"I'm as fired up now as I've ever been in 24 years at Microsoft," Ballmer said.
Eyewitnesses at the conference where Ballmer made this statement noted that he started running around the stage trying to rile up the crowd by shouting "Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers!"
The message has been found and translated. A text of the translation follows.
Hello, I am Mr Buck Francisco, General Manager(Treasury) of Land Bank, Helopkino, in the Alpha Centauri System.This is an urgent and very confidential business proposition.
On earth date June 6, 2000,an alien Oil consultant/contractor with the Alpha Centauri Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Mr. Darth Vader made a numbered time(Fixed) Deposit for twelve earth months, valued at US$26,500,000.00, (Twenty-six Million, five hundred thousand of your Earth US Dollars).
Upon maturity,I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers, the Centauri Petroleum Corporation that Mr.Darth Vader died from a spaceship accident.On further investigation,I found out that he died without making a WILL,and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless.
I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr.Darth Vader did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents,including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank. This sum of US$26,500,000.00 has carefully been fixed in my bank for safekeeping.
No one will ever come forward to claim it.According to Helopkino Law,at the expiration of 5 (five) earth years, the money will revert to the ownership of the Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.
Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a Alien to stand in as the owner of the money which was fixed deposited in my bank. I am writing you because I as a public servant,i cannot operate an alien account.
I want to present you as the owner of the funds so you can be able to claim them with the help of my attorney. This is simple.I will like you to provide immediately your full names and address so that the Attorney will prepare the necessary documents which will put you in place as the beneficiary of the funds.
The money will be moved out for us to share in the ratio of 80% for me and 20% for you. The paperwork for this transaction will be done by the Attorney.If you are interested, please reply immediately via my SETI@home address and Upon your response,I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction.Please observe utmost confidentiality, and be rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in real estate within your country.
Due to the nature of confidentiality in this Transaction our communication can only be via SETI.
Awaiting your urgent reply via my email Above.
Thanks and my regards. BUCK FRANCISCO.
Re:Cheap but kickass: eMate revisited
on
Palmtop Nirvana?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
What are you smoking dude ?:)
Reefer. Lots of it.
Well, he asked!
Seriously though, a gig wouldn't be necessary, if I could plug in an ipod or other usb/firewire device. Maybe 128M? Either way I would want to be able to access about a gig or so of data with it; text files, Word files, PDFs. If it had a color screen I'd want to be able to look at photos too. Preferably a tool that would let me easily search a large pile of textfiles, code html in some kind of basic text editor, ssh to wherever, have a basic web browser, and super-long battery life (again, like the emate, with its 10-12 hours). That's another reason for the greyscale screen...
I dont know anything about developing for these things but I would want it to be something people were working with and writing software for; I only mention palm because I've used it. I've played with Symbian too which looks easy enough to use, so that would work too.
Oh yeah, did I mention it has to be a chick magnet too?:)
Re:Cheap but kickass: eMate revisited
on
Palmtop Nirvana?
·
· Score: 1
I mean that much for the device itself, not just the screen. If you can make this for $50-100, I'll definitely buy one:)
The biggest thing you have to unlearn is the notion that most Windows users have that using your computer should be as much of a hassle as humanly possible. It will be difficult but you will have to actually get used to using the computer being a pleasant experience. Be careful -- programs may work as you expect them to rather than you having to figure out the most counterintuitive possible way of doing things in order to get it right. The icons are actually on the right side of the desktop, where they won't be covered up by every window you open! "Shut Down" is not under "Start"! Windows don't automatically fill the entire screen unless you want them to! Error messages, though not always very informative, do not come with a horrible blue screen and do not tell you cryptic things that don't make any sense at all. There are very few crashes for normal users of Macs, and the ones that do occur generally affect only the program crashing rather than bringing down the whole machine.
Another thing that will be difficult to get used to is the lack of viruses. I've always envied Windows folks who get to come to work on the day a big virus is going on and basically sit around and do nothing until the virus is cleaned up.... So you'll have to get used to not having as many days off; then again, you'll be more productive, so you'll be able to leave work early.
In short, be prepared to smile a lot when you're using your computer. A lot of users find it difficult at first, but it gets easier.
You mean this computer? I guess not a lot of people have them.
Re:Cheap but kickass: eMate revisited
on
Palmtop Nirvana?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Ditto. In terms of form factor I want it to be like the old eMate that ran NewtonOS. Sturdy plastic that you can drop on the floor, a modern processor and OS -- not too modern; a reasonably fast running Arm with PalmOS will do it for me, or some kind of stripped down unix. The option of a greyscale screen -- sure, have color for the higher end model, but give me a low end greyscale screen for $200-400. Basic text editing and internet applications, the ability to create limited office-like applications with easy transfer to MS Office or OpenOffice, ssh, a basic web browser, wifi, about a gig or two of memory; perhaps less; firewire or usb; perhaps a smartcard reader (tho I prefer usb and attach your own). A decent enough screen for reading and writing -- contrast like those sony ebooks I have seen would be nice; true black n white. A keyboard that isn't too small and isn't loud at all (again like the emate). And it should look cool and be about 1-2 lbs. If it comes in different colors and runs a stripped down version of OS X I wouldn't be upset at all either:) Cool thing about the emate was the screen folded out so you could write on it and you could rotate the display so you could look at it from different angles. Perfect for writing, taking notes in lectures, doing limited web and internet work, creating web pages, posting to slashdot, etc. on-the-go. When it's not in use just fold it closed; it should have instant on when I open it up. And some basic calendar and address book software that syncs to my computer would be nice too; again PalmOS has most of what I would need here, though something more modern would be great. An updated NewtonOS would be even nicer, but now I am really dreaming....
Reminds me of a friend who watched the Grammys with his 10-yr old son. When Dire Straits won an award he turned to his dad and said, "where do they get these judges anyway? Generation A?"
A reasonable person would agree that the former was styled after the latter.
Of course it was; it was a joke based on the latter. A parodic joke you might even say.
Of course these things are similar, they are intentionally similar. But they are not easily confused! News flash: Science is the observation of phenomena and testing of hypotheses. A sinus is part of your skull. Yes they sound alike but they do not sound alike with intent to confuse; they sound alike with intent to amuse.
Finally there is no way anyone would confuse the two actual products, even if they mis-heard "sinus" as "science" and were too dimwitted to get the joke. The Austin guys are doing a theater piece, not a TV show, and they have different characters making different jokes about different kinds of movies! MST may have pioneered this form -- though people have been heckling movies for a long time before that -- but there are other things you can do with this form, and these austin people seem to be doing something different with it.
Right, so if the way you make something sound similar makes it sound ridiculous, you have, in fact, "ridiculed" it, right? Especially if it makes people giggle. "Mister Sinus" is obviously a silly joke based on the sound of "Mystery Science." Especially if pronounced in a high nasal tone as I imagine they would.
Personally if it were me, I would change the name just to be nice to the MST3k guys, but I don't think they should be legally compelled to in this case.
If you made similar posts under the name "Commodore Bloat" there's not much I could do. They didn't copy the jokes, routines, or characters; they have different kinds of movies and different themes and so forth. They are not doing the same thing. And if they called themselves "Mystery Sceince Theater" you might have a point. But "Mister Sinus" -- I mean, it's obviously a joke, isn't it? Whereas "commodore slaot" is obviously a slight misspelling."
If I had to put money down, I'd Mr. Sinus are interested in dick/fart jokes and "racy" humor.
So? You cannot sue someone for making fart jokes, even if they are making such jokes using a comedy format that you helped pioneer. In this case, they are only suing for trademark over the name, so it's really not relevant. They seem to think that the Sinus guys are dragging their good name in the mud but that's ridiculous since there is little risk of confusing these two.
Come on, people in texas are not that stupid; even if it sounds alike, one is a method of testing hypotheses, the other is a part of your fucking head. Anybody discussing it can and likely would clear up the difference, to the titters and giggles of listeners when they noticed the clever sound-alike. I think Best Brains is well intentioned here but they are just wrong; nobody is going to confuse a local theater gag with their product based on the similar sounding names. They should be pleased and flattered that these guys are paying homage to them in this way.
Best Brains is not suing for their "parody format" and I don't think they can or should be allowed to. They are suing to protect the name only, which they think infringes on their trademarked name. I think they are wrong about that, but that is discussed elsewhere. They are not being ripped off in terms of the format, and in fact, I don't see why they can or should be. Making fun of movies is something people have done for a long time, and while I applaud Best Brains' cleverness in coming up with an easy way to do that on a TV show, I don't think they should be granted a monopoly on doing that. It's a form of expression, and I think the Sinus guys are using the name to recognize the inspiration they got from MST3k.
If I were the artist I would choose a different name. But I don't think it's fair to say exercise some creativity -- I think the name is a very creative and obvious parody of mystery science theater. It's obvious to me the 2 are different, and they were pretty clever to come up with something that sounded so similar yet was so drastically different. The sound alike may get them in trademark trouble but I personally think they should not be in trouble for that. I think they should change it because they were asked to by the artists who they are obviously paying tribute to, and that would be the right thing to do. They can even change it to Mister Olfactory Gland or something in order to keep the parody going. So, I do think they should change the name. But I don't think they should be legally compelled to, and I hope Best Brains loses this suit if they continue to pursue it.
they really are blatantly ripping off the original MST3K and should be appropriately punished.
What are they ripping off, really? Best Brains is claiming only the name, and I think that's all the case they could have at best. Are you suggesting that the idea of heckling bad movies is something they own? They should be the only people allowed to heckle bad movies? That's ridiculous; the format they pioneered here may be quite clever, but it is hardly something they should "own," any more than someone should own the idea of a limerick, or a comedy routine, or the blues. They don't seem to be claiming copyright or trademark on that, and I think they shouldn't be allowed to. The purpose of intellectual property law is to promote the public good by providing incentives to create more works; allowing them control over a form of expression like "hecklers making jokes about movies" is diametrically opposed to that purpose.
Noone is going to confuse these two either. It may sound similar when spoken but that's the joke! And whoever is talking about it will likely clear up the confusion and everyone will giggle at the joke. That's basically what parody is about, isn't it? It would be one thing if they were trying to pass this off as the same as MST3k but based on what I see on the website they have very different characters, themes, and jokes. And they likely have a disclaimer indicating they are not MST3k on the show itself. Trademark law does not -- or at least should not -- protect against every possible confusion, only confusion that was intentionally caused to manipulate consumers and steal market share. This is clearly not the case here.
As always, IANAL, and a judge may likely disagree with my opinion here, but I'm still the one with truth on my side:)
That's ludicrous. They can do both. MST3k is a show that parodies movies. They are a show that parodies different kinds of movies with different jokes and different acts. The similar sounding but OBVIOUSLY different name is an attempt to parody the MST3k show, where they OBVIOUSLY got the inspiration to do this sort of thing. Nobody in their right mind would confuse these things, and if they did, that confusion would easily be cleared up with the disclaimer on the show, or with their friend saying, "no, dude, I said sinus, not science; it's a totally different show!" and the confused person replying, "cool, man. now pass me the bong."
There is no constitutional right to sell hamburgers. There is a constitutional right to express yourself, at least in the US. Trademark law is there to prevent cases of a company deceiving the consumer into confusing brands. The "Sinus theater" may sound a little like "science theater" if you say it 3 times fast, but in real world conversation that confusion can be easily cleared up. I haven't seen the show, but I think it would help them if they had a disclaimer. But being forced to legally change the name because some morons can't tell the difference between a part of your nose and a field of knowledge seems extreme, IMHO.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean....
Aliens with frickin' lasers on top of their heads?
Eyewitnesses at the conference where Ballmer made this statement noted that he started running around the stage trying to rile up the crowd by shouting "Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers! Patent lawyers!"
How many of you so called admins do this:
/
%su
#httpd start
when we all know it should be
%su
#cd
#rm rf *
That means you're the alien!!
The message has been found and translated. A text of the translation follows.
Hello,
I am Mr Buck Francisco, General Manager(Treasury) of Land
Bank, Helopkino, in the Alpha Centauri System.This is an urgent and
very confidential business proposition.
On earth date June 6, 2000,an alien Oil consultant/contractor with
the Alpha Centauri Institute of Mining and Metallurgy,
Mr. Darth Vader made a numbered time(Fixed) Deposit for
twelve earth months, valued at US$26,500,000.00,
(Twenty-six Million, five hundred thousand of your Earth US Dollars).
Upon maturity,I sent a routine notification to his forwarding
address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and
finally we discovered from his contract employers, the Centauri
Petroleum Corporation that Mr.Darth Vader died from a spaceship
accident.On further investigation,I found out that
he died without making a WILL,and all attempts to trace his next
of kin was fruitless.
I therefore made further investigation and discovered that
Mr.Darth Vader did not declare any kin or relations in all his
official documents,including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my
Bank. This sum of US$26,500,000.00 has carefully been fixed in my
bank for safekeeping.
No one will ever come forward to claim it.According to Helopkino
Law,at the expiration of 5 (five) earth years, the money will revert to the
ownership of the Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.
Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a Alien to
stand in as the owner of the money which was fixed deposited in my
bank. I am writing you because I as a public servant,i cannot operate
an alien account.
I want to present you as the owner of the funds so you can be able to
claim them with the help of my attorney. This is simple.I will like
you to provide immediately your full names and address so that the
Attorney will prepare the necessary documents which will put you in
place as the beneficiary of the funds.
The money will be moved out for us to share in the ratio of 80% for
me and 20% for you. The paperwork for this transaction will be done
by the Attorney.If you are interested, please reply immediately via
my SETI@home address and Upon your response,I shall then provide you
with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand
the transaction.Please observe utmost confidentiality, and be rest
assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of
us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in real
estate within your country.
Due to the nature of confidentiality in this Transaction our
communication can only be via SETI.
Awaiting your urgent reply via my email Above.
Thanks and my regards.
BUCK FRANCISCO.
Reefer. Lots of it.
Well, he asked!
Seriously though, a gig wouldn't be necessary, if I could plug in an ipod or other usb/firewire device. Maybe 128M? Either way I would want to be able to access about a gig or so of data with it; text files, Word files, PDFs. If it had a color screen I'd want to be able to look at photos too. Preferably a tool that would let me easily search a large pile of textfiles, code html in some kind of basic text editor, ssh to wherever, have a basic web browser, and super-long battery life (again, like the emate, with its 10-12 hours). That's another reason for the greyscale screen...
I dont know anything about developing for these things but I would want it to be something people were working with and writing software for; I only mention palm because I've used it. I've played with Symbian too which looks easy enough to use, so that would work too.
Oh yeah, did I mention it has to be a chick magnet too? :)
I mean that much for the device itself, not just the screen. If you can make this for $50-100, I'll definitely buy one :)
;^)
Another thing that will be difficult to get used to is the lack of viruses. I've always envied Windows folks who get to come to work on the day a big virus is going on and basically sit around and do nothing until the virus is cleaned up.... So you'll have to get used to not having as many days off; then again, you'll be more productive, so you'll be able to leave work early.
In short, be prepared to smile a lot when you're using your computer. A lot of users find it difficult at first, but it gets easier.
You mean this computer? I guess not a lot of people have them.
Ditto. In terms of form factor I want it to be like the old eMate that ran NewtonOS. Sturdy plastic that you can drop on the floor, a modern processor and OS -- not too modern; a reasonably fast running Arm with PalmOS will do it for me, or some kind of stripped down unix. The option of a greyscale screen -- sure, have color for the higher end model, but give me a low end greyscale screen for $200-400. Basic text editing and internet applications, the ability to create limited office-like applications with easy transfer to MS Office or OpenOffice, ssh, a basic web browser, wifi, about a gig or two of memory; perhaps less; firewire or usb; perhaps a smartcard reader (tho I prefer usb and attach your own). A decent enough screen for reading and writing -- contrast like those sony ebooks I have seen would be nice; true black n white. A keyboard that isn't too small and isn't loud at all (again like the emate). And it should look cool and be about 1-2 lbs. If it comes in different colors and runs a stripped down version of OS X I wouldn't be upset at all either :) Cool thing about the emate was the screen folded out so you could write on it and you could rotate the display so you could look at it from different angles. Perfect for writing, taking notes in lectures, doing limited web and internet work, creating web pages, posting to slashdot, etc. on-the-go. When it's not in use just fold it closed; it should have instant on when I open it up. And some basic calendar and address book software that syncs to my computer would be nice too; again PalmOS has most of what I would need here, though something more modern would be great. An updated NewtonOS would be even nicer, but now I am really dreaming....
Reminds me of a friend who watched the Grammys with his 10-yr old son. When Dire Straits won an award he turned to his dad and said, "where do they get these judges anyway? Generation A?"
Of course it was; it was a joke based on the latter. A parodic joke you might even say.
Of course these things are similar, they are intentionally similar. But they are not easily confused! News flash: Science is the observation of phenomena and testing of hypotheses. A sinus is part of your skull. Yes they sound alike but they do not sound alike with intent to confuse; they sound alike with intent to amuse.
Finally there is no way anyone would confuse the two actual products, even if they mis-heard "sinus" as "science" and were too dimwitted to get the joke. The Austin guys are doing a theater piece, not a TV show, and they have different characters making different jokes about different kinds of movies! MST may have pioneered this form -- though people have been heckling movies for a long time before that -- but there are other things you can do with this form, and these austin people seem to be doing something different with it.
Personally if it were me, I would change the name just to be nice to the MST3k guys, but I don't think they should be legally compelled to in this case.
If you made similar posts under the name "Commodore Bloat" there's not much I could do. They didn't copy the jokes, routines, or characters; they have different kinds of movies and different themes and so forth. They are not doing the same thing. And if they called themselves "Mystery Sceince Theater" you might have a point. But "Mister Sinus" -- I mean, it's obviously a joke, isn't it? Whereas "commodore slaot" is obviously a slight misspelling."
So? You cannot sue someone for making fart jokes, even if they are making such jokes using a comedy format that you helped pioneer. In this case, they are only suing for trademark over the name, so it's really not relevant. They seem to think that the Sinus guys are dragging their good name in the mud but that's ridiculous since there is little risk of confusing these two.
Come on, people in texas are not that stupid; even if it sounds alike, one is a method of testing hypotheses, the other is a part of your fucking head. Anybody discussing it can and likely would clear up the difference, to the titters and giggles of listeners when they noticed the clever sound-alike. I think Best Brains is well intentioned here but they are just wrong; nobody is going to confuse a local theater gag with their product based on the similar sounding names. They should be pleased and flattered that these guys are paying homage to them in this way.
Best Brains is not suing for their "parody format" and I don't think they can or should be allowed to. They are suing to protect the name only, which they think infringes on their trademarked name. I think they are wrong about that, but that is discussed elsewhere. They are not being ripped off in terms of the format, and in fact, I don't see why they can or should be. Making fun of movies is something people have done for a long time, and while I applaud Best Brains' cleverness in coming up with an easy way to do that on a TV show, I don't think they should be granted a monopoly on doing that. It's a form of expression, and I think the Sinus guys are using the name to recognize the inspiration they got from MST3k.
iAgree.
If I were the artist I would choose a different name. But I don't think it's fair to say exercise some creativity -- I think the name is a very creative and obvious parody of mystery science theater. It's obvious to me the 2 are different, and they were pretty clever to come up with something that sounded so similar yet was so drastically different. The sound alike may get them in trademark trouble but I personally think they should not be in trouble for that. I think they should change it because they were asked to by the artists who they are obviously paying tribute to, and that would be the right thing to do. They can even change it to Mister Olfactory Gland or something in order to keep the parody going. So, I do think they should change the name. But I don't think they should be legally compelled to, and I hope Best Brains loses this suit if they continue to pursue it.
What are they ripping off, really? Best Brains is claiming only the name, and I think that's all the case they could have at best. Are you suggesting that the idea of heckling bad movies is something they own? They should be the only people allowed to heckle bad movies? That's ridiculous; the format they pioneered here may be quite clever, but it is hardly something they should "own," any more than someone should own the idea of a limerick, or a comedy routine, or the blues. They don't seem to be claiming copyright or trademark on that, and I think they shouldn't be allowed to. The purpose of intellectual property law is to promote the public good by providing incentives to create more works; allowing them control over a form of expression like "hecklers making jokes about movies" is diametrically opposed to that purpose.
As always, IANAL, and a judge may likely disagree with my opinion here, but I'm still the one with truth on my side :)
;^)
That's ludicrous. They can do both. MST3k is a show that parodies movies. They are a show that parodies different kinds of movies with different jokes and different acts. The similar sounding but OBVIOUSLY different name is an attempt to parody the MST3k show, where they OBVIOUSLY got the inspiration to do this sort of thing. Nobody in their right mind would confuse these things, and if they did, that confusion would easily be cleared up with the disclaimer on the show, or with their friend saying, "no, dude, I said sinus, not science; it's a totally different show!" and the confused person replying, "cool, man. now pass me the bong."
There is no constitutional right to sell hamburgers. There is a constitutional right to express yourself, at least in the US. Trademark law is there to prevent cases of a company deceiving the consumer into confusing brands. The "Sinus theater" may sound a little like "science theater" if you say it 3 times fast, but in real world conversation that confusion can be easily cleared up. I haven't seen the show, but I think it would help them if they had a disclaimer. But being forced to legally change the name because some morons can't tell the difference between a part of your nose and a field of knowledge seems extreme, IMHO.