Im with the string theory people and what we are seeing is an "effect" of multidimensional space.
The only thing String Theory people see are grant cheques. ST must surely be the least successful scientific theory of all time in terms of the effort put in versus the results got out.
To suggest that something must be a breakthrough of sorts to be patentable is an untenable position at best in the existing framework.
Which shows as clearly as one could wish that the "existing framework" is broken and useless. Worse than useless, it rewards third-rate inventors and patent-trolls with unwarranted power over the marketplace at the expense of genuine innovation which is stiffled by the costs of navigating the patent minefield thus created.
To suggest "scrapping patents completely" shows a pretty significant lack of understanding of their place in the modern economy,
They are a hang over from previous centuries and have little positive role in the modern economy except for those dinosaurs who are ALWAYS protected from market forces by monopoly powers. They have outlived their usefulness.
MS should be putting 44Bn into improving its products instead of buying failing web companies in order to compete with a company which has yet to enter MS's market.
The bid does show a Microsoft on the ropes, but from bad management not competition from Google.
If there's any legitimate application of patents, it's a case like Tivo.
Bullshit. It's a simple and obvious application of a random-access storage device (hard drive) to a VCR, everything else flows naturally out of that one combination of existing technologies. Trivial and completely undeserving of a patent. Tivo's invention is like taking a lock and applying it to a door and claiming that you deserve a patent on locking doors.
Yahoo is a major competitor in the Internet advertising space, one of the only competitors to Google on search, the owner of multiple great "Web 2.0"-style services like Flickr, and the producer of some of the best modern, standards-based web development tools like the YUI, as well as a pioneer in open web service APIs.
Like I said: a crappy search engine and nothing else. (open web service APIs?! Give me a break).
Microsoft was late to the original web-party
Yahoo were early and didn't know what to do when they got there; they've survived on luck and being first to the party for years; now they're done.
$44Bn for a share in the Emperor's New Web-2.0? MS is losing it.
Yahoo has never done anything of note in the 10 or so years since I heard of it. It has a crap search engine and, er...I can't think of anything else. $44B for that? Why not?
To me, this is like placing a patent on "using the emergency flashing lights on my car to signal for help." Someone already thought of this use of my emergency flashing lights, and that's why the lights were implemented.
Which is exactly the situation with the 1-click patent. Cookies were invented to allow a site to recognise a returning user/customer, so patenting the act of using cookies to recognise a returning customer (and by "recognising" I mean linking them to an account) should never have been allowed a patent.
There is a VERY simple solution: don't buy anything off Amazon, and tell your friends not to too. I don't. If they want my money they can stop trying to prevent me from working.
we've been used to corporate engineered bands that don't even play their own instruments since The Monkeys.
Just to stand up for the Monkees for a moment, they were young and jumpped at the chance to be on TV and all, but they did have enough guts and pride to eventually go on strike unless they were allowed to play their own instruments and material. And they did do some catchy pop songs. Not exactly the Beatles, but at least they wised up and grew some spines. Can't imagine this week's X-Factor/American Idol wank-stain ever doing that.
Scrap patents completely across the board. The days of government-backed monopoloies are dead and gone, aren't they? So let's ditch the corrupted patent system altogether.
They invented a few of the modern ways to scan for and stop virus, spyware and spam email from getting into a windows box, pretty much every one else in the industry will accede to that, why do these guys think, they can get a free lunch for something someone else invented a fair while back.
If by "invented" you mean "applied established techniques in a way that's obvious to a five-year-old and thus is not eligable for patent protection except if the patent office is out of control and making up the law as it goes along with no oversight from a corrupt government that has no interest in law or justice", then you have a point.
On the other hand, if you mean to suggest that Trend Micro invented the idea of scanning email for viruses as it arrives, then you need to get out more.
There's no such thing. An imperial ton is 2240lbs (20 hundred-weight of 8 stone each). The reason for the odd numbers is that measurements grew out of a system for trade which allowed for the weight of barrels. So a hundred-weight of 112lbs was supposed to be 100lbs of actual cargo and 12lbs of packaging.
The American system discared the packing allowances and so the American "short" ton is 2000lbs.
... but I would call this simply "bad" science - You can't use one poorly-understood phenomenon to explore another. You are incorrect. Gravitational waves (the phenomenon) are a very clear and very well understood prediction of the theory of General Relativity
Something which has never been detected is not yet a phenomenon, so to that extent the OP was correct: gravity waves are about as badly understood a phenomenon as you can get since we know nothing at all about them. The predictions are detailed, but science is full of phenomena which showed up as predicted and then turned out to be nothing like what was extected (atoms spring to mind).
When religion doesn't get it right, people abandon it completely
Eh? On what planet? By that argument there would be no religion left.
Religion reveals the truth of divine revelation.
No it doesn't. It reveals the ideas of a small group of philosophers and their students.
Those who take religion as if it were a scientifically-verifiable fact are just as confused as those who think scientific theorems are as reliable and trustworthy as the Gospel or mathematical proofs.
While I agree with this, I would say that anyone who "takes religion as if it were a scientifically-verifiable fact" is some sort of headcase.
"The DOCTYPE declaration is <!DOCTYPE html> and is case-insensitive in the HTML syntax."
So we have
<!DOCTYPE html><html>
At the start of every HTML document served with an text/html mime type? That's real rational. Let's get this tidied up once and for all and start html documents with
IANABanker, but IIRC they're safe as long as inflation is above 0%..
That's the core issue for the NR: if house-price inflation drops to less than 0% (which it has at least in parts of the country) then the jig is up unless they have substantial deposits from savers to carry them through. Oh dear.
By extension, given just how much of the UK economy has been based on remorgaging homes during the housing boom, recession is a real danger. In reality, given that house prices have gone up far faster than wages, it's inevitable because people HAVE to run out of money to pay their morgages eventually. My home town has had 25 and 50% house price increases for several years of the last decade; we're rapidly running out of 1st-time buyers to feed that market. It's not quite tulipmania (after all, you couldn't live in your tulip!) but it's looking more like it everyday.
Slashdot Mirror
The only thing String Theory people see are grant cheques. ST must surely be the least successful scientific theory of all time in terms of the effort put in versus the results got out.
TWW
Which shows as clearly as one could wish that the "existing framework" is broken and useless. Worse than useless, it rewards third-rate inventors and patent-trolls with unwarranted power over the marketplace at the expense of genuine innovation which is stiffled by the costs of navigating the patent minefield thus created.
To suggest "scrapping patents completely" shows a pretty significant lack of understanding of their place in the modern economy,
They are a hang over from previous centuries and have little positive role in the modern economy except for those dinosaurs who are ALWAYS protected from market forces by monopoly powers. They have outlived their usefulness.
TWW
MS should be putting 44Bn into improving its products instead of buying failing web companies in order to compete with a company which has yet to enter MS's market.
The bid does show a Microsoft on the ropes, but from bad management not competition from Google.
TWW
Bullshit. It's a simple and obvious application of a random-access storage device (hard drive) to a VCR, everything else flows naturally out of that one combination of existing technologies. Trivial and completely undeserving of a patent. Tivo's invention is like taking a lock and applying it to a door and claiming that you deserve a patent on locking doors.
Just scrap patents completely.
TWW
Like I said: a crappy search engine and nothing else. (open web service APIs?! Give me a break).
Microsoft was late to the original web-party
Yahoo were early and didn't know what to do when they got there; they've survived on luck and being first to the party for years; now they're done.
$44Bn for a share in the Emperor's New Web-2.0? MS is losing it.
TWW
TWW
So you feel that it is sufficient to not murder other people yourself; that there's no need to make it illegal or try to lock up people who do murder?
TWW
And your point is?
TWW
Don't like people being murdered? Don't murder anyone!
You're taking too simplistic a stance.
TWW
Which is exactly the situation with the 1-click patent. Cookies were invented to allow a site to recognise a returning user/customer, so patenting the act of using cookies to recognise a returning customer (and by "recognising" I mean linking them to an account) should never have been allowed a patent.
There is a VERY simple solution: don't buy anything off Amazon, and tell your friends not to too. I don't. If they want my money they can stop trying to prevent me from working.
TWW
Just to stand up for the Monkees for a moment, they were young and jumpped at the chance to be on TV and all, but they did have enough guts and pride to eventually go on strike unless they were allowed to play their own instruments and material. And they did do some catchy pop songs. Not exactly the Beatles, but at least they wised up and grew some spines. Can't imagine this week's X-Factor/American Idol wank-stain ever doing that.
TWW
TWW
If by "invented" you mean "applied established techniques in a way that's obvious to a five-year-old and thus is not eligable for patent protection except if the patent office is out of control and making up the law as it goes along with no oversight from a corrupt government that has no interest in law or justice", then you have a point.
On the other hand, if you mean to suggest that Trend Micro invented the idea of scanning email for viruses as it arrives, then you need to get out more.
TWW
The film weighed 1948lbs, dummy!
There's no such thing. An imperial ton is 2240lbs (20 hundred-weight of 8 stone each). The reason for the odd numbers is that measurements grew out of a system for trade which allowed for the weight of barrels. So a hundred-weight of 112lbs was supposed to be 100lbs of actual cargo and 12lbs of packaging.
The American system discared the packing allowances and so the American "short" ton is 2000lbs.
TWW
Eh? Are you sure about that?
No they aren't!
Oh, happy day!
TWW
What are you, some sort of Godless Commie!?
TWW
Fair enough; marrying Bill became a priority for Melinda once he became stinking rich.
TWW
... but I would call this simply "bad" science - You can't use one poorly-understood phenomenon to explore another. You are incorrect. Gravitational waves (the phenomenon) are a very clear and very well understood prediction of the theory of General RelativitySomething which has never been detected is not yet a phenomenon, so to that extent the OP was correct: gravity waves are about as badly understood a phenomenon as you can get since we know nothing at all about them. The predictions are detailed, but science is full of phenomena which showed up as predicted and then turned out to be nothing like what was extected (atoms spring to mind).
TWW
Eh? On what planet? By that argument there would be no religion left.
Religion reveals the truth of divine revelation.
No it doesn't. It reveals the ideas of a small group of philosophers and their students.
Those who take religion as if it were a scientifically-verifiable fact are just as confused as those who think scientific theorems are as reliable and trustworthy as the Gospel or mathematical proofs.
While I agree with this, I would say that anyone who "takes religion as if it were a scientifically-verifiable fact" is some sort of headcase.
TWW
So we have
At the start of every HTML document served with an text/html mime type? That's real rational. Let's get this tidied up once and for all and start html documents with
Is that such a difficult concept?
TWW
Because then hardly anyone would ever see it and those that did would mostly assume that it's just another conspiracy-nut site?
Perhaps her 'whole unedited story' has a price tag attached and is light on hard evidence?
That's also an option.
TWW
That's the core issue for the NR: if house-price inflation drops to less than 0% (which it has at least in parts of the country) then the jig is up unless they have substantial deposits from savers to carry them through. Oh dear.
By extension, given just how much of the UK economy has been based on remorgaging homes during the housing boom, recession is a real danger. In reality, given that house prices have gone up far faster than wages, it's inevitable because people HAVE to run out of money to pay their morgages eventually. My home town has had 25 and 50% house price increases for several years of the last decade; we're rapidly running out of 1st-time buyers to feed that market. It's not quite tulipmania (after all, you couldn't live in your tulip!) but it's looking more like it everyday.
TWW