I bet that the number of examiners at the USPTO that have a comprehensive understanding of the way RSS works is exactly zero. I'm can only imagine an examiner breathlessly intoning, "I don't know what the hell this patent is talking about, so it must be totally new, non-obvious, and useful, so here," (THUMP as the rubber stamp comes down) "patent granted."
Of course, it could be a defensive patent. Heaven knows who out there thinks he's patented the whole RSS idea.
Still, regarding this new patent, I'm looking forward to the usual Slashdot pick-apart, where every claim is shown to be something people have been doing for a decade, and enough prior art is unearthed in fifteen minutes to invalidate the patent ten times over.
Heck, why doesn't the USPTO lay off half its examiners and just post patent applications to Slashdot?
A poster above mentioned that ignorance is glorified, and I hate to admit that it's true in our dear sweet USA. People who get good grades and aspire toward academic achievement are labeled and taunted as "brainiacs" or whatever, while some dope fiend who can snap back at the teacher in some incomprehensible slang-based language is held up as the modern-day hero. I doubt that the same is true in China.
I had the same reaction when I saw the other trailer in front of Hitchhiker's at the cinema, but my buddy lent me his DVD of the 14 episodes that comprise the TV series, and by the end of the first (2-hour pilot) episode I was totally hooked.
Everyone's saying it, but I'll say it again... watch all four DVDs in the boxed set (just borrow it or rent it or something), read the three Dark Horse comics that are coming out (the first one came out on 7/13/05), and then see the movie in September. It's just too damn much fun to miss out on.
I trust this won't affect The Elements Song by Tom Lehrer. If you've never heard the song, or haven't listened to it since your high school Chemistry teacher played it for you in class, check out the horribly clever Flash animation of the song at privatehand.com.
I had heard that Mayfair was lined up to do the Marvel game and Marvel pulled out at the last minute and went with TSR, and the far superior Mayfair game became the DC Heroes RPG.
I never found confirmation of that; as far as I know, it was just a rumor.
It never mattered to me very much, at any rate, since I was playing Champions back then.
We knew this was coming ever since Marvel sued over COH players (that is, the ones who are wankers) were seen copying Marvel characters. Marvel was obviously hoping they'd sue COH out of existence, leaving a bit gaping hole for them to eventually fill with their own probably inferior product.
Remember the official Marvel Superheroes roleplaying paper-and-dice game? I think that says it all.
So, in other words, if I take a photograph of a publicly-displayed billboard along a highway and keep that photo around for people to look at long after the billboard comes down, that would be illegal?
If the Russian court agrees to let this case proceed, it opens the door for all kinds of inane, utterly frivolous lawsuits from astrologers, witch doctors, faith healers, and every other kind of kook out there who wants to make a quick buck by accusing actual scientists of violating some crackpot principle. I'm not an objectivist, but I have to say that Ayn Rand must be rolling over in her grave.
The state has every right to regulate companies operating in that state. Note thaty are NOT forcincg censorship, just forcing companies to offer censorship if the customer wants it. I see no problem here.
Well, sure, it sounds wholesome on paper, but is Utah really going to enforce this law against all ISPs fairly, or just the ones who are competing with the AG's office's staffers favorites? It's not like they're making non-compliance punishable by a slap on the wrist... they're threatening jail time for it.
I bet that the money that Utah would've spent enforcing this law could've been used to have blocking software written for residents of the state that would automatically get the AG's list and block those sites from children's eyes. The software could be freely downloadable and everyone but the pornographers would be happy.
I like the idea of comparing this law to something that might affect restaurants, and I'll take the comparison a step further.
This law would be rather like telling restaurants, supermarkets, pretzel stands, convenience stores, and anyone else who serves food that they are not only required to serve healthy food options, but that they are required to not serve unhealthy food (as defined by the AG's office) to anyone under the age of 18 whose parents have requested that their child not have access to unhealthy food.
If any state tried to pass such a law, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and all the other big chain restaurants and franchisers would march an army of lobbyists into that state's capitol and promise every single state legislator that a vote in favor of that bill would be their ticket out of office come the next election, guaranteed.
In Inherit the Wind, Henry Drummond tells the court, "I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy. You can only punish. I warn you that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys everyone it touches -- its upholders as well as its defiers."
By that same token, how in the name of whatever god the people of Utah worship could they ever in a thousand years expect to be able to administer this law they passed with anything remotely resembling fairness or impartiality?
My experience has been that if I keep an email address away from the web, and never, ever let it appear on any website or directory anywhere, that email address will never, ever get spammed or phished. It helps if the address isn't just a single first name, of course. I used to have my email address on my website until I was getting about two hundred spams a day, and once I changed my email address, put up a harvester-proof form on my website, and notified all of my contacts of my new address, I never got spammed again.
This is worse than a case of trying to close the barn door after the horse has run out.
This is trying to close the barn door after the horse has run out, gone to the airport, and flown to Australia to play dijeridu in a punk band.
No way is Hormel ever going to successfully use litigation to stop the popular use of the name of its product to describe UCE. As long as the print media keeps putting quotes around it, all the lawyers in the world won't stop it.
I disagree. Apple is not using its dominance in the portable digital music player market to coerce vendors into carrying only iPods, and the iPod is a luxury item, not a necessity, like the PC (esp. for businesses) or the telephone. Nearly everyone I know owns a PC (almost all have Windows PCs, too), and I know about three people (not including myself) who own iPods.
I'm an Apple zealot... I think Apple's intention is to make a profit.
Controlling 4% of a market is not a monopoly.
If you want to use a Windows PC, the price of the Mac makes absolutely no difference to you whatsoever. There's enough competition between Windows PC vendors to drive the prices down to the $299 you're willing to pay for a computer. I want to use a Mac, so I will have to pay extra for my Mac. I'm okay with that.
American women who are straight refer to female friends as "girlfriends," with no sexual connotation. An American straight man cannot have a "boyfriend," nor can he have a "girlfriend" without whom he's not in some way romantically or sexually involved. It's just a quirk of the American English language, I believe.
Slashdot Mirror
Add homonyms, and we're ready to sail.
Anonymous Coward. That says it all.
I bet that the number of examiners at the USPTO that have a comprehensive understanding of the way RSS works is exactly zero. I'm can only imagine an examiner breathlessly intoning, "I don't know what the hell this patent is talking about, so it must be totally new, non-obvious, and useful, so here," (THUMP as the rubber stamp comes down) "patent granted."
Of course, it could be a defensive patent. Heaven knows who out there thinks he's patented the whole RSS idea.
Still, regarding this new patent, I'm looking forward to the usual Slashdot pick-apart, where every claim is shown to be something people have been doing for a decade, and enough prior art is unearthed in fifteen minutes to invalidate the patent ten times over.
Heck, why doesn't the USPTO lay off half its examiners and just post patent applications to Slashdot?
Shiny!
A poster above mentioned that ignorance is glorified, and I hate to admit that it's true in our dear sweet USA. People who get good grades and aspire toward academic achievement are labeled and taunted as "brainiacs" or whatever, while some dope fiend who can snap back at the teacher in some incomprehensible slang-based language is held up as the modern-day hero. I doubt that the same is true in China.
This is certainly bad news for all those girls I've been stalking.
I had the same reaction when I saw the other trailer in front of Hitchhiker's at the cinema, but my buddy lent me his DVD of the 14 episodes that comprise the TV series, and by the end of the first (2-hour pilot) episode I was totally hooked.
Everyone's saying it, but I'll say it again... watch all four DVDs in the boxed set (just borrow it or rent it or something), read the three Dark Horse comics that are coming out (the first one came out on 7/13/05), and then see the movie in September. It's just too damn much fun to miss out on.
Just can't wait for this movie, if only to find out who those suited guys are who are getting stabbed in the throat with the short sword.
Those are some funny lines in the trailer.
I'm going to put that on my iPod and bring it my next doctor appointment... she'll love it!
I trust this won't affect The Elements Song by Tom Lehrer. If you've never heard the song, or haven't listened to it since your high school Chemistry teacher played it for you in class, check out the horribly clever Flash animation of the song at privatehand.com.
Can I beat the filter at chess if I spell it "CHE55"?
I had heard that Mayfair was lined up to do the Marvel game and Marvel pulled out at the last minute and went with TSR, and the far superior Mayfair game became the DC Heroes RPG.
I never found confirmation of that; as far as I know, it was just a rumor.
It never mattered to me very much, at any rate, since I was playing Champions back then.
We knew this was coming ever since Marvel sued over COH players (that is, the ones who are wankers) were seen copying Marvel characters. Marvel was obviously hoping they'd sue COH out of existence, leaving a bit gaping hole for them to eventually fill with their own probably inferior product.
Remember the official Marvel Superheroes roleplaying paper-and-dice game? I think that says it all.
So, in other words, if I take a photograph of a publicly-displayed billboard along a highway and keep that photo around for people to look at long after the billboard comes down, that would be illegal?
If the Russian court agrees to let this case proceed, it opens the door for all kinds of inane, utterly frivolous lawsuits from astrologers, witch doctors, faith healers, and every other kind of kook out there who wants to make a quick buck by accusing actual scientists of violating some crackpot principle. I'm not an objectivist, but I have to say that Ayn Rand must be rolling over in her grave.
I bet that the money that Utah would've spent enforcing this law could've been used to have blocking software written for residents of the state that would automatically get the AG's list and block those sites from children's eyes. The software could be freely downloadable and everyone but the pornographers would be happy.
I like the idea of comparing this law to something that might affect restaurants, and I'll take the comparison a step further.
This law would be rather like telling restaurants, supermarkets, pretzel stands, convenience stores, and anyone else who serves food that they are not only required to serve healthy food options, but that they are required to not serve unhealthy food (as defined by the AG's office) to anyone under the age of 18 whose parents have requested that their child not have access to unhealthy food.
If any state tried to pass such a law, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and all the other big chain restaurants and franchisers would march an army of lobbyists into that state's capitol and promise every single state legislator that a vote in favor of that bill would be their ticket out of office come the next election, guaranteed.
In Inherit the Wind, Henry Drummond tells the court, "I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy. You can only punish. I warn you that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys everyone it touches -- its upholders as well as its defiers."
By that same token, how in the name of whatever god the people of Utah worship could they ever in a thousand years expect to be able to administer this law they passed with anything remotely resembling fairness or impartiality?
My experience has been that if I keep an email address away from the web, and never, ever let it appear on any website or directory anywhere, that email address will never, ever get spammed or phished. It helps if the address isn't just a single first name, of course. I used to have my email address on my website until I was getting about two hundred spams a day, and once I changed my email address, put up a harvester-proof form on my website, and notified all of my contacts of my new address, I never got spammed again.
This is worse than a case of trying to close the barn door after the horse has run out.
This is trying to close the barn door after the horse has run out, gone to the airport, and flown to Australia to play dijeridu in a punk band.
No way is Hormel ever going to successfully use litigation to stop the popular use of the name of its product to describe UCE. As long as the print media keeps putting quotes around it, all the lawyers in the world won't stop it.
These are rich people. Rich people buy each other expensive gifts.
I disagree. Apple is not using its dominance in the portable digital music player market to coerce vendors into carrying only iPods, and the iPod is a luxury item, not a necessity, like the PC (esp. for businesses) or the telephone. Nearly everyone I know owns a PC (almost all have Windows PCs, too), and I know about three people (not including myself) who own iPods.
I'm an Apple zealot... I think Apple's intention is to make a profit.
Controlling 4% of a market is not a monopoly.
If you want to use a Windows PC, the price of the Mac makes absolutely no difference to you whatsoever. There's enough competition between Windows PC vendors to drive the prices down to the $299 you're willing to pay for a computer. I want to use a Mac, so I will have to pay extra for my Mac. I'm okay with that.
American women who are straight refer to female friends as "girlfriends," with no sexual connotation. An American straight man cannot have a "boyfriend," nor can he have a "girlfriend" without whom he's not in some way romantically or sexually involved. It's just a quirk of the American English language, I believe.