a Texan supposed to muster enough care about a couple of Yankee states that both start with 'M' to remember which one the article was about before making a mildly snarky comment about its irrelevance to a state on the Left Coast? We're talking multiple layers of apathy here. The only reason I could even muster the interest to comment at all was because it involved a question of state sovereignty, which Texans do care about.
Perhaps I should re-do my post. "How does the ruling by the high court of [INSERT ANY RANDOM STATE] affect the law in [ANY OTHER RANDOM STATE]? And more importantly, Texas barely recognizes the authority of the federal government over us, much less some tiny, inferior state where you can't even get good BBQ."
You shouldn't have to slog through 20 pages to find the nifty new invention.
You don't. You just have to read the claims. The abstract has nothing to do with whether the examiner allows or rejects the application. If an examiner rejected one of my applications based on the abstract, I would immediately contact his supervisor and request a real office action from a competent examiner with at least a basic grasp of patent law.
It's really not much different than the techno-babble bullshiz that they say on Star Trek - the words are unimportant, but it's important that it sound real.
Wait... you're telling me that when the Best Buy salesman told me that my monitor would work just fine as a webcam if I reversed the polarity... that HE LIED?!?!?
Even better, you could require authentication at random times, even when the user is doing something seemingly trivial. You could even give it a catchy name like "User Access Controls."
Do a "Print Screen" of their desktop and set it as their wallpaper. Then set their taskbar to auto-hide and set the desktop to hide icons. Enjoy watching them click all over the reactionless bmp trying to open stuff.
My personal opinion (which of course, does not reflect the views of my firm, my clients, or anybody else, and of course, is not legal advice) is that good, solid copyright is critical. That said, the DMCA is ridiculous, and the life +70 copyright terms is absurd. In fact, I think it's possibly unconstitutional, not just because it's too long, but because it's indeterminate. I think it made sense when you got an automatic 26-year term, which you could renew for an additional 26 years. So at most, you got 52 years, and you only get the second half if you didn't abandon it. And you couldn't sell the renewal. So corporate sponsors could only get the first 26 years. If it turned out to be a mega hit, they'd have to buy the second half at market price.
I agree with you to a point (hey, I'm an IP attorney---IP is my bread and butter). But I can also see the outrage. I don't want lobbyists spoon-feeding my children propaganda. If they have a class that informs them about copyright, wonderful. But I don't think it's a topic for elementary school (middle school/junior high, maybe), and I want the curriculum designed by somebody other than a lobby group that's heavily invested in a particular business model (I know Jack Valenti was MPAA, not RIAA, but "If you want a backup, buy a second copy" is not good law). I have PowerPoints about IP basics that I'd be happy to take to local schools if they're interested in a legitimate primer on the topic.
The defense attorneys used their peremptory challenges to remove all educated people on the jury, including myself.
I think you misunderstood which side tossed you (surely the judge didn't announce which side tossed whom). The best statistical correlation to the size of jury awards is education level, and it varies inversely (I got this from a professor who was definitely a plaintiffs' attorney). For whatever reason, education is a better predictor than even stuff like income, race, and gender. That's especially true for cases like "slip and falls," where you don't have some overtly malicous act by the defendants. The plaintiffs want an uneducated jury.
I always thought the mice thing was a construction of television, much like the toilet seat wars.
I see you've never lived in the same house as a woman. I suggest you get married, try leaving the toilet seat up a few times, and then try your post again. For best results, go to your in-laws' house and leave the toilet seat up there. It won't do any damage. Chances are your mother-in-law doesn't like you anyway;-)
would it be possible to sue the school for discrimination because they're unfairly penalizing students based on their choice of computer and/or OS? And if so, could you win?
No. Operating system zealots are not a protected class. The University is free to discriminate against you.
Oh my, looks like a navigation error in the GNUidance system again. You probably didn't even know it happened. This is Earth. Your GNU/Rocket missed Planet Stallman altogether. But don't worry. You just tweak the source code, recompile, and you'll be back on your way in no time.
Exam4 is great. It's a clean, no-frills Windows application that doesn't rely on any funny DLLs or external files. It's perfect for running in WINE. The problem is Exam4 checks to make sure it's not running in a VM or emulator (or not-an-emulator). This is to make sure you can't get around the feature of locking you out of the rest of your computer so you can't cheat (like surfing the internet or looking at your notes). Now, there may be a way to spoof real hardware and make it think it's running natively to get around this. But if you do that, you run the very real risk of the administration deciding that you are cheating and tossing out your test or even expelling you from school (and not unreasonably---it would give you access to notes, internet, etc). It's just not worth it to have to risk your entire academic career on an OS preference. For the exam, you either dual boot (which is what I did), or you borrow a computer with Windows on it. But I would never try anything cute with the exam software. There's just too much at stake.
All it did was check the browser's User-Agent, so if you spoofed yourself as Linux you could just use a standard login instead of having the security suite installed.
I certainly would never have done such a thing on a dual boot laptop that occasionally needed to run Windows. I also would adamantly refused to show my classmates how to get on the network without installing the crippleware CD.
Slashdot Mirror
It's $35 now, you do it all online, and it only takes you about 6 months to get your certificate. It's really cheap and really easy. There is no reason not to do it if you have anything that has even a remote chance of being infringed by somebody.
Firstly Graham Chapman is dead
No, he's just pinin' for the fjords.
I wonder how much just keeping the legal system running and churning through all these cases costs in tax dollars for a US citizen...
Not that much, actually. While they are highly visible, these types of ridiculous, frivolous lawsuits are actually a pretty small minority of court cases. One of my law school professors did an analysis one time for a law review article, and if I remember correctly, a plurality (possibly even a majority) of filings were contract cases (i.e., companies suing companies). But those don't get all the press.
That's okay, the parent was only metaphorically posting to Slashdot.
They must keep the good food a state secret, because when I went to Mass., everybody just wanted me to try the "[BLAND WHATEVER] with Lobster." Sure, there's some novelty value to saying, "Yes, I ate macaroni and cheese with lobster," but I still would have killed for a good habanero.
Yes, my bad. But how's a Texan supposed to muster enough care about a couple of Yankee states that both start with 'M' to remember which one the article was about before making a mildly snarky comment about its irrelevance to a state on the Left Coast? We're talking multiple layers of apathy here. The only reason I could even muster the interest to comment at all was because it involved a question of state sovereignty, which Texans do care about.
Perhaps I should re-do my post. "How does the ruling by the high court of [INSERT ANY RANDOM STATE] affect the law in [ANY OTHER RANDOM STATE]? And more importantly, Texas barely recognizes the authority of the federal government over us, much less some tiny, inferior state where you can't even get good BBQ."
You shouldn't have to slog through 20 pages to find the nifty new invention.
You don't. You just have to read the claims. The abstract has nothing to do with whether the examiner allows or rejects the application. If an examiner rejected one of my applications based on the abstract, I would immediately contact his supervisor and request a real office action from a competent examiner with at least a basic grasp of patent law.
Why would a ruling by the Supreme Court of Maine affect anything in Oregon?
It's really not much different than the techno-babble bullshiz that they say on Star Trek - the words are unimportant, but it's important that it sound real.
Wait ... you're telling me that when the Best Buy salesman told me that my monitor would work just fine as a webcam if I reversed the polarity ... that HE LIED?!?!?
By that, I mean a lightweight solution to taking photographs and video on the lunar surface, usable by an astronaut in full gear
Don't you mean a lightweight solution to taking photographs and video on a sound stage, usable by an actor in full gear?
Even better, you could require authentication at random times, even when the user is doing something seemingly trivial. You could even give it a catchy name like "User Access Controls."
Do a "Print Screen" of their desktop and set it as their wallpaper. Then set their taskbar to auto-hide and set the desktop to hide icons. Enjoy watching them click all over the reactionless bmp trying to open stuff.
My personal opinion (which of course, does not reflect the views of my firm, my clients, or anybody else, and of course, is not legal advice) is that good, solid copyright is critical. That said, the DMCA is ridiculous, and the life +70 copyright terms is absurd. In fact, I think it's possibly unconstitutional, not just because it's too long, but because it's indeterminate. I think it made sense when you got an automatic 26-year term, which you could renew for an additional 26 years. So at most, you got 52 years, and you only get the second half if you didn't abandon it. And you couldn't sell the renewal. So corporate sponsors could only get the first 26 years. If it turned out to be a mega hit, they'd have to buy the second half at market price.
I agree with you to a point (hey, I'm an IP attorney---IP is my bread and butter). But I can also see the outrage. I don't want lobbyists spoon-feeding my children propaganda. If they have a class that informs them about copyright, wonderful. But I don't think it's a topic for elementary school (middle school/junior high, maybe), and I want the curriculum designed by somebody other than a lobby group that's heavily invested in a particular business model (I know Jack Valenti was MPAA, not RIAA, but "If you want a backup, buy a second copy" is not good law). I have PowerPoints about IP basics that I'd be happy to take to local schools if they're interested in a legitimate primer on the topic.
Clasic99---It even comes pre-loaded with great ROMs like TI Invaders and Parsec.
You make the mistake of assuming that the 'evidence' presented is true.
Actually, no, the whole point of the jury is to decide which evidence is true. Otherwise, the judge could just hand out summary judgments all day.
The defense attorneys used their peremptory challenges to remove all educated people on the jury, including myself.
I think you misunderstood which side tossed you (surely the judge didn't announce which side tossed whom). The best statistical correlation to the size of jury awards is education level, and it varies inversely (I got this from a professor who was definitely a plaintiffs' attorney). For whatever reason, education is a better predictor than even stuff like income, race, and gender. That's especially true for cases like "slip and falls," where you don't have some overtly malicous act by the defendants. The plaintiffs want an uneducated jury.
I always thought the mice thing was a construction of television, much like the toilet seat wars.
I see you've never lived in the same house as a woman. I suggest you get married, try leaving the toilet seat up a few times, and then try your post again. For best results, go to your in-laws' house and leave the toilet seat up there. It won't do any damage. Chances are your mother-in-law doesn't like you anyway ;-)
The proctor.
would it be possible to sue the school for discrimination because they're unfairly penalizing students based on their choice of computer and/or OS? And if so, could you win?
No. Operating system zealots are not a protected class. The University is free to discriminate against you.
Oh my, looks like a navigation error in the GNUidance system again. You probably didn't even know it happened. This is Earth. Your GNU/Rocket missed Planet Stallman altogether. But don't worry. You just tweak the source code, recompile, and you'll be back on your way in no time.
Exam4 is great. It's a clean, no-frills Windows application that doesn't rely on any funny DLLs or external files. It's perfect for running in WINE. The problem is Exam4 checks to make sure it's not running in a VM or emulator (or not-an-emulator). This is to make sure you can't get around the feature of locking you out of the rest of your computer so you can't cheat (like surfing the internet or looking at your notes). Now, there may be a way to spoof real hardware and make it think it's running natively to get around this. But if you do that, you run the very real risk of the administration deciding that you are cheating and tossing out your test or even expelling you from school (and not unreasonably---it would give you access to notes, internet, etc). It's just not worth it to have to risk your entire academic career on an OS preference. For the exam, you either dual boot (which is what I did), or you borrow a computer with Windows on it. But I would never try anything cute with the exam software. There's just too much at stake.
And, I don't really care, so long as the linked article is interesting and informative, and I doubt I'm alone.
If you click on the link and read the article, you are alone.
Yes.
All it did was check the browser's User-Agent, so if you spoofed yourself as Linux you could just use a standard login instead of having the security suite installed.
I certainly would never have done such a thing on a dual boot laptop that occasionally needed to run Windows. I also would adamantly refused to show my classmates how to get on the network without installing the crippleware CD.