I am serious, they will need porn. Everyone knows that the killer app for the VCR was porn. Why go to a scummy X-rated movie theater when you can watch Deep Throat at home? It was my understanding that the first two movies to come out on laser disc were Debbie Does Dallas and some famous Opera. Of course we know which title totally out sold the other. Like it or not Porn launched the VCR, it launched the internet and without it I wouldn't expect there to be much use for HD movies at home. I mean who else is going to pay a premium so that they can pretend like they are actually in the movie.
Of course I am betting that sony will be smart enough to realize that porn sells video technology -- they after all did have experience with Betamax. I am guessing that they just didn't mention the porn titles in this family oriented article. But we all know, no porn no new format! I am not making a joke or saying that I am for or against porn -- I am just stating a fact!
One of the things I love about linux is that you don't have to re-learn how to use everything with each version of the OS. So you know how to set all of the network setting under NT (that is to say you know where all the happy icons to do it are.) Well with 2000 and then again with XP you have to look like an idiot looking through all of the happy icons trying to find the right one to reset your network configuration (or whatever.) How often have you felt like saying "it was here under NT or 98 or 3.11 or whatever, so why isn't it here now?" Well it is not there anymore under XP! And you are going to have re-learn everything (and maybe re-train your staff) because someone says that this new way is better. If this new way is so much better why didn't they have it set up this way from the very beginning?
I have used lilo from the beginning of my linux adventure. I know how to configure it and I know how it works. It does everything I need it to do (which is mostly just to load linux and maybe keep track of several kernels/ distros that I am playing with.)
So why should I even spend 2 seconds trying to figure out how to use grub? Gentoo tells you to use grub by default. I say no I will always install and use lilo until grub does something that I want/need that lilo doesn't do. True if I were just starting out I would learn grub -- but that ship has sailed. Once I know how to do something I don't want to relearn it just because someone says I should.
But Mom it is ok that I cut class after all Johnny did it too! Didn't work in grade school so I don't see how it would work for the President of the United States (even if what you said about Clinton and Carter were true.)
PBS often takes BBC shows and brings them to the US. There is also BBC america on cable but I don't think they ever had RD. I think a lot of us watched RD (and the Canadian Red Green) because it was often on right after or right before Doctor Who on many PBS stations. Anyway my PBS station stopped showing RD a few years ago and I still miss it -- those smegheads! Yeah, is that movie still going to come out? At least I can get the DVDs.
Anyway BBC america is good to see the original (and almost always funnier) versions of popular sitcoms that were redone in the US because it seems that US TV producers don't want to do anything new or creative anymore.
I figured out a long time ago that if you find a woman in a science type field that isn't already married, or has a bf, then chances are that there is a reason why. They have the pick of any nerdy guy they want, so chances are that they have already gone for someone else. If you are still single try going for a women in a non-science field. Yes they wouldn't talk to you in high school but soon they will realize that you make more money than someone with a non-geek major, you are probably going to be handy fixing things around the house (just don't insist that everything is a hardware problem,) and your kids are going to be smart too. BTW I married a someone with a journalism degree -- and I am probably not one of the guys that a geek girl, who can pick any geek guy she wants, would end up going for.
Remember when it seemed like all computers came with very detailed schematics and instruction books that were actually quite usefull. I remember I learned to program basic because the VIC20 and then later the IBM PC clone that my parents got me came with a complete "how to program in basic" book (remember when you got 2 disks when you got DOS -- one had the OS while the other had GW-Basic.) Then I think apple came out with a add that basically said: when you get a PC you have to read all of this, but if you get a Mac you just have to read this. Now we are lucky if the instructions we get have anything more than a giant picture of the on/off switch. I guess MS wants to make even more cash selling you the instruction books that used to come free when you bought the computer.
Right now basic cable comes to my house unscrambled. I can hook it up to any cable ready TV or VCR in my house with no problem. I need a cable box to unscramble the pay-tv channels but everything else is pretty easy to get. If they impliment this will that mean that ALL of the channels will be scrambled and we will need a box to unscramble even local channels that I could get with an antenna anyway? It seems to me that they offer a bunch of channels for basic cable because it is easier for them and for us. I do not want (nor do I think they want) a cable box for every TV that I have cable hooked up to. Will this make older cable ready VCR's unable to record programs on different channels? Or will they force me to rent a box that nicely blocks some of the channels that come through unscrambled anyway? My guess is that it will still cost $40 a month or whatever for basic cable, or you can rent a channel blocker for $30 a month that would then let you pick channels ala carte for $10 each.
Here is a hint: The Baltimore betway backs up between I-95 and I-70 every fricken weekday. No one needs cell phone technology to figure that out! As for the DC beltway, I think it could be 16 lanes in both directions and it would still take forever to go from Beltsville to Gaithersburg! Sometimes I think an accident can cause a rubber neck delay that goes all the way to Virginia and then back up in both directions!
When a couple of years ago they were talking about "plugging the analog hole." After all it doesn't matter what copy protection you put in as soon as it goes out to the speakers someone could then convert it back to digital and make a copy of the music. I guess they were going to force all makers of A/D converters to check to make sure they weren't reading in copyrighted material. Never mind that you could in theory be able to make your own A/D converter out of radio shack parts if you knew what you are doing, or that millions of older A/D converters and the sound cards that use them have already been sold, or that the cost of these copy right checkers would probably cost more than the a/d converters themselves. I can see it now: someone in some hospital plays music too loud. The A/D converters in the life saving monitors all shut down at once because they accidentally picked up copyrighted material. This kills dozens of people -- but at least no one used those A/D converters to pirate music!
OK, the original poster should apologize for assuming that there aren't any republican Mac users when clearly there are.
Likewise I think all of you republican Mac users should have to apologize for just being republicans... being republican mac users is just an insane double whammy:)
If you live on one end of a time zone then you are about an hour away from someone on the other end of a time zone even though your clocks show the exact same time. Do you live in a place that observes daylight savings time? You are then an additional hour off. The days of it being noon when the sun was exactly over head are over. I believe in China everyone is on the same time zone even though it is a very large country. When the clock says noon it could be in the middle of the night.
Well 20 years is too long, and if it is illegal to make a prototype of someone else's patent then it shouldn't be.
Again the problem here isn't the patent office, the idea of the patent office, or people applying for and getting useless patents. The problem is once again big companies spending large amounts of cash lawyers and buying expensive washington lobbyists that take a good idea (patents expiring in a few years) into and turning them into an insane idea (patents expiring in 20 years.)
I will say it again and again, patents are a good thing. Patents are not the problem. Patents are part of the reason why we have had such a large technological explosion. What is the problem is big companies spending billions on corporate lawyers and lobbyists who do all they can to hurt the little guy and make even more money. This problem is actually a lot bigger than the patent office. Soon the middle class in this country is going to wake up and realize that they are poor. This won't happen because of patents but because of large companies buying politicians and lawyers and forcing everyone into a sort of debt slavery.
I am going to reply to my own post and am going to add karma bonus to this message because I think that this is an important message. I am obviously going against the opinion of the moderators and most people on slashdot but I don't care.
People on slashdot don't seem to realize what a great resource the US patent office is. Every single invention -- or what people thought was an invention -- from anyone in the US (or dealing with the US) since the time we became a seperate country is available for the world to see. Most inventions are posted online at http://www.uspto.gov/ (except for those that are too old.) And if they aren't online then you can get a hard copy of them
EVERYTHING!!! from the steam powered skate board to the light bulb. And if it is older than a certain date then everything is in public domain. Want to know how your ipod works? Check out uspto.gov apple probably put a patent on it (they may even have been nice enough to print the patent number on the back of the product.) You can read the patent which will point out how the invention works (in great detail) why they think the invention is new, and the applications that they thought of.
I don't like big companies taking the little guy to court anymore than you do. But if MS can't use useless patents to try to sue open source into nothingness then they will simply try something else. Useless lawsuites that only hurt the little guy are a problem of the courts not the patent office. If you want to get mad at something get mad at the courts and the corporate lawyers who try to sue everyone into submission!
And no, we should not raise the bar on what can or can't be patented. Everything that anyone thinks is a good idea should be documented and then posted at uspto.gov for everyone to see. Because if you raise the bar then there is a chance that someone who does have a patentable idea won't be able to get one. Imagine that you tried to patent something but the patent clerk didn't understand it so you weren't granted a patent; then some big company comes along and steals it only to make millions off of it. If companies get scared that they will not be able to patent their ideas then they will not publish them. No one will be able to work off of anyone else's idea and technology will be slowed.
Yes it would be nice if everyone were to open source their ideas so we wouldn't need the patent office, but that isn't going to happen. If someone invents something, and it really is a new idea, then they have the right to make a little money off of it. But with the patent office in a few years then that idea will become open source -- it will make it into the public domain. Soon everyone will be able to use it.
BTW, there is nothing stopping you from reading and then building a prototype of something that is patented. You can even try to improve on the invention to make your own patent. You only have to pay royalties if you try and sell it and make money one it. Imagine the billions of dollars worth of research that went into the patents that are available free online. Most of those ideas are now free and open because most of the patents have expired.
All I am saying is: yes the courts suck. Yes big companies will always try to find ways of suing the little guy. That is life today. But the patent office doesn't suck. The patent office's purpose in life is to try and eventually open source everything!
Just because the courts are messed up doesn't mean the patent office is. The patent office documents what people think are inventions and then leaves it up to the courts to decided which are worth something and which are not. If the courts don't do their part right it doesn't mean it is the patent office's fault. Let's reform the courts but leave the patent office more or less the way it is.
People on slashdot get so upset when people are granted useless patents. They think that having a patent automatically means you can get royalties.
Fact is that the vast majority of patents never make a dime. Just because you have a patent doesn't mean that you are entitled to lots of cash. And it is actually relatively easy for anyone to get a patent on just about anything. The hard part is getting a usefull patent that will stand up in court -- that is why you need a patent lawyer to write the patent for you so that the courts will decided that you are entitled to cash!
The patent office really just keeps a record of what people think that they invented. A lot of people on this group think that the patent office should be more selective about what the grant patents on. I think that this would be a VERY BAD IDEA!!!
Without patents every invention becomes an industry secret. If you can't protect your ideas with a patent you tend not to share them with anyone. On the other hand if you patent something you publish it for all of the world to see. If the patent office suddenly decides to be strict on what they can patent then a lot of people may no longer publish their ideas because there is no protection for them. Why even try for a patent if there is a good chance that you won't have it granted and your now published idea becomes public domain. I think everyone one agrees that it is good for ideas to be published so that others can work off of your idea.
Some on slashdot think that it is obvious which ideas are useless and which are truly new idea. I don't think so! When something is state of the art then there is a good chance that many -- even many very educated people -- won't get it. To them something that is revolutionary may not seem that patentable and that idea that looks revolutionary might be obvious to those who do get it.
It is best that they just patent and then publish everything. That way people feel protected and will freely publish their ideas. It will then be up to the courts to figure out what ideas are revolutionary and are therefore worth $$$!
So what if MS or someone else gets a useless patent. All they really did was take a patent number and kill a few trees. It will never stand up in court so they will never get any money! And those that file patents that at first seem useless but really turn out to be million dollar ideas will get their money. And industry secrets will be kept to a minimum as people are free to publish their ideas without worring about not getting credit.
As others have pointed out the serial port is digital. Also if the port were analog then I think you would want a capacitor/resistor to create an RC circuit that could filter out high frequency noise. A potentiometer is just a variable resistor (they got this name because they can be set up in a circuit to measure DC voltage aka electrical potential) so a potentiometer/resistor would only lower the signal from the device.
Yes credit where due -- some of them are getting better. There is a new batch of hybrid SUV's coming out. If you make a hybrid version of a car that gets good gas mileage already then you don't really get that much. A hybrid SUV? Now we are talking about gas savings. Also consumer reports said in their april auto adition that they think stability control, especially in SUV's (but also in cars) could maybe save more lives than seat belts or child safety seats. Of course John Q Public won't be getting the hybrid SUV or the stability control. He will probably stick to the good ole dangerous smog producing SUV that he thinks is SOOOO cool. Oil producing countries would like to thank you all!
I also agree that if you are going to waste gas you might as well do it in a sports car that is fun to drive:) Sports cars do have better safety features becuase they are classified as cars and they get better mileage too. The corvette actually gets respectable mileage if I recall. All this talk of air-cooled engines makes me want to get a mazda rx-8 even more. Not that the RX-8 is air cooled but the engine is quite unusual. Plus I just love saying "Wankel rotary engine!" I try to say it every change I get. As soon as I have 25 grand or so burning a whole in my pocket (which is reasonable for a sports car) I think I'll get one.
How big is you trailer? The Ford Crown Vicroria and Chevy astro both have body on frame construction meaning they can pull more than you average car. You might also get away with a full sized van.
A lot of people who say their reasons for owning an SUV are legit are wrong. If you do have a real reason to own an SUV than I would be even more pissed off at people who buy them because they are cool. Because they are so popular their prices have risen and risen making it harder for the (very few) people who actually need one to buy one. And with these people abusing the rules it makes it more likely (although maybe not right at the moment with the republicans in charge of EVERYTHING) that the rules may one day change. Meaining that it will be harder to find something to tow your trailer.
Don't forget there is quite a price difference between the 911 and the beetle. Maybe they could have worked to make the beetle pass 1996 safety and emission standards but that would surely call for a huge design change and a lot more money. Put enough money into something and it is amazing what can happen. Would there be a market for the beetle if it were no longer cheep? It was MUCH easier to just take another small VW car with a water cooled engine and just make it look like a beetle.
Calm down! I think the last person was trying to be +1 funny!
And yes compared to cars of their day the old beetles were reliable, got better gas mileage, and because of their size may have been more green. BTW another reason why they were discontinued in the US was that they couldn't meet safety standards without a massive re-design.
My questions are: Sure they were reliable, got good mileage, and were greener than cars of the day but what about when compared to todays cars? Could a VW pass the pollution standards for new cars in say California? Why did VW need to come up with fuel injected beetles years before other small cars needed this option to meet the mileage and pollution standards of the day? I liked the old beetle too but there is a reason why they are no longer made.
I am sorry if you felt I went a bit far, it is hard to hide my hatred of those things, but I was posing a question. Because the mileage, pollution control, and safety of those things are not as tightly controlled is it possible to make an air-cooled version? Bring back the old micro-bus as an SUV? Maybe it is possible but there isn't really a market for them so no one is producing them.
Just an aside if you care about your money, your planet, or your safety then I would think about buying another vehicle. If you want a large vehicle then, like I said, minivans are better in almost every way. You can even buy a minivan with all wheel drive. I was reading recently (probably dig up the link if asked or you can just google it) that the nhtsa recently said that the ratio of fatal crashes versus registered vehicles is higher for SUV's than for any other vehicle (and lowest for the before mentioned minivans.)
No, today's VW beetles ARE NOT air cooled. No one knows how to make an air cooled engine that can meet today's pollution and gas mileage requirements. When an engine is air-cooled then the temperature of the engine is not regulated -- and will likely be much lower than one would like (since the same car has to be driven in cold as well as very warm climates.) When the engine is cold then the gas will not be completely combusted and you will end up spewing nasty carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons out the tail pipe. Until recently they sold them in countries that didn't have such stiff pollution requirements but they even stopped doing that. Could you have an air cooled SUV though? Since when it comes to SUV's no one seems to care about pollution, or how much oil they are wasting, just so they don't have to drive a minivan (even though minivans are cheaper and better in almost every way.)
The 8086 was compatible with the 8088 -- there was no reason to rewrite QDOS for the 8088 to run on the 8086. Just like there is no need to rewrite code for the 386sx (16 bit data bus) to run on the 386dx (32 bit data bus.) BTW the 8086 came out first. The 8088 had 16 bit registers even though it had an 8-bit data bus leading some at the time to argue that the 8088 was also 16-bit. Having an 8-bit data bus made it easier to manufactor motherboards in what was at the time an 8-bit world.
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I am serious, they will need porn. Everyone knows that the killer app for the VCR was porn. Why go to a scummy X-rated movie theater when you can watch Deep Throat at home? It was my understanding that the first two movies to come out on laser disc were Debbie Does Dallas and some famous Opera. Of course we know which title totally out sold the other. Like it or not Porn launched the VCR, it launched the internet and without it I wouldn't expect there to be much use for HD movies at home. I mean who else is going to pay a premium so that they can pretend like they are actually in the movie.
Of course I am betting that sony will be smart enough to realize that porn sells video technology -- they after all did have experience with Betamax. I am guessing that they just didn't mention the porn titles in this family oriented article. But we all know, no porn no new format! I am not making a joke or saying that I am for or against porn -- I am just stating a fact!
One of the things I love about linux is that you don't have to re-learn how to use everything with each version of the OS. So you know how to set all of the network setting under NT (that is to say you know where all the happy icons to do it are.) Well with 2000 and then again with XP you have to look like an idiot looking through all of the happy icons trying to find the right one to reset your network configuration (or whatever.) How often have you felt like saying "it was here under NT or 98 or 3.11 or whatever, so why isn't it here now?" Well it is not there anymore under XP! And you are going to have re-learn everything (and maybe re-train your staff) because someone says that this new way is better. If this new way is so much better why didn't they have it set up this way from the very beginning?
I have used lilo from the beginning of my linux adventure. I know how to configure it and I know how it works. It does everything I need it to do (which is mostly just to load linux and maybe keep track of several kernels/ distros that I am playing with.)
So why should I even spend 2 seconds trying to figure out how to use grub? Gentoo tells you to use grub by default. I say no I will always install and use lilo until grub does something that I want/need that lilo doesn't do. True if I were just starting out I would learn grub -- but that ship has sailed. Once I know how to do something I don't want to relearn it just because someone says I should.
Why don't they pay the US $2bn for an iron clad, written in stone, contract that says they won't downgrade their GPS without the consent of the EU?
But Mom it is ok that I cut class after all Johnny did it too! Didn't work in grade school so I don't see how it would work for the President of the United States (even if what you said about Clinton and Carter were true.)
PBS often takes BBC shows and brings them to the US. There is also BBC america on cable but I don't think they ever had RD. I think a lot of us watched RD (and the Canadian Red Green) because it was often on right after or right before Doctor Who on many PBS stations. Anyway my PBS station stopped showing RD a few years ago and I still miss it -- those smegheads! Yeah, is that movie still going to come out? At least I can get the DVDs.
Anyway BBC america is good to see the original (and almost always funnier) versions of popular sitcoms that were redone in the US because it seems that US TV producers don't want to do anything new or creative anymore.
10MB of disk space? No problem just gzip the file ... oh no wait never mind!
I figured out a long time ago that if you find a woman in a science type field that isn't already married, or has a bf, then chances are that there is a reason why. They have the pick of any nerdy guy they want, so chances are that they have already gone for someone else. If you are still single try going for a women in a non-science field. Yes they wouldn't talk to you in high school but soon they will realize that you make more money than someone with a non-geek major, you are probably going to be handy fixing things around the house (just don't insist that everything is a hardware problem,) and your kids are going to be smart too. BTW I married a someone with a journalism degree -- and I am probably not one of the guys that a geek girl, who can pick any geek guy she wants, would end up going for.
Remember when it seemed like all computers came with very detailed schematics and instruction books that were actually quite usefull. I remember I learned to program basic because the VIC20 and then later the IBM PC clone that my parents got me came with a complete "how to program in basic" book (remember when you got 2 disks when you got DOS -- one had the OS while the other had GW-Basic.) Then I think apple came out with a add that basically said: when you get a PC you have to read all of this, but if you get a Mac you just have to read this. Now we are lucky if the instructions we get have anything more than a giant picture of the on/off switch. I guess MS wants to make even more cash selling you the instruction books that used to come free when you bought the computer.
Right now basic cable comes to my house unscrambled. I can hook it up to any cable ready TV or VCR in my house with no problem. I need a cable box to unscramble the pay-tv channels but everything else is pretty easy to get. If they impliment this will that mean that ALL of the channels will be scrambled and we will need a box to unscramble even local channels that I could get with an antenna anyway? It seems to me that they offer a bunch of channels for basic cable because it is easier for them and for us. I do not want (nor do I think they want) a cable box for every TV that I have cable hooked up to. Will this make older cable ready VCR's unable to record programs on different channels? Or will they force me to rent a box that nicely blocks some of the channels that come through unscrambled anyway? My guess is that it will still cost $40 a month or whatever for basic cable, or you can rent a channel blocker for $30 a month that would then let you pick channels ala carte for $10 each.
Here is a hint: The Baltimore betway backs up between I-95 and I-70 every fricken weekday. No one needs cell phone technology to figure that out! As for the DC beltway, I think it could be 16 lanes in both directions and it would still take forever to go from Beltsville to Gaithersburg! Sometimes I think an accident can cause a rubber neck delay that goes all the way to Virginia and then back up in both directions!
When a couple of years ago they were talking about "plugging the analog hole." After all it doesn't matter what copy protection you put in as soon as it goes out to the speakers someone could then convert it back to digital and make a copy of the music. I guess they were going to force all makers of A/D converters to check to make sure they weren't reading in copyrighted material. Never mind that you could in theory be able to make your own A/D converter out of radio shack parts if you knew what you are doing, or that millions of older A/D converters and the sound cards that use them have already been sold, or that the cost of these copy right checkers would probably cost more than the a/d converters themselves. I can see it now: someone in some hospital plays music too loud. The A/D converters in the life saving monitors all shut down at once because they accidentally picked up copyrighted material. This kills dozens of people -- but at least no one used those A/D converters to pirate music!
OK, the original poster should apologize for assuming that there aren't any republican Mac users when clearly there are.
... being republican mac users is just an insane double whammy :)
Likewise I think all of you republican Mac users should have to apologize for just being republicans
If you live on one end of a time zone then you are about an hour away from someone on the other end of a time zone even though your clocks show the exact same time. Do you live in a place that observes daylight savings time? You are then an additional hour off. The days of it being noon when the sun was exactly over head are over. I believe in China everyone is on the same time zone even though it is a very large country. When the clock says noon it could be in the middle of the night.
Well 20 years is too long, and if it is illegal to make a prototype of someone else's patent then it shouldn't be.
Again the problem here isn't the patent office, the idea of the patent office, or people applying for and getting useless patents. The problem is once again big companies spending large amounts of cash lawyers and buying expensive washington lobbyists that take a good idea (patents expiring in a few years) into and turning them into an insane idea (patents expiring in 20 years.)
I will say it again and again, patents are a good thing. Patents are not the problem. Patents are part of the reason why we have had such a large technological explosion. What is the problem is big companies spending billions on corporate lawyers and lobbyists who do all they can to hurt the little guy and make even more money. This problem is actually a lot bigger than the patent office. Soon the middle class in this country is going to wake up and realize that they are poor. This won't happen because of patents but because of large companies buying politicians and lawyers and forcing everyone into a sort of debt slavery.
I am going to reply to my own post and am going to add karma bonus to this message because I think that this is an important message. I am obviously going against the opinion of the moderators and most people on slashdot but I don't care.
People on slashdot don't seem to realize what a great resource the US patent office is. Every single invention -- or what people thought was an invention -- from anyone in the US (or dealing with the US) since the time we became a seperate country is available for the world to see. Most inventions are posted online at http://www.uspto.gov/ (except for those that are too old.) And if they aren't online then you can get a hard copy of them
EVERYTHING!!! from the steam powered skate board to the light bulb. And if it is older than a certain date then everything is in public domain. Want to know how your ipod works? Check out uspto.gov apple probably put a patent on it (they may even have been nice enough to print the patent number on the back of the product.) You can read the patent which will point out how the invention works (in great detail) why they think the invention is new, and the applications that they thought of.
I don't like big companies taking the little guy to court anymore than you do. But if MS can't use useless patents to try to sue open source into nothingness then they will simply try something else. Useless lawsuites that only hurt the little guy are a problem of the courts not the patent office. If you want to get mad at something get mad at the courts and the corporate lawyers who try to sue everyone into submission!
And no, we should not raise the bar on what can or can't be patented. Everything that anyone thinks is a good idea should be documented and then posted at uspto.gov for everyone to see. Because if you raise the bar then there is a chance that someone who does have a patentable idea won't be able to get one. Imagine that you tried to patent something but the patent clerk didn't understand it so you weren't granted a patent; then some big company comes along and steals it only to make millions off of it. If companies get scared that they will not be able to patent their ideas then they will not publish them. No one will be able to work off of anyone else's idea and technology will be slowed.
Yes it would be nice if everyone were to open source their ideas so we wouldn't need the patent office, but that isn't going to happen. If someone invents something, and it really is a new idea, then they have the right to make a little money off of it. But with the patent office in a few years then that idea will become open source -- it will make it into the public domain. Soon everyone will be able to use it.
BTW, there is nothing stopping you from reading and then building a prototype of something that is patented. You can even try to improve on the invention to make your own patent. You only have to pay royalties if you try and sell it and make money one it. Imagine the billions of dollars worth of research that went into the patents that are available free online. Most of those ideas are now free and open because most of the patents have expired.
All I am saying is: yes the courts suck. Yes big companies will always try to find ways of suing the little guy. That is life today. But the patent office doesn't suck. The patent office's purpose in life is to try and eventually open source everything!
Just because the courts are messed up doesn't mean the patent office is. The patent office documents what people think are inventions and then leaves it up to the courts to decided which are worth something and which are not. If the courts don't do their part right it doesn't mean it is the patent office's fault. Let's reform the courts but leave the patent office more or less the way it is.
People on slashdot get so upset when people are granted useless patents. They think that having a patent automatically means you can get royalties.
Fact is that the vast majority of patents never make a dime. Just because you have a patent doesn't mean that you are entitled to lots of cash. And it is actually relatively easy for anyone to get a patent on just about anything. The hard part is getting a usefull patent that will stand up in court -- that is why you need a patent lawyer to write the patent for you so that the courts will decided that you are entitled to cash!
The patent office really just keeps a record of what people think that they invented. A lot of people on this group think that the patent office should be more selective about what the grant patents on. I think that this would be a VERY BAD IDEA!!!
Without patents every invention becomes an industry secret. If you can't protect your ideas with a patent you tend not to share them with anyone. On the other hand if you patent something you publish it for all of the world to see. If the patent office suddenly decides to be strict on what they can patent then a lot of people may no longer publish their ideas because there is no protection for them. Why even try for a patent if there is a good chance that you won't have it granted and your now published idea becomes public domain. I think everyone one agrees that it is good for ideas to be published so that others can work off of your idea.
Some on slashdot think that it is obvious which ideas are useless and which are truly new idea. I don't think so! When something is state of the art then there is a good chance that many -- even many very educated people -- won't get it. To them something that is revolutionary may not seem that patentable and that idea that looks revolutionary might be obvious to those who do get it.
It is best that they just patent and then publish everything. That way people feel protected and will freely publish their ideas. It will then be up to the courts to figure out what ideas are revolutionary and are therefore worth $$$!
So what if MS or someone else gets a useless patent. All they really did was take a patent number and kill a few trees. It will never stand up in court so they will never get any money! And those that file patents that at first seem useless but really turn out to be million dollar ideas will get their money. And industry secrets will be kept to a minimum as people are free to publish their ideas without worring about not getting credit.
So everyone take a deep breath and CHILL OUT!!!
As others have pointed out the serial port is digital. Also if the port were analog then I think you would want a capacitor/resistor to create an RC circuit that could filter out high frequency noise. A potentiometer is just a variable resistor (they got this name because they can be set up in a circuit to measure DC voltage aka electrical potential) so a potentiometer/resistor would only lower the signal from the device.
Yes credit where due -- some of them are getting better. There is a new batch of hybrid SUV's coming out. If you make a hybrid version of a car that gets good gas mileage already then you don't really get that much. A hybrid SUV? Now we are talking about gas savings. Also consumer reports said in their april auto adition that they think stability control, especially in SUV's (but also in cars) could maybe save more lives than seat belts or child safety seats. Of course John Q Public won't be getting the hybrid SUV or the stability control. He will probably stick to the good ole dangerous smog producing SUV that he thinks is SOOOO cool. Oil producing countries would like to thank you all!
:) Sports cars do have better safety features becuase they are classified as cars and they get better mileage too. The corvette actually gets respectable mileage if I recall. All this talk of air-cooled engines makes me want to get a mazda rx-8 even more. Not that the RX-8 is air cooled but the engine is quite unusual. Plus I just love saying "Wankel rotary engine!" I try to say it every change I get. As soon as I have 25 grand or so burning a whole in my pocket (which is reasonable for a sports car) I think I'll get one.
I also agree that if you are going to waste gas you might as well do it in a sports car that is fun to drive
How big is you trailer? The Ford Crown Vicroria and Chevy astro both have body on frame construction meaning they can pull more than you average car. You might also get away with a full sized van.
A lot of people who say their reasons for owning an SUV are legit are wrong. If you do have a real reason to own an SUV than I would be even more pissed off at people who buy them because they are cool. Because they are so popular their prices have risen and risen making it harder for the (very few) people who actually need one to buy one. And with these people abusing the rules it makes it more likely (although maybe not right at the moment with the republicans in charge of EVERYTHING) that the rules may one day change. Meaining that it will be harder to find something to tow your trailer.
Don't forget there is quite a price difference between the 911 and the beetle. Maybe they could have worked to make the beetle pass 1996 safety and emission standards but that would surely call for a huge design change and a lot more money. Put enough money into something and it is amazing what can happen. Would there be a market for the beetle if it were no longer cheep? It was MUCH easier to just take another small VW car with a water cooled engine and just make it look like a beetle.
Calm down! I think the last person was trying to be +1 funny!
And yes compared to cars of their day the old beetles were reliable, got better gas mileage, and because of their size may have been more green. BTW another reason why they were discontinued in the US was that they couldn't meet safety standards without a massive re-design.
My questions are:
Sure they were reliable, got good mileage, and were greener than cars of the day but what about when compared to todays cars? Could a VW pass the pollution standards for new cars in say California? Why did VW need to come up with fuel injected beetles years before other small cars needed this option to meet the mileage and pollution standards of the day? I liked the old beetle too but there is a reason why they are no longer made.
I am sorry if you felt I went a bit far, it is hard to hide my hatred of those things, but I was posing a question. Because the mileage, pollution control, and safety of those things are not as tightly controlled is it possible to make an air-cooled version? Bring back the old micro-bus as an SUV? Maybe it is possible but there isn't really a market for them so no one is producing them.
Just an aside if you care about your money, your planet, or your safety then I would think about buying another vehicle. If you want a large vehicle then, like I said, minivans are better in almost every way. You can even buy a minivan with all wheel drive. I was reading recently (probably dig up the link if asked or you can just google it) that the nhtsa recently said that the ratio of fatal crashes versus registered vehicles is higher for SUV's than for any other vehicle (and lowest for the before mentioned minivans.)
No, today's VW beetles ARE NOT air cooled. No one knows how to make an air cooled engine that can meet today's pollution and gas mileage requirements. When an engine is air-cooled then the temperature of the engine is not regulated -- and will likely be much lower than one would like (since the same car has to be driven in cold as well as very warm climates.) When the engine is cold then the gas will not be completely combusted and you will end up spewing nasty carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons out the tail pipe. Until recently they sold them in countries that didn't have such stiff pollution requirements but they even stopped doing that. Could you have an air cooled SUV though? Since when it comes to SUV's no one seems to care about pollution, or how much oil they are wasting, just so they don't have to drive a minivan (even though minivans are cheaper and better in almost every way.)
The 8086 was compatible with the 8088 -- there was no reason to rewrite QDOS for the 8088 to run on the 8086. Just like there is no need to rewrite code for the 386sx (16 bit data bus) to run on the 386dx (32 bit data bus.) BTW the 8086 came out first. The 8088 had 16 bit registers even though it had an 8-bit data bus leading some at the time to argue that the 8088 was also 16-bit. Having an 8-bit data bus made it easier to manufactor motherboards in what was at the time an 8-bit world.