Patents explicitly eliminate competition and allow the patent holder to control prices for a limited time in return for a detailed public description of the invention (a description sufficient that the invention can be replicated and the principles behind it understood). In return for granting the temporary monopoly, society gets to know exactly how the invention works.
Wonder how many currently "valid" patents actually fail to do this. Either because they omit critical information or because no relevently skilled engineer can understand the language (legal jargon) they are written in.
I wouldn't say they're all psychos. Many of them may have lived in an improper family circle, which didn't taught them properly the difference between reality and fantasy. Tagging them all as "psychos" is a short-sighted thing to do in my opinion.
But it probably should be considered a kind of mental illness. Little different from "fans" who are unable to tell the difference between actors and their characters in everything from movies to soap operas.
There is strong evidence that exposure to violence, even in a 'fantasy setting', desensitizes real people to violence.
If that were the case then society would need to take special care with people such as those making up the BBFC. Such as restricting their work hours and ensuring that noone did that job for too long.
The very idea of banning ANYTHING entertainment-related in a 1st world country/area is completely stupid.
It's actually quite sensible, if your aim is to make it more popular. Such bans are very good advertising. Many people who would otherwise never even heard of the product will be curious to see what all the fuss is about.
Their strategy is not to win those cases in front of court.
People who actually have a good case have no reason to make a lot of fuss. Those who make a lot of noise probably have weak cases, which they probably weaken by the fuss they make about them. e.g. even if they made it to court the judge might dismiss the case on the basis of the plaintiff's behaviour.
They just want to scare you by suing innocent people. They want you to think "if that innocent guy got sued, maybe I am next". It's a bit like terrorism.
Just sign up for your free Windows Update account. Please enter your name, address, phone number, CD key, Social Security number, mother's maiden name, first pet's name, fingerprint, and first 8 million base pairs of your DNA.
Of course quite a few "people" would have a problem after the first four. On the positive side Microsoft might implode when sued by every US based corporation for violating their 14th ammendment rights...
I have complete control of my computer in every way by virtue of the fact that I *own* it. Putting Microsoft software on that piece of hardware removes control from me of my own computer. I also have to give up the right to modify (disassemble, etc) Microsoft's code once it is on my computer.
Rather that's what the EULA might claim, but it is trumped by the "law of the land".
Compare that to GPL'd software which generally are of the purpose to enable and empower my freedom to use my own hardware.
The GPL dosn't do anything to your freedom to use your own hardware, in any way you see fit, you can do that already due to it being your property. So far as the GPL is concerned what you do with your property is your own business. Where the GPL applies is you need permission from the copyright holder to distribute a copy to a third party. The GPL conditionally grants that permission.
The problem with that statement is that a service pack offers no additional functionality. The OS X updates do add significant functionality that really does a lot to make them worthwhile.
Windows service packs (and updates) do add additional "functionality". However this includes such things as adding DRM and mutating EULAs, which don't tend to be welcome.
The only thing that keeps the voting system honest is *people* who care more about the accuracy of the results than whether or not a particular party wins. In other words: little old ladies, and they're not the ones pushing for these devices. They're perfectly happy to keep counting the slips of paper.
They are the ones being pushed out by these machines. The thing is that when you have people counting (or collating) physical ballot papers is that it is possible to verify that the process is fair and accurate. The moment you add "voting machines" (and multiple elections on one ballot paper) verifying the accuracy of a count becomes very difficult to impossible.
The issue isn't that he is good or bad. The issue is that he isn't a "friend" or puppet of the US Government. The former rather ironically since Castro was perfectly happy to have normal relations with the US...
It's to please the Cuban ex-pats in Florida who dislike the current Cuban government.
Those of them who are actually old enough to have ever lived in Cuba.
Given how much a few thousand votes in Florida can matter, no politician wants to risk pissing these folks off. Funny how such a small group can be so influential because they live in the right state.
Quite a bit of US foreign policy appears to be controlled by interest groups. Be they the Israeli lobby and the various corporate interests which have made a mess of Central and South America.
*shakes fist at electoral college*
More a case of failing to follow the advice of George Washington about avoiding foreign entanglements. Instead you have politicans (and political candidates) literally standing in line to show how they value foreign interests above Americans.
This is really a FAQ. Of course it dosn't help that certain software pretends that the GPL is some kind of EULA.
As far as respecting the EULA, I wonder if it's even a valid contract. As I understand it, most contracts require both parties agree to the terms BEFORE the transaction (purchasing the software) takes place.
To add to the confusion plenty of EULAs are presented for acceptance when software is installed, rather than when it is used. With the installer and user(s) not needing to be the same people.
As a consumer of some custom made applications, I'd have to say this is the direction the market is going. Rather than paying a low price for off the shelf software that doesn't do what we want, we pay developers tens (or hundreds) of times what a boxed software would cost in order to make exactly what we need. In exchange for the exorbitant cost, we get direct input on features and design, and the developers know exactly who is using their software and what it's doing.
The "Off The Shelf" software may not actually be that cheap in the first place. Especially when to consider per user licencing models and the time involved trying (and failing) to make it work...
Technically speaking, yes, hypersonic travel will always be impossible, barring some super-material able to take the heat. The trick is that once you get out of the atmosphere, a term like "hypersonic" is nonsensical.
Once you get out of the atmosphere you need a rocket engine to provide any thrust you might need to alter your course. If you want to make quick climb through the atmosphere you need a thrust to weight ratio considerably greater than unity as well as a way to package passengers and cargo which allows for 2-3G in the direction of the tail.
Possibly a more useful application of scramjets would be to propel a plane at a more modest mach 2-3. A problem with both the Concorde and TU-144 is that the air flowing into the engines cannot be supersonic, regardless of the airspeed.
Almost any serious hypersonic proposal includes active cooling, using cryogenic fuel to cool the leading edge (which is the only part that's problematic; passive materials can handle the rest). It'd certainly make me nervous to ride in a vehicle that requires an active cooling system to work perfectly to avoid burning up, but it could solve the problem.
You also need reusable tanks to store the fuel and cryonic fuel handling at all the airports you want to use. AFAIK no such tanks currently exist.
The only way to reach hypersonic speeds without burning up is to make the trajectory sub-orbital so that the aircraft is in the thinnest atmosphere possible when it's firing it's engines to go Mach 10.
It still needs to get to that altitude first, flying at a speed which will generate a suitable amount of aerodynamic lift.
What's even worse is that Americans don't even use Imperial units.
They use their own half baked system consisting of some of the same names, and completely different measurements that they have the audacity to call English. As if it were the Queen's fault or something.
They are the units used in the 18th century which predate the Imperial standards. The most notable difference is with volume measurement. An interesting piece of trivia is that both inches were redefined to be exactly 25.4 mm in the 1940's so when it comes to measuring length metric is already widely used.
water doesn't hurt electronics contrary to popular belief.. its powering them up when wet that does. and its not even shorting that does the damage when you do.. it electrolysis that kills them by damaging the circuit.
Or applying the fluid whilst the device is already powered up. Most beverages are a lot more destructive than water since they contain plenty of disolved salts. Half a cup of coffee will rapidly turn the average laptop into a set of spare parts.
when we assemble printed circuit boards the last step is to wash them in warm water to strip the flux used in the soldering process.
Much the same thing is done with industrial production, usually with de-ionised water though.
What? The government abused it's power? But they said they wouldn't . . . I must admit I'm stunned.
So what are they going to do about it, lie again? To be honest this isn't news. It would be news if did what they said they were going to do and only that (i.e. actually followed the rules) for a month (even a week).
However, the problem I see here is that once that data has moved through my server, and I have copied it out of RAM, that copy is my property.
Actually it depends where your server is. If it's in the US that might well be the case. If it's in the EU (or anywhere else with data protection legislation) the data could easily still belong to someone else (and you may need to declare if you are collecting it and/or pass it on to third parties.)
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Patents explicitly eliminate competition and allow the patent holder to control prices for a limited time in return for a detailed public description of the invention (a description sufficient that the invention can be replicated and the principles behind it understood). In return for granting the temporary monopoly, society gets to know exactly how the invention works.
Wonder how many currently "valid" patents actually fail to do this. Either because they omit critical information or because no relevently skilled engineer can understand the language (legal jargon) they are written in.
I wouldn't say they're all psychos. Many of them may have lived in an improper family circle, which didn't taught them properly the difference between reality and fantasy. Tagging them all as "psychos" is a short-sighted thing to do in my opinion.
But it probably should be considered a kind of mental illness. Little different from "fans" who are unable to tell the difference between actors and their characters in everything from movies to soap operas.
There is strong evidence that exposure to violence, even in a 'fantasy setting', desensitizes real people to violence.
If that were the case then society would need to take special care with people such as those making up the BBFC. Such as restricting their work hours and ensuring that noone did that job for too long.
The very idea of banning ANYTHING entertainment-related in a 1st world country/area is completely stupid.
It's actually quite sensible, if your aim is to make it more popular. Such bans are very good advertising. Many people who would otherwise never even heard of the product will be curious to see what all the fuss is about.
Their strategy is not to win those cases in front of court.
People who actually have a good case have no reason to make a lot of fuss. Those who make a lot of noise probably have weak cases, which they probably weaken by the fuss they make about them. e.g. even if they made it to court the judge might dismiss the case on the basis of the plaintiff's behaviour.
They just want to scare you by suing innocent people. They want you to think "if that innocent guy got sued, maybe I am next". It's a bit like terrorism.
Or even it actually is "terrorism".
Just sign up for your free Windows Update account. Please enter your name, address, phone number, CD key, Social Security number, mother's maiden name, first pet's name, fingerprint, and first 8 million base pairs of your DNA.
Of course quite a few "people" would have a problem after the first four. On the positive side Microsoft might implode when sued by every US based corporation for violating their 14th ammendment rights...
I have complete control of my computer in every way by virtue of the fact that I *own* it. Putting Microsoft software on that piece of hardware removes control from me of my own computer. I also have to give up the right to modify (disassemble, etc) Microsoft's code once it is on my computer.
Rather that's what the EULA might claim, but it is trumped by the "law of the land".
Compare that to GPL'd software which generally are of the purpose to enable and empower my freedom to use my own hardware.
The GPL dosn't do anything to your freedom to use your own hardware, in any way you see fit, you can do that already due to it being your property. So far as the GPL is concerned what you do with your property is your own business.
Where the GPL applies is you need permission from the copyright holder to distribute a copy to a third party. The GPL conditionally grants that permission.
The problem with that statement is that a service pack offers no additional functionality. The OS X updates do add significant functionality that really does a lot to make them worthwhile.
Windows service packs (and updates) do add additional "functionality". However this includes such things as adding DRM and mutating EULAs, which don't tend to be welcome.
When are these companies going to learn that trying to suppress information on the internet just makes it multiply?
When you see an honest politican riding on the back of a flying pig over a snow covered Hell...
Indeed. But getting that done is uphill both ways. Much like getting citizens to actually vote.
Unless elections can be seen to be fair what reason has anyone to vote.
The only thing that keeps the voting system honest is *people* who care more about the accuracy of the results than whether or not a particular party wins. In other words: little old ladies, and they're not the ones pushing for these devices. They're perfectly happy to keep counting the slips of paper.
They are the ones being pushed out by these machines.
The thing is that when you have people counting (or collating) physical ballot papers is that it is possible to verify that the process is fair and accurate. The moment you add "voting machines" (and multiple elections on one ballot paper) verifying the accuracy of a count becomes very difficult to impossible.
You see, the Cubans stole our casinos and overthrew our puppet government. Then they didn't let us take them back over.
Not unlike Iran, except that the US isn't threatening to bomb Cuba, yet...
Cuba is run by a fairly bad dude
The issue isn't that he is good or bad. The issue is that he isn't a "friend" or puppet of the US Government. The former rather ironically since Castro was perfectly happy to have normal relations with the US...
It's to please the Cuban ex-pats in Florida who dislike the current Cuban government.
Those of them who are actually old enough to have ever lived in Cuba.
Given how much a few thousand votes in Florida can matter, no politician wants to risk pissing these folks off. Funny how such a small group can be so influential because they live in the right state.
Quite a bit of US foreign policy appears to be controlled by interest groups. Be they the Israeli lobby and the various corporate interests which have made a mess of Central and South America.
*shakes fist at electoral college*
More a case of failing to follow the advice of George Washington about avoiding foreign entanglements.
Instead you have politicans (and political candidates) literally standing in line to show how they value foreign interests above Americans.
The GPL and Microsoft's EULA are NOT equivalent.
This is really a FAQ. Of course it dosn't help that certain software pretends that the GPL is some kind of EULA.
As far as respecting the EULA, I wonder if it's even a valid contract. As I understand it, most contracts require both parties agree to the terms BEFORE the transaction (purchasing the software) takes place.
To add to the confusion plenty of EULAs are presented for acceptance when software is installed, rather than when it is used. With the installer and user(s) not needing to be the same people.
As a consumer of some custom made applications, I'd have to say this is the direction the market is going. Rather than paying a low price for off the shelf software that doesn't do what we want, we pay developers tens (or hundreds) of times what a boxed software would cost in order to make exactly what we need. In exchange for the exorbitant cost, we get direct input on features and design, and the developers know exactly who is using their software and what it's doing.
The "Off The Shelf" software may not actually be that cheap in the first place. Especially when to consider per user licencing models and the time involved trying (and failing) to make it work...
Finally, I figure the Shuttle is a demonstration that ceramics and similar materials can be used on an airplane.
You'd undoubtely want a mechanism to detect a bird strike (or similar) to the leading edge of the wing.
Technically speaking, yes, hypersonic travel will always be impossible, barring some super-material able to take the heat. The trick is that once you get out of the atmosphere, a term like "hypersonic" is nonsensical.
Once you get out of the atmosphere you need a rocket engine to provide any thrust you might need to alter your course. If you want to make quick climb through the atmosphere you need a thrust to weight ratio considerably greater than unity as well as a way to package passengers and cargo which allows for 2-3G in the direction of the tail.
Possibly a more useful application of scramjets would be to propel a plane at a more modest mach 2-3. A problem with both the Concorde and TU-144 is that the air flowing into the engines cannot be supersonic, regardless of the airspeed.
Almost any serious hypersonic proposal includes active cooling, using cryogenic fuel to cool the leading edge (which is the only part that's problematic; passive materials can handle the rest). It'd certainly make me nervous to ride in a vehicle that requires an active cooling system to work perfectly to avoid burning up, but it could solve the problem.
You also need reusable tanks to store the fuel and cryonic fuel handling at all the airports you want to use. AFAIK no such tanks currently exist.
The only way to reach hypersonic speeds without burning up is to make the trajectory sub-orbital so that the aircraft is in the thinnest atmosphere possible when it's firing it's engines to go Mach 10.
It still needs to get to that altitude first, flying at a speed which will generate a suitable amount of aerodynamic lift.
Not to mention that the US has been butchering proper English spelling and grammar ever since Webster.
:)
Thank's Noah... You also find this happening with proper nouns which is a definite faux pas.
Just switch to Metric measurements and the Celsius temperature scale already.
But would the units actually get spelt correctly?
The rest of the world is getting tired of having to convert measurements for the sole purposes of dealing with the US.
Probably mostly the Mexicans and Canadians. On the other hand does the rest of the world actually want to deal with the US
What's even worse is that Americans don't even use Imperial units.
They use their own half baked system consisting of some of the same names, and completely different measurements that they have the audacity to call English. As if it were the Queen's fault or something.
They are the units used in the 18th century which predate the Imperial standards. The most notable difference is with volume measurement. An interesting piece of trivia is that both inches were redefined to be exactly 25.4 mm in the 1940's so when it comes to measuring length metric is already widely used.
water doesn't hurt electronics contrary to popular belief.. its powering them up when wet that does. and its not even shorting that does the damage when you do.. it electrolysis that kills them by damaging the circuit.
Or applying the fluid whilst the device is already powered up. Most beverages are a lot more destructive than water since they contain plenty of disolved salts. Half a cup of coffee will rapidly turn the average laptop into a set of spare parts.
when we assemble printed circuit boards the last step is to wash them in warm water to strip the flux used in the soldering process.
Much the same thing is done with industrial production, usually with de-ionised water though.
What? The government abused it's power? But they said they wouldn't . . . I must admit I'm stunned.
So what are they going to do about it, lie again?
To be honest this isn't news. It would be news if did what they said they were going to do and only that (i.e. actually followed the rules) for a month (even a week).
However, the problem I see here is that once that data has moved through my server, and I have copied it out of RAM, that copy is my property.
Actually it depends where your server is. If it's in the US that might well be the case. If it's in the EU (or anywhere else with data protection legislation) the data could easily still belong to someone else (and you may need to declare if you are collecting it and/or pass it on to third parties.)