The American pioneers were preceded by explorers....
The first human pioneers to Mars have already been preceded by explorers. Most, if not all, of the work to be done in preparation for colonization has and will be done remotely via robots, satellites and the like, an option unavailable in the 1500's and 1600's.
"The fact that the primary excuse for developing said tech is to shoot down missiles shouldn't hinder you from seeing the potential applications in other areas."
So you're saying that it can be used to blow up suitcases!
I am not reassured. If the results are so difficult to tamper with that only only those with great resources and determination can do it, then we not only acheive a false sense of security for the masses, but place ourselves at the mercy of the world's wealthiest, greediest and most power-hungry entities. Add to that the fact that those same entities are currently entrenched in the white house, and I just can't see those entities being able to resist the temptation to solidify their power. Chance of tampering? Approaching 100%.
"I'd like to see how Microsoft reacts to competition"
Probably by releasing a cloud of poison gas.
Re:Buy a laptop and separate the base.
on
LCD Price Fixing?
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· Score: 1
"Of course, you do then need to make the interface to connect the flat panel to something useful, but thats where the fun comes into it:)"
To quote from the movie Face-Off:
"Simply reconnect the nerve endings!"
Re:A short history of how the U.S. got into this m
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4l-j4z333ra 0wn3d
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· Score: 1
"Yeah, just like temporary military rule turned Japan into the 51st state."
Ummm, I believe Japan was the 49th state, with Alaska and Hawai'i 50 and 51, and Puerto Rico no. 52. We should probably not count Texas as a state anymore, but as a separate country currently occupying the U.S.
So counting Afghanistan and Iraq, my current count is 52 states (Japan appears to have seceded).
Yeah, those old DEC VAXxen were tough. I used to drive a forklift at one of their distribution centers, and let me tell you they stack those suckers about 50 feet high. I used to drop 'em all the time, but they all shipped!!
You make some valid points, but you cannot be serious in suggesting that Bush cares about the environment except as a resource to be commercially exploited.
Animosity toward Bush aside, he has shown nothing but CONTEMPT toward environmental concerns. What's next, he's a brilliant economist and a subtle diplomat?
"there's no other reason Bush wouldn't want the oil wells intact except for his own persona enrichment? How about the environment?"
"You Mac gayboys really ought to do your research. [snip] I don't sit at my computer all day using Photoshop filters. Look at games on Macs. They're pathetic."
That's a hoot, AC. You sit at your computer all day playing games and have the hubris to call Mac proponents "gayboys" (can you spell loser? Probably not, you'd probably spell it looser).
My guess is that most laptop purchasers buy laptops primarily to do useful work, not to play games. The story is about laptops, isn't it?
Once again, that's "loser" not "looser" or "loozer." It's a word you definitely should get used to hearing!
"It didn't require lots of finicky setup to get it working correctly."
I respectfully disagree.
"Cared for properly, CD's way, way, outlasted LP discs"
Just wrong. A properly cared for LP is much more durable than a properly cared for CD.
"CD's didn't suffer from wow and flutter, background hiss and low frequency turntable rumble"
Which are insignificant problems for good equipment. On the other hand, I prefer LP handling of less than mint condition disks (a few skips or pops, which can be electronically minimized, but the music still plays). Your CD will refuse to play, or will have dropouts.
I'd love to see a modern incarnation of the LP format. Frankly, I've got 30 and (almost) 40 year old LPs which sound better than any CD I've heard. A cranked up LP on top end equipment sounds and feels like a live recording. A cranked up CD on high end equipment sounds like a really good recording of a live performance. Some day some Stanford post-doc will find out why and will make a fortune off the new format. Perhaps it will be a cylindrical disk, and the circle of invention will be complete.
What I'm hearing is that don't like or trust lawyers and will bash them no matter what they do or say.
I'm a patent attorney, and I don't like or trust lawyers either. When people ask me why I became a lawyer, I tell them that I plan to destroy the system from within. I criticize lawyers, judges, the system and the mess at the patent office on a regular basis, because they (mostly) suck.
But if you're gonna do the bashing, do it when it's appropriate, not when they finally get something right.
"I'm sorry, but distributing code which violates a patent should definately not be infringing behavior; but IANAL."
Wow, you sure aren't. If you were a lawyer, or even anybody with a rudimentary knowledge of patent law, you would know that a patent gives the patent holder the right to preclude others from "making, using or selling" the patented technology. Distributing patented code probably includes all three of these facets, and is a classic example of infringing behavior.
I am a patent attorney, and I am dismayed by the anti-lawyer comments this thread has generated. "Contrived to feed lawyers"???!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!
The comments I've read seem to divide humans into two broad groups, lawyers and people. Hey, I'm a person too! In fact, most patent attorneys I know are neither evil nor interesting. Ever see a prime time drama about PATENT lawyers?? Damn right!
I wish I knew where to start refuting all this negativity, but I haven't the foggiest. Just because you're right doesn't make it hurt any less.
"With the way the US Patent Office (doesn't) work you really expect that M$ WONT get their patent through?"
I agree in part. The Patent Office is broken, but mainly because Congress STEALS money from the PTO! (If anyone takes issue with this, it can very easily be confirmed)
Nevertheless, original Claim 1 from filed patent applications are almost never (~1%) allowed and issued as filed.
Take a look at the first claim of random published patent applications available on the PTO web site. They are often ridiculously broad. The first one I looked at is reproduced below.
1. A method of delivering electronic content, comprising: providing instructions that cause a first computer to collect information including an e-mail address, and transmit the collected information to a second computer; and processing the transmitted information at the second computer by selecting electronic content for transmission to the e-mail address and e-mailing the selected electronic content.
Data Communication Using Power Lines (patent)
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Broadband over Powerlines
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· Score: 2, Informative
The fact that anybody files a patent application which is automatically published after 18 months means exactly... NOTHING!
You write as if a patent has issued. It has not. You comments imply that a published patent application has some sort of legal impact on potential competitors. It does not. Anybody can file a patent application and can claim anything whatsoever, but until an actual patent issues, it means nothing.
Perhaps M$ filed the application knowing it would not be allowable, but also knowing that, upon publication, potential competitors would be intimidated out of the field.
Please do not confuse the legal ramifications of an issued patent (which is, by statute, presumed to be valid) with a published patent application (which has no legal presumptions).
"By refusing to play, especially in the army, he's risking not only his career, but his retirement (and at LtGen, he's almost certainly gotten his 20 years in), prison (especially if its as high scale and high profile of an exercise as this article makes it seem) and eventually a dishonorable discharge that'd make it hard for him to get another job anywhere."
First, he was already retired at the time of the exercise. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,786992,0 0.html
"If the Pentagon thought it could keep its mishap quiet, it underestimated Van Riper. A classic marine - straight-talking and fearless, with a purple heart from Vietnam to prove it - his retirement means he no longer has to put up with the bureaucratic niceties of the defence department. So he blew the whistle."
Second, his decision not to "play" was precipitated by his removal from the normal military chain of command.
"Within his ever narrowing constraints, Van Riper continued to make a nuisance of himself, harrying Blue forces with an arsenal of unorthodox tactics, until one day, on July 29, he thinks, he found his orders to his subordinate officers were not being listened to any more. They were being countermanded by the control group. So Van Riper quit. "I stayed on to give advice, but I stopped giving orders. There was no real point any more," he says."
Finally, your comment that "it's ridiculous to think that Iraq could win a war against the US" really misses the point badly. The purpose of these military exercises is illustrated precisely by what happened, namely, to be able to identify potential areas of strengths and weaknesses of you and your enemy BEFORE an actual conflict. And to try to anticipate and prepare for unorthodox tactics and strategies. In other words, to try to predict the unpredictable. Van Riper (whom I served under in the early 1980s) was an ideal candidate for this simulation, as he is extremely smart, creative and tenacious.
"Instead of making jokes or clamoring about how this is a bad (or good) thing, let's try to figure out what this guy is about."
It doesn't matter what HE is about. He'll toe the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft line or he is GONE. And the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft line is all about maintaining big business' (particularly oil) stranglehold on power.
Anyone surprised by Bush's proposal to research hydrogen as a fuel source? Many scientists have suggested that the move to a hydrogen-based economy (replacing the current petroleum-based economy) is inevitable and necessary. So why would Bush propose funding hydrogen research? You can (and will) bet your last dollar that the plan is not to develop a new hydrogen-based industry that would compete with or even replace the oil companies. It's for the oil companies to take over the future hydrogen industry. Completely and irrevocably.
It's ALL about maintaining power, so don't start thinking that Bush will allow anything contrary thinking (like protecting civil liberties).
Slashdot Mirror
The American pioneers were preceded by explorers ....
The first human pioneers to Mars have already been preceded by explorers. Most, if not all, of the work to be done in preparation for colonization has and will be done remotely via robots, satellites and the like, an option unavailable in the 1500's and 1600's.
He did better than that; he was given a JOB!
35 miles/gallon = 14,859 meters/liter
"The fact that the primary excuse for developing said tech is to shoot down missiles shouldn't hinder you from seeing the potential applications in other areas."
So you're saying that it can be used to blow up suitcases!
I've been using the same PowerBook for six years! That's not a profitable business model.
I am not reassured. If the results are so difficult to tamper with that only only those with great resources and determination can do it, then we not only acheive a false sense of security for the masses, but place ourselves at the mercy of the world's wealthiest, greediest and most power-hungry entities. Add to that the fact that those same entities are currently entrenched in the white house, and I just can't see those entities being able to resist the temptation to solidify their power. Chance of tampering? Approaching 100%.
"I'd like to see how Microsoft reacts to competition"
Probably by releasing a cloud of poison gas.
"Of course, you do then need to make the interface to connect the flat panel to something useful, but thats where the fun comes into it :)"
To quote from the movie Face-Off:
"Simply reconnect the nerve endings!"
"Yeah, just like temporary military rule turned Japan into the 51st state."
Ummm, I believe Japan was the 49th state, with Alaska and Hawai'i 50 and 51, and Puerto Rico no. 52. We should probably not count Texas as a state anymore, but as a separate country currently occupying the U.S.
So counting Afghanistan and Iraq, my current count is 52 states (Japan appears to have seceded).
Who's gonna design that flag?
A highest drop of about 2.5 meters is about 7 and a half feet, right?
So you were holding the ibook over your head when you accidently dropped it? What did your insurance agent say?
Playing keepaway?
Doing igeek weight work?
Putting it away in the top shelf of the closet?
What the hell were you doing with that computer??
Yeah, those old DEC VAXxen were tough. I used to drive a forklift at one of their distribution centers, and let me tell you they stack those suckers about 50 feet high. I used to drop 'em all the time, but they all shipped!!
You make some valid points, but you cannot be serious in suggesting that Bush cares about the environment except as a resource to be commercially exploited.
Animosity toward Bush aside, he has shown nothing but CONTEMPT toward environmental concerns. What's next, he's a brilliant economist and a subtle diplomat?
"there's no other reason Bush wouldn't want the oil wells intact except for his own persona enrichment? How about the environment?"
The application has an effective filing date of November 10, 1999 (it is a divisional of an application filed that day).
"You Mac gayboys really ought to do your research. [snip] I don't sit at my computer all day using Photoshop filters. Look at games on Macs. They're pathetic."
That's a hoot, AC. You sit at your computer all day playing games and have the hubris to call Mac proponents "gayboys" (can you spell loser? Probably not, you'd probably spell it looser).
My guess is that most laptop purchasers buy laptops primarily to do useful work, not to play games. The story is about laptops, isn't it?
Once again, that's "loser" not "looser" or "loozer." It's a word you definitely should get used to hearing!
re your listing of CD's advantages over vinyl:
"It didn't require lots of finicky setup to get it working correctly."
I respectfully disagree.
"Cared for properly, CD's way, way, outlasted LP discs"
Just wrong. A properly cared for LP is much more durable than a properly cared for CD.
"CD's didn't suffer from wow and flutter, background hiss and low frequency turntable rumble"
Which are insignificant problems for good equipment. On the other hand, I prefer LP handling of less than mint condition disks (a few skips or pops, which can be electronically minimized, but the music still plays). Your CD will refuse to play, or will have dropouts.
I'd love to see a modern incarnation of the LP format. Frankly, I've got 30 and (almost) 40 year old LPs which sound better than any CD I've heard. A cranked up LP on top end equipment sounds and feels like a live recording. A cranked up CD on high end equipment sounds like a really good recording of a live performance. Some day some Stanford post-doc will find out why and will make a fortune off the new format. Perhaps it will be a cylindrical disk, and the circle of invention will be complete.
LET'S GO BACK TO ANALOG!!!
That'll show the bastards!
What I'm hearing is that don't like or trust lawyers and will bash them no matter what they do or say.
I'm a patent attorney, and I don't like or trust lawyers either. When people ask me why I became a lawyer, I tell them that I plan to destroy the system from within. I criticize lawyers, judges, the system and the mess at the patent office on a regular basis, because they (mostly) suck.
But if you're gonna do the bashing, do it when it's appropriate, not when they finally get something right.
"I'm sorry, but distributing code which violates a patent should definately not be infringing behavior; but IANAL."
Wow, you sure aren't. If you were a lawyer, or even anybody with a rudimentary knowledge of patent law, you would know that a patent gives the patent holder the right to preclude others from "making, using or selling" the patented technology. Distributing patented code probably includes all three of these facets, and is a classic example of infringing behavior.
Your comments are outrageous.
I am a patent attorney, and I am dismayed by the anti-lawyer comments this thread has generated. "Contrived to feed lawyers"???!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!
The comments I've read seem to divide humans into two broad groups, lawyers and people. Hey, I'm a person too! In fact, most patent attorneys I know are neither evil nor interesting. Ever see a prime time drama about PATENT lawyers?? Damn right!
I wish I knew where to start refuting all this negativity, but I haven't the foggiest. Just because you're right doesn't make it hurt any less.
Won't anybody give a poor lawyer a break?
"With the way the US Patent Office (doesn't) work you really expect that M$ WONT get their patent through?"
I agree in part. The Patent Office is broken, but mainly because Congress STEALS money from the PTO! (If anyone takes issue with this, it can very easily be confirmed)
Nevertheless, original Claim 1 from filed patent applications are almost never (~1%) allowed and issued as filed.
Take a look at the first claim of random published patent applications available on the PTO web site. They are often ridiculously broad. The first one I looked at is reproduced below.
1. A method of delivering electronic content, comprising: providing instructions that cause a first computer to collect information including an e-mail address, and transmit the collected information to a second computer; and processing the transmitted information at the second computer by selecting electronic content for transmission to the e-mail address and e-mailing the selected electronic content.
U.S. Patent no. 5,554,968, e.g., FWIW.
WHAT are you talking about??
... NOTHING!
The fact that anybody files a patent application which is automatically published after 18 months means exactly
You write as if a patent has issued. It has not. You comments imply that a published patent application has some sort of legal impact on potential competitors. It does not. Anybody can file a patent application and can claim anything whatsoever, but until an actual patent issues, it means nothing.
Perhaps M$ filed the application knowing it would not be allowable, but also knowing that, upon publication, potential competitors would be intimidated out of the field.
Please do not confuse the legal ramifications of an issued patent (which is, by statute, presumed to be valid) with a published patent application (which has no legal presumptions).
"By refusing to play, especially in the army, he's risking not only his career, but his retirement (and at LtGen, he's almost certainly gotten his 20 years in), prison (especially if its as high scale and high profile of an exercise as this article makes it seem) and eventually a dishonorable discharge that'd make it hard for him to get another job anywhere."
0 0.html
First, he was already retired at the time of the exercise. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,786992,
"If the Pentagon thought it could keep its mishap quiet, it underestimated Van Riper. A classic
marine - straight-talking and fearless, with a purple heart from Vietnam to prove it - his
retirement means he no longer has to put up with the bureaucratic niceties of the defence
department. So he blew the whistle."
Second, his decision not to "play" was precipitated by his removal from the normal military chain of command.
"Within his ever narrowing constraints, Van Riper continued to make a nuisance of himself,
harrying Blue forces with an arsenal of unorthodox tactics, until one day, on July 29, he thinks, he
found his orders to his subordinate officers were not being listened to any more. They were being
countermanded by the control group. So Van Riper quit. "I stayed on to give advice, but I stopped
giving orders. There was no real point any more," he says."
Finally, your comment that "it's ridiculous to think that Iraq could win a war against the US" really misses the point badly. The purpose of these military exercises is illustrated precisely by what happened, namely, to be able to identify potential areas of strengths and weaknesses of you and your enemy BEFORE an actual conflict. And to try to anticipate and prepare for unorthodox tactics and strategies. In other words, to try to predict the unpredictable. Van Riper (whom I served under in the early 1980s) was an ideal candidate for this simulation, as he is extremely smart, creative and tenacious.
"never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."
Does not apply to Microsoft.
"I'm not sure we can truly judge anybody by their performance at another company."
Isn't past performance the most accurate predictor of future performance?
"Instead of making jokes or clamoring about how this is a bad (or good) thing, let's try to figure out what this guy is about."
It doesn't matter what HE is about. He'll toe the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft line or he is GONE. And the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft line is all about maintaining big business' (particularly oil) stranglehold on power.
Anyone surprised by Bush's proposal to research hydrogen as a fuel source? Many scientists have suggested that the move to a hydrogen-based economy (replacing the current petroleum-based economy) is inevitable and necessary. So why would Bush propose funding hydrogen research? You can (and will) bet your last dollar that the plan is not to develop a new hydrogen-based industry that would compete with or even replace the oil companies. It's for the oil companies to take over the future hydrogen industry. Completely and irrevocably.
It's ALL about maintaining power, so don't start thinking that Bush will allow anything contrary thinking (like protecting civil liberties).