True story, told to me by the deputies when they investigated our incident:
Guy works for a trucking company. He drives his tractor onto the lot, waves at his buddies and says, "hey, Ralph!" Good mornin', Sam!" He hooks up a giant aluminum flatbed and drives it to his house. He uses a torch to cut it into scrap which he transports up into Tennessee. He makes thousands of dollars.
Here's the scary part: he probably would have gotten away with it. But he did it THREE TIMES. He was finally caught when they did inventory, wondered about three missing trailers, and old security video showed him driving off with one of them.
So... let me ask you this, Goebbels. (Hey, if you can invoke Geoffrey, I'll invoke him right back.)
A bunch of teenage-and-twenty-something kids come into your facility with a huge bundle of telecom cable. The insulation has been burned off. You just KNOW that they're legit; right? You don't even ask for ID?
Sorry, dood, but you ARE part of the problem. Calling me a Nazi for pointing that out to you doesn't change that fact.
We desperately need that here in Alabama. At present, there are plenty of crooked scrap dealers who buy the copper, then immediately load it on trucks and take it up to Tennessee, where it's melted within a matter of days. Even if you mark the copper, it doesn't make a bit of difference. It's long gone by the time the police show up to ask questions.
I agree. Take pictures of anyone selling scrap metal. Get their ID.
We have signs like that. Our signs also point out that stealing from a federally-licensed facility could result in a federal investigation. Shoot, the Birmingham Police have their antennas on one of our big FM towers, and the thieves DON'T CARE. They get hit all the time.
The thieves will destroy the cable to determine if it's clad or pure copper, then throw aside the stuff they don't want. It still leaves *ME* with a ton of cleanup and repair to do.
That's what I love about this crap: they steal $20 worth of copper and do $10,000 of damage in the process. They'll take the three ground cables from a 700' tower (worth about $10 for scrap) -- and those grounds are what keep lightning out of my equipment. A storm rolls along and I get hammered, while they sit back with their six pack of beer and think they've done well for themselves. (Whimper.)
Heh. I feel for you. Been there, done it. But I'll tell you this -- we get hit just as frequently at our big 100,000 watt FMs in Birmingham as we do at the remote sites. My colleague at the Clear Channel site right next to our FM on Red Mountain in Birmingham has video of a guy jumping the fence, clipping a handful of copper, and then gracefully jumping back over the fence, into his car and down the hill -- all in less than a minute. By the time the cops arrived, he was long gone.
The cameras at that same Clear Channel site also provided a (somewhat scary) image of a different copper thief shooting out the lights before proceeding with his theft. He got caught, though, because even though he was wearing a mask, you could see his (unmasked) girlfriend crouching in the trees. She was identified and later sang like a canary when she was brought in for questioning.
These guys know how long the police response time is and make sure they can grab and scoot before they can get caught. The deputies who investigated our big theft at a 50,000 watt AM a couple of years ago said the best way to catch them was to set a trap (but even then, they got discouraged because the thieves would spend a few months in jail, then be right back out to steal again).
The deputies told me that on a slow day, they'll actually cruise the neighborhood with the windows down, sniffing for the smell of burning plastic. Whenever thieves steal telecom cable, they often try to burn off the insulation before scrapping it to get a better price.
Sorry, to further clarify: higher frequencies == more skin effect. Although... I've been told that one reason why you can't find AC conductors much larger than 500 and 1000 MCM is because, even at 60 Hz, skin effect becomes significant.
It's not the voltage, it's the frequency. The wire acts as an inductor, leading to "skin effect" -- most of the signal travels in the outer "skin" of the conductor, and very little current flows in the center.
As someone who has been hit repeatedly by these morons, a few thoughts. Radio in general offers a very attractive target to these thieves, especially (believe it or not) older installations like AM radio stations. (At low frequencies like AM, the tower itself is actually the antenna -- that's why there are insulators in the guy wires -- and the tower field is laced with gobs and gobs of soft copper that acts as the ground plane.)
1. Copper-clad steel is nothing new. Some of this is just marketroid hype (though to be fair, I don't think anyone has ever made clad *telcom* cable before). But other types of clad conductors have been common for some time -- not just to deter theft, but because of the price of copper.
2. The real problem is the scrap metal dealers. You can't tell me that they're not suspicious when a couple of teenage guys come dragging in the core from a big honkin' three phase HVAC unit. But THEY want the copper even worse than the thieves, because they turn around and sell it in ton lots at a huge profit.
3. Copper is considerably more conductive than steel. We can get away with it at RF frequencies because of skin effect (i.e., the signal travels through the "skin" of the conductor, rather than the center), but it's not a perfect solution. It's much more difficult to work with and it's easy to accidentally strip off the copper cladding, leaving you with far less desirable steel at the connection point.
4. These thieves really are morons, and yes, most are repeat offenders. They even talk to one another in jail and compare notes. When we were hammered in February of 2010, the deputies who investigated our incident told us that they even knew who most of these people were. We had video cameras and they scoured the images to get a clue as to who it was.
But sometimes I have to laugh. One of our FM stations here is in the huge metropolis of Pumpkin Center, Alabama, which defines "middle of nowhere." The house up the (dirt) road from the transmitter site has been hit repeatedly; I drove to the site to do routine maintenance a couple of years ago and noted that the air conditioner had been ransacked. But they won't mess with the FM site.
I guess the fact that our landlady likes to go out and there and shoot with her boyfriend gives them pause. The sight of all those targets with bullet holes all around the center makes them think twice.:)
Then some thieves tried to cut the gigantic, 6" copper coax going to our 100,000 FM in North Central Alabama. I posted a note that said, "Dear morons, if you try to cut this line, please have your life insurance paid up.... "
They've stolen our grounding several times since, but they haven't touched that big coax again.:)
Where history is actually repeating itself lies in the fact that bought-out politicians are nothing new. This comment is going to sound like it's off at a tangent, but I'm sharing it to maybe calm some people down. To quote someone I heard a while back, "hate is like a deadly poison. YOU'RE the one drinking it, but you hope the OTHER guy dies!"
Instead of hopeless or mindless rage, channel that into a determined anger that will actually change things. The biggest aid for that is a sense of perspective.
I like to read alternate history; a good one is Eric Flint's "Rivers of War" series (currently just two books, but I'm gonna give him a noogie if he doesn't produce #3 pretty soon) for a good look at the political situation right after the US was founded. Even then, there were political parties, deals in back rooms, posturing, money and favors... and (of course) a disastrous war that made some people rich, others poor.
A lot was said (admittedly, with some justification) about Cheney and Haliburton during W's term, but go back to WWII. Go watch Little Orphan Annie; her benefactor was called "Daddy Warbucks." That was a common joke back then: it was a guy who got rich selling arms during the war. Go back to the Civil War, and you'll find the same thing: there were some people who got ridiculously wealthy off of that conflict. Even in the Revolutionary war, which is the closest you might come to an "ideological" conflict, there were people who stood to lose or gain a great deal on the outcome, and it determined their actions.
In times of peace, the same thing happens. As Flint points out, some supported a National Bank for noble reasons, but others supported it simply because they thought it was a path to riches. Those who opposed it were equally divided.
What I've said, in my usual long-winded way, is that politicians have ALWAYS been corrupt. Don't ever give up trying to Fight The Machine(tm), but don't let rage consume you and don't (worst of all) become demoralized if you think your efforts make no difference.
Usual disclaimer: just my opinion, and worth precisely what you paid for it.:)
> And by not casting a vote, allow the system to roll over you without saying anything
Sad, but true. For Congress Creatures(tm), it's all about obtaining the numbers for re-election. If you're disgusted and inclined to vote against them, they *hope* you *won't* vote. Their strategists will say, "we'll lose support on this one, but after all, we have time before the next election. We have a war chest and can afford $$$$ TV and radio ads. We can get our base back [by opposing the war] / [supporting the war] / [being pro-choice] / [being pro-life] / whatever. We'll run negative ads to attack our opponent. And if we can demoralize the opposition, make them believe that their vote is pointless, so much the better."
A high turnout ALWAYS sends a message, even if they're re-elected. If your Creature was re-elected by a 10% margin in the previous election, but pulls out a squeaker in this one -- especially if he/she sees a good bit if his/her "base" go for a third party candidate -- it will make him or her think.
> trade one representative who supports SOPA for another who will probably support SOPA anyway
A valid objection. The obvious answer is that we have to keep an eye on these crooks and hold their feet to the fire.
But part of that is for them to realize that they can't take us for granted. The Republicans have been doing that with the Christian Right, and Democrats with African Americans, for decades. They KNOW that their "base" will vote for them, no matter what. And until we finally send a message that even their "base" ain't gonna put up with the outright selling of votes and influence, even thick-headed morons like the current batch of Congress Creatures might finally get the message.
Which is why I said what I did. It's a thought experiment: are you, personally, willing to accept that both parties are corrupt; that they are dismally ignorant of any technology more advanced than a light bulb or flushing toilet; and that they DEPEND on your quiet acquiescence to keep their marvelous little money-and-influence game going? The logical end result of that will be, "dang, I may have to vote for someone in the party that I normally loathe."
Sure, ideally, we'd have some third or fourth party candidates, or viable independents, to choose from as well. But given the system as it is now, I can fairly ask: "are you willing to take the medicine, even if it tastes bad?"
> Health Care was created to give everyone access...
You're missing the point. The point was, the American people DID NOT WANT IT. Whether it's a marvelous idea or the most heinous thing ever inflicted on the electorate is something that we can debate until we're blue-faced.
But DO NOT say, "if our congress creatures vote for SOPA against the will of the people, then they deserve to be un-elected," then turn right around and say, "but those who voted for healthcare, against the clear will of their constituents, were brave heroes."
You cannot have it both ways. This really isn't that hard to understand.
Remember, those who support SOPA think that "pimply faced kids" are "flaunting the law" and "stealing intellectual property" (the essense of actual comments from its supporters).
The answer is, representatives should represent the will of their constituents. They won't always agree; politics is the art of compromise, after all. We have to accept that. No one gets everything they want. But if people know that their elected representatives are at least listening to them, the pill is a bit less bitter to swallow.:)
Anything else results in precisely what we see now: extreme polarization, name-calling, and near-civil-war in some cases.
Some of you won't like this, but I hope you'll at least give this a hard consideration. The bottom line is that it's our fault.
For example, I know from the comments here over the years that some of you are complete partisans. I'm surprised that, even this early in this thread, we haven't already seen "It's the Evil Republicans(tm)," followed by, "no, it's the stupid Democrats," complete with scores that go up and down like a VU meter on a rap tune: troll, insightful, back to troll, then insightful, over and over, as each partisan group lashes out.
BOTH PARTIES ARE CORRUPT AND HAVE SOLD YOU OUT. This doesn't mean there aren't a few honest congresscritters running loose. But folks, there's a REASON why, during the primaries, candidates can call each other every name in the book, but once a nominee is selected, all of the losers magically say, "well, of course I'll support him/her! He/She is a fine person!"
It's all about the money and the power: Chairmanships in Congress, lucrative appointments, voting blocks and power brokers. This plays out every two years, and the best we can do is scream, "less filling/tastes great/less filling/tastes great," Dem vs. Repub over and over.
Here's the example that some of you really, really aren't going to like. I know (again, from reading comments) that there are some of you here who supported the Health Care bill, but who are vehemently opposed to SOPA. (For the record, I am in opposition to BOTH.) You can't have it both ways. Every reputable poll ever taken has shown that the American people were strongly opposed to that HealthCare bill, but there were some of you here who said, "yay!" when it passed. You called those who passed it, even knowing that they might be un-elected, "brave heroes."
(Or, a quick conservative example: Scott Brown wins Ted Kennedy's old seat in Mass, and right wingers rejoiced. A few months later, he voted for a treaty that the right wing hated. They attacked Brown and wondered why he had "betrayed" them. What they should have asked was, "what do the people of Massachusetts want?" If he was reflecting their desires, they need to SHUT UP. He represents THEM, not a party or an ideology.)
So, SOPA. If you can convince enough Congresscritters that enough of US care to un-elect them if they vote for it, it can be stopped. But if they (and more importantly, their strategists) convince themselves that they can finesse it, or find some other issue that will cause you to hold your nose and re-elect them, they'll vote for SOPA.
In plain English: some of you who hate the "Repugs" may have to vote for one in November, if your Dem congressman votes for SOPA. Will you do that?
Likewise, my conservative friends: will you vote for a "Demoncrat" if your beloved Repub congresscreature votes for SOPA?
If the answer to either question is, "no" (or even just a little hesitation), you have only yourself to blame. That's the bottom line.
> Instead they can spend a ton of money on research and development, produce a product, and a month later > find themselves competing with a dozen competitors who invested nothing in research and developement...
This isn't an either/or -- regardless of what some comments here would imply.:) It's not a binary solution set: either we do away with all patents, or continue with the present system.
As originally envisioned, patents were to protect novel and unique ideas and inventions. The problem, of course, is that nowadays, virtually anything can be patented, regardless of prior art or lack of novelty.
So to answer your (implied) question: if you spend a ton of money on research and produce a product, it depends. If it's something truly new and unique, yes, you should have patent protection. But if it's just a slight rework of an older idea, no, I DON'T think taht should be patentable. In that case, yes, you WILL get killed by competition, but I would argue that if it took you "tons of research and development" to come up with something like that, your R&D department is incompetent and maybe economic darwinism ought to put YOU in its sights.:)
My own humble proposals are actually simple. This isn't rocket science.
1. Eliminate so-called "design" and "method" patents.
2. If it can be demonstrated that a person of similar intelligence could have developed the same idea in a "clean room" environment (i.e., without reverse engineering), the idea isn't patentable.
We could argue about this one, but here goes anyway:
3. No device that uses, as a primary component, a patented device, can itself then be patented. Example: I patent a new type of widget. You develop a way to use that widget in an airplane wing and try to patent that use. My patent is approved, but yours should be denied.
Finally, for the nth time: LOSER PAY LEGISLATION. The US is one of the few industrialized nations that doesn't have this OBVIOUS protection. If the loser of a spurious lawsuit had to pay the costs, this would take care of the remaining litigation surrounding scurrilous, stupid patents.
Just my opinion, and worth exactly what you paid for it.:)
If I ever need one again, I'll (possibly) permit them to drag me into an open MRI. (Possibly.) The problem until recently has been that they were a lot more expensive and insurance didn't want to cover the additional cost.
My wife accuses me of being a spoilsport because I'm too analytical. In fact, they replayed that show tonight. I said, "you know they're not going to kill Bones because she's the star of the show. The show is called, 'Bones.' What would they call it? 'Ghost of Bones?' 'Memory of Bones?' 'Bones B Gone Now An' Boof Be Mad LOLZ?' Not likely..."
captured prisoners were tied, then placed inside of logs while people beat on the outside with clubs and hammers.
In the United States, we have a higher tech version called an "MRI."
If this technology pans out, I'll mail them a hot dog. If it keeps me from ever having an MRI again, I'll send them THREE hot dogs. Any way they want them.:)
> CIWS [wikipedia.org], RAM [wikipedia.org], or ESSM [wikipedia.org] systems.
Thanks for posting that. You beat me to it.
Anyone here who thinks it's a good idea to take a speedboat -- heck, I'll even let you use one of those million-dollar "cigarette" racing boats -- and attack the United States Navy, well... you will VERY briefly enjoy a great deal of excitement. You may or may not even get your missile clear of the boat before you are smashed, crushed, exploded, blown away, and your constituent atoms whisked up to protect the environment.
(Actually, from talking years ago to a friend who had been in the Submarine service, the only serious concern when going up against a navy like Iran's is that they might have a half-decent diesel-electric boat and know how to use it. If they're running at very slow speed on batteries, those things can be quite difficult to detect.)
(Disclaimer: that was in the 1980's and I know things have changed since.)
Defendant's motion for remittitur is allowed (Doc. 238). Defendant shall inform the court by September 29, 2011 whether it seeks a new trial. If not, judgement shall enter in the amount of $4,200 plus pre-judgment interest of 12% from 2004.
So... if there's going to be a new trial, wouldn't they already have informed the court?
When I first moved here and experienced my first traffic jam, I watched in amazement as the people drove over the median, onto sidewalks, around light poles and right on the edge of ditches.
Slashdot Mirror
> Opportunistic thieves come from all classes.
True story, told to me by the deputies when they investigated our incident:
Guy works for a trucking company. He drives his tractor onto the lot, waves at his buddies and says, "hey, Ralph!" Good mornin', Sam!" He hooks up a giant aluminum flatbed and drives it to his house. He uses a torch to cut it into scrap which he transports up into Tennessee. He makes thousands of dollars.
Here's the scary part: he probably would have gotten away with it. But he did it THREE TIMES. He was finally caught when they did inventory, wondered about three missing trailers, and old security video showed him driving off with one of them.
>> ...like there's no tomorrow
> They may be right.
*Golf clap*
So ... let me ask you this, Goebbels. (Hey, if you can invoke Geoffrey, I'll invoke him right back.)
A bunch of teenage-and-twenty-something kids come into your facility with a huge bundle of telecom cable. The insulation has been burned off. You just KNOW that they're legit; right? You don't even ask for ID?
Sorry, dood, but you ARE part of the problem. Calling me a Nazi for pointing that out to you doesn't change that fact.
We desperately need that here in Alabama. At present, there are plenty of crooked scrap dealers who buy the copper, then immediately load it on trucks and take it up to Tennessee, where it's melted within a matter of days. Even if you mark the copper, it doesn't make a bit of difference. It's long gone by the time the police show up to ask questions.
I agree. Take pictures of anyone selling scrap metal. Get their ID.
We have signs like that. Our signs also point out that stealing from a federally-licensed facility could result in a federal investigation. Shoot, the Birmingham Police have their antennas on one of our big FM towers, and the thieves DON'T CARE. They get hit all the time.
The thieves will destroy the cable to determine if it's clad or pure copper, then throw aside the stuff they don't want. It still leaves *ME* with a ton of cleanup and repair to do.
That's what I love about this crap: they steal $20 worth of copper and do $10,000 of damage in the process. They'll take the three ground cables from a 700' tower (worth about $10 for scrap) -- and those grounds are what keep lightning out of my equipment. A storm rolls along and I get hammered, while they sit back with their six pack of beer and think they've done well for themselves. (Whimper.)
Heh. I feel for you. Been there, done it. But I'll tell you this -- we get hit just as frequently at our big 100,000 watt FMs in Birmingham as we do at the remote sites. My colleague at the Clear Channel site right next to our FM on Red Mountain in Birmingham has video of a guy jumping the fence, clipping a handful of copper, and then gracefully jumping back over the fence, into his car and down the hill -- all in less than a minute. By the time the cops arrived, he was long gone.
The cameras at that same Clear Channel site also provided a (somewhat scary) image of a different copper thief shooting out the lights before proceeding with his theft. He got caught, though, because even though he was wearing a mask, you could see his (unmasked) girlfriend crouching in the trees. She was identified and later sang like a canary when she was brought in for questioning.
These guys know how long the police response time is and make sure they can grab and scoot before they can get caught. The deputies who investigated our big theft at a 50,000 watt AM a couple of years ago said the best way to catch them was to set a trap (but even then, they got discouraged because the thieves would spend a few months in jail, then be right back out to steal again).
The deputies told me that on a slow day, they'll actually cruise the neighborhood with the windows down, sniffing for the smell of burning plastic. Whenever thieves steal telecom cable, they often try to burn off the insulation before scrapping it to get a better price.
Sorry, to further clarify: higher frequencies == more skin effect. Although ... I've been told that one reason why you can't find AC conductors much larger than 500 and 1000 MCM is because, even at 60 Hz, skin effect becomes significant.
(YMMV on that last one.)
It's not the voltage, it's the frequency. The wire acts as an inductor, leading to "skin effect" -- most of the signal travels in the outer "skin" of the conductor, and very little current flows in the center.
As someone who has been hit repeatedly by these morons, a few thoughts. Radio in general offers a very attractive target to these thieves, especially (believe it or not) older installations like AM radio stations. (At low frequencies like AM, the tower itself is actually the antenna -- that's why there are insulators in the guy wires -- and the tower field is laced with gobs and gobs of soft copper that acts as the ground plane.)
1. Copper-clad steel is nothing new. Some of this is just marketroid hype (though to be fair, I don't think anyone has ever made clad *telcom* cable before). But other types of clad conductors have been common for some time -- not just to deter theft, but because of the price of copper.
2. The real problem is the scrap metal dealers. You can't tell me that they're not suspicious when a couple of teenage guys come dragging in the core from a big honkin' three phase HVAC unit. But THEY want the copper even worse than the thieves, because they turn around and sell it in ton lots at a huge profit.
3. Copper is considerably more conductive than steel. We can get away with it at RF frequencies because of skin effect (i.e., the signal travels through the "skin" of the conductor, rather than the center), but it's not a perfect solution. It's much more difficult to work with and it's easy to accidentally strip off the copper cladding, leaving you with far less desirable steel at the connection point.
4. These thieves really are morons, and yes, most are repeat offenders. They even talk to one another in jail and compare notes. When we were hammered in February of 2010, the deputies who investigated our incident told us that they even knew who most of these people were. We had video cameras and they scoured the images to get a clue as to who it was.
But sometimes I have to laugh. One of our FM stations here is in the huge metropolis of Pumpkin Center, Alabama, which defines "middle of nowhere." The house up the (dirt) road from the transmitter site has been hit repeatedly; I drove to the site to do routine maintenance a couple of years ago and noted that the air conditioner had been ransacked. But they won't mess with the FM site.
I guess the fact that our landlady likes to go out and there and shoot with her boyfriend gives them pause. The sight of all those targets with bullet holes all around the center makes them think twice. :)
Then some thieves tried to cut the gigantic, 6" copper coax going to our 100,000 FM in North Central Alabama. I posted a note that said, "Dear morons, if you try to cut this line, please have your life insurance paid up .... "
They've stolen our grounding several times since, but they haven't touched that big coax again. :)
> Daddy Warbucks made his fortunate during WW ONE ...
You are absolutely right. That's what I get for going from memory. :)
Getting old sucks sometimes.
Where history is actually repeating itself lies in the fact that bought-out politicians are nothing new. This comment is going to sound like it's off at a tangent, but I'm sharing it to maybe calm some people down. To quote someone I heard a while back, "hate is like a deadly poison. YOU'RE the one drinking it, but you hope the OTHER guy dies!"
Instead of hopeless or mindless rage, channel that into a determined anger that will actually change things. The biggest aid for that is a sense of perspective.
I like to read alternate history; a good one is Eric Flint's "Rivers of War" series (currently just two books, but I'm gonna give him a noogie if he doesn't produce #3 pretty soon) for a good look at the political situation right after the US was founded. Even then, there were political parties, deals in back rooms, posturing, money and favors ... and (of course) a disastrous war that made some people rich, others poor.
A lot was said (admittedly, with some justification) about Cheney and Haliburton during W's term, but go back to WWII. Go watch Little Orphan Annie; her benefactor was called "Daddy Warbucks." That was a common joke back then: it was a guy who got rich selling arms during the war. Go back to the Civil War, and you'll find the same thing: there were some people who got ridiculously wealthy off of that conflict. Even in the Revolutionary war, which is the closest you might come to an "ideological" conflict, there were people who stood to lose or gain a great deal on the outcome, and it determined their actions.
In times of peace, the same thing happens. As Flint points out, some supported a National Bank for noble reasons, but others supported it simply because they thought it was a path to riches. Those who opposed it were equally divided.
What I've said, in my usual long-winded way, is that politicians have ALWAYS been corrupt. Don't ever give up trying to Fight The Machine(tm), but don't let rage consume you and don't (worst of all) become demoralized if you think your efforts make no difference.
Usual disclaimer: just my opinion, and worth precisely what you paid for it. :)
> And by not casting a vote, allow the system to roll over you without saying anything
Sad, but true. For Congress Creatures(tm), it's all about obtaining the numbers for re-election. If you're disgusted and inclined to vote against them, they *hope* you *won't* vote. Their strategists will say, "we'll lose support on this one, but after all, we have time before the next election. We have a war chest and can afford $$$$ TV and radio ads. We can get our base back [by opposing the war] / [supporting the war] / [being pro-choice] / [being pro-life] / whatever. We'll run negative ads to attack our opponent. And if we can demoralize the opposition, make them believe that their vote is pointless, so much the better."
A high turnout ALWAYS sends a message, even if they're re-elected. If your Creature was re-elected by a 10% margin in the previous election, but pulls out a squeaker in this one -- especially if he/she sees a good bit if his/her "base" go for a third party candidate -- it will make him or her think.
Hopefully, anyway. :)
> trade one representative who supports SOPA for another who will probably support SOPA anyway
A valid objection. The obvious answer is that we have to keep an eye on these crooks and hold their feet to the fire.
But part of that is for them to realize that they can't take us for granted. The Republicans have been doing that with the Christian Right, and Democrats with African Americans, for decades. They KNOW that their "base" will vote for them, no matter what. And until we finally send a message that even their "base" ain't gonna put up with the outright selling of votes and influence, even thick-headed morons like the current batch of Congress Creatures might finally get the message.
Which is why I said what I did. It's a thought experiment: are you, personally, willing to accept that both parties are corrupt; that they are dismally ignorant of any technology more advanced than a light bulb or flushing toilet; and that they DEPEND on your quiet acquiescence to keep their marvelous little money-and-influence game going? The logical end result of that will be, "dang, I may have to vote for someone in the party that I normally loathe."
Sure, ideally, we'd have some third or fourth party candidates, or viable independents, to choose from as well. But given the system as it is now, I can fairly ask: "are you willing to take the medicine, even if it tastes bad?"
> Health Care was created to give everyone access ...
You're missing the point. The point was, the American people DID NOT WANT IT. Whether it's a marvelous idea or the most heinous thing ever inflicted on the electorate is something that we can debate until we're blue-faced.
But DO NOT say, "if our congress creatures vote for SOPA against the will of the people, then they deserve to be un-elected," then turn right around and say, "but those who voted for healthcare, against the clear will of their constituents, were brave heroes."
You cannot have it both ways. This really isn't that hard to understand.
Remember, those who support SOPA think that "pimply faced kids" are "flaunting the law" and "stealing intellectual property" (the essense of actual comments from its supporters).
The answer is, representatives should represent the will of their constituents. They won't always agree; politics is the art of compromise, after all. We have to accept that. No one gets everything they want. But if people know that their elected representatives are at least listening to them, the pill is a bit less bitter to swallow. :)
Anything else results in precisely what we see now: extreme polarization, name-calling, and near-civil-war in some cases.
Some of you won't like this, but I hope you'll at least give this a hard consideration. The bottom line is that it's our fault.
For example, I know from the comments here over the years that some of you are complete partisans. I'm surprised that, even this early in this thread, we haven't already seen "It's the Evil Republicans(tm)," followed by, "no, it's the stupid Democrats," complete with scores that go up and down like a VU meter on a rap tune: troll, insightful, back to troll, then insightful, over and over, as each partisan group lashes out.
BOTH PARTIES ARE CORRUPT AND HAVE SOLD YOU OUT. This doesn't mean there aren't a few honest congresscritters running loose. But folks, there's a REASON why, during the primaries, candidates can call each other every name in the book, but once a nominee is selected, all of the losers magically say, "well, of course I'll support him/her! He/She is a fine person!"
It's all about the money and the power: Chairmanships in Congress, lucrative appointments, voting blocks and power brokers. This plays out every two years, and the best we can do is scream, "less filling/tastes great/less filling/tastes great," Dem vs. Repub over and over.
Here's the example that some of you really, really aren't going to like. I know (again, from reading comments) that there are some of you here who supported the Health Care bill, but who are vehemently opposed to SOPA. (For the record, I am in opposition to BOTH.) You can't have it both ways. Every reputable poll ever taken has shown that the American people were strongly opposed to that HealthCare bill, but there were some of you here who said, "yay!" when it passed. You called those who passed it, even knowing that they might be un-elected, "brave heroes."
(Or, a quick conservative example: Scott Brown wins Ted Kennedy's old seat in Mass, and right wingers rejoiced. A few months later, he voted for a treaty that the right wing hated. They attacked Brown and wondered why he had "betrayed" them. What they should have asked was, "what do the people of Massachusetts want?" If he was reflecting their desires, they need to SHUT UP. He represents THEM, not a party or an ideology.)
So, SOPA. If you can convince enough Congresscritters that enough of US care to un-elect them if they vote for it, it can be stopped. But if they (and more importantly, their strategists) convince themselves that they can finesse it, or find some other issue that will cause you to hold your nose and re-elect them, they'll vote for SOPA.
In plain English: some of you who hate the "Repugs" may have to vote for one in November, if your Dem congressman votes for SOPA. Will you do that?
Likewise, my conservative friends: will you vote for a "Demoncrat" if your beloved Repub congresscreature votes for SOPA?
If the answer to either question is, "no" (or even just a little hesitation), you have only yourself to blame. That's the bottom line.
Sure. I was agreeing with you, albeit in a long-winded sort of way. :)
> Instead they can spend a ton of money on research and development, produce a product, and a month later ...
> find themselves competing with a dozen competitors who invested nothing in research and developement
This isn't an either/or -- regardless of what some comments here would imply. :) It's not a binary solution set: either we do away with all patents, or continue with the present system.
As originally envisioned, patents were to protect novel and unique ideas and inventions. The problem, of course, is that nowadays, virtually anything can be patented, regardless of prior art or lack of novelty.
So to answer your (implied) question: if you spend a ton of money on research and produce a product, it depends. If it's something truly new and unique, yes, you should have patent protection. But if it's just a slight rework of an older idea, no, I DON'T think taht should be patentable. In that case, yes, you WILL get killed by competition, but I would argue that if it took you "tons of research and development" to come up with something like that, your R&D department is incompetent and maybe economic darwinism ought to put YOU in its sights. :)
My own humble proposals are actually simple. This isn't rocket science.
1. Eliminate so-called "design" and "method" patents.
2. If it can be demonstrated that a person of similar intelligence could have developed the same idea in a "clean room" environment (i.e., without reverse engineering), the idea isn't patentable.
We could argue about this one, but here goes anyway:
3. No device that uses, as a primary component, a patented device, can itself then be patented. Example: I patent a new type of widget. You develop a way to use that widget in an airplane wing and try to patent that use. My patent is approved, but yours should be denied.
Finally, for the nth time: LOSER PAY LEGISLATION. The US is one of the few industrialized nations that doesn't have this OBVIOUS protection. If the loser of a spurious lawsuit had to pay the costs, this would take care of the remaining litigation surrounding scurrilous, stupid patents.
Just my opinion, and worth exactly what you paid for it. :)
'feet, don't be bashful. Tell us about the band and let us know where you're playing. If you're in my area, I'll come see you. :)
If I ever need one again, I'll (possibly) permit them to drag me into an open MRI. (Possibly.) The problem until recently has been that they were a lot more expensive and insurance didn't want to cover the additional cost.
When I had mine, open MRIs weren't very common.
My wife accuses me of being a spoilsport because I'm too analytical. In fact, they replayed that show tonight. I said, "you know they're not going to kill Bones because she's the star of the show. The show is called, 'Bones.' What would they call it? 'Ghost of Bones?' 'Memory of Bones?' 'Bones B Gone Now An' Boof Be Mad LOLZ?' Not likely ..."
I managed to duck in time. :)
I may be old, but I'm quick. (Enough.)
captured prisoners were tied, then placed inside of logs while people beat on the outside with clubs and hammers.
In the United States, we have a higher tech version called an "MRI."
If this technology pans out, I'll mail them a hot dog. If it keeps me from ever having an MRI again, I'll send them THREE hot dogs. Any way they want them. :)
> CIWS [wikipedia.org], RAM [wikipedia.org], or ESSM [wikipedia.org] systems.
Thanks for posting that. You beat me to it.
Anyone here who thinks it's a good idea to take a speedboat -- heck, I'll even let you use one of those million-dollar "cigarette" racing boats -- and attack the United States Navy, well ... you will VERY briefly enjoy a great deal of excitement. You may or may not even get your missile clear of the boat before you are smashed, crushed, exploded, blown away, and your constituent atoms whisked up to protect the environment.
(Actually, from talking years ago to a friend who had been in the Submarine service, the only serious concern when going up against a navy like Iran's is that they might have a half-decent diesel-electric boat and know how to use it. If they're running at very slow speed on batteries, those things can be quite difficult to detect.)
(Disclaimer: that was in the 1980's and I know things have changed since.)
I broke from Slashdot tradition and actual read the opinion.
http://beckermanlegal.com/pdf/?file=/Lawyer_Copyright_Internet_Law/realview_2020_110920DecisionDamages.pdf
The Order states:
Defendant's motion for remittitur is allowed (Doc. 238). Defendant shall inform the court by September 29, 2011 whether it
seeks a new trial. If not, judgement shall enter in the amount of $4,200 plus pre-judgment interest of 12% from 2004.
So ... if there's going to be a new trial, wouldn't they already have informed the court?
It's going to go hoarse here in Alabama.
When I first moved here and experienced my first traffic jam, I watched in amazement as the people drove over the median, onto sidewalks, around light poles and right on the edge of ditches.
> If you're still stuck with IPv4-only hardware or software, it's your fault.
See my next post. Some of us have networks that are composed of far more than just computers, switches and routers, dood. :)