frezik
Joined 13 years ago
Karma
86
Submissions
43
Member since
Sep 11
Recent submissions
Comment · 12 years ago
Doesn't matter. If you're the first one to get a patent, it's all yours. There's no provision in the law for independent invention.
Comment · 12 years ago
Glad I wasn't the only one who picked up on that. Usually I'd go with incompetence due to Hanlon's Razor, but given this is coming from a lawyer from a huge corporation, I'd say it's deliberate.
Comment · 12 years ago
Patents are public documents. The intent of the system is that you have a monopoly on something for a set time, but after that, anybody can make it based on those documents alone.
So it doesn't matter if it's in the iPhone or not; it's still patent infringement.
Comment · 12 years ago
You might want to embed this inside a larger language. That wouldn't necessarily preclude using a Turing Complete language, but you wouldn't want it to be a complicated one.
Comment · 12 years ago
Not really. Even RMS only mentions the distinction in passing. The fight has simply gone out of this one for everyone who isn't ESR, probably because the late 90s was the last time he was relevant.
Comment · 12 years ago
But a lot of them use GCC, too. Atmel, for example.
Comment · 12 years ago
Seems like ESR is still fighting the Open Source vs Free Software battle of the late 90s. It hasn't dawned on him yet that everyone else thinks that there's little purpose in cannibalizing the movement over minor philosophical differences.
Comment · 13 years ago
The OP probably needed to clarify. English having a simple alphabet gave the US a leg up on personal computing compared to the KJC countries. It's only one contributing factor, though.
Comment · 13 years ago
This story has played out before. Last time, it was Object Oriented databases. What happens each time is that the traditional RDBMS's pick up a few of the features, and then we keep using them until the next contender comes along.
Comment · 13 years ago
There's nothing to contradict it, either; not all the plot points have to be served up on a nice dinner plate. If it fits nicer than the matrix-within-a-matrix theories, then might as well go with that.
Comment · 13 years ago
If he actually has telekinetic powers, this scene doesn't make sense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYawJGlEh3k
His powers don't work on the flesh-and-blood Bane/Smith. He can't swipe the knife away from Trinity's neck at a distance. He can't easily beat Bane/Smith in a fistfight. The best he gets is to see Smith's machine form after being blinded.
All of his powers shown in the real world are against machines, never flesh-and-blood humans.
Comment · 13 years ago
I think what he was actually getting at is the Discount Window. These are often very short term loans, perhaps a matter of minutes, made to cover a short term liquidity drop. If you add it all up over a year, it could very well add up to several trillions without adding those trillions to the GDP.
It all gets paid back with interest, though. None of this is anything new.
Comment · 13 years ago
Neo only uses his powers against machines, shutting down the sentinels at the end of Reloaded, blowing stuff up on the way into the Machine City, and in being able to see Smith's alter-ego in the real world. None of that is incompatible with having a wireless transceiver in his brain.
Comment · 13 years ago
US GDP in 2012 was $15.68 trillion. You're saying the US government gave away more than a year's worth of productive output? You'll excuse me if I say citation fucking needed.
Comment · 13 years ago
I never liked that particular interpretation. It was too obvious and had been done better elsewhere.
I preferred an alternative explanation, where The One actually comes in two parts, a program in the matrix, and a human in the real world with a direct neuro link to that program. Neo's powers are expressed in the real world because he still has a direct link to the machines.
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/movie/essays/understanding-th...
I liked the sequels a lot better once I read that. They're still not genius cinema, but they're better.