Perhaps a few more/.ers will realise that these, and many other, patents are every bit as unenforceable/worthless, and stop panicking when Apple/IBM/MS/RIAA patent "reading from a screen" or "typing words and numbers using a keyboard".
The fact that the US patent office grants you a patent is only a small step in having a VALID patent. It has to be tested in court, and most never are. None of these would have a chance, because a patent is required to be Not obvious to a person properly skilled in a relevant profession. That rules out a lot more than "cracking nuts by using a specially designed tool"
The main purpose of the limit was to prevent the Europeans exporting this technology, while American companies got export control waivers and stole the market. - Ie it was an illegal export promotion scheme, which didn't work very well.
As has been pointed out, all the computers are made in China or Korea anyway, and its not like they didn't have the technology outside the good ol' US of A.
The restrictions had to go because Sony are p*ssed because they can't sell Playstations to the Afganis (which is desirable for humanitarian reasons cos people playing "Grand Theft Auto" are too busy to indulge in crimes against humanity.)
For those who don't know, a PS/2 is a blue IBM machine with a 386 in it, and a really good bus.
The problem with AMD is you only have to remove the heatsink and you can use them as thermo-nuclear devicess.
This is the basis of Al Win Modem's plot to overthrow the world!
All your Athlon are belong to us!
Re:Different countries...
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 1
Yeah - the German "recession" is that growth has fallen from 3% to 2%, and the media have hyped this up with words like "freefall". Sure I would not want my growth to decline, but to call a decline in growth "recession" is not even close to the truth.
75% of our food is imported. The figures for everyting else are probably meaningless, due to the difficulty in defining terms and values (Ford imports/exports engines, etc at values set to determine where it is most tax effective to make the profit, not representing the value of the engine, and most other businesses do the same, I'd guess)
Ok the banks probably do not charge a commission of 4% for changing money, the COMMISSION is probably below 2%, but look at the spread we buy at 112 thingies to the pound, we sell at 92 thingies to the pound. Go on, take a look in the FT, or anywhere else. You won't see a spread under 4%.
The spread on tourist rates in the average Bureau de Change is over 10%.
And wait till you have to get a quote on 6 months ahead to handle ordering now for delivery in 90 days, and then 90 days to pay, which are normal export/import terms.
This is a scam of galactic proportions, and make no mistake. Second only to It takes 3 days to clear a cheque which is embezzlement, fraud and deception. Any slashdot reader could fix it so cheques clear in 3mS, including full bankers' algorithm (deduct from payer before crediting payee). Come on - these people really do have broadband.
America and Russia have the mafia, the British have banks.
The German banks were taken to court, and now cheques clear overnight.
I am Dr Spin - well, what would you do in my grave?:-)
Re:Appreciate, inflate, depreciate...
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 1
Economics 101 is a pile of sh*te. WHatever the various parties WANT, they still have to survive.
I a astounded that the Tory party has not split into Heathite "Christian Demcrats" and Thatcherite whatevers. Heathite - pro Europe, Pro Christian, "one nation" people do not have anything obvious in common wiht the rest except insatiable greed for power.
However, the exchange commission is indeed at elast 4% for most businesses, and a lot more for private individuals.
Yes, we will enter through the "back door", and I for one can't wait. My point was that "not taking a decision", however disgraceful the cause, was probably the best thing for us, the public. I have no reason to suppose that Briar's justification was realistic, correct or honourable. Just that its results are good.
Re:Appreciate, inflate, depreciate...
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 1
One day, people will realise that its not the Euro going down, its the dollar going through the roof.
And the high dollar helps the US Economy? I don't think so.
Just wait till the Arabs accept payment in Euros for oil - then see where the dollar is! You'll have to scrape it off your boots.
The Euro is stable, because its credible. The majority of currencies are not, and sink like lead bricks.
when someone says having your own currency means having sovereignty over your financial policy, what they mean is "your politicains have the ability to f*** with the currency at election time". You DO NOT NEED IT.
If Britain joined the Euro, then the banks would not be able to charge 4% (or more) for changing the money used to pay for all our imports (food) and all our exports).
Ie the banks would no longer be able to tax us 8% of our GNP.
Hence the banks are prepared to spend a colossal amount of money on "save our pound", and buying politicians and media tycoons.
How many housewives that you known realise that joining the Euro would meen 4% off everytihing in Tesco, Sainsburies, and Asda? Not to mention Ford, BMW, etc
You are correct that the Blair government does not want dogma. This could be for all sorts of reasons, like they are unable to grasp the concept of morals or beliefs. However, on the Euro, you have not got the facts right...
It is absolututely essential that we don't take a decision.
If we decide to join the Euro, the pound will crash, because all those fund managers in the Euro zone who hedge their risk by putting some investment in the UK will have to take it elsewhere.
If we decide NOT to join the Euro the pound will crash, because all those far eastern and US companies that set up in the UK to be inside Europe will go to Spain (for Cheapness) or Germany (for Skill)
By not being in the Euro, we allow the banks to tax us 4% on everything we import (our food) and 4% on everything we export to pay for our imports. Ie keeping the pound means we are taxed 8% by the banks, on top of the 17 1/2% by the govt.
Its a dead cert that we will all be using the Euro in ten years, just to evade tax. All large companies are reuired to be able to accept and make payments in Euros anyway. Anyone with 1/2 a brain cell will be asking for his pay to be in Euros next year, so he can take out a Euro mortgage in place of a sterling one with no risk (cos a Euro Mortgage is half the price of a sterling one)
The "Keep the pound" campaign is funded by UK banks for the above reasons.
This posting is almost on topic, since the original topic did mention the British government "Scums that they are" (Rab C Nesbitt).
Anyone who does business with the British government gets ripped off. Babbage was just one of many. Read about Harrison (chronometers)
If Babbage had offered the Pru or Norwich Union an accurate way of accessing Insurance risk, he would be alive today:-)
The truth is, we developed Colossus, a real computer, and shared our secrets with the Yanks. At the end of the war, we kept our secrets secret, while the yanks sold out for cash. They sold our secrets with theirs, to IBM, Sperry, Univac, Burroughs, etc, and leaked them via MIT to DEC (MIT Whirlwind later became PDP8).
We had a computer industry, but thanks to the marvel of government intervention (Harold Wilson's "White Hot Technological Revolution" & Thatchers "We don't need manufactirubng, we can pay the rent by washing our own dishes") our computer industry was trashed.
Briain's computer industry lives (staggers) on we probably make more PCs than anyone else apart from taiwan, and don't forget Arm is British. And all the RF parts of your mobile phone were probably designed in the UK, or by British Engineers on contract overseas.
Sure Britain doesn't own much, but thats because of our tax laws. Ownership is punishable by horrendous levels of tax.
Gottleib Daimler and Karl Benz (Mercedes was his daughter).
They invented the carburettor, thus making petrol engines possible.
Previously, engines either burned Oil (Otto Diesel) or gas (as in gaseous stuff, not petroleum, which you damn fool Americans call gas to confuse the unsuspecting).
Slashdot Mirror
Judging by the amount of spam I get from Google, I think I can guess how they will make mone.
I have one full size start-stop, and a Kennedy which only reads small spools (I have my own Usenet archives on MT).
I used to read Usenet regularly by bringing tapes home and reading them on a BBC micro!
How do you guys boot your computers if you don't have MT?
The fact that the US patent office grants you a patent is only a small step in having a VALID patent. It has to be tested in court, and most never are. None of these would have a chance, because a patent is required to be Not obvious to a person properly skilled in a relevant profession. That rules out a lot more than "cracking nuts by using a specially designed tool"
All your patents are belong to us!
Ever since the French Revolution, the Europpeans have 10 months in a Year, and ten minutes in an hour ;->
Lets hope this law spreads faster than a fire in Australia.
Does the law apply to goatse.cx?
And I thought Trolls were dead!
As has been pointed out, all the computers are made in China or Korea anyway, and its not like they didn't have the technology outside the good ol' US of A.
The restrictions had to go because Sony are p*ssed because they can't sell Playstations to the Afganis (which is desirable for humanitarian reasons cos people playing "Grand Theft Auto" are too busy to indulge in crimes against humanity.)
For those who don't know, a PS/2 is a blue IBM machine with a 386 in it, and a really good bus.
All your MCA are belong to us.
MS need all that extra space for for their forthcoming operating systems, which will be more bloated than ever.
Linux will never be able to bloat as fast as MS, so MS will finally and inevitably win!
All your BSOD are belong to us!
(Real operating systems run perfectly well on 8-bit CPUs.)
Come on - the has to be the best post of 2002! Mod it up another point, and e-mail a copy to bbc.co.uk/history.
This is the basis of Al Win Modem's plot to overthrow the world!
All your Athlon are belong to us!
Germany may be sad, but depressed its not.
Ok the banks probably do not charge a commission of 4% for changing money, the COMMISSION is probably below 2%, but look at the spread we buy at 112 thingies to the pound, we sell at 92 thingies to the pound. Go on, take a look in the FT, or anywhere else. You won't see a spread under 4%.
The spread on tourist rates in the average Bureau de Change is over 10%.
And wait till you have to get a quote on 6 months ahead to handle ordering now for delivery in 90 days, and then 90 days to pay, which are normal export/import terms.
This is a scam of galactic proportions, and make no mistake. Second only to It takes 3 days to clear a cheque which is embezzlement, fraud and deception. Any slashdot reader could fix it so cheques clear in 3mS, including full bankers' algorithm (deduct from payer before crediting payee). Come on - these people really do have broadband.
America and Russia have the mafia, the British have banks.
The German banks were taken to court, and now cheques clear overnight.
I am Dr Spin - well, what would you do in my grave? :-)
Economics 101 is a pile of sh*te. WHatever the various parties WANT, they still have to survive.
However, the exchange commission is indeed at elast 4% for most businesses, and a lot more for private individuals.
Yes, we will enter through the "back door", and I for one can't wait. My point was that "not taking a decision", however disgraceful the cause, was probably the best thing for us, the public. I have no reason to suppose that Briar's justification was realistic, correct or honourable. Just that its results are good.
And the high dollar helps the US Economy? I don't think so.
Just wait till the Arabs accept payment in Euros for oil - then see where the dollar is! You'll have to scrape it off your boots.
The Euro is stable, because its credible. The majority of currencies are not, and sink like lead bricks.
when someone says having your own currency means having sovereignty over your financial policy, what they mean is "your politicains have the ability to f*** with the currency at election time". You DO NOT NEED IT.
Ie the banks would no longer be able to tax us 8% of our GNP.
Hence the banks are prepared to spend a colossal amount of money on "save our pound", and buying politicians and media tycoons.
How many housewives that you known realise that joining the Euro would meen 4% off everytihing in Tesco, Sainsburies, and Asda? Not to mention Ford, BMW, etc
It is absolututely essential that we don't take a decision.
If we decide to join the Euro, the pound will crash, because all those fund managers in the Euro zone who hedge their risk by putting some investment in the UK will have to take it elsewhere.
If we decide NOT to join the Euro the pound will crash, because all those far eastern and US companies that set up in the UK to be inside Europe will go to Spain (for Cheapness) or Germany (for Skill)
By not being in the Euro, we allow the banks to tax us 4% on everything we import (our food) and 4% on everything we export to pay for our imports. Ie keeping the pound means we are taxed 8% by the banks, on top of the 17 1/2% by the govt.
Its a dead cert that we will all be using the Euro in ten years, just to evade tax. All large companies are reuired to be able to accept and make payments in Euros anyway. Anyone with 1/2 a brain cell will be asking for his pay to be in Euros next year, so he can take out a Euro mortgage in place of a sterling one with no risk (cos a Euro Mortgage is half the price of a sterling one)
The "Keep the pound" campaign is funded by UK banks for the above reasons.
This posting is almost on topic, since the original topic did mention the British government "Scums that they are" (Rab C Nesbitt).
If Babbage had offered the Pru or Norwich Union an accurate way of accessing Insurance risk, he would be alive today :-)
The truth is, we developed Colossus, a real computer, and shared our secrets with the Yanks. At the end of the war, we kept our secrets secret, while the yanks sold out for cash. They sold our secrets with theirs, to IBM, Sperry, Univac, Burroughs, etc, and leaked them via MIT to DEC (MIT Whirlwind later became PDP8).
We had a computer industry, but thanks to the marvel of government intervention (Harold Wilson's "White Hot Technological Revolution" & Thatchers "We don't need manufactirubng, we can pay the rent by washing our own dishes") our computer industry was trashed.
Briain's computer industry lives (staggers) on we probably make more PCs than anyone else apart from taiwan, and don't forget Arm is British. And all the RF parts of your mobile phone were probably designed in the UK, or by British Engineers on contract overseas.
Sure Britain doesn't own much, but thats because of our tax laws. Ownership is punishable by horrendous levels of tax.
Ancient Buddhist monuments are always older than ancient Christian monuments - its a law of nature.
All your temple are belong to us.
Or maybe more than one replica could be made - lets all have our own temple!
Officially, everything has been metric since 1970 (Over thirty years ago, or those who can't count.)
They are waiting for Bin Laden to download the plans, and then they will go and get him.
Gottleib Daimler and Karl Benz (Mercedes was his daughter).
They invented the carburettor, thus making petrol engines possible.
Previously, engines either burned Oil (Otto Diesel) or gas (as in gaseous stuff, not petroleum, which you damn fool Americans call gas to confuse the unsuspecting).
I always suspected - now I know!