only thing i can think of is that occasionally patents take a while to go through
Scientific American actually has a good article about so-called "submarine" patents. Turns out there are ways to file for a patent and then delay its issuance for years. The details of the patent remain secret until it is issued. When the patent "surfaces" years after it's been filed, anyone who unknowingly used that idea is at the mercy of the patenteer.
An inventor named Lemelson was notorious for doing this sort of thing (see the article). He delayed one patent for 40 years after filing for it. Seems to me like a good (read "underhanded") way to make money off your ideas if you're (a) patient, and (b) too lazy to actually build and sell a product.
Don't tell Microsoft this, but if they kill the average user's ability to download free MP3s, then the average user is finally going to look around and realize that there exist other ways of doing things. I think this will push Joe "Hunt-n-Peck" Blow over that threshold to where he will actually make the effort necessary to install a Red-Hat partition. We can only hope Microsoft will take it that far.
I recall a previous/. article about a little IP-licencing-wannabe company called Pause Technology that held a 1992 patent on the whole DVR idea. Where do they fit in all this?
... and I'll buy it: Give me a WinAmp-esque Visualizations feature for the TV it's connected to. When I'm having a party, the trippy starbursts and color smears are a must on the big screen.
I kinda doubt this box has the power to handle that sort of graphics, though.
A more daunting task might be taking the model to a consumer environment, which, Richard
pointed out, is full of often dormant processors like those in printers and DVD players.
HP imagines "clouds" of devices, or "virtual entities," which could discover and use the resources around a user.
Anyone else reminded of A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge? In that story, IIR, one of the protagonists controlled a ubiquitous cloud of invisible compute "particles". Each particle was networked to the rest through its neighbors floating in the air around it.
Then the Great Programmer leaned back in his executive chair, and gazed upon the newborn Universe.
And frowned. He knew those sentient humans would be a problem.
That's what the Great Programmer gets for writing self-modifying code.
The two party system in the US is definitely flawed. But the last thing we need is more left-wingers like Nader and right-wingers like Buchanan. What the country needs is a candidate or party that actually reflects the views of the middle-ground American.
All I know is that if there were a candidate who was pro gun-control, pro-environment, reasonably anti-abortion, and who supports using the surplus to pay the deficit, then he/she would have my vote hands down.
Last, but not least, why use all these improvements on the processor? It's not been the bottleneck for years! If you designed a wafer-scale RAM chip at 0.07 microns, you'd be looking at computer memories in the region of 512+ TERAbytes!
If only it worked that way... then memory speed would be pacing processors. Smaller gate lengths won't help RAM designers that much. Storing tiny amounts of charge and detecting it on the other end of a long bit line is what keeps them awake at night.
Now maybe the reduced oxide thickness could make for greater capacitance and more charge storage per DRAM cell. Then again, I could be talking outa my ass.
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Scientific American actually has a good article about so-called "submarine" patents. Turns out there are ways to file for a patent and then delay its issuance for years. The details of the patent remain secret until it is issued. When the patent "surfaces" years after it's been filed, anyone who unknowingly used that idea is at the mercy of the patenteer.
An inventor named Lemelson was notorious for doing this sort of thing (see the article). He delayed one patent for 40 years after filing for it. Seems to me like a good (read "underhanded") way to make money off your ideas if you're (a) patient, and (b) too lazy to actually build and sell a product.
The only mention of this event in my local paper was on the sports page. Headline: Avs Shake Sharks.
This reminds me of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which within a brief span of years turned my favorite radio station (among others in the Denver area) into a sleek, pop spewing, Clear Channel Crap Spigot. Yay for mega-conglomoration!
Thank God for college radio.
From their assorted examples, my favorite is a patent on a Method and apparatus for path name format conversion. Filed by Sun Microsystems perhaps as a way to annoy Microsoft, it's a method of converting Windows 95 filenames to Windows NT filenames. These guys crack me up.
Don't tell Microsoft this, but if they kill the average user's ability to download free MP3s, then the average user is finally going to look around and realize that there exist other ways of doing things. I think this will push Joe "Hunt-n-Peck" Blow over that threshold to where he will actually make the effort necessary to install a Red-Hat partition. We can only hope Microsoft will take it that far.
I recall a previous /. article about a little IP-licencing-wannabe company called Pause Technology that held a 1992 patent on the whole DVR idea. Where do they fit in all this?
I kinda doubt this box has the power to handle that sort of graphics, though.
Anyone else reminded of A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge? In that story, IIR, one of the protagonists controlled a ubiquitous cloud of invisible compute "particles". Each particle was networked to the rest through its neighbors floating in the air around it.
Ok, so I thought it was a cool idea.
That's what the Great Programmer gets for writing self-modifying code.
You know, I've got a whole bridge in San Fransisco that I'll sell you for less than that piece of Mir. I'll be posting it on eBay shortly...
All I know is that if there were a candidate who was pro gun-control, pro-environment, reasonably anti-abortion, and who supports using the surplus to pay the deficit, then he/she would have my vote hands down.
If only it worked that way ... then memory speed would be pacing processors. Smaller gate lengths won't help RAM designers that much. Storing tiny amounts of charge and detecting it on the other end of a long bit line is what keeps them awake at night.
Now maybe the reduced oxide thickness could make for greater capacitance and more charge storage per DRAM cell. Then again, I could be talking outa my ass.