IANAL and I don't know the inner workings of MSN messenger but if this is the method they've been using for years then this patent shouldn't be issued. If the patent office doesn't throw this one right out the door then it's more messed up than I previously imagined.
an invention cannot be patented if: *SNIP* "(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the application for patent in the United States . .."
according to the suit Intel has done everything it can think of to sandbag AMD and keep it's market share. The core of the complaint is that Intel tells PC makers not to do buisness with other x86 chip makers "or else" or will only offer good deals in exchange for an exclusive agreement. It would be pretty hard to compete with the industry's 800 pound gorilla taking swings at you whenever it could.
probably not, the Cell just isn't shaping up to be a strong desktop/laptop processor. What it is shaping up to be though, is very nicely suited for console gaming and possibly being used as a GPU. The gaming console market seems to be expanding into a multimedia center market and is showing a lot of growth. IBM is going to push it's chip for that market and the embeded space and give up on the PC market since they weren't moving a lot of chips there anyway.
what we might is is Microsoft getting chummy with AMD since their 64bit systems are technically superior to Intel's and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. In that case AMD and Apple become agents of two giants trying to fight each other.
What I'm still confused about is how Microsoft's bailing out of Apple a while back might affect things now (does MS still have a stake in Apple?)
I haven't read the patent but I'm assuming that the sensors work by measuring electrical resistance across your skin. Under normal circumstancs the resistance from gloves and covers probably don't fall into the same range as human skin so it would register as "no hands" to the sensor, provided it's designed sanely.
well, if they didn't Sys-con would probably face legal action from PJ. What O'Gara did most likely violated several privacy laws and PJ is in the process of evaluating what she should do.
a better way to do this is to buy a valve tool at the local auto parts store. rather than do any permenant damage just loosen every tire's stem. Even if the owner could figure out why their tires are flat, they most likely won't have the tool on hand to fix it. even if they have a pump, the tires won't inflate and they'll be very confused. Also note that some car (especially those abominations known as Hummers) have tires that automatically inflate themselves, so doing this to one of them would result in a car with 4 flats and a dead battery:)
not only that, but SCO dropped all the copyright stuff involving Linux in their last complaint. This guy got fooled by the SCOx shell game. the suit now is focused on how IBM continued to distribute AIX after SCOx revoked their lisence. IBM points to the part of the contract that says their lisence is "perpetual and unrevokable" and tell SCOx to go sit and spin. that's why IBM isn't settling because if you look past all the smoke and mirrors the actual contract stuff isn't as complicated as the case as a whole. The issue of IBM contributing code to Linux is secondary at this point, only because it is now part of one of the IBM defenses. SCOx claims they terminated teh contract because of the Linux contributions so IBM is claiming that even if they did have the right to terminate (which they don't) and they weren't barred from terminating it by Novell (which they are) they still have no cause
this guy is really just spreading more SCOx FUD for them.
Yes, that would be nice in theory but where would that money come from? If you mean that people would get charged more if their patent doesn't get aproved then we'll end up with a system that is just a broken, if not more broken. Basically only big companies would be able to afford the risk associated with filing and would use that fact to crush small companies/inventors. What we need is a balance, too many patents are a bad thing for innovation but so are too few.
It's not lack of time and patience on the part of the examiners so much as the fact that the USPTO uses the number of patents it grants to evaluate how well the office is performing. More patents granted means more revenue for the USPTO and the result is that the USPTO is one of very few government agencies that makes money. So really the USPTO has incentive to be liberal with their granting of patents and let the courts figure out which ones are really valid.
Probably the only solution that the USPTO would like would be to shift more of the cost of getting a patent to the application phase so that they don't have to wait till the patent is aproved to get income from it. Of course that would create a larger barier for smaller inventers but should make people think twice before filing nonsense patents and also would make it more likely for more scrutiny to be applied to each patent that does come though.
as far as MA suburbs go, you can't beat RCN cable if it's available. Their customer support is so-so but in my family's experience we have to deal with them much less than the clowns at Comcast. I think we usually have maybe one major outage problem a year as opposed to one every other month with Comcast. Plus there are less people on the RCN network so you're more likely to get more of the pipe to yourself.
Support may be too strong of a word. The OIT staff for all of fitz is maybe 1.5 people. At least with the linux machines there are student resources like NDLUG (which is surprisingly active lately) and any engineer who can't find their way around windows doesn't deserve to be an engineer. Most people stay away from the Suns unless they have to use them, or there are a few grad students who are use used to them.
Most of the ultras are gone. One of the rooms in the first floor fitz lab still has them, mostly for Comp Arch labs. I think they're running windoze In the third floor lab for CAD and Maya now IIRC, haven't been up there in a while though.
Actually the job market for CS students coming out of college is pretty good this year. Most people in my class had jobs or future plans lined up before January, and I think all of us have at least one option for after graduation. It wasn't like that for the past few years and we're still getting emails from the department chair about different opportunities people have asked him to pass along.
They did a pretty big upgrade over the summer of all the computer resources. they removed all but a few of the Solaris machines from the Engineering building and replaced them with HP boxes running RHEL. They would have ditced Sun entirely but there are still a few programs that a few classes use that haven't been ported over to Linux yet.
Of course they aren't exactly using best management practices IMO but OIT never really took care of the Sun boxes either.
That would be unauthroized use of a computer network. And we know that only terrorists do things like that, therefore the RIAA should be considered a terrorist organization. Someone call the Department of Homeland Security, quick!
That wasn't exactly what I was implying, two ideas got mixed together at 4am. It's just that when you've got a group of interested students there it definitely doesn't leave a good impression that the only classroom we saw had significant technical issues, as well as how none of the MIT graduates working for admissions could figure out what was wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
from the USPTO:
according to the suit Intel has done everything it can think of to sandbag AMD and keep it's market share. The core of the complaint is that Intel tells PC makers not to do buisness with other x86 chip makers "or else" or will only offer good deals in exchange for an exclusive agreement. It would be pretty hard to compete with the industry's 800 pound gorilla taking swings at you whenever it could.
I believe AOL actively encourages people to reject mail coming from their non AOL Mailhost IPs
well it should probably be -j5 if you follow the documentation
what we might is is Microsoft getting chummy with AMD since their 64bit systems are technically superior to Intel's and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. In that case AMD and Apple become agents of two giants trying to fight each other.
What I'm still confused about is how Microsoft's bailing out of Apple a while back might affect things now (does MS still have a stake in Apple?)
I haven't read the patent but I'm assuming that the sensors work by measuring electrical resistance across your skin. Under normal circumstancs the resistance from gloves and covers probably don't fall into the same range as human skin so it would register as "no hands" to the sensor, provided it's designed sanely.
that sure sounds like they're blaming BitTorrent to me...
MOG made a couple of digs at PJ for being a Jehovah's Witness in the article that set off this whole thing.
well, if they didn't Sys-con would probably face legal action from PJ. What O'Gara did most likely violated several privacy laws and PJ is in the process of evaluating what she should do.
a better way to do this is to buy a valve tool at the local auto parts store. rather than do any permenant damage just loosen every tire's stem. Even if the owner could figure out why their tires are flat, they most likely won't have the tool on hand to fix it. even if they have a pump, the tires won't inflate and they'll be very confused. Also note that some car (especially those abominations known as Hummers) have tires that automatically inflate themselves, so doing this to one of them would result in a car with 4 flats and a dead battery :)
this guy is really just spreading more SCOx FUD for them.
because the more patents they grant the more money they make.
Yes, that would be nice in theory but where would that money come from? If you mean that people would get charged more if their patent doesn't get aproved then we'll end up with a system that is just a broken, if not more broken. Basically only big companies would be able to afford the risk associated with filing and would use that fact to crush small companies/inventors. What we need is a balance, too many patents are a bad thing for innovation but so are too few.
Probably the only solution that the USPTO would like would be to shift more of the cost of getting a patent to the application phase so that they don't have to wait till the patent is aproved to get income from it. Of course that would create a larger barier for smaller inventers but should make people think twice before filing nonsense patents and also would make it more likely for more scrutiny to be applied to each patent that does come though.
as far as MA suburbs go, you can't beat RCN cable if it's available. Their customer support is so-so but in my family's experience we have to deal with them much less than the clowns at Comcast. I think we usually have maybe one major outage problem a year as opposed to one every other month with Comcast. Plus there are less people on the RCN network so you're more likely to get more of the pipe to yourself.
that I've seen this story before...
Support may be too strong of a word. The OIT staff for all of fitz is maybe 1.5 people. At least with the linux machines there are student resources like NDLUG (which is surprisingly active lately) and any engineer who can't find their way around windows doesn't deserve to be an engineer. Most people stay away from the Suns unless they have to use them, or there are a few grad students who are use used to them.
Most of the ultras are gone. One of the rooms in the first floor fitz lab still has them, mostly for Comp Arch labs. I think they're running windoze In the third floor lab for CAD and Maya now IIRC, haven't been up there in a while though.
Actually the job market for CS students coming out of college is pretty good this year. Most people in my class had jobs or future plans lined up before January, and I think all of us have at least one option for after graduation. It wasn't like that for the past few years and we're still getting emails from the department chair about different opportunities people have asked him to pass along.
AFS support on the 2.4 kernel is pretty stable and I believe that the last few OpenAFS have support for 2.6.
Of course they aren't exactly using best management practices IMO but OIT never really took care of the Sun boxes either.
That would be unauthroized use of a computer network. And we know that only terrorists do things like that, therefore the RIAA should be considered a terrorist organization. Someone call the Department of Homeland Security, quick!
That wasn't exactly what I was implying, two ideas got mixed together at 4am. It's just that when you've got a group of interested students there it definitely doesn't leave a good impression that the only classroom we saw had significant technical issues, as well as how none of the MIT graduates working for admissions could figure out what was wrong.
You think keyboards are bad? Just wait till they post the article about what's living on your mouse.
Actually I didn't bother applying. But I didn't have any trouble getting a job at Lockheed Martin so I think things worked out pretty well.