When the settlement was first announced (works out to $1-2K/defendant) I sent a complaint about the small amount to the generic email address at the plaintiff's law firm. Much to my surprise, one of the lawyers on the case contacted me back. He pointed out the defendant's legal budgets are essentially infinite, and they are more than willing to fight the case to the supreme court. Once you get there, a victory by the plaintiffs are not assured. Remember, these are the guys who handed down Citizen's United.
Do you want a new TV now, or a very(!) small chance to get a new car 5-10 years from now? That's what it comes down to.
+1. It seems like the results are perhaps keying off the compression artifacts introduced rather than any fundamental image data. Moreover, the compression artifacts are consistent from video to video, forming a consistent training set.
I was also annoyed by the possible $3B win vs. $324M settlement, so I contacted one of the class action plaintiff's lawyers. He called back and I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with him. Among other things, he pointed out the defendants in the case (Apple et. al) have monster legal budgets, and the case will very likely (after many years) be fought all the way to the Supreme court. The current SCOTUS is more corporate than citizen friendly (witness Citizens United, etc.) and a win there is -not- assured.
It is sickening to see the lawyers get a big payday, while you (the class member engineers you) are getting a new TV instead of a new car. But the TV is a sure deal, the car most likely is not.
Graphical programming languages were a popular PhD topic 25-30 years ago. You can find them today in systems targeted at kids or non-technical users. But you won't find them anywhere near serious software development. Text is an incredibly dense and powerful medium for communicating with machines. The problem with graphics for programming is they do not scale well. Consider a moderately complex problem, solved in, say, several thousand lines of code. The same thing expressed graphically starts using dozens of pages (or bubbles, or nodes or whatever graphics) to express the same thing. It gets ugly quick.
Several years ago, I did the side by side experiment of expressing the same non-trivial digital circuit (a four digit stopwatch with a multiplexed display) as both a schematic diagram, and as text with Verilog. The graphic (schematic) version was much more time consuming, and *much* harder to modify than the text-based Verilog. It became very clear why digital circuit designers abandoned graphics and switched text for complex designs.
I'm puzzled. The patent (at least the one cited in the article) details a very specific method for creating the crystals in LEDs. I can see BU going after various LED manufacturers (Cree, Philips, Panasonic, etc.). But Apple? Microsoft? Those companies re-sell those components, they don't manufacture them.
Ironically, the FB headquarters is right next to East Palo Alto, one of the poorer neighborhoods in the Bay Area. In the early '90s it had the highest (per capita) murder rate in the US, but that's since come down. Still, maybe not the place the average FaceBook nerd want's to send their kids to school at.
I'm also curious about this. Most production environments and many external libraries are firmly entrenched in Python 2.x. Were the changes in Python 3 too much, too late? In other words, was the house to near completion to start ripping up the floorboards and tearing out the drywall again?
I read to our kids every night, and after a while I got tired of wizards waving a wand to solve the problems. Wanting something non-fiction, I recalled The Kon-Tiki Expedition and it was perfect.
The best part about Thor Heyerdahl's amazing adventure story is that it's true. As in it really happened. Trips to the jungle, strange sea creatures, a real scientific mystery, a shipwreck on an exotic tropical island, it's all in there. The book is still in print (a true classic) and if poke around a bit, you can find a beautiful illustrated edition that's great for younger kids. It's one of the best science adventure books you'll ever find.
I like how the journalist blindly accepts their claim to being the #2 e-reader, completely ignoring Google (aka Play bookstore), Apple, or B&N. This smells like a CEO blowing smoke in the hopes of unloading a money-losing business on somebody else.
Along with short battery life, I wonder how hot the thing gets. Hmm, might be handy to have a tablet that keeps your coffee warm. Or fries your eggs. Do they make non-stick Gorilla Glass?
Geez, NASA doesn't even follow their own rules.
You may recall, part of the Apollo 12 landing involved a hike over to the Surveyor 3 landing site. They hack-sawed the camera and several other pieces off the Surveyor probe and brought them home. Still waiting to see if any of it gets posted in eBay...
(Kind of ironic that they took the camera; the Apollo 12 astronauts ineptly fried their camera by pointing it at the sun, and ruined the live TV coverage of the entire mission).
Our company has several Bloom boxes. Natural gas in, electricity out. They're -very- noisy, and you can can see soot forming around exhaust vents on the top. Are they really fuel cells, or...gas turbine generators? Gas-fired boiler heats H2O to steam, pushes it through a turbine mechanical generator, H2O condenses. This would explain the noise and the soot.
I've been burned by this. The "Amount Due for Bail Forfeiture" (i.e., the fine) was exactly the same amount as the "Amount Due for a Court Appearance". What a coincidence, huh?
Be very careful to read the fine print on contests like this. I looked into one a few years ago (run by Hammacher Schlemmer, I think), and by entering you essentially wound up giving them your IP at pretty unfavorable terms. If you have a good idea, something like KickStarter is a much better bet.
Slashdot Mirror
When the settlement was first announced (works out to $1-2K/defendant) I sent a complaint about the small amount to the generic email address at the plaintiff's law firm. Much to my surprise, one of the lawyers on the case contacted me back. He pointed out the defendant's legal budgets are essentially infinite, and they are more than willing to fight the case to the supreme court. Once you get there, a victory by the plaintiffs are not assured. Remember, these are the guys who handed down Citizen's United. Do you want a new TV now, or a very(!) small chance to get a new car 5-10 years from now? That's what it comes down to.
This is fading away. The better solution is something like PhoneGap. This lets you build mobile cross platforms apps in HTML/JavaScript.
Yes, Eudora hasn't updated since '06, but it's still by far my favorite email client.
I'm glad to hear Google is dedicating resources to finding exploits in Internet softw...hey, wait, where'd my Bitcoins go???
You can learn more about the NSA data center here.
+1. It seems like the results are perhaps keying off the compression artifacts introduced rather than any fundamental image data. Moreover, the compression artifacts are consistent from video to video, forming a consistent training set.
This cartoon is rapidly becoming reality. What? Could you speak closer to the lampshade, please?
Leave it to Microsoft to screw up the map.
I was also annoyed by the possible $3B win vs. $324M settlement, so I contacted one of the class action plaintiff's lawyers. He called back and I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with him. Among other things, he pointed out the defendants in the case (Apple et. al) have monster legal budgets, and the case will very likely (after many years) be fought all the way to the Supreme court. The current SCOTUS is more corporate than citizen friendly (witness Citizens United, etc.) and a win there is -not- assured. It is sickening to see the lawyers get a big payday, while you (the class member engineers you) are getting a new TV instead of a new car. But the TV is a sure deal, the car most likely is not.
Several years ago, I did the side by side experiment of expressing the same non-trivial digital circuit (a four digit stopwatch with a multiplexed display) as both a schematic diagram, and as text with Verilog. The graphic (schematic) version was much more time consuming, and *much* harder to modify than the text-based Verilog. It became very clear why digital circuit designers abandoned graphics and switched text for complex designs.
I'm puzzled. The patent (at least the one cited in the article) details a very specific method for creating the crystals in LEDs. I can see BU going after various LED manufacturers (Cree, Philips, Panasonic, etc.). But Apple? Microsoft? Those companies re-sell those components, they don't manufacture them.
Ironically, the FB headquarters is right next to East Palo Alto, one of the poorer neighborhoods in the Bay Area. In the early '90s it had the highest (per capita) murder rate in the US, but that's since come down. Still, maybe not the place the average FaceBook nerd want's to send their kids to school at.
I'm also curious about this. Most production environments and many external libraries are firmly entrenched in Python 2.x. Were the changes in Python 3 too much, too late? In other words, was the house to near completion to start ripping up the floorboards and tearing out the drywall again?
Marshall Brain was onto this about a decade ago.
I read to our kids every night, and after a while I got tired of wizards waving a wand to solve the problems. Wanting something non-fiction, I recalled The Kon-Tiki Expedition and it was perfect. The best part about Thor Heyerdahl's amazing adventure story is that it's true. As in it really happened. Trips to the jungle, strange sea creatures, a real scientific mystery, a shipwreck on an exotic tropical island, it's all in there. The book is still in print (a true classic) and if poke around a bit, you can find a beautiful illustrated edition that's great for younger kids. It's one of the best science adventure books you'll ever find.
I like how the journalist blindly accepts their claim to being the #2 e-reader, completely ignoring Google (aka Play bookstore), Apple, or B&N. This smells like a CEO blowing smoke in the hopes of unloading a money-losing business on somebody else.
Eudora still runs on my Win7 box. I have email going back to at least the early '90s. All plaintext and easily searchable.
Along with short battery life, I wonder how hot the thing gets. Hmm, might be handy to have a tablet that keeps your coffee warm. Or fries your eggs. Do they make non-stick Gorilla Glass?
Geez, NASA doesn't even follow their own rules. You may recall, part of the Apollo 12 landing involved a hike over to the Surveyor 3 landing site. They hack-sawed the camera and several other pieces off the Surveyor probe and brought them home. Still waiting to see if any of it gets posted in eBay...
(Kind of ironic that they took the camera; the Apollo 12 astronauts ineptly fried their camera by pointing it at the sun, and ruined the live TV coverage of the entire mission).
What, you're sucking up to MBAs now? Taco! Come back...we need you!
Anybody seen the insides of a Bloom box?
I've been burned by this. The "Amount Due for Bail Forfeiture" (i.e., the fine) was exactly the same amount as the "Amount Due for a Court Appearance". What a coincidence, huh?
John Ott was promoting the health benefits of natural light in the 1960s. Nothing new here...
I guess we'll have to wait before the cowphone can go 3G...
Be very careful to read the fine print on contests like this. I looked into one a few years ago (run by Hammacher Schlemmer, I think), and by entering you essentially wound up giving them your IP at pretty unfavorable terms. If you have a good idea, something like KickStarter is a much better bet.