And encrypt your passwords with DES... and login as root... and don't forget to smudge taco sauch on that post-it-note with that command "yum update" written on it.
Seriously, don't listen to all the naysayers. Just because you call yourself smart and have a million users doesn't make you smart. And just because you don't have a million users and don't think you're smart doesn't make you stupid. Work hard, subscribe to mailing distribution and software mailing lists, and ALWAYS make it a point to check your logs. It might sound pointless, but at least you'll be logging into a shell more often than you clean your gutters.
Perhaps yet another reason for more support of S/MIME. Should your mail server change hands like this, you could simply revoke your signed certificate and move on.
I'm pretty sure people are free to say what they want in this country. We are not fascists just because a person espouses beliefs that are extreme realizations of an ideal many Americans believe in. That does not mean we want to be ill-informed or unprepared for the sake of opaque safety. Freedom of speech does not make us fascist! We are not militant belligerents looking to fight out our grudges against neighbors because of some long forgotten slight. We may have made mistakes, but we are not afraid to correct them, even if it may take generations.
What would make us fascist is if we censored the author's speech, or perhaps speech contrary to his words. But this is not done, and for the very same reason we are here arguing against him. In this country, you are free to subscribe to the author's beliefs and disassociate with people you deem "undesirables" if you wish. You are free to protest the author, or debate him both publicly and privately in a variety of media. So If these liberties we hold dear make us fascist, just remember, this is America's world and the rest of you are just living in it. Deal with it.
A perfect example is our grand jury system. It used to be that any citizen could convene a grand jury and present evidence to convince the jury to indict a person. I don't see that happening anymore, and good luck trying to do it. So, let's say I was a victim of this crime and I thought it was my neighbor. I can't go and convene a grand jury on my own, I have to file a report at the police department and hope they will arrest the bugger and that the prosecutor will convene the grand jury. Thus, as a victim, I have no guaranteed right to try and get my pound of flesh, so to speak. I have to hope and pray my case is deemed worthy enough. This is why in small town America, where I grew up, there is an inherit distrust of non elected law enforcement. You have absolutely no recourse if the police decide they do not want to investigate your claim. And let's be honest, identity theft is rarely investigated because hey, they should have known better.
I was really ranting about the claims that if you didn't know better it's your fault. Not locking your doors, or not using SSLcommunication against a sanitized SQL sever for Sony Service XYZ, doesn't magically make it OK to steal from you, or less severe if you get caught because hey "the guy was asking for it." As it stands now, we have no way of going after these guys on our own and the legal system has no incentive to do so. So the only solution is to keep updating your anti-virus, keep downloading patches, and keep on top of the latest security trends so that, hopefully, this doesn't happen to you. Don't you think that's unfortunate? I don't know about you, but I'd much prefer to spend my time elsewhere.
I should have been clearer. How is a 1986 SBX Like law ever considered constitutional when it comes to private communications? Why does the 1986 law need to be 'fixed' at all, it shouldn't have ever applied to personal communications. And for practicl purposes, it didn't apply until some johnny fracking asshit FED realized this law could be used to unconstitutionally read your e-mail stored on your GMail/ISP/whatever mail server. "Who cares about the 4th amended right, there is this law see, so you gotta send us up the base."
What I meant by comparing SBX and other laws is that the government paper pushers are 'interprerting' them in a manner to constantly violate our 4th amendment rights. Corporations do not have 4th Amendment rights, but I do. I don't care what bill passes the senate, my private documents not stored out in the open public are not subject to a warrantless search. It shouldn't matter if it was written on paper, on electronic bits, or on stone tablets, nor should it matter where it's stored so long as that storage is private - only I and my 'landlord' can have access. How will another law help when the law is already being broken in the first place... by the very people who are suppose to be upholding it?
If I put a journal in a storage locker, you need a warrant to search for it regardless of the fact that I'm only renting the space and do not own it. How was it ever interpreted that it doesn't count the same way for a digital location. So to be clear, the 1986 law as is has been recently applied to private e-mail accounts was, and is, unconstitutional. Thus, why do we need a law that 'fixes' the situation?
I'd like to point out, that it's laws such as Sarbanes–Oxley that say you have to store e-mail for 5 years (well if you're a public company). There are a slew of other laws too that have obfuscated the situation so bad my former employer is archiving 100% of Mail, including mail normally rejected to a user's inbox, for over a year. Perhaps that's not such a bad thing, however my point is the problems with all these privacy acts is that they need not exist in the first place had the original laws never been written. I mean, if I keep a wallet for more than 180 days does that subject it to a warrantless search? If do not shred my journal after 180 days does that subject it to a warrantless search? Why would electronic communications ever be subject to a warrantless search after 180 days, whether it is here in 2011 or even back in 1986?
It is Sony's fault, but it's not the victims fault. I still remember when I moved from small town New Mexico to Cleveland. It wasn't very long before my car was broken into, and it was "my fault" for leaving valuables in it. How is what happened to the victims of Sony's inept security, and victims of criminals who violated said inept security, their fault. That's akin to saying it's the fault of a rape victim for happening to be attractive towards a rapist. I'm not necessarily saying this is what you meant, but there sure are an awful lot of comments eluding that the victim who was stupid enough to use Sony deserves it.
Why can't you live in a world where you can provide details to Sony without worrying about having your identity stolen? Why can't you live in a world where you don't need to lock your car? Why do we need SSH and public key encryption? Why can't you live in a world where you don't have to worry about any crime against property or person? I say it's because we've build a society that is great about protecting the rights of the accused, but does little to protect the rights of the victims. If these guys get caught, the will be afforded every conceivable protection against prejudiced trials... yet there will be no such guarantees for the victims.
I was more referring towards the notion that just because it's not on the desktop, doesn't mean it's not a target. It's not like a malware distributor wouldn't jump with glee if there were a way to compromise a web, mail, or other *flavor* server, linux or otherwise, so users of a certain application combination automatically download a file. Perhaps a way to automatically inject MIME code that forces a download after the RCPT call of an SMPT session (I'm not server admin, just an amateur). It is a poor example, but I just want to emphasize that there shouldn't be complacency just because you're obscure... or think you're obscure.
Linux is hardened because patches can quickly be deployed and discussions of issues are frequent. Windows is hardened for the same reason. OSX, in this case, wasn't hardened because patches were slow to arrive and discussions are "moderated." Maybe one platform is better than the other, but not because of obscurity or lack of certain platforms. 2.5 cents.
Linux may not be popular on the desktop, but I'd say Linux has a very high percentage of servers since roughly 60% of mail server responses are exim, postfix, and sendmail, while microsoft continues to decline. My own vanity domain is "tested" daily hundreds of times, and let me tell you, Iptables and ACL keep my server secure, not obscurity.
A+ then for the article then. "Although groups are initially “wise,” knowledge about estimates of others narrows the diversity of opinions to such an extent that it undermines the wisdom of crowd effect..."
Liberals are smart, conservatives are stupid... that's what everyone I know says.
To be fair, as I posted above, it's actually options on $2.5 billion in reserve for 12 million vaccinations. I doubt they will 'exercised.' We are spending *only* $500 million on a million vaccines. Seems kind of expensive to me at $500 a pop. The award of this contract is currently under protest, so we'll see what happens.
I agree with your cynical viewpoint of these news articles, but I wouldn't say it's only in our own interest to keep the virus for national defense. Maybe that's one of the reasons that media latched onto, but it's not the only one. Research being preformed on smallpox is not limited in scope to smallpox vaccines, but virology in general. Keep in mind that smallpox was the first virus to have a vaccine developed. There is a huge body of literature and science behind smallpox, so, for example, watching for behaviors that don't match established 'rules' increased our understanding of all viruses, not just smallpox. It's not like CDC is studying smallpox to make a better smallpox vaccine, vaccinia is already good at that and EVERYONE has plenty of it on hand. And I'm not saying this will lead to a cure for AIDS, nothing is that simple, BUT it might just be one miniscule part of the puzzle that does.
It came from the news, and is a combination of your exact thoughts. The jist is Big Pharma Company X was awarded $500 million for one million vaccines, with options for an extra 12 million vaccines valued at $1.5 billion. I'm not sure, but last time I check this wouldn't even cover the New York City metropolitan area.
You can not reverse engineer smallpox from the vaccinia vaccine (smallpox vaccine). The virus is related to small pox, and in vaccination is a live virus, so care must still be taken. It's probable that vaccinia shares a common ancestor as cowpox, the original smallpox vaccine dating back to the 18th century, possibly as a pox like virus originally found in horses.
For my part, I'll try to stay away from outbreak areas if the worst should happen. Other than that, I'll not lose any sleep over it.
Ditto. It seems like instead of marketing towards that demographic, they're marking towards some other demographic that is 'attached' to our demographic. I tried to watch SGU, but honestly, part of being 'fat and rich' means early to bed and early to rise. I just can't stay up till 11:00 most nights nowadays, and that damn show was never on at a convenient time here on the East Coast, and it was always changing days. Maybe that's not quite true, but while I enjoyed the show I found it difficult to actually watch it when it was on. Yet, I can watch Dr. Who practically anytime on BBC America, or via iPlayer whenever I want (cheat code via VPN though).
Finally, the drawn out plots drive me nuts. I'd take 7 good episodes over 7 good episodes spread out over 10 lousy episodes any day. Maybe online is where these creators should take their stuff.
My 2.5 cents? TNG was popular in a world where America was proud of its shuttle program, technology was going to build a better future, and we were all going to become so rich money wouldn't matter.
Now, technology helped to create housing models that spawned a deep recession, we're outsourcing our space flights to Russia, and guys like Nial Fergusson are treated like modern day Richard Feynman's and Arthur Compton's.
Of course American non-exceptionalism is a bunch of BS, but that's about the only way pop culture perceives our society nowadays. So I say rename SyFy Sci-Fi, put your shows on the Inter-tubes for $5 a season, and see what happens.
Fair enough. I was mostly stating that I can still be 'rational' while preferring my government boondoggles to involve space shuttles instead of bank bailouts. I also wanted to point out that as far as 'boondoggles' are concerned, which one created more jobs?
Melodramatic? Can't think of anything more Melodramatic than stating rational adults think the shuttle program was and is a waste, and anyone who says different are bipolar misfits who cut themselves. How's this for melodramatic.
Shuttle Program... Cost per year: $5 Billion Total program cost: ~$175 Billion Percent of annual Revenue: 0.1% - 0.75% over 35 years
Compare that to.... Cost of TARP: $300 Billion Bush Stimulus: $172 Billion Obama Stimulus: $862 Billion
Which one of those created jobs. Disregard your politics, ask yourself if it is more likely that the Shuttle program created more engineers and mechanics and pipe fitters and electricians and truck drivers and chemical mixers, than say TARP and its bankers.
Now for some other calculus. The space station was built so Russian scientists would have something to do other than build Nuclear bombs. I grew up in that world, and saw it fist hand as a teenager whose parents worked at White Sands. After the wall fell, one of those Russian scientists lived with us, and instead of building bombs and rockets, he built rockets and space stations.
Somehow our calculus assumes the current NASA engineers are just going to flip burgers and mow lawns. The disassumes that some of them may move to China, or elsewhere, and build rockets and, possibly, bombs... since those nations have no desire to build space stations.
Not illegal, but a submarine patent is not regarded as enforceable once the invention has become widely adopted. In fact, if you want to forgo foreign patents, you can stealth patent with the USPTO to your hearts content. But that case, and others, did make clear one important caveat to the stealth patent. If one claim is invalidated, the entire patent becomes unactionable. This is usually the case, but sometimes not if reasonable exception that a claim was novel can be shown. However, with these kinds of patents, it's always a big fat NO.
This is a stealth attack by a patent Troll. The only people who will make money here are the lawyers. The sucker investors who bought into the patent troll will lose their shirts after "fees." The programmers and designers who built the software they are being sued over will lose, even if they win. Finally, society will lose as cool software we could once purchase will no longer be developed, or reduced in functionality.
What about algorithms? Simply taking a bunch of components (that someone else invented) and rearranging the order in which they are used or interact isn't inventive, it's just mucking about with an algorithm.
Correct. Whether you call it a process, a method, or an algorithm, the idea is the same. If you patent a wheel with spokes, someone can't come along and say "I've invented a wheel with spokes that are installed counterclockwise." That doesn't fly... well at least everywhere other than software. It all seems funny to me. The whole software IP needs a big shakeup.
Sort of. If you publish your invention publicly, the subsequent patent becomes unenforceable upon allocation. In fact, just talking about a patent application to a large enough group will make the subsequent patent unenforceable. Sometiems, even a vague mention of a similar idea can invalidate a patent. I remember a case well where we won against a competitor who posted their cool new process on their website. Whoops...
The idea behind submarine patents was to use your secret squirrel ideas unpatented for as long as possible. The minute you think someone is going to figure out your 'method', you suddenly work out all the bugs in your application and, viola, the lab that was about to RE your invention suddenly finds you have a totally novel, and enforceable, patent. In short, if you can keep the method of making some super cool invention a secret for a long time (difficult to RE or whatever) you can effectively extend your patent by the number of years you've keep it secret. This might have been used extensively by modern pharma to great sucess, but submarine patents around the world are largely defunct nowadays.
RE: The OT. My rule of thumb is thus - any patent with more than a couple pages, or more than a hand full of "real" claims, is totally worthless. I'm all for patent reform in this regard, as nobody should be allowed to patent a software process that simply calls an apple and orange, such as patent 7222078. Sadly, it really seems like the inmates are running the asylum here. Just me 2.5 cents, I have no idea how the software industry works in regards to patents and IP. I wish the 'victims' all the luck in the world defending thus. Here's hoping they all team up, but I'm willing to bet the big guys want to go it alone less they risk a terrible loss and chance of appeal. Our system at its best:(
In my state, Ohio, it is either difficult or *impossible* to have two cable companies service the same customers. I don't know the law or anything, but our local cable co-op was forbidden, as in the utilities commission nixed fully funded plans, from expanding into a neighboring township that has Time Warner, or whatever. The local residents in this neighboring township are, understandably, quite jealous of our 24Mb up/8Mb down service for $49. Apparently their service is inferior.
It goes further. Another township to the south has no cable, and was still the federal broadband funds because Verizion, now Frontier, can *theoretically* service the area with DSL. I say theoretically because unless you happen to be one the 300 so people within a couple miles of the main town you can't get DSL. The only option for the majority of that community is dialup.
So whatever the law says, or what your rights are, here in no-where-ville Ohio, unless you happen to live in my exact geographic location you're Internet options are between dial-up... and smoke signals.
Well that's exactly what the constitution says I get, a limited monopoly. I never said pirated software is a lost sale, in fact I said the opposite in a manner of speaking. What I really said was just because it's not a lost sale doesn't make it right to take it.
The information I posted can take you to everything I've ever done. You can rip me to shreds, I have opened myself here to anything. Yet nobody else who thinks ideas are worthless has posted one sentence of original thought. I bet all these free the internet, piracy isn't stealing, also think Wikileaks is the second coming. Yet none of you have posted your life. Put up or shut up I say.
Well, in My country the constitution states you are grated a limited monopoly, the limited part being time. The reason being, MOST founders reasoned people who create things might like to get paid for their ideas. Article I, second 8. It's not an amendment, it's not a law... it's the freaking constitution.
So yea, I do use binary computers without paying Atansoff. But you don't use Asus motherboards without paying me for my ideas regarding delamination of multi layered motherboards.
Put up or shut up, I listed my patents below. What have you created.
Slashdot Mirror
And encrypt your passwords with DES... and login as root... and don't forget to smudge taco sauch on that post-it-note with that command "yum update" written on it.
Seriously, don't listen to all the naysayers. Just because you call yourself smart and have a million users doesn't make you smart. And just because you don't have a million users and don't think you're smart doesn't make you stupid. Work hard, subscribe to mailing distribution and software mailing lists, and ALWAYS make it a point to check your logs. It might sound pointless, but at least you'll be logging into a shell more often than you clean your gutters.
If that fails, there is always Plan B.
Perhaps yet another reason for more support of S/MIME. Should your mail server change hands like this, you could simply revoke your signed certificate and move on.
I'm pretty sure people are free to say what they want in this country. We are not fascists just because a person espouses beliefs that are extreme realizations of an ideal many Americans believe in. That does not mean we want to be ill-informed or unprepared for the sake of opaque safety. Freedom of speech does not make us fascist! We are not militant belligerents looking to fight out our grudges against neighbors because of some long forgotten slight. We may have made mistakes, but we are not afraid to correct them, even if it may take generations.
What would make us fascist is if we censored the author's speech, or perhaps speech contrary to his words. But this is not done, and for the very same reason we are here arguing against him. In this country, you are free to subscribe to the author's beliefs and disassociate with people you deem "undesirables" if you wish. You are free to protest the author, or debate him both publicly and privately in a variety of media. So If these liberties we hold dear make us fascist, just remember, this is America's world and the rest of you are just living in it. Deal with it.
A perfect example is our grand jury system. It used to be that any citizen could convene a grand jury and present evidence to convince the jury to indict a person. I don't see that happening anymore, and good luck trying to do it. So, let's say I was a victim of this crime and I thought it was my neighbor. I can't go and convene a grand jury on my own, I have to file a report at the police department and hope they will arrest the bugger and that the prosecutor will convene the grand jury. Thus, as a victim, I have no guaranteed right to try and get my pound of flesh, so to speak. I have to hope and pray my case is deemed worthy enough. This is why in small town America, where I grew up, there is an inherit distrust of non elected law enforcement. You have absolutely no recourse if the police decide they do not want to investigate your claim. And let's be honest, identity theft is rarely investigated because hey, they should have known better.
I was really ranting about the claims that if you didn't know better it's your fault. Not locking your doors, or not using SSLcommunication against a sanitized SQL sever for Sony Service XYZ, doesn't magically make it OK to steal from you, or less severe if you get caught because hey "the guy was asking for it." As it stands now, we have no way of going after these guys on our own and the legal system has no incentive to do so. So the only solution is to keep updating your anti-virus, keep downloading patches, and keep on top of the latest security trends so that, hopefully, this doesn't happen to you. Don't you think that's unfortunate? I don't know about you, but I'd much prefer to spend my time elsewhere.
I should have been clearer. How is a 1986 SBX Like law ever considered constitutional when it comes to private communications? Why does the 1986 law need to be 'fixed' at all, it shouldn't have ever applied to personal communications. And for practicl purposes, it didn't apply until some johnny fracking asshit FED realized this law could be used to unconstitutionally read your e-mail stored on your GMail/ISP/whatever mail server. "Who cares about the 4th amended right, there is this law see, so you gotta send us up the base."
What I meant by comparing SBX and other laws is that the government paper pushers are 'interprerting' them in a manner to constantly violate our 4th amendment rights. Corporations do not have 4th Amendment rights, but I do. I don't care what bill passes the senate, my private documents not stored out in the open public are not subject to a warrantless search. It shouldn't matter if it was written on paper, on electronic bits, or on stone tablets, nor should it matter where it's stored so long as that storage is private - only I and my 'landlord' can have access. How will another law help when the law is already being broken in the first place... by the very people who are suppose to be upholding it?
If I put a journal in a storage locker, you need a warrant to search for it regardless of the fact that I'm only renting the space and do not own it. How was it ever interpreted that it doesn't count the same way for a digital location. So to be clear, the 1986 law as is has been recently applied to private e-mail accounts was, and is, unconstitutional. Thus, why do we need a law that 'fixes' the situation?
I'd like to point out, that it's laws such as Sarbanes–Oxley that say you have to store e-mail for 5 years (well if you're a public company). There are a slew of other laws too that have obfuscated the situation so bad my former employer is archiving 100% of Mail, including mail normally rejected to a user's inbox, for over a year. Perhaps that's not such a bad thing, however my point is the problems with all these privacy acts is that they need not exist in the first place had the original laws never been written. I mean, if I keep a wallet for more than 180 days does that subject it to a warrantless search? If do not shred my journal after 180 days does that subject it to a warrantless search? Why would electronic communications ever be subject to a warrantless search after 180 days, whether it is here in 2011 or even back in 1986?
It is Sony's fault, but it's not the victims fault. I still remember when I moved from small town New Mexico to Cleveland. It wasn't very long before my car was broken into, and it was "my fault" for leaving valuables in it. How is what happened to the victims of Sony's inept security, and victims of criminals who violated said inept security, their fault. That's akin to saying it's the fault of a rape victim for happening to be attractive towards a rapist. I'm not necessarily saying this is what you meant, but there sure are an awful lot of comments eluding that the victim who was stupid enough to use Sony deserves it.
Why can't you live in a world where you can provide details to Sony without worrying about having your identity stolen? Why can't you live in a world where you don't need to lock your car? Why do we need SSH and public key encryption? Why can't you live in a world where you don't have to worry about any crime against property or person? I say it's because we've build a society that is great about protecting the rights of the accused, but does little to protect the rights of the victims. If these guys get caught, the will be afforded every conceivable protection against prejudiced trials... yet there will be no such guarantees for the victims.
To be fair, soccer moms aren't putting up web servers.
to be fair, soccer moms are putting up web cams all the time.
I was more referring towards the notion that just because it's not on the desktop, doesn't mean it's not a target. It's not like a malware distributor wouldn't jump with glee if there were a way to compromise a web, mail, or other *flavor* server, linux or otherwise, so users of a certain application combination automatically download a file. Perhaps a way to automatically inject MIME code that forces a download after the RCPT call of an SMPT session (I'm not server admin, just an amateur). It is a poor example, but I just want to emphasize that there shouldn't be complacency just because you're obscure... or think you're obscure.
Linux is hardened because patches can quickly be deployed and discussions of issues are frequent. Windows is hardened for the same reason. OSX, in this case, wasn't hardened because patches were slow to arrive and discussions are "moderated." Maybe one platform is better than the other, but not because of obscurity or lack of certain platforms. 2.5 cents.
Linux may not be popular on the desktop, but I'd say Linux has a very high percentage of servers since roughly 60% of mail server responses are exim, postfix, and sendmail, while microsoft continues to decline. My own vanity domain is "tested" daily hundreds of times, and let me tell you, Iptables and ACL keep my server secure, not obscurity.
A+ then for the article then. "Although groups are initially “wise,” knowledge about estimates of others narrows the diversity of opinions to such an extent that it undermines the wisdom of crowd effect..."
Liberals are smart, conservatives are stupid... that's what everyone I know says.
To be fair, as I posted above, it's actually options on $2.5 billion in reserve for 12 million vaccinations. I doubt they will 'exercised.' We are spending *only* $500 million on a million vaccines. Seems kind of expensive to me at $500 a pop. The award of this contract is currently under protest, so we'll see what happens.
I agree with your cynical viewpoint of these news articles, but I wouldn't say it's only in our own interest to keep the virus for national defense. Maybe that's one of the reasons that media latched onto, but it's not the only one. Research being preformed on smallpox is not limited in scope to smallpox vaccines, but virology in general. Keep in mind that smallpox was the first virus to have a vaccine developed. There is a huge body of literature and science behind smallpox, so, for example, watching for behaviors that don't match established 'rules' increased our understanding of all viruses, not just smallpox. It's not like CDC is studying smallpox to make a better smallpox vaccine, vaccinia is already good at that and EVERYONE has plenty of it on hand. And I'm not saying this will lead to a cure for AIDS, nothing is that simple, BUT it might just be one miniscule part of the puzzle that does.
It came from the news, and is a combination of your exact thoughts. The jist is Big Pharma Company X was awarded $500 million for one million vaccines, with options for an extra 12 million vaccines valued at $1.5 billion. I'm not sure, but last time I check this wouldn't even cover the New York City metropolitan area.
Here is the actual source which I found via this blog.
You can not reverse engineer smallpox from the vaccinia vaccine (smallpox vaccine). The virus is related to small pox, and in vaccination is a live virus, so care must still be taken. It's probable that vaccinia shares a common ancestor as cowpox, the original smallpox vaccine dating back to the 18th century, possibly as a pox like virus originally found in horses.
For my part, I'll try to stay away from outbreak areas if the worst should happen. Other than that, I'll not lose any sleep over it.
Ditto. It seems like instead of marketing towards that demographic, they're marking towards some other demographic that is 'attached' to our demographic. I tried to watch SGU, but honestly, part of being 'fat and rich' means early to bed and early to rise. I just can't stay up till 11:00 most nights nowadays, and that damn show was never on at a convenient time here on the East Coast, and it was always changing days. Maybe that's not quite true, but while I enjoyed the show I found it difficult to actually watch it when it was on. Yet, I can watch Dr. Who practically anytime on BBC America, or via iPlayer whenever I want (cheat code via VPN though).
Finally, the drawn out plots drive me nuts. I'd take 7 good episodes over 7 good episodes spread out over 10 lousy episodes any day. Maybe online is where these creators should take their stuff.
My 2.5 cents? TNG was popular in a world where America was proud of its shuttle program, technology was going to build a better future, and we were all going to become so rich money wouldn't matter.
Now, technology helped to create housing models that spawned a deep recession, we're outsourcing our space flights to Russia, and guys like Nial Fergusson are treated like modern day Richard Feynman's and Arthur Compton's.
Of course American non-exceptionalism is a bunch of BS, but that's about the only way pop culture perceives our society nowadays. So I say rename SyFy Sci-Fi, put your shows on the Inter-tubes for $5 a season, and see what happens.
Fair enough. I was mostly stating that I can still be 'rational' while preferring my government boondoggles to involve space shuttles instead of bank bailouts. I also wanted to point out that as far as 'boondoggles' are concerned, which one created more jobs?
Melodramatic? Can't think of anything more Melodramatic than stating rational adults think the shuttle program was and is a waste, and anyone who says different are bipolar misfits who cut themselves. How's this for melodramatic.
Shuttle Program...
Cost per year: $5 Billion
Total program cost: ~$175 Billion
Percent of annual Revenue: 0.1% - 0.75% over 35 years
Compare that to....
Cost of TARP: $300 Billion
Bush Stimulus: $172 Billion
Obama Stimulus: $862 Billion
Which one of those created jobs. Disregard your politics, ask yourself if it is more likely that the Shuttle program created more engineers and mechanics and pipe fitters and electricians and truck drivers and chemical mixers, than say TARP and its bankers.
Now for some other calculus. The space station was built so Russian scientists would have something to do other than build Nuclear bombs. I grew up in that world, and saw it fist hand as a teenager whose parents worked at White Sands. After the wall fell, one of those Russian scientists lived with us, and instead of building bombs and rockets, he built rockets and space stations.
Somehow our calculus assumes the current NASA engineers are just going to flip burgers and mow lawns. The disassumes that some of them may move to China, or elsewhere, and build rockets and, possibly, bombs... since those nations have no desire to build space stations.
Not illegal, but a submarine patent is not regarded as enforceable once the invention has become widely adopted. In fact, if you want to forgo foreign patents, you can stealth patent with the USPTO to your hearts content. But that case, and others, did make clear one important caveat to the stealth patent. If one claim is invalidated, the entire patent becomes unactionable. This is usually the case, but sometimes not if reasonable exception that a claim was novel can be shown. However, with these kinds of patents, it's always a big fat NO.
This is a stealth attack by a patent Troll. The only people who will make money here are the lawyers. The sucker investors who bought into the patent troll will lose their shirts after "fees." The programmers and designers who built the software they are being sued over will lose, even if they win. Finally, society will lose as cool software we could once purchase will no longer be developed, or reduced in functionality.
What about algorithms? Simply taking a bunch of components (that someone else invented) and rearranging the order in which they are used or interact isn't inventive, it's just mucking about with an algorithm.
Correct. Whether you call it a process, a method, or an algorithm, the idea is the same. If you patent a wheel with spokes, someone can't come along and say "I've invented a wheel with spokes that are installed counterclockwise." That doesn't fly... well at least everywhere other than software. It all seems funny to me. The whole software IP needs a big shakeup.
Sort of. If you publish your invention publicly, the subsequent patent becomes unenforceable upon allocation. In fact, just talking about a patent application to a large enough group will make the subsequent patent unenforceable. Sometiems, even a vague mention of a similar idea can invalidate a patent. I remember a case well where we won against a competitor who posted their cool new process on their website. Whoops...
The idea behind submarine patents was to use your secret squirrel ideas unpatented for as long as possible. The minute you think someone is going to figure out your 'method', you suddenly work out all the bugs in your application and, viola, the lab that was about to RE your invention suddenly finds you have a totally novel, and enforceable, patent. In short, if you can keep the method of making some super cool invention a secret for a long time (difficult to RE or whatever) you can effectively extend your patent by the number of years you've keep it secret. This might have been used extensively by modern pharma to great sucess, but submarine patents around the world are largely defunct nowadays.
RE: The OT. My rule of thumb is thus - any patent with more than a couple pages, or more than a hand full of "real" claims, is totally worthless. I'm all for patent reform in this regard, as nobody should be allowed to patent a software process that simply calls an apple and orange, such as patent 7222078. Sadly, it really seems like the inmates are running the asylum here. Just me 2.5 cents, I have no idea how the software industry works in regards to patents and IP. I wish the 'victims' all the luck in the world defending thus. Here's hoping they all team up, but I'm willing to bet the big guys want to go it alone less they risk a terrible loss and chance of appeal. Our system at its best :(
Rule of Aquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.
Rule of Acquisition #285: No good deed ever goes unpunished.
In my state, Ohio, it is either difficult or *impossible* to have two cable companies service the same customers. I don't know the law or anything, but our local cable co-op was forbidden, as in the utilities commission nixed fully funded plans, from expanding into a neighboring township that has Time Warner, or whatever. The local residents in this neighboring township are, understandably, quite jealous of our 24Mb up/8Mb down service for $49. Apparently their service is inferior.
It goes further. Another township to the south has no cable, and was still the federal broadband funds because Verizion, now Frontier, can *theoretically* service the area with DSL. I say theoretically because unless you happen to be one the 300 so people within a couple miles of the main town you can't get DSL. The only option for the majority of that community is dialup.
So whatever the law says, or what your rights are, here in no-where-ville Ohio, unless you happen to live in my exact geographic location you're Internet options are between dial-up... and smoke signals.
Well that's exactly what the constitution says I get, a limited monopoly. I never said pirated software is a lost sale, in fact I said the opposite in a manner of speaking. What I really said was just because it's not a lost sale doesn't make it right to take it.
The information I posted can take you to everything I've ever done. You can rip me to shreds, I have opened myself here to anything. Yet nobody else who thinks ideas are worthless has posted one sentence of original thought. I bet all these free the internet, piracy isn't stealing, also think Wikileaks is the second coming. Yet none of you have posted your life. Put up or shut up I say.
Well, in My country the constitution states you are grated a limited monopoly, the limited part being time. The reason being, MOST founders reasoned people who create things might like to get paid for their ideas. Article I, second 8. It's not an amendment, it's not a law... it's the freaking constitution.
So yea, I do use binary computers without paying Atansoff. But you don't use Asus motherboards without paying me for my ideas regarding delamination of multi layered motherboards.
Put up or shut up, I listed my patents below. What have you created.