Take away his ability to request any patents until such a time as he proves he can do so responsibly. Maybe have any applications from this fellow go through a board of his peers.
I see what you're going at though. There really isn't anything we can do at that level to legally block the programmer from applying for a stupid patent, and I'm not sure there should be anything past perhaps higher charges.
Maybe part of the process needs to be someone who asks the applicant "are you sure this is new and doesn't exist anywhere else?" I just can't believe a programmer could think that someone else wouldn't have come up with this earlier, or have been taught this technique by someone else.
Programmers don't need to know about the intricacies of patent law, but I don't see any reason why anyone couldn't know enough about it to be familiar with "prior art."
If anyone, in any field, is doing something and the subject of a patent comes up, they should know enough to know that "if what I'm doing is not original and there is likely someone else who did it beforehand, then I should not get a patent." The concept of prior art is less of an abstraction than programming techniques, at least judging from some of the people I've had to help out..
I do think that a lawyer should be familiar with whatever subject material, whenever possible. But there's no substitute for real working knowledge and experience. The programmer in this case should have known that this is the same linked list structure that has been in use for decades and is in several of my books from the 80s and 90s.
I don't doubt that the lawyer should have done better here and not taken the case. I still would say it never should have gotten that far.
Actually, I'm going to have to disagree with you here. I don't blame the lawyer for this, but the programmer who instigated this. The lawyer can't be expected to know about everything, so while they are the gatekeepers, and should have probably asked some additional questions, they shouldn't have even been brought into this in the first place.
Not that I don't disagree with cleaning up the legal system in the way you're describing anyway, it's such a mess..
Not entirely accurate. This depends on how the company accounts for the time, and how it's handled. Some places that's time that you own, and others it's just a benefit that they give you. Ours actually just switched, which made for an interesting contrast. They had to pay out the time that people had built up under the old one, but now if someone quits they have no obligation for this.
Seriously though, you're right. That's why generally I don't sit there very long. However, even with the short period, I prefer to be reading something. Additionally, sometimes things don't turn out quite that nicely.
It's sad, but I recall a previous discussion on Slashdot about this very thing.
It's a balance. You try to do it too fast and you could cause some damage to your system. But you sit there too long for no reason you can also cause damage of a different kind, and you waste time.
You need to be relaxed and not pressure yourself, but get through it and off fairly quickly. Personally, I enjoy having something to read or do while I'm in there, even for only the couple of minutes I'm there. But I've always done that. Give me a 5 minute wait in a doctor's office and I'll have picked up and started reading the first thing I could get my hands on...
As far as Google's tactic here, it sounds like they're short little quizzes on how stuff works and they're just something to spur some thought as you're there. I'd take something like that above the urinal if I could get it, just to make my trip in there more interesting. And if I've already got something on my mind, I'd just ignore it...
Holy cow this is a beautiful post. You ran through explanations of everyone's stance and reasoning, and gave the facts pointing to that reasoning. Nicely done.
Someone give this man a cookie (and mod him up while you're at it).
I hate to say this when we're talking about CO2 emissions, but so what? What the hell does the US putting out the most CO2 have to do with the parent's statement "Global warming is not something that the United States or the World can do alone to solve."
So you mean to tell me that you actually do believe that the US alone (with a most a quarter of the CO2 output) can solve global warming by itself? So the rest of the world can continue to grow their output, but hey, if the US decreases theirs, global warming will cease.
Not to mention that while we're sure that there is global warming, we're not sure that we can really affect it in any meaningful way. But then again, I know that's not a popular belief to have here...
I mean, what the hell did this add to the conversation? Was the parent talking about how the US has very clean industry and doesn't pollute or something?
If we're going to even hope to make an impact on global warming, we've got to all do it. It can't be just the US, while everyone else is allowed free reign. It won't work that way.
Suppose that they didn't write the article as a knee-jerk response, but actually tried investigating, getting help from Paypal, and actually tried other options first, hoping that Paypal would give in without all the extra hassle?
Or another possibility could be that they were originally going to be fine waiting it out, but as the winter is traditionally expensive season, found out they couldn't?
A lot of people are talking about how most or none of these products should be called "innovative", and that the title is a bad one.
I'm going to disagree. The title is "20 Most Innovative Products of 2006". Couldn't we consider everything to have some degree of innovation, though the *amount* of innovation is so miniscule and small that it's the same as last year?
I'd submit that this may well be a list of the 20 Most Innovative Products, just that the amount of innovation is a pathetic illustration of how little innovation is being done in the large corporations of today's technology world. Everyone wants to play it safe and just do a new iteration, innovation might lose customers.
I think in this case, this story was doomed to have the Microsoft tag on it. Whatever you want to limit it at, you're going to get enough jokers just because it's funny.
I'll admit that the probably the second thought I had when I saw this story on the feed was about Microsoft.
I'm not sure, but I think it might be safe to say that the parent was referring to developers who *use* MySQL.
The development team working on MySQL probably is in favor of getting the integrity constraints to work right. I doubt they could be experienced database programmers and think otherwise.
However, I have to admit that I've noticed many developers that use MySQL seem to think that integrity constraints are not useful, and often concentrate on the performance aspect more than anything, saying that the application should enforce the constraints.
For example, there are two posts here and here that give various arguments against putting integrity constraints in the database.
I'm not so sure. As much as I enjoy having an OS I can fiddle with, I really think that the time for internet appliances has almost arrived.
hardware will still need a software layer to GET to the internet, we refer to this layer as an operating system
And the operating system still needs a software layer to get to the hardware. Considering that the OS is built on top of the BIOS, what's to say that they may not eventually add a little more to the BIOS so that you don't need an OS. Maybe put a web browser and basic network functionality in there, and you've got an appliance that can hook into all your apps online.
As far as people thinking of computers as possessions and not services, all it takes is one simple appliance that takes care of itself, and allows someone to browse the internet, maybe has a link to all the relevant web applications. Provide it for a $10/month extra, or $20/month and it includes a light connection, maybe a small charge for the hardware "installation" (or sign up for a 2 year contract!). If it takes off, the home computer for most people as we know it will die out after 20 years or so.
I was just thinking about how cool it would be to go solar. I've got a couple solar powered lights, and I'd love to get to a point where I don't have to be on the grid, or I'm feeding power back into it.
However, while solar power and batteries work for something that's only supposed to be on some of the day, the more we go with solar power, the more we will strain the grid in situations where solar power is low.
For instance, if we have enough solar panels to power the entire world, and enough batteries to power it during the night, obviously, we're not going to be looking as heavily into fission/fusion/etc. But if we do get a disaster, the load on the non-solar systems would be incredible. There would be required brownouts/blackouts. Otherwise, you're aiming for 100%+ utilization for the period until solar power becomes available again. Last time I ran my stuff at 100% utilization for weeks or months at a time, problems started cropping up... And if you normally are running the system at 1-2% utilization, but then switch over to 100% on the backup......
Perhaps you've heard that the PS2 box also plays PS1 games, and is also DVD player! Amazing! Not to mention that PS2s are running a hell of a lot cheaper right now (and are smaller so they fit into your stack of devices easier). $150 for 2 game systems plus a DVD player, or $600 for the same plus 1 new game system (for which there's maybe one *good* game out yet) that also has the ability to do things 99% of the population doesn't care about yet (and may never care about).
I'll admit that the PS3's pretty. But damn if it doesn't seem a little steep for what you get right now.
Personally, I think this news about this game is a good thing. Hopefully it will help spur some different development besides more first person shooters or sports games.
Woah. So you're saying that because the Republicans didn't start whining about fraud and whatnot, that's evidence that there was fraud going on? Not only that, but it sounds like you think the Republicans were engaging in massive fraud (and yet still lost), while the Democrats were completely innocent? Wow. Just wow. Doesn't that just sounds a little funny to you?
Personally, I think that you're going to have some voter fraud either way. It's the sort of thing we've heard about from both sides for quite a few years. You do your best to catch what you can, and then you gotta let it go. There's no sense whining about it for years on end without actually fixing anything.
Disclaimer: I typically vote along more Republican ideals than Democrat, though I also think that right now both parties have completely abandoned their core ideals in an attempt to get more voters. I believe both parties in our two party system are broken.
Now there is a sensible solution, just to talk to the other site and see what they can do.
I wanted to point out something though. Several people have brought up the idea of just changing the front page to have adwords, shrinking the images, etc. Problem, guys. Do you really think that this little company actually has someone on-staff that can make the changes? Sure, it sounds simple enough to everyone around here, but I've been noticing more and more that a lot of the time, these company's websites are set up by some contractor, then when something like this happens, all that they know how to do is move their website.
From TFA: "the collision began about 500m years ago"
Man, just can't get anything but old news around here. Digg reported this 499 million years ago!
Re:Try a different approach.
on
Oracle Linux?
·
· Score: 1
And who says they don't do that now?
Suppose Oracle supports their own, reduced, version of Linux (with any performance enhancements that they deem necessary). If they "partnered" with a hardware vendor, you'd have a single stop for your database server needs. You've always got stuff like this: http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/linux/valida ted-configurations/index.html
They could get it so you could buy everything through them easily enough, they'd just need to coordinate and give the other companies a slice of the pie in return for their support.
Last year, our support contract guys explained that Oracle has several different branches of support. You want just standard TAR/SR working, you get with their standard support guys. You want specialized on-site (or remote) administration done, you've got a different branch of support guys. You want a special application made or special support for your application level stuff, they've got a branch that handles that too. Yes, Oracle will actually build (or even debug) applications for you. It'll cost you, some of it pretty big-time, depending on how much time you need them to work on it. But they can do it, no problem.
You gotta be realistic about what you want and the time frame, but they've got a lot of options if you want support or anything else done, provided you dig deep enough into your pockets. I will say that they weren't going to quote us any numbers on a hypothetical basis, they'd evaluate it.
I'll say that not all of this is quite to the level that you were referring to, nor is it quite the level that a lot of people are talking about, but it's close, and it's not a big step from where they are now to getting to that point.
If he was unqualified, which is obvious, he had no business running
My government prof back in college used to say that anyone running for public office is not fit for it. Just to explain a little, this is in reference to the amount scrutiny you're under when you're in public office. If you want that, you must be crazy!
Anyway, on the point of the thread, Bush may suck, but why the hell can't anyone come up with anyone better? *That's* why Bush won the last election. No one else could provide a decent choice, and due to the way our system works, your choices are limited to people supported by a major party. If there would have been a decent candidate who wasn't an idiot, he would have mopped the floor with Bush and friends.
I apoligize that you disagree and thus feel I have nothing useful to say. How very accepting of you. I'm also sorry that you seem to think that other Slashdotters do not have the capability to reason for themselves and must not see anything against what you believe lest they actually disagree, thus we need to bury anything you don't think is right.
Let me clear this up for you though, since I really didn't mean to give that impression.
I don't mean to say that Robert Anton Wilson might be ripping you off, however I took offense to the post that I was replying to's assertion that someone asking for money on the internet and people filling this request is equivalent to a bum asking for money for food and people giving him a sandwich. It's not. You're taking a risk. Giving a bum a sandwich is less of a risk than giving him money to buy a sandwich and trusting him to buy one for himself. I'm sorry, but I've seen far too many people give money to people and see that money misused.
Based on everything I've seen, I'm pretty certain that you're right. The Robert Anton Wilson that we're referring to is the real one, and he needs real help. Fortunately, there's enough people who are giving that help already that he should be set for a while. However, knowing that doesn't make it risk free. You have to know that.
Sorry that the bum and the sandwich reference got me riled up, but there you go.
Slashdot Mirror
Take away his ability to request any patents until such a time as he proves he can do so responsibly. Maybe have any applications from this fellow go through a board of his peers.
I see what you're going at though. There really isn't anything we can do at that level to legally block the programmer from applying for a stupid patent, and I'm not sure there should be anything past perhaps higher charges.
Maybe part of the process needs to be someone who asks the applicant "are you sure this is new and doesn't exist anywhere else?" I just can't believe a programmer could think that someone else wouldn't have come up with this earlier, or have been taught this technique by someone else.
Programmers don't need to know about the intricacies of patent law, but I don't see any reason why anyone couldn't know enough about it to be familiar with "prior art."
If anyone, in any field, is doing something and the subject of a patent comes up, they should know enough to know that "if what I'm doing is not original and there is likely someone else who did it beforehand, then I should not get a patent." The concept of prior art is less of an abstraction than programming techniques, at least judging from some of the people I've had to help out..
I do think that a lawyer should be familiar with whatever subject material, whenever possible. But there's no substitute for real working knowledge and experience. The programmer in this case should have known that this is the same linked list structure that has been in use for decades and is in several of my books from the 80s and 90s.
I don't doubt that the lawyer should have done better here and not taken the case. I still would say it never should have gotten that far.
Actually, I'm going to have to disagree with you here. I don't blame the lawyer for this, but the programmer who instigated this. The lawyer can't be expected to know about everything, so while they are the gatekeepers, and should have probably asked some additional questions, they shouldn't have even been brought into this in the first place.
Not that I don't disagree with cleaning up the legal system in the way you're describing anyway, it's such a mess..
Well, then your candidate review tends to go something like this:
Good qualities about Republican party candidate: N/A
Good qualities about Democrat party candidate: N/A
I tend to think that this was the problem at the last two US elections.
Not entirely accurate. This depends on how the company accounts for the time, and how it's handled. Some places that's time that you own, and others it's just a benefit that they give you. Ours actually just switched, which made for an interesting contrast. They had to pay out the time that people had built up under the old one, but now if someone quits they have no obligation for this.
As long as you're eating properly
You must be new here.
Seriously though, you're right. That's why generally I don't sit there very long. However, even with the short period, I prefer to be reading something. Additionally, sometimes things don't turn out quite that nicely.
It's sad, but I recall a previous discussion on Slashdot about this very thing.
It's a balance. You try to do it too fast and you could cause some damage to your system. But you sit there too long for no reason you can also cause damage of a different kind, and you waste time.
You need to be relaxed and not pressure yourself, but get through it and off fairly quickly. Personally, I enjoy having something to read or do while I'm in there, even for only the couple of minutes I'm there. But I've always done that. Give me a 5 minute wait in a doctor's office and I'll have picked up and started reading the first thing I could get my hands on...
As far as Google's tactic here, it sounds like they're short little quizzes on how stuff works and they're just something to spur some thought as you're there. I'd take something like that above the urinal if I could get it, just to make my trip in there more interesting. And if I've already got something on my mind, I'd just ignore it...
It is impossible to argue against a fact.
I'm afraid I must argue with your interpretation of the facts. See my evidence here.
Holy cow this is a beautiful post. You ran through explanations of everyone's stance and reasoning, and gave the facts pointing to that reasoning. Nicely done.
Someone give this man a cookie (and mod him up while you're at it).
I hate to say this when we're talking about CO2 emissions, but so what? What the hell does the US putting out the most CO2 have to do with the parent's statement "Global warming is not something that the United States or the World can do alone to solve."
So you mean to tell me that you actually do believe that the US alone (with a most a quarter of the CO2 output) can solve global warming by itself? So the rest of the world can continue to grow their output, but hey, if the US decreases theirs, global warming will cease.
Not to mention that while we're sure that there is global warming, we're not sure that we can really affect it in any meaningful way. But then again, I know that's not a popular belief to have here...
I mean, what the hell did this add to the conversation? Was the parent talking about how the US has very clean industry and doesn't pollute or something?
If we're going to even hope to make an impact on global warming, we've got to all do it. It can't be just the US, while everyone else is allowed free reign. It won't work that way.
Suppose that they didn't write the article as a knee-jerk response, but actually tried investigating, getting help from Paypal, and actually tried other options first, hoping that Paypal would give in without all the extra hassle?
Or another possibility could be that they were originally going to be fine waiting it out, but as the winter is traditionally expensive season, found out they couldn't?
I vote for a combination.
A lot of people are talking about how most or none of these products should be called "innovative", and that the title is a bad one.
I'm going to disagree. The title is "20 Most Innovative Products of 2006". Couldn't we consider everything to have some degree of innovation, though the *amount* of innovation is so miniscule and small that it's the same as last year?
I'd submit that this may well be a list of the 20 Most Innovative Products, just that the amount of innovation is a pathetic illustration of how little innovation is being done in the large corporations of today's technology world. Everyone wants to play it safe and just do a new iteration, innovation might lose customers.
I think in this case, this story was doomed to have the Microsoft tag on it. Whatever you want to limit it at, you're going to get enough jokers just because it's funny.
I'll admit that the probably the second thought I had when I saw this story on the feed was about Microsoft.
I'm not sure, but I think it might be safe to say that the parent was referring to developers who *use* MySQL.
The development team working on MySQL probably is in favor of getting the integrity constraints to work right. I doubt they could be experienced database programmers and think otherwise.
However, I have to admit that I've noticed many developers that use MySQL seem to think that integrity constraints are not useful, and often concentrate on the performance aspect more than anything, saying that the application should enforce the constraints.
For example, there are two posts here and here that give various arguments against putting integrity constraints in the database.
I'm not so sure. As much as I enjoy having an OS I can fiddle with, I really think that the time for internet appliances has almost arrived.
hardware will still need a software layer to GET to the internet, we refer to this layer as an operating system
And the operating system still needs a software layer to get to the hardware. Considering that the OS is built on top of the BIOS, what's to say that they may not eventually add a little more to the BIOS so that you don't need an OS. Maybe put a web browser and basic network functionality in there, and you've got an appliance that can hook into all your apps online.
As far as people thinking of computers as possessions and not services, all it takes is one simple appliance that takes care of itself, and allows someone to browse the internet, maybe has a link to all the relevant web applications. Provide it for a $10/month extra, or $20/month and it includes a light connection, maybe a small charge for the hardware "installation" (or sign up for a 2 year contract!). If it takes off, the home computer for most people as we know it will die out after 20 years or so.
I was just thinking about how cool it would be to go solar. I've got a couple solar powered lights, and I'd love to get to a point where I don't have to be on the grid, or I'm feeding power back into it.
However, while solar power and batteries work for something that's only supposed to be on some of the day, the more we go with solar power, the more we will strain the grid in situations where solar power is low.
For instance, if we have enough solar panels to power the entire world, and enough batteries to power it during the night, obviously, we're not going to be looking as heavily into fission/fusion/etc. But if we do get a disaster, the load on the non-solar systems would be incredible. There would be required brownouts/blackouts. Otherwise, you're aiming for 100%+ utilization for the period until solar power becomes available again. Last time I ran my stuff at 100% utilization for weeks or months at a time, problems started cropping up... And if you normally are running the system at 1-2% utilization, but then switch over to 100% on the backup......
Osama, is that you?
No, it's Mark. Get it right.
Perhaps you've heard that the PS2 box also plays PS1 games, and is also DVD player! Amazing! Not to mention that PS2s are running a hell of a lot cheaper right now (and are smaller so they fit into your stack of devices easier). $150 for 2 game systems plus a DVD player, or $600 for the same plus 1 new game system (for which there's maybe one *good* game out yet) that also has the ability to do things 99% of the population doesn't care about yet (and may never care about).
I'll admit that the PS3's pretty. But damn if it doesn't seem a little steep for what you get right now.
Personally, I think this news about this game is a good thing. Hopefully it will help spur some different development besides more first person shooters or sports games.
Woah. So you're saying that because the Republicans didn't start whining about fraud and whatnot, that's evidence that there was fraud going on? Not only that, but it sounds like you think the Republicans were engaging in massive fraud (and yet still lost), while the Democrats were completely innocent? Wow. Just wow. Doesn't that just sounds a little funny to you?
Personally, I think that you're going to have some voter fraud either way. It's the sort of thing we've heard about from both sides for quite a few years. You do your best to catch what you can, and then you gotta let it go. There's no sense whining about it for years on end without actually fixing anything.
Disclaimer: I typically vote along more Republican ideals than Democrat, though I also think that right now both parties have completely abandoned their core ideals in an attempt to get more voters. I believe both parties in our two party system are broken.
What, do you not want any Slashdotters to get through too?
Now there is a sensible solution, just to talk to the other site and see what they can do.
I wanted to point out something though. Several people have brought up the idea of just changing the front page to have adwords, shrinking the images, etc. Problem, guys. Do you really think that this little company actually has someone on-staff that can make the changes? Sure, it sounds simple enough to everyone around here, but I've been noticing more and more that a lot of the time, these company's websites are set up by some contractor, then when something like this happens, all that they know how to do is move their website.
From TFA: "the collision began about 500m years ago"
Man, just can't get anything but old news around here. Digg reported this 499 million years ago!
And who says they don't do that now?
a ted-configurations/index.html
Suppose Oracle supports their own, reduced, version of Linux (with any performance enhancements that they deem necessary). If they "partnered" with a hardware vendor, you'd have a single stop for your database server needs.
You've always got stuff like this:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/linux/valid
They could get it so you could buy everything through them easily enough, they'd just need to coordinate and give the other companies a slice of the pie in return for their support.
You want some application designed or special services or whatever?
http://www.oracle.com/consulting/index.html
Last year, our support contract guys explained that Oracle has several different branches of support. You want just standard TAR/SR working, you get with their standard support guys. You want specialized on-site (or remote) administration done, you've got a different branch of support guys. You want a special application made or special support for your application level stuff, they've got a branch that handles that too. Yes, Oracle will actually build (or even debug) applications for you. It'll cost you, some of it pretty big-time, depending on how much time you need them to work on it. But they can do it, no problem.
You gotta be realistic about what you want and the time frame, but they've got a lot of options if you want support or anything else done, provided you dig deep enough into your pockets. I will say that they weren't going to quote us any numbers on a hypothetical basis, they'd evaluate it.
I'll say that not all of this is quite to the level that you were referring to, nor is it quite the level that a lot of people are talking about, but it's close, and it's not a big step from where they are now to getting to that point.
If he was unqualified, which is obvious, he had no business running
My government prof back in college used to say that anyone running for public office is not fit for it. Just to explain a little, this is in reference to the amount scrutiny you're under when you're in public office. If you want that, you must be crazy!
Anyway, on the point of the thread, Bush may suck, but why the hell can't anyone come up with anyone better? *That's* why Bush won the last election. No one else could provide a decent choice, and due to the way our system works, your choices are limited to people supported by a major party. If there would have been a decent candidate who wasn't an idiot, he would have mopped the floor with Bush and friends.
I apoligize that you disagree and thus feel I have nothing useful to say. How very accepting of you. I'm also sorry that you seem to think that other Slashdotters do not have the capability to reason for themselves and must not see anything against what you believe lest they actually disagree, thus we need to bury anything you don't think is right.
Let me clear this up for you though, since I really didn't mean to give that impression.
I don't mean to say that Robert Anton Wilson might be ripping you off, however I took offense to the post that I was replying to's assertion that someone asking for money on the internet and people filling this request is equivalent to a bum asking for money for food and people giving him a sandwich. It's not. You're taking a risk. Giving a bum a sandwich is less of a risk than giving him money to buy a sandwich and trusting him to buy one for himself. I'm sorry, but I've seen far too many people give money to people and see that money misused.
Based on everything I've seen, I'm pretty certain that you're right. The Robert Anton Wilson that we're referring to is the real one, and he needs real help. Fortunately, there's enough people who are giving that help already that he should be set for a while. However, knowing that doesn't make it risk free. You have to know that.
Sorry that the bum and the sandwich reference got me riled up, but there you go.