A simple two-pronged solution exists, and in reality should be supported by the big players in the industry.
Keep in mind that patents are government-sanctioned monopolies given in return for the advancement of the arts and sciences.
1) Any idea which is implemented by anyone else before A) You implement it, or B) It is published/awarded a patent is not patentable. Obviously, it is not novel and/or you are not the one advancing the arts and sciences. You don't deserve a patent.
2) In order to enforce a patent, you must be using it. You are not advancing the arts and sciences by sitting on a patent, why should you be able to prevent someone else from using it (or extort money from them)?
Amazingly, more than a century ago the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion striking down the current use of patents by many in the technology field.
Justice Bradley in Atlantic Works v. Brady (1882)
It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator in the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an indiscriminate creation of exclusive privileges tends rather to obstruct than to stimulate invention. It creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the industry of the country, without contributing anything to the real advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown liabilities lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in good faith.
In some of my English classes we had to feed our essays into a computer program that rated them and gave them a score based upon the "grade level" that our essays were written at/for. All of my teachers understood the limitations of the software and used it in an appropriate manner.
An example that I can remember was an assignment to write an essay describing how to do a chosen task that a 5th grade student would be able to understand. Once the software agreed that the essay was not too complex and that the word usage was appropriate, the teacher gave it a quick read to make sure it made sense. For such an assignment, the software worked very well.
Both of my parents are educators and as such I am aware that the teachers around the state and the administrators in Indianapolis are not always on the same page. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the intended use of this software includes being given a cursory read by a human or even to be nothing more than a grading aid to a teacher, yet the state mandated all essays to be graded solely by the software.
Such things happen when high-level administrators are politicians whose only educational experience is that of a student. Indiana is not alone in this regard.
The black boxes were originally intented to be used to determine if the airbags and other safety systems functioned properly in the crash. GM (rightly) does not want to be sued by someone claiming that their spouse or child or whatever died because the safety systems did not work as intended. The real world can not be completely modelled in the lab, thus data from real-world crashes is needed to perfect the safety systems.
Of course that data needs to be there when GM buys the crashed car from the junkyard, so GM built a black box that records the last 5 seconds before an airbag deployment.
There is no conspiracy. GM wants to make sure their safety systems work.
5 years ago is a long time in the cellular industry. Nextel doesn't drop any more calls than anyone else. But like all networks, there are areas in cities with bad reception and more dropped calls than normal.
The nationwide PTT is real and it does work.
I know a LOT of people that use Nextel for work (and personal use) and their only complaint is that it is one of the more expensive services. But they love how well it works and wouldn't get rid of it. I do actually know an IT guy whose department switched away from Nextel because they had some battery problems with one model of phone and went to AT&T. Every IT person hated it and within a year they had convinced management to switch back to Nextel.
In most organizations, they follow a PTT "etiquite" - chirp a person without talking and if they are in a position to talk they will chirp back and say "go ahead." It is considered extremely rude to talk over PTT without confirming that the other person can carry on a conversation.
I really think that Verizon is making a public stand saying that they would pay $5 billion as a starting bid because of the fighting between Nextel and Verizon as of late. Verizon has introduced PTT in their network and has been trying to grab customers from Nextel. Unfortunately for Verizon, their service is hugely inferior. They had started to run TV ads touting the service and inferring that it was better than Nextel. You may have noticed that those commercials stopped suddenly and haven't reappeared. Nextel sued and won an injunction against Verizon, as those ads blatently misrepresented how well the Verizon PTT service worked.
I would imagine that Verizon is attempting to force Nextel into a bidding war, knowing full well that all they need to do to eliminate Nextel as a competitor is to outbid them, which wouldn't be hard since they have more money than Nextel. Upon losing the bidding war, Nextel would have nothing as they would have already given up their existing spectrum in exchange for (apparently) the right to bid on a new chunk of spectrum.
Yes, because the system wont be able to detect the difference between an emergency steering wheel yank and the gradual drifting off of the road that happens when you fall asleep.
Nevermind the fact that high-end cars have for years been able to detect the difference between an emergency stop and a routine press on the brake pedal and act accordingly (maximum braking power engaged sooner than normally would occur). Such technology has already started to trickle down to lower priced cars.
He's quite the story teller and can relate one to almost every security issue there is. His class was the kind where you almost didn't realize you were learning until it was too late - the final comes and you ask yourself how you learned all the answers.
It was even interesting to see who he lined up as a guest lecturer each time he had to fly to Washington to brief the Government on something. They all had some weird story about security lapses somewhere important.
Once you're sitting in your car it's too late - unless you are going to be getting info on alternate routes, which the radio isn't going to be giving you anyway.
I can check the traffic before I leave for work and before I come home to see if I need to take an alternate route. That's about all I need.
Of course, when I can access a real-time traffic congestion map for my city on the internet, why bother waiting through commercials and lame songs to find out about the traffic?
The apartment building I live in is wired for the two (Comcast & RCN) cable companies that "serve" Chicago. Comcast is more reliable and more expensive, while RCN offers better packages and rates yet are not quite as reliable.
Comcast's high-speed internet is rock solid, with outages being extremely rare, while you can almost guarantee that your RCN high-speed internet will be unavailable 2-3 hours a day.
It wasn't their idea to start issuing these patents. They do it because they have to. Court decisions and new laws are forcing them to. To make matters worse, about half of all their revenue is siphoned off to other agencies, leaving them without the necessary resources to properly research patent applications.
The Patent Office knows that this is a problem, and they're trying to find a way to fix it. Unfortunately, Congress doesn't seem to want to help.
The Chicago Citizen ICAM allows us to see crimes (as REPORTED - without any verification as to the actual occurance of a crime) in our own neighborhoods. It's a very nice little tool, and I hope it can survive a good slashdotting.
If a disaster comes through town and we need the ham operators for communication, the power lines have probably been long dead and no longer causing interference.
Of course the question is will those hams give it up since they can't use it when we have power?
It shouldn't surprise you one bit to find the children of "Old Money" working in an upscale restaurant or store. Families don't stay rich for generations by buying a new BMW for their irresponsible teenagers every time they wreck it. A child born into an "Old Money" family learns how to work hard and to appreciate and manage money just as most middle class children do (or at least should). It's just that they have a bit more money when they become adults.
Yes of course an elimination of blind spots will reduce accidents. As long as the "data" is presented in an intelligent and non-distracting way to the driver.
This won't eliminate this type of accident as a lot of people don't even look before changing lanes. Not much you can do about that...
Though if the radar senses a vehicle to the side of you and is displaying to you that there is a vehicle to the side of you, it may include that data in the black box which may be used against you and label you as inattentive or wreckless.
Well, I was going to make a crack about how you can expect nothing less at Purdue. But then I took a look at the picture and realized that it's not funny. It's sad. Because that is pretty representative of Purdue women.
The G5 is currently the only Mac shipping without a monitor, and the video cards they ship with have both DVI and ADC outputs. The G5 comes with a DVI to VGA adapter in the box, so while Apple doesn't sell anything less than a $700 LCD they do not limit you to anything. My 4-year old Mitsubishi CRT works just fine until I can find the extra cash laying around to upgrade to an LCD.
Well... Actually the system tells the phone which site to use, as it has more information on the layout of the cellular network than the phone and thus is in a better position to make such a decision.
Slashdot Mirror
Keep in mind that patents are government-sanctioned monopolies given in return for the advancement of the arts and sciences.
1) Any idea which is implemented by anyone else before
A) You implement it, or
B) It is published/awarded a patent
is not patentable. Obviously, it is not novel and/or you are not the one advancing the arts and sciences. You don't deserve a patent.
2) In order to enforce a patent, you must be using it. You are not advancing the arts and sciences by sitting on a patent, why should you be able to prevent someone else from using it (or extort money from them)?
Amazingly, more than a century ago the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion striking down the current use of patents by many in the technology field.
Justice Bradley in Atlantic Works v. Brady (1882)
My cell phone is set so that if the calling number is not stored in my phone book, the ring tone is "silent."
In some of my English classes we had to feed our essays into a computer program that rated them and gave them a score based upon the "grade level" that our essays were written at/for. All of my teachers understood the limitations of the software and used it in an appropriate manner.
An example that I can remember was an assignment to write an essay describing how to do a chosen task that a 5th grade student would be able to understand. Once the software agreed that the essay was not too complex and that the word usage was appropriate, the teacher gave it a quick read to make sure it made sense. For such an assignment, the software worked very well.
Both of my parents are educators and as such I am aware that the teachers around the state and the administrators in Indianapolis are not always on the same page. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the intended use of this software includes being given a cursory read by a human or even to be nothing more than a grading aid to a teacher, yet the state mandated all essays to be graded solely by the software.
Such things happen when high-level administrators are politicians whose only educational experience is that of a student. Indiana is not alone in this regard.
You still have to want to get to the "evil" material in the first place.
And if there's anything the drug war has taught us, it's that as long as people want something, people will get it.
The black boxes were originally intented to be used to determine if the airbags and other safety systems functioned properly in the crash. GM (rightly) does not want to be sued by someone claiming that their spouse or child or whatever died because the safety systems did not work as intended. The real world can not be completely modelled in the lab, thus data from real-world crashes is needed to perfect the safety systems.
Of course that data needs to be there when GM buys the crashed car from the junkyard, so GM built a black box that records the last 5 seconds before an airbag deployment.
There is no conspiracy. GM wants to make sure their safety systems work.
5 years ago is a long time in the cellular industry. Nextel doesn't drop any more calls than anyone else. But like all networks, there are areas in cities with bad reception and more dropped calls than normal.
The nationwide PTT is real and it does work.
I know a LOT of people that use Nextel for work (and personal use) and their only complaint is that it is one of the more expensive services. But they love how well it works and wouldn't get rid of it. I do actually know an IT guy whose department switched away from Nextel because they had some battery problems with one model of phone and went to AT&T. Every IT person hated it and within a year they had convinced management to switch back to Nextel.
In most organizations, they follow a PTT "etiquite" - chirp a person without talking and if they are in a position to talk they will chirp back and say "go ahead." It is considered extremely rude to talk over PTT without confirming that the other person can carry on a conversation.
I really think that Verizon is making a public stand saying that they would pay $5 billion as a starting bid because of the fighting between Nextel and Verizon as of late. Verizon has introduced PTT in their network and has been trying to grab customers from Nextel. Unfortunately for Verizon, their service is hugely inferior. They had started to run TV ads touting the service and inferring that it was better than Nextel. You may have noticed that those commercials stopped suddenly and haven't reappeared. Nextel sued and won an injunction against Verizon, as those ads blatently misrepresented how well the Verizon PTT service worked.
I would imagine that Verizon is attempting to force Nextel into a bidding war, knowing full well that all they need to do to eliminate Nextel as a competitor is to outbid them, which wouldn't be hard since they have more money than Nextel. Upon losing the bidding war, Nextel would have nothing as they would have already given up their existing spectrum in exchange for (apparently) the right to bid on a new chunk of spectrum.
Yes, because the system wont be able to detect the difference between an emergency steering wheel yank and the gradual drifting off of the road that happens when you fall asleep.
Nevermind the fact that high-end cars have for years been able to detect the difference between an emergency stop and a routine press on the brake pedal and act accordingly (maximum braking power engaged sooner than normally would occur). Such technology has already started to trickle down to lower priced cars.
He's quite the story teller and can relate one to almost every security issue there is. His class was the kind where you almost didn't realize you were learning until it was too late - the final comes and you ask yourself how you learned all the answers.
It was even interesting to see who he lined up as a guest lecturer each time he had to fly to Washington to brief the Government on something. They all had some weird story about security lapses somewhere important.
Don't forget that mac.com address that was going to be free for life.
Once you're sitting in your car it's too late - unless you are going to be getting info on alternate routes, which the radio isn't going to be giving you anyway.
I can check the traffic before I leave for work and before I come home to see if I need to take an alternate route. That's about all I need.
Of course, when I can access a real-time traffic congestion map for my city on the internet, why bother waiting through commercials and lame songs to find out about the traffic?
Luckily, patents still expire in a reasonable amount of time. Anything developed before, what, 1985 (?) should be in the public domain by now.
The apartment building I live in is wired for the two (Comcast & RCN) cable companies that "serve" Chicago. Comcast is more reliable and more expensive, while RCN offers better packages and rates yet are not quite as reliable.
Comcast's high-speed internet is rock solid, with outages being extremely rare, while you can almost guarantee that your RCN high-speed internet will be unavailable 2-3 hours a day.
It wasn't their idea to start issuing these patents. They do it because they have to. Court decisions and new laws are forcing them to. To make matters worse, about half of all their revenue is siphoned off to other agencies, leaving them without the necessary resources to properly research patent applications.
The Patent Office knows that this is a problem, and they're trying to find a way to fix it. Unfortunately, Congress doesn't seem to want to help.
The Chicago Citizen ICAM allows us to see crimes (as REPORTED - without any verification as to the actual occurance of a crime) in our own neighborhoods. It's a very nice little tool, and I hope it can survive a good slashdotting.
If a disaster comes through town and we need the ham operators for communication, the power lines have probably been long dead and no longer causing interference.
Of course the question is will those hams give it up since they can't use it when we have power?
It shouldn't surprise you one bit to find the children of "Old Money" working in an upscale restaurant or store. Families don't stay rich for generations by buying a new BMW for their irresponsible teenagers every time they wreck it. A child born into an "Old Money" family learns how to work hard and to appreciate and manage money just as most middle class children do (or at least should). It's just that they have a bit more money when they become adults.
The Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender and Reproduction is located at Indiana University, not the University of Indiana.
Yes of course an elimination of blind spots will reduce accidents. As long as the "data" is presented in an intelligent and non-distracting way to the driver.
This won't eliminate this type of accident as a lot of people don't even look before changing lanes. Not much you can do about that...
Though if the radar senses a vehicle to the side of you and is displaying to you that there is a vehicle to the side of you, it may include that data in the black box which may be used against you and label you as inattentive or wreckless.
My co-worker that graduated from UW-Madison already gets made fun of too much. Today is going to suck for him.
Well, I was going to make a crack about how you can expect nothing less at Purdue. But then I took a look at the picture and realized that it's not funny. It's sad. Because that is pretty representative of Purdue women.
The G5 is currently the only Mac shipping without a monitor, and the video cards they ship with have both DVI and ADC outputs. The G5 comes with a DVI to VGA adapter in the box, so while Apple doesn't sell anything less than a $700 LCD they do not limit you to anything. My 4-year old Mitsubishi CRT works just fine until I can find the extra cash laying around to upgrade to an LCD.
Are those cheap-DVD players tray loading? Or do you drive on roads that are as smooth as glass?
Well... Actually the system tells the phone which site to use, as it has more information on the layout of the cellular network than the phone and thus is in a better position to make such a decision.
Wait until those auctions end and then compare them to the KM auctions. For half the price (or less), you get the same camera with added features.