I LOVE her house... and i am a guy!!!!
tiffany stained glass windows... and i like the danger aspect... not only do stairs lead up to ceilings and such... but there are doors that drop down to the basement!!!
the idea was that it would confuse the ghosts and they would find it unlivable(? sorry no other word i could think of)
i wish i could buy that place and leave it just the way it is... i think its perfect!!!!
you are partially right...
however.. i started writign in the days when the software engineers had computer science degrees.. and things such as standards actually existed!!!! god we had reams of standards to follow... just like archetects... however.. the push to cheaper labor dumbed the whole thing down, along with the belief that you can make a clerical job out of a professional skill...
and while i agree in spirit, i disagree with that last paragraph... what is behind software has not changed... only the window dressing.. just like archetecture... however, unlike archetecture, software is not taken as seriosly... by anyone... the people who buy it accept it as poor... the people that make it cant compete making better software as long as you can do poorer and sell...
there is also a belief, as you state also, that they put experienced people in place.. but in software, youth is believed to know more, because of your assumption that the game has changed. so they put inexperienved people that dont listen in charge of experienced people that cant help. its so bad that i showed the boss a study done by MIT that showed that what he was doing was the wrong way to go... and you know what.. this salesman marketing person living in nj and who went to a community college said that that wont happen we can do better than them. (i am a bronx science person... i dont think he can do better than MIT)...
the problem is much deeper than just bad programmers...
hey,
i am that guy you are writing about. : )
and to tell you the truth.. the best example of what REALLY happens can be seen in the movie with cary grant (the title escapes me), in wich they build a house, and it ends up costing incredible amounts of money....
anyway... the reason that house looks like it did is because the people that hired the programmer said "we are paying you, do it the way we want it done"... and so withouth zoning laws and fines and building codes, the 'archetect' has no choice but to build a house he knows doesnt work.
a case in point in my career... as the author lamented there are rules we follow from experience... many are not coded... so you dont have to tell them to put a light switch 4 feet high, just inside the door... its done so much, its now a standard. everywhere things work like this...
so i write the code to use one of these unwritten standards for someone that is not all that computer literate. they want to sell the software, and we have an argument for a long time because they want the F1 button to do (A), and i want it to call up the help information. my reasoning, is that every other program does it this way and you dont want to make the learning curve for your software to be steeper for no reason. her reasoning... "We will do it differently, break the mold, and set the new standard"!
who do you think won that battle?
so her software had a ton of things that were no intuitive.. i agree there are a lot of bad progerammers out there (because they bloated and simplified things to get dummber people to be able to produce so as to lower costs... do most cant do anything unless proscribed in detail, and real skills are lacking - now businesses are going elsewhere to get the programmers we used to have before they whined they needed cheaper ones)...
if you hire me to program for you i will do a great job, if you focus on what you need and not how that need is fulfilled in detail. however, the punishment structure is in reverse. if i stick to my guns to build nothing but quality, you will hire someone else, and so i dont eat. if i build what you want, but cant live in, i get paid, i get to eat, and you will recommend me to other people!!!
which would you do? i make unlivable houses and eat while complaining under my breath and smiling to the bosses...
by the way.. the worste people that are most responsible for this thing are marketing people.. even more so than bosses and managers they get to dick with things for no reason, and get too much power to have it their way (its a dilbert constant!!!)....
the next worst group is the salesmen.. who would rather close a deal on something that is impossible than miss a deal... period!
But original applications should at least have a chance to make some money in the free market...
You aren't arguing for making money in the free market, you're arguing for a government granting you a monopoly so there is no free market.
not too bright thinking that is not a free market! in order for the market to be free you need to balance the big guy against the little guy. granting a limited monopoly on one aspect of something is not stopping freedom it is insuring it. the kind of freedom you are proscribing is not freedom but anarchy, which is fine if you are the anarchist and everyone isnt!! if there was not the chance of recouping what you put in then there is no reason to try! every decent idea will be taken apart, remade, and sold by other larger concernes that got their start before you were born and would never let go of or stop maintaining their hegemony.
in fact if you think inventors and designers are paranoid now... wait if there isnt such protection, nothing will happen because anyone with an idea will be too afraid to even discuss it.
their only hope is to acquire a few million and make it themselves and grab the market share... which means that a prodigious inventor can now only create a few things as they cant sell them and move on...
withouht a patent you have no idea to sell!!! what would someone be buying? trade secret doesnt cover it when what you make doesnt contain a something that is crucial to its working that no one has or can ficure out.
the problem is not from the concept of a patent, its from how the laws have been changed by large corporations to favor them and make the burdens on smaller entities onerous (so perhaps they wont compete they will just sell to the large company for cheap).
the other problem is what is being patented... no one argues about patents on physical conglomerations of objects that together do something. but it gets flakier and problematical when its something you just pick up and the limitation to entry is that you have more money. like dna, or bio patents based on reading whats their... under this perview the first person do discover oxygen could have gotten a patent on it. though its not crazy to think that a mouse with special genes and all the work to make is patentable.
software though is mathematical... and when the math us special like rsa THAT is what should be patented... but program structure that is not all this unique stuff but only a unique function should be under copyright. for its like a book that is the embodyment of a concept, not a manual that is the desertation of a special fact.
its a mess... the big boys are winning and there is no super heroes to help or save. better to stop arguing the point and find better things to do with your time than participate in your personal attrition!
Ok. say all the other doomsday things somehow dont happen. there is one thing that WILL happen.
note that in the description of how it works on microsofts site, that you control the parameters, and an agent oversees activities and such.
people here keep thinking that it has to do with DRM, but actually it has to do with third party compatibility!!!!
right now i can reverse engineer ms file formats for say Word.. i can then write an application that does something tha Word does not. if i pay microsoft then they will allow me access to the encrypted representation but if i am not then there will be no way for my new apps to work with the apps of microsoft.
new software is seldomly a stand along affair. many companies exist by making addons, and all kinds of things, and they are not required to pay royalties to the original company because they are manipulating data that CAN be manipulated.
worse than spying on you... it will kill interoperability by third party players with potentially disruptive technology...
and since the main things in windows are embeded inthe operating system, almost all software will have to license some kind of access as the browser will lock up what it knows too.
this has been a bug a boo of big companies for ages. they dont like that a small trim company can come along and expand their product down lucrative paths that they cant respond to given their size and internal cultures. so while general motors makes engines, you can buy add on and modifications from third parties, or make your own. general motors hates that it cant make ALL the money that is derivitive of their products. the same is true of tons of other products of which we have the FREEDOM to modify as we see fit to fit our needs....
another thing ms and the others hate are ms experts that dont pay to be part of the ms world to get their answers. i can see this locking out consultants that write or customize software unless they get permission through ms or another to have access to it.
dont worry though.. the minute that something onerous does get in, you will see people making PC's that dont have it... they will run old operating systems and live with the problems or work around them like they do when they dont have a patch...
the key here is that such technology is not legislated into place. so we as consumers do have a choice... 10 years ago things were changing faster than the lull we are in now, and capacity of the machines changed rapidly... but we now have approached the level where for 95% the machines that exist can do more than we can put them through!!! and thats the saving grace.. i will just boot up my p4 with win 98.. if software dont run, i will then just use something else that will..
software developers already have a hard time with such small margins and such high costs.. breaking them will not leave an open playing field as ms and the others think. its a reductionist view thats doomed to failure as they dont realize that maximum exploitation of their environment happens when there is a rich and varied ecosystem to support it...
when it dries out there is less reason to innovate or move forward and your customers are not as happy.. which i guess is fine if you are running in telecom or banking.. information technology wants to have the same captive customers... all because everyone is so pinched that the only businesses that do real well any more are those with captive customers (usually through contracts that border and make excursions into usury).
the move by companies to control their customers rather than service and please them is a scary trend that i fear will only get worse as time goes by.... we should never have granted companies entity status in the 1800's.. some of the seeds of our downfall was in that, and more have been planted along the way... and soon will bear fruit as the united states loses its preeminence to the companies it created that have left the nest of national level business and now are no longer beholding to the nest as they live in the global sphere.
politicians are not too bright in the last few years... they dont realize that once a company goes global its no longer in its best interest to remain loyal to the country of origin!!!!!!!!!
Ok... say all the other doomsday things somehow dont happen... there is one thing that WILL happen...
note that in the description of how it works on microsofts site, that you control the parameters, and an agent oversees activities and such...
people here keep thinking that it has to do with DRM, but actually it has to do with third party compatibility!!!!
right now i can reverse engineer ms file formats for say Word.. i can then write an application that does something tha Word does not. if i pay microsoft then they will allow me access to the encrypted representation but if i am not then there will be no way for my new apps to work with the apps of microsoft.
new software is seldomly a stand along affair. many companies exist by making addons, and all kinds of things, and they are not required to pay royalties to the original company because they are manipulating data that CAN be manipulated.
worse than spying on you... it will kill interoperability by third party players with potentially disruptive technology...
and since the main things in windows are embeded inthe operating system, almost all software will have to license some kind of access as the browser will lock up what it knows too.
this has been a bug a boo of big companies for ages. they dont like that a small trim company can come along and expand their product down lucrative paths that they cant respond to given their size and internal cultures. so while general motors makes engines, you can buy add on and modifications from third parties, or make your own. general motors hates that it cant make ALL the money that is derivitive of their products. the same is true of tons of other products of which we have the FREEDOM to modify as we see fit to fit our needs....
another thing ms and the others hate are ms experts that dont pay to be part of the ms world to get their answers. i can see this locking out consultants that write or customize software unless they get permission through ms or another to have access to it.
dont worry though.. the minute that something onerous does get in, you will see people making PC's that dont have it... they will run old operating systems and live with the problems or work around them like they do when they dont have a patch...
the key here is that such technology is not legislated into place. so we as consumers do have a choice... 10 years ago things were changing faster than the lull we are in now, and capacity of the machines changed rapidly... but we now have approached the level where for 95% the machines that exist can do more than we can put them through!!! and thats the saving grace.. i will just boot up my p4 with win 98.. if software dont run, i will then just use something else that will..
software developers already have a hard time with such small margins and such high costs.. breaking them will not leave an open playing field as ms and the others think. its a reductionist view thats doomed to failure as they dont realize that maximum exploitation of their environment happens when there is a rich and varied ecosystem to support it...
when it dries out there is less reason to innovate or move forward and your customers are not as happy.. which i guess is fine if you are running in telecom or banking.. information technology wants to have the same captive customers... all because everyone is so pinched that the only businesses that do real well any more are those with captive customers (usually through contracts that border and make excursions into usury).
the move by companies to control their customers rather than service and please them is a scary trend that i fear will only get worse as time goes by.... we should never have granted companies entity status in the 1800's.. some of the seeds of our downfall was in that, and more have been planted along the way... and soon will bear fruit as the united states loses its preeminence to the companies it created that have left the nest of national level business and now are no longer beholding to the nest as they live in the global sphere.
politicians are not too bright in the last few years... they dont realize that once a company goes global its no longer in its best interest to remain loyal to the country of origin!!!!!!!!!
The shift is minimal.. and they can easily buy up a small company and its patents at a bargain price after all the risky work is done!!!!!
dont think for a second that they are at all altruistic...
a patent that is worth a hundred million could be had for a song from a small firm under the pressure of the world.
It is so blatant that what these firms are trying to do is kill innovation from small lean companies that often develop distruptive technology.
in first to file, the one with more money wins.. so the little inventor and small company are dead in the water as they work towards their product. couple this with offshoring and there will be little innovation in the united states proper as the infrastructure to support such innovation is far away. need a machine tool.. cant get it, its not here anymore...
have a new product.. well, now that you contacted outside places, they have the resources to put 100 people on it and flood the patent office with claims they will re-ammend with the initial purpose of locking their first to file status.
first to file creates the situation of secrecy and deadly competition. the downside in first to file for large firms is that it makes them vulnerable to IP theft. spy in a company and get an idea what they are working towards, and patent it first. it doesnt matter anymore if you came up with it first!!!!!!
this is a bad idea.. it stops innovation through the obvious as well as through the subtle but not allowing a person to communicate knowing that their rights would not be abridged by such communication.
the concept of a submarine patent is a neg spin on a good thing. they dont like that they didnt do the due diligence search to find the patent before they established the produict. its not like the patent info was secret. the argument that is obfuscated is that they are tired of not being able to shove a patent through without spending the money on the work they are supposed to do and then get bitten.
sue the guys doing the incomplete search for you or accept the consequences of making application without such a search..
i am a small time enginner and product developer, and its almost impossible for a small person to get stuff out there.. actually its pretty impossible...
if software patents where allowed in the way they are doing this, eventually no one will be able to write any efficient code as they bloat more and more to avoid thousands of infringements because novelty in code is a hard thing to define. imagine if there were patents on sentences and you will get the idea as to what will happen. you will have to make products only out of old code snips that are out of patent, or make this huge thing that meanders to avoid the expense. this will not stop the biggies that hold the patents as they cross licence to each other merrily picking up innovation money because their competition is non existent.
the patent office was to protect innovation.. more and more because of the late 1800s law that sets companies as entities like people, we are allowing them to square off the freedom to reach on your own for anything.
it may be better for those that can afford ibm or giant company stock in large amounts, but it will be worse for us all as great things will not be made becuse one company will agree not to make it in order to be allowed to make something else.
every company which creates in house solutions will have to switch to canned solutions in which the algoritms have proper licensing.. no more in house developement because it will be impossible to write code that doesnt infringe once the free for all (like in genetics) is over...
the breast cancer gentics patents are keeping all development at a stand still as reasearchers cant afford to licence to work on any part of it. it has in effect made sure that only once company can develope anything using these two genes.. and so we are not limited to the innovation of that one company.. whats worse is the technology needed to find things to wall off in IP is not contributable to the technology that would be needed to exploit the patent.. we have created the situation where ther people who own the potential have no ability to exploit that potential. given that this is risky to start with its not practical for another company who doesnt even know yet if htey have anything to start work on something that has a built in monkey on its back
you are all ignoring the multipronged rise in id and such...
coupled with a unique id in computers and tv and you can have everything tied to the persons physical presence...
now you either have to use the same machines or pay to have things transfered over to new ones..
and when grandpa dies all the material tied to his bio markers fades with it!!!!
with sensors and things in the future the tv may look and see whos watching and make them check in before watching to see if they are allowed...
i know that this seems impossible.. but if they stop broadcast shows and go to total digital then there is no other choice as new output will no longer have to be created for those old analog things... and those analog things will no longer work.. yeah, not in the next ten years.. but remember you really cant play cylincers any more or diamond disks and things because the players are gone (except for museum type peices people trade and things as collectors... but electronic stuff of a later era is not as robust in its life time as compared to these early methods)...
the only reason that we are yelling is that we are old enough to remember the difference.. the yutes dont miss what they never had!!!!
ArtflDgr
below is a post to the forums on physorg where the company not only fooled slashdot here, but them too.. though no one that enjoys physorg was tricked... enjoy the repost here...
Note that in the article and their website they manage to hit every hot marketing term that confuses people.. in this and the site you will find
oxidation, oxidizers, rejuvination, nano, natural, oscillating energies, envoronmentally friendly, protection of the global environment, reduce global chemical pollution, help prevent global warming, promote cleaner air, convenience, exclusively developed, nanoceramic, laboratory research, natural stone, silicon, protective film, ions, oscillation energy, directly affect, electro-magnetic, XXX Times a value, ambient air ionization, Extends, Reduces, Prolongs, eliminates, protects, amazin performances (why plural?), simply, exclusive, real tech sounding name IonXR.
they also have no distributors, nothing whatsoever... but then there is only one testimonial from an attorney.. hmmmm... and that letter uses these marketing nonsense words...
virtual workplace, veritable lifeline, office model, critical, watchin in horror (i like this one personally cause i want to watch people all around me reacting in horror to all kinds of nonsense.. as well as watching all those lone people walking up and down the beach as stated in personals), critcal phone call. without cumbersm cables and attachements (implying the only alternative are jumper cables), non-intrusive, fashion, critcal tool, enhancing....
i replied with some points (its all too big so here is a selection)
as stated in the post that it doesn't matter whether you put it on the phone or the battery... (shows they aint too smart.. because if you have multiple batteries and you put it on the phone then you would only need one, but if you HAD to put it on the battery, they would have more sales!)
Extends battery life by 30% up to 200% / suddenly a battery has MORE energy because of a sticker on the case or near it
Accelerates charging time up to 40% / suddenly the battery can take in energy faster
Eliminates the battery memory effect / by what mechanism - and I don't care if its just a supposition - can a sticker change the chemical and physical property inherent in certain types of battery without every being able to physically touch the materials.
protects the battery from 'electrical variations' of cigarette lighter adaptors by regulating and filtering the current / how can a sticker that is not an active electronic device and that is not connected to any of the wiring perform current regulation? This one would revolutionize ALL of electronics!!!!
They claim a nano ceramic material is extracted from a natural stone...
Wow... they were able to claim two hot totally unrelated marketing terms in the first half of once sentence (Nano and 'natural', we all 'know' that natural nano would be better than man made nano, right?)
layered between 2 protective silicon foils or on 1 or 2 sides of a conductive sheet.
Silicon is not a conductor unless doped with material... while a conductive sheet is conductive.. so which is it.. or rather does it not make a difference? Of course not because it doesn't work.. it doesn't matter whether or not the layers conduct or not!!!! So it doesn't matter that they contradict themselves in explaining how it works.
An adhesive and protective film are added to the foil (depending on the version) to attach BatMax to the battery.
Not only do they add value by not making you buy glue but the film is protective...
if you look at - http://www.batmax.com/technology-features.php / they show that the protective layer actually protects the silk print wich protects the upper layer, which THEN protects the amazing natural nano material
Absorb the electromagnetic waves generated from the battery.
Batteries do not generate electromagnetic waves. if they did the
water expands when frozen.. this causes its specific gravity or its ratio of mass to volume to shift. this is what causes it to float. because its floating part of it is not in the water... when it melts it takes up less room.. (this has NOTHING to do with the content of dissolved air in water), and since it wasnt overflowing to start with, it wont when melted. not to mention water tension (ad a bit of soap and you wont be able to get the miniscus to form)
there are several forces at play here...
and to go on as long as this on such a silly point is amazing... this is very basic science (physics).. of course most people dont know basic science, and most that think they do, have a horribly cut up version that is overly simplified and is spotty at best..
not to mention that this is all a null argument.. worrying about how much the ocean will rise is silly cause either way the outcome is the same whether we drop all this in the water or nature does it. not to mention that a raise in ocean of a few millemeters is not going to do anywhere near as much harm as a 250 foot wave crashing cross continent!!!
actually it would work.. and he is right (i mentioned something similar in another post).. it would be wiser to do it in sections this way.. starting with the middle.. (once divided each section is less harmful if you start at the end then you still have the whole length left over)
excuse me? you have the first statement wrong... frozen water displaces more water than when liquid.. when water freezes it expands.... the level actually goes down by the difference of the olume expanded and liquid.. not to mention to subtract the small amount evaporating while your waiting for it to melt...
What you propose would be very difficult at best.. nuclear weapons would have to be used (its not the first time someone thought that a nuclear weapon would make a great earth works tool - see the plans to use nuclear weapons to build a canal)
there is another way that makes more sense.. off shore a certain distance you can build artificial islands out of material from the volcanos.. this is not the same thing as just dismantling it because each piece you take off does double duty (you cant take it all off, but each load you do can be used to liimit whats left). the distance would have to be calculated.. without something nearby and in front, the slide causes the maximum wave.. but if there are things in front close enough but not too close.. the amounts of water that can be part of the initial flow would be very limited and therefore have a very hard time transferring the energy from the volcano to the water. if this happened on land.. it would cause an earthquake and a wicked debris flow... and thats it.. a big mess but not the reach.. its that the wall drops into water unhindered..
putting the islands too close would cause them to be part of the flow... while slowing it a bit.
now before you say you cant build an island.. well.. talk to the japanese.. they have done it and there are more coming...
Slashdot Mirror
I LOVE her house... and i am a guy!!!!
tiffany stained glass windows... and i like the danger aspect... not only do stairs lead up to ceilings and such... but there are doors that drop down to the basement!!! the idea was that it would confuse the ghosts and they would find it unlivable(? sorry no other word i could think of)
i wish i could buy that place and leave it just the way it is... i think its perfect!!!!
i would file this under the sign at my desk that i keep as i write software all day....
I can do it fast
i can do it cheap
i can do it well
pick any two!!!
we want fast and cheap.... thats what we get...
and since we wont cave on cheap...
we either get fast and shitty,
or slow and good...
the slow and good company though goes out of business because fast and shitty is what gets initial market share...
you are partially right... however.. i started writign in the days when the software engineers had computer science degrees.. and things such as standards actually existed!!!! god we had reams of standards to follow... just like archetects... however.. the push to cheaper labor dumbed the whole thing down, along with the belief that you can make a clerical job out of a professional skill... and while i agree in spirit, i disagree with that last paragraph... what is behind software has not changed... only the window dressing.. just like archetecture... however, unlike archetecture, software is not taken as seriosly... by anyone... the people who buy it accept it as poor... the people that make it cant compete making better software as long as you can do poorer and sell... there is also a belief, as you state also, that they put experienced people in place.. but in software, youth is believed to know more, because of your assumption that the game has changed. so they put inexperienved people that dont listen in charge of experienced people that cant help. its so bad that i showed the boss a study done by MIT that showed that what he was doing was the wrong way to go... and you know what.. this salesman marketing person living in nj and who went to a community college said that that wont happen we can do better than them. (i am a bronx science person... i dont think he can do better than MIT)... the problem is much deeper than just bad programmers...
hey, i am that guy you are writing about. : ) and to tell you the truth.. the best example of what REALLY happens can be seen in the movie with cary grant (the title escapes me), in wich they build a house, and it ends up costing incredible amounts of money.... anyway... the reason that house looks like it did is because the people that hired the programmer said "we are paying you, do it the way we want it done"... and so withouth zoning laws and fines and building codes, the 'archetect' has no choice but to build a house he knows doesnt work. a case in point in my career... as the author lamented there are rules we follow from experience... many are not coded... so you dont have to tell them to put a light switch 4 feet high, just inside the door... its done so much, its now a standard. everywhere things work like this... so i write the code to use one of these unwritten standards for someone that is not all that computer literate. they want to sell the software, and we have an argument for a long time because they want the F1 button to do (A), and i want it to call up the help information. my reasoning, is that every other program does it this way and you dont want to make the learning curve for your software to be steeper for no reason. her reasoning... "We will do it differently, break the mold, and set the new standard"! who do you think won that battle? so her software had a ton of things that were no intuitive.. i agree there are a lot of bad progerammers out there (because they bloated and simplified things to get dummber people to be able to produce so as to lower costs... do most cant do anything unless proscribed in detail, and real skills are lacking - now businesses are going elsewhere to get the programmers we used to have before they whined they needed cheaper ones)... if you hire me to program for you i will do a great job, if you focus on what you need and not how that need is fulfilled in detail. however, the punishment structure is in reverse. if i stick to my guns to build nothing but quality, you will hire someone else, and so i dont eat. if i build what you want, but cant live in, i get paid, i get to eat, and you will recommend me to other people!!! which would you do? i make unlivable houses and eat while complaining under my breath and smiling to the bosses... by the way.. the worste people that are most responsible for this thing are marketing people.. even more so than bosses and managers they get to dick with things for no reason, and get too much power to have it their way (its a dilbert constant!!!).... the next worst group is the salesmen.. who would rather close a deal on something that is impossible than miss a deal... period!
But original applications should at least have a chance to make some money in the free market... You aren't arguing for making money in the free market, you're arguing for a government granting you a monopoly so there is no free market. not too bright thinking that is not a free market! in order for the market to be free you need to balance the big guy against the little guy. granting a limited monopoly on one aspect of something is not stopping freedom it is insuring it. the kind of freedom you are proscribing is not freedom but anarchy, which is fine if you are the anarchist and everyone isnt!! if there was not the chance of recouping what you put in then there is no reason to try! every decent idea will be taken apart, remade, and sold by other larger concernes that got their start before you were born and would never let go of or stop maintaining their hegemony. in fact if you think inventors and designers are paranoid now... wait if there isnt such protection, nothing will happen because anyone with an idea will be too afraid to even discuss it. their only hope is to acquire a few million and make it themselves and grab the market share... which means that a prodigious inventor can now only create a few things as they cant sell them and move on... withouht a patent you have no idea to sell!!! what would someone be buying? trade secret doesnt cover it when what you make doesnt contain a something that is crucial to its working that no one has or can ficure out. the problem is not from the concept of a patent, its from how the laws have been changed by large corporations to favor them and make the burdens on smaller entities onerous (so perhaps they wont compete they will just sell to the large company for cheap). the other problem is what is being patented... no one argues about patents on physical conglomerations of objects that together do something. but it gets flakier and problematical when its something you just pick up and the limitation to entry is that you have more money. like dna, or bio patents based on reading whats their... under this perview the first person do discover oxygen could have gotten a patent on it. though its not crazy to think that a mouse with special genes and all the work to make is patentable. software though is mathematical... and when the math us special like rsa THAT is what should be patented... but program structure that is not all this unique stuff but only a unique function should be under copyright. for its like a book that is the embodyment of a concept, not a manual that is the desertation of a special fact. its a mess... the big boys are winning and there is no super heroes to help or save. better to stop arguing the point and find better things to do with your time than participate in your personal attrition!
Ok. say all the other doomsday things somehow dont happen. there is one thing that WILL happen. note that in the description of how it works on microsofts site, that you control the parameters, and an agent oversees activities and such. people here keep thinking that it has to do with DRM, but actually it has to do with third party compatibility!!!! right now i can reverse engineer ms file formats for say Word.. i can then write an application that does something tha Word does not. if i pay microsoft then they will allow me access to the encrypted representation but if i am not then there will be no way for my new apps to work with the apps of microsoft. new software is seldomly a stand along affair. many companies exist by making addons, and all kinds of things, and they are not required to pay royalties to the original company because they are manipulating data that CAN be manipulated. worse than spying on you... it will kill interoperability by third party players with potentially disruptive technology... and since the main things in windows are embeded inthe operating system, almost all software will have to license some kind of access as the browser will lock up what it knows too. this has been a bug a boo of big companies for ages. they dont like that a small trim company can come along and expand their product down lucrative paths that they cant respond to given their size and internal cultures. so while general motors makes engines, you can buy add on and modifications from third parties, or make your own. general motors hates that it cant make ALL the money that is derivitive of their products. the same is true of tons of other products of which we have the FREEDOM to modify as we see fit to fit our needs.... another thing ms and the others hate are ms experts that dont pay to be part of the ms world to get their answers. i can see this locking out consultants that write or customize software unless they get permission through ms or another to have access to it. dont worry though.. the minute that something onerous does get in, you will see people making PC's that dont have it... they will run old operating systems and live with the problems or work around them like they do when they dont have a patch... the key here is that such technology is not legislated into place. so we as consumers do have a choice... 10 years ago things were changing faster than the lull we are in now, and capacity of the machines changed rapidly... but we now have approached the level where for 95% the machines that exist can do more than we can put them through!!! and thats the saving grace.. i will just boot up my p4 with win 98.. if software dont run, i will then just use something else that will.. software developers already have a hard time with such small margins and such high costs.. breaking them will not leave an open playing field as ms and the others think. its a reductionist view thats doomed to failure as they dont realize that maximum exploitation of their environment happens when there is a rich and varied ecosystem to support it... when it dries out there is less reason to innovate or move forward and your customers are not as happy.. which i guess is fine if you are running in telecom or banking.. information technology wants to have the same captive customers... all because everyone is so pinched that the only businesses that do real well any more are those with captive customers (usually through contracts that border and make excursions into usury). the move by companies to control their customers rather than service and please them is a scary trend that i fear will only get worse as time goes by.... we should never have granted companies entity status in the 1800's.. some of the seeds of our downfall was in that, and more have been planted along the way... and soon will bear fruit as the united states loses its preeminence to the companies it created that have left the nest of national level business and now are no longer beholding to the nest as they live in the global sphere. politicians are not too bright in the last few years... they dont realize that once a company goes global its no longer in its best interest to remain loyal to the country of origin!!!!!!!!!
Ok... say all the other doomsday things somehow dont happen... there is one thing that WILL happen... note that in the description of how it works on microsofts site, that you control the parameters, and an agent oversees activities and such... people here keep thinking that it has to do with DRM, but actually it has to do with third party compatibility!!!! right now i can reverse engineer ms file formats for say Word.. i can then write an application that does something tha Word does not. if i pay microsoft then they will allow me access to the encrypted representation but if i am not then there will be no way for my new apps to work with the apps of microsoft. new software is seldomly a stand along affair. many companies exist by making addons, and all kinds of things, and they are not required to pay royalties to the original company because they are manipulating data that CAN be manipulated. worse than spying on you... it will kill interoperability by third party players with potentially disruptive technology... and since the main things in windows are embeded inthe operating system, almost all software will have to license some kind of access as the browser will lock up what it knows too. this has been a bug a boo of big companies for ages. they dont like that a small trim company can come along and expand their product down lucrative paths that they cant respond to given their size and internal cultures. so while general motors makes engines, you can buy add on and modifications from third parties, or make your own. general motors hates that it cant make ALL the money that is derivitive of their products. the same is true of tons of other products of which we have the FREEDOM to modify as we see fit to fit our needs.... another thing ms and the others hate are ms experts that dont pay to be part of the ms world to get their answers. i can see this locking out consultants that write or customize software unless they get permission through ms or another to have access to it. dont worry though.. the minute that something onerous does get in, you will see people making PC's that dont have it... they will run old operating systems and live with the problems or work around them like they do when they dont have a patch... the key here is that such technology is not legislated into place. so we as consumers do have a choice... 10 years ago things were changing faster than the lull we are in now, and capacity of the machines changed rapidly... but we now have approached the level where for 95% the machines that exist can do more than we can put them through!!! and thats the saving grace.. i will just boot up my p4 with win 98.. if software dont run, i will then just use something else that will.. software developers already have a hard time with such small margins and such high costs.. breaking them will not leave an open playing field as ms and the others think. its a reductionist view thats doomed to failure as they dont realize that maximum exploitation of their environment happens when there is a rich and varied ecosystem to support it... when it dries out there is less reason to innovate or move forward and your customers are not as happy.. which i guess is fine if you are running in telecom or banking.. information technology wants to have the same captive customers... all because everyone is so pinched that the only businesses that do real well any more are those with captive customers (usually through contracts that border and make excursions into usury). the move by companies to control their customers rather than service and please them is a scary trend that i fear will only get worse as time goes by.... we should never have granted companies entity status in the 1800's.. some of the seeds of our downfall was in that, and more have been planted along the way... and soon will bear fruit as the united states loses its preeminence to the companies it created that have left the nest of national level business and now are no longer beholding to the nest as they live in the global sphere. politicians are not too bright in the last few years... they dont realize that once a company goes global its no longer in its best interest to remain loyal to the country of origin!!!!!!!!!
The shift is minimal.. and they can easily buy up a small company and its patents at a bargain price after all the risky work is done!!!!! dont think for a second that they are at all altruistic... a patent that is worth a hundred million could be had for a song from a small firm under the pressure of the world.
It is so blatant that what these firms are trying to do is kill innovation from small lean companies that often develop distruptive technology. in first to file, the one with more money wins.. so the little inventor and small company are dead in the water as they work towards their product. couple this with offshoring and there will be little innovation in the united states proper as the infrastructure to support such innovation is far away. need a machine tool.. cant get it, its not here anymore... have a new product.. well, now that you contacted outside places, they have the resources to put 100 people on it and flood the patent office with claims they will re-ammend with the initial purpose of locking their first to file status. first to file creates the situation of secrecy and deadly competition. the downside in first to file for large firms is that it makes them vulnerable to IP theft. spy in a company and get an idea what they are working towards, and patent it first. it doesnt matter anymore if you came up with it first!!!!!! this is a bad idea.. it stops innovation through the obvious as well as through the subtle but not allowing a person to communicate knowing that their rights would not be abridged by such communication. the concept of a submarine patent is a neg spin on a good thing. they dont like that they didnt do the due diligence search to find the patent before they established the produict. its not like the patent info was secret. the argument that is obfuscated is that they are tired of not being able to shove a patent through without spending the money on the work they are supposed to do and then get bitten. sue the guys doing the incomplete search for you or accept the consequences of making application without such a search.. i am a small time enginner and product developer, and its almost impossible for a small person to get stuff out there.. actually its pretty impossible... if software patents where allowed in the way they are doing this, eventually no one will be able to write any efficient code as they bloat more and more to avoid thousands of infringements because novelty in code is a hard thing to define. imagine if there were patents on sentences and you will get the idea as to what will happen. you will have to make products only out of old code snips that are out of patent, or make this huge thing that meanders to avoid the expense. this will not stop the biggies that hold the patents as they cross licence to each other merrily picking up innovation money because their competition is non existent. the patent office was to protect innovation.. more and more because of the late 1800s law that sets companies as entities like people, we are allowing them to square off the freedom to reach on your own for anything. it may be better for those that can afford ibm or giant company stock in large amounts, but it will be worse for us all as great things will not be made becuse one company will agree not to make it in order to be allowed to make something else. every company which creates in house solutions will have to switch to canned solutions in which the algoritms have proper licensing.. no more in house developement because it will be impossible to write code that doesnt infringe once the free for all (like in genetics) is over... the breast cancer gentics patents are keeping all development at a stand still as reasearchers cant afford to licence to work on any part of it. it has in effect made sure that only once company can develope anything using these two genes.. and so we are not limited to the innovation of that one company.. whats worse is the technology needed to find things to wall off in IP is not contributable to the technology that would be needed to exploit the patent.. we have created the situation where ther people who own the potential have no ability to exploit that potential. given that this is risky to start with its not practical for another company who doesnt even know yet if htey have anything to start work on something that has a built in monkey on its back
you are all ignoring the multipronged rise in id and such...
coupled with a unique id in computers and tv and you can have everything tied to the persons physical presence...
now you either have to use the same machines or pay to have things transfered over to new ones..
and when grandpa dies all the material tied to his bio markers fades with it!!!!
with sensors and things in the future the tv may look and see whos watching and make them check in before watching to see if they are allowed...
i know that this seems impossible.. but if they stop broadcast shows and go to total digital then there is no other choice as new output will no longer have to be created for those old analog things... and those analog things will no longer work.. yeah, not in the next ten years.. but remember you really cant play cylincers any more or diamond disks and things because the players are gone (except for museum type peices people trade and things as collectors... but electronic stuff of a later era is not as robust in its life time as compared to these early methods)...
the only reason that we are yelling is that we are old enough to remember the difference.. the yutes dont miss what they never had!!!! ArtflDgr
below is a post to the forums on physorg where the company not only fooled slashdot here, but them too.. though no one that enjoys physorg was tricked... enjoy the repost here...
Note that in the article and their website they manage to hit every hot marketing term that confuses people.. in this and the site you will find
oxidation, oxidizers, rejuvination, nano, natural, oscillating energies, envoronmentally friendly, protection of the global environment, reduce global chemical pollution, help prevent global warming, promote cleaner air, convenience, exclusively developed, nanoceramic, laboratory research, natural stone, silicon, protective film, ions, oscillation energy, directly affect, electro-magnetic, XXX Times a value, ambient air ionization, Extends, Reduces, Prolongs, eliminates, protects, amazin performances (why plural?), simply, exclusive, real tech sounding name IonXR.
they also have no distributors, nothing whatsoever... but then there is only one testimonial from an attorney.. hmmmm... and that letter uses these marketing nonsense words... virtual workplace, veritable lifeline, office model, critical, watchin in horror (i like this one personally cause i want to watch people all around me reacting in horror to all kinds of nonsense.. as well as watching all those lone people walking up and down the beach as stated in personals), critcal phone call. without cumbersm cables and attachements (implying the only alternative are jumper cables), non-intrusive, fashion, critcal tool, enhancing....
i replied with some points (its all too big so here is a selection)
as stated in the post that it doesn't matter whether you put it on the phone or the battery... (shows they aint too smart.. because if you have multiple batteries and you put it on the phone then you would only need one, but if you HAD to put it on the battery, they would have more sales!)
Extends battery life by 30% up to 200% / suddenly a battery has MORE energy because of a sticker on the case or near it
Accelerates charging time up to 40% / suddenly the battery can take in energy faster
Eliminates the battery memory effect / by what mechanism - and I don't care if its just a supposition - can a sticker change the chemical and physical property inherent in certain types of battery without every being able to physically touch the materials.
protects the battery from 'electrical variations' of cigarette lighter adaptors by regulating and filtering the current / how can a sticker that is not an active electronic device and that is not connected to any of the wiring perform current regulation? This one would revolutionize ALL of electronics!!!!
They claim a nano ceramic material is extracted from a natural stone...
Wow... they were able to claim two hot totally unrelated marketing terms in the first half of once sentence (Nano and 'natural', we all 'know' that natural nano would be better than man made nano, right?)
layered between 2 protective silicon foils or on 1 or 2 sides of a conductive sheet.
Silicon is not a conductor unless doped with material... while a conductive sheet is conductive.. so which is it.. or rather does it not make a difference? Of course not because it doesn't work.. it doesn't matter whether or not the layers conduct or not!!!! So it doesn't matter that they contradict themselves in explaining how it works.
An adhesive and protective film are added to the foil (depending on the version) to attach BatMax to the battery.
Not only do they add value by not making you buy glue but the film is protective... if you look at - http://www.batmax.com/technology-features.php / they show that the protective layer actually protects the silk print wich protects the upper layer, which THEN protects the amazing natural nano material
Absorb the electromagnetic waves generated from the battery.
Batteries do not generate electromagnetic waves. if they did the
water expands when frozen.. this causes its specific gravity or its ratio of mass to volume to shift. this is what causes it to float. because its floating part of it is not in the water... when it melts it takes up less room.. (this has NOTHING to do with the content of dissolved air in water), and since it wasnt overflowing to start with, it wont when melted. not to mention water tension (ad a bit of soap and you wont be able to get the miniscus to form) there are several forces at play here... and to go on as long as this on such a silly point is amazing... this is very basic science (physics).. of course most people dont know basic science, and most that think they do, have a horribly cut up version that is overly simplified and is spotty at best.. not to mention that this is all a null argument.. worrying about how much the ocean will rise is silly cause either way the outcome is the same whether we drop all this in the water or nature does it. not to mention that a raise in ocean of a few millemeters is not going to do anywhere near as much harm as a 250 foot wave crashing cross continent!!!
actually it would work.. and he is right (i mentioned something similar in another post).. it would be wiser to do it in sections this way.. starting with the middle.. (once divided each section is less harmful if you start at the end then you still have the whole length left over)
excuse me? you have the first statement wrong... frozen water displaces more water than when liquid.. when water freezes it expands.... the level actually goes down by the difference of the olume expanded and liquid.. not to mention to subtract the small amount evaporating while your waiting for it to melt...
What you propose would be very difficult at best.. nuclear weapons would have to be used (its not the first time someone thought that a nuclear weapon would make a great earth works tool - see the plans to use nuclear weapons to build a canal)
there is another way that makes more sense.. off shore a certain distance you can build artificial islands out of material from the volcanos.. this is not the same thing as just dismantling it because each piece you take off does double duty (you cant take it all off, but each load you do can be used to liimit whats left). the distance would have to be calculated..
without something nearby and in front, the slide causes the maximum wave.. but if there are things in front close enough but not too close.. the amounts of water that can be part of the initial flow would be very limited and therefore have a very hard time transferring the energy from the volcano to the water. if this happened on land.. it would cause an earthquake and a wicked debris flow... and thats it.. a big mess but not the reach.. its that the wall drops into water unhindered..
putting the islands too close would cause them to be part of the flow... while slowing it a bit.
now before you say you cant build an island.. well.. talk to the japanese.. they have done it and there are more coming...