While artists and such do deserve a right to be able to make a fair shake on what they produce, why should patentable items only have a 20 year shelf life while a song have 100+ years of protection?
This is insane.
That should give the entertainment/content industry pause, if there was a strong united Internet demand for fair copyright terms.
That should give some pause to those trying to hijack the production and distribution of ideas.
Artists and such do deserve a right to be able to make a fair shake on what they produce.
However, why should patentable items only have a 20 year shelf life while a song have 150 years of protection?
A "reasonable" counter-position is to demand that copyright retroactively returns to reasonable periods such as a 20 years and that's it, no extensions. That would put most of the fun stuff in public domain where it belongs anyways. Hence the copyright bargain between those who create and those who consume gets rebalanced.
That should give the entertainment/content industry pause, if there was a strong SOPA-bashing united Internet demand for fair copyright terms.
That should give some pause to those trying to take over the production and distribution of ideas.
I think they (RIAA) should have their draconian utopia. However the range / length of copyright should only hold for 5-10 years maximum retroactively. Why should the song "happy birthday" still be raking in money when patents only range about 20 years and cost a fortune to maintain. Public domain exists for a reason, otherwise you have lock-in on all ideas.
We really should stop posting all the MPAA crap on this site. No one is doing anything about it. Where are the protests? Where are the letters being written to your elected official?
If you, that means You reading this, are not willing to do anything about it then I'm tired of hearing about it.
When we were going to get a DMCA like act about to be passed we crashed the Xmas party of the Minister in charge to get our point out. So either put up and fight back or shut up.
We have been doing exactly this in our lab at the University since 2005 with magnetic fields and have the publications to prove it.
We have been using and developing our system for rehabilitation since the Wii and even that controller cannot be used properly for that purpose. Yes I've seen them in hospitals but they only have limited use.
They are of no use when it comes to fine movement rehabilitation.
There is nothing wrong with the NDP per say. People have become way to polarized over EVERYTHING. Wake up and start to think on your own and not what your "party" wants you to squawk.
The NDP makes a good opposition watch dog to ensure that government doesn't just roll over everyone to make a other special interests or back room deals happy. Government is supposed to be about the citizens, and I think people have truely forgotten that.
I don't like everything the NDP has brought down, I mean 400$ per kid/ month? Why should a single guy like me have to pay for some dead beat with 11 kids who is socially unfit or irresponsible? Your kids, your problem. I even like the conservative hardening stance on youth crime. Both items don't mean I wont' or will support either party, just making a point, that I will consider the platforms. Ironically it seems that even those items these days are just a bunch of random chatter that has no meaning whatsoever, unfortunate.
However how I vote will be a reading of policy and not some bland loyalty. It is too bad people don't do this anymore and just eat the soundbites offered, instead of make up your own mind.
But kudos that someone at least is saying something about these issues.
In the west, the perception is that Engineer as a professional is lumped in with joe MSCE and Information Technology. It is just assumed that anyone can do their jobs and they are no different from a CS major or community college student. Thus they earn the respect of the lowest assumed denominator, which is none. I believe other countries like Germany this maybe different, but at this day and age who knows.
The other reason why Enginners do not see respect is that the layman cannot relate to what we do. Even a doctor can discuss medical issues with friends.
'What's that Doctor? Oh, you do colon exams, hey! I have an colon, let's be friends.'
'What's that Mr Engineer? You programmed a DSP to efficiently process a multi-spectrum signal? Hey! I have an... err.. I'm going to go talk to the Doctor, I can talk about my colon'
So even a person who has limited knowledge about the human body can still understand or get an idea or concept easier about medical issues and conditions. You can relate on some level because you own a body. Unless you are in the tech field, you don't understand the tech field, but expect way more out of it and get upset because it doesn't do more. You also don't see that expectation from the other professions. There is still a mystical aura about being a Doctor, but not-so for the people who make the technology that medical professionals use.
The other problem is that companies that treat people poorly and are fly-by-night have the same survivability as a well run company that does not treat people poorly.
Bottom line, Engineers are taken for granted. If you are taken for granted you will be treated as such.
The funny part is that we ourselves don't do anything about it. The only way out of the system is to be your own boss and reap the rewards of your knowledge.
I do agree, people have to understand something about University level education:
First off, the University system is designed to promote research, teaching is secondary. Yes there are professors who care about teaching, but the University system is more concerned with the prestige and money / attention research brings.
Secondly, a Bachelors Degree is designed to prepare students for... entering a masters degree which in turn is designed to prepare students to enter a... PhD, eventually a post-Doc where the University gets virtual slaves. (At least in Canada, there is probably better money that flows around in the US system)
Another way of looking at it, goes something like this: Bachelors: learning how to think Masters : learning to think about what other people have done PhD : learning to think for yourself
If you are lucky you have Professors that are practical minded and will teach to that, but Computer Science is not really regulated from what I've seen here in Canada at least, and is vastly different across the board. At least with Engineering in Canada there is a minimum standard for accreditation, but that is still not saying all that much.
I wonder if a world wide power grid would ever work with solar power. Its always sunny somewhere right? The question then becomes: is there enough surface area, even assuming very efficient solar panel arrays to power the whole world one part of the globe at a time?
I support copyright and the GPL. I just do not support the ultra-extended terms for copyright, making works never accessible to the public within someone's LIFETIME. All it does is to hurt creativity and improvement upon original ideas that help accelerate art and society in general. So by those terms I would not be upset if a given software program becomes public domain after a term, by that time we'd be on to better things because via the GPL we are allowed to play and progress.
There has always been something for someone to blame youth "problems" on:
Let us recap:
50's : The start of Rock and/or Roll 60's : Hippies, Drugs, the counter culture 70's : DISCO? (I'd go crazy and want to shoot people if I had to hear that crap all day long) 80's : Heavy Metal, or perhaps just Twisted Sister and Ozzy, drugs etc 90's -> now : Horrific Video Violence that has "never" been seen before, and video games, not to mention music, drugs, etc
It isn't like there were time's before violence that were good(TM) and true(TM) yadda yadda. In Roman times you watched people getting eaten alive for sport in the Ring, we don't have anything close to that to watch yet, in fact I'd argue that were are far more tame as a society as we have ever been.
Point is there is always a scapegoat for a nutcase that decided to go out with a bang and take as many with him. 1/300 Million isn't against the odds of someone existing that is crazy enough to do that.
What about errupting volcanos? True the volcanos themselves give off a lot of gas, but when they full out erupt like Pinatubo is that number quoted taking account for full scale large eruptions? If not, what was the amount of greenhouse gas emitted when this happens?
We have been very fortunate not to have the draconian laws that are totally one sided. We as Canadians pay a levy on all our CDs/etc when we are using said media for legitmate uses.
Listing of Canadian MP's by Postal Code
Take some time and let your MP know that this issue is important and the current buzz over the environment doesn't mean people are going to ignore this. Remember, doing nothing is doing something. That something is allowing the music industry lobby groups walk all over you and say thank you, can I have some more.
I think part of the issue, assuming (and that is a big assumption) that is is correct for now,is that for all the media that we all consume, what we see on TV is more exciting than the current space program. When you have an expectation of new stuff coming out all the time, its hard not to develop A.D.D. like a feret on espesso.
Internet == Fast, fast trends, constantly appeasing the mob with new trend du jour sponsored by a corporate entity, with some star power as its face Media == with all the sci-fi shows, you almost get a "been there, done that attitude" even if its not real and made up NASA == Slow, methodical, underfunded, slow progress. Doesn't fit with the 5 second trend.
Basically, if NASA could offer trips to the moon/mars right now like a amusment park ride, it would be different.
While on the surface this looks cool, as a fellow researcher on the subject I know that it has many many flaws. They have been doing VR rehab for a while now on various platforms. This is actually a relatively simple 'hack' of a outdated glove. The problem is that it doesn't keep the player or patient's interest and its resolution won't help any fine motor movement, shoulder-yes, arm-sure why not, but not finger or hand.
Its a nice idea, but ultimately it isn't all that useful.
My internship was all Notes Development. The area I was in took the time to train me properly in Lotus notes, where the regular app dev people honestly didn't bother using Notes to anywhere near its potential, they spent more time designing pretty icons versus making an App that worked. Thereby I can completely see from the end user point of view where one would definately not like what they get. I also acknowledge that the email aspect of Lotus Notes needs to be reworked. It was never really designed for it. Its (notes) primary use is distributed documentation with distributed authorship and it does that well.
I just hope that some of the internals are trimmed down a little to reduce some of bloat that is found when people just don't take the time to code is properly. Rapid development is always nice, but like everything else faster output (read turn-around time from conception to product) isn't always (or ever) the best result.
I think a linux client however will be a great thing, and I hope they have taken a little time to polish it off, but that is wishful thinking.
Slashdot Mirror
Alphabet Partners With Chipotle To Deliver Burritos Using Drones ... as a new bio-weapon delivery system?
While artists and such do deserve a right to be able to make a fair shake on what they produce, why should patentable items only have a 20 year shelf life while a song have 100+ years of protection?
This is insane.
That should give the entertainment/content industry pause, if there was a strong united Internet demand for fair copyright terms.
That should give some pause to those trying to hijack the production and distribution of ideas.
Artists and such do deserve a right to be able to make a fair shake on what they produce.
However, why should patentable items only have a 20 year shelf life while a song have 150 years of protection?
A "reasonable" counter-position is to demand that copyright retroactively returns to reasonable periods such as a 20 years and that's it, no extensions. That would put most of the fun stuff in public domain where it belongs anyways. Hence the copyright bargain between those who create and those who consume gets rebalanced.
That should give the entertainment/content industry pause, if there was a strong SOPA-bashing united Internet demand for fair copyright terms.
That should give some pause to those trying to take over the production and distribution of ideas.
If the toilet was nicknamed the crapper due to the invetor
do we now go to the bathroom and take a giant gates?
I think they (RIAA) should have their draconian utopia. However the range / length of copyright should only hold for 5-10 years maximum retroactively. Why should the song "happy birthday" still be raking in money when patents only range about 20 years and cost a fortune to maintain. Public domain exists for a reason, otherwise you have lock-in on all ideas.
They can take a long walk of a short pier.
However unlike a demo which is free, if I don't like the game, do I get my money back?
Sorry folks,
We really should stop posting all the MPAA crap on this site. No one is doing anything about it. Where are the protests? Where are the letters being written to your elected official?
If you, that means You reading this, are not willing to do anything about it then I'm tired of hearing about it.
When we were going to get a DMCA like act about to be passed we crashed the Xmas party of the Minister in charge to get our point out.
So either put up and fight back or shut up.
Why not fat tax recliners and comfy couches along with any channel that shows the NFL all day on Sunday (and Beer too)?
I'm sure that will help the slightly older generation also get out there and be fit.
Thats nice,
We have been doing exactly this in our lab at the University since 2005 with magnetic fields and have the publications to prove it.
We have been using and developing our system for rehabilitation since the Wii and even that controller cannot be used properly for that purpose. Yes I've seen them in hospitals but they only have limited use.
They are of no use when it comes to fine movement rehabilitation.
When did these guys file their patent?
There is nothing wrong with the NDP per say. People have become way to polarized over EVERYTHING. Wake up and start to think on your own and not what your "party" wants you to squawk.
The NDP makes a good opposition watch dog to ensure that government doesn't just roll over everyone to make a other special interests or back room deals happy. Government is supposed to be about the citizens, and I think people have truely forgotten that.
I don't like everything the NDP has brought down, I mean 400$ per kid/ month? Why should a single guy like me have to pay for some dead beat with 11 kids who is socially unfit or irresponsible? Your kids, your problem. I even like the conservative hardening stance on youth crime. Both items don't mean I wont' or will support either party, just making a point, that I will consider the platforms. Ironically it seems that even those items these days are just a bunch of random chatter that has no meaning whatsoever, unfortunate.
However how I vote will be a reading of policy and not some bland loyalty. It is too bad people don't do this anymore and just eat the soundbites offered, instead of make up your own mind.
But kudos that someone at least is saying something about these issues.
Should anyone really be surprised?
... err.. I'm going to go talk to the Doctor, I can talk about my colon'
In the west, the perception is that Engineer as a professional is lumped in with joe MSCE and Information Technology. It is just assumed that anyone can do their jobs and they are no different from a CS major or community college student. Thus they earn the respect of the lowest assumed denominator, which is none. I believe other countries like Germany this maybe different, but at this day and age who knows.
The other reason why Enginners do not see respect is that the layman cannot relate to what we do. Even a doctor can discuss medical issues with friends.
'What's that Doctor? Oh, you do colon exams, hey! I have an colon, let's be friends.'
'What's that Mr Engineer? You programmed a DSP to efficiently process a multi-spectrum signal? Hey! I have an
So even a person who has limited knowledge about the human body can still understand or get an idea or concept easier about medical issues and conditions. You can relate on some level because you own a body. Unless you are in the tech field, you don't understand the tech field, but expect way more out of it and get upset because it doesn't do more. You also don't see that expectation from the other professions. There is still a mystical aura about being a Doctor, but not-so for the people who make the technology that medical professionals use.
The other problem is that companies that treat people poorly and are fly-by-night have the same survivability as a well run company that does not treat people poorly.
Bottom line, Engineers are taken for granted. If you are taken for granted you will be treated as such.
The funny part is that we ourselves don't do anything about it. The only way out of the system is to be your own boss and reap the rewards of your knowledge.
I do agree, people have to understand something about University level education:
... entering a masters degree which in turn is designed to prepare students to enter a ... PhD, eventually a post-Doc where the University gets virtual slaves. (At least in Canada, there is probably better money that flows around in the US system)
First off, the University system is designed to promote research, teaching is secondary. Yes there are professors who care about teaching, but the University system is more concerned with the prestige and money / attention research brings.
Secondly, a Bachelors Degree is designed to prepare students for
Another way of looking at it, goes something like this:
Bachelors: learning how to think
Masters : learning to think about what other people have done
PhD : learning to think for yourself
If you are lucky you have Professors that are practical minded and will teach to that, but Computer Science is not really regulated from what I've seen here in Canada at least, and is vastly different across the board. At least with Engineering in Canada there is a minimum standard for accreditation, but that is still not saying all that much.
I wonder if a world wide power grid would ever work with solar power. Its always sunny somewhere right? The question then becomes: is there enough surface area, even assuming very efficient solar panel arrays to power the whole world one part of the globe at a time?
My 0.02
How many people are going to be let go?
I support copyright and the GPL. I just do not support the ultra-extended terms for copyright, making works never accessible to the public within someone's LIFETIME. All it does is to hurt creativity and improvement upon original ideas that help accelerate art and society in general. So by those terms I would not be upset if a given software program becomes public domain after a term, by that time we'd be on to better things because via the GPL we are allowed to play and progress.
My 0.02
There has always been something for someone to blame youth "problems" on:
Let us recap:
50's : The start of Rock and/or Roll
60's : Hippies, Drugs, the counter culture
70's : DISCO? (I'd go crazy and want to shoot people if I had to hear that crap all day long)
80's : Heavy Metal, or perhaps just Twisted Sister and Ozzy, drugs etc
90's -> now : Horrific Video Violence that has "never" been seen before, and video games, not to mention music, drugs, etc
It isn't like there were time's before violence that were good(TM) and true(TM) yadda yadda. In Roman times you watched people getting eaten alive for sport in the Ring, we don't have anything close to that to watch yet, in fact I'd argue that were are far more tame as a society as we have ever been.
Point is there is always a scapegoat for a nutcase that decided to go out with a bang and take as many with him. 1/300 Million isn't against the odds of someone existing that is crazy enough to do that.
My 0.02
Quesiton:
What about errupting volcanos?
True the volcanos themselves give off a lot of gas, but when they full out erupt like Pinatubo is that number quoted taking account for full scale large eruptions? If not, what was the amount of greenhouse gas emitted when this happens?
Can anyone answer that?
(It would finally shut up a coworker as well)
We have been very fortunate not to have the draconian laws that are totally one sided. We as Canadians pay a levy on all our CDs /etc when we are using said media for legitmate uses.
Listing of Canadian MP's by Postal Code
Take some time and let your MP know that this issue is important and the current buzz over the environment doesn't mean people are going to ignore this. Remember, doing nothing is doing something. That something is allowing the music industry lobby groups walk all over you and say thank you, can I have some more.
So how hard is it to get into Google anyways? :)
I looked at the sample GLAT, I don't think I'd stand a chance regardless of degree
I think part of the issue, assuming (and that is a big assumption) that is is correct for now,is that for all the media that we all consume, what we see on TV is more exciting than the current space program. When you have an expectation of new stuff coming out all the time, its hard not to develop A.D.D. like a feret on espesso.
Internet == Fast, fast trends, constantly appeasing the mob with new trend du jour sponsored by a corporate entity, with some star power as its face
Media == with all the sci-fi shows, you almost get a "been there, done that attitude" even if its not real and made up
NASA == Slow, methodical, underfunded, slow progress. Doesn't fit with the 5 second trend.
Basically, if NASA could offer trips to the moon/mars right now like a amusment park ride, it would be different.
My 0.02
I'm curious what was the resolution of the device? How sensitive could the motion be and accurately do exercises?
I know why they didn't.
While on the surface this looks cool, as a fellow researcher on the subject I know that it has many many flaws. They have been doing VR rehab for a while now on various platforms. This is actually a relatively simple 'hack' of a outdated glove. The problem is that it doesn't keep the player or patient's interest and its resolution won't help any fine motor movement, shoulder-yes, arm-sure why not, but not finger or hand.
Its a nice idea, but ultimately it isn't all that useful.
It did, it was called OS9 (no not the MAC OS-9) but from at the time Microware.
I thought it was Steve Balmer's ego
I'm ex-pat IBMer.
My internship was all Notes Development. The area I was in took the time to train me properly in Lotus notes, where the regular app dev people honestly didn't bother using Notes to anywhere near its potential, they spent more time designing pretty icons versus making an App that worked. Thereby I can completely see from the end user point of view where one would definately not like what they get. I also acknowledge that the email aspect of Lotus Notes needs to be reworked. It was never really designed for it. Its (notes) primary use is distributed documentation with distributed authorship and it does that well.
I just hope that some of the internals are trimmed down a little to reduce some of bloat that is found when people just don't take the time to code is properly. Rapid development is always nice, but like everything else faster output (read turn-around time from conception to product) isn't always (or ever) the best result.
I think a linux client however will be a great thing, and I hope they have taken a little time to polish it off, but that is wishful thinking.
My 2 cents.