Why is it a PDF form? It takes a fair bit of technical ability if you don't/can't use Adobe's products. And why should the government presume that we do? I know engineers have been stuck with the PDF publication curse, but this is just a form, meant to be filled out quickly. And PDF simply doesn't suit such a purpose in *any* way.
Maybe I'm missing something here. Is this request for comments by the patent office just puffs of smoke from the chimney? Can we get to vote for the new pope that runs the patent office just like we can with the more insignificant post of president of the united states? It would make sense to, since all the real decisions are handled by another, more formally compliant branch, of the government: the judicial system. Nip it at the bud and make them publically responsible too, so we don't waste our monies on fighting stupidity in the wrong arena.
And while I'm off-topic, I might as well add something on-topic in spite of myself. There's no way that there will ever be any international two-way streets. These, if they were to exist, correspond too fighteningly to the international-but-we-get-to-choose-which-one corporate juris that international corporations get away with too much. I'm sorry, but it smells of Denmark.
The dynamics are simple: hand-writing recognition has many contexts for use, whereas voice is context-free, but immediately useful. But imagine if this stuff got _wasn't_ in an Imbedix system somewhere, but on your desktop! I'd like to see some good OCR technology cooking on Linux; the fun part is that OCR doesn't have to be in realtime to do its job. I imagine the temporal gap would help in some creative ideas rather than scanning in all those old notes of yours from class.
The other reason why handwriting is better than voice recognition, despite the possible and immediate use in handhelds, is that we seem to be fairly saturated with voice technologies, but nobody has created a decent OCR package. (Unless, of course, SANE has done it and I haven't noticed.) Getting--not *just OCR*--but handwritintg recognition, is something to be pushed. Hearing about the US post office using stuff for sorting is one thing; it's totally another to have advanced stuff on your own machine.
This may be extremely silly, but I agree with you. I just don't know how to use international keystrokes from Lynx (or ?terms). In LaTeX, sure, but I don't usually keep my DTD-def ents handy.:( Maybe Rob or Hemos should should put the elements on the post-page for lamers like me.
The reason why is not because civil law is decided by British "deductive" laws. Rather, in Canada, the "civil" side of the law is descended from Napoleonic law. And a good set of consistent standards they are; the 'Mericans can learn a thing or two from us.
But this is sort of off topic, unless you wanted to bring damages into the situation, and thus into the tort. Besides which, it would be incredibly hard to prove culpability and influence on an entire community, although it IS highly interesting. I guess it all boils down to the legal system not being capable of sustaining the kind of communitarian idealism (or whatever you want to call it) that we're using. It's too bad, in a way, that precedents aren't part of the tort system, so at least we can see what warning shots are fired at those "viral marketing" goons and their schemes to take over the whirled[sic].
Of course, one could sign over their work to a corporation, like FSF, as we used to in ye olde days. But what is the status of FSF these days? Is it incorporated, corporated, international, non-profit? These things can really matter in torts and criminal proceedings, and might be our tunnel out if the answers are right.
The way I see it, why should we worry, if the companies have a clear sign of the way things are going to go *if* they do push? Pushing the license is pushing us, after all... and if it's pushable, so are we and there's just no way we can continue, sadly.
So drink well, eat hardy, and send in those emails. The minute it becomes a legal action legislated by a body that isn't YOURS, the game is up. Luckily, this isn't the case. So again: why worry? Fidgeting is going right back into reacting rather than getting on with what we've given ourselves to do as our lifeblood: code, document, and set about replacinbg order with disorder. Get some perspective!
(after all, it will be "they" who are looking to "us" before too long. Cry wolf no longer, or you'll weaken our stance with, as the/. Non-Anonymous Cowards say, FUD.)
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Maybe I'm missing something here. Is this request for comments by the patent office just puffs of smoke from the chimney? Can we get to vote for the new pope that runs the patent office just like we can with the more insignificant post of president of the united states? It would make sense to, since all the real decisions are handled by another, more formally compliant branch, of the government: the judicial system. Nip it at the bud and make them publically responsible too, so we don't waste our monies on fighting stupidity in the wrong arena.
And while I'm off-topic, I might as well add something on-topic in spite of myself. There's no way that there will ever be any international two-way streets. These, if they were to exist, correspond too fighteningly to the international-but-we-get-to-choose-which-one corporate juris that international corporations get away with too much. I'm sorry, but it smells of Denmark.
The other reason why handwriting is better than voice recognition, despite the possible and immediate use in handhelds, is that we seem to be fairly saturated with voice technologies, but nobody has created a decent OCR package. (Unless, of course, SANE has done it and I haven't noticed.) Getting--not *just OCR*--but handwritintg recognition, is something to be pushed. Hearing about the US post office using stuff for sorting is one thing; it's totally another to have advanced stuff on your own machine.
This may be extremely silly, but I agree with you. I just don't know how to use international keystrokes from Lynx (or ?terms). In LaTeX, sure, but I don't usually keep my DTD-def ents handy. :( Maybe Rob or Hemos should should put the elements on the post-page for lamers like me.
But this is sort of off topic, unless you wanted to bring damages into the situation, and thus into the tort. Besides which, it would be incredibly hard to prove culpability and influence on an entire community, although it IS highly interesting. I guess it all boils down to the legal system not being capable of sustaining the kind of communitarian idealism (or whatever you want to call it) that we're using. It's too bad, in a way, that precedents aren't part of the tort system, so at least we can see what warning shots are fired at those "viral marketing" goons and their schemes to take over the whirled[sic].
Of course, one could sign over their work to a corporation, like FSF, as we used to in ye olde days. But what is the status of FSF these days? Is it incorporated, corporated, international, non-profit? These things can really matter in torts and criminal proceedings, and might be our tunnel out if the answers are right.
The way I see it, why should we worry, if the companies have a clear sign of the way things are going to go *if* they do push? Pushing the license is pushing us, after all... and if it's pushable, so are we and there's just no way we can continue, sadly.
So drink well, eat hardy, and send in those emails. The minute it becomes a legal action legislated by a body that isn't YOURS, the game is up. Luckily, this isn't the case. So again: why worry? Fidgeting is going right back into reacting rather than getting on with what we've given ourselves to do as our lifeblood: code, document, and set about replacinbg order with disorder. Get some perspective!
(after all, it will be "they" who are looking to "us" before too long. Cry wolf no longer, or you'll weaken our stance with, as the /. Non-Anonymous Cowards say, FUD.)