I don't think that's really the the point. The patent system isn't about making inventors money, its about providing them a monetary incentive for invention. As long as the potential for profit is there to be chased it doesn't really matter who gets it (within reason of course).

Yes, that's exactly what it is.

In such a case, it would probably be reasonable, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still the obstruction of ones speech by another, whether you agree with the speaker has nothing to do with it.

True, but it only takes one leak. The speed at which sought-after information propagates between sub-networks is astounding.

Do you have a reliable source for that?

Last year our neighbors cat had kittens, one of which my family ended up with. When we got her, she wasn't old enough to stand. Even with a bowl of food always available in the corner, and canned food from time to time, she kills mice on a regular basis.

Granted, this is idle, but the sensationalist headlines are getting old.

Caus, you know, making oil from slaughter by-products is pretty much the same as "burning cattle for heat"

In case I'm not the only one who immediately wondered what the latency on their display was.

DigitalVersus Monitor Duels

Switch to one of the telecoms many competi... oh wait

The cracked version im running still works fine as of this morning.

Is it just me, or are we beginning to lose our perspective amidst all this wanton regulation.

How long will it be before we're arguing that the sharp corners on our muzzle,loaded florescent orange painted, foam-projectile only, civilian class "firearms" are essential to defending our freedom, and that the government has no right to demand that they be covered in padding.

I can see the counter-comments now...
How would you feel if your child was bludgeoned to death with one of these murder-tools, knowing it would have been prevented if we'd been proactive enough to regulate the ownership of hard, blunt objects. You can't put a price on safety, I won't have my kids growing up in a world where some wacko can just walk into a store and buy a hard blunt object with no background check, then go and beat an auditorium full of children to death.

Am I the only one that immediately thought of the bio-etheric laser from the spirits within?

Isn't it obvious? To act as a planetary booby-trap for the raptors who were once driven off of this planet. We can only assume that after escaping to the farthest reaches of space and developing a massive space fairing armada, they'd return every 20 million years or so to asses the habitability of their former world. When they return to find their world overrun with fleshy pink things, the fight will be vicious one. After our inevitable defeat, we'll lie in wait on the moon. Years will go by, but eventually, the raptors, satisfied that the world is theirs once again, will dismiss their fleet and and lower their guard. It's at this point that we'll unleash our trap, sterilizing the planet in a nuclear holocaust, so that centuries later, once the radiation has subsided and life returned, we might have earth for ourselves...
For another 20 million years.

You don't see this sort of thing in markets with real competition. Try to charge $100 on that bag of cheezie poofs, and the other guys will take your profits by charging $98 dollars a bag, you'll be forced to match them, and so on, until the prices are at the limits of profitability, and can't be lowered any further.

The bottom line is, software improvement is a one time cost, once its done, it's done.

Hardware solutions on the other hand, though cheaper outright, are reoccurring (you'll need keep upgrading that hardware as it becomes outdated) and scale up with demand (if you double your number of servers, you'll need to double this hardware as well)

This is why, except in cases were demand won't increase, or the extra hardware is unlikely to become outdated, software solutions tend to be the more economical choice.

Drive around to a couple of thrift stores or garage sales and pick up a couple interesting appliances he can take apart, give the boy a box of nuts and bolts and some tools and let him go to town.

YMMV, but when I was that age, returning home to find a new appliance on my workbench was like a tiny Christmas.