I don't know about that, but what my point is that I think it's a good thing that the fee collected by the patent office is actually used by the patent office as opposed to supporting some other god-forsaken government program.
My point is that right now, they collect a fee for reviewing a given application, presumably for the time the reviewer takes to do his job. Right now, that fee doesn't really go back into the patent office, it flies off somewhere else in the federal budget. Wouldn't it make sense to bolster their budget so that they can hire some more folks to get rid of the epic backlog that the patent office has? They don't have the budget to keep up.
"Currently those fees go to the general Treasury fund, and Congress appropriates money for the Patent and Trademark Office. But since 1992 the PTO has lost nearly $1 billion because the sums it gets from Congress are less than the fees. This fiscal year the agency had authority to spend $2.1 billion, about $85 million less than it expects to receive in fees.
That's a major reason that the agency can't hire enough examiners, that it takes an average of three years to get a patent approved and that the agency has a backlog of 1.2 million pending patents, including more than 700,000 that haven't reached an examiner's desk." --http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=137348199
Seems like the PTO might operate better if they had the budget to pay for their operations costs...
Moves from 'first-to-invent' to 'first-inventor-to-file', and the US Patent Trade Office FINALLY gets to keep the fees it collects.
The bit about fees is a no-brainer in my book (perhaps if they kept the money, they could employ more folks to look over patent applications), but I'm not so sure about a 'first-to-file' system.
and this is a good decision. I've seen so many cool hacks for this hardware already, and that's just hackers playing around. Imagine what could be done with a legit SDK. Good job Microsoft, make more of these kinds of decisions.
They don't even have to do that. Just treat the hard copies like shit, so they won't go in a feeder. It will take FOREVER to scan those in; I know, my first job was at a print shop that offered OCR services to the county. They treated their paperwork like crap, and we usually had to hand place banker box after banker box of originals to be scanned and OCR'd.
of this crap. These 'offensive' communications laws have been in place for decades, over radio, TV, and now the web. At what point is the government going to realize that just as with every other communication media, if one doesn't want to see/hear/view it, one simply needs to change the channel, click the back button, or (heaven forbid) turn the device off and go outside? Leave our radios, television sets and internet alone. I swear, if I hear 'think of the children' as justification for this crap one more time...
how SpaceX and the like can fill the heavy lifting gap left by the shuttle. I think it'd be awesome to commoditize (not sure if that's a word) the act of getting equipment to LEO and the ISS, while letting NASA concentrate on far-flung missions and manned and probe-based exploration. That said, NASA really needs to work on a better name for that module.
and it's the android phone in my pocket. It does everything that I'd ever want to do on a device with a 4" screen. For everything else, I have a laptop that has a full size keyboard.
Come on, Netflix. You're really the only company in the position to fight big cable and the crappy ISPs. Plus, they're in the interesting position that if they really take this seriously, they'll be on the consumer side of the bandwidth cap\throttling argument. I'd love to see Reed grow a pair and put a large company behind the little guys in a fight that we'd otherwise certainly lose. In a justice system dominated by corporate money, and with an anemic FCC, we the people might actually stand a chance with some corporate money on our side for once.
I've found that the time I take for lunch has been great for rejuvenating my reading habit. I picked up a kindle on the cheap, and it has been a boon to my reading time. I can take up the whole lunch hour sitting outside on the grass eating my lunch and turning pages, virtual or real. Yeah, group lunches are awesome, but sometimes it's nice to just kick back and let your imagination wander.
Congratulations to the engineers working on the original project all those years ago. I couldn't fathom designing something like this with the toolset they had 30+ years ago. Props to them for creating a set of probes that are still relevant 30 years after their launch.
In Microsoft's defense, the 'cute doggy', as my girlfriend calls it, was much more popular with the demographic made up of old ladies, babies, and people more susceptible to cute-attacks than the rest of the general population than Clippy ever was. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I hear a 'squeee!' coming from my girlfriend's general direction.
and led to a boom in 'casual' gaming. Let's see if they can continue that trend with the Wii ii. I don't own a 360 or PS3, but I own a Wii because it's great at parties and for those times when I just want to throw blue shells at somebody after coming home from work.
Sure, Valve makes money off of the sales, but so do the indie dev companies. I think that Valve and the indie groups have outdone themselves with the promotion of this game. I really think it's a win for everybody involved: Valve makes more money, the indie devs get a lot of exposure(and probably increased sales), and gamers get the game early. Plus, I'm still geeking out about the ARG. It's good marketing that helps to further define the universe that Portal and Half Life live in. And I give it two thumbs up.
With the level of commitment Valve has given to the ARG and its viral marketing, I fully expect them to develop a good game to boot. Sure, it could be a dud, but I've seen plenty of game trailers that seem to show that they've really put some thought into the new gameplay aspects introduced in Portal 2.
I would expect a media blitz for a crappy game from Ubisoft and the like, but I think I'll give Valve the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Slashdot Mirror
It's dead, Jim.
Updates perhaps? They don't say whether they counted phone-home updates in this study or not.
I don't know about that, but what my point is that I think it's a good thing that the fee collected by the patent office is actually used by the patent office as opposed to supporting some other god-forsaken government program.
"Currently those fees go to the general Treasury fund, and Congress appropriates money for the Patent and Trademark Office. But since 1992 the PTO has lost nearly $1 billion because the sums it gets from Congress are less than the fees. This fiscal year the agency had authority to spend $2.1 billion, about $85 million less than it expects to receive in fees.
That's a major reason that the agency can't hire enough examiners, that it takes an average of three years to get a patent approved and that the agency has a backlog of 1.2 million pending patents, including more than 700,000 that haven't reached an examiner's desk." --http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=137348199
Seems like the PTO might operate better if they had the budget to pay for their operations costs...
Moves from 'first-to-invent' to 'first-inventor-to-file', and the US Patent Trade Office FINALLY gets to keep the fees it collects. The bit about fees is a no-brainer in my book (perhaps if they kept the money, they could employ more folks to look over patent applications), but I'm not so sure about a 'first-to-file' system.
but at least people are starting to realize it: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/09/3687455/jerry-brown-confiscates-more-than.html
and this is a good decision. I've seen so many cool hacks for this hardware already, and that's just hackers playing around. Imagine what could be done with a legit SDK. Good job Microsoft, make more of these kinds of decisions.
Oops, I'm in the habit of thinking that taxes are added on. Forgot about the VAT.
than in the UK: http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=MTAyNTQzMjI
Apparently, Anonymous announced an intention to go after the federal reserve next: http://gizmodo.com/5811546/anonymous-goes-after-federal-reserve. It'll be quite interesting if they attempt it. I'm interested in seeing how the fed handles this.
They don't even have to do that. Just treat the hard copies like shit, so they won't go in a feeder. It will take FOREVER to scan those in; I know, my first job was at a print shop that offered OCR services to the county. They treated their paperwork like crap, and we usually had to hand place banker box after banker box of originals to be scanned and OCR'd.
of this crap. These 'offensive' communications laws have been in place for decades, over radio, TV, and now the web. At what point is the government going to realize that just as with every other communication media, if one doesn't want to see/hear/view it, one simply needs to change the channel, click the back button, or (heaven forbid) turn the device off and go outside? Leave our radios, television sets and internet alone. I swear, if I hear 'think of the children' as justification for this crap one more time...
US congress, I pray that you pay attention to this. Your constitutions actually WANT this type of legislation!
how SpaceX and the like can fill the heavy lifting gap left by the shuttle. I think it'd be awesome to commoditize (not sure if that's a word) the act of getting equipment to LEO and the ISS, while letting NASA concentrate on far-flung missions and manned and probe-based exploration. That said, NASA really needs to work on a better name for that module.
Looks like Microsoft went ahead and skipped steps 1 and 2 this time just to make things easier for everybody.
and it's the android phone in my pocket. It does everything that I'd ever want to do on a device with a 4" screen. For everything else, I have a laptop that has a full size keyboard.
Come on, Netflix. You're really the only company in the position to fight big cable and the crappy ISPs. Plus, they're in the interesting position that if they really take this seriously, they'll be on the consumer side of the bandwidth cap\throttling argument. I'd love to see Reed grow a pair and put a large company behind the little guys in a fight that we'd otherwise certainly lose. In a justice system dominated by corporate money, and with an anemic FCC, we the people might actually stand a chance with some corporate money on our side for once.
I've found that the time I take for lunch has been great for rejuvenating my reading habit. I picked up a kindle on the cheap, and it has been a boon to my reading time. I can take up the whole lunch hour sitting outside on the grass eating my lunch and turning pages, virtual or real. Yeah, group lunches are awesome, but sometimes it's nice to just kick back and let your imagination wander.
Congratulations to the engineers working on the original project all those years ago. I couldn't fathom designing something like this with the toolset they had 30+ years ago. Props to them for creating a set of probes that are still relevant 30 years after their launch.
I'll never recommend your products again.
In Microsoft's defense, the 'cute doggy', as my girlfriend calls it, was much more popular with the demographic made up of old ladies, babies, and people more susceptible to cute-attacks than the rest of the general population than Clippy ever was. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I hear a 'squeee!' coming from my girlfriend's general direction.
and led to a boom in 'casual' gaming. Let's see if they can continue that trend with the Wii ii. I don't own a 360 or PS3, but I own a Wii because it's great at parties and for those times when I just want to throw blue shells at somebody after coming home from work.
Yeah...it appears to be working now though.
Sure, Valve makes money off of the sales, but so do the indie dev companies. I think that Valve and the indie groups have outdone themselves with the promotion of this game. I really think it's a win for everybody involved: Valve makes more money, the indie devs get a lot of exposure(and probably increased sales), and gamers get the game early. Plus, I'm still geeking out about the ARG. It's good marketing that helps to further define the universe that Portal and Half Life live in. And I give it two thumbs up. With the level of commitment Valve has given to the ARG and its viral marketing, I fully expect them to develop a good game to boot. Sure, it could be a dud, but I've seen plenty of game trailers that seem to show that they've really put some thought into the new gameplay aspects introduced in Portal 2. I would expect a media blitz for a crappy game from Ubisoft and the like, but I think I'll give Valve the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Here's a countdown that gives current percentage, as well as a countdown based on people's gaming patterns thus far: hasportal2launchedyet.com