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Comment Re:required car analogy (Score 4, Insightful) 72

Your analogy really isn't that far off, however, I think it all comes down to the invention in question.

In your example, I think the inventive step is how your car figures out how you're close to it, but does so in a way that is effective with one half of the system required to be low power (the keyfob), and is accurate enough that it doesn't unlock while you're not present, as well as determining that you want it to be unlocked, and you're just not walking around with your keys inside your house (which could trigger it, based on how close you are). A workable, comprehensive, and accurate solution to this could be fairly non-trival.

On the other hand, you're comparing it to the 1-click patent. Now, I think that the one-click is an excellent example of patenting it based on 'while no one has done it before, so it must be inventive'. Remember, when this patent was filed, e-commerce was still relatively new. Businesses were still trying to convince everyone that it was safe to use the internet to buy things. As such, the shopping cart analogues were the most popular.

As part of a shopping cart system, assuming they have some sort of login (which was popular then, and is still quite popular even now), they will have information about the customer. If that customer has purchased from you before, they could even have all of the financial information necessary to place an order. At the time, however, most businesses didn't keep full credit card information on file after a transaction had completed, if for no other reason to avoid potential liability if that information was compromised. But they COULD have easily done so (as the customer had to enter it the previous time they placed an order).

So Amazon's 'inventive' step was to say, hey, we should ask the customer if we can save this information, and then use it next time they order so we don't have to ask again. So their inventive step was storing the financial and address information in a database, and looking it up later. While it hadn't been done before, there wasn't a technical reason, but a social reason. To many technologists, the inventive step seems to be very weak, and shouldn't have passed the muster of 'non-obvious'.

So, your analogy isn't really flawed. Just your choice of the invention is a bit stronger. A slightly closer analogy would be basing opening your door by passing an RFID-enabled keyfob over a sensor which is part of the doorframe. Its range would be only a few inches from the door. Now, that would be closer to the 1-click, as I have such a system where I work where the RFID is embedded in my work ID. As RFID enabled door locks already exist, I would hope it would be difficult to get a patent on an RFID enabled car door lock.

Comment Re:Mandated (Score 5, Informative) 1246

I suggest you read the arrest report in its entirety. Basically the officer waited till after class to ask her if she had a phone. After she said no, the officer confirmed with the teacher and two other students who had seen her with the phone. After being confronted with this, she STILL denied it. So the officer arrested her for disorderly conduct for her disrupting class and lying to him.

She then proceeded to lie to the officer regarding the phone number that could be used to contact her parents. After eventually getting in contact (presumably by requesting the information from the school records), her mother was contacted and informed that her daughter would be searched. At that point, the female officer (who had been sent) proceeded to perform the search. Where the phone which belonged to her father was found.

This is not the case of an officer immediately arresting her because she was texting. It was an officer who arrested her after he confirmed that several people had seen her texting despite being asked not to. He even stated that her arrest was partially due to her continued lying.

Comment Re:Laaaawwwsuuuuit (Score 1) 1246

Except the article simply states that the teacher asked her to stop, then she was questioned by the safety officer (see excerpt below). There could have been time between the request to stop texting and the questioning. In fact, as they referred to the safety officer and 'a female cop' separately, there could have been additional time between the request to turn over the phone and the frisking.

That time allows for events such as asking her to leave the room, asking her to hand over the phone, and any response from her to have occurred. Those separate events could have merited both the search and the charge. This story just gives me a vibe that we're not getting the whole story.

The teenager was busted last Wednesday at Wauwatosa East High School after she ignored a teacher's demand that she cease texting. The girl, whose name we have redacted from the below Wauwatosa Police Department report, initially denied having a phone when confronted by a school security officer.

Comment Re:What else can you do? (Score 1) 1246

I think the point as made by other posters:

We weren't there, and the report seems a bit thin. While it's entirely possible nothing happened, it's just as likely that the student got either violent or extraordinarily disruptive when she was told to hand over her cell phone. Either one of those could merit a charge of disorderly conduct.

Comment Re:Laaaawwwsuuuuit (Score 1) 1246

Except that their teacher did see her texting, and did ask her to stop, and did presumably summon the safety officer. So it's really a stretch to say that the cop just randomly 'searched' her.

Plus, I'm curious to see if there was a bit more to this story that we're not hearing. I can reasonably see the following happening:

Student refuses to hand over phone.
She's then told she will be searched.
She then starts screaming and yelling that she refuses to cooperate with the request.

That last part can be construed as disorderly conduct. You can refuse to cooperate, but doing it a loud and disruptive manner in a public place can be considered disorderly conduct (just like ANY loud and disruptive actions you take in a public place).
Games

EVE Devs Dissect, Explain Massive Economic Exploit 139

In December we discussed news that a major exploit in EVE Online had just been widely discovered after being abused by a few players for up to four years, creating thousands of real-life dollars worth of unearned in-game currency. Representatives from CCP Games assured players that the matter would be investigated and dealt with; a familiar line in such situations for other multiplayer games, and often the final official word on the matter. Yesterday, CCP completed their investigation and posted an incredibly detailed account of how the exploit worked, what they did to fix it, how it affected the game's economy, and what happened to the players who abused it. Their report ranges from descriptions of the involved algorithms to graphs of the related economic markets to theatrically swooping through the game universe nuking the malfunctioning structures. It's quite comprehensible to non-EVE-players, and Massively has summarized the report nicely. It's an excellent example of transparency and openness in dealing with a situation most companies would be anxious to sweep under the rug.
PC Games (Games)

Square Enix Announces Supreme Commander 2 70

arcticstoat writes "Supreme Commander 2 has now been officially announced, but with a surprise publishing partner on board — Square Enix. Gas Powered Games' original RTS game and its expansion pack, Forged Alliance, were published by THQ, who is no stranger to the RTS genre, but Square Enix has previously specialized in Japanese RPGs such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Explaining the move, Square Enix said in a statement that it 'has previously worked exclusively with Japanese development companies, so the decision to form strategic partnerships with developers located outside of Japan serves as a new cornerstone of its strategy to create games targeted primarily at consumers in Europe and North America. Additionally, Square Enix Group's foray into the real-time strategy genre is a significant expansion of its product lineup.'"
Intel

Submission + - AMD Promotes Intel-based computer

An anonymous reader writes: AMD is promoting an Intel-based PC as the "Best Gaming PC" of 2006. Specs include an Intel-based motherboard and Core 2 Duo X6800 2.93GHz. From AMD's site: "This gaming PC achieves benchmark and performance standards above and beyond anything thought possible by the average gamer. Featuring two HyperClocked (TM) Radeon® X 1900 XTX graphic cards, Overdrive PC(TM) provides one of the fastest solutions in the industry."
Toys

Submission + - Gadgets from the future

prostoalex writes: "Fortune magazine editor traveled to Japan to discover the next year's technology. The "gadgets from the future" include ultra-portable Sony VAIO UX90P, ZPN/Kenwood MIURO iPod dock, Mikimoto Beans iTheatre personal iPod theater, Sharp Vodafone 905SH mobile phone with 2.6" screen for watching videos, Nintendo Wii controller and Hitachi WOOO Blu-ray digital camcorder."
Microsoft

Submission + - Is the Microsoft/Novell Deal a Litigation Bomb

mpapet writes: According to WINE developer Tom Wickline, the Microsoft/Novell deal for Suse support controls commercial customers use of Free Software. Is this the end of commercial OSS developers who are not a part of the Microsoft/Suse pact? More details at the reg.
Patents

Submission + - Ballmer Invites Patent Talks with Competing Linux

orlinius writes: "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company is open to talking to other Linux distributors about reaching mutual patent coverage deals similar to the agreement signed Nov. 2 with Novell. Such talks would be a good idea, Ballmer suggested, since now only Novell's SUSE Linux customers are the only Linux vendors that have any assurance that Microsoft won't sue for patent infringement. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2050848,00.as p?kc=EWEWEMNL103006EP17A"

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