I was recently told by my boss that our company's legal dept. wants us to try to patent *anything* that we've created. BTW, I'm a web developer/SA building tools for internal use. The idea is that by patenting stuff that we've written, we protect ourselves from somebody else patenting it and then suing us. We'd win (well, hopefully) because we'd be able to show prior art but it would still be an ugly legal battle. By spending the money up front, we protect ourselves and ensure that if somebody *does* try to sue us, we can show the judge the patent and hopefully wrap things up simply, cheaply, and quickly.
Although we could potentially use the patent to give competitors a hard time, the point would be to protect ourselves and our IP *before* somebody decides to attack us. It's also worth noting that if any of this patent stuff within my company actually looked like it was going to happen I'd be pushing strongly for something in writing basically saying that the patent wouldn't be abused.
It's a shame that anybody would have to go to these extremes just to make sure they can avoid a lawsuit but hey, that's life in the big city.
Linux Support for the VoIP Blaster
on
VoIP at $15 a Pop
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· Score: 3, Interesting
There are a few projects running to provide Linux support for these things aside from the Fobbit driver. The effort I'm involved with is at https://sourceforge.net/projects/voip-blaster/. The focus of our effort is to get support for the VoIP Blaster written into OpenH323. So far, the Windows client (OpenPhone) work with the device and the Linux code is pretty close to working.
For those of you who don't know about it, OpenH323 has several pieces including a VoIP -> PSTN gateway, answering machine, and MCU for 'conference' calls (although this doesn't work with the VB due to license restrictions on G723.1). There's also the Asterisk project - a Linux-based PBX system which I've heard also has support for the VB.
I haven't read the whole thread so I may be repeating somebody else here... My understanding is that D20 is the trademark that Wizards is using for stuff related to the 3rd Edition rules system. In the past there were restrictions on who could develop modules and how they had to be published. In order to get people to switch to 3rd Ed. (which is a *big* improvement on 2nd Ed.), they're letting pretty much anybody write "official" 3rd Ed. modules. As for why 3rd Ed is cool - they've simplified the rules AND removed lots of the restrictions at the same time. For example, wizards can now wear armor. I know, I know, "How the heck can a wizard cast with armor on?!?" The answer is not very well at all. BUT they're still a chance that the spell will go off as planned. Basically, wizards now have some kind of difficulty roll when casting. If they're wearing armor then the roll is harder to make. Other changes: - No more 18/xx strength - they've gone to straight integers again - They've introduced Feats which are special actions that you can buy - Most or all of the racial restrictions for classes have been removed - AC is now positive and your "To Hit" is added to your roll. For example: I've got a total of +5 (+3 sword, +2 Dex) to hit and he's AC 14 - I need to roll a 9 or better ( 9 + 5 == 14). Those are some of the changes in a nutshell.
Slashdot Mirror
I was recently told by my boss that our company's legal dept. wants us to try to patent *anything* that we've created. BTW, I'm a web developer/SA building tools for internal use. The idea is that by patenting stuff that we've written, we protect ourselves from somebody else patenting it and then suing us. We'd win (well, hopefully) because we'd be able to show prior art but it would still be an ugly legal battle. By spending the money up front, we protect ourselves and ensure that if somebody *does* try to sue us, we can show the judge the patent and hopefully wrap things up simply, cheaply, and quickly.
Although we could potentially use the patent to give competitors a hard time, the point would be to protect ourselves and our IP *before* somebody decides to attack us. It's also worth noting that if any of this patent stuff within my company actually looked like it was going to happen I'd be pushing strongly for something in writing basically saying that the patent wouldn't be abused.
It's a shame that anybody would have to go to these extremes just to make sure they can avoid a lawsuit but hey, that's life in the big city.
Check out woodworking air cleaners. They're designed to filter particles down to one micron. Some links:
m v? Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PSI&Category_Code=A C
& p= 868
http://jettools.com/JETWood/Tools/AFS2000.html
http://www.pennstateind.com/Merchant2/merchant.
http://www.deltawoodworking.com/index.asp?e=136
There are a few projects running to provide Linux support for these things aside from the Fobbit driver. The effort I'm involved with is at https://sourceforge.net/projects/voip-blaster/. The focus of our effort is to get support for the VoIP Blaster written into OpenH323. So far, the Windows client (OpenPhone) work with the device and the Linux code is pretty close to working.
For those of you who don't know about it, OpenH323 has several pieces including a VoIP -> PSTN gateway, answering machine, and MCU for 'conference' calls (although this doesn't work with the VB due to license restrictions on G723.1). There's also the Asterisk project - a Linux-based PBX system which I've heard also has support for the VB.
I haven't read the whole thread so I may be repeating somebody else here... My understanding is that D20 is the trademark that Wizards is using for stuff related to the 3rd Edition rules system. In the past there were restrictions on who could develop modules and how they had to be published. In order to get people to switch to 3rd Ed. (which is a *big* improvement on 2nd Ed.), they're letting pretty much anybody write "official" 3rd Ed. modules. As for why 3rd Ed is cool - they've simplified the rules AND removed lots of the restrictions at the same time. For example, wizards can now wear armor. I know, I know, "How the heck can a wizard cast with armor on?!?" The answer is not very well at all. BUT they're still a chance that the spell will go off as planned. Basically, wizards now have some kind of difficulty roll when casting. If they're wearing armor then the roll is harder to make. Other changes: - No more 18/xx strength - they've gone to straight integers again - They've introduced Feats which are special actions that you can buy - Most or all of the racial restrictions for classes have been removed - AC is now positive and your "To Hit" is added to your roll. For example: I've got a total of +5 (+3 sword, +2 Dex) to hit and he's AC 14 - I need to roll a 9 or better ( 9 + 5 == 14). Those are some of the changes in a nutshell.