The patent is so that people who invest considerable time and effort in doing something have a chance to recoup their investment and profit from their labors.
It isn't to allow the first person to do something obvious to prevent people from doing it. Even something that any competent person would do when confronted with a problem has to be done by someone first.
Using a cathode ray tube to draw a picture? That's an invention. A power button to turn said device on and off is obvious.
A ball in a box with sensors that detect which way the ball rolls when you roll it on a table and buttons to do things? That's an invention.
Clicking a button on the mouse to submit an order, that's obvious.
In order to have WWII, you needed an insane regime to start it. Expecting an insane regime to then suddenly behave logically once the war is underway is pretty silly.
In the real world, there are neighborhood watch signs to "deter" criminals.
Perhaps there could be a command in the robots.txt file which says "Browse my site, but don't count any links here for page ranking"? That would make your site less of a target for spammers, but not prevent you from being ranked at all.
It's based on scarcity of land NEAR A PARTICULAR LOCATION.
Even though land is finite, you can still get very cheap land in many places on the planet. What you can't get cheaply is land in the middle of manhattan.
So the question is, can you verify that your virtual land is near some other virtual point of interest?
Stronger security should only be provided if the cost of implementing that security (money, time, convenience) is less than the costs of not implementing it.
From my perspective, if someone breaks into my account, it's a hassle, but not a huge deal: My account is insured, and I get my money back. I'd rather deal with the inconvenince of this happening once or twice in my lifetime than having to deal with carrying and using a password generator for my entire life.
From the bank's perspective, it is probably cheaper to lose some money to accounts being compramised than to implement better security across the board. That translates to lower costs (or better interest) for me the customer, which is also nice. I'm fairly confident this is true, because were it better (cheaper, more convenient) to have stronger security, my commercial bank (always wanting to make a buck) would be doing that instead.
Your house would be more secure if you had bullet-resistent windows, steel-reinforced cross-bar doors, one-time pad electronic access, and 24/7 security guards, but most people the find much "weaker" deadbolt/key combination to be the BETTER solution.
If you have an activity that you do with your friends that your significant other is not involved in, KEEP IT THAT WAY! Everybody needs their "private space" in the relationship, including a venue in which to bitch about said significant other.
If the topic author is spending too much time in this venue, cutting back is ideal; eliminating the venue entirely is a bad idea.
Parents: "It's a nice day out - go outside and play." "But I'm only one stage away from beating super mario brothers for the first time without dieing!" Parents: "You're never going to get anything from video games." "Video games increase hand-eye coordination!" Parents: "ooooooooo, you've convinced us, play video games all day!"
Could you lose some weight playing DDR all the time? Probably. That doesn't change the fact that you wouldn't be a LAZY FATASS IF YOU GOT AWAY FROM YOUR FREAKING GAME CONSOLE FOR MORE THAN 5 MINUTES AT A TIME!
If you're seriously considering using DDR as a means to weight loss, maybe you should consider TURNING OFF THE GAME CONSOLE for good and going to PLAY SOME BASKETBALL or something, you lazy physically and socially uncoordinated fatass.
For a mere $39.95, you could have had a controller with a turbo button to do that button pressing for you.
What I found truly amazing about this story was that Konami still existed. Can you dance up up down down left right left right b a b a start? If so, what does it do?
Slashdot Mirror
7. Sue mogul for their actions, settle for millions of dollars, live hapily ever after.
You're making both the (bad) assumption that you have no recourse, and the (bad) assumption that a mogul will not fear such recourse.
Your real problem is actions taken by people with nothing to lose - then it's not worthwhile to sue them for anything.
The patent is so that people who invest considerable time and effort in doing something have a chance to recoup their investment and profit from their labors.
It isn't to allow the first person to do something obvious to prevent people from doing it. Even something that any competent person would do when confronted with a problem has to be done by someone first.
Using a cathode ray tube to draw a picture? That's an invention. A power button to turn said device on and off is obvious.
A ball in a box with sensors that detect which way the ball rolls when you roll it on a table and buttons to do things? That's an invention.
Clicking a button on the mouse to submit an order, that's obvious.
grep "TODO:" *
Boom. Task list.
That's the combination on my luggage!
In order to have WWII, you needed an insane regime to start it. Expecting an insane regime to then suddenly behave logically once the war is underway is pretty silly.
In the real world, there are neighborhood watch signs to "deter" criminals.
Perhaps there could be a command in the robots.txt file which says "Browse my site, but don't count any links here for page ranking"? That would make your site less of a target for spammers, but not prevent you from being ranked at all.
Because that calculator has already been built, and you already own it.
Thus, building it again isn't likely to be profitable.
It's based on scarcity of land NEAR A PARTICULAR LOCATION.
Even though land is finite, you can still get very cheap land in many places on the planet. What you can't get cheaply is land in the middle of manhattan.
So the question is, can you verify that your virtual land is near some other virtual point of interest?
It was fine when I submitted it to the Slashdot editors.
What is the security impication of putting my entire credit line on my keychain? I've already got my entire credit line in my wallet....
If people wanted to pay the additional costs for more secure banking, people would pay them.
The fact that nobody is paying for more security in the free market is a pretty good indication that people don't really want it in the first place.
Stronger security should only be provided if the cost of implementing that security (money, time, convenience) is less than the costs of not implementing it.
From my perspective, if someone breaks into my account, it's a hassle, but not a huge deal: My account is insured, and I get my money back. I'd rather deal with the inconvenince of this happening once or twice in my lifetime than having to deal with carrying and using a password generator for my entire life.
From the bank's perspective, it is probably cheaper to lose some money to accounts being compramised than to implement better security across the board. That translates to lower costs (or better interest) for me the customer, which is also nice. I'm fairly confident this is true, because were it better (cheaper, more convenient) to have stronger security, my commercial bank (always wanting to make a buck) would be doing that instead.
Your house would be more secure if you had bullet-resistent windows, steel-reinforced cross-bar doors, one-time pad electronic access, and 24/7 security guards, but most people the find much "weaker" deadbolt/key combination to be the BETTER solution.
If you have an activity that you do with your friends that your significant other is not involved in, KEEP IT THAT WAY! Everybody needs their "private space" in the relationship, including a venue in which to bitch about said significant other.
If the topic author is spending too much time in this venue, cutting back is ideal; eliminating the venue entirely is a bad idea.
And I don't think they'll buy it now.
Parents: "It's a nice day out - go outside and play."
"But I'm only one stage away from beating super mario brothers for the first time without dieing!"
Parents: "You're never going to get anything from video games."
"Video games increase hand-eye coordination!"
Parents: "ooooooooo, you've convinced us, play video games all day!"
Could you lose some weight playing DDR all the time? Probably. That doesn't change the fact that you wouldn't be a LAZY FATASS IF YOU GOT AWAY FROM YOUR FREAKING GAME CONSOLE FOR MORE THAN 5 MINUTES AT A TIME!
If you're seriously considering using DDR as a means to weight loss, maybe you should consider TURNING OFF THE GAME CONSOLE for good and going to PLAY SOME BASKETBALL or something, you lazy physically and socially uncoordinated fatass.
U U D D L R L R B A B A [select] start
The following text is included to defeat the lameness filter, conclusively demonstrating that the lameness filter can not pass itself.
I speak german fluently, in a horrible american accent. Whoever was singing that song shares my proficiency.
The last console I bought was a SNES. Where do I turn in my geed card?
For a mere $39.95, you could have had a controller with a turbo button to do that button pressing for you.
What I found truly amazing about this story was that Konami still existed. Can you dance up up down down left right left right b a b a start? If so, what does it do?
Nobody said it had to have departures before it could accept arrivals.
I better get moving on my patent for "A method for transferring alien tourists to Vegas".
But have you ever tried to turn a brick?
Correct explanation:
"Which room are you in, and should I bring any alcohol?"
Actually, I suppose the second half of that is unnecessary - you were working tech support at the university, you obviously needed to bring alcohol.
If only you could get women that way.
Still wondering what I would talk to with a 1 port hub.
Was is warm and wet?
I'd have cussed him out in Atheism. Which is pretty hard, because none of the words exist.
I lost 3GB of mail I received after they set the limit back down to 1GB.