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User: pbrooks100

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  1. Dean Wormer to head up USPTO on Congress Asks Patent Office To Consider Secret Patents · · Score: 1

    I will only submit after the creation of a "double-secret patent application" becomes available. Darn, I just gave away my patent idea...

  2. Failed business model on Automated Machines To Recycle Phones For Money · · Score: 2

    Cash on the spot? I think not... Considering the issues of stolen devices, carrier account transfer/deactivation, forgotten SIM and purging of personal data; this is a business model that will not fly. These are human problems that will not be easily overcome by some image acquisition and USB port hacking... One business opportunity for this may be to create a service to collect lost phones found by a good samaritan. Insurance carriers for policies that people buy for their phone could report SNs and pay a small fee to ecoATM for the return of a lost device. If the lost device was already replaced, the insurer would be free to dispose of the device as fit (sell to ecoATM). Add a feature to collect the finder's data to optionally allow payment for a finder's fee and place it next to a Redbox or Coinstar and this MAY have a SMALL chance.

  3. First On Race Day! on Former Employee Stole Ford Secrets Worth $50 Million · · Score: 1

    I'll admit that the 90's and most 0x's are crap; poor finishes and ugly designs, poor reliability.

    I'm sort of interested in the fact that Consumer Reports has been finding the newer models acceptable. Add in that Ford didn't take/need a bail-out and that the new Taurus and Fiesta actually have some style/fit and finish and I might switch back. I've been driving Honda and Toyota for 10+ years. Considering the Toyota scares along with the Honda ugliness,

    Although I haven't driven a Ford lately...

  4. Re:Students will complain on Colleges May Start Forcing Switch To eTextbooks · · Score: 1
    I had the same experience. One class I took the professor checked everyone's book to see if it was the latest version; it was new that semester ($75). He never referred the book all semester; no reading assignment, no homework, nothing to do with the book. The book changed again the next semester and the bookstore didn't want to buy it back. Students taking the class knew they would get flack for not having the latest version, so the book was worthless. I still think to this day he was 'buddies' with the author.

    They have a fix for that... it's called new edition every year, which obsoletes all the ...

    Sounds like (put favorite Apple product name here). The difference is we choose to purchase something like an iPhone/iPad/iPod. The intersection of these two industries is scary. When we reach the point where you need the lastest iWhatEver or an OS upgrade to it that employs the latest encryption in order to use an app to 'rent' the latest text book, I will give up all hope.

    At least I will always have my hard copy of Machinery's Handbook (I think it cost ~ $90 USD in 1984).

  5. Re:Just like many other things of this nature... on Is RFID Really That Scary? · · Score: 1

    Wow! Sold out already...

  6. Re:False assumption on Sentence Spacing — 1 Space or 2? · · Score: 1

    Spaces?! What Spaces?!

    I code in LabVIEW; we don't use no stinking spaces (unless communicating with OLD programming languages).

  7. Is the OS a product or a license? on The Recovery Disc Rip-Off · · Score: 1

    If a physical disk is not shipped with the product, does this help M$ support the claim that you are purchasing a license to use rather than a product?

    While production costs are certainly lower, this may have more to do with changing the marketplace than saving costs. Who benefits the most from the absence of physical media and manuals?

  8. I haven't the 'remotest' idea on Managing the Most Remote Data Center In the World · · Score: -1

    what the title means, but it does make me wonder what it might be like to manage the most remote data center in the world...

  9. Re:Antidepressants can make people suicidal on Antidepressants In the Water Are Making Shrimp Suicidal · · Score: 1

    Did you mean homicidal, or are you homophobic ;-)

  10. Re:Monitoring Google? on Pakistan To Scour Google, Yahoo For Blasphemy · · Score: 1
  11. Re:Tell me about it on Students Flock To GMU For a Degree In Video Game Design · · Score: 1

    Unless you want to write games for Apple products ;)

  12. Re:Um, no on Cows On Treadmills Produce Clean Power For Farms · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Make that "AND no corn syrup". High-fructose corn syrup ON meat is a bit much, even for crazy Amercicans...

  13. Re:Um, no on Cows On Treadmills Produce Clean Power For Farms · · Score: 1

    In the US, most markets sell only Choice; you need to special order Prime or visit a butcher shop. The restaurant industry consumes most of the Prime cuts, providing better margin because people will pay for the quality when they go out to dinner.

    Marbling is the real difference. The Japanese have spent generations breeding and tending to Wagyu cattle that have some of the most tender and marbled beef in the world. Sell a choice steak at the market with a ring of fat that would represent the amount of fat in a Prime cut and the customer would complain that the store was trying to cheat them.

    As for range fed; it tastes MUCH better. The difference between a Choice steak of grain fed origin and that of a Prime, range fed cut is like the difference betweem Cheez Whiz and Camembert.

    I've been working hard to control the corn derived products in my diet. I prefer range fed meats and products with no high-fructose corn syrup.

  14. Re:And he decided to pay the late fees... on George Washington Racks Up 220 Years of Late Fees At Library · · Score: 1

    Better in quarters...

  15. Uncle Sam might get mad on Sony Update Bricks Playstations · · Score: 1

    I know people who administer Linux clusters of PS3s. If these devices get bricked, I'm sure Sony will hear about it...

    http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/09/military-purchases-2200-ps3s/

  16. Huh-huh-huh... on Quality Concerns For Kingston microSD Cards · · Score: 0

    ... you said Chumby

  17. Fast forward 50 years; NBC vault on CBS Refuses To Preserve Jack Benny Footage · · Score: 2, Funny

    Archivist: 'These Conan O'Brien DVDs of the Tonight Show are part of our national history; part of our culture! Its a miracle that these discs have lasted this long. We've got to preserve this stuff!'

    NBC President Jay Leno (consisting of head in jar): 'Who is this Conan guy, and why should I care?'

  18. Re:Get Ready Because Here I Come! on OMNI Magazine Remembered · · Score: 1

    All this text, and not a mention of OMNI Magazine. Was this post somehow placed by a futuristic cyberspace type program, a snow shoveling robot, or an alien chick with glossy lips?

  19. Re:Sorry on Bono Hopes Content Tracking Will Help Media Moguls · · Score: 1

    Apology accepted.

  20. Re:fun but probably not that accurate on Using Hacked Wiimotes As Scientific Sensors · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In my experience, doing some sensor systems with cheap sensors and expensive sensors, the difference is that cheap ones can be fast or accurate, while good ones can be both. ... Its really a matter of knowing what you need. In many cases a cheap sensor works really well.

    Using cheap sensors can allow you to validate your hypothesis. This can in turn help you justify the additional expense of calibrated and more precise sensors to accurately describe the relationship observed. (You can also use spares of the cheap sensor equipment to play games and blow off steam while the experiment is running; Mario Kart anyone? :)

  21. Re:DON'T LIKE iT? DOn'T USE IT !! on Facebook Masks Worse Privacy With New Interface · · Score: 1

    Just bookmarked fakenamegenerator ... Priceless!

  22. Re:Wishful thinking on After 35 Years, Another Message Sent From Arecibo · · Score: 1

    Slow data is better than no data...

  23. Obligatory Abe Vigoda reference... on Facebook To Preserve Accounts of the Dead · · Score: 1
  24. Re:N00b thing? on Geocities Shutting Down Today · · Score: 1

    Has it been that long? Can someone help me install Trumpet Winsock so I can get my Windows 3.11 system in the internet using PPP?

    PPP is not reliable, try using SLIP.

  25. Wait for the vendors to install it before buying on Hidden Fees Discovered For "Free" Windows 7 Upgrade · · Score: 1

    This is why I've been waiting for the computer I want to be shipped with Windows 7. I really want to replace my dinosaur, but I wasn't about to spend a month tuning and tweaking a new computer only to have it completely destroyed by an upgrade. By the time you upgrade your OS, then install/upgrade your antivirus (that will surely complain or not work correctly) along with the lack of an optical drive on some notebook/netbook models; it's not worth the trouble.