A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online By TERESA RIORDAN
the 1997 science-fiction movie "The Velocity Trap," the interstellar banking system is so decimated by electronic crime that the only way to exchange money is in cold hard cash. Armored federal banking ships have to shuttle currency from planet to planet.
Carl Amos, an inventor in Atlanta, also anticipates a return to the cash economy but without the computer-generated visual effects. Mr. Amos recently patented a way to pay for online transactions with bills and coins rather than credit or banking cards.
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"In upwards of three-quarters of the world, most money transactions are cash only," said Mr. Amos, who envisions a big market for his invention.
Basically, what Mr. Amos has patented is a new combination of existing technologies.
His patent, No. 6,554,184, covers a modified A.T.M. that not only dispenses money but, like a vending machine, accepts cash, which can be used to transfer money from one person to another or to pay for online purchases.
"It's a method patent, a new way of doing business," Mr. Amos said. "These are off-the-shelf components. All I had to do was build the machine and write the software."
Mr. Amos is a rare breed: an independent inventor who actually makes a living off his inventions. A former electrical engineer at I.B.M., he left corporate life to develop his idea for a holographic lens. Since he patented the lens in 1994, he estimates, he has received about $1 million in royalties.
Mr. Amos, one of six children, grew up on a farm in Ohio, where he set up his own skunk works in a shed. Not all his inventions were successful. One was a parachute to be worn while leaping off the garage. "I survived, obviously," Mr. Amos said. "My siblings survived, too, thank goodness."
Mr. Amos said his latest invention, should it become widely available, would obviate the need for services provided by Western Union and other money-transfer companies.
Another big market in the United States, Mr. Amos said, might be teenagers. Though they do not usually have their own credit cards, they usually have cash and are more than willing to spend it to download music or games.
Mr. Amos also said his system should appeal to those who were worried about identity theft on the Internet or who simply wanted the privacy it provided.
Gamblers may be interested in the technology. Many credit-card companies, for example, will not authorize payments to gambling sites. Nor will PayPal, the biggest third-party payment option on the Internet.
Tom PenisBird, a law partner specializing in banking patents at Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston, called the invention a "cute idea."
"It's like a funky A.T.M.," Mr. PenisBird said. But the patent itself, he said, is "fairly narrow" and may be easy for others to come up with similar inventions that do not infringe the patent.
Mr. Amos, who is represented by a licensing firm in Connecticut, said he was approaching banks about licensing his patent. "Western Union and Moneygram haven't called me yet," Mr. Amos said. "But I don't expect them to."
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The real news is that someone patented something, so you're all supposed to run around flapping your arms like you've been wronged.
As an upper mid-level management member of corel for the last 10 years, I have to make my thoughts known.
When our company first acquired WordPerfect, we set about the massive undertaking of synnergizing our product lines, and escalating the sales curves.
Nevertheless, intrinsic management pressures dissuaded any stock options from being excercised, and so you get what we have now. When Veront comes in, the same thing will happen again.
A bunch of guys in suits who havent had a product in a decade will sit around wondering why they arent making any money.
However, it's too late. Enough WordPerfect code has been stolen for the OSS project, Open Office, that there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle and profit from our hard earned IP.
same thing that happens if you get your fingerprints on the handle of the gun that was used to shoot 3 strangers. Unlikely? Sure. But possible. You saw it in the trash and picked it up to see what it was.
There's a little thing that happens called a trial. Thats where both sides present their arguments to twelve ordinary people called jurors.
A conviction usually takes more than a dna or fingerprint match. They generally rely on motive, means, and opportunity. Why would you murder someone? How did you murder them? When/where did you murder them?
Every time I fly theres some halfwit who gets all riled up when he's told to turn off his phone/gameboy/laptop/pda/whatever. Like he's so goddamned important he just cant stop talking/typing/jerking off while the plane takes off and lands.
They're right up there with the yokels who still think it's hilarious to make a joke about having a bomb, delaying the already brutal security points another few hours. "hey watch this, Clem, Ise gonna tell dem i gots me a esplosive bomb!"
Just sit down and shut up, or drive, or walk. I have places to go.
I suppose you didn't notice that the Ashcroft comment was modded up to funny.
It was modded up as insightful first. Slashbots are morons, parent was absolutely correct.
What if other people started doing this? What if they all did?
I wouldnt read your email either.
And the 'do the opions agree filter' sounds more like a "just give us the jist of it without having to read some retarded anecdote about your cat" filter. $CON=$CON+1; cat email >/dev/null.
And so what? Thats more than I'd do if I were president.
Write a letter if you have something to say. Email is right up there with AIM and slashdot forums so far as the level of credibility goes.
Contacting the President should be a process simple enough that anyone in the USA, even those with limited technical, communication, and cognitive abilities could perform.
You mean like writing a letter and putting it in an envelope?
Which is whats going on here. If you feel strongly enough to email, you can click through the web portal and have your mail forwarded to the right "inbox".
Now, slashbots have moronic kneejerk reactions to the idea of being asked whether they like or dislike a current policy. The conspiracy theory being that they go to jail and all this crap for disagreeing.
I see it as an opportunity to make your thoughts *more* known. Even if my email isnt read, it makes the "i disagree" pile that much bigger.
Anyhow, it's a tempest in a teapot anyhow.
Email is a crappy informal medium. If you really want to be taken seriously, you'd write a letter on actual paper with your signature in ink. And not a boilerplate photocopy.
I've watched the trackers. At any given time there were as many people downloading the Matrix or Terminator 3 as there are downloading RedHat or Slackware.
Warez sites are warez sites, and I dont cry when they get shut down. Noones sending a cease and decist to ID for wanting to distribute their stuff with bittorent, but torrentse.cx was just another warez site.
And no, a stupid little "disclaimer" saying "we are not responsible for whatever you trade" does nothing to protect you.
But they have fought in the past, when upstarts take scenes from another companies movies and sell it as "Cumguzzler Partygirls" or something like that. Or bootleggers.
They arent something that the mainstream media is going to report on anyways. If AssNasty Productions started suing every P2P'er who downloaded their latest work, I'd doubt you'd hear about it on CNN, even if it was big.
Slashdot Mirror
Or he could read and comprehend what they actually say, as opposed to what fanatics and slashbots think they say.
PayPal wont accept payment for "adult" related eBusiness now (ie; pornos).
Whoever steps in to fill that gap make a friggin mint. The frontrunner seems to be CitiBank's C2It, though I know nothing of such services.
A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online
By TERESA RIORDAN
the 1997 science-fiction movie "The Velocity Trap," the interstellar banking system is so decimated by electronic crime that the only way to exchange money is in cold hard cash. Armored federal banking ships have to shuttle currency from planet to planet.
Carl Amos, an inventor in Atlanta, also anticipates a return to the cash economy but without the computer-generated visual effects. Mr. Amos recently patented a way to pay for online transactions with bills and coins rather than credit or banking cards.
Advertisement
"In upwards of three-quarters of the world, most money transactions are cash only," said Mr. Amos, who envisions a big market for his invention.
Basically, what Mr. Amos has patented is a new combination of existing technologies.
His patent, No. 6,554,184, covers a modified A.T.M. that not only dispenses money but, like a vending machine, accepts cash, which can be used to transfer money from one person to another or to pay for online purchases.
"It's a method patent, a new way of doing business," Mr. Amos said. "These are off-the-shelf components. All I had to do was build the machine and write the software."
Mr. Amos is a rare breed: an independent inventor who actually makes a living off his inventions. A former electrical engineer at I.B.M., he left corporate life to develop his idea for a holographic lens. Since he patented the lens in 1994, he estimates, he has received about $1 million in royalties.
Mr. Amos, one of six children, grew up on a farm in Ohio, where he set up his own skunk works in a shed. Not all his inventions were successful. One was a parachute to be worn while leaping off the garage. "I survived, obviously," Mr. Amos said. "My siblings survived, too, thank goodness."
Mr. Amos said his latest invention, should it become widely available, would obviate the need for services provided by Western Union and other money-transfer companies.
Another big market in the United States, Mr. Amos said, might be teenagers. Though they do not usually have their own credit cards, they usually have cash and are more than willing to spend it to download music or games.
Mr. Amos also said his system should appeal to those who were worried about identity theft on the Internet or who simply wanted the privacy it provided.
Gamblers may be interested in the technology. Many credit-card companies, for example, will not authorize payments to gambling sites. Nor will PayPal, the biggest third-party payment option on the Internet.
Tom PenisBird, a law partner specializing in banking patents at Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston, called the invention a "cute idea."
"It's like a funky A.T.M.," Mr. PenisBird said. But the patent itself, he said, is "fairly narrow" and may be easy for others to come up with similar inventions that do not infringe the patent.
Mr. Amos, who is represented by a licensing firm in Connecticut, said he was approaching banks about licensing his patent. "Western Union and Moneygram haven't called me yet," Mr. Amos said. "But I don't expect them to."
-------
The real news is that someone patented something, so you're all supposed to run around flapping your arms like you've been wronged.
As an upper mid-level management member of corel for the last 10 years, I have to make my thoughts known.
When our company first acquired WordPerfect, we set about the massive undertaking of synnergizing our product lines, and escalating the sales curves.
Nevertheless, intrinsic management pressures dissuaded any stock options from being excercised, and so you get what we have now. When Veront comes in, the same thing will happen again.
A bunch of guys in suits who havent had a product in a decade will sit around wondering why they arent making any money.
However, it's too late. Enough WordPerfect code has been stolen for the OSS project, Open Office, that there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle and profit from our hard earned IP.
KITT was a robot that looked like a car, but nonetheless not a car, and doesnt count.
Now Herbie, was, in all fact, a car that moved by itself.
I'm fairly sure they dont care about the client. They just want the network. They'd like to have 'the' IM network of choice.
RMS is giving out handjobs to all GNU/linux users.
If you're in the military, are an immigrant, or have a previous arrest record, they absolutely are.
Hey
There
Shitty shitty fag fag
Shitty shitty fag fag
How do you do?
I missed first post by a mile.
linux is free and also written in C, which is bragable
same thing that happens if you get your fingerprints on the handle of the gun that was used to shoot 3 strangers. Unlikely? Sure. But possible. You saw it in the trash and picked it up to see what it was.
There's a little thing that happens called a trial. Thats where both sides present their arguments to twelve ordinary people called jurors.
A conviction usually takes more than a dna or fingerprint match. They generally rely on motive, means, and opportunity. Why would you murder someone? How did you murder them? When/where did you murder them?
OJ got off and he bled all over the place, and his wife bled all over him.
DNA doesnt guarantee a conviction.
There is absolutely no privacy in the army, nor is there any illusion of one.
The saddest thing they're doing is this "army of one" campaign to try and recruit pinhead conspiracy theorists like yourself.
There is no anonymity, individuality. There is loyalty, discipline and the service of your country.
Dont like it? Dont enlist. Simple as that.
Every time I fly theres some halfwit who gets all riled up when he's told to turn off his phone/gameboy/laptop/pda/whatever. Like he's so goddamned important he just cant stop talking/typing/jerking off while the plane takes off and lands.
They're right up there with the yokels who still think it's hilarious to make a joke about having a bomb, delaying the already brutal security points another few hours. "hey watch this, Clem, Ise gonna tell dem i gots me a esplosive bomb!"
Just sit down and shut up, or drive, or walk. I have places to go.
I suppose you didn't notice that the Ashcroft comment was modded up to funny.
/dev/null.
It was modded up as insightful first. Slashbots are morons, parent was absolutely correct.
What if other people started doing this?
What if they all did?
I wouldnt read your email either.
And the 'do the opions agree filter' sounds more like a "just give us the jist of it without having to read some retarded anecdote about your cat" filter. $CON=$CON+1; cat email >
And so what? Thats more than I'd do if I were president.
Write a letter if you have something to say. Email is right up there with AIM and slashdot forums so far as the level of credibility goes.
Contacting the President should be a process simple enough that anyone in the USA, even those with limited technical, communication, and cognitive abilities could perform.
You mean like writing a letter and putting it in an envelope?
Noone takes email seriously.
Which is whats going on here. If you feel strongly enough to email, you can click through the web portal and have your mail forwarded to the right "inbox".
Now, slashbots have moronic kneejerk reactions to the idea of being asked whether they like or dislike a current policy. The conspiracy theory being that they go to jail and all this crap for disagreeing.
I see it as an opportunity to make your thoughts *more* known. Even if my email isnt read, it makes the "i disagree" pile that much bigger.
Anyhow, it's a tempest in a teapot anyhow.
Email is a crappy informal medium. If you really want to be taken seriously, you'd write a letter on actual paper with your signature in ink. And not a boilerplate photocopy.
Yep, that's whats happening.
Torrentse.cx was a list of warez torrents. Legal torrents like redhat isos, greatful dead concerts, are still up and doing fine.
I've watched the trackers. At any given time there were as many people downloading the Matrix or Terminator 3 as there are downloading RedHat or Slackware.
Warez sites are warez sites, and I dont cry when they get shut down. Noones sending a cease and decist to ID for wanting to distribute their stuff with bittorent, but torrentse.cx was just another warez site.
And no, a stupid little "disclaimer" saying "we are not responsible for whatever you trade" does nothing to protect you.
They arent popular with courts or LEO.
But they have fought in the past, when upstarts take scenes from another companies movies and sell it as "Cumguzzler Partygirls" or something like that. Or bootleggers.
They arent something that the mainstream media is going to report on anyways. If AssNasty Productions started suing every P2P'er who downloaded their latest work, I'd doubt you'd hear about it on CNN, even if it was big.
Umm
The guilt was pretty obvious if you'd downloaded anything from the site..
They could take it to court, sure, and have a few thousand witness testify how they got Terminator 3 telesync and Ghost Recon for the PC, etc..
I'ts being used as another warez distribution method plain and simple.
The redhat iso is about 0.00000000001% of all bittorrent traffic.
Btw, pr0n is copyrighted too, just like any other piece of entertainment.
so what, if someone payed 300 dollars, they could make it available to everyone for free on the interweb.
if they can show the billable hours it costs, and its reasonable, then theres no problem.
Sobig, Blob, Blubber
Yeah, sounds like CmdrTaco
Sounds like a japanese comic.
Those people are fucking sick, I dont care how fast their cablemodems are.