I've seen a number of people skim the issue but misunderstand the implications. US patent law states that an inventor has one year to patent something that has been published (or made for sale). If they do not file an application within that year they lose the rights to patent it, as (according to the law) it has become public knowledge.
This premature publication of information that has probably been catogorized as a 'trade secret', has also probably been copyrighted and requires permission of the owner (i.e. Apple) to be published.
Essentially, they are probably pissed off that their schedule is all fubared. And they are probably attempting to retain any trademarks or copyrights they have by "vigilantely defending them".
Of course, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't work for Apple, so I'm guessing.:)
I haven't read the newer stuff in a while myself, they just got too expensive. And the old issues are reprinted since the originals really get expensive. Basically the X-Men were really crappy before #94.. and really still weren't that good until maybe #120 or so. You can get reprints of most issues, and occasionally they rebound a whack of 'em into graphic novels.
"Days of Future Past" is a good one.. the "Mutant Massacre" is also a good series, but I don't know if they ever rebound those into any format. That was about X_Men 203 -212, as well as some issues of X-Factor, and New Mutants.
The Wolverine mini-series is really good too, that is a graphic novel, written by Frank Miller(Most famous for: The Dark Night Returns)
The best thing to do is go to a comic book store and browse through the graphic novels.. as well as issues of "Classic X-Men" (which are valueless reprints of the originals) I strongly recommend anything written by Chris Claremont, or Frank Miller... although i don't know if Frank Miller ever did the X-Men.
I saw this movie and liked it, and I'm a hard core fan. (I have every issue of X-Men from 105 - 250)...
Anyway.. if michael is going to be picky about lines Sabertooth (aka Large Grunting Guy) had two lines, "I want to hear you scream.", and "You still owe me a scream."
Anyway, granted I would've loved to have heard Sabertooth call Logan a runt and bad mouth him as he beat him about with the log, but I understand why they didn't. Hinting at a connection between Sabertooth and Logan would've been a distraction from the plot of "X-Men" and they never would've been able to deal properly with "Magneto" as the villan. Hopefully if they do a "Wolverine" movie as they seem to hint at the end, they will include Sabertooth as the villan in that.
As for Mr. Katz review and claiming that he never hated "Magneto", that's good you shouldn't have, "Magneto" for all intents and purposes with respect to mutants is "Malcom X", and Charles Xavier is "Martin Luther King, Jr.". The whole point of the conflict is that you should be able to see both sides, and that the conflict is a grey area not black and white like most comic book conflicts. That's what makes the comic, and the movie interesting to watch.
I would suggest you read The Uncanny X-Men #139 - 141. Its a series entitled, "Days of Future Past". I believe you can also get it in trade paperback if you don't feel like shelling out the 25 bucks each book is currently worth. It essentially deals with a stituation in which a government official is murdered by mutants causing widespread anti-mutant sentiment, which causes (several years in the future) an apocolyptic war between mutants and humans.. it probabaly best illustrates the dicotomy between the Xavier/Magneto.
As a society, we may soon be able to get rid of obnoxious, anger and dissent along with cancer and heart disease.
Not everything about people is genetic, 'weirdness' for the most part is a learned behaviour. How exactly can the Human Genome project determine my opinions of the government and of society, and what my favourite baseball team is?
And you speak of corporations being the ones driving this new technology, I don't exactly know anyone who would be interested in paying to deal with genetic personality traits. While I agree their will be interest in making babies 'smarter', I don't see how people are going to want their children to be much different from themselves.
The benifit of living in a capitlist society is that morality is dictated by the consumer, and what is morality other than 'the rules' that society decides are acceptable.
All of the paranoid, but well-written arguments, "oh we going to die any second from an asteroid and there is nothing we can do about it." posts have all been modded up to like 5. Whereas a rational well-written argument like this one above is left at one.
Now I understand, when moderating that one is inclined to simply mod up posts that one agrees with but no one moderating is not a paranoid nerd?
I for one think that the large amount of time between events is substantial enough to warrent non-paranoia over being killed by asteroids. However my paranoia that this is some American political consipiracy to drum up more support for a space based missle defense system.. is seeming less paranoid.
You don't even have to do the reverse engineering yourself, there are lots of firms that will do it for you, and not just memories, but I think the reports cost about $100G's:
My father receives notification of a debt that he 'owes' about every 8 years. Some guy in Alberta with the same name owes it, and the collection agencies that are hired finds my father, (who owns his own business and so is easy to find) and tells him that they owe them money.
It stopped at the end of the eighties but it was quite annoying to have to prove who you are to get people to stop harrassing you.. and collection agency people are just mean to begin with, they don't wait for explanantions.
I think people are just lazy and willing to assume the worst.
Infiltrated with: Anne Murray Alan Thicke Alanis Morrisette Celine Dione Dan Akroyd Michael J. Fox Pamela Anderson Jason Priestly Neve Campbell Lorne Michaels Jim Carrey The Bare Naked Ladies (Oh wait, popular sorry) Scott Speedman
.. need I go on? And at the rate actors are elected to government in the states.. its just a matter of time before a Canadian becomes president!
The article's title is misleading, what the author is really trying to discuss is the 'death' of the music and movie industries.
From what I read, they are saying that since many pirated CD's and movies are now available on the internet that this ease of transference will drop all moral barriers to the collection of 'stolen' property. This is the same argument that the movie industry made when the VCR came out.
I personally don't feel this is true, pirated software has *always* been readily available to well-informed computer users, but somehow, software manufacturers still manage to make healthy profits. This new medium will change the way 'recordable media' is distributed, paid for, and the end profiter. But it will not eliminate 'intellectual property' rights. Pirates have always existed in the music industry since tape decks came out, and the music industry is still there.
Why? Because if you can't make money at it, few people will do it.
I always like the idea of designing a robot or mechanical device based on a principal proven in nature.
When you have several thousand years of evolution backing up the principal behind the design it just seems much more solid. Like the design of the bomb-walker robot (I think that's what it was called), which essentially was based on the principle of a daddy-long-legs spider.
The control mechanism contained meters above the earth supported by several extremelly long light weight legs that move across the surface.. as the robot steps on a bomb the leg is blown off but the rest of the robot remains to continue walking until all its legs are blown off.
Anyway, just goes to show you there is still a lot of inspiration for techinical innovation in nature.
That's not why I was laughing.. I was laughing because of how accurate that could be.
Quebec is in a constant state of threatening to seperate from Canada, and has been essentially since they joined Canada.
I don't think Texas is quite as enthusiastic about the idea as Quebec, but my few dealings with Texans has lead me to conclude that probably 10% of the population thinks its a great idea. In the shadowrun world tho' didn't Texas conquer more of Mexico?
Doesn't the thing seem unusually cumbersome for a 'portable' device? I mean I picture a portable device as being self contained.. rather than the seemingly three seperate parts included here. Now put the cell phone, the controller and the system all on a single device and *then* you have a truly portable device that I can play on the bus. This thing only seems to be useable in the back of a car to entertain kids on long trips.
Ultimately this will not lead to any positive solution to the problems incurred with this predatory monopoly. They still have the hold over the OS, and will still force small companies out by withholding specs and changing specs constantly.
What the software industry needs is a regulating body for software allow anyone who wants access to those specs. And build applications which suit those needs.
Ultimately the solution to Microsoft is simply to open-source the operating system, and place Microsoft in capacity to build apps, and additional tools for whatever they want. Then they could build tools for FreeBSD, Linux, Windows, etc. and (hopefully) we would get a less bloated version of windows that people/companies could configure for their own use by puchasing what they need, and not have it crash every 2 days because of some bug with (insert stupid app here) is screwing everything up.
Perhaps this would also create a desire for more standardized file formats..
This is mearly a trademark issue. A cease and desist letter is mearly "Fuji" doing something that they can present in court later when they do want to sue someone profiting from their work. (like the T-shirt guy) Basically they want to be able to say, "See we have been protecting our work."
Rather than whining and giving up mearly write the attorneys a letter requesting permission to use files soley in a non-profit capacity for a fan web-site.
If they refuse you after that, then they're being stupid, and losing on the free advertising opportunities you've given them.
Personally the few mentions I have seen of this show on slashdot has made me want to see it, and the few times I clicked on the ironchef.com website was also encouraging.. but we don't get that in Canada..
Anyway the moral of the story is, don't cave immediately to a cease and desist order, always ask if there is a better solution first. Then if they don't want to talk, give up. Or get your own lawyer whichever you feel more strongly about.
... it a trademark and not a patent, but still, the implications are ludicrous. How exactly do you tell the difference between the smell of one type of grass from another? Are you going to have a smell expert determine the difference? Smell is a very, very subjective sense. Although this is far better than a copyright or a patent.. I believe trademarks are only protected for 15 years in Europe. But I can't be sure. Infingement in these cases is going to be a nightmare for the courts. I hope they realize what they're doing.
For those of you who haven't read it.. this is a passage from "Beowulf", I personally think its too clever to be marked as a mere troll... is there a "grendel's mother" setting?
How can you justify trading with a Chinese Communist government, still unapologetic about human rights violations (i.e. Tienemen Square), when you won't trade with Fidel Castro's Communist Cuba for the same reason?
I know this sounds very argumentative, but if money and market size is truly your motivation, then why no lift those same embargoes against Cuba? Standing on moral ground until the market is large enough just looks very hypocritical.
I dunno, that's what I mean, the article doesn't seem to describe what they mean in enough detail to determine what exactly they've done that's revolutionary.
The normal (simplified) process is it to take a wafer of silicon, then 'grow' a field oxide (SiO2) ontop of the silicon wafer (the substrate) and then deposit silicon (that is later doped) on top of that to form the gates of the transistors. The Cox value is related to the depth (thickness tox) of the oxide and the quality of the Eox (permittivity) value (the dieletric).
Essentially Cox = Eox/tox,
so as you increase the thickness of the oxide, you decrease the capacitance. Anyway, rambling, sorry.
The insulating layer *is* the field oxide, and in a "normal" process you are depositing an oxide on top of the oxide. Now if they were depositing an insultaing layer of a better Permittivity value than silicon-oxide, that would be revolutionary. But I didn't get that from the article. All I'm suggesting is there is probably something more interesting occuring, but you are unable to glean that from the article. Well, at least I'm not.
Just my $0.02. (Well $0.01 since I'm in Canada.):)
Slashdot Mirror
The above comment should be moderated up, its a joke from South Park.. doesn't anyone laugh anymore?
I've seen a number of people skim the issue but misunderstand the implications. US patent law states that an inventor has one year to patent something that has been published (or made for sale). If they do not file an application within that year they lose the rights to patent it, as (according to the law) it has become public knowledge.
:)
This premature publication of information that has probably been catogorized as a 'trade secret', has also probably been copyrighted and requires permission of the owner (i.e. Apple) to be published.
Essentially, they are probably pissed off that their schedule is all fubared. And they are probably attempting to retain any trademarks or copyrights they have by "vigilantely defending them".
Of course, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't work for Apple, so I'm guessing.
I haven't read the newer stuff in a while myself, they just got too expensive. And the old issues are reprinted since the originals really get expensive. Basically the X-Men were really crappy before #94.. and really still weren't that good until maybe #120 or so. You can get reprints of most issues, and occasionally they rebound a whack of 'em into graphic novels.
"Days of Future Past" is a good one.. the "Mutant Massacre" is also a good series, but I don't know if they ever rebound those into any format. That was about X_Men 203 -212, as well as some issues of X-Factor, and New Mutants.
The Wolverine mini-series is really good too, that is a graphic novel, written by Frank Miller(Most famous for: The Dark Night Returns)
The best thing to do is go to a comic book store and browse through the graphic novels.. as well as issues of "Classic X-Men" (which are valueless reprints of the originals) I strongly recommend anything written by Chris Claremont, or Frank Miller... although i don't know if Frank Miller ever did the X-Men.
----Spoilers----
I saw this movie and liked it, and I'm a hard core fan. (I have every issue of X-Men from 105 - 250)...
Anyway.. if michael is going to be picky about lines Sabertooth (aka Large Grunting Guy) had two lines, "I want to hear you scream.", and "You still owe me a scream."
Anyway, granted I would've loved to have heard Sabertooth call Logan a runt and bad mouth him as he beat him about with the log, but I understand why they didn't. Hinting at a connection between Sabertooth and Logan would've been a distraction from the plot of "X-Men" and they never would've been able to deal properly with "Magneto" as the villan. Hopefully if they do a "Wolverine" movie as they seem to hint at the end, they will include Sabertooth as the villan in that.
As for Mr. Katz review and claiming that he never hated "Magneto", that's good you shouldn't have, "Magneto" for all intents and purposes with respect to mutants is "Malcom X", and Charles Xavier is "Martin Luther King, Jr.". The whole point of the conflict is that you should be able to see both sides, and that the conflict is a grey area not black and white like most comic book conflicts. That's what makes the comic, and the movie interesting to watch.
I would suggest you read The Uncanny X-Men #139 - 141. Its a series entitled, "Days of Future Past". I believe you can also get it in trade paperback if you don't feel like shelling out the 25 bucks each book is currently worth.
It essentially deals with a stituation in which a government official is murdered by mutants causing widespread anti-mutant sentiment, which causes (several years in the future) an apocolyptic war between mutants and humans.. it probabaly best illustrates the dicotomy between the Xavier/Magneto.
Are you aware that Homosapians are carnivores?
I wasn't, I really thought we were omnivores, oh well no more salad for me.. bring on the bacon!
As a society, we may soon be able to get rid of obnoxious, anger and dissent along with cancer and heart disease.
Not everything about people is genetic, 'weirdness' for the most part is a learned behaviour. How exactly can the Human Genome project determine my opinions of the government and of society, and what my favourite baseball team is?
And you speak of corporations being the ones driving this new technology, I don't exactly know anyone who would be interested in paying to deal with genetic personality traits. While I agree their will be interest in making babies 'smarter', I don't see how people are going to want their children to be much different from themselves.
The benifit of living in a capitlist society is that morality is dictated by the consumer, and what is morality other than 'the rules' that society decides are acceptable.
What is up with it?
All of the paranoid, but well-written arguments, "oh we going to die any second from an asteroid and there is nothing we can do about it." posts have all been modded up to like 5. Whereas a rational well-written argument like this one above is left at one.
Now I understand, when moderating that one is inclined to simply mod up posts that one agrees with but no one moderating is not a paranoid nerd?
I for one think that the large amount of time between events is substantial enough to warrent non-paranoia over being killed by asteroids. However my paranoia that this is some American political consipiracy to drum up more support for a space based missle defense system.. is seeming less paranoid.
You don't even have to do the reverse engineering yourself, there are lots of firms that will do it for you, and not just memories, but I think the reports cost about $100G's:
Semiconductor Insights
My father receives notification of a debt that he 'owes' about every 8 years. Some guy in Alberta with the same name owes it, and the collection agencies that are hired finds my father, (who owns his own business and so is easy to find) and tells him that they owe them money.
It stopped at the end of the eighties but it was quite annoying to have to prove who you are to get people to stop harrassing you.. and collection agency people are just mean to begin with, they don't wait for explanantions.
I think people are just lazy and willing to assume the worst.
Infiltrated with:
.. need I go on? And at the rate actors are elected to government in the states.. its just a matter of time before a Canadian becomes president!
Anne Murray
Alan Thicke
Alanis Morrisette
Celine Dione
Dan Akroyd
Michael J. Fox
Pamela Anderson
Jason Priestly
Neve Campbell
Lorne Michaels
Jim Carrey
The Bare Naked Ladies (Oh wait, popular sorry)
Scott Speedman
The article's title is misleading, what the author is really trying to discuss is the 'death' of the music and movie industries.
From what I read, they are saying that since many pirated CD's and movies are now available on the internet that this ease of transference will drop all moral barriers to the collection of 'stolen' property. This is the same argument that the movie industry made when the VCR came out.
I personally don't feel this is true, pirated software has *always* been readily available to well-informed computer users, but somehow, software manufacturers still manage to make healthy profits. This new medium will change the way 'recordable media' is distributed, paid for, and the end profiter. But it will not eliminate 'intellectual property' rights. Pirates have always existed in the music industry since tape decks came out, and the music industry is still there.
Why? Because if you can't make money at it, few people will do it.
I always like the idea of designing a robot or mechanical device based on a principal proven in nature.
When you have several thousand years of evolution backing up the principal behind the design it just seems much more solid. Like the design of the bomb-walker robot (I think that's what it was called), which essentially was based on the principle of a daddy-long-legs spider.
The control mechanism contained meters above the earth supported by several extremelly long light weight legs that move across the surface.. as the robot steps on a bomb the leg is blown off but the rest of the robot remains to continue walking until all its legs are blown off.
Anyway, just goes to show you there is still a lot of inspiration for techinical innovation in nature.
That's not why I was laughing.. I was laughing because of how accurate that could be.
Quebec is in a constant state of threatening to seperate from Canada, and has been essentially since they joined Canada.
I don't think Texas is quite as enthusiastic about the idea as Quebec, but my few dealings with Texans has lead me to conclude that probably 10% of the population thinks its a great idea. In the shadowrun world tho' didn't Texas conquer more of Mexico?
was the little map you got included in the game that showed the developement of the countries of Quebec and Texas. That always gave me a chuckle.
Doesn't the thing seem unusually cumbersome for a 'portable' device? I mean I picture a portable device as being self contained.. rather than the seemingly three seperate parts included here. Now put the cell phone, the controller and the system all on a single device and *then* you have a truly portable device that I can play on the bus. This thing only seems to be useable in the back of a car to entertain kids on long trips.
Too many wires! Hmm.. maybe I should patent that.
Ultimately this will not lead to any positive solution to the problems incurred with this predatory monopoly. They still have the hold over the OS, and will still force small companies out by withholding specs and changing specs constantly.
What the software industry needs is a regulating body for software allow anyone who wants access to those specs. And build applications which suit those needs.
Ultimately the solution to Microsoft is simply to open-source the operating system, and place Microsoft in capacity to build apps, and additional tools for whatever they want. Then they could build tools for FreeBSD, Linux, Windows, etc. and (hopefully) we would get a less bloated version of windows that people/companies could configure for their own use by puchasing what they need, and not have it crash every 2 days because of some bug with (insert stupid app here) is screwing everything up.
Perhaps this would also create a desire for more standardized file formats..
Anyway.. ranting.. sorry.
My 0.02 (well 0.01 since its Canadian)
I dunno, they seemed pretty fast today.. I had an article rejected in like 20 minutes today.
I was very impressed, usually my rejections take at least 2 hours.
This is mearly a trademark issue. A cease and desist letter is mearly "Fuji" doing something that they can present in court later when they do want to sue someone profiting from their work. (like the T-shirt guy) Basically they want to be able to say, "See we have been protecting our work."
Rather than whining and giving up mearly write the attorneys a letter requesting permission to use files soley in a non-profit capacity for a fan web-site.
If they refuse you after that, then they're being stupid, and losing on the free advertising opportunities you've given them.
Personally the few mentions I have seen of this show on slashdot has made me want to see it, and the few times I clicked on the ironchef.com website was also encouraging.. but we don't get that in Canada..
Anyway the moral of the story is, don't cave immediately to a cease and desist order, always ask if there is a better solution first. Then if they don't want to talk, give up. Or get your own lawyer whichever you feel more strongly about.
Gimmie a gun! I wan't a gun! With a target for
an icon! A bang sound and bullet holes when I select something!
Yeah! Yeah! Gimmie Gimmie!
Homer: Do you have anything to drink?
Vendor: Yes! Crab Juice or Mountain Dew.
Homer: Eeeewwwww! Bleha, I guess I'll have the crab juice.
A few days ago when showing one of my apartments for rent, a potential tenant asked me if internet connection was included.
I had thought it a stupid question at the time, but perhaps that is what is being demanded these days.
... it a trademark and not a patent, but still, the implications are ludicrous. How exactly do you tell the difference between the smell of one type of grass from another? Are you going to have a smell expert determine the difference? Smell is a very, very subjective sense. Although this is far better than a copyright or a patent.. I believe trademarks are only protected for 15 years in Europe. But I can't be sure. Infingement in these cases is going to be a nightmare for the courts. I hope they realize what they're doing.
For those of you who haven't read it.. this is a passage from "Beowulf", I personally think its too clever to be marked as a mere troll... is there a "grendel's mother" setting?
who think trading with China is a *good thing*.
How can you justify trading with a Chinese Communist government, still unapologetic about human rights violations (i.e. Tienemen Square), when you won't trade with Fidel Castro's Communist Cuba for the same reason?
I know this sounds very argumentative, but if money and market size is truly your motivation, then why no lift those same embargoes against Cuba? Standing on moral ground until the market is large enough just looks very hypocritical.
I dunno, that's what I mean, the article doesn't seem to describe what they mean in enough detail to determine what exactly they've done that's revolutionary.
:)
The normal (simplified) process is it to take a wafer of silicon, then 'grow' a field oxide (SiO2) ontop of the silicon wafer (the substrate) and then deposit silicon (that is later doped) on top of that to form the gates of the transistors. The Cox value is related to the depth (thickness tox) of the oxide and the quality of the Eox (permittivity) value (the dieletric).
Essentially Cox = Eox/tox,
so as you increase the thickness of the oxide, you decrease the capacitance. Anyway, rambling, sorry.
The insulating layer *is* the field oxide, and in a "normal" process you are depositing an oxide on top of the oxide. Now if they were depositing an insultaing layer of a better Permittivity value than silicon-oxide, that would be revolutionary. But I didn't get that from the article. All I'm suggesting is there is probably something more interesting occuring, but you are unable to glean that from the article. Well, at least I'm not.
Just my $0.02. (Well $0.01 since I'm in Canada.)