Very few diseases are due to simple genetic factors, and those already have dedicated tests. Genotyping may eventually become a big part of medicine, but not until there is a LOT more research done into how to use it, a lot more data available, and a lot better techniques for using it.
Right now, the genetic tests still cost $1000's, any may not be covered by insurance. (At least for what I might have)
A sub $1000 test for *everything* could save some people a lot of money.
The trick is getting the insurance companies to use genetic testing to help people instead of simply excluding the high risk patients. (The most recent bill in congress banned health insurance exclusion, but not life or long term care)
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man."
They still have to exploit the patent, ie. make a product.
nb. This assumes the Slashdot summary is accurate and there's no hidden loopholes.
But that product doesn't have to actually *work*.
Also, they'd probably only have to offer the product for sale. Actual customers wouldn't be necessary.
Or two separate patent trolls get into the business of building products and selling exactly one each to each other for $1,000,000. If the law tries to prevent this, they use 3 trolls and a few shell corporations so they are all classified "Practicing Entities".
...
Is that algorithm obvious?
Several Slashdot commentors who say the are programmers read the explanation of the algorithm and still didn't understand it at all. One might say that if it's explained to you and you don't "get it", it's probably not obvious.
There's a fine line between clever and stupid. If an average programmer reads the explanation, and "Doesn't get it", it could be either. Most patents are very poor explanations for what they are about.
If it has a gas engine, in what way is it "100% electric"?
That's a headscratcher for me.
AFAIK, if the engine in a VOLT fails, you can still go. With a Prius you're stranded.
I'd like to see an electric car that has 4 motors, one for each wheel. Add redundant control electronics and you could have 50% systems failure and still be able to get home.
One complaint conservatives about liberals is that they tend to try to outlaw stuff reactively. The EPA comes to mind, forbidding property owners certain uses of their land.
How can government encourage people to do the right thing without outlawing the wrong thing? How can the government "Speak Softly" but keep the "Big Stick" only when absolutely necessary?
With respect to copyrights, could the government tell people it's wrong to let artists starve, while making it easy to justly compensate them for their work?
Basically invented television, then RCA under Sarnoff stole it. I don't think he ever went bankrupt, but his laboratory equipment was repossessed. All and all, he spent much more time in the courtroom than any inventor should.
If you can make even a small amount of profit every 3 out of 5 years, you can be a business in the eyes of the IRS instead of just a hobby. Businesses can deduct the cost of their "toys" like CNC machines and other cool tools.
I've repaired guitar amps, both vacuum tube and solid state. When I retire, I may become a luthier and high end audio repair guy.
google for linuxcnc. Buy a manual Sherline mill like I did and CNC it as a basement project, then make 30 little "somethings" on it and take them to your next interview at a CNC plant. Lift a simple PLC off ebay and some software from "where-ever" and make the worlds most elaborate christmas light system on the front lawn.
This.
You might even find that making "little somethings" is exactly what you want to do. Then, figure out how to sell what you create on Etsy or local craft markets, antique stores*, miniature fairs, whatever.
*yes, I know he won't be manufacturing antiques, but there is a market for dodads and stuff to store and display antiques.
Why not? As long as you are upfront with your customers. Kickstarter style, write the first chapter of a dozen books, then finish the ones that people actually read to the end.
Yes, that will work best for the immediate action thrillers. The slow burners can still use the old business model of writing whole books that you may or may not get paid for.
There are almost no foods that are better cooked in a microwave oven, vs. a regular oven. So, no, I don't *cook* in a microwave oven, mostly it's for reheating food. or warming liquids.
Generally, all the pre-packaged frozen meals have instructions like "cook for N minutes and let rest for 2 minutes" The rest period is just an approximation. With a remote thermometer, the microwave itself could tell you when the item has rested enough, or if it needs a bit more energy pumped in.
Pre-made frozen meals taste like overheated cardboard. With a built in remote thermometer, they'd be slightly *better* cardboard that didn't burn your tongue.
My halogen cooktop might not have any ferrous metal in the "burner" area. You might be able to put a powerful magnet/motor device far enough under it so that it doesn't get too hot.
There are good remote thermometers. Combine one with a microwave oven so that it scans your food, and dials back the power if hot spots occur, and stops cooking when a predetermined temperature reached.
Plus, a pot stirring robot. Just put a spoon in the robot's hand, grab the arm and show it how to stir the pot. Then tell it to repeat the action. Bonus points if the spoon has a thermometer in it to alert you to your pudding boiling.
Yes. More tanks in WWII were killed by soldiers running up to them and shooting into the vents or with a grenade down the hatch. Many German officers were killed by snipers when they stuck their heads out.
AFAIK, during the Africa campaign, we ran the German army out of fuel and other supplies. Our tanks didn't take as much fuel.
Similar to the X-Prize, a claimant might spend more than $1,000,000 to get the prize so that he could then sell the results for many millions. Hell of a long con, there might be a good story/movie in the idea.
I like this. You need to film it in a dark room with a bunch of chain-smoking hollow eyed guys with nervous twitches.
Somewhere in the middle, have a cellphone to go off with a distinctive ring and have two of the guys react like Frankenstein to fire.
I think the real issue is the complete inadequacies in most companies Human Resource Departments. They need to be active in making sure each worker is getting their market value rate,
When Microsoft wanted to destroy Borland, they offered key engineers way above market rate to leave. They didn't want them to do anything special at Microsoft, they just wanted to bleed Borland. It worked.
Now I will have to give my full identity to any site that today requires just an e-mail account to register. An identity that will be the same I will use to make payments. What could go wrong with that?
It wouldn't have to. As long as the device can verify that you really are the same Bozo123 today that they talked to yesterday, and verify to you that the clowncollage.com that you are logged into today is the same that you used yesterday, it would be sufficient. The device could easily allow Bozo123, Bozo222, and Bozo666 to have independent authentications.
Of course if you link you Bozo123 account to your johnsmith@gmail.com account, then they can follow you.
The device would have to alert the use to each authentication and give the option to *not* authenticate to a particular site. I'm not sure relying on the host computer would be sufficient. The device may need it's own display and a few keys.
And of course, it would have to have open software with open standards so that anyone could verify that it it working.
That used to happen with mortgage companies. (There's a term for it, but I can't recall)
They couldn't discriminate based on ethnicity, but would exclude the parts of the city where certain people lived.
Of course, if we take this to it's illogical extreme, the insurance companies would go out of business if we could test exactly what diseases you'll get and when you will die. Insurance only works when there is uncertainty.
There are probably enough Browns and Smiths that it probably doesn't matter. However, if your last name is rarer, and 66% of the people with the name have something like Huntington's, you might be denied long term coverage.
AFAIR, the Lisa had automatic versioning of files. When you saved a document, you didn't overwrite the previous versions. Of course, on a 5MB hard drive, you'd run out of space quickly.
Slashdot Mirror
Very few diseases are due to simple genetic factors, and those already have dedicated tests. Genotyping may eventually become a big part of medicine, but not until there is a LOT more research done into how to use it, a lot more data available, and a lot better techniques for using it.
Right now, the genetic tests still cost $1000's, any may not be covered by insurance. (At least for what I might have)
A sub $1000 test for *everything* could save some people a lot of money.
The trick is getting the insurance companies to use genetic testing to help people instead of simply excluding the high risk patients. (The most recent bill in congress banned health insurance exclusion, but not life or long term care)
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--- George Bernard Shaw
They still have to exploit the patent, ie. make a product.
nb. This assumes the Slashdot summary is accurate and there's no hidden loopholes.
But that product doesn't have to actually *work*.
Also, they'd probably only have to offer the product for sale. Actual customers wouldn't be necessary.
Or two separate patent trolls get into the business of building products and selling exactly one each to each other for $1,000,000. If the law tries to prevent this, they use 3 trolls and a few shell corporations so they are all classified "Practicing Entities".
Or the trolls just start rolling their own bogus patents.
So you place dozens of beacons, and encrypt them. Only one will lead you to a valuable rock, the rest are less useful or empty space.
... Is that algorithm obvious? Several Slashdot commentors who say the are programmers read the explanation of the algorithm and still didn't understand it at all. One might say that if it's explained to you and you don't "get it", it's probably not obvious.
There's a fine line between clever and stupid. If an average programmer reads the explanation, and "Doesn't get it", it could be either. Most patents are very poor explanations for what they are about.
If it has a gas engine, in what way is it "100% electric"? That's a headscratcher for me.
AFAIK, if the engine in a VOLT fails, you can still go. With a Prius you're stranded.
I'd like to see an electric car that has 4 motors, one for each wheel. Add redundant control electronics and you could have 50% systems failure and still be able to get home.
One complaint conservatives about liberals is that they tend to try to outlaw stuff reactively. The EPA comes to mind, forbidding property owners certain uses of their land.
How can government encourage people to do the right thing without outlawing the wrong thing? How can the government "Speak Softly" but keep the "Big Stick" only when absolutely necessary?
With respect to copyrights, could the government tell people it's wrong to let artists starve, while making it easy to justly compensate them for their work?
Examples, please.
Philo T. Farnsworth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Farnsworth
Basically invented television, then RCA under Sarnoff stole it. I don't think he ever went bankrupt, but his laboratory equipment was repossessed. All and all, he spent much more time in the courtroom than any inventor should.
If you can make even a small amount of profit every 3 out of 5 years, you can be a business in the eyes of the IRS instead of just a hobby. Businesses can deduct the cost of their "toys" like CNC machines and other cool tools.
I've repaired guitar amps, both vacuum tube and solid state. When I retire, I may become a luthier and high end audio repair guy.
google for linuxcnc. Buy a manual Sherline mill like I did and CNC it as a basement project, then make 30 little "somethings" on it and take them to your next interview at a CNC plant. Lift a simple PLC off ebay and some software from "where-ever" and make the worlds most elaborate christmas light system on the front lawn.
This.
You might even find that making "little somethings" is exactly what you want to do. Then, figure out how to sell what you create on Etsy or local craft markets, antique stores*, miniature fairs, whatever.
*yes, I know he won't be manufacturing antiques, but there is a market for dodads and stuff to store and display antiques.
Publish hundreds of books 10 pages long
Why not? As long as you are upfront with your customers. Kickstarter style, write the first chapter of a dozen books, then finish the ones that people actually read to the end.
Yes, that will work best for the immediate action thrillers. The slow burners can still use the old business model of writing whole books that you may or may not get paid for.
There are almost no foods that are better cooked in a microwave oven, vs. a regular oven. So, no, I don't *cook* in a microwave oven, mostly it's for reheating food. or warming liquids.
Generally, all the pre-packaged frozen meals have instructions like "cook for N minutes and let rest for 2 minutes" The rest period is just an approximation. With a remote thermometer, the microwave itself could tell you when the item has rested enough, or if it needs a bit more energy pumped in.
Pre-made frozen meals taste like overheated cardboard. With a built in remote thermometer, they'd be slightly *better* cardboard that didn't burn your tongue.
My halogen cooktop might not have any ferrous metal in the "burner" area. You might be able to put a powerful magnet/motor device far enough under it so that it doesn't get too hot.
Most of my pots are magnetic, though.
There are good remote thermometers. Combine one with a microwave oven so that it scans your food, and dials back the power if hot spots occur, and stops cooking when a predetermined temperature reached.
Plus, a pot stirring robot. Just put a spoon in the robot's hand, grab the arm and show it how to stir the pot. Then tell it to repeat the action. Bonus points if the spoon has a thermometer in it to alert you to your pudding boiling.
Yes. More tanks in WWII were killed by soldiers running up to them and shooting into the vents or with a grenade down the hatch. Many German officers were killed by snipers when they stuck their heads out.
AFAIK, during the Africa campaign, we ran the German army out of fuel and other supplies. Our tanks didn't take as much fuel.
Similar to the X-Prize, a claimant might spend more than $1,000,000 to get the prize so that he could then sell the results for many millions. Hell of a long con, there might be a good story/movie in the idea.
I like this. You need to film it in a dark room with a bunch of chain-smoking hollow eyed guys with nervous twitches. Somewhere in the middle, have a cellphone to go off with a distinctive ring and have two of the guys react like Frankenstein to fire.
I think the real issue is the complete inadequacies in most companies Human Resource Departments. They need to be active in making sure each worker is getting their market value rate,
When Microsoft wanted to destroy Borland, they offered key engineers way above market rate to leave. They didn't want them to do anything special at Microsoft, they just wanted to bleed Borland. It worked.
"What gets rewarded, gets done"
--- Attributed to Steve Jobs*
* I'm sure someone else said it first.
Now I will have to give my full identity to any site that today requires just an e-mail account to register. An identity that will be the same I will use to make payments. What could go wrong with that?
It wouldn't have to. As long as the device can verify that you really are the same Bozo123 today that they talked to yesterday, and verify to you that the clowncollage.com that you are logged into today is the same that you used yesterday, it would be sufficient. The device could easily allow Bozo123, Bozo222, and Bozo666 to have independent authentications.
Of course if you link you Bozo123 account to your johnsmith@gmail.com account, then they can follow you.
The device would have to alert the use to each authentication and give the option to *not* authenticate to a particular site. I'm not sure relying on the host computer would be sufficient. The device may need it's own display and a few keys.
And of course, it would have to have open software with open standards so that anyone could verify that it it working.
That used to happen with mortgage companies. (There's a term for it, but I can't recall)
They couldn't discriminate based on ethnicity, but would exclude the parts of the city where certain people lived.
Of course, if we take this to it's illogical extreme, the insurance companies would go out of business if we could test exactly what diseases you'll get and when you will die. Insurance only works when there is uncertainty.
There are probably enough Browns and Smiths that it probably doesn't matter. However, if your last name is rarer, and 66% of the people with the name have something like Huntington's, you might be denied long term coverage.
AFAIR, the Lisa had automatic versioning of files. When you saved a document, you didn't overwrite the previous versions. Of course, on a 5MB hard drive, you'd run out of space quickly.