Smart DVRs skip commercials using a number of different algorithms, but one of them most definitely involves monitoring changes in volume. Advertisers have incentive to lower the volume to begin with and our government is creating a law that essentially benefits or has no effect on advertisers who claim billions of dollars effectively "lost" because of commercial skipping in high-end DVRs.
There's nothing especially bad about this from an advertiser's point of view, but we're led to believe the legislation is intended to protect consumers. Meanwhile, our legislative branch can't pass a budget or figure out what to do about taxes. That's what enrages me most about all this.
IANAL, but I believe the correct term to use is "public disclosure", which is allowed up to one year prior to a patent application in the United States only. In other countries, it would invalidate a patent if the invention was publicly disclosed prior to the patent being filed.
I think prior art is used to argue against infringement, which would typically lead to a number of patent claims being invalidated by the courts (but not necessarily the entire patent). It doesn't invalidate a patent solely based on the existence of prior art; determining what is and isn't prior art and what patent claims are being infringed on is usually a lengthy and expensive process that involves teams of lawyers and the courts.
Then there's also the issue of what constitutes public disclosure. Is publishing the app public disclosure? Or is the invention still protected because the source code or some internal algorithm isn't readily apparent to the end user?
There's a whole mess of things in the way of any independent developer making a claim against Apple. Not the least of which is the developer agreement.
I see a lot of posts recommending stuff that's not exactly at a high school level. Ok, ok...so SOME of you were doing really cool stuff when you were 14, but a lot of these kids are just getting started and that's something you've got to keep in mind.
My recommendation is some form of a game (because that's what most kids that age are interested in if they're into computers). Any use of standard AP data structures or algorithms in a game is a good idea. It should show them how all of this boring stuff is actually applicable to something they love doing.
At that level, I'm guessing they're messing with simple sorting algortihms, stacks, queues, linked-lists...and possibly binary trees. Most typical game ideas won't work for high school students though. Obviously they're not going to have the time to write all of the supporting classes and routines to handle 3D data structures, so the idea behind the game has to be something simple. Unless of course Mr. Teacher wants to take the time to write an API for his students to use. A 2D tile-based game perhaps?
I remember doing a kind of Collosal Cave text-based game in one of my classes. An array kept track of the room data and you could explore the cave, moving from one room to the next, trying to find your way out. Expanding on that idea or doing something similar with the requirement that they have to use a certain data structure or algorithm in their code is probably the best way to get them going on something.
Another great idea is to simply ask them what they'd all like to do. Have them all submit ideas and get the entire class to vote on it. Then do a class project where they have to work as a team. Not only will you be teaching them how to program, but also social skills that they're going to need in the workplace. Let's face it, most geeks are socially inept and we're known to be difficult to deal with in the workplace because we don't have the skills to properly communicate with co-workers.
If you don't want to risk it on Battle.net and you actually have friends (face it, some of you don't), there's always TCP/IP Multiplayer. Then the only one to blame when you lose all your cool stuff is yourself or the moron who found a bug that Blizzard didn't.
I suppose that doesn't mean you can't still gnash your teeth and shake your fists at them though.
I'll grant you that money may have something to do with it, but I think it's more about preserving an art form than anything else. Going to a theatre and watching a film is a fundamentally different experience than sitting on your folding chair in front of 19" monitor watching a movie in a little box that occupies one fourth of that screen.
Not to make light of the efforts of indie film makers, but let's face it...giving an award to a film that was only distributed in that format as opposed to one that you can actually see is kind of an insult. Film is a visual art form. I think we can all agree that the quality of films distributed over the Internet just doesn't live up to what one might consider art (although we're getting close).
Despite all my obnoxious and presumptious statements, I will agree with those of you who say it's unfair to the movies that actually hit celluloid AFTER having first been released on the Internet. I think at that point it's as eligible as any other film out there.
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It's worse than frivolous.
Smart DVRs skip commercials using a number of different algorithms, but one of them most definitely involves monitoring changes in volume. Advertisers have incentive to lower the volume to begin with and our government is creating a law that essentially benefits or has no effect on advertisers who claim billions of dollars effectively "lost" because of commercial skipping in high-end DVRs.
There's nothing especially bad about this from an advertiser's point of view, but we're led to believe the legislation is intended to protect consumers. Meanwhile, our legislative branch can't pass a budget or figure out what to do about taxes. That's what enrages me most about all this.
IANAL, but I believe the correct term to use is "public disclosure", which is allowed up to one year prior to a patent application in the United States only. In other countries, it would invalidate a patent if the invention was publicly disclosed prior to the patent being filed.
I think prior art is used to argue against infringement, which would typically lead to a number of patent claims being invalidated by the courts (but not necessarily the entire patent). It doesn't invalidate a patent solely based on the existence of prior art; determining what is and isn't prior art and what patent claims are being infringed on is usually a lengthy and expensive process that involves teams of lawyers and the courts.
Then there's also the issue of what constitutes public disclosure. Is publishing the app public disclosure? Or is the invention still protected because the source code or some internal algorithm isn't readily apparent to the end user?
There's a whole mess of things in the way of any independent developer making a claim against Apple. Not the least of which is the developer agreement.
My recommendation is some form of a game (because that's what most kids that age are interested in if they're into computers). Any use of standard AP data structures or algorithms in a game is a good idea. It should show them how all of this boring stuff is actually applicable to something they love doing.
At that level, I'm guessing they're messing with simple sorting algortihms, stacks, queues, linked-lists...and possibly binary trees. Most typical game ideas won't work for high school students though. Obviously they're not going to have the time to write all of the supporting classes and routines to handle 3D data structures, so the idea behind the game has to be something simple. Unless of course Mr. Teacher wants to take the time to write an API for his students to use. A 2D tile-based game perhaps?
I remember doing a kind of Collosal Cave text-based game in one of my classes. An array kept track of the room data and you could explore the cave, moving from one room to the next, trying to find your way out. Expanding on that idea or doing something similar with the requirement that they have to use a certain data structure or algorithm in their code is probably the best way to get them going on something.
Another great idea is to simply ask them what they'd all like to do. Have them all submit ideas and get the entire class to vote on it. Then do a class project where they have to work as a team. Not only will you be teaching them how to program, but also social skills that they're going to need in the workplace. Let's face it, most geeks are socially inept and we're known to be difficult to deal with in the workplace because we don't have the skills to properly communicate with co-workers.
I suppose that doesn't mean you can't still gnash your teeth and shake your fists at them though.
Not to make light of the efforts of indie film makers, but let's face it...giving an award to a film that was only distributed in that format as opposed to one that you can actually see is kind of an insult. Film is a visual art form. I think we can all agree that the quality of films distributed over the Internet just doesn't live up to what one might consider art (although we're getting close).
Despite all my obnoxious and presumptious statements, I will agree with those of you who say it's unfair to the movies that actually hit celluloid AFTER having first been released on the Internet. I think at that point it's as eligible as any other film out there.