While I violently disagree with the outcome, the RIAA did not go after Microsoft. Usually, the RIAA attacks makers of devices, software or technology. In this case they went after online music swappers. That said, RIAA is attacking the hand that feeds them in the worst way.
The question is how long will RIAA be able to do this before college students fire back. What the RIAA needs to see is a bunch of students returning CDs, not buying their stuff and generally making a lot of noise. Of course, it will take a few cases before people realize that they could be next. When that happens, the RIAA is going to learn something about people: they don't like their security, future and finanacial well being threatened over trivial pursuits.
I've been selling software for years - and using and buying projectors (mostly the low end portable 1024x768 variety) regularly for years. Here's my observations:
* NEVER LOOK INTO THE LENS OF A PROJECTOR DISPLAYING A BLACK SCREEN. 1200 Lumens of BLACK LIGHT will make you see spots for a long time.
* DLP v. LCD - Doesn't matter unless you are going to jack in NTSC or other non VGA signals. LCD seem to do better with video and DLP appear to have a "shimmer" int the white areas. The rainbow effect is somewhat overrated. The reps that have DLP projectors seem to whine just before the superbowl about wanting a new one
* Care: Cleaning is critical. Dust burns and those bulbs are hot. The problem isn't a fire hazard, but the soot and residue that builds up.
* BUY and KEEP a SPARE bulb WITH the PROJECTOR! Don't ever cancel a meeting or presentation because the bulb burnt out! Bulb = $400 20 managers at $30 per houre = $600. Do the math bulbs are cheap.
* Two year useful life. Projectors seem to get a lot better every 2 years. Plan on replacements (unless for home theater) every 2 years.
* Brands are less relevant than who makes the unit. There's a limited number of OEMs. Warranties matter.
...it's "At Least SCO went after the big guys first."
Because they could only afford one shot at the jackpot. They'll loose just like the guy that comes in, plunks down the entire $100 he's got on the blackjack table hoping to come away with $200. Most of the time they guy's not smart enought to suck down a few comp drinks to take the edge off the impending loss.
You simply pay an IP litigator 300 dollars/hour to do the work for you (a cheap one) in order to show the claim is invalid (He must have clear and convincing evidence so he will need to spend lots of hours to do it right).
Your assuming that all patent actions go to court AND that the defendant doesn't provide evidence in the first place. Most patent actions are settled out of court because they have no business going there in the first place. You certanly don't need a trial lawyer at this stage! You do need a competant attorney with some IP experience but not the $300 per hour "litigator" or "trial lawyer". If the law firm you hire doesn't have tiered rates, you're getting screwed anyway (you should pay clerk or paralegal rate for the research and junior partner rates for a lot of the pretrial).
The courts will not let you do it yourself even if you know patent law because there is this unspoken built in prejudice against do it yourself litigants.
The courts in the US have a built in predjudice against people hanging themselves. Most judges aren't biased against non-lawyers, they simply want justice in their court room. Defending yourself is like taking someone with T-Ball level skills and putting them to bat with the score tied in the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, two outs in a major league game.
Company A will stipulate to dismiss charges before allowing small company to invalidate their patent.
In other words, Company A will back off. It's called settling out of court and that's what you want. Lifetime royalty free license! What a deal - then your marketing department can claim your product is "patented". If you really do it right, you can usually get the plantif to pick up the tab for your lawyer.
Fear of the legal system is a waste of time anyway.
Step up and lead. Go ask a teacher or the principal how to do it at your school and do it. If you want it to go really well, find a name that is catchy and does not sound like the "junior chapter of the society for the advancement of computing machines."
Back in the day I was a freak who liked to play soccer and I started a club for all the soccer nerds at my school. Now I laugh when I think of all the people who said it would go nowhere or it wasn't cool.
Guess why. I haven't bought a can in as long as I can remember because I don't like Spam.
It tastes like a bad imitation of a so-called "Danish" ham wich is made of various chunks of ham scraps and gelatin. I guess that makes Spam a bad immitation of a second-rate retred ham.
There may be some new hope though:
Has anyone tried "Roast Turkey" or Barbeque Spam? Is it any good?
I'm tired of seeing everyone freak out about the cost of lawyers, etc... on Slashdot. First of all, courts base decisions on laws. If you have obeyed the law and someone was harmed most of the time the other party can't do anything. With patents, if someone brings a claim against you, you simply show that their claim is not valid based on the law.
With patents, here's where the hard part is: being able to communicate exactly how a particular patent is obvious or has already been invented. In SBC's case, I think they will have a hard time as the "framed" interface has been around for almost as long as the VT100 terminal.
At the end of the day, most patent actions I've seen fall into this pattern:
* Big Company A sues Little Company B * Company A's stock jumps 1.0 points because they made news that might involve making money in the future. * Company A spends a large ammount of money building their case. * Company B spends relatively little money building theirs. * Company B wins on summary judgement as the patent is quickly invalidated after the judge rules that the patent in question is either not novel or is not a new invention. * Company B then threatens company a with a malicious prosecution suit unless they pick up the tab for their lawyer. * Company A executives, now pissed at their lawyers pay the legal bill for Company B and go home to pray the analysts dont hose their stock in the morning and try to figure out how to hide their misguided suit from their bosses/shareholders.
Having a patent is easy. Having a valid patent that will stand up on it's own is more difficult. My guess is that this one will cost SBC's stock about 1.25 points when they lose.
If there were no patents protecting HP, Lexmark, Canon and Epson, we would not be having this problem. No one can produce competitive product without infringing.
I will not buy a product called "MoneyDance". It gives me visions of my life savings dancing into someone else's wallet. I will change my mind if it has a feature that will, say print money or automagically make my bank ballance increase.
Reading that article you couldn't help thinking "there are no tanks anywhere in Baghdad." McBride (the SCO shill) had a few al-Sahhafisms in his comments:
"There will be a day of reconning for RedHat and SuSe when this is all done."
"We have a good relationship with Sun."
"If we get no benefit from it, then the dog won't hunt."
Recently I've been learning Python and working with Zope. Wow. What a change from the old days of C. What Python and Zope do that C wasn't good at is deal with complexity very elegantly. I'm sure a lot of other newer languages are this way, too.
I can only imagine what a single line of code will be expected to do in the future - and the degree which the program will be expected to "understand" large chunks of information. The idea that a program be able to do things quickly and self-manage most of the details will be important...
Of course, in 100 years, the computers may be reprogramming us...
Fact is, it would be easy enough for terrorists to kill people in numerous ways no matter how many freedoms the US government restricts. Uh, where's the restriction? I'm not feeling oppressed today.
Wrong. That $50 printer comes with a "sample" cartridge. What that means is you get a cartridge that's deliberately only 25% or whatever full. NOT ALWAYS. Most retailers require a sticker on the box saying "This printer ships with a starter cartridge" that also recommends you drop some cash on a starter kit or additional ink cartridges. I know Lexmark offers several models (Z33 and Z35 come to mind) where one comes with starter cartridges and the step up comes with regular carts. Price difference? About $5.00.
In speaking of Lexmark, I finally found a refill kit that works for Black and white and I'm now on my 12th refil. No print quality degradation, but the paper feeded is starting to die.
Slashdot Mirror
While I violently disagree with the outcome, the RIAA did not go after Microsoft. Usually, the RIAA attacks makers of devices, software or technology. In this case they went after online music swappers. That said, RIAA is attacking the hand that feeds them in the worst way.
The question is how long will RIAA be able to do this before college students fire back. What the RIAA needs to see is a bunch of students returning CDs, not buying their stuff and generally making a lot of noise. Of course, it will take a few cases before people realize that they could be next. When that happens, the RIAA is going to learn something about people: they don't like their security, future and finanacial well being threatened over trivial pursuits.
$G
Even though computer books become obsolete quickly, there's still value in supporting reasonable durrations for copyright. Way to go OReily!
I've been selling software for years - and using and buying projectors (mostly the low end portable 1024x768 variety) regularly for years. Here's my observations:
* NEVER LOOK INTO THE LENS OF A PROJECTOR DISPLAYING A BLACK SCREEN. 1200 Lumens of BLACK LIGHT will make you see spots for a long time.
* DLP v. LCD - Doesn't matter unless you are going to jack in NTSC or other non VGA signals. LCD seem to do better with video and DLP appear to have a "shimmer" int the white areas. The rainbow effect is somewhat overrated. The reps that have DLP projectors seem to whine just before the superbowl about wanting a new one
* Care: Cleaning is critical. Dust burns and those bulbs are hot. The problem isn't a fire hazard, but the soot and residue that builds up.
* BUY and KEEP a SPARE bulb WITH the PROJECTOR! Don't ever cancel a meeting or presentation because the bulb burnt out! Bulb = $400 20 managers at $30 per houre = $600. Do the math bulbs are cheap.
* Two year useful life. Projectors seem to get a lot better every 2 years. Plan on replacements (unless for home theater) every 2 years.
* Brands are less relevant than who makes the unit. There's a limited number of OEMs. Warranties matter.
* Lumens matter. Get lots of them.
...it's "At Least SCO went after the big guys first."
Because they could only afford one shot at the jackpot. They'll loose just like the guy that comes in, plunks down the entire $100 he's got on the blackjack table hoping to come away with $200. Most of the time they guy's not smart enought to suck down a few comp drinks to take the edge off the impending loss.
You simply pay an IP litigator 300 dollars/hour to do the work for you (a cheap one) in order to show the claim is invalid (He must have clear and convincing evidence so he will need to spend lots of hours to do it right).
Your assuming that all patent actions go to court AND that the defendant doesn't provide evidence in the first place. Most patent actions are settled out of court because they have no business going there in the first place. You certanly don't need a trial lawyer at this stage! You do need a competant attorney with some IP experience but not the $300 per hour "litigator" or "trial lawyer". If the law firm you hire doesn't have tiered rates, you're getting screwed anyway (you should pay clerk or paralegal rate for the research and junior partner rates for a lot of the pretrial).
The courts will not let you do it yourself even if you know patent law because there is this unspoken built in prejudice against do it yourself litigants.
The courts in the US have a built in predjudice against people hanging themselves. Most judges aren't biased against non-lawyers, they simply want justice in their court room. Defending yourself is like taking someone with T-Ball level skills and putting them to bat with the score tied in the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, two outs in a major league game.
Company A will stipulate to dismiss charges before allowing small company to invalidate their patent.
In other words, Company A will back off. It's called settling out of court and that's what you want. Lifetime royalty free license! What a deal - then your marketing department can claim your product is "patented". If you really do it right, you can usually get the plantif to pick up the tab for your lawyer.
Fear of the legal system is a waste of time anyway.
Step up and lead. Go ask a teacher or the principal how to do it at your school and do it. If you want it to go really well, find a name that is catchy and does not sound like the "junior chapter of the society for the advancement of computing machines."
Back in the day I was a freak who liked to play soccer and I started a club for all the soccer nerds at my school. Now I laugh when I think of all the people who said it would go nowhere or it wasn't cool.
$G
Guess why.
I haven't bought a can in as long as I can remember because I don't like Spam.
It tastes like a bad imitation of a so-called "Danish" ham wich is made of various chunks of ham scraps and gelatin. I guess that makes Spam a bad immitation of a second-rate retred ham.
There may be some new hope though:
Has anyone tried "Roast Turkey" or Barbeque Spam? Is it any good?
I'm tired of seeing everyone freak out about the cost of lawyers, etc... on Slashdot. First of all, courts base decisions on laws. If you have obeyed the law and someone was harmed most of the time the other party can't do anything. With patents, if someone brings a claim against you, you simply show that their claim is not valid based on the law.
With patents, here's where the hard part is: being able to communicate exactly how a particular patent is obvious or has already been invented. In SBC's case, I think they will have a hard time as the "framed" interface has been around for almost as long as the VT100 terminal.
At the end of the day, most patent actions I've seen fall into this pattern:
* Big Company A sues Little Company B
* Company A's stock jumps 1.0 points because they made news that might involve making money in the future.
* Company A spends a large ammount of money building their case.
* Company B spends relatively little money building theirs.
* Company B wins on summary judgement as the patent is quickly invalidated after the judge rules that the patent in question is either not novel or is not a new invention.
* Company B then threatens company a with a malicious prosecution suit unless they pick up the tab for their lawyer.
* Company A executives, now pissed at their lawyers pay the legal bill for Company B and go home to pray the analysts dont hose their stock in the morning and try to figure out how to hide their misguided suit from their bosses/shareholders.
Having a patent is easy. Having a valid patent that will stand up on it's own is more difficult. My guess is that this one will cost SBC's stock about 1.25 points when they lose.
It's a sad end.
I agree. It will take HP a few years before they figure out that they are up a creek.
If there were no patents protecting HP, Lexmark, Canon and Epson, we would not be having this problem. No one can produce competitive product without infringing.
Don't buy or recommend HP or Compaq anything to anyone. They are clearly a predatory vendor.
What's the long term and short term forecast for your company?
If you put enough RAM in anything it does take a while to run out and crash.
I will not buy a product called "MoneyDance". It gives me visions of my life savings dancing into someone else's wallet. I will change my mind if it has a feature that will, say print money or automagically make my bank ballance increase.
$G
Max Payne
I thought Max was a parody of bad cops n' mobsters movies. That's just what I need - a parody of a parody of a bad movie.
$G
Reading that article you couldn't help thinking "there are no tanks anywhere in Baghdad." McBride (the SCO shill) had a few al-Sahhafisms in his comments:
"There will be a day of reconning for RedHat and SuSe when this is all done."
"We have a good relationship with Sun."
"If we get no benefit from it, then the dog won't hunt."
"IBM will blacken the Utah sky with Lawyers."
Unbelievable.
My only peice of advise on taxes:
1) Pay them.
2) Use tax software
Doing #1 avoids lots of expensive and time consuming issues like jail and fines. Using #2 saves lots of time.
$G
Recently I've been learning Python and working with Zope. Wow. What a change from the old days of C. What Python and Zope do that C wasn't good at is deal with complexity very elegantly. I'm sure a lot of other newer languages are this way, too.
I can only imagine what a single line of code will be expected to do in the future - and the degree which the program will be expected to "understand" large chunks of information. The idea that a program be able to do things quickly and self-manage most of the details will be important...
Of course, in 100 years, the computers may be reprogramming us...
The basis used by the RIAA for calculating damages in all these cases is fundamentally absurd.
I'm not sure absurd is strong enough: they alleged that these students caused losses that represent the GDP of some nations!
I'm more worried about Arab carpet-baggers decending on Iraq and turning it into a second rate Afghanastan.
$G
Fact is, it would be easy enough for terrorists to kill people in numerous ways no matter how many freedoms the US government restricts.
Uh, where's the restriction? I'm not feeling oppressed today.
Hmm.. so when I crank up a cd from my cube, I need to pay?
Depends.. But they do prohibit "pornographic images" explicitly (pardon the bad pun).
My ISP prohibits the transmission of objectionable material. I guess that's why their usenet server offers over 390 alt.binaries.*.erotica.* groups.
What a joke.
$G
Wrong. That $50 printer comes with a "sample" cartridge. What that means is you get a cartridge that's deliberately only 25% or whatever full.
NOT ALWAYS. Most retailers require a sticker on the box saying "This printer ships with a starter cartridge" that also recommends you drop some cash on a starter kit or additional ink cartridges. I know Lexmark offers several models (Z33 and Z35 come to mind) where one comes with starter cartridges and the step up comes with regular carts. Price difference? About $5.00.
In speaking of Lexmark, I finally found a refill kit that works for Black and white and I'm now on my 12th refil. No print quality degradation, but the paper feeded is starting to die.