... Social life comes to resemble economics, with people enmeshed in blizzards of supply and demand signals amidst a universe of potential partners. ...
Has Brooks ever heard of Victorian era England? In that time you were pretty much considered a fool if you married for love rather than status and money.
Setting aside the idea that a government spook or advert exec is trying to watch me though my TV, the biggest problem I see is false positives such as a portrait hanging on the wall getting picked up. A better technology (for privacy as well as accuracy) would be an infared light and camera, that picked up on the two brightly glowing spots your pupils make when the infared light reflects off the back of your eyeballs and is viewed in the infared spectrum.
It would have to be opt-in, so you have to turn it on in order to use it and be able to freely toggle the feature whenever you want. Also, infared light means that it won't bother the human eye, since we don't have any cells in the eye that are capable of sensing that type of light. The only privacy concern with such a setup is the potential to transmit how many people (actually pets too, since this would have the same effect on them) are watching at a given time.
Though to be honest I think that TVs and displays in general will cover the energy efficiency gap before a majority of people buy into this particular technology.
Salon's Ms. Miller seems to start off describing overwhelmingly common problems with projects and their management: poor/absent leadership, team members with subpar skillsets, and team members with poor attitudes. These sorts of issues occur regardless of project size, but to tack on the paragraph (My emphasis)
Most of us do recognize the real thing when we see it in action, but that's another matter. As Delany put it, "While many -- or even most -- people can internalize a range of literary models strongly enough to recognize and enjoy them when they see them in ... new works that they read, very few people internalize them to the extent that they can apply them to new material and use them to create. Lots of people want to. But not many people can." Not many people, and certainly no crowds.
At worst Ms. Miller can claim that the project was poorly executed, assuming the goal was to produce a quality work of fiction. This sort of strawman reporting while not surprising is a let-down.
I speculate that with more editorial control a more coherent story could be produced. But it's a fine line to dance on, with a bad story on one side and pissed off fans on the other. I have to agree with Techdirt on this one: it's better to have made the fans happy and ended up with a subpar work than the other way around at the end of the day. Not to mention all the attention it's getting.
Care to substantiate this claim? Hours of searching has turned up no clue on to what Trudeau's actual income from his work on Doonebury has brought him, and frankly I find that even "tens ... of millions" would have turned up something if it wasn't a highly exaggerated—or made up—number.
Mike, don't you know that with the "innovention" of the internets, all laws in existence need to have "on the web" appended to them so that the lawless hell-machines that sit in so many American's homes can finally be brought under control? Think of the children!
The great thing about ignorance is that it can be cured quite easily with a little study in the area one is ignorant. Stupidity such as yours, on the other hand, has no cure.
I really love the way the World of Warcraft fans have come out to pontificate so passionately in the comments, putting down others who may have been a little off the mark. "ignorant about life"? Really? Given the most recent subscriber numbers for World of Warcraft are approximately 12 million, that puts the world wide relevance of World of Warcraft at approximately 0.2%. World of Warcraft doesn't mean anything to the 99.8% of the rest of the world. Get over your own self importance.
... but apparently some are so annoyed by the bogus claims from PC makers that they've filed a class action lawsuit. ...
This is a little misleading. From the article:
... Girard Gibbs, a law firm that specializes in securities litigation and consumer class actions, is looking for possible plaintiffs related to the issue and is offering a “free consultation.” ...
This is what class action lawsuits are these days: a law firm sees an opportunity to cash in and gets people to sign up. Several years ago my wife got a letter from a law firm regarding a class action lawsuit where the company being sued had lost. One plaintiff got $7,000, the rest of the members of the class got a 30 days free service from the company, and the lawyers that brought the suit to the company got $4,000,000.
While I'm not saying that people aren't annoyed that they aren't getting what's advertised, this is definitely not something that's being initiated by the consumers.
I already heard about this coming down the pipe from my employer a few months ago.
Want to guess what the universal response from my shop was?
"Not going to be on call 24/7 anymore, because the work cell stays at the office and we'll just use the landlines/personal cells to make personal calls."
Assuming that professors/teachers didn't immediately catch on and bust someone for doing this and that it became widespread in use: wouldn't it just breed a generation of hard-ass profs/teachers that would have a policy of "the integrity of the files you turn in for your schoolwork is your responsibility, you will get an F for any corrupted files you turn in."
In fact, I have to wonder if news of this service even existing will prompt educators to put this sort of policy in place preemptively.
This company is preventing competitors from arising in the field of treating HIV patients. Unless you have a legally binding statement from this company stating they will either a) provide licensing for both these patents for free or b) will manufacture and provide the devices described in these patents at cost then they will-by definition-be artificially inflating the cost for any patients looking to benefit from these ideas.
Statistically, there are going to be HIV infected individuals who cannot afford to receive superior treatment because of the artificially increased price. So despite your hyperbole aimed at TechDirt, yes, these patents are being used to put lives at risk because of corporate greed.
Patent 6,188,988 has 66 claims. Here's the key claims:
1: Help selecting treatment for an illness.
a: Entering patient illness data and history into a computer that matches said data against databases containing known treatments, known guidelines for diagnosis and treatment selection, and known variations of treatments.
b & c: Aggregate data from those databases into a list of treatments and treatment data for said patient.
This is a search engine for illnesses and treatments. Google could have done this and probably has something planned with their Google Health offering.
Claims 2-8 & 12-22 are based on claim 1.
7: Generate warnings about drugs patient is taking that will have negative side effects with proposed treatment and information to help begin a proposed treatment.
Every legal Pharmacy does this. They cannot afford to do otherwise, a mistake could cause someone to die.
Claims 9-11 are based on claim 7. 23 & 45 are rewordings of 1. 24-30 & 34-43 are based on 23. 29 & 50 are rewordings of 7. 31-33 are based on claim 29. 44 is basically saying "a drug reference book on a computer." 46, 48-51, & 55-66 are based on 45. 47 is based on 46. 52-54 are based on 50.
This thing is a redundant pile of poo. It's literally proof of concept for the idea of how utterly screwed up the patent system is.
(an actual support ticket submitted) Customer Support | Your Current Question: yo yo brother wat it do wat it do. im here to rat on Sevilysia this foo be harrasing the great {Gladiator Frostio} Sevilysia be saying that Frostio be making a Premade Alterac Valley which aint true dog and hella heads be messaging frostio for an invite. That aint right ya heard? That be harassment.
(the conversation between the player and GM) Glycen: Yo, yo, this be Game Master Glycen. So I read this phat ticket about some foo named Sevilysia, you got some time to rap about this? Frostio: fo sho play fo sho Glycen: Word, how you been playa? Frostio: chillin gotta get the honor playa nah mean? Glycen: Oh I hear ya! Glycen: So tell me about this playa Sevilysia. Frostio: this playa be posting in trade channel that frostio be making a premade Frostio: advertising that he be 26-0 Frostio: and he be needing more heads for av Glycen: That ain't right yo. Fostio: but that aint even true playa he just be jealous because he aint gladiator Glycen: I hear ya, I tell ya what I do. I'll make it do what it do and look into this playa. That just ain't right ya know? Frostio: i feel ya bro we gots to get rid of this cat ruining our street cred u feel me? Glycen: Word brotha. Glycen: So you want something or can I be getting myself out of this joint? Frostio: good looking out dawg. well daym playa if you can make it out here and strike a pose with me that would be sick but I know you gots other cats you gotta bust a cap on. Glycen: Nah bro if I could show ya I would hit ya up but there are other playas out there. I gotta help my peeps ya feel? Frostio: right on playa ill let you hit up some other foos with their 99 problems u feel me? Glycen: Word up. Peace out yo. Frostio: aight playa im out 2 gotta bust a cap on Drek'Thar Glycen: Cap that Drek'Thar! But yo if you think I did a good job slap an email and my higher brother about it. Shoot this foo an e-mail to: [wowgmfeedback-us@blizzard.com]. I'm out.
For anyone unfamiliar with World of Warcraft, the gist of it is that one player(Sevilysia) is advertising that another player(Frostio) is looking for more people for a huge player vs player battle, when he's not. Effectively tricking others into spamming Frostio in game.
What's funny is that the only 5 star reviews on there at the moment are written by someone who has reviewed one of his fictional works and a random sampling of religious books and music.
The other 5 star review is by someone who's name (Peter Lake) is the same as one of the fictional characters in one of Helprin's books.
See my response to Bettawrekonize: acting stupid means you're stupid. As long as it's only an act you're blessed with a way to cure yourself, unlike genuinely stupid people.
Name one--just ONE--profession in the world where you would keep your job if you knew how to do it, but "just pretended not to." If I had a lawyer bill me for filing motions/charges that he knew would be smacked down by a judge that lawyer would be fired on the spot.
Your assertion that years of schooling means that someone's professional integrity cannot possibly be questioned by a "novice" is absurd.
You cannot teach common sense,
you cannot teach work ethic,
you cannot teach personal ethics.
You can teach about these things, but school cannot instill them within a person.
To summarize, if you act dumb, then you are dumb. If it really is a matter of merely "acting" dumb, then thankfully you have a very easy way to stop being dumb. If it's not acting, then your problem is a little more difficult to rememedy.
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Re: (as Grae)
Can we get this spam nuked please?
(as Grae)
I thought this was particularly amusing:
Has Brooks ever heard of Victorian era England? In that time you were pretty much considered a fool if you married for love rather than status and money.Let's be practical here (as Grae)
Setting aside the idea that a government spook or advert exec is trying to watch me though my TV, the biggest problem I see is false positives such as a portrait hanging on the wall getting picked up. A better technology (for privacy as well as accuracy) would be an infared light and camera, that picked up on the two brightly glowing spots your pupils make when the infared light reflects off the back of your eyeballs and is viewed in the infared spectrum.
It would have to be opt-in, so you have to turn it on in order to use it and be able to freely toggle the feature whenever you want. Also, infared light means that it won't bother the human eye, since we don't have any cells in the eye that are capable of sensing that type of light. The only privacy concern with such a setup is the potential to transmit how many people (actually pets too, since this would have the same effect on them) are watching at a given time.
Though to be honest I think that TVs and displays in general will cover the energy efficiency gap before a majority of people buy into this particular technology.
Disingenuous Indeed (as Grae)
Salon's Ms. Miller seems to start off describing overwhelmingly common problems with projects and their management: poor/absent leadership, team members with subpar skillsets, and team members with poor attitudes. These sorts of issues occur regardless of project size, but to tack on the paragraph (My emphasis)
At worst Ms. Miller can claim that the project was poorly executed, assuming the goal was to produce a quality work of fiction. This sort of strawman reporting while not surprising is a let-down.I speculate that with more editorial control a more coherent story could be produced. But it's a fine line to dance on, with a bad story on one side and pissed off fans on the other. I have to agree with Techdirt on this one: it's better to have made the fans happy and ended up with a subpar work than the other way around at the end of the day. Not to mention all the attention it's getting.
Re: Chump change (as Grae)
Care to substantiate this claim? Hours of searching has turned up no clue on to what Trudeau's actual income from his work on Doonebury has brought him, and frankly I find that even "tens ... of millions" would have turned up something if it wasn't a highly exaggerated—or made up—number.
(as Grae)
Mike, don't you know that with the "innovention" of the internets, all laws in existence need to have "on the web" appended to them so that the lawless hell-machines that sit in so many American's homes can finally be brought under control? Think of the children!
Re: Re: Re: Bittersweet (as Grae)
Do you even know the history of this case?
Re: Re: ... (as Grae)
The great thing about ignorance is that it can be cured quite easily with a little study in the area one is ignorant. Stupidity such as yours, on the other hand, has no cure.
I really love the way the World of Warcraft fans have come out to pontificate so passionately in the comments, putting down others who may have been a little off the mark. "ignorant about life"? Really? Given the most recent subscriber numbers for World of Warcraft are approximately 12 million, that puts the world wide relevance of World of Warcraft at approximately 0.2%. World of Warcraft doesn't mean anything to the 99.8% of the rest of the world. Get over your own self importance.
(as Grae)
While I'm not saying that people aren't annoyed that they aren't getting what's advertised, this is definitely not something that's being initiated by the consumers.
Re: (as Grae)
Can get this post nuked please? It's a pretty obvious attempt at getting someone's email address on as many spam lists as possible.
Kinda old news (as Grae)
I already heard about this coming down the pipe from my employer a few months ago.
Want to guess what the universal response from my shop was?
"Not going to be on call 24/7 anymore, because the work cell stays at the office and we'll just use the landlines/personal cells to make personal calls."
Even if this worked ... (as Grae)
Assuming that professors/teachers didn't immediately catch on and bust someone for doing this and that it became widespread in use: wouldn't it just breed a generation of hard-ass profs/teachers that would have a policy of "the integrity of the files you turn in for your schoolwork is your responsibility, you will get an F for any corrupted files you turn in."
In fact, I have to wonder if news of this service even existing will prompt educators to put this sort of policy in place preemptively.
Re: Re: Re: Re:#5 (as Grae)
*ahem*
Re: (as Grae)
This company is preventing competitors from arising in the field of treating HIV patients. Unless you have a legally binding statement from this company stating they will either a) provide licensing for both these patents for free or b) will manufacture and provide the devices described in these patents at cost then they will-by definition-be artificially inflating the cost for any patients looking to benefit from these ideas.
Statistically, there are going to be HIV infected individuals who cannot afford to receive superior treatment because of the artificially increased price. So despite your hyperbole aimed at TechDirt, yes, these patents are being used to put lives at risk because of corporate greed.
Re: (as Grae)
6,081,786 is a rewording of 6,188,988. It looks like their lawyers are taking lessons from data center experts on redundancy.
(as Grae)
Patent 6,188,988 has 66 claims. Here's the key claims:
This is a search engine for illnesses and treatments. Google could have done this and probably has something planned with their Google Health offering. Claims 2-8 & 12-22 are based on claim 1. Every legal Pharmacy does this. They cannot afford to do otherwise, a mistake could cause someone to die.Claims 9-11 are based on claim 7. 23 & 45 are rewordings of 1. 24-30 & 34-43 are based on 23. 29 & 50 are rewordings of 7. 31-33 are based on claim 29. 44 is basically saying "a drug reference book on a computer." 46, 48-51, & 55-66 are based on 45. 47 is based on 46. 52-54 are based on 50.
This thing is a redundant pile of poo. It's literally proof of concept for the idea of how utterly screwed up the patent system is.
Not original, not innovative, not patent-worthy.
(as Grae)
This reminds me of the Gangsta GM in World of Warcraft.
For anyone unfamiliar with World of Warcraft, the gist of it is that one player(Sevilysia) is advertising that another player(Frostio) is looking for more people for a huge player vs player battle, when he's not. Effectively tricking others into spamming Frostio in game.Re: (as Grae)
What's funny is that the only 5 star reviews on there at the moment are written by someone who has reviewed one of his fictional works and a random sampling of religious books and music.
The other 5 star review is by someone who's name (Peter Lake) is the same as one of the fictional characters in one of Helprin's books.
The remainder are 2 & 1 star reviews.
Re: Re: Re: Don't be naive (as Grae)
See my response to Bettawrekonize: acting stupid means you're stupid. As long as it's only an act you're blessed with a way to cure yourself, unlike genuinely stupid people.
Re: Re: Re: Don't be naive (as Grae)
Yes, I do think they are dumber than novices.
Are you freaking kidding me?
Name one--just ONE--profession in the world where you would keep your job if you knew how to do it, but "just pretended not to." If I had a lawyer bill me for filing motions/charges that he knew would be smacked down by a judge that lawyer would be fired on the spot.
Your assertion that years of schooling means that someone's professional integrity cannot possibly be questioned by a "novice" is absurd.
You cannot teach common sense,
you cannot teach work ethic,
you cannot teach personal ethics.
You can teach about these things, but school cannot instill them within a person.
To summarize, if you act dumb, then you are dumb. If it really is a matter of merely "acting" dumb, then thankfully you have a very easy way to stop being dumb. If it's not acting, then your problem is a little more difficult to rememedy.