Funny how at the start of the US patent system toward the end of the 18th century, patents expired in 28 years. Back then the pace of innovation was glacially slow compared to today. Today, when technological progress happens several orders of magnitude faster, patents now expire in only 28 years. Thanks to Disney, copyrights can last even longer. We live in a truly amazong world!
How about 5 years for patents and for trademarks 5 years or as long as they're actively being used?
Remove the monopoly and ordinary letters and postcards will cost several dollars to send. A better idea is for the USPS to start raising rates substantially, at least 30% per year, on 3rd class mail (catalogs & junk mail), most of which is the postal equivalent of spam, which is now sent at well below first class letter rates. Since the purveyors of those exciting offers and unbelievable bargains have no alternative means of distributing their waste paper (they're already using the net, too), they'll pay the higher rates or quit spamming our postal mailboxes. Considering that over two thirds of what hits my mailbox now is 3rd class mail that I simply recycle, the extra cash and/or reduced volume should help the USPS financially. I'd be willing to pay for the occasional paper-based catalog I really want in exchange for decreasing the quantity of junk.
Late last November I mailed half a dozen Christmas packages to several relatives & friends in Germany via priority mail & first class (depending on weight). USPS was barely cheaper than the commercial carriers, since "parcel post" no longer exists for international (to Europe, anyway). I was told it would take a week to 10 days for them to be delivered. The first package arrived New Year's eve; the rest at various times in January. For an extra 10% or so, they would have arrived in less than a week.
This spring a friend with a small business sent a bid in to a US Government agency via USPS express "guaranteed one day delivery." He verified with the clerk at the post office that the destination (downtown in a large city less than 250 miles away) was included in the delivery guarantee area. Since the deadline for bids was in 2 days, he figured he had a margin in case it took an extra day. It took 4 days. No refund was offered under the "guarantee." When the winner was announced he found he would have had the winning bid. Another former USPS customer is born.
Thank You!
I haven't had such a good laugh in a long time. I wonder how many of your readers missed the irony in the article and thought you were actually saying the Zune would succeed because they keep invoking that lame MySpace everyone is getting bored with.
Your glowing description of the Zune's "bigger screen" was great, too. You could also have pointed out that though Zune and iPod both have 320x240 pixels, that Zune's bigger (and cheaper) pixels make theirs fuzzier, with less of that annoying image sharpness. And of course your comment that Zune's 4x3 screen (when sideways) is much better for widescreen movies than iPod's 3x4 screen was hilarious.
Your restraint in not trying for easy laughs about the Zune's color scheme and nonfunctional nav wheel is admirable; it would have been a cheap shot. And the way you were able to actually write "the Microsoft consumer media juggernaut" without mentioning Bob or the many other Microsoft media successes is a masterpiece of subtlety.
Anyway, my congratulations. I can't wait to read what you have to say about [hasta la] Vista.
Creative's patent (in any sane world) would be thrown out because there is a plethora of prior art, but mostly because it is blinking obvious to anyone with at least a room temperature IQ.
My guess is that Apple will offer them a token pittance (cheaper than going to court) & tell them to pound sand. Creative should take it if they have any sense.
I use Safari and Firefox on my macs, but my bank requires me to use IE or Netscape to access their site. So, I set Safari's user agent to IE and everything works. Older versions of Netscape for mac (still widely used on older machines) also had the option to modify the user agent. I help out a few senior citizens with netscape on older macs and all their browsers are set to report as IE.
The "object" is on the surface within a few meters of the heat shield. It's like nothing else the rovers have seen on Mars in over a year. I'd bet on Terrestrial origin. A "melty" chunk of the shield sounds about right. The surface pattern even resembles some of the texture of the shield material.
Actually, back when patents were established in the US constitution over 200 years ago, the system did help inventors. But, ever since corporations attained legal "personhood" (over 100 years ago) the US has gradually become a "government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations."
My apologies to President Lincoln -- though his comments on the topic are quite astute, not to mention prescient: "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
You can't imagine how fervently I wish that what you wrote was true. Unfortunately, while many would like to believe it, the evidence is clear that it hasn't been true for a long time, if it ever was.
Please, don't ever lose your idealism. It's the primary catalyst for making things better. It's our vision of how things ought to be that makes it possible to change the way they are.
Since when is it betrayal to publicly disagree with the government? Remember the first amendment, the one that includes the right to free speech? That's one of the essential cornerstones of political freedom.
Or, in other words: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt, speaking on President Wilson's crackdown on dissent after the U.S. entered WWI.
"most moderates find excessive flag waving more amusing than inspiring."
By implication, you classify yourself as a moderate. In today's world (including the US of A) I'm afraid that makes you an endangered species.
If you mange to get federal recognition of this status, it is likely that millions inr tax dollars will be spent to study you and your environment, at least until it gets bulldozed for a new landfill.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny how at the start of the US patent system toward the end of the 18th century, patents expired in 28 years. Back then the pace of innovation was glacially slow compared to today. Today, when technological progress happens several orders of magnitude faster, patents now expire in only 28 years. Thanks to Disney, copyrights can last even longer. We live in a truly amazong world! How about 5 years for patents and for trademarks 5 years or as long as they're actively being used?
Remove the monopoly and ordinary letters and postcards will cost several dollars to send. A better idea is for the USPS to start raising rates substantially, at least 30% per year, on 3rd class mail (catalogs & junk mail), most of which is the postal equivalent of spam, which is now sent at well below first class letter rates. Since the purveyors of those exciting offers and unbelievable bargains have no alternative means of distributing their waste paper (they're already using the net, too), they'll pay the higher rates or quit spamming our postal mailboxes. Considering that over two thirds of what hits my mailbox now is 3rd class mail that I simply recycle, the extra cash and/or reduced volume should help the USPS financially. I'd be willing to pay for the occasional paper-based catalog I really want in exchange for decreasing the quantity of junk.
This spring a friend with a small business sent a bid in to a US Government agency via USPS express "guaranteed one day delivery." He verified with the clerk at the post office that the destination (downtown in a large city less than 250 miles away) was included in the delivery guarantee area. Since the deadline for bids was in 2 days, he figured he had a margin in case it took an extra day. It took 4 days. No refund was offered under the "guarantee." When the winner was announced he found he would have had the winning bid. Another former USPS customer is born.
For him to get fired, someone there would need to have some sense. Good luck finding that among most executives of big media.
Thank You! I haven't had such a good laugh in a long time. I wonder how many of your readers missed the irony in the article and thought you were actually saying the Zune would succeed because they keep invoking that lame MySpace everyone is getting bored with. Your glowing description of the Zune's "bigger screen" was great, too. You could also have pointed out that though Zune and iPod both have 320x240 pixels, that Zune's bigger (and cheaper) pixels make theirs fuzzier, with less of that annoying image sharpness. And of course your comment that Zune's 4x3 screen (when sideways) is much better for widescreen movies than iPod's 3x4 screen was hilarious. Your restraint in not trying for easy laughs about the Zune's color scheme and nonfunctional nav wheel is admirable; it would have been a cheap shot. And the way you were able to actually write "the Microsoft consumer media juggernaut" without mentioning Bob or the many other Microsoft media successes is a masterpiece of subtlety. Anyway, my congratulations. I can't wait to read what you have to say about [hasta la] Vista.
Creative's patent (in any sane world) would be thrown out because there is a plethora of prior art, but mostly because it is blinking obvious to anyone with at least a room temperature IQ. My guess is that Apple will offer them a token pittance (cheaper than going to court) & tell them to pound sand. Creative should take it if they have any sense.
I use Safari and Firefox on my macs, but my bank requires me to use IE or Netscape to access their site. So, I set Safari's user agent to IE and everything works. Older versions of Netscape for mac (still widely used on older machines) also had the option to modify the user agent. I help out a few senior citizens with netscape on older macs and all their browsers are set to report as IE.
The "object" is on the surface within a few meters of the heat shield. It's like nothing else the rovers have seen on Mars in over a year. I'd bet on Terrestrial origin. A "melty" chunk of the shield sounds about right. The surface pattern even resembles some of the texture of the shield material.
My apologies to President Lincoln -- though his comments on the topic are quite astute, not to mention prescient: "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country ... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
Please, don't ever lose your idealism. It's the primary catalyst for making things better. It's our vision of how things ought to be that makes it possible to change the way they are.
Or, in other words: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt, speaking on President Wilson's crackdown on dissent after the U.S. entered WWI.
Whassamatta? Yew don'd kare fer comik boucks?
By implication, you classify yourself as a moderate. In today's world (including the US of A) I'm afraid that makes you an endangered species.
If you mange to get federal recognition of this status, it is likely that millions inr tax dollars will be spent to study you and your environment, at least until it gets bulldozed for a new landfill.