Posts by Eddy Ito

Re: this would make

Maybe after another $70,000 but does it have the headroom? Although it always struck me to be a bit like Tardis in that regard depending on the scene but then my memory is about as old and hasn't been "partially restored", which may be a good thing considering.

Re: Apple PR done well.

Let's not forget the Samsung F700 was announced a whole month after the first iPhone and was another rectangle with rounded corners and capacitive touch screen.

Why is it the fanbois scream the iPhone wasn't a copy of the Prada because there wasn't enough time between the two but somehow believe Samsung could make a copy in the same time frame? Perhaps everyone saw the writing on the wall well ahead of time and were working on similar phones and LG happened to win the race to market forcing everyone else with similar kit to show it off and likely add a feature or two in order to persuade folks to wait for the next great thing.

Let's be honest, Apple wouldn't care if Samsung had kept working with the original OS on the F700 and only care now because for some reason they feel slighted by Google and Android. The fact that Android began in 2003 and Google bought it in 2005 doesn't seem to matter. Seriously, was Apple so naive to think Google was going to use Android on their web search data center and not make mobile devices?

Re: soul music

I wanted a Soul but the wife insisted on a Honda.

"wtf is a design patent?"

It may sound trivial but many if not most ornamental designs aren't able to be covered by copyright or trademark. Some design patents cover things that are actually useful including ship hulls, toys, patterns that may appear on wall paper or cloth and let's not forget clothes, yup probably even that "aloha" print on that shirt you have in the closet. Granted the clothes industry is likely more interested in fake labels and trademark theft than dresses that look similar.

Since design patents tend to be pretty rigidly interpreted in court and fairly easy to work around and so likely slide through the patent office pretty easily with less consideration than a utility patent, if that's even possible today. Unfortunately it looks like someone didn't realize Apple were intending to patent right rounded parallelograms.

Never gonna happen

"Both parties can appeal this. Apple are almost certain to do so."

Technically that's true but we are dealing with Justice Richard Posner who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals in the 7th Circuit. That leaves exactly one court they can appeal to, namely the Supremes. Somehow, considering Posner's weighty reputation as a legal scholar, I think if either company went to the U.S. Supreme Court with this people in Hawaii would hear all nine Justices laughing in D.C. Besides, even if, by some miracle, the Supremes agreed to hear the case by the time it came up for trial it would be about the iPhone 45S and the patents would have expired anyway.

Re: And on, and on, and on.

The Grid Compass, introduced in 1982 was a "clamshell" portable computer that went up on Discovery in 1985. The Mac Portable was introduced in 1989 so not only was it not the first "flip top" there were laptops in space before Apple spit up a clam.

Re: Competitive advantage?

We only know that China hosted the email addresses. It wouldn't be hard for one Peru based company to have conjured the worm to intercept the work of another Peru based company and then relay the data through the Chinese email host in an attempt to kill the e-trail.

Beast? Rules? Because Europe has historically been such a paragon of virtue? Please do look at Africa and notice most of the mess was left behind when colonies became to much work and the imperial masters walked away. Now wonder why they welcome the Chinese who promise to help. Granted it's just another form of exploitation but at least the Chinese are using a carrot and not a stick to get what they want. And before my fellow Americans get too haughty, do I need to make a list of set-em-up-knock-em-down tin pot dictators like Noriega and Saddam?

Wait! There's more!!

It does get comical after a while doesn't it?

TV salesman: "Buy now and you'll get 3D, VHD, and supermongoHD cubed! But that's not all! What if I throw in more subpixel colours? That's right our new SuperTV Megaprime now has 256 different colour sub pixels! Now how much would you pay?"

Me: "Umm, about $10 or $12 per diagonal inch."

@Yet Another Anonymous coward

Actually in most places there is a requirement for reports and investigations when bullet holes start appearing in people. Hospitals and doctors are required by law to report any gun shot wound and I would assume police are required to investigate regardless of whether this git filed a complaint. Let's be honest, someone says "I got shot and he went that way (pointing with the other arm)" and the po po are supposed to shrug it off if he says "Just sayin', I'm not complaining".

The least he should be charged with is whatever local reckless or negligence statute the state has and I hope he gets a big fat bill for any medical or emergency attention he received since it was clearly an elective procedure.

Re: Hmm

It won't change much. Taylor strikes me as guy who is well on his way to becoming a serial entrepreneur. Don't forget he left the GOOG shortly after their IPO, surely with a reasonable pile of cash, and started that FriendFeed thing which sold to FB and he came along for the ride. Naturally with the FB IPO he wants to spin off with a second pile of cash and start something else like FoneFeed or some such which will have its own IPO or will be sold and he gets another cash pile to repeat the cycle.

This is the kind of guy I can respect. Planting the seeds of a company, employ a bunch of people, nurture it as far as he can and when he reaches his limit of ability sets it in more capable hands. The beauty is that each time he does it he pushes his limit a bit further so the companies he starts have a better chance of survival each time and maybe one day the most capable hands will be his.

"If the FCC wanted to make a rational decision..."

But it isn't about what they wanted. This is government so in addition to being a compromise that makes everyone unhappy, we shouldn't forget the palm grease lubricating the entire government decision making process which eliminates any chance of rationality.

@daveeff

"I went from DOS to WfW (3.11) to 98 to NT, to XP, to 7"

You could have saved yourself a bit of time by jumping straight from 3.11 to NT. The only complaint that sticks with me about NT4 was its separation anxiety when the network went down.

Re: Why has video not taken up it's mantle?

"I've seen plenty of articles suggesting that telcos are worried about becoming simply commodity players... Well, if they got their act together and actually started moving towards integrating the video into the network like this, without the need for apps or other providers"

There's the rub, getting their act together would require creating a standard that works with their competitors and that only comes when differentiability and lock-in are placed on the sacrificial altar and that's one more step along the road to commodity bit pipe provider.

Even if they did manage to find the holy grail of common protocols and lock-in I don't think the uptake would be that high anyway given how and where phones are used. Generally it's bad enough when I call someone only to hear flushing, etc. in the background and know they are in the bog, with video calls being on the same line I can only pray they use the audio only button to answer it. Then again, it would bring new meaning to the phrase "fat fingered the phone".

Re: sticking pin

I had the same thought since the spring pressure acting on it might make the frictional forces exceed the pull developed by the chute at altitude. I was thinking something that utilized a mechanical advantage so the pin doesn't need to hold the whole spring load like an old school railway knuckle coupler.

@Simon2

"Do you have a URL?"

Sure, here you go; http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all.html

Just so you know, here's a quote from the FAQ:

"Releases will be maintained for approximately one year, with point releases containing security updates coinciding with regular Firefox releases. The ESR will also have a two cycle (12 week) overlap between the time of a new release and the end-of-life of the previous release to permit testing and certification prior to deploying a new version."

Translation: To us, one year is a long time so the current Expected Stable Release is 10.0.4 and 10.0.x is scheduled to die at 10.0.8 which should overlap the second ESR of the next series which should be 17.0.1.

Re: "the navigation is streamlined and intuitive..."

I think he is saying the final release will have a pair of silky tapered orbs which are controlled by a matched set of nipples. Meh, it couldn't be worse than having Metro on your workstation and IMHO a much better replacement for Aero eye candy.

Re: I have a serious question:

There is a problem with taking ads and it means that people may see articles as being less objective. It could also create a potentially legal situation where an advertiser may feel tempted to rescind funding if a page appears that is less than flattering by, lets say, implying the advertiser is a baby eating, syphilitic, gonorrhea ridden, necrophiliac bitch; perhaps even by using stronger and less kind verbiage.

@Charles 9

"Wealth isn't really CREATED--it's FOUND. Like petroleum. Its wealth value was always there, but someone had to locate it underground first and then figure out how to refine it into useable fuel before its value can be tapped. People invest in new technologies in exchange for a share of this value should it work out."

So we agree that petroleum is a commodity, good, it's a start. I won't say the "Mona Lisa", "Venus de Milo" or "Statue of David" wasn't always there and just needed to be found by the artist because it's really immaterial to the discussion. The problem is that you're not even recognizing a rather large sector of the economy, services. In service sectors absolutely nothing is found as it is based on the utility people derive from the services, in either free time, a particular expertise, a pleasant atmosphere or whatever else. Perhaps it's having someone tend to the lawn or a night out at a restaurant on Mother's Day. I see how it gets confusing but once you figure out quickie take out food joints first sell convenience and the food is only for differentiation, it becomes a little clearer.

Case in point, one of the wealthiest people I know is a school chum who was waiter for 20+ years but he didn't "find" a plate of food and decide to sell it for $37.50. He just provided a level of service that was beyond the expectations of nearly everyone and retired in '07 at 39 years old, bought a boat big enough to live on and moved to Belize. He didn't find anything, he made it.