Any Microsoft or Oracle lawyers lurking on/.? Call your supervisor, and the Marketing dept. This is an excellent opportunity for an entertaining legal smackdown, and you get the added benefit of earning the admiration of geeks everywhere! Great PR and you eliminate the possibility of these leeches building up enough legal precedents to annoy you and your customers in the future.
The USPTO can use some slightly modified slachcode to allow semi-anonymous "experts" to mod patent applications up and down...
Seriously though, with the level of automation available, could the USPTO allow academics and other volunteer experts to review patents which apply to their field through a secure online interface?
The "Lemelson technique"? Sounds almost patentable.. Now I've just got to find a company with a previous patent that I can claim this is a modification to... Form a little partnership, get an unscrupulous lawyer, and.. you guessed it: PROFIT!
Businesses report that nature conservationists are attempting to erect impediments to human prosperity by viciously guarding 16.97% of the Earth's surface. When we asked one conservationist exactly how his radical "conservation" efforts benefited the human race, his brain locked up and he died right there on the spot. We plan to ask this question of as many conservationists as we can find. The 0.03% of surface area that is in dispute is the area covered by the state of Florida. Confusion with voting machines has left the state undecided..
and I saw a rock hit the windshield with a loud crack. As one of the cracks slowly grew across the windshield, different parts of the car started malfunctioning until finally, the engine sputtered to a stop...
I can just hear the engineers... "Well we already have to put circuitry on the windshield for the HUD.. why don't we just go ahead and put the fuel injection computer and all the other electronics there as well..."
Hey, you think it wouldn't happen? I bet you thought that refrigerators would never have Internet access either...
These guys should hire some programmers (and engineers) from The Robomower Company... The mower can handle a quarter acre with all kinds of obstructions...
Also on my wishlist:
1. Return-to-base self-charging.
2. Return-to-base dust bin emtpying.
3. Environment learning. It could develop a map of the floor, and keep track of the dirt collected in different areas. Then it could do a daily cleaning of the high-traffic areas, and do occasional full passes.
4. Take some lessons from Robot Soccer and learn some teamwork. (Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!)
5. Remote Interface with an X10 burglar alarm. (Although "Release the vacuums!" just doesn't have the same ring as "release the hounds!)
I'm sitting here staring at a pen that I received at a Microsoft conference. It's got the words "Microsoft Government" written on it. (The logo can be seen at the top of this page.) It's just the logo for their government services/sales group, but it sure does draw some strange looks from people.
I know many people who have been "migrated" to NMCI computers at the local Navy base. I don't know a single person who has given up their legacy (old) machine. Most of them have required several visits from various NMCI technicials just to get the new computers functional, and after that they're only good for email and browsing the internet. All the real work still gets done on the old machine.
How about he writes up a description of the encryption scheme, and then encrypts the description and post it to/.
My guess is that he's looking at some kind of OTP PKI combination. Everyone carries around a usb-dongle with their 128MB worth of private key, and some company hosts your 128MB of public key. When you run out of unused key, you just pay "Kip Knight Corp (TM)" for some more bits. Or you just start hopping around the keyspace. Or, the hopping could be random, and it could be part of the scheme.
Example: UserA wants to send secure message to UserB 1. UserA to Keyserver: Give me 1000 char of key for UserB 2. Keyserver to UserA: 1000b of public key + entry vector. (For more security, return entry vector for a small key which will be used to decrypt a second encrypted entry vector) 3. UserA Encrypts message, and transmits cypertext, and entry vector (or entryV+encrypted entryV) to UserB 4. UserB uses entry vector (or entryV+encrypted entryV) to retrieve private key from USB dongle. 5. UserB decrypts the message using the private key.
They had to bring in the lawyers after they noticed that the monkeys were negligently avoiding possible money-makers since "even an untrained monkey" could see that the patent was sensless and without merit.
From the website for the Chemistry Category Winner:
"After Ed Pegg Jr featured it on his puzzle website, there was a brief but spirited slashdot discussion, and a few people started offering to help me out with samples. To acknowledge their contributions and let them know how things were going, I decided to make a web site with pictures of all the samples they had sent and those I'd collected myself. The website eventually began to take on greater depth. Here's why."
Your calculations might have been a little too rough. 1600x1200 is a 3/4/5 ratio, so your horizontal measure is actually 12", and the vertical 9". This comes out to be a 133 dpi density. Not too shabby, but not close enough to 200 that I'd consider it to be in the same ballpark.
--sg
In other news, the Department of Homeland Security is pressuring congress to pass a law which outlaws flashbulbs because they could be used by terrorists to cause mass destruction...
Let's all set up systems that automatically print all received email onto gold foil using molten platinum for ink. Then can we go after them for quantifiable damages?
What if someone developed a DVD player that would download profiles that would allow the viewer to select content level (Blood, No Blood, Sex, No Sex, etc...) and then the DVD player would play the appropriate scenes from the DVD, leaving out the undesirable stuff....
Wait, couldn't they already do this in software? Maybe the movie industry is upset because they won't be able to make more money later by releasing "content selection" versions of their movies?
This type of delayed feature roll-in would be typical for the movie industry. (Think Lucas with the staggered release of VHS, remastered, collector's editions, DVD, etc. versions of SW movies..)
Your numbers for lifting power don't seem to compute. If you check out the data available from Spec Lab (Hydrogen)(Helium) you'll see that the lifting power is quite different from what you assumed. Using the volume that you computed, I calculate 1118 tonne (metric) lifting capacity for Helium, or 1241 tonne lifting capacity for Hydrogen... Of course that's assuming that the volume that you calculated is correct...
Can we have the software automatically add the words "This Side Down" to every image so that we don't have to field excessive support calls? I'm not sure how many times I can say, "I'm sorry, but with this CD, the writing goes down..."
So what if I genetically engineer a life form that has machinist tools for limbs, and give it instinctual knowledge about how to create patented devices from raw material...
I wonder how difficult it would be to create a pseudo-KaZaA client (since modifying the current one would be against the EULA) that would return erroneous results when the network tries to make your computer part of AltNet's "global computer resource-sharing program". If it was possible, what are the legal/moral ramifications of disrupting a for-profit P2P program in this manner?
Slashdot Mirror
Any Microsoft or Oracle lawyers lurking on /.? Call your supervisor, and the Marketing dept. This is an excellent opportunity for an entertaining legal smackdown, and you get the added benefit of earning the admiration of geeks everywhere! Great PR and you eliminate the possibility of these leeches building up enough legal precedents to annoy you and your customers in the future.
The USPTO can use some slightly modified slachcode to allow semi-anonymous "experts" to mod patent applications up and down...
Seriously though, with the level of automation available, could the USPTO allow academics and other volunteer experts to review patents which apply to their field through a secure online interface?
The "Lemelson technique"? Sounds almost patentable.. Now I've just got to find a company with a previous patent that I can claim this is a modification to... Form a little partnership, get an unscrupulous lawyer, and.. you guessed it: PROFIT!
Businesses report that nature conservationists are attempting to erect impediments to human prosperity by viciously guarding 16.97% of the Earth's surface. When we asked one conservationist exactly how his radical "conservation" efforts benefited the human race, his brain locked up and he died right there on the spot. We plan to ask this question of as many conservationists as we can find. The 0.03% of surface area that is in dispute is the area covered by the state of Florida. Confusion with voting machines has left the state undecided..
and I saw a rock hit the windshield with a loud crack. As one of the cracks slowly grew across the windshield, different parts of the car started malfunctioning until finally, the engine sputtered to a stop...
I can just hear the engineers... "Well we already have to put circuitry on the windshield for the HUD.. why don't we just go ahead and put the fuel injection computer and all the other electronics there as well..."
Hey, you think it wouldn't happen? I bet you thought that refrigerators would never have Internet access either...
--sg
These guys should hire some programmers (and engineers) from The Robomower Company... The mower can handle a quarter acre with all kinds of obstructions...
Also on my wishlist:
1. Return-to-base self-charging.
2. Return-to-base dust bin emtpying.
3. Environment learning. It could develop a map of the floor, and keep track of the dirt collected in different areas. Then it could do a daily cleaning of the high-traffic areas, and do occasional full passes.
4. Take some lessons from Robot Soccer and learn some teamwork. (Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!)
5. Remote Interface with an X10 burglar alarm. (Although "Release the vacuums!" just doesn't have the same ring as "release the hounds!)
--sg
You've got to get some video of that.....
I'm sitting here staring at a pen that I received at a Microsoft conference. It's got the words "Microsoft Government" written on it. (The logo can be seen at the top of this page.) It's just the logo for their government services/sales group, but it sure does draw some strange looks from people.
Real mechanical geeks use Torx(R).
I know many people who have been "migrated" to NMCI computers at the local Navy base. I don't know a single person who has given up their legacy (old) machine. Most of them have required several visits from various NMCI technicials just to get the new computers functional, and after that they're only good for email and browsing the internet. All the real work still gets done on the old machine.
--sg
How about he writes up a description of the encryption scheme, and then encrypts the description and post it to /.
My guess is that he's looking at some kind of OTP PKI combination. Everyone carries around a usb-dongle with their 128MB worth of private key, and some company hosts your 128MB of public key. When you run out of unused key, you just pay "Kip Knight Corp (TM)" for some more bits. Or you just start hopping around the keyspace. Or, the hopping could be random, and it could be part of the scheme.
Example: UserA wants to send secure message to UserB
1. UserA to Keyserver: Give me 1000 char of key for UserB
2. Keyserver to UserA: 1000b of public key + entry vector. (For more security, return entry vector for a small key which will be used to decrypt a second encrypted entry vector)
3. UserA Encrypts message, and transmits cypertext, and entry vector (or entryV+encrypted entryV) to UserB
4. UserB uses entry vector (or entryV+encrypted entryV) to retrieve private key from USB dongle.
5. UserB decrypts the message using the private key.
--sg
They had to bring in the lawyers after they noticed that the monkeys were negligently avoiding possible money-makers since "even an untrained monkey" could see that the patent was sensless and without merit.
Electrocution also uses the body's natural conductivity , but that doesn't mean that it's safe...
From the website for the Chemistry Category Winner:
"After Ed Pegg Jr featured it on his puzzle website, there was a brief but spirited slashdot discussion, and a few people started offering to help me out with samples. To acknowledge their contributions and let them know how things were going, I decided to make a web site with pictures of all the samples they had sent and those I'd collected myself. The website eventually began to take on greater depth. Here's why."
Check the settings on your favorite browsers for a few ideas....
On Mozilla you can find the "Trusted-Root"'s at:
Edit -> Prefs -> Privacy & Sec -> Certificates -> Manage Certificates -> Authorities.
On IE it's:
Tools -> Internet Options -> Content -> Publishers -> Trusted Root Certificate Authorities.
--sg
Your calculations might have been a little too rough. 1600x1200 is a 3/4/5 ratio, so your horizontal measure is actually 12", and the vertical 9". This comes out to be a 133 dpi density. Not too shabby, but not close enough to 200 that I'd consider it to be in the same ballpark. --sg
Sounds like another great opportunity for a biblical smack-down.
In other news, the Department of Homeland Security is pressuring congress to pass a law which outlaws flashbulbs because they could be used by terrorists to cause mass destruction...
Let's all set up systems that automatically print all received email onto gold foil using molten platinum for ink. Then can we go after them for quantifiable damages?
What if someone developed a DVD player that would download profiles that would allow the viewer to select content level (Blood, No Blood, Sex, No Sex, etc...) and then the DVD player would play the appropriate scenes from the DVD, leaving out the undesirable stuff....
Wait, couldn't they already do this in software? Maybe the movie industry is upset because they won't be able to make more money later by releasing "content selection" versions of their movies?
This type of delayed feature roll-in would be typical for the movie industry. (Think Lucas with the staggered release of VHS, remastered, collector's editions, DVD, etc. versions of SW movies..)
Your numbers for lifting power don't seem to compute. If you check out the data available from Spec Lab (Hydrogen) (Helium) you'll see that the lifting power is quite different from what you assumed. Using the volume that you computed, I calculate 1118 tonne (metric) lifting capacity for Helium, or 1241 tonne lifting capacity for Hydrogen... Of course that's assuming that the volume that you calculated is correct...
I don't think that Congress would be willing to condemn this since it closely parallels the current system of lobbyists.
Can we have the software automatically add the words "This Side Down" to every image so that we don't have to field excessive support calls? I'm not sure how many times I can say, "I'm sorry, but with this CD, the writing goes down..."
So what if I genetically engineer a life form that has machinist tools for limbs, and give it instinctual knowledge about how to create patented devices from raw material...
I wonder how difficult it would be to create a pseudo-KaZaA client (since modifying the current one would be against the EULA) that would return erroneous results when the network tries to make your computer part of AltNet's "global computer resource-sharing program". If it was possible, what are the legal/moral ramifications of disrupting a for-profit P2P program in this manner?