I believe that free uncensored access to the internet is no problem for kids, but I'm not so sure that there is not an actual, physical danger to kids by those attracted to use the free uncensored access.
Is that a strawman? I haven't misrepresented anyone's argument as far as I am aware.
Then you write: [...]what the hell are you worried about? Your kid thinking it's cool to pull their little pud in public? Going off to the men's room with the dude? Frankly, yes this is what I want for libraries [...]
Did I read that right? Are you saying you want libraries to be full of public masturbators inviting your kids into the toilets?
Surely you must have phrased that wrongly somehow.
Most probably. But how do US libraries handle paper titles such as Playboy, Big Jugs Monthly, and Thrusting Organs International at the moment?
I can imagine that they're stocked (freedom of speech issue) but kept behind the librarian's desk or in some other reserved position. Potential "readers" will have to ask for them personally. The embarrassment factor is probably enough to discourage all but the most determined "researcher".
However, tapping away at an library internet terminal is quite another matter, especially if the screen is not in full public view. Any dirty old man can walk in, surf for what they want and discretely (or otherwise) play pocket poker to their hearts content. Is this really what anyone would want for the libraries?
Surely the answer to this problem is in the earlier article. You don't simply block access to naughty web sites, you digitally enhance all the images on the sites in real time such that all the participants appear fully clothed and respectable.
I don't know about knee-jerking politics, but I don't fancy the idea of libraries being frequented by hand-jerking dirty old men surfing for porn for free.
Maybe it's a freedom of speech issue, but maybe it's also freedom to use a non-sticky keyboard issue.
Maybe I'm trivialising, maybe I'm not. Any librarians in the audience?
But I don't see how exploiting this loophole does anything other than steal money from them.
True, but probably irrelevant. If people were guanteed immunitity for jimmying a window at Gates Mansion, stepping through, opening the safe behind the protrait of Melinda, removing 400 bucks and leaving quietly the same way then there would almost certainly be a queue to do that too.
Plain fact is: Gates ain't much loved by a lot of people.
> We don't have many cars with Cruise Control in the UK
Yeah, I know. Roads a little too congested I guess. The stick-shiftiness of UK cars is irrelevant however, cruise-control is mostly for open motorway/freeway/autobahn use where you need to change gear only every hour or so. My car is also a manual change. (More efficient at high speed than an autobox.)
> then you fall asleep and crash you car and kill yourself
I can see you don't often drive serious distances. If you do a long drive on a quiet motorway(s) then cruise control leaves you as fresh after 10hrs as you would be after 3 in a non-cruiser. It's made a *big* difference to me. (And, here's the surprise, I'm in Europe not USA.)
> Perhaps you're recalling "Sally" by Isaac Asimov.
I doubt, I read almost no Asimov. Pretty sure it was Art. Plot involved some (human) guy visiting earth from some other planet... "Earthlight" maybe. Dunno... twas a real long time ago.
I dunno, maybe I'm getting too old, what with having kids and an MPV and all... but, I'd be well happy to have a device that automatically set my cruise control to whatever the current stupid speed limit is. I just want to get to where I'm going and not have to pay speeding fines.
And I'm also of the boring opinion that people that drive at multiples of the limit are a danger to themselves and others (and more importantly me) and it would be rather a Good Idea if they could be stopped..
Now this UK satelite thing looks like it could be turned into what I want... but probably it won't and we're all heading for an Orwellian nightmare etc. Oh dear oh dear.
Meanwhile, I recall an Arthur C.Clarke story where it was illegal to drive a manually controlled car - only computer controlled/coordinated vehicles were allowed. Does that make the paranoid faction amongst the Slashdot crowd any happier about accepting this development?
... has to go to the scientists who have developed an infertility technique that may help some infertile men to father children. This could "help childhood cancer survivors to become fathers".
Sorry to seem heartless about this, but doesn't this mean the gene for childhood cancer stays in the gene-pool? Is this a Good Idea?
Indeed, and the Greeks weren't Christians, so it's tough to predict how the world would have been if the Persians had got their wicked way. Perhaps the same? Or perhaps, a few years ago, Iraq, as the world's self-elected world policeman, would have been bombing the Comanche Nation to get them to withdraw from oil-rich lands of the Kickapoo?
Sorry. You're right - I've been using "prior art" incorrectly. However, I don't believe my misuse invalidates the point of the message (as you admit) that the novelty requirement can be beaten if the invention was described in a publication more than one year prior to the filing date.
Meanwhile, the BitLaw site is a good source of info on software patents (and standard ones too.)
(I should probably spend some time to read it more carefully myself:-))
Seems they have pulled people out of the "general"
Isn't it more likely they came from a "talent" agency list? MTV wouldn't want to be stuck with ugly real people with bad teeth who don't know how to act realistically in front of the camera.
Didn't I hear about an Open Source Patent Project? Does anyone know how it's going?
We all know that one way to break a patent is to demonstrate "prior art". However, this doesn't have to be an actual implementation of an idea, it can be a description of an idea placed in the public.
Mighty corporations all have a patent process in place. They encourage their staff to generate patent applications for monetary reward. These applications are then assessed by specialists in said mighty corporations to see if they are worth pursuing seriously. The ones chosen get sent on to the Patent Office.
But the rest don't get thrown away... they get published - either in technical journals or (publically accessible) online bit-buckets. The idea here is that if they missed a real patentable idea then at least they screw up the patent process for another (competitor) firm by pointing out "hey, prior art, here!"
The OSS community should do they same thing. Have an Open Ideas Database where potentially patentable idea (however "obvious") can be made public and thus no longer patentable.
You don't need to invest the $$$s to get a patent yourself to stop someone else getting one. If the OSS community is serious about long term survival then we need such a database. (Remember MS's Halloween threats to use the "patent weapon".)
By comparison, what does 1-click shopping entail? CGI? Web fill-out forms?
Yes, I accept that it's all very "obvious" if you're a web-savvy slashdotter... just as the correct stiffness and springiness of wire would have been "obvious" to professionals involved in linking-pieces-of-paper-together industry at the time of the paperclip's "invention".
Amazon just happened to do it first
And that's why the patent system is supposed to encourage innovation... if you think of and do something first (and you patent it) then you're free to enjoy a temporary monopoly of it's use.
Otherwise, where's the incentive to ever try something new? Naturally it's debatable whether the monopoly period for something as transient as software should really be as long as (what exactly?) 17 years? Even then, I'm sure that Amazon will be happy (or even legally obliged to?) grant licenses on the technology.
My original point is simply that patents have always been tough on the guys who didn't get there first. Things are always "obvious" in restrospect to other experts in the relevant industry. Now whether prior art can be proved is quite another question.
Do you reckon that there was "righteous fury" being generated at the time over the patent for the paperclip? I mean, anyone could have thought of using a bit of bent wire to hold several pieces of paper together. Perhaps many had been doing so but had never thought of patenting the idea. They waffled on to each other about "prior art".
Or more likely they were blissfully ignorant of the matter, not living in the connected, rumour-mongering, righteous-fury-generating world that we inhabit today.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for a good site to compare book, muics and movie prices then I can recommend DealPilot (previously known as Acses.) It's especially good if you're outside USA as it calculates shipping costs & delays and gives the results in local currencies. Of course, since it's backed by Bertelsmann, the third largest media company in the world, then perhaps we should be boycotting them too, as well as every firm on the web.
Disclaimer: I have no commercial or other link with DealPilot, blah, blah.
The BBC reports that the mission will be shorter than originally planned since the launch was delayed and the "agency did not want astronauts in space over millennium eve in case of computer problems."
Kinda worrying that NASA aren't so confident about their Y2K readiness. Guess you have to be when you're so much in the public eye. But what happens if they have some other non-Y2K problems that hold them up further... into the new millenium?
Slashdot Mirror
Where's the strawman?
I believe that free uncensored access to the internet is no problem for kids, but I'm not so sure that there is not an actual, physical danger to kids by those attracted to use the free uncensored access.
Is that a strawman? I haven't misrepresented anyone's argument as far as I am aware.
Then you write: [...]what the hell are you worried about? Your kid thinking it's cool to pull their little pud in public? Going off to the men's room with the dude? Frankly, yes this is what I want for libraries [...]
Did I read that right? Are you saying you want libraries to be full of public masturbators inviting your kids into the toilets?
Surely you must have phrased that wrongly somehow.
(Or maybe I just shouldn't feed the trolls.)
Regards, Ralph.
Most probably. But how do US libraries handle paper titles such as Playboy, Big Jugs Monthly, and Thrusting Organs International at the moment?
I can imagine that they're stocked (freedom of speech issue) but kept behind the librarian's desk or in some other reserved position. Potential "readers" will have to ask for them personally. The embarrassment factor is probably enough to discourage all but the most determined "researcher".
However, tapping away at an library internet terminal is quite another matter, especially if the screen is not in full public view. Any dirty old man can walk in, surf for what they want and discretely (or otherwise) play pocket poker to their hearts content. Is this really what anyone would want for the libraries?
Regards, Ralph.
Solved. Next problem please.
Regards, Ralph.
I don't know about knee-jerking politics, but I don't fancy the idea of libraries being frequented by hand-jerking dirty old men surfing for porn for free.
Maybe it's a freedom of speech issue, but maybe it's also freedom to use a non-sticky keyboard issue.
Maybe I'm trivialising, maybe I'm not. Any librarians in the audience?
Regards, Ralph.
True, but probably irrelevant. If people were guanteed immunitity for jimmying a window at Gates Mansion, stepping through, opening the safe behind the protrait of Melinda, removing 400 bucks and leaving quietly the same way then there would almost certainly be a queue to do that too.
Plain fact is: Gates ain't much loved by a lot of people.
Regards, Ralph.
Regards, Ralph.
> We don't have many cars with Cruise Control in the UK
Yeah, I know. Roads a little too congested I guess. The stick-shiftiness of UK cars is irrelevant however, cruise-control is mostly for open motorway/freeway/autobahn use where you need to change gear only every hour or so. My car is also a manual change. (More efficient at high speed than an autobox.)
Regards, Ralph.
> then you fall asleep and crash you car and kill yourself
I can see you don't often drive serious distances. If you do a long drive on a quiet motorway(s) then cruise control leaves you as fresh after 10hrs as you would be after 3 in a non-cruiser. It's made a *big* difference to me. (And, here's the surprise, I'm in Europe not USA.)
Regards, Ralph.
> Perhaps you're recalling "Sally" by Isaac Asimov.
... "Earthlight" maybe. Dunno ... twas a real long time ago.
I doubt, I read almost no Asimov. Pretty sure it was Art. Plot involved some (human) guy visiting earth from some other planet
Regards, Ralph.
I dunno, maybe I'm getting too old, what with having kids and an MPV and all ... but, I'd be well happy to have a device that automatically set my cruise control to whatever the current stupid speed limit is. I just want to get to where I'm going and not have to pay speeding fines.
... but probably it won't and we're all heading for an Orwellian nightmare etc. Oh dear oh dear.
And I'm also of the boring opinion that people that drive at multiples of the limit are a danger to themselves and others (and more importantly me) and it would be rather a Good Idea if they could be stopped..
Now this UK satelite thing looks like it could be turned into what I want
Meanwhile, I recall an Arthur C.Clarke story where it was illegal to drive a manually controlled car - only computer controlled/coordinated vehicles were allowed. Does that make the paranoid faction amongst the Slashdot crowd any happier about accepting this development?
Regards, Ralph.
Sorry to seem heartless about this, but doesn't this mean the gene for childhood cancer stays in the gene-pool? Is this a Good Idea?
Regards, Ralph.
That I didn't apologise sooner. Sorry. (Not enough sleep last night.)
Happy Holidays and Merry Millenium everyone!
Regards, Ralph.
Regards, Ralph.
(OK, I know Persia became Iran not Iraq, but let's leave that aside to enjoy the irony a little more.)
Indeed, and the Greeks weren't Christians, so it's tough to predict how the world would have been if the Persians had got their wicked way. Perhaps the same? Or perhaps, a few years ago, Iraq, as the world's self-elected world policeman, would have been bombing the Comanche Nation to get them to withdraw from oil-rich lands of the Kickapoo?
Who knows.
Regards, Ralph.
I thought it was because it had "Gates" in the title.
Chewie, Lumpy, Itchy ... where was Scratchy?
Regards, Ralph.
Meanwhile, the BitLaw site is a good source of info on software patents (and standard ones too.)
(I should probably spend some time to read it more carefully myself :-))
Regards, Ralph.
Seems they have pulled people out of the "general"
Isn't it more likely they came from a "talent" agency list? MTV wouldn't want to be stuck with ugly real people with bad teeth who don't know how to act realistically in front of the camera.
Regards, Ralph
Didn't I hear about an Open Source Patent Project? Does anyone know how it's going?
... they get published - either in technical journals or (publically accessible) online bit-buckets. The idea here is that if they missed a real patentable idea then at least they screw up the patent process for another (competitor) firm by pointing out "hey, prior art, here!"
We all know that one way to break a patent is to demonstrate "prior art". However, this doesn't have to be an actual implementation of an idea, it can be a description of an idea placed in the public.
Mighty corporations all have a patent process in place. They encourage their staff to generate patent applications for monetary reward. These applications are then assessed by specialists in said mighty corporations to see if they are worth pursuing seriously. The ones chosen get sent on to the Patent Office.
But the rest don't get thrown away
The OSS community should do they same thing. Have an Open Ideas Database where potentially patentable idea (however "obvious") can be made public and thus no longer patentable.
You don't need to invest the $$$s to get a patent yourself to stop someone else getting one. If the OSS community is serious about long term survival then we need such a database. (Remember MS's Halloween threats to use the "patent weapon".)
Regards, Ralph.
So do I ... what's the problem? Here are your darn Slashdot and Stanford links.
(Mutter, mutter, young people today don't know their HTML tags, or what?)
Regards, Ralph.
Yes, I accept that it's all very "obvious" if you're a web-savvy slashdotter ... just as the correct stiffness and springiness of wire would have been "obvious" to professionals involved in linking-pieces-of-paper-together industry at the time of the paperclip's "invention".
Amazon just happened to do it first
And that's why the patent system is supposed to encourage innovation ... if you think of and do something first (and you patent it) then you're free to enjoy a temporary monopoly of it's use.
Otherwise, where's the incentive to ever try something new? Naturally it's debatable whether the monopoly period for something as transient as software should really be as long as (what exactly?) 17 years? Even then, I'm sure that Amazon will be happy (or even legally obliged to?) grant licenses on the technology.
My original point is simply that patents have always been tough on the guys who didn't get there first. Things are always "obvious" in restrospect to other experts in the relevant industry. Now whether prior art can be proved is quite another question.
Regards, Ralph.
Or more likely they were blissfully ignorant of the matter, not living in the connected, rumour-mongering, righteous-fury-generating world that we inhabit today.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for a good site to compare book, muics and movie prices then I can recommend DealPilot (previously known as Acses.) It's especially good if you're outside USA as it calculates shipping costs & delays and gives the results in local currencies. Of course, since it's backed by Bertelsmann, the third largest media company in the world, then perhaps we should be boycotting them too, as well as every firm on the web.
Disclaimer: I have no commercial or other link with DealPilot, blah, blah.
Regards, Ralph.
Kinda worrying that NASA aren't so confident about their Y2K readiness. Guess you have to be when you're so much in the public eye. But what happens if they have some other non-Y2K problems that hold them up further ... into the new millenium?
Regards, Ralph.
Regards, Ralph.