If I'm a sci-fi writer, and I describe a non-existant device in such away that it CAN Be engineered from my description, could that count as prior art in a patent dispute?
A boon for dog owners everywhere. Put your dog out in the garden to do whatever... then let him press his own bell to be let in.
So thought Paul Usher, a design consultant of Harpenden, Herts. He designed a small (12" x 8") scratch pad that was fitted to the back door. This was connected to an electrical circuit and when the pet dog wanted to come back inside he scratched the pad which would ring a bell. Mr Usher was looking forward to selling these to all respected pet accessory stores and outlets. Before doing so he applied for a patent to protect his invention.
The Inspector at the (UK) Patent Office wrote to him to advise that such a device was already in the public domain. In the Beano comic of February 28 1981 Dennis the Menace's pet dog Gnasher was illustrated scratching a similar pad at Dennis' back door.
Mr Usher's application Patent number GB2117179 is still pending but now we know what periodicals the Patent office have delivered.
There is no way for the base station to know what direction the signal is coming from, since the antenna is omnidirectional, so I assumed it was using SNR's.
It would be possible to create a directional antenna using a tetrahedron of
omnidirectionals and measuring the signal delay between them, I don't know
if thats what they did though
When, among other things, 50,000 Nike shoes drifted around the globe.
There was a radio program about beachcombers a while ago and they
mentioned that all the right shoes came ashore at one spot and all the
left shoes came ashore about 3 miles up the coast. Presumably the
sea had sorted them based on their chirality
Seriously. I really think that a couple of hundred thousand mechanically activated (or perhaps solar so they come awake when they're dug up?) landmines are the answer.
... and after 100 years, the explosives have perished and there
so full of dust the trigger won't budge, in 1000 years archaeologists will dig them up and
claim they were some sort of ritual object
Even if you could make landmines that last indefinatly, If/When civisilation
took a downturn, the landmines would be a valuable commodity, Explosives would be
hard to get! You'd get landmine mines
I recall that Orwell was going to call it 1948 (the year he wrote it) but
the publisher quashed the idea. You don't flashback to 1984, 1984 is about
now and always has been
Yes, copyright law all over the world is in bad need of reform, but without remembering its original purpose for existing in the first place.
I've a horrible feeling that where international copyright law to be reformed, it would end
up badly reformed favouring the megamedia conglomerates even more:-(
Giving an elite few the ability to moderate posts on the basis of favoritism barely works on Slashdot, let alone a high school classroom.
As you say the reason that Slashdot does work is that he proceedings are pretty much anonymous
the reason it won't work in classrooms is because everyone knows everyone very well
One option that comes to mind would be to truely anonymise the comments and moderation
by grouping triplets of (distant) school districts. Schools in disctict A would post essays,
comment on district B's essays and moderate the district C's discussion, Districts B and C
would meta moderate district A. A would have right to reply via posting further essays.
and so on...
one problem I could see is that the districts are running on different curriculum
at different times, however I think that could be healthy for B and C to discuss
things outside their own classes
The other problem would be its an admin nightmare:-)
This is the saddest story I've seen come out of this whole sorry affair,
either the employees really thought this. Of Marketing in a fit of madness made them do it
I'm betting on option 2
I think handheld computers too are getting to their natural sizes with the Palm (and PocketPC) form factors.
I could see a niche for credit card sized handheld using the bending interface.
The thing would be pretty much all screen (black and white using some sort of epaper
techonolgy) and in the smallest set up would be a read only device for storing diary
contacts, maps, documentation, and allow some internet browsing. The (optional) wireless keyboard
would be two credit cards wide and fold in half to fit the users wallet along with
the screen and would also provide extra datastorage.
You seem to seriously think this. I hope you are kidding.
danrees (557289) has already posted it just before I did but try a Linux
search on MSN
Third hit:-
* Alternatives to Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP Learn about the Microsoft alternatives and how to move to them from open source products. www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/migr ation
When little Kevin McCartney decided to do a model of the solar system for the
School Science Fair little did he know how big it would get (cut to tearful Kevin)
"Well I thought a scale of
1:93,000,000 sounded about right when I made Pluto out of a pingpong ball, then the
teacher made me <sob> finish it!!! It took 20 years, now I'm a Professor the
University of Maine and its only just finished it. I hope Mrs Pringle will now leave
me to get on with my life"
I think your falling into a very subtle trap if you think like that. Yes biological
systems (say a worm) take input (light) and convert it into output (say keep moving
till its dark). So do computers, DNA looks sort of looks like binary code.
however computers were not designed by evolution.
Evolution is like a programmer who does not know how to program, so it just
makes random alteration (from toggling bits to duplicating whole chunks of code)
to the program, to the compiler to the operating system and to the hardwear then uses the
solutions that are just good enough for the job(1). If a new project comes in (ie ecological
niche) evolution will try and hammer all its previous projects into the new job specification
and randomly diddle with the closest fits.
(1) 'just good enough for the job' does not mean that the 'program' is not very good
at that job just good enough is a very tough spec if your in direct competition with
a 100 other programs. However it does lead pretty shoddy work... have you ever wondered
why people fall to bits after reproductive age? Evolution does not care about you
after you have sucessfully reproduced
Information may be coded digitaly (in DNA) thats just storage. Its expressed in
analog form as proteins which can be created is hundreds or even thousands of different
varients, are sensitive to the actions of other proteins, the chemical enviroment,
itself, and quite literally the phase of the moon.
"Biology works abit like a computer" is a useful analogy, but never forget an organism
under rigerous conditions of tempreature, pressure, humidity will do what it bloody well pleases.
~~
I'm a fugitive from the PCR Chain gang. Now I bioinformatose all day long:-)
The only way you can tell how much you've used is by the gas meter. And it doesn't distinguish between Hydrogen that's been used in a fuel cell and hydrogen that's leaked into the atmosphere.
If I leave my car on the drive for a week and find that 20% of the fuel has gone
I'd certinally know that there was a leak!
there is GPS that can be used that will give you an error rate of less than 4 millimeters. The military has one that fit's within a suitcase and is used to get accurate pinpoint locations of future targets.
But how do they compensate for the continental drift??
Considering a lot of GPS receivers have an error of + or - 10 feet or so, I wonder if they are using very precise equipment, or if having the redundancy of many units makes up for the rough estimates GPS satelites give.
There probably using some form of
Differential GPS
and taking data over a long baseline. I recall that given a few days worth of data
its possible to fix a position to within 2-3cm
It sounds like a dumbed down version of
Letterboxing I say dumbed down as the directions to letterboxes (normally a box with
a stamp and visitors book) can range from the straightforward to the bizzarly cryptic
rather than a lat and lon coords
This makes it hardly new as letterboxing dates back to 1854.
Slashdot Mirror
from here
Dog Bell
A boon for dog owners everywhere. Put your dog out in the garden to do whatever... then let him press his own bell to be let in.
So thought Paul Usher, a design consultant of Harpenden, Herts. He designed a small (12" x 8") scratch pad that was fitted to the back door. This was connected to an electrical circuit and when the pet dog wanted to come back inside he scratched the pad which would ring a bell. Mr Usher was looking forward to selling these to all respected pet accessory stores and outlets. Before doing so he applied for a patent to protect his invention.
The Inspector at the (UK) Patent Office wrote to him to advise that such a device was already in the public domain. In the Beano comic of February 28 1981 Dennis the Menace's pet dog Gnasher was illustrated scratching a similar pad at Dennis' back door.
Mr Usher's application Patent number GB2117179 is still pending but now we know what periodicals the Patent office have delivered.
It would be possible to create a directional antenna using a tetrahedron of omnidirectionals and measuring the signal delay between them, I don't know if thats what they did though
There was a radio program about beachcombers a while ago and they mentioned that all the right shoes came ashore at one spot and all the left shoes came ashore about 3 miles up the coast. Presumably the sea had sorted them based on their chirality
... and after 100 years, the explosives have perished and there so full of dust the trigger won't budge, in 1000 years archaeologists will dig them up and claim they were some sort of ritual object
Even if you could make landmines that last indefinatly, If/When civisilation took a downturn, the landmines would be a valuable commodity, Explosives would be hard to get! You'd get landmine mines
I recall that Orwell was going to call it 1948 (the year he wrote it) but the publisher quashed the idea. You don't flashback to 1984, 1984 is about now and always has been
I run a StarWars RPG where Duct tape is dark on both sides by Imperial Edict just to pervent that joke
Methanol is not drinkable and therefore is not taxed
I've a horrible feeling that where international copyright law to be reformed, it would end up badly reformed favouring the megamedia conglomerates even more:-(
As you say the reason that Slashdot does work is that he proceedings are pretty much anonymous the reason it won't work in classrooms is because everyone knows everyone very well
One option that comes to mind would be to truely anonymise the comments and moderation by grouping triplets of (distant) school districts. Schools in disctict A would post essays, comment on district B's essays and moderate the district C's discussion, Districts B and C would meta moderate district A. A would have right to reply via posting further essays. and so on...
one problem I could see is that the districts are running on different curriculum at different times, however I think that could be healthy for B and C to discuss things outside their own classes
The other problem would be its an admin nightmare :-)
Hmmm the moderation on this is -1, Insightful which seems exactly right
This is the saddest story I've seen come out of this whole sorry affair, either the employees really thought this. Of Marketing in a fit of madness made them do it I'm betting on option 2
Was that when some twit wrote a story about breaking into a Los Alamos outhouse
or is it something more serious?Was there a satellite up there before SOHO?
SOHO was launched on December 2, 1995. does the loss of SOHO somehow destroy the previous 12 years of solar observations ??
Heratic! It was 8 minutes The Voice Tells me so!
I could see a niche for credit card sized handheld using the bending interface. The thing would be pretty much all screen (black and white using some sort of epaper techonolgy) and in the smallest set up would be a read only device for storing diary contacts, maps, documentation, and allow some internet browsing. The (optional) wireless keyboard would be two credit cards wide and fold in half to fit the users wallet along with the screen and would also provide extra datastorage.
danrees (557289) has already posted it just before I did but try a Linux search on MSN
Third hit:-
When little Kevin McCartney decided to do a model of the solar system for the School Science Fair little did he know how big it would get (cut to tearful Kevin) "Well I thought a scale of 1:93,000,000 sounded about right when I made Pluto out of a pingpong ball, then the teacher made me <sob> finish it!!! It took 20 years, now I'm a Professor the University of Maine and its only just finished it. I hope Mrs Pringle will now leave me to get on with my life"
If the Goverment had a technology that allowed remote destruction of computers. How long would it stay exclusive to the Goverment?
I think your falling into a very subtle trap if you think like that. Yes biological systems (say a worm) take input (light) and convert it into output (say keep moving till its dark). So do computers, DNA looks sort of looks like binary code. however computers were not designed by evolution.
Evolution is like a programmer who does not know how to program, so it just makes random alteration (from toggling bits to duplicating whole chunks of code) to the program, to the compiler to the operating system and to the hardwear then uses the solutions that are just good enough for the job(1). If a new project comes in (ie ecological niche) evolution will try and hammer all its previous projects into the new job specification and randomly diddle with the closest fits.
(1) 'just good enough for the job' does not mean that the 'program' is not very good at that job just good enough is a very tough spec if your in direct competition with a 100 other programs. However it does lead pretty shoddy work... have you ever wondered why people fall to bits after reproductive age? Evolution does not care about you after you have sucessfully reproduced
Information may be coded digitaly (in DNA) thats just storage. Its expressed in analog form as proteins which can be created is hundreds or even thousands of different varients, are sensitive to the actions of other proteins, the chemical enviroment, itself, and quite literally the phase of the moon.
"Biology works abit like a computer" is a useful analogy, but never forget an organism under rigerous conditions of tempreature, pressure, humidity will do what it bloody well pleases.
~~ :-)
I'm a fugitive from the PCR Chain gang. Now I bioinformatose all day long
This does not mean that there is less risk, 'normal' plant breeding is quite capable of producing something toxic on its own
If I leave my car on the drive for a week and find that 20% of the fuel has gone I'd certinally know that there was a leak!
But how do they compensate for the continental drift??
There probably using some form of Differential GPS and taking data over a long baseline. I recall that given a few days worth of data its possible to fix a position to within 2-3cm
It sounds like a dumbed down version of Letterboxing I say dumbed down as the directions to letterboxes (normally a box with a stamp and visitors book) can range from the straightforward to the bizzarly cryptic rather than a lat and lon coords
This makes it hardly new as letterboxing dates back to 1854.