Actually, the Amsterdam that most visitors tend to see bears very little relationship to the rest of Holland! Sure you can wander off the main tourist routes and find "proper" holland but the bit filled with English and Irish Stag and Hen do's, confused US and Japanese tourists, dazed hippie-types and (insert most kinds of extreme over generalisations here).... is definately not Holland:) For a start you won't see any Dutch people at all, the pervasiveness of sex-shops, coffee-shops, sex museums, peep-shows etc etc is unlike the rest of Holland. etc.
If you do visit Holland it's well worth the time to go somewhere else that Amsterdam Like Leiden, Delft, Haarlem etc as these places have the canals, old gabled houses and nice little Dutch cafes you want to see, without the extreme, over-the-top permissiveness of Amsterdam's old centre. Amsterdam almost like a perverted Disney-esque themepark version of Holland:)
I live in Delft and it's much much nicer. Lots of Dutch things to see (Girl with a pearl earring was filmed there for example) and it still looks "real".
Otherwise it will be in danger of being crushed by dwarves.:)
If you watch the DVD of Spinal Tap, I thoroughly recommend the commentary - one of the best ever.
troc
Re:Drunk in charge of a bollard?
on
Robocones
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I was once followed for over a mile by the police to make sure I did deposit both the cones and the shopping trolley they were in, back in their respective homes.
Can't to that sort of thing here in Holland - to get 'plates made you have to go to one of only a few licensed places with a certificate from the government. This certificate will only allow one set of 'plates to be made. If you are involved in a crash or get your 'plates stolen, you have to get anotehr certificate and then you can get more 'plates - these will have an extra number on them to indicate they are replacements.
So in this case it couldn't happen as nobody would make your fake 'plates for you.
Also each 'plate has a serial number and the police are very anal about pulling people over with illegal 'plates.
Granted patents are PUBLISHED documents. This means they are public and available to be read by anyone. So the company with the patent isn't hiding their patent waiting to spring it on an unsuspecting world, the world is failing to do some simple book research before relying on some technology.
If I want to invent something or research something or whatever, the first thing I do (and this is standard practice in research) is do a literature search for bachground info - no use reinventing the wheel etc. Any decent research will quickly reveal both non-patent literature and patents (pending or granted) which revolve around the work I am researching. If I then create something that infringes a patent it is either:
a. my stupidity b. that I don't care and want to fight the patent c. cross licensing d. gonna buy that company
Nope, that's incorrect. A patent, if granted, is valid from the date it is first applied for. This date is called the filing date (or priority date - it depends whether this is a "first filing") and is THE most important date in a patent's life. This is the date it arrives in the patent office.
There are other important dates such as the date the application is published (usually around 18 months after the filing date) and various deadlines - especially for PCT (WIPO) applications but a patent is retroactively valid from that original date for the normal length of a patent.
This meane, for example, that if I filed an application on 1 Jan 2000, and it was granted tomorrow, I would have protection for 20 years from 1 Jan 2000 assuming I paid all my annual renewal fees.
An interesting aside here is that whilst the patent is pending I still have to pay teh renewal fees (i.e. in the case above I'd have to have paid my fees for 2000-2004 even though nothing had been granted and nothing was guaranteed to be granted):)
The "Apple Zealot" converts 1.5GHz G4 into 3GHz P4
The "PC Weenie" converts 1.5GHz G4 into 0.1 GHz P4 as that's about the speed it runs Virtual PC (probably, assuming anyone actually bought a Mac. Which nobody does. etc)
The "Geek Index" says 1.5GHz G4 is about 2-2.5GHz P4 probably but it depends what you are doing and anyway it's all easily fast enough to code stuff and surf for pr0n.
The "SETI Weirdo" calculates that a 1.5GHz G4 does more units than their rival^h^h^h^h^hfriend. So that's ok.
The "Arty type people" think oooh a mac. It runs FCP.
AFAIK, it's only entrapment if the LAW tries it.....
They are distributing some software they wrote, so they are free to distribute it as they like. They are disclosing publicly available info. on their site - all they are doing wrong is (possibly) some copyright infringement as they called their application UT2004.img (or something)
Well yes, the iPod is a niche product. The niche being "a significant portion of the HD-based mp3 player market with particular uptake amongst the in crowd".
The iPod is a hit, it sells faster that Apple can make them at the current, relatively high price. Why should Apple reduce the price? supply and demand. As long as the iPod remains a fashionable item (as well as being a damn good mp3 player), they can charge what they like.....
Now if the iPod was 500 dollars and not selling because it was crap, badly designed etc etc. THEN it would need discounting:)
A 160,000 page Biotech patent will consist of around 100 pages of description, probably 100 pages of claims (or less) and 159,800 pages of DNA sequences.
Nope. Prior art can "kill" a single claim or any combination of claims. A list of claims will have a number of "independent" claims (e.g. claim 1 always) and then some "dependent" claims. The dependent claims add features to the claims upon which they depend (i.e. they are of narrower scope than the independent claims)
It is perfecty possible to have some prior art which kills claim 1 and some of the dependent claims but which doesn't disclose the features of the remaining dependent claims.
This would result in a court case in the US (or an Opposition in EU) where, probably, the new features from the dependent claims would be added to the indenendent claim to make the patent novel. It could also be that these exztra features are blindingly obvious and therefore not inventive in any way and then the whole thing could be nullified.
Slashdot Mirror
We are the Yogi Bears of the Computing World?
Cool.
Troc.
Here at the European Patent Office a vast proportion of the patent examiners have PhDs. It's by no means mandatory but it is almost expected.
(Dr.) Troc
Your post in inclear
:)
Troc
Be fun to chuck this design into Sim City and see if it worked ............
Troc
A typing version of Tourette's Syndrome?
Troc
Hmm, seems BSD supporters have no sense of humour either..... :)
Troc
Naah, it's Beleagued and Dying :)
Troc
Actually, the Amsterdam that most visitors tend to see bears very little relationship to the rest of Holland! Sure you can wander off the main tourist routes and find "proper" holland but the bit filled with English and Irish Stag and Hen do's, confused US and Japanese tourists, dazed hippie-types and (insert most kinds of extreme over generalisations here) .... is definately not Holland :) For a start you won't see any Dutch people at all, the pervasiveness of sex-shops, coffee-shops, sex museums, peep-shows etc etc is unlike the rest of Holland. etc.
:)
If you do visit Holland it's well worth the time to go somewhere else that Amsterdam Like Leiden, Delft, Haarlem etc as these places have the canals, old gabled houses and nice little Dutch cafes you want to see, without the extreme, over-the-top permissiveness of Amsterdam's old centre. Amsterdam almost like a perverted Disney-esque themepark version of Holland
I live in Delft and it's much much nicer. Lots of Dutch things to see (Girl with a pearl earring was filmed there for example) and it still looks "real".
Troc
Otherwise it will be in danger of being crushed by dwarves. :)
If you watch the DVD of Spinal Tap, I thoroughly recommend the commentary - one of the best ever.
troc
I was once followed for over a mile by the police to make sure I did deposit both the cones and the shopping trolley they were in, back in their respective homes.
heh
Troc.
Can't to that sort of thing here in Holland - to get 'plates made you have to go to one of only a few licensed places with a certificate from the government. This certificate will only allow one set of 'plates to be made. If you are involved in a crash or get your 'plates stolen, you have to get anotehr certificate and then you can get more 'plates - these will have an extra number on them to indicate they are replacements.
So in this case it couldn't happen as nobody would make your fake 'plates for you.
Also each 'plate has a serial number and the police are very anal about pulling people over with illegal 'plates.
Hohum
troc.
Granted patents are PUBLISHED documents. This means they are public and available to be read by anyone. So the company with the patent isn't hiding their patent waiting to spring it on an unsuspecting world, the world is failing to do some simple book research before relying on some technology.
If I want to invent something or research something or whatever, the first thing I do (and this is standard practice in research) is do a literature search for bachground info - no use reinventing the wheel etc. Any decent research will quickly reveal both non-patent literature and patents (pending or granted) which revolve around the work I am researching. If I then create something that infringes a patent it is either:
a. my stupidity
b. that I don't care and want to fight the patent
c. cross licensing
d. gonna buy that company
etc etc
Troc
Nope, that's incorrect. A patent, if granted, is valid from the date it is first applied for. This date is called the filing date (or priority date - it depends whether this is a "first filing") and is THE most important date in a patent's life. This is the date it arrives in the patent office.
:)
There are other important dates such as the date the application is published (usually around 18 months after the filing date) and various deadlines - especially for PCT (WIPO) applications but a patent is retroactively valid from that original date for the normal length of a patent.
This meane, for example, that if I filed an application on 1 Jan 2000, and it was granted tomorrow, I would have protection for 20 years from 1 Jan 2000 assuming I paid all my annual renewal fees.
An interesting aside here is that whilst the patent is pending I still have to pay teh renewal fees (i.e. in the case above I'd have to have paid my fees for 2000-2004 even though nothing had been granted and nothing was guaranteed to be granted)
Troc
And apparently over 30% of those asked would just reveal their passwords without any bribery!
Troc
That depends which conversion algorithm you use :)
The "Apple Zealot" converts 1.5GHz G4 into 3GHz P4
The "PC Weenie" converts 1.5GHz G4 into 0.1 GHz P4 as that's about the speed it runs Virtual PC (probably, assuming anyone actually bought a Mac. Which nobody does. etc)
The "Geek Index" says 1.5GHz G4 is about 2-2.5GHz P4 probably but it depends what you are doing and anyway it's all easily fast enough to code stuff and surf for pr0n.
The "SETI Weirdo" calculates that a 1.5GHz G4 does more units than their rival^h^h^h^h^hfriend. So that's ok.
The "Arty type people" think oooh a mac. It runs FCP.
8 out of 10 CEOs go "a shiny thing"
etc
Troc
AFAIK, it's only entrapment if the LAW tries it.....
They are distributing some software they wrote, so they are free to distribute it as they like. They are disclosing publicly available info. on their site - all they are doing wrong is (possibly) some copyright infringement as they called their application UT2004.img (or something)
Troc
Look, I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate
Troc.
A couple of years ago my slashdot sig was
:)
This week I have been mostl reading slashdot
so I feel I's have to say
Oi! M1FCJ! No! I can put up with your stupid inane comments on Slashdot but what's with that banal and idiotic name?
(the unrighteous brothers before I start a flame war
Troc
scary, I never realised we were so close
:)
Troc
PS Check user number
Is a hoobyist someone who discriminates against hoobys?
If so will all companies eventually be forced by law to employ a certain number of hoobys in some sort of perverse positive discrimination?
Will we get "hooby rights marches" and will Holland allow two hoobys to get married?
Enquiring minds etc etc
troc
Well yes, the iPod is a niche product. The niche being "a significant portion of the HD-based mp3 player market with particular uptake amongst the in crowd".
:)
The iPod is a hit, it sells faster that Apple can make them at the current, relatively high price. Why should Apple reduce the price? supply and demand. As long as the iPod remains a fashionable item (as well as being a damn good mp3 player), they can charge what they like.....
Now if the iPod was 500 dollars and not selling because it was crap, badly designed etc etc. THEN it would need discounting
A 160,000 page Biotech patent will consist of around 100 pages of description, probably 100 pages of claims (or less) and 159,800 pages of DNA sequences.
Ugh.
troc
ooh, clever. Where are my mod points (dammed hole in my pocket, mumble mumble) :)
But IBM do make a G3 with AltiVec which is essentially a G4.
troc
Nope. Prior art can "kill" a single claim or any combination of claims. A list of claims will have a number of "independent" claims (e.g. claim 1 always) and then some "dependent" claims. The dependent claims add features to the claims upon which they depend (i.e. they are of narrower scope than the independent claims)
It is perfecty possible to have some prior art which kills claim 1 and some of the dependent claims but which doesn't disclose the features of the remaining dependent claims.
This would result in a court case in the US (or an Opposition in EU) where, probably, the new features from the dependent claims would be added to the indenendent claim to make the patent novel. It could also be that these exztra features are blindingly obvious and therefore not inventive in any way and then the whole thing could be nullified.
Troc