I went to a seminar a few years ago that had some head from Cisco speaking. He was showing off their latest wireless system (it was some cool stuff!) and one of the features it had was this RFID location system. He brought up an app that had a map of a floor of one of the buildings in their campus. He showed us, in live time, as one of the employees dot's left their office and walked to the bathroom. From half the country away he could see where everyone was. The location tag I believe was built into their access keys, so they were pretty much always on them.
Great technology for a hospital, prison, and maybe a handful of other specific situations. But a school? It was scary enough seeing it in action for an office building.
[quote]Uh-huh. Then why the hell are they suing Sony? Sony doesn't really do much development of the physical media (that would be TDK), and they're sure as hell not the only manufacturer of the drives.
Since the patent in question is actually based on a prior-art patent that Sony filed, it sure looks like a case of "go for the deepest pockets" to me.[/quote]
1) This has nothing to do with the drives. So there could be hundreds of drive manufacturers and none of them would be lawsuit worthy. 2) This applies to only a very specific compound, it is entirely possible that TDK is not using this compound, or that TDK has licensed the use of the patented compound already. 3) I am not familiar with Sony's production facilities, I can not comment as to whether or not TDK makes all of their disks for them. 4) There is nothing wrong with filing a patent that is BASED on prior art. If Jim invents and patents a mouse trap, then Bob comes along, looks at Jim's mouse trap and improves on it, he is free to patent his new and improved mouse trap even if it cites Jim's mouse trap as a reference. 5) Wrong with going for the deepest pockets? Sony is likely making the largest profit off of their patent when compared to the other violators(if there are others), so why not start with them?
There are way too many unknowns to jump on Target as being an "evil patent whoring" company. But because of the specific use of language in the complaint and Sony's history of patent abuse, it sure sounds to me like Target showed their patented technology to Sony and Sony used it with out paying for it. If that is the gist of it, than there is nothing wrong here, it is just a smaller innovating company suing a larger company that is trying to use it's IP with out a license. This is what the Patent system is designed to protect.
I disagree. I think if you come up with anything, purposeful or accidental, you should be able to patent it (so long as it meets the other criteria). HOWEVER, in today's industrial/economical environment, patents should be much shorter.
IMO: Patent issue for two years. If the patent holder shows that they are actively working on producing/licensing the patent in that time they can apply for a 3 year extension. If the patent holder can show that they are actively working on producing/licensing the patent, but have not yet recouped the investment incurred over the first 5 years, they can file for a single addition 3 year extension.
Inactive patents drop in 2 year, most patents drop in 5 years, and a small number of patents manage to stick around for 8 years.
Here's a little scenario for you. Lets say I'm with a small time drug research company. We have a couple of docs, some grad students, and a bunch of admins and what not. And lets say we spend 2 million dollars over 3 years trying to come up with a medication that will cause your skin to tan. Towards the end of our study, running out of money, and researchers are ready to move on one of our founders takes a risk and pops a pile of our prototype pills to see what happens. He comes back the next week to tell us his skin turned a bit orange, but he had a raging hard on the whole weekend.
Even though the company failed to find a sun tanning solution, shouldn't they be able to patent their new ED drug?
That patent, as I read it, appears to be a novel and non-obvious improvement of an existing technology. Provided there is no prior art, it sure looks like a valid, and good, patent.
The part about this suit that I think should be more obvious is this: (FTA) "it [Target] characterizes as deliberate and willful infringement." That makes me think that they came up with the technology, applied for the patent, then attempted to sell/license the technology to Sony. Sony declined, but then used the technology anyways, knowing full well that someone else held the patent on it. I don't know that for fact though, it is pure speculation.
To me, this sure looks like a case of a large corporation abusing a smaller corporation that has a valid patent.
You have a patent attorney, who is too busy working on protecting your patents to tell you which patents are being infringing upon? I'd love to see that stand up in court, I have a feeling it would look a lot like the Gonzo testimony.
"Sir, I don't recall being at the meeting where the number of infringing patents was discussed..."
While I love the outcome of that poll it has 2 rather large short comings. First, it is self selecting which means the sample pool can not be guaranteed to look anything like the larger body it is meant to reflect. And Second, the votes are very easy to spoof, with a little scripting and time a single person could easily spam thousands of votes and skew the results in what ever direction the wanted.
FTA: If that doesn't happen, other taxes may zoom upward instead, warned Sen. Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. "Are we implicitly blessing a situation where states are forced to raise other taxes, such as income or property taxes, to offset the growing loss of sales tax revenue?" Enzi said. "I want to avoid that."
Well here's a simple idea... SPEND LESS MONEY!
Wow, imagine that, if you don't waste as much money, you wont have to tax the public more. Whodathunkit?
Personally I think the republicrats as a whole should go pound sand. The republicans and neo-cons for getting us into this blood bath and the impotent democrats for doing crap to get us out of it.
As for the context of the poll I am referring to, it was a "do you approve of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq." And I stand by my assessment, anyone who STILL thinks he did/is doing a good job must have some sort of medically diagnosable mental disorder. Yeah, it's a bit of a blanket statement, a tad inflammatory, and somewhat harsh, but we're talking about thousands of our friends, families, and neighbors dead, along with likely hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead as well. Not to mention the millions more who have been injured, maimed, displaced, and had their lives destroyed.
Heck I support the use of suicide bombing as a tactic in extreme situations, I imagine everyone does to some extent. The wording of that poll was such that I likely would have said yes. The problem is not the tactic, it is the morals that lead people to using that tactic.
And when you get down to it, Bush still has a 25%+ approval rating which goes to show... 25% of the US is insane.
The gateway for most countries to get out of the third-world-nation status is agriculture. The problem though is that the US government subsidizes US farmers so heavily that we are keeping the world market prices artificially low. If the ethanol demand increases crop values, the market will demand more crops and more poor farmers out side the US will suddenly have a profitable profession, spreading wealth, profit and MORE FOOD.
Heck, you can skip 1-4 and you'll get the same thing. This is just another example of a politician using FUD to create jobs for his cronies in Washington (or New York as this case may be). You could sit down with a small group and hash out ideas and come to some kind of rough conclusion in under 1 work week, write up a formal report in maybe a week or two, and wrap it up with a presentation to the state senate. Instead, it will take this group 2 years, numerous trips to tropical/tourist locals (to inspect other countries systems), and millions in tax payer dollars to do.
I'm torn on the issue though. I WANT my political body to do research and make wise decisions. But at the same time, other political groups have tried to come up with solutions to the "ESRB problem" only to have them overturned on constitutional grounds. It's a fine line of having the investigatory power, and abusing the investigatory power. This one sure seems closer to the abusing side.
"Choosing sides in the high-def format war becomes that much harder today, as two powerhouse movie franchises hit store shelves on opposing formats. Exclusive to Blu-ray are the first two 'Pirates of the Caribbean' flicks, while exclusive to HD DVD are two different configurations of the 'Matrix' Trilogy. "
Moonites are the characters from a comedy central channel cartoon that were used as a publicity stunt that caused massive problems in Boston due to some people believing it was some type of terrorist communication/attack.
They have become a cliche of something humorous and non-threatening that has been blown up (in the hype/FUD meaning) in connection to terrorists, conspiracies, and/or threats of violence.
At least, that's my understanding of 'em.
The whole point of my original comment though is to say that the Bush Administration has zero credibility and has coerced and covered up others to follow suit. So having someone say that they involved white house politics in a scientific issue and it was not at the behest of the white house is one of two things: 1) Bowing to pressure from the white house and keeping quiet, or 2) A neo-con. In either case, it is not someone I would want to be responsible for the federally funded dissemination and display of our scientific knowledge.
I don't know what specifically was removed, or what was altered, but I would be very skeptical about the accuracy and totality of the display's statement after the editing. Let it (the original) be peer reviewed and be done it with.
No conspiracy, just saying that claiming the Bush Administration had nothing to do with a political decision of a congressionally created group that benefits the current Neo-con line, isn't the most credible thing to say.
CEO: Sales are up, things are looking good! Caption: Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all Computerized Russian Voice: , let's delete Russian repeats back message. English computerized voice: The dear aunt, us the duel assassin of to erase has left therefore establishes chooses everything
"The sheeple outnumber me. Who am I to tell them what they should want?
It sucks that what the majority wants is different than what I want. Perhaps what I want is right, and what they want is wrong. Perhaps the whole universe is broken because of this. Perhaps my rants are the most justified rants in all of recorded history. But it doesn't matter.
I am outvoted."
You are a citizen. It is your duty to make your government work for the people. Being out-voted is a temporary situation that can be easily overcome with the proper marketing. (Feel free to rant about the political manipulation of the press though.) Soap, Ballot, Jury, Ammo... Use your four boxes wisely.
Just not implemented. With a variety of solutions from a variety of vendors that require both sides of the communication to run their new standard... Well, you have resistance from the users, the ISPs, and each of the vendors as they try to get their product out while holding up everyone else's. In the end, there are a number of new standards to stop spam, just none of them that will be implemented.
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I went to a seminar a few years ago that had some head from Cisco speaking. He was showing off their latest wireless system (it was some cool stuff!) and one of the features it had was this RFID location system. He brought up an app that had a map of a floor of one of the buildings in their campus. He showed us, in live time, as one of the employees dot's left their office and walked to the bathroom. From half the country away he could see where everyone was. The location tag I believe was built into their access keys, so they were pretty much always on them.
Great technology for a hospital, prison, and maybe a handful of other specific situations. But a school? It was scary enough seeing it in action for an office building.
-Rick
[quote]Uh-huh. Then why the hell are they suing Sony? Sony doesn't really do much development of the physical media (that would be TDK), and they're sure as hell not the only manufacturer of the drives.
Since the patent in question is actually based on a prior-art patent that Sony filed, it sure looks like a case of "go for the deepest pockets" to me.[/quote]
1) This has nothing to do with the drives. So there could be hundreds of drive manufacturers and none of them would be lawsuit worthy.
2) This applies to only a very specific compound, it is entirely possible that TDK is not using this compound, or that TDK has licensed the use of the patented compound already.
3) I am not familiar with Sony's production facilities, I can not comment as to whether or not TDK makes all of their disks for them.
4) There is nothing wrong with filing a patent that is BASED on prior art. If Jim invents and patents a mouse trap, then Bob comes along, looks at Jim's mouse trap and improves on it, he is free to patent his new and improved mouse trap even if it cites Jim's mouse trap as a reference.
5) Wrong with going for the deepest pockets? Sony is likely making the largest profit off of their patent when compared to the other violators(if there are others), so why not start with them?
There are way too many unknowns to jump on Target as being an "evil patent whoring" company. But because of the specific use of language in the complaint and Sony's history of patent abuse, it sure sounds to me like Target showed their patented technology to Sony and Sony used it with out paying for it. If that is the gist of it, than there is nothing wrong here, it is just a smaller innovating company suing a larger company that is trying to use it's IP with out a license. This is what the Patent system is designed to protect.
-Rick
I disagree. I think if you come up with anything, purposeful or accidental, you should be able to patent it (so long as it meets the other criteria). HOWEVER, in today's industrial/economical environment, patents should be much shorter.
IMO:
Patent issue for two years.
If the patent holder shows that they are actively working on producing/licensing the patent in that time they can apply for a 3 year extension.
If the patent holder can show that they are actively working on producing/licensing the patent, but have not yet recouped the investment incurred over the first 5 years, they can file for a single addition 3 year extension.
Inactive patents drop in 2 year, most patents drop in 5 years, and a small number of patents manage to stick around for 8 years.
-Rick
Here's a little scenario for you. Lets say I'm with a small time drug research company. We have a couple of docs, some grad students, and a bunch of admins and what not. And lets say we spend 2 million dollars over 3 years trying to come up with a medication that will cause your skin to tan. Towards the end of our study, running out of money, and researchers are ready to move on one of our founders takes a risk and pops a pile of our prototype pills to see what happens. He comes back the next week to tell us his skin turned a bit orange, but he had a raging hard on the whole weekend.
Even though the company failed to find a sun tanning solution, shouldn't they be able to patent their new ED drug?
-Rick
That patent, as I read it, appears to be a novel and non-obvious improvement of an existing technology. Provided there is no prior art, it sure looks like a valid, and good, patent.
The part about this suit that I think should be more obvious is this: (FTA) "it [Target] characterizes as deliberate and willful infringement." That makes me think that they came up with the technology, applied for the patent, then attempted to sell/license the technology to Sony. Sony declined, but then used the technology anyways, knowing full well that someone else held the patent on it. I don't know that for fact though, it is pure speculation.
To me, this sure looks like a case of a large corporation abusing a smaller corporation that has a valid patent.
-Rick
You have a patent attorney, who is too busy working on protecting your patents to tell you which patents are being infringing upon? I'd love to see that stand up in court, I have a feeling it would look a lot like the Gonzo testimony.
"Sir, I don't recall being at the meeting where the number of infringing patents was discussed..."
-Rick
Actually, I like this take on his approval rating: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/ [msn.com] heh. 25% my ass.
While I love the outcome of that poll it has 2 rather large short comings. First, it is self selecting which means the sample pool can not be guaranteed to look anything like the larger body it is meant to reflect. And Second, the votes are very easy to spoof, with a little scripting and time a single person could easily spam thousands of votes and skew the results in what ever direction the wanted.
-Rick
FTA: If that doesn't happen, other taxes may zoom upward instead, warned Sen. Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. "Are we implicitly blessing a situation where states are forced to raise other taxes, such as income or property taxes, to offset the growing loss of sales tax revenue?" Enzi said. "I want to avoid that."
Well here's a simple idea... SPEND LESS MONEY!
Wow, imagine that, if you don't waste as much money, you wont have to tax the public more. Whodathunkit?
-Rick
Personally I think the republicrats as a whole should go pound sand. The republicans and neo-cons for getting us into this blood bath and the impotent democrats for doing crap to get us out of it.
As for the context of the poll I am referring to, it was a "do you approve of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq." And I stand by my assessment, anyone who STILL thinks he did/is doing a good job must have some sort of medically diagnosable mental disorder. Yeah, it's a bit of a blanket statement, a tad inflammatory, and somewhat harsh, but we're talking about thousands of our friends, families, and neighbors dead, along with likely hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead as well. Not to mention the millions more who have been injured, maimed, displaced, and had their lives destroyed.
-Rick
Heck I support the use of suicide bombing as a tactic in extreme situations, I imagine everyone does to some extent. The wording of that poll was such that I likely would have said yes. The problem is not the tactic, it is the morals that lead people to using that tactic.
And when you get down to it, Bush still has a 25%+ approval rating which goes to show... 25% of the US is insane.
-Rick
The gateway for most countries to get out of the third-world-nation status is agriculture. The problem though is that the US government subsidizes US farmers so heavily that we are keeping the world market prices artificially low. If the ethanol demand increases crop values, the market will demand more crops and more poor farmers out side the US will suddenly have a profitable profession, spreading wealth, profit and MORE FOOD.
Either that, or we're gonna kill a lot of people.
only time will tell.
-Rick
Heck, you can skip 1-4 and you'll get the same thing. This is just another example of a politician using FUD to create jobs for his cronies in Washington (or New York as this case may be). You could sit down with a small group and hash out ideas and come to some kind of rough conclusion in under 1 work week, write up a formal report in maybe a week or two, and wrap it up with a presentation to the state senate. Instead, it will take this group 2 years, numerous trips to tropical/tourist locals (to inspect other countries systems), and millions in tax payer dollars to do.
I'm torn on the issue though. I WANT my political body to do research and make wise decisions. But at the same time, other political groups have tried to come up with solutions to the "ESRB problem" only to have them overturned on constitutional grounds. It's a fine line of having the investigatory power, and abusing the investigatory power. This one sure seems closer to the abusing side.
-Rick
GD /. eating my > sign!!
-Rick
"Choosing sides in the high-def format war becomes that much harder today, as two powerhouse movie franchises hit store shelves on opposing formats. Exclusive to Blu-ray are the first two 'Pirates of the Caribbean' flicks, while exclusive to HD DVD are two different configurations of the 'Matrix' Trilogy. "
Duh, this one is easy. Blu-ray wins.
-Rick
Moonites are the characters from a comedy central channel cartoon that were used as a publicity stunt that caused massive problems in Boston due to some people believing it was some type of terrorist communication/attack.
They have become a cliche of something humorous and non-threatening that has been blown up (in the hype/FUD meaning) in connection to terrorists, conspiracies, and/or threats of violence.
At least, that's my understanding of 'em.
The whole point of my original comment though is to say that the Bush Administration has zero credibility and has coerced and covered up others to follow suit. So having someone say that they involved white house politics in a scientific issue and it was not at the behest of the white house is one of two things: 1) Bowing to pressure from the white house and keeping quiet, or 2) A neo-con. In either case, it is not someone I would want to be responsible for the federally funded dissemination and display of our scientific knowledge.
I don't know what specifically was removed, or what was altered, but I would be very skeptical about the accuracy and totality of the display's statement after the editing. Let it (the original) be peer reviewed and be done it with.
-Rick
What the crap are you talking about man? Have you been sniffing the moonites again?
-Rick
No conspiracy, just saying that claiming the Bush Administration had nothing to do with a political decision of a congressionally created group that benefits the current Neo-con line, isn't the most credible thing to say.
-Rick
"Sullivan said that to his knowledge, no one in the Bush administration pressured the Smithsonian."
Yeah, and Gonzo can't remember anyone from the White House giving him a list of lawyers to fire. What's your point?
-Rick
Wow, I'm going to put that on my grave stone.
"Ain't paying taxes anymore!"
-Rick
Apparently /. doesn't like Russian :(
-Rick
This aught to be good:
CEO: Sales are up, things are looking good!
Caption: Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
Computerized Russian Voice: , let's delete
Russian repeats back message.
English computerized voice: The dear aunt, us the duel assassin of to erase has left therefore establishes chooses everything
The Cold War 2.0 breaks out.
-Rick
If we keep it on the front page of /. and digg, the site will only give 'connection failure' messages ;)
-Rick
"Spirit worked within about 50 yards or meters of the Gertrude Weise area for more than 18 months before the discovery was made."
Apparently we're still working out which measurement system we're using.
-Rick
"The sheeple outnumber me. Who am I to tell them what they should want?
It sucks that what the majority wants is different than what I want. Perhaps what I want is right, and what they want is wrong. Perhaps the whole universe is broken because of this. Perhaps my rants are the most justified rants in all of recorded history. But it doesn't matter.
I am outvoted."
You are a citizen. It is your duty to make your government work for the people. Being out-voted is a temporary situation that can be easily overcome with the proper marketing. (Feel free to rant about the political manipulation of the press though.) Soap, Ballot, Jury, Ammo... Use your four boxes wisely.
-Rick
Just not implemented. With a variety of solutions from a variety of vendors that require both sides of the communication to run their new standard... Well, you have resistance from the users, the ISPs, and each of the vendors as they try to get their product out while holding up everyone else's. In the end, there are a number of new standards to stop spam, just none of them that will be implemented.
-Rick