I brought up international patents to point out that the system doesn't have to be centralized, but didn't make that clear.
Re:Like anything else ...
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Just like anything else, *abuse* of the system is the problem. How do we sort the wheat from the chaff?
Nope. Abuse of the system is the *syptom*. The problem is that it's a system that lends itself to abuse, as currently designed.
Part of the problem is that there are *SO* many applications, that the USPTO can't handle it.
Decentralize it? Does there really need to be a single PTO for the entire country? The Constitution doesn't mandate that, it simply provides Congress the authority to set it up.
International patents work pretty well... if the 50 states could each decide how they wanted to process patent applications, they could try different things. Hopefully you'd get some real innovation in dealing with the problem.
(And you could decentralize it even further, I'm sure, with some imagination...)
My thinking is... if it's such a good idea, why force it on people? Obviously the government has no other way of making decisions, but civilians are all rational adults. We'll make the right decision in time, and if we want to be stubborn, that's our right, after all.
if that happens, and 20 years after we send these things to fly willy-nilly around Mars, how can we tell if these bacteria or whatever are originally from Mars or from Earth?
By looking at their DNA?
We can even tell if meteorites are Martian by examining the chemical constituents.
Hell, I'd happily interrupt my professors while they were in the middle of phone conversations, and certainly if they were just working on something.
And I don't care if it's not office hours. I would sometimes get their cell phones and call them at odd hours of the night, especially if they gave me a midnight deadline. I have no compunctions about waking someone getting paid six figures in the middle of the night.
I think what he's painting is a "worst case" scenario.
Read: the Register is trolling slashdot. Orlowski can, like famous Chicken Littles such as Paul Erlich, keep writing these predictions of doom and he'll never get called on them.
Another point is that no compiler can automatically accelerate floating point ops with a vector unit. So there's a huge amount of code that will never benefit from a vector unit, which is why it's extremely important to accelerate floating point.
Linux users, of course, don't have this problem (muhahahah).
It depends on whether the users are willing to use make tools. A huge amount of Linux software is distributed as binaries, and an increasing number of users will refuse to compile software.
The Unix trademark, from what I gather, is mostly about compatibility which allows you to guarantee people that their apps will run.
The Unix tradition, from what I gathered, was making something that was solid and reliable, a foundation on which people could build things.
So both are similar ideas... one is an economic foundation, another is a technical foundation.
Linux and BSD make a lot of improvements, but after sifting through the Unix Hater's Handbook, I'm thinking they *still* make a lot of the old mistakes.
If they're not sticking to the trademark, and their not keeping the tradition alive, maybe we shouldn't call them Unix after all.
In their defense, they've popularized a new tradition (along with a license instead of a trademark) in open source and free software. But Unix was about a huge and very original innovation, not just writing another kernel. I just think things ought to stay in perspective.
Microsoft overdoes it! They try to put everything and the kitchen sink in whatever app they're doing... witness WiMP trying to do movies, music, burning, having ten million options and a whole host of ugly skins.
Actually, if WiMP just took out the movies it would work fine. Perhaps if the record industry had come up with a way of delivering music videos it would make sense, though, honestly, I can't imagine paying extra for a music video. As it is, a movie player just shouldn't be bunlded with a music player... no one builds "playlists" of movies, and when you have a few thousand songs you need the whole screen for your music.
Ideally, everyone would work in whatever job he or she was valued the most.
That way, as a whole, we'd be producing the maximum amount.
*If* maximum production was your goal, and *if* you didn't have to worry about your neighbors coming in and stealing it, you could throw out your military entirely.
I should also note that having the government allocate resources to schools and highways doesn't necessarily guarantee that those resources will produce anything. Many government projects are very wasteful, and in the absence of any competition, they never go out of business.
So how many billions of dollars of economic damage did we suffer on 9/11? Not to mention the cost in human life.
Now we've eliminated a regime that was probably responsible for that (in addition to the Taliban who almost certainly were), and shown other regimes the cost they will ultimately face.
Funny, if they can just steal them, why did Iraq, a nation which presumably has its own scientists, have to purchase so much stuff from France, Germany, Russia and China?
Why do terrorists require state sponsorship?
The reason is logistics. You can't be sure what you're going to get when you steal it. Military hardware, like any hardware, has to be compatible with certain systems. It breaks down and needs repairs. So terrorists go to states which have militaries and thus have the infrastructure for maintaining systems in working order.
That's why Bush the Baathist regime: to send a clear message to dictators that aiding and abetting terrorists would cost them dearly.
Note that we *didn't* target civilians, the power in Iraq stayed on (for the most part) and Iraqis went about their business during a war.
The only people wetting their pants were thugs like Assad, saying, "will I be next?"
If the CIA and the Justice Department were half as bad-ass as you fantasize them as being, there wouldn't be any terrorist threat because we would have kicked their asses long ago.
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Ugh, should have previewed my comment:
"Syptom" should be "symptom."
I brought up international patents to point out that the system doesn't have to be centralized, but didn't make that clear.
Just like anything else, *abuse* of the system is the problem. How do we sort the wheat from the chaff?
Nope. Abuse of the system is the *syptom*. The problem is that it's a system that lends itself to abuse, as currently designed.
Part of the problem is that there are *SO* many applications, that the USPTO can't handle it.
Decentralize it? Does there really need to be a single PTO for the entire country? The Constitution doesn't mandate that, it simply provides Congress the authority to set it up.
International patents work pretty well... if the 50 states could each decide how they wanted to process patent applications, they could try different things. Hopefully you'd get some real innovation in dealing with the problem.
(And you could decentralize it even further, I'm sure, with some imagination...)
My thinking is... if it's such a good idea, why force it on people? Obviously the government has no other way of making decisions, but civilians are all rational adults. We'll make the right decision in time, and if we want to be stubborn, that's our right, after all.
No, the federal government of the USA is on the metric system. The American people, being free, use whatever system they please.
And if a little perversity and stubbornness happens to piss off the French...
The day we allowed ourselves to be this dependant on a rouge nation, was a dark day for sure.
You've been hanging around the Frogs too much when you have to call them "rouge" instead of simply "reds" or "commies."
It fluctuates on a daily basis as you drink water and pee it out.
Well, it's better than the horrible "there's a hole in my bucket, Eliza, Eliza."
I never did figure out why the fuck they couldn't just patch the goddamn bucket.
if that happens, and 20 years after we send these things to fly willy-nilly around Mars, how can we tell if these bacteria or whatever are originally from Mars or from Earth?
By looking at their DNA?
We can even tell if meteorites are Martian by examining the chemical constituents.
Hell, I'd happily interrupt my professors while they were in the middle of phone conversations, and certainly if they were just working on something.
And I don't care if it's not office hours. I would sometimes get their cell phones and call them at odd hours of the night, especially if they gave me a midnight deadline. I have no compunctions about waking someone getting paid six figures in the middle of the night.
I think what he's painting is a "worst case" scenario.
Read: the Register is trolling slashdot. Orlowski can, like famous Chicken Littles such as Paul Erlich, keep writing these predictions of doom and he'll never get called on them.
Another point is that no compiler can automatically accelerate floating point ops with a vector unit. So there's a huge amount of code that will never benefit from a vector unit, which is why it's extremely important to accelerate floating point.
Linux users, of course, don't have this problem (muhahahah).
It depends on whether the users are willing to use make tools. A huge amount of Linux software is distributed as binaries, and an increasing number of users will refuse to compile software.
"trademark, and their not"
Sorry, should be they're.
The Unix trademark, from what I gather, is mostly about compatibility which allows you to guarantee people that their apps will run.
The Unix tradition, from what I gathered, was making something that was solid and reliable, a foundation on which people could build things.
So both are similar ideas... one is an economic foundation, another is a technical foundation.
Linux and BSD make a lot of improvements, but after sifting through the Unix Hater's Handbook, I'm thinking they *still* make a lot of the old mistakes.
If they're not sticking to the trademark, and their not keeping the tradition alive, maybe we shouldn't call them Unix after all.
In their defense, they've popularized a new tradition (along with a license instead of a trademark) in open source and free software. But Unix was about a huge and very original innovation, not just writing another kernel. I just think things ought to stay in perspective.
The only reason it's so painful is that it's so incredibly easy to spot w/ HTML.
At least when all this stuff was binary you had an excuse!
On the other hand, part of the reason is that HTML and HTTP don't encourage you to separate authentication from content and presentation.
The whole thing is one meaningless "tree" pasted on to what are basically email headers.
There's a reason no other network protocols were ever designed that way.
"Reality Distortion Field"? Maybe.
I think it's more a case of the Big Swinging Dick.
That's why they bought him a freakin' jet, because he's got the cahones to get things done.
Microsoft overdoes it! They try to put everything and the kitchen sink in whatever app they're doing... witness WiMP trying to do movies, music, burning, having ten million options and a whole host of ugly skins.
Actually, if WiMP just took out the movies it would work fine. Perhaps if the record industry had come up with a way of delivering music videos it would make sense, though, honestly, I can't imagine paying extra for a music video. As it is, a movie player just shouldn't be bunlded with a music player... no one builds "playlists" of movies, and when you have a few thousand songs you need the whole screen for your music.
Actually, if you're a fan of that show (and who isn't?) Adam West has a web site with some interesting commentary on the show.
And ogres have layers. Like onions. Mmm.... onions.
It's a question of oppourtunity cost.
Ideally, everyone would work in whatever job he or she was valued the most.
That way, as a whole, we'd be producing the maximum amount.
*If* maximum production was your goal, and *if* you didn't have to worry about your neighbors coming in and stealing it, you could throw out your military entirely.
I should also note that having the government allocate resources to schools and highways doesn't necessarily guarantee that those resources will produce anything. Many government projects are very wasteful, and in the absence of any competition, they never go out of business.
So how many billions of dollars of economic damage did we suffer on 9/11? Not to mention the cost in human life.
Now we've eliminated a regime that was probably responsible for that (in addition to the Taliban who almost certainly were), and shown other regimes the cost they will ultimately face.
Funny, if they can just steal them, why did Iraq, a nation which presumably has its own scientists, have to purchase so much stuff from France, Germany, Russia and China?
Why do terrorists require state sponsorship?
The reason is logistics. You can't be sure what you're going to get when you steal it. Military hardware, like any hardware, has to be compatible with certain systems. It breaks down and needs repairs. So terrorists go to states which have militaries and thus have the infrastructure for maintaining systems in working order.
That's why Bush the Baathist regime: to send a clear message to dictators that aiding and abetting terrorists would cost them dearly.
Note that we *didn't* target civilians, the power in Iraq stayed on (for the most part) and Iraqis went about their business during a war.
The only people wetting their pants were thugs like Assad, saying, "will I be next?"
If the CIA and the Justice Department were half as bad-ass as you fantasize them as being, there wouldn't be any terrorist threat because we would have kicked their asses long ago.
My god... I have finally found a purpose for my sig.
I just have to decide which one!
You mean like this?
That's why it's handy to have your prefs set to mark Insightful as -1. It more accurately reflects reality.