Its been around for years, and has been shopped to the major power tool manufacturs [one of the largest, I used to work for, so i'm not talking out of my butt here.]
All of them turned it down due to legal implications, as well as adding to the cost per unit price.
Leagally, if a power tool manufacturer added this to their existing line of table saws, it *COULD* be taken as an admission of guilt that their previous models were not safe, any accident cases (no matter how stupid) would then have another chance at a successful suit.
Also, the inventor has been lobbying for *YEARS* to get his invention as a required component of table saws. He hasn't even had success in California - the most liberal state for passing stuff like this - let alone elsewhere.
I'm not knocking his invention, I've seen it pitched first hand.. the guy whipped a raw hot dog at the blade as fast as he could, and there was only maybe 1-2mm of damage to the hotdog before the blade dropped down into the brakes.
Destroying the blade of course. which.. at $50+ a pop.. kinda hurts.
Another reason this hasn't been adopted yet is that pressure treated wood also tends to cause the brakes to fire off..
Being long gone from the 'piracy' scene.. [c64 anyone] I can state without a doubt, that pirate groups dont care how shitty a game is, they will pirate it. I would even say that 95% of all pirated games don't get played more than 5 mins to assure they work.
Pirate groups will race whatever they can just to race. "Barbie Pony Madness ? Sure crack it and send it out.. Razor won't beat us on this one."
I also agree with the original poster that games are no longer complelling.
M.U.L.E. was a HORIRBLY ugly game, but it was fun to play. Mail order Monsters, great idea. Archon - a classic.
What have we had latley, really.. that is a fun game that people can just play, without becoming a 'follower' ?
Yeah.. the Sims was new, not my cup of tea.. I am certainly looking forward to Spore.. but also worried that it wont meet the hype. Black and White seemed like it would be neat, then failed.
Games are suppoed to be fun, but with larger media based companies getting into the business, it seems like they are more and more about 'marketing' and 'cool graphics'.. not hard to understand, as thats what sells movies.
Heh.. i deal with the patent system, large multi nationals, and yes.. inventors out of their garage every day.
Revenue is not generated by having control over production, however, if you control production, you can at least be assured that you have a chance at recouping your costs before the patent hits the public domain, and people who DIDN'T have to front the research costs can undercut you by 40%.
The 'Big Guys', aside from IBM, very rarely even PLAY the patent game. They apply for patents, of course, as they should. But I know of three fortune 100's [personally] that hardly even handle enforcement of their patents, let alone licence them.. oh.. see.. there is a HUGE hole in your theory about only the big companies being able to gain leverage with [issued] patents: Licencing.
When you charge your celphone's new lithium-ion battery, the reason you are able to do that is because A company like Johnson Controls, who hold a number of patents on lithium-ion cells and batteries (and have for several years - since they developed most of the prelim technology that allowed it to exist), licenced the use of that patent to another company [or group of companies].
In addition, Big companies routinely licence IP from individual patent holders. its far FAR cheaper to pay 1-2 cents a unit or even $1 a unit for something high price tag, than to pay court fees.
So yes.. its not all 'free as in code' to everyone.. a licence may be a STAGGERING cost of one-cent per unit produced, or even a blanket licence for an annual fee. But the patent system doesn't prohibit the exchange of technology, in fact.. I would go far enough to say it promotes it. By making every patent and application public record, it allows folks to keep abrest of technology that would normally be a 'guild secret' in reneassance times.
The whole nature of the patent system actually *STOPS* the hoarding of knowledge. The simple fact is, they system works fine, while not perfect, it works. The problem isnt with the system, its with folks who don't want to play the game in the first place. If you own a company that has 40 patents in an area (which is a lot of patents) and you refuse to licence that IP to others etc. you are, of course, hindering growth.. HOWEVER, other people can look at your patents, and write improvement patents, or find other ways around your IP, yes.. its complicated, but at least they CAN do something. How hard would it be to write a simple bubble sort if you have NEVER seen example of it anywhere ? Without a patent system in place, most big companies would play the same game Coke-a-Cola does, and just hide their ideas in big vaults that no one is allowed to ever see.
So, which is better for mankind ? understanding that people are greedy, and adopting a system that forces them to share ideas ? or just allowing the greedy people to operate unseen and keep their breakthroughs a well guarded secret ? The current patent system rewards those willing to show their ideas with the public, by giving them limited protection of those ideas.
To bring a pharmacutical to market costs millions if not BILLIONS in research, experimentation, lobbying, and even FDA fees.
A friend of mine has been working on a drug that has an 80% success rate of clearing out childhood lukemia.
80%
she has been working on this for over five years.
and its still not though the FDA.
So.. really.. to counter your argument, if her company.. who has invested BILLIONS into this drug, was not sure that they would be able to recover thoses costs by haveing the right to control how and by whom it is produced; how many 'life saving' drugs with huge pricetags do you think you would see ?
Sure, its nice to believe that people would develop these cures because they are needed, and its the right thing to do - but lets face it.. most of the world doesn't work that way.
I'm certainly not willing to cut off my left leg to save my neighbor a case of the sniffles.
What is REALLY evil, what would REALLY kill inventive nature, would be to have *NO* system in place to provide motivation, protection, and YES, profit.. for the people who spend their LIVES coming up with a life changing idea.
A Inventor comes up with a great idea, spends 10 years perfecting it, and now.. with no patent system.. big corporation with limitless pockets starts producing his idea and making even more to line the limitless pockets. Explain to me how even the current patent system hurts the inventor.
To advocate 'anarchy' is a fools dream. People need laws and rules to form a society, and society is what stops most folks from knifing their neighbor, or.. selling him into slavery to the first spanish boat that came along because you wanted his cattle.
Games Workshop is worth over 2 Billion USD in sales a year. They have offices in 7+ countries, produce their games in 30+ languages.
They don't have a strangle hold on the gaming market. They don't TRY to have a stranglehold on the gaming market. They don't even consider their product a game.
I know.. I worked there for over 5 years, helped grow the US office from 60 to over 120 employees, and then helped start the current incarnation of Games-Workshop Japan.
Prior to that.. I was a hobby shop owner. I sold my store, which lasted another 3 years after I left before one of the owners funneled 60k out of it to pay off their other business's debts.
Games-Workshop, if you are ever on 'the in' is called 'The Hobby' inside the company. 13 year old boys, who buy the figures, paints , and toy soldiers.. are not called gamers, but hobbyiests.
From the Games-Workshop perspective, they have been around since the 70's. Peter Ackman [the guy who sold WOTC to hasbro] once came to the U.K. to ask the board there how they stuck around for so long. This was when Magic was impossible to keep on shelves anywhere. John Stallard, then in charge of U.K. Sales and Exports replied : "We don't worry about losing customers, because every year, amazingly enough, there are a whole slew of new 13 year old boys who haven't ever seen us."
Just to put it into perspective: There is a resident staff of over 100 artists working in the GW studios. From Sculpters, to photographers, painters, and normal visual artists. THAT.. is a lot of people, coming up with a LOT of creative stuff. They are not worried about stuff like : Warmachiner, Hot Lead, Heartbreaker, etc etc etc.
Those companies make fun games, hell.. people at workshop have even played them. But they don't have the drive, income, or production capabilities to survive the long haul.
Wiz Kids has the right idea. But time will tell as far as they are concerned.
So really, I can tell you, GW's goal is not to stop other people from making games, its to just keep making their own games. 'A copy of 40k in every toychest in the world.' is their mission statement. not 'Drive everyone else under.'
Privateer Press ? Heartbreaker ? These are not their compeition. Companies like Sony or Microsoft or RC cars, or Model rockets are. Games-Workshop is marketed, sold, and used as a Hobby, not as a game. Thats the difference. People spend lots of money on hobbies, and a hobby normally follows them around for their entire life in one way shape or form.
meh... until you have worked there.. you can't understand how sad it is to hear folks say GW tries to monopolise the market.
oops.. yeah.. sorry.. I meant Mythic (in virginia). Ironically.. JUST before they got the licence, I put an application in there [I know folks who work there] only to be turned down. Apparantly, working in the design studio at Games Workshop wasn't enough of a background to work on their video game;P
Meh.. just as well.. would have been like going back to highschool at 35.
I used to work at GW. Both in the US, and across the pond [When they were located in Lenton, and for about 2 months after they relocated to the new building.]
HUGE building, big spacemarine on the top. And, they have their own pub:P [seriously]
Stuff like computer programs have ALWAYS been the bastard step child of the company. They are always Licence deals, and the company itself keeps creative control.
Little known fact, Blizzard entertainment origially wrote 'warcraft' to be a RTS of warhammer. Approached (i think it was) Steve Godber on the board, for a licencing deal, and was turned down. Instead the deal was given to Mindscape, who made 'Shadow of the Horned Rat' which was a colossal failure.
The guys at Blizzard were big Games-Workshop fans:
I think the guys at Relic finally got it right, and that the Studio(At GW) finally got someone with a clue to make video game decisions. [although the MMORPG that they had going, died, but it seems that they moved the licence over to Relic.. so who knows.]
your dr has checked for chrones right ? thats a symptom.. friend from highschool wasn't diagnosed until he was like 23.. but his eyes jittered all through school.
when you all go off about how americans are under educated, please remember how many chineese engineering students coudn't even pass their entrance exams, and had to cheat to get into school.
I was an early adopeter of the Parhelia card, [with 3 19 inch CRTS none the less] and sent it back in under a week.
This box, 4 or 5 years later, is exactly the same thing, low resolution, flickery displays.. at least its a lot cheaper. still, for $50 you can buy an extra video card.. sure you can't have 180 degree WOW.. but have you ever tried to play WOW across even 2 monitors ?
Although I was an 'average' developer until two or three, then I too rocketed up the chain. Did the talented and gifted classes, even participated in a gov't sponsored learning program in my state to see how children with 'high' IQs learned vs 'ordanary' children.
I too excell at whatever I point my mind at, and have a 'people whisper about it when they find out' IQ.
And on the flip side, I also suffer through bouts of depression, and even worse, temper. Through out my life I have had issues both with rage, and depression. [Normally linked of course.] As a child I was self destructive, and an alcholic by 13. [Bone dry by 15, and been that way since.] If I chose to do well at something, I would. If something didn't interest me - I simply didn't do it.
As a child and young adult, this was ignored, my 'gifts' were what people concentrated on. Not the depression, the apathy to certain subjects, the night tremours, the drinking. Around college too, I was years above the subjects that interested, and totally ignored the ones that bored me. Thankfully - in college I was just another face, not a premadonna - and I think this is what turned me around.
The greatest lesson I learned in college was that no matter how friggen high your IQ is, you still have to brush your teeth, double check your math, and pass 'Ethics' - no matter how stupid you think the class is.
I have 800 hobbies, most of them only once, but I completly devour them in that one time. My wife calls me 'random man' or 'forgetful jones'. She jokingly says I can do higher math in my head, but still have problems telling which sock belongs on which foot.
It will be interesting to see if things 'slow down' as I approach middle age. I wonder, did I waste my prime ?
I've been on both sides of the fence with the 'perception' issue. And I agree, it all depends on the market and the perception.
a lifetime or two ago I was in Sales. Not only Sales, but selling from an anglo country into Japan. Not only selling into Japan, but selling toy SOLDIERS into japan.
Games Workshop makes a table top war game / hobby product line. A very large english company that sells multinationally [including here in the USA]
Selling into a foreign country, like Japan (this was just around the time of the economic burst.) its a tricky animal. I know it seems stereotypical, but foreigners were held in HIGH suspicion. An expensive [brand name] suit, an expensive meal after your meeting - these are the things that could close a deal. You had to look and act the part.
Prior to my time across the pond, I sold to chain and independant stores here in the USA, and it was the opposite. 'Hobby' guys selling to an independant retailer were expected to wear jeans and a polo shirt - suits made them nervous - like you were out of touch. Selling to a Hobbytown or larger chain, and you were expected to wear a suit if you were talking to execs.
I bring this up as a stark relation to my IT life.
I have a closet with several Armani suits, and a handful of custom made english / italian suits from my sales life. I rarely wear them.
I started working in IT again for a fortune 500. A rather.. large.. Cable company that I am betting 90% of you are familiar with. I started there in sales, and they eventually needed technical people - so I moved depts. Dockers and a button down shirt was the dress code. Which turned into Jeans and a nice shirt if your sitting at your desk all day. If i dressed nicer than that - folks asked where i was interviewing - and my bosses got very nervous.
I left that company, and started working at a power tool manufacturer [again in IT.] that everyone here has heard of.
They had a typical dress code, which i ignored - most of the time wearing jeans and a shirt. or sweater etc. Nothing ragged mind you - just nothing dressy either.
One specific day comes to mind. I was meeting with a director of IT, a director of Marketing, [I was originally in the marketing IT dept for e-commerce and branding development. read:: web development.] A higher level sales manager, a few retail managers, and some channel folks from outside companies.
I did my pitch, explained what we were doing and sat through the rest of the meeting. [No one talked during my presentation - I was wearing jeans and a company polo with dress shoes.] As others were talking, people took out their blackberries, laptops, left to go to the bathroom etc.
After the meeting, I was talking to the Marketing director, and the IT director about what the vendors might have thought, and the IT director - being somewhat of a.. well.. prick.. said [in front of my boss]:
"I can't believe you went to that meeting wearing jeans, thats totally against the dress code." He forced a chuckle as he said "I wish I was special enough to get away with that." [He was a very condesending fellow - and just so you can all see how the wheel turns, has lost over 70% of the people from his dept in the past year.]
The marketing director said to him [and indirectly my boss] :
"How is he supposed to dress ? He is *THE* web guy. We like when he dresses like this for meetings, becuause it shows outsiders that he MUST know what he is talking about - because he dresses like this and is not only working here, but taken into these meetings with outside vendors. It shows that he is confident that his work here is so valuable that he doesn't have to worry about having perfect business attire."
Now the icing.
I left that company as well, about six months ago. To WORK with the same marketing director guy at another company. I'm much higher up the food chain, and I am still not expected to wear suits. Sometimes they complain (semi jokingly) that i don't dress 'edgey' enough, and people might not take me seriously.
And second life, which btw is a CRAPPY *game*.. you have real life chineese money farmers, instead of chineese gold farmers.
The only 'object' of second life is to buy virtual things. There is no *amazing* breakthrough in commercial video gaming.
The engine is old, the graphics and models are tired, and it sucks an AMAZING amount of bandwith.
And guess what.. there are scam artists in Second Life too.
25 mins into my first (and only) experience with Second life, I 'bought' a tshirt with my 'allowence' money. and instead received a 'box' (read polygon cube) with the word 'sucker' on it.
I spent something like $120 lindons (or whatever) which is roughly $1 usd.
not a big rip off.. but what if i spent $500 or $1000 Lindons.
supposedly (and i feel this is mostly hype) 1 million usd changes hands in Second Life daily. [i'm sure the vast amount of this is just recirculated 'allowence' money moving around - and mostly marketing hype.]
but if only 5% of the population are scam artists.. well.. thats a lot of real money thats being taken out of the system.
[people can 'buy' lindons for real currency, supposedly paying people who have an excess of them and want to 'cash out']
its a very hard thing to do.. My company is breaking ground certainly, by figuring out a way to allow other companies to check to see if their products infringe, and settle that.. BEFORE their company is worth million.
Really, most attourneys will check 10-12 fields to see if there is infringement when writing up a claim, thats considered 'enough' and that itself is 2-3 months worth of work. [For those of you that think filing for a patent is as simple as filing your taxes online, its time for a rude awakening.. not only are the costs upward of $25k for a well written patent - you know, one that holds up in court - but there is at least a 1-2 year turn around from your preliminary filing. in ADDITION.. you need to maintain that patent, at additional cost, over its lifetime. Its cost prohibitive to 'camp' patents like people 'camp' DNS names.
Had RIM done their homework (and some argue that they did, and just ignored it) before bringing the ir product to market, they would have known about the infringement, and could have licenced it VERY cheap from NTP.
Had RIM made a serious offer the first or even the second time around, instead of trying to lowball NTP - despratly hoping they would go away - then this would have been over years ago.
As it stands, NTP just had to wait. They have the patents, they are valid patents (until the USPTO says they are not, and that is a 2-3 year review process.) The courts decided RIM was infringing unless the patents were invalid.
RIM could either pony up. Or try to fight the validity of the patents.. and NOT be allowed to do any business until that time. Since their entire business is BASED on the disputed IP, that was really just a bad bluff on that part.
They were faced with a choice. Go out of business, or pay the licencing fees.
In poker, they would have been called the cripple at a table.
Are you suggesting that instead, a private inventor who holds a patent that he cant possibly enforce due to money reasons, should just give up his rights ?
The systems isn't the problem here, its the 70+ years of people not having the ability to do proper due dillegence while declaring a patent novel.
*gasp* there are patents out there that were issued by the USPTO that infringe on other patents, simply because the people filing the 2nd patent didn't have the resources to make sure ALL of the other 7 million patents on file don't infringe.
As for 'patent trolls' (ambiguitious term) being associated in the same bracket as spammers and malware authors.. i believe the term is malicious intent. A 'patent troll' is normally a patent attourney, and to make any money whatsoever, one who can see the value in the patents they buy or licence. Last I checked, you didn't need a masters degree to write spam.
There is nothing wrong with the 'patent troll' that couldn't also be called 'evil' in laywers, doctors, or any other learned profession.
if by 'patent troll' the author means people who buy up neglected patents, and then enforce them, how is this bad ? Its no different than some real-estate agents who buy up crappy houses, give them the once over, and flip them for profit. One man's garbage...
If the author means 'people who file friviolous patents', thats alread self limiting. Its either a very time intensive process to write a good broad patent, or a very costly process to have someone do it for you. A non broad patent isn't very enforcable except in the EXACT case that it states. The average patent out there has fees associated with it that are well above 15k over the life of the patent.
Its not like someone just sends in a document, and *poof* they have a patent for 25 years. You have fees all along the way until the patent expires. Assuming the patent even gets granted and is novel.
What people don't seem to realize is that for ever RIM-esque patent case, there are thousands of infringements that never even get discovered or enforced. [either due to cost or time or neglect]
There are very large companies *cough*-*cough* ebay *cough* *cough* Microsoft *Cough* that have been charged with several large patent infringement cases, and simply paid out to the inventors listed on the patent. Or bought the rights from them. YEARS after the fact.
There are companies out there who's entire product lines infringe on patents held by private inventors, guys like you and me in our garages, who can't do anything about it because of the legal fees. I mean, what can one little guy do against a company that has 50-60 million in sales every quarter.. with *HIS* idea.
The reason patent trolls exist isn't because they are 'evil' or 'money grubbing'. Its because problems like this exist, and they are willing to either step in to help enforce patents, or willing to purchase the patent themselves and take all the risk with the rewards in mind.
But to sugges that we not allow patents to be filed for some of the reasons mentioned here, like non functiong prototypes etc.. why not just cripple the U.S. technology growth even more.
If you hate your current job, and the new job doesnt go under in the next year..like 80% of all new businesses. Will the new place pay out in the long run ?
In the real business world (past low to mid level programming monkey jobs) higher risk is rewarded with greater compensation - not less.
Management, and officers of companies get paid MORE to take risks, thats why they will put their jobs, and themselves on the line more willingly.
I left a fortune 500 job, very stable - boring as crap, for a riskier startup 4 months ago. I've been doing 16 hour days now, but I get paid more - and had a great package with stock shares. [SHARES, not options on shares.] Our stock price has already doubled over what it was issued to me as, and we are approaching 2nd phase of investment. [When VC's with real money start to step up to the plate.]
Before going to this new company, I would make sure that they spell out what your package will be. Don't bother with job description - its not a big co. In the small co. universe, you don't have a job description - you are expected to do what needs to be done, if you don't know how to do it.. learn, preferabally quickly, so you still meet the deadline.
Find out what your benifits will be, find out if you get shares.. shares over options, because if the company takes a bath - you can at least write off the loss if your a shareholder. Find out how much working capitol they have, and if the officer that is trying to hire you wont tell you that - you already have your answer.
all in all, anyone - and i MEAN anyone, who is not a slack or clueless worker, should never take less for their job. ever. You don't know how long it will take you to get back to where you were, and what you will have to give up because of that. If you don't like that job, you can't go get a new one at your old salary, because employers will see you were getting paid X ..then took a job for X-10k.. They will say : 'Hell.. this guy was willing to work for X-10k.. and now he is looking for work again, offer him X-12k'
Your time (if you are young, you may not get this) is NOT replaceable. and the two years it takes you to get back to your current income level is still a loss, as you lost the 3-6% raises you would have gotten at your old job, plus your vacation time etc. Years of your life can't be replaced - don't sell them short.. I mean.. unless your coming to work for me:)
good luck.
Keep in mind, safe & secure may be boring, but you get to see your family, and know that your going to get paid.
I thought it was sweeping generalazations, stereo types, and boiling the facts that destroyed the country. Who knew it was a combination of Apple and Brad Pitt ?!
Fuck politics, vote for your favorite sitcom next election.
I would endevour to suggest that its possible a corrupt and bi-polar political system, the total disregard for seperation of church and state and centralized (and HUGE) government that is the cause of our woe's..
It's a wee bit more plausable than blaming it on consumer goods and actors no ?
Slashdot Mirror
its also the same reason most airplanes still use engines that require leaded fuel.
Its been around for years, and has been shopped to the major power tool manufacturs [one of the largest, I used to work for, so i'm not talking out of my butt here.]
.. the guy whipped a raw hot dog at the blade as fast as he could, and there was only maybe 1-2mm of damage to the hotdog before the blade dropped down into the brakes.
.. at $50+ a pop .. kinda hurts.
..
All of them turned it down due to legal implications, as well as adding to the cost per unit price.
Leagally, if a power tool manufacturer added this to their existing line of table saws, it *COULD* be taken as an admission of guilt that their previous models were not safe, any accident cases (no matter how stupid) would then have another chance at a successful suit.
Also, the inventor has been lobbying for *YEARS* to get his invention as a required component of table saws. He hasn't even had success in California - the most liberal state for passing stuff like this - let alone elsewhere.
I'm not knocking his invention, I've seen it pitched first hand
Destroying the blade of course. which
Another reason this hasn't been adopted yet is that pressure treated wood also tends to cause the brakes to fire off
Being long gone from the 'piracy' scene .. [c64 anyone] I can state without a doubt, that pirate groups dont care how shitty a game is, they will pirate it. I would even say that 95% of all pirated games don't get played more than 5 mins to assure they work.
.. Razor won't beat us on this one."
.. that is a fun game that people can just play, without becoming a 'follower' ?
.. the Sims was new, not my cup of tea .. .. but also worried that it wont meet the hype.
.. not hard to understand, as thats what sells movies.
Pirate groups will race whatever they can just to race. "Barbie Pony Madness ? Sure crack it and send it out
I also agree with the original poster that games are no longer complelling.
M.U.L.E. was a HORIRBLY ugly game, but it was fun to play.
Mail order Monsters, great idea.
Archon - a classic.
What have we had latley, really
Yeah
I am certainly looking forward to Spore
Black and White seemed like it would be neat, then failed.
Games are suppoed to be fun, but with larger media based companies getting into the business, it seems like they are more and more about 'marketing' and 'cool graphics'
Heh .. i deal with the patent system, large multi nationals, and yes .. inventors out of their garage every day.
.. oh .. see .. there is a HUGE hole in your theory about only the big companies being able to gain leverage with [issued] patents: Licencing.
.. its not all 'free as in code' to everyone .. a licence may be a STAGGERING cost of one-cent per unit produced, or even a blanket licence for an annual fee. But the patent system doesn't prohibit the exchange of technology, in fact .. I would go far enough to say it promotes it. By making every patent and application public record, it allows folks to keep abrest of technology that would normally be a 'guild secret' in reneassance times.
.. HOWEVER, other people can look at your patents, and write improvement patents, or find other ways around your IP, yes .. its complicated, but at least they CAN do something. How hard would it be to write a simple bubble sort if you have NEVER seen example of it anywhere ? Without a patent system in place, most big companies would play the same game Coke-a-Cola does, and just hide their ideas in big vaults that no one is allowed to ever see.
Revenue is not generated by having control over production, however, if you control production, you can at least be assured that you have a chance at recouping your costs before the patent hits the public domain, and people who DIDN'T have to front the research costs can undercut you by 40%.
The 'Big Guys', aside from IBM, very rarely even PLAY the patent game. They apply for patents, of course, as they should. But I know of three fortune 100's [personally] that hardly even handle enforcement of their patents, let alone licence them
When you charge your celphone's new lithium-ion battery, the reason you are able to do that is because A company like Johnson Controls, who hold a number of patents on lithium-ion cells and batteries (and have for several years - since they developed most of the prelim technology that allowed it to exist), licenced the use of that patent to another company [or group of companies].
In addition, Big companies routinely licence IP from individual patent holders. its far FAR cheaper to pay 1-2 cents a unit or even $1 a unit for something high price tag, than to pay court fees.
So yes
The whole nature of the patent system actually *STOPS* the hoarding of knowledge. The simple fact is, they system works fine, while not perfect, it works. The problem isnt with the system, its with folks who don't want to play the game in the first place. If you own a company that has 40 patents in an area (which is a lot of patents) and you refuse to licence that IP to others etc. you are, of course, hindering growth
So, which is better for mankind ? understanding that people are greedy, and adopting a system that forces them to share ideas ? or just allowing the greedy people to operate unseen and keep their breakthroughs a well guarded secret ? The current patent system rewards those willing to show their ideas with the public, by giving them limited protection of those ideas.
And to this i say .. 'Inventions are expensive'
.. really .. to counter your argument, if her company .. who has invested BILLIONS into this drug, was not sure that they would be able to recover thoses costs by haveing the right to control how and by whom it is produced; how many 'life saving' drugs with huge pricetags do you think you would see ?
.. most of the world doesn't work that way.
.. for the people who spend their LIVES coming up with a life changing idea.
.. with no patent system .. big corporation with limitless pockets starts producing his idea and making even more to line the limitless pockets. Explain to me how even the current patent system hurts the inventor.
.. selling him into slavery to the first spanish boat that came along because you wanted his cattle.
To bring a pharmacutical to market costs millions if not BILLIONS in research, experimentation, lobbying, and even FDA fees.
A friend of mine has been working on a drug that has an 80% success rate of clearing out childhood lukemia.
80%
she has been working on this for over five years.
and its still not though the FDA.
So
Sure, its nice to believe that people would develop these cures because they are needed, and its the right thing to do - but lets face it
I'm certainly not willing to cut off my left leg to save my neighbor a case of the sniffles.
What is REALLY evil, what would REALLY kill inventive nature, would be to have *NO* system in place to provide motivation, protection, and YES, profit
A Inventor comes up with a great idea, spends 10 years perfecting it, and now
To advocate 'anarchy' is a fools dream. People need laws and rules to form a society, and society is what stops most folks from knifing their neighbor, or
Games Workshop is worth over 2 Billion USD in sales a year.
.. I worked there for over 5 years, helped grow the US office from 60 to over 120 employees, and then helped start the current incarnation of Games-Workshop Japan.
.. I was a hobby shop owner. I sold my store, which lasted another 3 years after I left before one of the owners funneled 60k out of it to pay off their other business's debts.
.. are not called gamers, but hobbyiests.
.. is a lot of people, coming up with a LOT of creative stuff. They are not worried about stuff like : Warmachiner, Hot Lead, Heartbreaker, etc etc etc.
.. people at workshop have even played them. But they don't have the drive, income, or production capabilities to survive the long haul.
... until you have worked there .. you can't understand how sad it is to hear folks say GW tries to monopolise the market.
They have offices in 7+ countries, produce their games in 30+ languages.
They don't have a strangle hold on the gaming market. They don't TRY to have a stranglehold on the gaming market.
They don't even consider their product a game.
I know
Prior to that
Games-Workshop, if you are ever on 'the in' is called 'The Hobby' inside the company. 13 year old boys, who buy the figures, paints , and toy soldiers
From the Games-Workshop perspective, they have been around since the 70's. Peter Ackman [the guy who sold WOTC to hasbro] once came to the U.K. to ask the board there how they stuck around for so long. This was when Magic was impossible to keep on shelves anywhere. John Stallard, then in charge of U.K. Sales and Exports replied : "We don't worry about losing customers, because every year, amazingly enough, there are a whole slew of new 13 year old boys who haven't ever seen us."
Just to put it into perspective: There is a resident staff of over 100 artists working in the GW studios. From Sculpters, to photographers, painters, and normal visual artists. THAT
Those companies make fun games, hell
Wiz Kids has the right idea. But time will tell as far as they are concerned.
So really, I can tell you, GW's goal is not to stop other people from making games, its to just keep making their own games. 'A copy of 40k in every toychest in the world.' is their mission statement. not 'Drive everyone else under.'
Privateer Press ? Heartbreaker ? These are not their compeition. Companies like Sony or Microsoft or RC cars, or Model rockets are. Games-Workshop is marketed, sold, and used as a Hobby, not as a game. Thats the difference. People spend lots of money on hobbies, and a hobby normally follows them around for their entire life in one way shape or form.
meh
oops .. yeah .. sorry .. I meant Mythic (in virginia). Ironically .. JUST before they got the licence, I put an application in there [I know folks who work there] only to be turned down. Apparantly, working in the design studio at Games Workshop wasn't enough of a background to work on their video game ;P
.. just as well .. would have been like going back to highschool at 35.
Meh
I used to work at GW. Both in the US, and across the pond [When they were located in Lenton, and for about 2 months after they relocated to the new building.]
:P [seriously]
.. so who knows.]
HUGE building, big spacemarine on the top. And, they have their own pub
Stuff like computer programs have ALWAYS been the bastard step child of the company. They are always Licence deals, and the company itself keeps creative control.
Little known fact, Blizzard entertainment origially wrote 'warcraft' to be a RTS of warhammer. Approached (i think it was) Steve Godber on the board, for a licencing deal, and was turned down. Instead the deal was given to Mindscape, who made 'Shadow of the Horned Rat' which was a colossal failure.
The guys at Blizzard were big Games-Workshop fans:
Warcraft = Warhammer
Starcraft = Warhammer 40k
Diablo = DungeonQuest / HeroQuest
I think the guys at Relic finally got it right, and that the Studio(At GW) finally got someone with a clue to make video game decisions. [although the MMORPG that they had going, died, but it seems that they moved the licence over to Relic
When there is no law, wouldn't it be true that anarchy in that situation would call for a rigid structure of rules for everyone to follow ?
your dr has checked for chrones right ? .. friend from highschool wasn't diagnosed until he was like 23 .. but his eyes jittered all through school.
thats a symptom
well .. technically .. a c-section is a better way to have a child.
.. there is a lot of .... tearing, which if drastic .. can take months to heal.
.. well .. crapping .. and its been over 9 months. A simple appeasiomoty could have fixed that.
.. surgical cuts heal faster, cleaner, and with less scaring than tears do.
.. so the 'breast is best' nazis hate us already.
.. god DAMN that science stuff anyways ..
there is additional risk to mom from infection, but thats why they do it in a hospital.
in 'natural' child birth
my cousin still has problems with pain when
all in all
Of course, we bottle fed our kid too
we had sonigrams all the time too
when you all go off about how americans are under educated, please remember how many chineese engineering students coudn't even pass their entrance exams, and had to cheat to get into school.
h1b my ass
I was an early adopeter of the Parhelia card, [with 3 19 inch CRTS none the less] and sent it back in under a week.
.. at least its a lot cheaper. still, for $50 you can buy an extra video card.. sure you can't have 180 degree WOW .. but have you ever tried to play WOW across even 2 monitors ?
This box, 4 or 5 years later, is exactly the same thing, low resolution, flickery displays
i've been using multiple monitors since 95' came out.
.. you don't go back.
Currently i have 3 Samsung Syncmaster 213t all at 1600X1200
Bill is right, once you go to multiple monitors
Sounds familiar.
Although I was an 'average' developer until two or three, then I too rocketed up the chain.
Did the talented and gifted classes, even participated in a gov't sponsored learning program in my state to see how children with 'high' IQs learned vs 'ordanary' children.
I too excell at whatever I point my mind at, and have a 'people whisper about it when they find out' IQ.
And on the flip side, I also suffer through bouts of depression, and even worse, temper. Through out my life I have had issues both with rage, and depression. [Normally linked of course.] As a child I was self destructive, and an alcholic by 13. [Bone dry by 15, and been that way since.] If I chose to do well at something, I would. If something didn't interest me - I simply didn't do it.
As a child and young adult, this was ignored, my 'gifts' were what people concentrated on. Not the depression, the apathy to certain subjects, the night tremours, the drinking. Around college too, I was years above the subjects that interested, and totally ignored the ones that bored me. Thankfully - in college I was just another face, not a premadonna - and I think this is what turned me around.
The greatest lesson I learned in college was that no matter how friggen high your IQ is, you still have to brush your teeth, double check your math, and pass 'Ethics' - no matter how stupid you think the class is.
I have 800 hobbies, most of them only once, but I completly devour them in that one time. My wife calls me 'random man' or 'forgetful jones'. She jokingly says I can do higher math in my head, but still have problems telling which sock belongs on which foot.
It will be interesting to see if things 'slow down' as I approach middle age. I wonder, did I waste my prime ?
Thats a foolish statement.
Sales is about confidence. Not about being P.C.
Lets put it in real world terms:
If you were going to buy a Rolex watch. Would you feel more comfortable purchasing one :
a) From a very expensive jewlrey store on high street, at a moderate discount.
b) From a blanket or card table vendor in Times Square, for $5.
Once your wrist turns green a few times - those Armani suits sure start looking nice.
I've been on both sides of the fence with the 'perception' issue. And I agree, it all depends on the market and the perception.
.. large .. Cable company that I am betting 90% of you are familiar with. I started there in sales, and they eventually needed technical people - so I moved depts. Dockers and a button down shirt was the dress code. Which turned into Jeans and a nice shirt if your sitting at your desk all day. If i dressed nicer than that - folks asked where i was interviewing - and my bosses got very nervous.
:: web development.] A higher level sales manager, a few retail managers, and some channel folks from outside companies.
.. well .. prick .. said [in front of my boss]:
:P
a lifetime or two ago I was in Sales. Not only Sales, but selling from an anglo country into Japan. Not only selling into Japan, but selling toy SOLDIERS into japan.
Games Workshop makes a table top war game / hobby product line. A very large english company that sells multinationally [including here in the USA]
Selling into a foreign country, like Japan (this was just around the time of the economic burst.) its a tricky animal. I know it seems stereotypical, but foreigners were held in HIGH suspicion. An expensive [brand name] suit, an expensive meal after your meeting - these are the things that could close a deal. You had to look and act the part.
Prior to my time across the pond, I sold to chain and independant stores here in the USA, and it was the opposite. 'Hobby' guys selling to an independant retailer were expected to wear jeans and a polo shirt - suits made them nervous - like you were out of touch. Selling to a Hobbytown or larger chain, and you were expected to wear a suit if you were talking to execs.
I bring this up as a stark relation to my IT life.
I have a closet with several Armani suits, and a handful of custom made english / italian suits from my sales life. I rarely wear them.
I started working in IT again for a fortune 500. A rather
I left that company, and started working at a power tool manufacturer [again in IT.] that everyone here has heard of.
They had a typical dress code, which i ignored - most of the time wearing jeans and a shirt. or sweater etc. Nothing ragged mind you - just nothing dressy either.
One specific day comes to mind. I was meeting with a director of IT, a director of Marketing, [I was originally in the marketing IT dept for e-commerce and branding development. read
I did my pitch, explained what we were doing and sat through the rest of the meeting. [No one talked during my presentation - I was wearing jeans and a company polo with dress shoes.] As others were talking, people took out their blackberries, laptops, left to go to the bathroom etc.
After the meeting, I was talking to the Marketing director, and the IT director about what the vendors might have thought, and the IT director - being somewhat of a
"I can't believe you went to that meeting wearing jeans, thats totally against the dress code." He forced a chuckle as he said "I wish I was special enough to get away with that." [He was a very condesending fellow - and just so you can all see how the wheel turns, has lost over 70% of the people from his dept in the past year.]
The marketing director said to him [and indirectly my boss] :
"How is he supposed to dress ? He is *THE* web guy. We like when he dresses like this for meetings, becuause it shows outsiders that he MUST know what he is talking about - because he dresses like this and is not only working here, but taken into these meetings with outside vendors. It shows that he is confident that his work here is so valuable that he doesn't have to worry about having perfect business attire."
Now the icing.
I left that company as well, about six months ago. To WORK with the same marketing director guy at another company. I'm much higher up the food chain, and I am still not expected to wear suits. Sometimes they complain (semi jokingly) that i don't dress 'edgey' enough, and people might not take me seriously.
what a world
And second life, which btw is a CRAPPY *game* .. you have real life chineese money farmers, instead of chineese gold farmers.
.. there are scam artists in Second Life too.
.. but what if i spent $500 or $1000 Lindons.
.. well .. thats a lot of real money thats being taken out of the system.
The only 'object' of second life is to buy virtual things. There is no *amazing* breakthrough in commercial video gaming.
The engine is old, the graphics and models are tired, and it sucks an AMAZING amount of bandwith.
And guess what
25 mins into my first (and only) experience with Second life, I 'bought' a tshirt with my 'allowence' money. and instead received a 'box' (read polygon cube) with the word 'sucker' on it.
I spent something like $120 lindons (or whatever) which is roughly $1 usd.
not a big rip off
supposedly (and i feel this is mostly hype) 1 million usd changes hands in Second Life daily. [i'm sure the vast amount of this is just recirculated 'allowence' money moving around - and mostly marketing hype.]
but if only 5% of the population are scam artists
[people can 'buy' lindons for real currency, supposedly paying people who have an excess of them and want to 'cash out']
its not exactly that simple ..
.. My company is breaking ground certainly, by figuring out a way to allow other companies to check to see if their products infringe, and settle that .. BEFORE their company is worth million.
.. not only are the costs upward of $25k for a well written patent - you know, one that holds up in court - but there is at least a 1-2 year turn around from your preliminary filing. in ADDITION .. you need to maintain that patent, at additional cost, over its lifetime. Its cost prohibitive to 'camp' patents like people 'camp' DNS names.
.. and NOT be allowed to do any business until that time. Since their entire business is BASED on the disputed IP, that was really just a bad bluff on that part.
have you ever tried find out if your IP is being infringed upon ?
I'm actually in that business now http://www.i4e.com/,http://www.invequity.com/
its a very hard thing to do
Really, most attourneys will check 10-12 fields to see if there is infringement when writing up a claim, thats considered 'enough' and that itself is 2-3 months worth of work. [For those of you that think filing for a patent is as simple as filing your taxes online, its time for a rude awakening
Had RIM done their homework (and some argue that they did, and just ignored it) before bringing the ir product to market, they would have known about the infringement, and could have licenced it VERY cheap from NTP.
Had RIM made a serious offer the first or even the second time around, instead of trying to lowball NTP - despratly hoping they would go away - then this would have been over years ago.
As it stands, NTP just had to wait. They have the patents, they are valid patents (until the USPTO says they are not, and that is a 2-3 year review process.) The courts decided RIM was infringing unless the patents were invalid.
RIM could either pony up. Or try to fight the validity of the patents
They were faced with a choice. Go out of business, or pay the licencing fees.
In poker, they would have been called the cripple at a table.
I beg to differ. All across the world people get 'worked up' over boobs.
:P
Its just that in the U.S. thats what people object to
trust me .. I don't.
.. as they have made the second [and final] round through the USPTO.
of course, those patents now stand a chance of being invalidated
Are you suggesting that instead, a private inventor who holds a patent that he cant possibly enforce due to money reasons, should just give up his rights ?
.. i believe the term is malicious intent. A 'patent troll' is normally a patent attourney, and to make any money whatsoever, one who can see the value in the patents they buy or licence. Last I checked, you didn't need a masters degree to write spam.
The systems isn't the problem here, its the 70+ years of people not having the ability to do proper due dillegence while declaring a patent novel.
*gasp* there are patents out there that were issued by the USPTO that infringe on other patents, simply because the people filing the 2nd patent didn't have the resources to make sure ALL of the other 7 million patents on file don't infringe.
As for 'patent trolls' (ambiguitious term) being associated in the same bracket as spammers and malware authors
There is nothing wrong with the 'patent troll' that couldn't also be called 'evil' in laywers, doctors, or any other learned profession.
...
.. with *HIS* idea.
.. why not just cripple the U.S. technology growth even more.
if by 'patent troll' the author means people who buy up neglected patents, and then enforce them, how is this bad ? Its no different than some real-estate agents who buy up crappy houses, give them the once over, and flip them for profit. One man's garbage
If the author means 'people who file friviolous patents', thats alread self limiting. Its either a very time intensive process to write a good broad patent, or a very costly process to have someone do it for you. A non broad patent isn't very enforcable except in the EXACT case that it states. The average patent out there has fees associated with it that are well above 15k over the life of the patent.
Its not like someone just sends in a document, and *poof* they have a patent for 25 years. You have fees all along the way until the patent expires. Assuming the patent even gets granted and is novel.
What people don't seem to realize is that for ever RIM-esque patent case, there are thousands of infringements that never even get discovered or enforced. [either due to cost or time or neglect]
There are very large companies *cough*-*cough* ebay *cough* *cough* Microsoft *Cough* that have been charged with several large patent infringement cases, and simply paid out to the inventors listed on the patent. Or bought the rights from them. YEARS after the fact.
There are companies out there who's entire product lines infringe on patents held by private inventors, guys like you and me in our garages, who can't do anything about it because of the legal fees. I mean, what can one little guy do against a company that has 50-60 million in sales every quarter
The reason patent trolls exist isn't because they are 'evil' or 'money grubbing'. Its because problems like this exist, and they are willing to either step in to help enforce patents, or willing to purchase the patent themselves and take all the risk with the rewards in mind.
But to sugges that we not allow patents to be filed for some of the reasons mentioned here, like non functiong prototypes etc
If you hate your current job, and the new job doesnt go under in the next year ..like 80% of all new businesses. Will the new place pay out in the long run ?
.. learn, preferabally quickly, so you still meet the deadline.
.. shares over options, because if the company takes a bath - you can at least write off the loss if your a shareholder. Find out how much working capitol they have, and if the officer that is trying to hire you wont tell you that - you already have your answer.
.then took a job for X-10k .. They will say : 'Hell .. this guy was willing to work for X-10k .. and now he is looking for work again, offer him X-12k'
.. I mean .. unless your coming to work for me :)
In the real business world (past low to mid level programming monkey jobs) higher risk is rewarded with greater compensation - not less.
Management, and officers of companies get paid MORE to take risks, thats why they will put their jobs, and themselves on the line more willingly.
I left a fortune 500 job, very stable - boring as crap, for a riskier startup 4 months ago. I've been doing 16 hour days now, but I get paid more - and had a great package with stock shares. [SHARES, not options on shares.] Our stock price has already doubled over what it was issued to me as, and we are approaching 2nd phase of investment. [When VC's with real money start to step up to the plate.]
Before going to this new company, I would make sure that they spell out what your package will be. Don't bother with job description - its not a big co. In the small co. universe, you don't have a job description - you are expected to do what needs to be done, if you don't know how to do it
Find out what your benifits will be, find out if you get shares
all in all, anyone - and i MEAN anyone, who is not a slack or clueless worker, should never take less for their job. ever. You don't know how long it will take you to get back to where you were, and what you will have to give up because of that. If you don't like that job, you can't go get a new one at your old salary, because employers will see you were getting paid X .
Your time (if you are young, you may not get this) is NOT replaceable. and the two years it takes you to get back to your current income level is still a loss, as you lost the 3-6% raises you would have gotten at your old job, plus your vacation time etc. Years of your life can't be replaced - don't sell them short
good luck.
Keep in mind, safe & secure may be boring, but you get to see your family, and know that your going to get paid.
I thought it was sweeping generalazations, stereo types, and boiling the facts that destroyed the country.
..
Who knew it was a combination of Apple and Brad Pitt ?!
Fuck politics, vote for your favorite sitcom next election.
I would endevour to suggest that its possible a corrupt and bi-polar political system, the total disregard for seperation of church and state and centralized (and HUGE) government that is the cause of our woe's
It's a wee bit more plausable than blaming it on consumer goods and actors no ?