No, I haven't missed the point whatsoever. There is nothing about most uses of tags/folksonomy that is above and beyond a simple text search (and noun/subject analysis is not exactly rocket science. If tag clouds were useful beyond "ooh, ahh...shiny!" uses, it'd see more real world use). Yeah, I've read Shirky's piece, and like many of the genre, I think it's a giant mound of bullshit, eaten up and repeated by a bunch of easily swayed Believers.
If I come across strongly on the subject, it's because I feel strongly. Invariably if one dismisses tags, or points out how utterly redundant they usually are, the classic retort is "well you just don't get it!". No, I get it entirely. I just don't buy the snake oil.
In other news, nobody likes to grovel through page after page of marginally-relevant crap.
Marginally relevant? I'll bet that for most terms you'd find just as applicable of results on the 10th page as you would on the 1st.
Not only are there loads of excellent results out there -- far more than would fit on a couple of pages -- but the ones that got on the "front page" early (possibly just by association) are perhaps unjustly boosted: People making webpages/blog entries invariably link to search results that they themselves found in the first couple of results, handing some link goodness to a result simply because it already had a good standing.
Well because they are people with ego issues that want to have an edge over other players. They want to win, but aren't willing to get good at the game, so they cheat.
You hit it right on the head. Many of these games are zero-sum type games, of sorts, and you achieve "power" only in relation to other people. People pay for the right to be "better" than other people, not to achieve some sort of magical point in the game where it is intrinsically fun. Give everyone all of the gold, and free "epic mounts", and some people will immediately quest for something further to set them apart, cheating or buying it to get it.
But it has TAGS! They're like meta keywords but they're totally Web 2.0ified with scriptaculity!
So true.
Speaking of tags, is it just me, or are tags on Slashdot stories just a complete indictment of the whole idea? They're like a craptacular subset of the actual story (the words in tags almost always exist in the story), harkening back to the days when we weren't capable of properly searching data, so we had to rely upon terrible tags.
And there's a reason why all the review sites beg like dogs for sample hardware, and why companies are willing to send it.
Some, like Tom's Hardware, seem to make enough that they should be able to buy in retail. They can immediately sell it again (presuming that it wasn't one of the "how quickly will the chip burn up without a fan" tests) fand recouperate probably 75% of the cost. Others that can't buy retail should be considered suspect, not only because they probably got cherry picked/"tuned" devices, but also because they're indebted to return the favour of the hardware company that gave them a pre-release device.
The article describes a couple of unmasked young adults blatantly robbing a man for his Apple, stabbing him in the effort. In the process they could very well both go to prison for life (a little this way or that and they could be facing the death penalty) -- all for a laptop -- based upon witness identification, a suveillance system, or if a cop just happened to be walking in at that moment.
It wasn't rational, and if you analyze it in a rational way you misunderstand the criminal mind. These guys were almost certainly drug addicts, desperate to get a fix at whatever cost.
In other words, building a defense around "what would stop a normal person" isn't appropriate.
The #1 way to stop this sort of crime is to make laptops, or any expensive electronics, "hotter" to flip, such that junkies can't find a buyer will to risk their goods. Let's face it -- eBay lowered the bar to unloading stolen goods, and something needs to be done to rebalance it.
Cures for major causes of death should be issued in bulk by your government for free (Tax Dollars) not protected by patents.
You're basically calling for the socialization of medicine, which historically has been a really, really, really terrible model. You know -- where those cures never actually appear, and instead of complaining about those evil drug companies, you enjoy your 35 year lifespan and die away.
Imagining cures popping out of nowhere and doing away with major illnesses is pretty romantic, but in reality they appear because of the carrot of revenue.
Because the US created English? Your nationalistic fervor is dripping from your underpants
Except that I'm Canadian. Nonetheless, the #1 reason people hitch theirselves on the "China will rule the world!" wagon is because they're anti-American, and are simply attaching themselves to whatever contender appears.
BTW, I do think English has a good chance of becoming a global language of sorts, certainly one for global relations, for what it's worth.
Wow, what a bold prediction. That might just happen by, oh, the 1800s!
It will be interesting to see if Mandarin will overtake it during this century.
Yeah, just as soon as we all learn Japanese, given that Japanese took over during the 80s. Right?
The only people who seriously, sincerely think that Mandarin is going to become the first language of the world, after English laid the groundwork for centuries, are anti-US maniacs, desperate to hitch their wagon to a contender.
Re:Good idea, but you CAN wreck a computer...
on
Mac Security Alarm System
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
There is a video linked on the page that shows it to be enormously sensitive, basically sounding the moment the laptop senses the slightest movement. Of course the actual program doesn't appear to be released (strange that unreleased vapour is given a Slashdot story, but whatever), however it seems legitimate given that it's using a library someone else created, already demonstrated to provide this sort of functionality (e.g. using a Mac laptop as a level).
Odd that the values from a hard drive protection mechanism are even available to the software. I would have thought that it would simply be a boolean toggle that the BIOS immediately reacts to instantly, not relying upon the operating system in any way.
I think the reason you are confused is that you are stupid.
Let me tell you that it is an enormous compliment that you think poorly of me. I would be disturbed if I found myself in the same intellectual camp as someone like yourself.
That you focus on the specifics of where the tape may or may not have been is irrelevant to the acts of those that humiliated him.
Your continual claims that this is akin to rape is unbelievably offensive, not to mention hysterical. If I act outraged and personally attacked and vilified because someone cut me off in traffic, and then went and hid in my room afraid of the crazy world, does that making cutting someone off akin to rape.
Get some perspective. The kid in question humiliated himself, and your imagination that it that is irrelevant to the issue is astounding. If he can't live with the consequences of his actions, maybe he shouldn't have taped himself doing StarWars stunts on public property, using public equipment, and then leaving the evidence for the next person to find. Again, this isn't a "she asked for" simile to rape, regardless of your unbelievably ridiculous claims to the same -- it's the city whore who suddenly decides that being known as one is embarrassing, and claims that the earned reputation is a personal assault on her character.
Yes, public humilliation can trigger disorders related to rape and sexual abuse.
Firstly, the individual in question holds 95% of the culpability for this issue. No one forced him to perform the star wars routine, no one forced him to record it, or secretly recorded it without his knowledge, and no one forced him to leave the tape in a public place. If anyone wants to ridiculously compare this to a sexual act, it's like a woman intentionally and willing having group sex with a dozen men, but then claiming that they're being abused when one of them tells someone about it. Live with your actions.
Secondly, saying that being embarrassed about your actions is akin to rape is an insult, in the same way that saying that a 3 year old hugging another 3 year old has the "same foundations" as rape. It's a ridiculous comparison.
Okay I've read this story for a few moments, and this is the FOURTH TIME THIS HAS BEEN COMPARED TO RAPE. Are you kidding? Do you really think some idiot video taping himself doing something embarrassing, on and using school property, and then leaving the video in a public place, is remotely comparable to rape or child abuse? Jesus. Get some bloody perspective.
As far as this kid being alienated "because" of the video -- I have a pretty good feeling that he already was alienated. (And that he already had some odd interpersonal traits. When most well-adjusted people would have laughed at themselves and tried to capitalize on the situation, this guy acted like he'd had a labotomy or something). The video just gave him a lightning rod to focus all of his anger.
So while the tape might have been stolen, it wasn't stolen from *him*. And thus he had no legal standing regarding the theft.
The tape wasn't even stolen. People with legitimate access found the tape, and then digitized it on the school's computer. Presumably the tape went right back.
He was the one who pushed the record button in the first place.
No doubt. On top of that he then carelessly left it, apparently as refuse, in a public place.
The idea that he could coerce any sort of settlement out of anyone, as a result of his own foolishness (recording something so inane) and carelessness (leaving the tape around), is unbelievable, and it's bizarre that anyone would go along with it on here. At most he should be able to get them on copyright laws (that he has an implicit copyright that they disregarded when they copied it).
There is no bullying. If you make a jackass of yourself, especially if you're dumb enough to record it and leave it on public property, then live with the consequences.
Rejections were all based on lobyist's pressure to Congress, nothing to see here.
Yeah, because congress has a long history of putting pressure on government agencies to defend the interests of Canadian corporations (RIM) over American corporations (NTP). Just like they did with software lumber and the beef industry. Oh...wait...
Go cash that paycheque now, though I wouldn't say that you've earned it.
So was cold fusion. Do some thinking before opening up your yap. NTP's patent was approved and it's based on real world demonstration and prototype before you had your thumb up your ass for crackberry juice. Rejections were all based on lobyist's pressure to Congress, nothing to see here.
Hilarious. If you aren't on NTP's payroll, then you are one hell of an extraordinary idiot. If you are on their payroll, then congrats on getting the gig.
Then you weren't listening or don't know enough to even place your opinion about this subject.
Thank you, Mr. Authority. Would you mind pointing out a single source, on the planet Earth, that claims that RIM stole the "invention"? The only claim is that RIM "willfully" violated the patent because they didn't immediately cease after NTP came out of the blue and claimed that they were infringing. No one credible, despite your hysterics, has ever claimed that RIM actually stole technology.
Right, like no positive angle when RIM was on a roll sending out patent infringement letters...
So RIM acting like corporate thugs somehow makes it okay for NTP to act like corporate thugs? Quite a primary school attitude you have about the world there.
Nowhere have I ever defended RIM, except for the specifics of this action with NTP. I have never implied that RIM is a model corporate citizen, or that they aren't patent trolls themselves. The issue has been NTP, and NTP's patents. Take your Ritalin and get some focus.
So I guess if you invent something but can't make it profitable, you should give up all your rights and let someone else have it?
Did NTP use some of those funds to pay for Slashdot astroturfers or something?
a) All of the pertinent NTP patents have been rejected by the USPTO. NTP wanted to rush to judgement in the case, and wanted a non-reversible settlement (e.g. they don't have to give the money back if/when the patents get their final rejection).
b) No one has ever claimed that RIM in any way learned from, or copied, NTP's "invention". Given that it was one of the inevitable sorts of patents that clog up the patent system -- one of the sorts of things that any half-intelligent person would inevitably do for a solution -- it was inevitable that RIM would "violate" their patents. If I patent using a computer to book travel to the moon, that doesn't make me an "inventor" when moon travel becomes a reality years in the future, and inevitably computers are used for bookings.
NTP is no patent troll, the owner seriously tried to fund development of his project, until the megacorps repeatedly left him hanging. His investments in demos and prototypes ended up ruining him.
Using dubious patents (all of the patents in question have been rejected) to coerce money out of organizations that independently created something similar (e.g. Does anyone think that RIM learned about NTP's projects and then covertly copied them? I've never, ever heard that accusation) is pretty much the definition of a patent troll. Further vilifying them, NTP held out for a non-reversable judgement because they know that odds are great that their patents will fail the appeals: They wanted their $600 million or they'd force an injunction, and they wanted it quick before the USPTO rips out the entire foundation of their case.
NTP is a purported patent troll, existing on fluffed up patents (many created using the continuation loophole of the patent office, allowing them to add news discoveries in other people's products into a long idling patent application). All of NTPs patents are likely to be discarded by the USPTO on review, however the disconnect between the justice system and the USPTO allowed NTP to extort $600+ million dollars out of RIM by threatening them with an injunction.
The civil justice treats granted patents as valid, yet the USPTO operates under the workflow model of basically granting everything, and then dealing with problem patents upon petitions -- but the review is far too slow, allowing malicious patent trolls to siphon off of legitimately innovative organizations.
e.g. I sneak a patent in that patents vacuums. The USPTO grants it, and I can then cajole a judge into granting an injunction against every vacuum maker unless they pay my extortion fee. The USPTO will of course pull the patent out and start reviewing it, but the vacuum cleaners will have long been forced to pay up.
Am I missing something or is this just a case of someone getting caught and whining about it? I'm sincerely curious, not trolling.
To get this straight: Instead of finding one of the countless case of information on this case, instead you decided to post a hopeful karma-whore on Slashdot, repeating a bunch of ignorant mistruths that you're unsure of?
"By appearing before you today, it is my sincere hope that we are helping to advance meaningful patent law reform, thus helping to assure that no other company experiences what RIM endured over the past five years."
and no, everything isn't going to compress 25x, but everything will compress some.
Completely ridiculous statement. If this is true, then you can infinitely pipe its output into its input, until you're left with a single bit. It's hardly a complex exercise to realize why that's foolish.
There are repeated bitstreams in everything. a 64bit string has a finite number of patterns. I don't know how small they chunk it up, but it's beliveable.
This is the naive foolishness that leads people into believing ridiculous compression claims, buying into them again and again. This sort of "just magically see the repeats" nonsense has been debunked a trillion times, so I'm not going to point it out.
If, indeed, they use a diff/rtpatch type vector files, then not only is it difficult to believe that they do it efficiently (you ever use one of the binary patching generation tools? They're TERRIBLY resource intensive. I can't imagine trying to do it for an entire system image), but it's not really "compression", per se. Maybe they use a transaction log approach, however many SANs already have that functionality, eliminating the innovative element of it.
Slashdot Mirror
You seem to have completely missed the point
No, I haven't missed the point whatsoever. There is nothing about most uses of tags/folksonomy that is above and beyond a simple text search (and noun/subject analysis is not exactly rocket science. If tag clouds were useful beyond "ooh, ahh...shiny!" uses, it'd see more real world use). Yeah, I've read Shirky's piece, and like many of the genre, I think it's a giant mound of bullshit, eaten up and repeated by a bunch of easily swayed Believers.
If I come across strongly on the subject, it's because I feel strongly. Invariably if one dismisses tags, or points out how utterly redundant they usually are, the classic retort is "well you just don't get it!". No, I get it entirely. I just don't buy the snake oil.
In other news, nobody likes to grovel through page after page of marginally-relevant crap.
Marginally relevant? I'll bet that for most terms you'd find just as applicable of results on the 10th page as you would on the 1st.
Not only are there loads of excellent results out there -- far more than would fit on a couple of pages -- but the ones that got on the "front page" early (possibly just by association) are perhaps unjustly boosted: People making webpages/blog entries invariably link to search results that they themselves found in the first couple of results, handing some link goodness to a result simply because it already had a good standing.
Well because they are people with ego issues that want to have an edge over other players. They want to win, but aren't willing to get good at the game, so they cheat.
You hit it right on the head. Many of these games are zero-sum type games, of sorts, and you achieve "power" only in relation to other people. People pay for the right to be "better" than other people, not to achieve some sort of magical point in the game where it is intrinsically fun. Give everyone all of the gold, and free "epic mounts", and some people will immediately quest for something further to set them apart, cheating or buying it to get it.
But it has TAGS! They're like meta keywords but they're totally Web 2.0ified with scriptaculity!
So true.
Speaking of tags, is it just me, or are tags on Slashdot stories just a complete indictment of the whole idea? They're like a craptacular subset of the actual story (the words in tags almost always exist in the story), harkening back to the days when we weren't capable of properly searching data, so we had to rely upon terrible tags.
And there's a reason why all the review sites beg like dogs for sample hardware, and why companies are willing to send it.
Some, like Tom's Hardware, seem to make enough that they should be able to buy in retail. They can immediately sell it again (presuming that it wasn't one of the "how quickly will the chip burn up without a fan" tests) fand recouperate probably 75% of the cost. Others that can't buy retail should be considered suspect, not only because they probably got cherry picked/"tuned" devices, but also because they're indebted to return the favour of the hardware company that gave them a pre-release device.
The number one thing criminals hate is attention.
The article describes a couple of unmasked young adults blatantly robbing a man for his Apple, stabbing him in the effort. In the process they could very well both go to prison for life (a little this way or that and they could be facing the death penalty) -- all for a laptop -- based upon witness identification, a suveillance system, or if a cop just happened to be walking in at that moment.
It wasn't rational, and if you analyze it in a rational way you misunderstand the criminal mind. These guys were almost certainly drug addicts, desperate to get a fix at whatever cost.
In other words, building a defense around "what would stop a normal person" isn't appropriate.
The #1 way to stop this sort of crime is to make laptops, or any expensive electronics, "hotter" to flip, such that junkies can't find a buyer will to risk their goods. Let's face it -- eBay lowered the bar to unloading stolen goods, and something needs to be done to rebalance it.
Cures for major causes of death should be issued in bulk by your government for free (Tax Dollars) not protected by patents.
You're basically calling for the socialization of medicine, which historically has been a really, really, really terrible model. You know -- where those cures never actually appear, and instead of complaining about those evil drug companies, you enjoy your 35 year lifespan and die away.
Imagining cures popping out of nowhere and doing away with major illnesses is pretty romantic, but in reality they appear because of the carrot of revenue.
Because the US created English? Your nationalistic fervor is dripping from your underpants
Except that I'm Canadian. Nonetheless, the #1 reason people hitch theirselves on the "China will rule the world!" wagon is because they're anti-American, and are simply attaching themselves to whatever contender appears.
BTW, I do think English has a good chance of becoming a global language of sorts, certainly one for global relations, for what it's worth.
Wow, what a bold prediction. That might just happen by, oh, the 1800s!
It will be interesting to see if Mandarin will overtake it during this century.
Yeah, just as soon as we all learn Japanese, given that Japanese took over during the 80s. Right?
The only people who seriously, sincerely think that Mandarin is going to become the first language of the world, after English laid the groundwork for centuries, are anti-US maniacs, desperate to hitch their wagon to a contender.
There is a video linked on the page that shows it to be enormously sensitive, basically sounding the moment the laptop senses the slightest movement. Of course the actual program doesn't appear to be released (strange that unreleased vapour is given a Slashdot story, but whatever), however it seems legitimate given that it's using a library someone else created, already demonstrated to provide this sort of functionality (e.g. using a Mac laptop as a level).
Odd that the values from a hard drive protection mechanism are even available to the software. I would have thought that it would simply be a boolean toggle that the BIOS immediately reacts to instantly, not relying upon the operating system in any way.
This happens with amplifiers, speakers, and CRT monitors if the phone is near them when the phone is actively sending data/voice.
If my phone has an active call and I move it near my keyboard, my keyboard stops functioning. Discovered this by chance one day while on hold.
I think the reason you are confused is that you are stupid.
Let me tell you that it is an enormous compliment that you think poorly of me. I would be disturbed if I found myself in the same intellectual camp as someone like yourself.
That you focus on the specifics of where the tape may or may not have been is irrelevant to the acts of those that humiliated him.
Your continual claims that this is akin to rape is unbelievably offensive, not to mention hysterical. If I act outraged and personally attacked and vilified because someone cut me off in traffic, and then went and hid in my room afraid of the crazy world, does that making cutting someone off akin to rape.
Get some perspective. The kid in question humiliated himself, and your imagination that it that is irrelevant to the issue is astounding. If he can't live with the consequences of his actions, maybe he shouldn't have taped himself doing StarWars stunts on public property, using public equipment, and then leaving the evidence for the next person to find. Again, this isn't a "she asked for" simile to rape, regardless of your unbelievably ridiculous claims to the same -- it's the city whore who suddenly decides that being known as one is embarrassing, and claims that the earned reputation is a personal assault on her character.
Yes, public humilliation can trigger disorders related to rape and sexual abuse.
Firstly, the individual in question holds 95% of the culpability for this issue. No one forced him to perform the star wars routine, no one forced him to record it, or secretly recorded it without his knowledge, and no one forced him to leave the tape in a public place. If anyone wants to ridiculously compare this to a sexual act, it's like a woman intentionally and willing having group sex with a dozen men, but then claiming that they're being abused when one of them tells someone about it. Live with your actions.
Secondly, saying that being embarrassed about your actions is akin to rape is an insult, in the same way that saying that a 3 year old hugging another 3 year old has the "same foundations" as rape. It's a ridiculous comparison.
Would that work for rape too?
Okay I've read this story for a few moments, and this is the FOURTH TIME THIS HAS BEEN COMPARED TO RAPE. Are you kidding? Do you really think some idiot video taping himself doing something embarrassing, on and using school property, and then leaving the video in a public place, is remotely comparable to rape or child abuse? Jesus. Get some bloody perspective.
As far as this kid being alienated "because" of the video -- I have a pretty good feeling that he already was alienated. (And that he already had some odd interpersonal traits. When most well-adjusted people would have laughed at themselves and tried to capitalize on the situation, this guy acted like he'd had a labotomy or something). The video just gave him a lightning rod to focus all of his anger.
So while the tape might have been stolen, it wasn't stolen from *him*. And thus he had no legal standing regarding the theft.
The tape wasn't even stolen. People with legitimate access found the tape, and then digitized it on the school's computer. Presumably the tape went right back.
He was the one who pushed the record button in the first place.
No doubt. On top of that he then carelessly left it, apparently as refuse, in a public place.
The idea that he could coerce any sort of settlement out of anyone, as a result of his own foolishness (recording something so inane) and carelessness (leaving the tape around), is unbelievable, and it's bizarre that anyone would go along with it on here. At most he should be able to get them on copyright laws (that he has an implicit copyright that they disregarded when they copied it).
There is no bullying. If you make a jackass of yourself, especially if you're dumb enough to record it and leave it on public property, then live with the consequences.
Oh, and this is truly delicious:
Rejections were all based on lobyist's pressure to Congress, nothing to see here.
Yeah, because congress has a long history of putting pressure on government agencies to defend the interests of Canadian corporations (RIM) over American corporations (NTP). Just like they did with software lumber and the beef industry. Oh...wait...
Go cash that paycheque now, though I wouldn't say that you've earned it.
So was cold fusion. Do some thinking before opening up your yap. NTP's patent was approved and it's based on real world demonstration and prototype before you had your thumb up your ass for crackberry juice. Rejections were all based on lobyist's pressure to Congress, nothing to see here.
Hilarious. If you aren't on NTP's payroll, then you are one hell of an extraordinary idiot. If you are on their payroll, then congrats on getting the gig.
Then you weren't listening or don't know enough to even place your opinion about this subject.
Thank you, Mr. Authority. Would you mind pointing out a single source, on the planet Earth, that claims that RIM stole the "invention"? The only claim is that RIM "willfully" violated the patent because they didn't immediately cease after NTP came out of the blue and claimed that they were infringing. No one credible, despite your hysterics, has ever claimed that RIM actually stole technology.
Right, like no positive angle when RIM was on a roll sending out patent infringement letters...
So RIM acting like corporate thugs somehow makes it okay for NTP to act like corporate thugs? Quite a primary school attitude you have about the world there.
Nowhere have I ever defended RIM, except for the specifics of this action with NTP. I have never implied that RIM is a model corporate citizen, or that they aren't patent trolls themselves. The issue has been NTP, and NTP's patents. Take your Ritalin and get some focus.
So I guess if you invent something but can't make it profitable, you should give up all your rights and let someone else have it?
Did NTP use some of those funds to pay for Slashdot astroturfers or something?
a) All of the pertinent NTP patents have been rejected by the USPTO. NTP wanted to rush to judgement in the case, and wanted a non-reversible settlement (e.g. they don't have to give the money back if/when the patents get their final rejection).
b) No one has ever claimed that RIM in any way learned from, or copied, NTP's "invention". Given that it was one of the inevitable sorts of patents that clog up the patent system -- one of the sorts of things that any half-intelligent person would inevitably do for a solution -- it was inevitable that RIM would "violate" their patents. If I patent using a computer to book travel to the moon, that doesn't make me an "inventor" when moon travel becomes a reality years in the future, and inevitably computers are used for bookings.
NTP is no patent troll, the owner seriously tried to fund development of his project, until the megacorps repeatedly left him hanging. His investments in demos and prototypes ended up ruining him.
Using dubious patents (all of the patents in question have been rejected) to coerce money out of organizations that independently created something similar (e.g. Does anyone think that RIM learned about NTP's projects and then covertly copied them? I've never, ever heard that accusation) is pretty much the definition of a patent troll. Further vilifying them, NTP held out for a non-reversable judgement because they know that odds are great that their patents will fail the appeals: They wanted their $600 million or they'd force an injunction, and they wanted it quick before the USPTO rips out the entire foundation of their case.
There is absolutely no positive angle for NTP.
Unlike you, Karma whoring by whining about someones on topic query being a Karma whorejob.
Karma whoring? Yeah, like my bitch is going to be moderated up, moron. It has zero indication of being a karma whore.
NTP is a purported patent troll, existing on fluffed up patents (many created using the continuation loophole of the patent office, allowing them to add news discoveries in other people's products into a long idling patent application). All of NTPs patents are likely to be discarded by the USPTO on review, however the disconnect between the justice system and the USPTO allowed NTP to extort $600+ million dollars out of RIM by threatening them with an injunction.
The civil justice treats granted patents as valid, yet the USPTO operates under the workflow model of basically granting everything, and then dealing with problem patents upon petitions -- but the review is far too slow, allowing malicious patent trolls to siphon off of legitimately innovative organizations.
e.g. I sneak a patent in that patents vacuums. The USPTO grants it, and I can then cajole a judge into granting an injunction against every vacuum maker unless they pay my extortion fee. The USPTO will of course pull the patent out and start reviewing it, but the vacuum cleaners will have long been forced to pay up.
Am I missing something or is this just a case of someone getting caught and whining about it? I'm sincerely curious, not trolling.
To get this straight: Instead of finding one of the countless case of information on this case, instead you decided to post a hopeful karma-whore on Slashdot, repeating a bunch of ignorant mistruths that you're unsure of?
Interesting approach.
The actual statement (in pdf form)
"By appearing before you today, it is my sincere hope that we are helping to advance meaningful patent law reform, thus helping to assure that no other company experiences what RIM endured over the past five years."
and no, everything isn't going to compress 25x, but everything will compress some.
Completely ridiculous statement. If this is true, then you can infinitely pipe its output into its input, until you're left with a single bit. It's hardly a complex exercise to realize why that's foolish.
There are repeated bitstreams in everything. a 64bit string has a finite number of patterns. I don't know how small they chunk it up, but it's beliveable.
This is the naive foolishness that leads people into believing ridiculous compression claims, buying into them again and again. This sort of "just magically see the repeats" nonsense has been debunked a trillion times, so I'm not going to point it out.
If, indeed, they use a diff/rtpatch type vector files, then not only is it difficult to believe that they do it efficiently (you ever use one of the binary patching generation tools? They're TERRIBLY resource intensive. I can't imagine trying to do it for an entire system image), but it's not really "compression", per se. Maybe they use a transaction log approach, however many SANs already have that functionality, eliminating the innovative element of it.