Whether or not there was anything secret to discover, WeWork wouldn't have sent people there under false pretenses unless they thought there was. And, if WeWork thought there were secrets to discover from the competition, then they themselves probably have secrets.
"What do you think the phrase 'non-urgent' means?"
It means something which isn't required immediately. So, it either shouldn't be covered at all, or it should be covered immediately so it doesn't become a more expensive to treat urgent issue.
If you were actually curious, you would have simply checked the linked-to register. Instead, you jumped in to show everyone you've read that book about Henrietta Lacks.
This is a wireless connector, not an electrical connector. "Connector" means "a thing that links two or more things together." So, it seems to be you who doesn't understand the meaning of the words.
A patent troll uses patents as legal weapons, instead of actually creating any new products or coming up with new ideas. Instead, trolls are in the business of litigation (or even just threatening litigation). They often buy up patents cheaply from companies down on their luck who are looking to monetize what resources they have left, such as patents. Unfortunately, the Patent Office has a habit of issuing patents for ideas that are neither new nor revolutionary, and these patents can be very broad, covering everyday or commonsense types of computing - things that should never have been patented in the first place. Armed with these overbroad and vague patents, the troll will then send out threatening letters to those they argue infringe their patent(s). These letters threaten legal action unless the alleged infringer agrees to pay a licensing fee, which can often range to the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Many who receive infringement letters will choose to pay the licensing fee, even if they believe the patent is bogus or their product did not infringe. That's because patent litigation is extremely expensive - often millions of dollars per suit - and can take years of court battles. It's faster and easier for companies to settle.
"I'm happy to call any company that produces nothing a patent troll"
Then you'd be wrong. The term is a pejorative broadly used by those who don't have any real understanding of the patent system, so they don't understand the difference between trolls and NPEs. Would you call UCal and MIT patent trolls?
"Indeed VirnetX would appear to be a patent troll"
No, absolutely not. Patent trolls don't go after multi-national corporations. They have weak or indefensible patents, and go after low-hanging fruit, trying to avoid court at all costs - they live on out-of-court settlements where the target figures paying is cheaper than fighting.
Now, they may be a NPE (non-practicing entity), which doesn't make products which use their patents, but that's another thing entirely. Lots of universities fall in that category - they don't make products, but license patents they developed with research. Nothing unethical about it, they developed or bought reasonable, enforceable patents. Say some Joe Blow patented something unique - he doesn't have the resources to fight an infringer like Apple, so he sells the patent to someone who does. The system works like it should, assuming you think patents should exist at all.
That the patent(s) in question here have held up across several cases shows they're not a patent troll.
iPhone 8 is 7.3-7.7 mm thick. One can easily find over-the-counter 3.5 mm jacks which are ~5 mm in total height. If they can't fit a jack in one of their phones, they're either not trying or incompetent.
And personally, I find the that the current move toward thin phones (including my 9mm thick one) with to-the-edge screens uncomfortable and inconvenient. You have to hold them by the edge, and half the time you'll still end up with the screen sensing a finger overlapping the edge of the screen causing unwanted inputs. And, trying to handle them so that's not an issue just makes them more likely to be dropped, but maybe that's the intent. If it weren't so sadly hostile to human factors engineering, watching a person try to hand a phone to someone else so they could see a picture, etc. without disturbing what's on the screen would be comical.
Apple isn't about design, let alone good design. They're about form over function. Good design doesn't make that compromise.
"Nothing will make the keyboard obsolete. NOTHING."
Millennials might. Perhaps you haven't noticed - look for instructions on something, and rather than low bandwidth, high content text, you'll more often find Youtube videos which are high bandwidth, low content. A picture is worth a thousand words, my ass. A thousand words is worth 1000 kilobytes of video.
overpriced accessories like the lightning-to-audio adapter included in the box"
Do they include at least 4 of them? Because, I regularly plug into 3 stereos, plus multiple sets of wired headphones. No, carrying one at all times is not a choice - that's what an always-there headset jack is for.
To sell overpriced accessories, or just because they're lemmings. Seriously, $20 or $9, both are more expensive than the $1 it would have cost to leave the always-available jack on the phone.
Both Google and Apple are pushing $1000 phones which are huge. Tiny $100 basic phones have headphone jacks. Any excuse that it's size or cost is bullshit rationalization.
"So this doesn't include fuel for google street view cars, manufacturing processes for the Pixel phone, Google home and other hardware, etc.
Google is nowhere near 100% renewable yet."
Are you doing better? Not that your claim has any valid logic behind it - just because they didn't specifically claim they'll soon be "renewable" in all areas doesn't mean they aren't headed that way.
And, define "nowhere near." I'll submit that their data centers and offices are, by far, their largest energy consumers.
I can understand your confusion - you simply don't have a clue. Google started with an innovative search concept, then came up with a way to monetize it. They put lots of money into various innovative projects (many of which fail, which is the nature of the beast - see Edison), and no one has claimed IBM, Microsoft, Apple or Google are open source companies.
Microsoft is already the new IBM (old and staid). Apple is the new Microsoft (embrace and extend with proprietary stuff to ensure lock-in). Google is the new Apple.
"The previously mentioned music degree and no previous work history in the industry? Because her since then deleted LinkedIn account didn't show anything IT related between her degree in music composition and being hired as CSO at the company. "
You're making things up. Prior to Equifax, Susan Mauldin spent over 4 years at First Data as Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer. It's not clear what "industry" you're referring to, but before that she worked for both SunTrust (financial industry) and HP (IT industry).
OK. I'll see your Star Trek with a bar of gold pressed latinum, and raise you with Atlas Shrugged, which doesn't require non-existent things like replicators, transporters, and dilithium crystals.
Slashdot Mirror
Whether or not there was anything secret to discover, WeWork wouldn't have sent people there under false pretenses unless they thought there was. And, if WeWork thought there were secrets to discover from the competition, then they themselves probably have secrets.
"What's the point of smoking if you have nicotine-free e-cigs?"
I say the same thing about decaffeinated coffee.
Nicotine is addictive. News at 11.
It's a mute point.
Because, deterrent. It's not using them, it's making the other side think you will. Our guy is crazier than your guy, and all that.
You make the mistake of not knowing what the word "or" means.
"What do you think the phrase 'non-urgent' means?"
It means something which isn't required immediately. So, it either shouldn't be covered at all, or it should be covered immediately so it doesn't become a more expensive to treat urgent issue.
They're all developing peanut allergies.
If you were actually curious, you would have simply checked the linked-to register. Instead, you jumped in to show everyone you've read that book about Henrietta Lacks.
This is a wireless connector, not an electrical connector. "Connector" means "a thing that links two or more things together." So, it seems to be you who doesn't understand the meaning of the words.
For the manufacturer, too, that's exactly what it's called.
"I'm happy to call any company that produces nothing a patent troll"
Then you'd be wrong. The term is a pejorative broadly used by those who don't have any real understanding of the patent system, so they don't understand the difference between trolls and NPEs. Would you call UCal and MIT patent trolls?
"Indeed VirnetX would appear to be a patent troll"
No, absolutely not. Patent trolls don't go after multi-national corporations. They have weak or indefensible patents, and go after low-hanging fruit, trying to avoid court at all costs - they live on out-of-court settlements where the target figures paying is cheaper than fighting.
Now, they may be a NPE (non-practicing entity), which doesn't make products which use their patents, but that's another thing entirely. Lots of universities fall in that category - they don't make products, but license patents they developed with research. Nothing unethical about it, they developed or bought reasonable, enforceable patents. Say some Joe Blow patented something unique - he doesn't have the resources to fight an infringer like Apple, so he sells the patent to someone who does. The system works like it should, assuming you think patents should exist at all.
That the patent(s) in question here have held up across several cases shows they're not a patent troll.
"Apple is OCD about thinness"
iPhone 8 is 7.3-7.7 mm thick. One can easily find over-the-counter 3.5 mm jacks which are ~5 mm in total height. If they can't fit a jack in one of their phones, they're either not trying or incompetent.
And personally, I find the that the current move toward thin phones (including my 9mm thick one) with to-the-edge screens uncomfortable and inconvenient. You have to hold them by the edge, and half the time you'll still end up with the screen sensing a finger overlapping the edge of the screen causing unwanted inputs. And, trying to handle them so that's not an issue just makes them more likely to be dropped, but maybe that's the intent. If it weren't so sadly hostile to human factors engineering, watching a person try to hand a phone to someone else so they could see a picture, etc. without disturbing what's on the screen would be comical.
Apple isn't about design, let alone good design. They're about form over function. Good design doesn't make that compromise.
"Nothing will make the keyboard obsolete. NOTHING."
Millennials might. Perhaps you haven't noticed - look for instructions on something, and rather than low bandwidth, high content text, you'll more often find Youtube videos which are high bandwidth, low content. A picture is worth a thousand words, my ass. A thousand words is worth 1000 kilobytes of video.
Why isn't the backup market exploding?
overpriced accessories like the lightning-to-audio adapter included in the box"
Do they include at least 4 of them? Because, I regularly plug into 3 stereos, plus multiple sets of wired headphones. No, carrying one at all times is not a choice - that's what an always-there headset jack is for.
To sell overpriced accessories, or just because they're lemmings. Seriously, $20 or $9, both are more expensive than the $1 it would have cost to leave the always-available jack on the phone.
Both Google and Apple are pushing $1000 phones which are huge. Tiny $100 basic phones have headphone jacks. Any excuse that it's size or cost is bullshit rationalization.
"...using inadequate language..."
ITYM "inappropriate."
"So this doesn't include fuel for google street view cars, manufacturing processes for the Pixel phone, Google home and other hardware, etc. Google is nowhere near 100% renewable yet."
Are you doing better? Not that your claim has any valid logic behind it - just because they didn't specifically claim they'll soon be "renewable" in all areas doesn't mean they aren't headed that way.
And, define "nowhere near." I'll submit that their data centers and offices are, by far, their largest energy consumers.
"Huh ???? "
I can understand your confusion - you simply don't have a clue. Google started with an innovative search concept, then came up with a way to monetize it. They put lots of money into various innovative projects (many of which fail, which is the nature of the beast - see Edison), and no one has claimed IBM, Microsoft, Apple or Google are open source companies.
"Facebook is the new Google"
No, Facebook is the new NSA.
Microsoft is already the new IBM (old and staid). Apple is the new Microsoft (embrace and extend with proprietary stuff to ensure lock-in). Google is the new Apple.
"The previously mentioned music degree and no previous work history in the industry? Because her since then deleted LinkedIn account didn't show anything IT related between her degree in music composition and being hired as CSO at the company. "
You're making things up. Prior to Equifax, Susan Mauldin spent over 4 years at First Data as Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer. It's not clear what "industry" you're referring to, but before that she worked for both SunTrust (financial industry) and HP (IT industry).
OK. I'll see your Star Trek with a bar of gold pressed latinum, and raise you with Atlas Shrugged, which doesn't require non-existent things like replicators, transporters, and dilithium crystals.