He was talking about our dependency on foreign oil not dependency on any oil. Why would you include domestic oil if you wanted to know how much would need to be produced to eliminate our need for foreign oil?
If they were just concerned that the picture in the passport was the correct one a simple database of image scans that could be accessed by customs agents would be plenty -- no need to embed anything in the passport.
The only way this system provides anything that's not utterly pointless is if an image of the person presenting the passport is compared to the information embedded in the passport.
But of course even that is of little value unless the customs agent is removed from the picture and the entire process is automated. That is, with an agent receiving your passport, all that's really needed is the ability to verify the integrity of the image (image database mentioned above) and comparing the person standing in front of him or her with the verified image.
So basically, this is just someone in customs thinking that a self-checkout lane would be a good idea. I mean, they work so well in the supermarket.
Please press the button corresponding to the reason for your entry into the United States:
A. I'm taking a vacation. B. I'm on business. C. I'm a student D. I plan to blow stuff up.
Simple question then: If Lindows is so clearly infringing on a valid tradmark why was an injunction not issued against them back in March in Microsoft's U.S. suit against them? Anyone can assert that anything is a trade- or servicemark, but that doesn't make it enforceable. Even in the case of a registered trademark validity can be questioned.
You're right... We'd be cracking jokes about Microsoft's new Executive VP of Sales and Marketing, Elmer J. Fudd. (Or would that be FUD...?)
Seriously, "Windows" is a generic term where "Linux" clearly is not. "Microsoft Windows" is a valid trademark, but "Windows" simply is not. Microsoft also has registered the trademark "Microsoft Game Studios." Do you seriously think that this means no one can use the term "Game Studios" now?
Who modded this Troll? Rokzy's exactly right on both counts -- mOoZik has missed the entire point, and saying that there are no rules is just a childish excuse for not taking the time to understand the medium and the work of others in the space.
Just about the only person *not* exempted from calling people on the list is Homer and his auto-dialer.
Not true. Almost all of the exceptions, such as the one for telecom companies, were removed shortly before it was enacted. The only exceptions left in are for political donation solicitors (gee, big surprise that politicians would keep that in), charities, phone surveyors not soliciting for goods or services, and "companies with which you have an existing business relationship."
Of course, that last exemption is the one that's going to be abused. However, any entity at all is subject to the $11,000 max fine if they call after you tell them you don't wish to be called.
And besides, I called "no takebacks infinity, no fingers crossed, no force fields." I mean, flouting the GPL is one thing, but what's to separate us from the animals if we start ignoring "no takebacks"?!
The description says that the user can push it side to side or up and down.
Can you please point out where in the patent it mentions the disc being clickable in any direction. I've run through it fairly closely now and have yet to find anything that says the wheel is clickable at all. It says the body of the mouse is clickable, like the current Mac mice are, but that's about it. There's a diagram (Fig. 6) that shows two double-sided arrows indicating the rotation that someone might possibly have misunderstood... maybe.
Come on, people. As patents go, Apple's actually done a pretty good job making this one pretty darn easy to read. Here's one of many claims that make it clear that the disc rotates:
12. A mouse for moving a cursor or pointer on a display screen, comprising: a mouse housing; and a disk coupled to the mouse housing and rotatable about an axis, the disk being configured to facilitate a control function on the display screen, the disk having a touchable surface for rotating the disk about the axis, the touchable surface being completely accessible to a finger of the user such that the disk can be continuously rotated by a simple swirling motion of the finger.
Great... Then all you'd have to do is prove that the sattelite is really orbiting the moon and isn't just a camera hovering over someone's cat's litter box.
So we'll send another satellite to take pictures of the first one... Oh, wait...
Maybe something of this magnitude can force everyone to reexamine the current patent situation.
Like figuring out why there isn't some sort of "window of opportunity" for enforcing patents or else they become public domain? For the sake of argument let's assume that this patent is valid. Clearly, these guys were aware that other companies and individuals were infringing on their patented material, and yet they did nothing until the market was so saturated with tools and equipment using JPEG technology that they thought they thought they could make good money charging license fees. They can't possibly say they weren't aware of all the people out there using JPEGs.
Is $90/month worth it? Would any of us get it? Why would you, when you can build an easier and cheaper solution by yourself.
Sure it is -- now. Just wait until these boxes start rolling out into the market and the cable companies take the next logical step of making it explicitly against their TOS to use any wireless networking products with their service except the ones they provide.
They're already able to sniff out people stealing cable by driving around in their vans with detection equipment. It'd be even easier (heck, downright trivial) to detect that you're using an unapproved 802.11 access point.
While it could hardly be worse than what we've already been subjected to, just think what Episode 3 would be like if all we ended up getting was Spielberg's incessant product pimping on top of crap actors like Hayden Christensen spewing Lucas's junior high love note pap:
"I've thought of her every day for the last ten years, Jar Jar. Every handful of Reese's Pieces reminds me of her beautiful, dark eyes."
"You'sa soundin' like you be needin' a Pepsi, Ani."
Yup. As ceejayoz pointed out, the agents' names are all letters, but they're also letters that can be spelled out as common names: Dee, Jay, Kay, Elle, Zed. Oddly, they seem to have broken that for Patrick Warburton's character, Agent T. Like they couldn't have called him B (Bea)... Would've made plenty of room for Wil to toss in some "Aunt Bea" lines.
Also interesting for the uber-geeks, the letters correspond to the first letter of the agents' original civilian names, at least the ones we know of: James -> J, Kevin -> K, Lauren -> L.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn... Hit the wrong reply link. My bad.
He was talking about our dependency on foreign oil not dependency on any oil. Why would you include domestic oil if you wanted to know how much would need to be produced to eliminate our need for foreign oil?
You know it's coming: Scammer auctions P-P-P-Powerbook on eBay to cover cost of customs duty.
This story is getting popular enough that it just might work.
If they were just concerned that the picture in the passport was the correct one a simple database of image scans that could be accessed by customs agents would be plenty -- no need to embed anything in the passport.
The only way this system provides anything that's not utterly pointless is if an image of the person presenting the passport is compared to the information embedded in the passport.
But of course even that is of little value unless the customs agent is removed from the picture and the entire process is automated. That is, with an agent receiving your passport, all that's really needed is the ability to verify the integrity of the image (image database mentioned above) and comparing the person standing in front of him or her with the verified image.
So basically, this is just someone in customs thinking that a self-checkout lane would be a good idea. I mean, they work so well in the supermarket.
Please press the button corresponding to the reason for your entry into the United States:
A. I'm taking a vacation.
B. I'm on business.
C. I'm a student
D. I plan to blow stuff up.
Simple question then: If Lindows is so clearly infringing on a valid tradmark why was an injunction not issued against them back in March in Microsoft's U.S. suit against them? Anyone can assert that anything is a trade- or servicemark, but that doesn't make it enforceable. Even in the case of a registered trademark validity can be questioned.
You're right... We'd be cracking jokes about Microsoft's new Executive VP of Sales and Marketing, Elmer J. Fudd. (Or would that be FUD...?)
Seriously, "Windows" is a generic term where "Linux" clearly is not. "Microsoft Windows" is a valid trademark, but "Windows" simply is not. Microsoft also has registered the trademark "Microsoft Game Studios." Do you seriously think that this means no one can use the term "Game Studios" now?
Who modded this Troll? Rokzy's exactly right on both counts -- mOoZik has missed the entire point, and saying that there are no rules is just a childish excuse for not taking the time to understand the medium and the work of others in the space.
No, they're serious. They've got Lech Walesa running door-to-door asking people what they thought of Bloom County.
In Soviet Russia the singularity observes you.
Just about the only person *not* exempted from calling people on the list is Homer and his auto-dialer.
Not true. Almost all of the exceptions, such as the one for telecom companies, were removed shortly before it was enacted. The only exceptions left in are for political donation solicitors (gee, big surprise that politicians would keep that in), charities, phone surveyors not soliciting for goods or services, and "companies with which you have an existing business relationship."
Of course, that last exemption is the one that's going to be abused. However, any entity at all is subject to the $11,000 max fine if they call after you tell them you don't wish to be called.
And besides, I called "no takebacks infinity, no fingers crossed, no force fields." I mean, flouting the GPL is one thing, but what's to separate us from the animals if we start ignoring "no takebacks"?!
It'd probably be quicker to just hook up Amazon's Just Like You with Hot or Not.
The description says that the user can push it side to side or up and down.
Can you please point out where in the patent it mentions the disc being clickable in any direction. I've run through it fairly closely now and have yet to find anything that says the wheel is clickable at all. It says the body of the mouse is clickable, like the current Mac mice are, but that's about it. There's a diagram (Fig. 6) that shows two double-sided arrows indicating the rotation that someone might possibly have misunderstood... maybe.
> It's a rotary dial
No, it's not.
Ummm... Yes, it is.
Come on, people. As patents go, Apple's actually done a pretty good job making this one pretty darn easy to read. Here's one of many claims that make it clear that the disc rotates:
Basically, imagine the limited marketshare that scooters/rollerblades/skateboards occupy (as transportation, not as stunt vehicles)
Aw, come on. You know ESPN2 is already planning "Extreme Segway" complete with half pipe and Segway street freestyling.
I don't remember seeing Frodo's nude scene when it was in theatres
Yeah, who'd've thought they'd have to paste that hair on more than just his feet.
This is what happens when scientists get a load of crappy letters in Scrabble.
"Honey, I'm telling you... 'Quaoar' is so a word. It's the name of the planet we discovered yesterday. Yeah, that's it..."
The real question is: How easy is it to connect your HoTop to your laptop, and do they charge you extra for that?
Can you connect two HoTops directly and just watch?
Great... Then all you'd have to do is prove that the sattelite is really orbiting the moon and isn't just a camera hovering over someone's cat's litter box.
So we'll send another satellite to take pictures of the first one... Oh, wait...
Maybe something of this magnitude can force everyone to reexamine the current patent situation.
Like figuring out why there isn't some sort of "window of opportunity" for enforcing patents or else they become public domain? For the sake of argument let's assume that this patent is valid. Clearly, these guys were aware that other companies and individuals were infringing on their patented material, and yet they did nothing until the market was so saturated with tools and equipment using JPEG technology that they thought they thought they could make good money charging license fees. They can't possibly say they weren't aware of all the people out there using JPEGs.
Is $90/month worth it? Would any of us get it? Why would you, when you can build an easier and cheaper solution by yourself.
Sure it is -- now. Just wait until these boxes start rolling out into the market and the cable companies take the next logical step of making it explicitly against their TOS to use any wireless networking products with their service except the ones they provide.
They're already able to sniff out people stealing cable by driving around in their vans with detection equipment. It'd be even easier (heck, downright trivial) to detect that you're using an unapproved 802.11 access point.
He'd have to be pretty damn good, indeed. If the screen's on his chest he'll be playing upsidedown.
Heck, I'd be more worried about where to stick my quarters.
While it could hardly be worse than what we've already been subjected to, just think what Episode 3 would be like if all we ended up getting was Spielberg's incessant product pimping on top of crap actors like Hayden Christensen spewing Lucas's junior high love note pap:
"I've thought of her every day for the last ten years, Jar Jar. Every handful of Reese's Pieces reminds me of her beautiful, dark eyes."
"You'sa soundin' like you be needin' a Pepsi, Ani."
Yup. As ceejayoz pointed out, the agents' names are all letters, but they're also letters that can be spelled out as common names: Dee, Jay, Kay, Elle, Zed. Oddly, they seem to have broken that for Patrick Warburton's character, Agent T. Like they couldn't have called him B (Bea)... Would've made plenty of room for Wil to toss in some "Aunt Bea" lines.
Also interesting for the uber-geeks, the letters correspond to the first letter of the agents' original civilian names, at least the ones we know of: James -> J, Kevin -> K, Lauren -> L.