> NTP, a closely held patent holding company, has successfully sued > RIM for infringement of its patents.
"successfully sued" inplies that they have won something. They have not. All that they have succeeded in doing so far is filing, which anyone with the cash for the filing fees can do. Tomorrow is the hearing on their motion for a preliminary injunction. There is an excellent chance that it will be denied.
> So the judge has to decide if the technology used by RIM is similar > enough to those patents to rule that RIM did infringe on them.
At this point "all" that is at issue is a preliminary injunction barring RIM from continuing the allegedly infringing activity until the trial is over and a final decision is issued. This requires that the judge determine if NTP is "likely to prevail" and if NTP is likely to suffer "irreparable harm" if the activity continues.
I think that the present situation -- with the patents being reviewed by the PTO at the same time that a preliminary injunction motion is being briefed -- may be without precedent. The judge could dismiss the motion without prejudice and instruct NTP to refile it after the PTO finishes its review, but I won't attempt to guess what he will do. Right now, I think, he is trying to put pressure on the parties to settle.
> Electric motors are already 80-90% efficient, while this might make > it closer to 100% it won't go over, unless someone discovered some > new laws of physics.
The only natural law involved here is "There's a sucker born every minute".
> It's the USENET concept that has been more decentralized in the > content distribution.
Actually the decomposition of Usenet into servers and clients is a relatively recent phenomenon. Originally we read news directly from the spool using local clients. Indeed, it is still quite possible to run your own local server as a leaf node, receiving only those newsgroups you are interested in. I have been doing just that for about twenty years.
Bullshit. If you make your page freely available I will download them if I see fit. Any promises you make with advertisers are your problem.
> While we make not like them, ads are usually a necessary evil to > help keep sites afloat, if only for the hosting costs.
You can embed the ads in your pages if you want, or require subscriptions. It's up to you (of course, it's up to me as to whether or not I will visit such sites).
> By shutting off the regular side/top banner ads, you're depriving > them of necessary income.
If I didn't block the ads I'd be depriving the advertisers of money, since I will never ever buy anything from them.
My credit union has never started communicating with me via email. I wish they would use email for some purposes, though of course I would want it signed and encrypted with GPG. That isn't going to happen.
Slashdot Mirror
> Easy UPS too, if the servers use DC then batteries can easily be
> hooked right to the power bus that feeds them.
At which point you will just about have reinvented the system phone companies have been using for well over 100 years. Hint: why 48V?
> And as a co-admin on the NASA World Wind forums...
Where is your Linux version?
> Then again... regular terrestrial TV broadcasts aren't hampered
> with copy protection as far as I know...
HDTV will be.
> NTP, a closely held patent holding company, has successfully sued
> RIM for infringement of its patents.
"successfully sued" inplies that they have won something. They have not. All that they have succeeded in doing so far is filing, which anyone with the cash for the filing fees can do. Tomorrow is the hearing on their motion for a preliminary injunction. There is an excellent chance that it will be denied.
> So the judge has to decide if the technology used by RIM is similar
> enough to those patents to rule that RIM did infringe on them.
At this point "all" that is at issue is a preliminary injunction barring RIM from continuing the allegedly infringing activity until the trial is over and a final decision is issued. This requires that the judge determine if NTP is "likely to prevail" and if NTP is likely to suffer "irreparable harm" if the activity continues.
I think that the present situation -- with the patents being reviewed by the PTO at the same time that a preliminary injunction motion is being briefed -- may be without precedent. The judge could dismiss the motion without prejudice and instruct NTP to refile it after the PTO finishes its review, but I won't attempt to guess what he will do. Right now, I think, he is trying to put pressure on the parties to settle.
If you mean "computers" say so. "Technology" is not a synonym for "computers". Hint: cooking is technology.
> Electric motors are already 80-90% efficient, while this might make
> it closer to 100% it won't go over, unless someone discovered some
> new laws of physics.
The only natural law involved here is "There's a sucker born every minute".
> I always thought that Slashdot editors are somewhat literate as
> basic science goes...
New here, aren't you?
> It's the USENET concept that has been more decentralized in the
> content distribution.
Actually the decomposition of Usenet into servers and clients is a relatively recent phenomenon. Originally we read news directly from the spool using local clients. Indeed, it is still quite possible to run your own local server as a leaf node, receiving only those newsgroups you are interested in. I have been doing just that for about twenty years.
I can't find any mention of the license terms on the Web site.
> This is designed for USERS to help each other get the very latest
> RSS feeds using p2p tech.
> netnews is designed to let SERVERS help each other distribute
> messages posted by users.
> I don't really see how it is a re-invention at all.
Usenet is a peer to peer network of "servers". This is a re-invention of the way articles propagate in Usenet.
> If not, shame on you.
Bullshit. If you make your page freely available I will download them if I see fit. Any promises you make with advertisers are your problem.
> While we make not like them, ads are usually a necessary evil to
> help keep sites afloat, if only for the hosting costs.
You can embed the ads in your pages if you want, or require subscriptions. It's up to you (of course, it's up to me as to whether or not I will visit such sites).
> By shutting off the regular side/top banner ads, you're depriving
> them of necessary income.
If I didn't block the ads I'd be depriving the advertisers of money, since I will never ever buy anything from them.
> If you haven't had broadband yet and only dialup, upgrading doesn't
> seem necessary. But once you've experienced the speed of broadband
I have had DSL for two years now. I could go back to dialup if necessary (and it may become so).
> and the convenience of not having to dial up and log in, you'll
> never want to go back.
Demand-dial works for me.
> Back in my day, a cup of coffee cost $0.50.
Back in my day, a cup of coffee cost $0.10. That's correct, ten cents.
I do have DSL, though.
> Another 5% aren't even sure why they don't have it..."
What about the ones who think they have it but don't, and the ones who don't think they have it but do?
> "one-third of American Internet users go online just for fun."
According to my ISP (CenturyTel) the Internet exists solely for "entertainment and education".
My credit union has never started communicating with me via email. I wish they would use email for some purposes, though of course I would want it signed and encrypted with GPG. That isn't going to happen.
> "The final solution to the phishing problem requires that people
> use a whitelist-only, default-deny paradigm for email."
No, the final solution to the phishing problem requires that stupid, gullible people use a whitelist-only, default-deny paradigm for email.
Of course, that includes most of the human race...
> What real bank uses a .org? I've never heard of a noncommercial
> bank.
It's a credit union.
> The fatal flaw in the hypothetical course of action is trusting the
> non-standard domain name...
The fatal flaw is to trust the banks not to hire incompetent bunglers to set up their on-line banking.
problem #3. Only a miniscule fraction of the power would be absorbed by the egg.
> You've got between 1 and 2 amp-hours of 12 volts to work with.
You've got some very old phones there.
> Crack one egg onto one phone - you'll cook something as you short
> the entire battery out through a pile of egg.
No you won't. The conductivity of the egg is much too low. You'd need a lot more voltage (110VAC is just about right for a hotdog).
> ...make it expensive enough that a SPAMmer can't send out a million
> emails without feeling the pinch.
And so that noncommercial mailing lists cannot exist at all.
> Get a professional electrician in that knows about peak charges.
Not an electrician. An electrical engineer.