The retailer may not just be relying on the garbage company to destroy the material.
The grunts (can women be grunts?) could also be getting a little cash to "set aside" the patterns "next to" the dumpster for the folks picking them up.
If the retail business is anything like the pizza business, you can get college students and homless people to break down cardboard boxes and so forth for the "set asides" at the dumpster. (Not good food, but not poison and pretty tasty at 3am)
It seems to me that this problem could easily be solved by the retailers simply paying more attention and actually destroying the documents like they are supposed to do.
If the supply for the things dries up, too bad for the reseller.
It is pretty sad that people always think of the lawyers first, rather than using common sense.
Hmm. They must not have gotten 100% then, otherwise they would have realized that charging a tank with a car always results in 3 stars and the tank blows up the car!
I do not understand how your argument has any weight.
Copyrights are around to control who can sell and who can profit and who can destribute works. If someone violates a copyright they are copying, or selling, or profiting without the copyright holder's permission. To do it correctly, the publisher has to agree with the copyright holder to a fee or not to have a fee, avoiding a copyright violation and allowing wealth generation by the creator and publisher. All is good.
If a photographer wants to maintain the copyright on a work, he or she can pay the buck and keep profitting. If a photographer does not want someone else to profit or use an image at all, they can simply keep it in drawer. Releasing it, earning the buck, and then going on to say that they have exclusive right to earn a buck on that work for eternity is not what copyright is about.
Copyright is a contract where society and government agree to play by "exclusive profit" rules for a time period, and in return get the promise of the work to be shared without restriction sometime in the future. Unreleased works stay that way, nobody besides the creator can profit from them because nobody HAS them. (Note that this would return to the "want to make a profit? you must register" system.)
A system that has a set time period (of reasonable time for most industries, 25 years or less, but a long time) and then allows the holder to pay a small to have the copyright extended will allow as much profit to be made off good works as the holder wants. But it also allows people (and mankind) to go though the debris and pull out the little gems that have no capitalistic value but have archeological, cultural, social or humanistic value. That material is returned as "public domain" to be used by mandkind.
I see a lot of this "my copyright" hoopola as simple envy. Some people cannot STAND the thought that someone might enjoy something they (or their ancestors) created without wanting to ass-rape them for money.
Here is a little story to illustrate my point; I had a pal who rented with two other students. One of them had a stack of porn mags in the garage, similar to a type I used to collect. (Now, my porn is all online and I can avoid the dust and keep my closet space.) I offered 10 bucks for the stack, because it was clear that a) he didnt care all that much, and b) they were going to get destroyed by water, rats and other natural forces sitting where they were. The offer was less than probably they were worth, but about what they were worth to me. They certainly were not worth much more than that though. The guy refused, suddenly aware of their potential monitary value. No deal. Whatever. The mags sat there, and were eventually destroyed by water damage. He didnt profit (selling them to someone else at a higher price, and he didn't sit around and enjoy them.) Envy, pass up 10 bucks and a free garage cleaning for envy. Just because someone MIGHT find value in something without paying the "holder" full value.
Copyright should be a purely capitalistic thing; make money from a work (and pay a VERY small fee to continue), release it to everybody so little or no money can be made from the work, but all people can enjoy it, or sell exclusive rights to someone who can make money off it.... but continual holding copyrighted information that has no profitablilty, and NO interest on the part of the creator or holder to attempt profitiablity (measured in the $1 fee) should be banned. That is simple envy, and not part of what copyright is supposed to do.
Yup. The bird thing is total BS. Do this, go to all the web sites you can find that have the picture of the birds killed from towers or wind turbines. Next, note they ALL USE THE SAME PICTURE to swoon for the dead birdies so-called killed by blades.
There are lots of reasons why wind might not be a good idea, however, causing bird deaths is not one of them.
I had trouble deciding to Mod up or add comment...
HS Seniors, Pxtl is a wise person. Flip flops made the difference between sharing in the epidemic of foot-mold in the 32+guests shared bathroom and healthy feet in my case. If you live in dorms, count on walking through puke and broken glass in the showers some mornings. Flip flops protect the feet while allowing washing without removal, and are cheap in case you wreck them.
They didn't have laptops when I went to college (seriously!) so I cannot say how useful they are as gadgets for new students. I will tell you though that hand-writing notes, then typing them in, then printing them, then markup and study for exams got me more than a few A's with little effort. The more times that information goes through your brain the better.
So I say get a computer that suits your needs for the room or apartment, laptop or no and stick with paper for notes. Forget about carrying it around, you may not end up doing that and they are easier to steal that way.
If you do not do games, then an old PC with your choice of OS will do just fine for browsing, papers, and a hookup to a PDA.
The event was in Wyoming (USA) over the Grand Tetons in summer of 1972, some home-movie using vacationers filmed it. An asteroid (they think) skipped off the atmosphere, the section of film I saw had the object heading upwards, though it is hard to tell if it was on the way out or not.
I Googled for it, but could not find much in the way of specific references or a still image.
I do not believe that they survive on the response rate. I think that rather the spammer income (or lack thereof) model is based on selling "marketing" to clueless, inexperienced or dumb businesses and con-men.
Sometimes the spam is sent out by the person hawking the crap, but usually it is the payment to initiate the spam the spammer is after in the first place.
Has anyone proven that a well-managed web site actually generates business?
Probably not, we'd have seen it by now. [grin]
I think the question needs to be defined more specifically than "generate business" or "make money". A web site can only be successful if that success is measured against a specific and explicit purpose of the site. For example; to provide a catalog, shopping cart and checkout system for widgets. Can that be done in a web site and tested to see if the purpose succeeded? Sure. Does it mean the widgets making company won't go out of business? Nope!
The problem arises when slick web-salesmen, or clueless pointy-hairs or a combination of the two puts way to little effort in thinking about what a web site is and is supposed to do and way too much emphasis on what they WISH it did.
A good web site can be used for marketing and branding, but expecting hard numbers out of it is silly. Radio, TV and print ads are no different in that aspect. I do not hear anybody questioning the use of advertisement via those media.
A good web site sure matters, but it only matters for specific things, things that should be thought of as little bricks in the big eddifice of customer experience. Had I not found many many answers Asus' web site, I might not be so loyal to their motherboards.
Taking one step forward will have a negligable effect on my hike, therefore I will not take that step to begin my hike.
Right. Every little bit counts. Take a look at your mail server logs sometime, there ARE relay raping bots out there, and they DO find open relays, and they DO find spam.
Closing the open relays will help some. RBL the ones that do not get closed, that will help some too. Go after the guys paying the spammers, that will help some. Track down, arrest, and jail guys that release SMTP Trojans, that will help some. Sue and harrass the spammers until they cry, that will help some too. Block all traffic from countries you don't deal with... WTF do I care of some jerk-off in Korea can email me or not, I do not speak the language and know nobody there.
It's ALL necessary, and it all should be done. Saying "this one step won't do it all, therefore I will not do this step" is just stupid logic and assures that the problem continues.
Note, do what you want with your mail server, but don't expect to be able to email mine if you got an open relay, appear on a list, or come from someplace I do not do business with.
Section 508 mandates that federal and some other types of government web sites fit the guidelines. It is not a rule that has to be applied towards any other site, although it is a really good starting point for non-government web sites. It is often used by webmasters to convince the Pointy-Hairs how to build a web site correctly and keep the Flash and other crud as decorative only... not the whole site itself.
A side benifit is that being Section 508 compliant makes really friendly robot fodder, so the site gets in Google and other search crawler sites faster.
Any high-profile webmaster is going to follow something like Section 508 anyway, just to minimize the chance of getting a lawsuit.
You can find out more here:
I'd like to see more semicolons, myself, but nobody really knows how to use them.
Shhhh!! Don't tell! That's exactly why semicolons are good; nobody knows how to use them and yet they allow stilted and incomplete thoughts to be written down; and still look sophisitcated.
"There is nothing more satisfying than a morally justified act of violence." - some guy, I forgot.
Laying up the smack-down on those that deserve it is a legitimate way to improve a society. Ignoring the problem points will not make any improvement. Try your philosophy with the next pre-cancerous lump you get please, that will illustrate the futility of your arguments.
Some stuff does not stop simply by wishing it will.
I was enjoying a meal of Hunan Chicken I was reflecting on the history of chopsticks, and the humor in the whole situation of people getting pretentious in their ability to use them. Aren't people aware that the things were invented in America in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants seeking to differentiate their restaurants in the mining communities?
I think you are remembering the invention of the Fortune Cookie, which is said to have been invented in San Francisco or some other West Coast city by chinese immigrants.
Incarceration without charge appears in normal criminal proceedings any time a judge deems to set bail at an unatainable level or at all. "Held without bail" is a common thing when people are thought to be a flight risk, a danger to themselves or others or show a propensity to commit additional violence.
The idea that this is somehow a new thing baffles me.
I do agree however, that the prosecutor better get their ducks in a row and charge him with something; however they are NOT obligated to give any evidence to anybody before the trial or before he is charged. Nobody questions the need for secret case details in the Laci Peterson case, why would this be any different? Non-public evidence is crucial for some cases.
This is not a place where anybody needs trial by media. It sucks to have to wait for the whole process to go through, but it is not a place where things should be rushed.
"Regularly, there are postings of questions that can be answered by the newusers articles, clearly indicating that they aren't being read."
In addition to the stupid users, the comment above is a self-fullfilling prophesy. The users that read the documentation never ask the questions and therefore never show up on the radar until they are advanced users. So that statement is not true insofar it is so self-referencial as to be meaningless. So it basically says; "The manuals or FAQs are clearly not being read by the people that ask the questions concerning answers already in the FAQs." Of course!
The people that read the FAQs simply do not ask the questions.
As the number of users goes up, the number of stupid questions goes up; that class of people you can see that ask the questions goes up (they are noticed because they are annoying) along with the class of users who do not ask the questions (who are not annoying because they know the basic stuff).
So the old guard notices the stupid clueless newbies that ask dumb questions, but don't notice the people who simply appear with half a clue that have something to bring to the table.
"Lets Roll" came from the firefighters on the ground that were with the film crew from France. It's the one where the plane can be heard and then seen apparently flying up the street and into the first tower.
The same guys eventually took the video of the staging areas inside the towers, the one where the bodies can be heard banging on the roof.
For you risk-adverse people that are concerned about it, here are some magic tidbits that will GREATLY REDUCE your risk of dying. Unlike worrying about getting SARS or then dying from it...
1) Wear your seat belt. 2) Don't drink and drive or ride with someone who does. 3) Watch where you step when traversing stairs. 4) Never clean a loaded firearm.
I bet you can come up with others.
The point being, SARS has some unusual tendancies that make it worth watching; however it still much less important than daily-risk management done sensibly.
My CPUs will continue searching for E.T.I. thank you. Call me when 100,000 have died.
Yeah, that would be fuckin' great. Just imagine the innane stupid laws we would get if the legislators were as stupid as the general populace. The thought of high-school drop out having any say in how the government is run frightens me. Most people are STUPID, and should not be allowed to drive a car or near sharp objects; let alone trying to figure out how to deal with North Korea.
I agree though, career polititians suck. Maybe we should extend the "Russian-Reulette" prison idea to public office. One bullet, six chambers, you get to play when your term starts. If you live you live. If you dont you dont. [That concept applied to prisons would sure clear things up fast, anybody that ends up back there more than a few times ends up dead. No repeat offenders, prison population in general shrinks... great fun!]
Of course, I have the wonderful distinction of knowing for sure my wife wouldn't vote for me if I ran for public office.
Oval would prevent spinning, but any shape designed not to rotate can probably be made to jam. Especially once considering the force applied during a drop of an inch or two given the weight. The same applies to triangles or rectangle or square, get one jammed in there and you are using a winch and spending lots of time to get the damn thing out. (Or CUTTING it out...)
I'd also consider it likely that any tire on the cover would spin against the metal before even the round cover would spin, the normal static friction of a tire on metal has got to be way lower than the rough metal on rough metal of the cover and frame. Plus, any jerk off stupid enough to punch the petal that hard deserves to be made look like a fool by a man-hole cover.
Ok, I can understand the keyboard has more stuff in it and is more expensive. But $295?!? $100 for a mouse that is basically different molded plastic? That is worth what... maybe a buck?
It's good that people are trying to break the old molds... I'd like a keyboard shaped like a football I could put on my lap, typing like scratching a cat's tummy. Only thing is though, a keyboard needs to have fast access to the mouse too, which the traditional flat models provide.
Slashdot Mirror
The retailer may not just be relying on the garbage company to destroy the material.
The grunts (can women be grunts?) could also be getting a little cash to "set aside" the patterns "next to" the dumpster for the folks picking them up.
If the retail business is anything like the pizza business, you can get college students and homless people to break down cardboard boxes and so forth for the "set asides" at the dumpster. (Not good food, but not poison and pretty tasty at 3am)
It seems to me that this problem could easily be solved by the retailers simply paying more attention and actually destroying the documents like they are supposed to do.
If the supply for the things dries up, too bad for the reseller.
It is pretty sad that people always think of the lawyers first, rather than using common sense.
Hmm. They must not have gotten 100% then, otherwise they would have realized that charging a tank with a car always results in 3 stars and the tank blows up the car!
I do not understand how your argument has any weight.
Copyrights are around to control who can sell and who can profit and who can destribute works. If someone violates a copyright they are copying, or selling, or profiting without the copyright holder's permission. To do it correctly, the publisher has to agree with the copyright holder to a fee or not to have a fee, avoiding a copyright violation and allowing wealth generation by the creator and publisher. All is good.
If a photographer wants to maintain the copyright on a work, he or she can pay the buck and keep profitting. If a photographer does not want someone else to profit or use an image at all, they can simply keep it in drawer. Releasing it, earning the buck, and then going on to say that they have exclusive right to earn a buck on that work for eternity is not what copyright is about.
Copyright is a contract where society and government agree to play by "exclusive profit" rules for a time period, and in return get the promise of the work to be shared without restriction sometime in the future. Unreleased works stay that way, nobody besides the creator can profit from them because nobody HAS them. (Note that this would return to the "want to make a profit? you must register" system.)
A system that has a set time period (of reasonable time for most industries, 25 years or less, but a long time) and then allows the holder to pay a small to have the copyright extended will allow as much profit to be made off good works as the holder wants. But it also allows people (and mankind) to go though the debris and pull out the little gems that have no capitalistic value but have archeological, cultural, social or humanistic value. That material is returned as "public domain" to be used by mandkind.
I see a lot of this "my copyright" hoopola as simple envy. Some people cannot STAND the thought that someone might enjoy something they (or their ancestors) created without wanting to ass-rape them for money.
Here is a little story to illustrate my point; I had a pal who rented with two other students. One of them had a stack of porn mags in the garage, similar to a type I used to collect. (Now, my porn is all online and I can avoid the dust and keep my closet space.) I offered 10 bucks for the stack, because it was clear that a) he didnt care all that much, and b) they were going to get destroyed by water, rats and other natural forces sitting where they were. The offer was less than probably they were worth, but about what they were worth to me. They certainly were not worth much more than that though. The guy refused, suddenly aware of their potential monitary value. No deal. Whatever. The mags sat there, and were eventually destroyed by water damage. He didnt profit (selling them to someone else at a higher price, and he didn't sit around and enjoy them.) Envy, pass up 10 bucks and a free garage cleaning for envy. Just because someone MIGHT find value in something without paying the "holder" full value.
Copyright should be a purely capitalistic thing; make money from a work (and pay a VERY small fee to continue), release it to everybody so little or no money can be made from the work, but all people can enjoy it, or sell exclusive rights to someone who can make money off it.... but continual holding copyrighted information that has no profitablilty, and NO interest on the part of the creator or holder to attempt profitiablity (measured in the $1 fee) should be banned. That is simple envy, and not part of what copyright is supposed to do.
Yup. The bird thing is total BS. Do this, go to all the web sites you can find that have the picture of the birds killed from towers or wind turbines. Next, note they ALL USE THE SAME PICTURE to swoon for the dead birdies so-called killed by blades.
There are lots of reasons why wind might not be a good idea, however, causing bird deaths is not one of them.
I had trouble deciding to Mod up or add comment...
HS Seniors, Pxtl is a wise person. Flip flops made the difference between sharing in the epidemic of foot-mold in the 32+guests shared bathroom and healthy feet in my case. If you live in dorms, count on walking through puke and broken glass in the showers some mornings. Flip flops protect the feet while allowing washing without removal, and are cheap in case you wreck them.
They didn't have laptops when I went to college (seriously!) so I cannot say how useful they are as gadgets for new students. I will tell you though that hand-writing notes, then typing them in, then printing them, then markup and study for exams got me more than a few A's with little effort. The more times that information goes through your brain the better.
So I say get a computer that suits your needs for the room or apartment, laptop or no and stick with paper for notes. Forget about carrying it around, you may not end up doing that and they are easier to steal that way.
If you do not do games, then an old PC with your choice of OS will do just fine for browsing, papers, and a hookup to a PDA.
Skipping is possible, and has even been filmed.
The event was in Wyoming (USA) over the Grand Tetons in summer of 1972, some home-movie using vacationers filmed it. An asteroid (they think) skipped off the atmosphere, the section of film I saw had the object heading upwards, though it is hard to tell if it was on the way out or not.
I Googled for it, but could not find much in the way of specific references or a still image.
I do not believe that they survive on the response rate. I think that rather the spammer income (or lack thereof) model is based on selling "marketing" to clueless, inexperienced or dumb businesses and con-men.
Sometimes the spam is sent out by the person hawking the crap, but usually it is the payment to initiate the spam the spammer is after in the first place.
Has anyone proven that a well-managed web site actually generates business?
Probably not, we'd have seen it by now. [grin]
I think the question needs to be defined more specifically than "generate business" or "make money". A web site can only be successful if that success is measured against a specific and explicit purpose of the site. For example; to provide a catalog, shopping cart and checkout system for widgets. Can that be done in a web site and tested to see if the purpose succeeded? Sure. Does it mean the widgets making company won't go out of business? Nope!
The problem arises when slick web-salesmen, or clueless pointy-hairs or a combination of the two puts way to little effort in thinking about what a web site is and is supposed to do and way too much emphasis on what they WISH it did.
A good web site can be used for marketing and branding, but expecting hard numbers out of it is silly. Radio, TV and print ads are no different in that aspect. I do not hear anybody questioning the use of advertisement via those media.
A good web site sure matters, but it only matters for specific things, things that should be thought of as little bricks in the big eddifice of customer experience. Had I not found many many answers Asus' web site, I might not be so loyal to their motherboards.
Taking one step forward will have a negligable effect on my hike, therefore I will not take that step to begin my hike.
Right. Every little bit counts. Take a look at your mail server logs sometime, there ARE relay raping bots out there, and they DO find open relays, and they DO find spam.
Closing the open relays will help some. RBL the ones that do not get closed, that will help some too. Go after the guys paying the spammers, that will help some. Track down, arrest, and jail guys that release SMTP Trojans, that will help some. Sue and harrass the spammers until they cry, that will help some too. Block all traffic from countries you don't deal with... WTF do I care of some jerk-off in Korea can email me or not, I do not speak the language and know nobody there.
It's ALL necessary, and it all should be done. Saying "this one step won't do it all, therefore I will not do this step" is just stupid logic and assures that the problem continues.
Note, do what you want with your mail server, but don't expect to be able to email mine if you got an open relay, appear on a list, or come from someplace I do not do business with.
"Hey, THAT's where the free doughnuts are!"
Section 508 mandates that federal and some other types of government web sites fit the guidelines. It is not a rule that has to be applied towards any other site, although it is a really good starting point for non-government web sites. It is often used by webmasters to convince the Pointy-Hairs how to build a web site correctly and keep the Flash and other crud as decorative only... not the whole site itself.
p
t m
A side benifit is that being Section 508 compliant makes really friendly robot fodder, so the site gets in Google and other search crawler sites faster.
Any high-profile webmaster is going to follow something like Section 508 anyway, just to minimize the chance of getting a lawsuit. You can find out more here:
http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.js
and the 508 Guidelines here:
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/508standards.h
I'd like to see more semicolons, myself, but nobody really knows how to use them.
Shhhh!! Don't tell! That's exactly why semicolons are good; nobody knows how to use them and yet they allow stilted and incomplete thoughts to be written down; and still look sophisitcated.
One way or another, we all work for Donald Love anyway. What difference does it make if he owns a few more radio/tv stations?
Now if I could only find him... he owes me money from my last job...
Not to mention a voraciously hungry yet oddly dumb creature that is always chasing rabbits, ducks, and Elmer Fudd in a whirlwind of arms and legs.
"There is nothing more satisfying than a morally justified act of violence." - some guy, I forgot.
Laying up the smack-down on those that deserve it is a legitimate way to improve a society. Ignoring the problem points will not make any improvement. Try your philosophy with the next pre-cancerous lump you get please, that will illustrate the futility of your arguments.
Some stuff does not stop simply by wishing it will.
18 hours nets $100,000, after a year that's around $46 million (US).
Of course it probably won't stay at that rate, but it's even money if it goes up or down.
I'd call that a big success, and a big bullet in the back of the head of the argument "people won't download music and pay for it".
Screw you RIAA. Get going on your server farm, we're waiting to DL from you too.
I was enjoying a meal of Hunan Chicken I was reflecting on the history of chopsticks, and the humor in the whole situation of people getting pretentious in their ability to use them. Aren't people aware that the things were invented in America in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants seeking to differentiate their restaurants in the mining communities?
I think you are remembering the invention of the Fortune Cookie, which is said to have been invented in San Francisco or some other West Coast city by chinese immigrants.
Chopsticks have been around a LONG time. Google it if you don't believe me, for the lazy, here is a link: California Academy of Sciences Anthropology Department History of the Chopstick
Incarceration without charge appears in normal criminal proceedings any time a judge deems to set bail at an unatainable level or at all. "Held without bail" is a common thing when people are thought to be a flight risk, a danger to themselves or others or show a propensity to commit additional violence.
The idea that this is somehow a new thing baffles me.
I do agree however, that the prosecutor better get their ducks in a row and charge him with something; however they are NOT obligated to give any evidence to anybody before the trial or before he is charged. Nobody questions the need for secret case details in the Laci Peterson case, why would this be any different? Non-public evidence is crucial for some cases.
This is not a place where anybody needs trial by media. It sucks to have to wait for the whole process to go through, but it is not a place where things should be rushed.
"Regularly, there are postings of questions that can be answered by the newusers articles, clearly indicating that they aren't being read."
In addition to the stupid users, the comment above is a self-fullfilling prophesy. The users that read the documentation never ask the questions and therefore never show up on the radar until they are advanced users. So that statement is not true insofar it is so self-referencial as to be meaningless. So it basically says; "The manuals or FAQs are clearly not being read by the people that ask the questions concerning answers already in the FAQs." Of course!
The people that read the FAQs simply do not ask the questions.
As the number of users goes up, the number of stupid questions goes up; that class of people you can see that ask the questions goes up (they are noticed because they are annoying) along with the class of users who do not ask the questions (who are not annoying because they know the basic stuff).
So the old guard notices the stupid clueless newbies that ask dumb questions, but don't notice the people who simply appear with half a clue that have something to bring to the table.
"Lets Roll" came from the firefighters on the ground that were with the film crew from France. It's the one where the plane can be heard and then seen apparently flying up the street and into the first tower.
The same guys eventually took the video of the staging areas inside the towers, the one where the bodies can be heard banging on the roof.
Oooo... 300 people dead! That is SO SCARY.
For you risk-adverse people that are concerned about it, here are some magic tidbits that will GREATLY REDUCE your risk of dying. Unlike worrying about getting SARS or then dying from it...
1) Wear your seat belt.
2) Don't drink and drive or ride with someone who does.
3) Watch where you step when traversing stairs.
4) Never clean a loaded firearm.
I bet you can come up with others.
The point being, SARS has some unusual tendancies that make it worth watching; however it still much less important than daily-risk management done sensibly.
My CPUs will continue searching for E.T.I. thank you. Call me when 100,000 have died.
The United States IS the teeth of the U.N. without the U.S. the U.N. has no teeth.
In that case, I think the dentures of the U.N. just dropped out, got a wind up motor, and went clattering across the floor after a rat.
Yeah, that would be fuckin' great. Just imagine the innane stupid laws we would get if the legislators were as stupid as the general populace. The thought of high-school drop out having any say in how the government is run frightens me. Most people are STUPID, and should not be allowed to drive a car or near sharp objects; let alone trying to figure out how to deal with North Korea.
I agree though, career polititians suck. Maybe we should extend the "Russian-Reulette" prison idea to public office. One bullet, six chambers, you get to play when your term starts. If you live you live. If you dont you dont. [That concept applied to prisons would sure clear things up fast, anybody that ends up back there more than a few times ends up dead. No repeat offenders, prison population in general shrinks... great fun!]
Of course, I have the wonderful distinction of knowing for sure my wife wouldn't vote for me if I ran for public office.
Oval would prevent spinning, but any shape designed not to rotate can probably be made to jam. Especially once considering the force applied during a drop of an inch or two given the weight. The same applies to triangles or rectangle or square, get one jammed in there and you are using a winch and spending lots of time to get the damn thing out. (Or CUTTING it out...)
I'd also consider it likely that any tire on the cover would spin against the metal before even the round cover would spin, the normal static friction of a tire on metal has got to be way lower than the rough metal on rough metal of the cover and frame. Plus, any jerk off stupid enough to punch the petal that hard deserves to be made look like a fool by a man-hole cover.
Ok, I can understand the keyboard has more stuff in it and is more expensive. But $295?!? $100 for a mouse that is basically different molded plastic? That is worth what... maybe a buck?
It's good that people are trying to break the old molds... I'd like a keyboard shaped like a football I could put on my lap, typing like scratching a cat's tummy. Only thing is though, a keyboard needs to have fast access to the mouse too, which the traditional flat models provide.