3G and under require CDMA radios for CDMA carriers. They have to be provisioned on the carriers network to work properly or they simply won't connect except for emergency calls. 4G and LTE variants all require SIM cards on all networks. T-Mo and AT&T are the only carriers (major anyway) that use SIM cards for GPRS,EDGE,3G, and 4G. I'm not sure if the new iPads support anything less than 4G though. I know Samsung has stopped supporting anything less than 3G on a few of their tablets (Note 10.1 2014 for example).

http://www.lawmart.com/forms/d...

You can also find a shorter version on the USPTO website.

If you attempt to copyright a trademark, your copyright will be denied. The reverse is true as well. Copyright a slogan and you won't be able to trademark it. Disney filed for a copyright for the mouse in Steamboat Willie (when they copyrighted the work itself), but trademarked the character's name "Mickey Mouse." Recent trademarks have gone back and trademarked the character's likeness since they're used for branding. Some examples come from Disney themselves when they successfully sued Dan O'Neill for copyright infringement for using Mickey Mouse character in a parody. You can see another example by searching the USPTO for "Mickey Mouse" and you'll notice the only image of the mouse is in a logo that's expired; however, you can find several active trademarks for just the name "Mickey Mouse."

So yes, they are mutually exclusive. One is protection for a creative work, the other your brand. Disney's copyrights to Steamboat Willie and several other works will enter public domain to be sold, remixed, edited, etc. However, no one will ever be able to say they're selling "Mickey Mouse" branded t-shirts without Disney's consent. Now, you can bet that Disney will attempt to block selling of the famous cartoon since they're using it as a mark (you can find it often on recent Disney movies). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

IP law doesn't work that way. You can either patent, copyright, or trademark. It's mutually exclusive. Once the copyright expires, they're done for and is the reason why they extended the copyright terms in the first place. Trademarks don't have expiration dates as long as the company is using the mark and continues to pay the registration fees (that also go on for eternity).

Maybe they'll get some retail room for US carriers too. Doesn't matter what country you pick you're going to be spied on, might as well get the devices on the cheap while your privacy is being invaded.

ERP

The current ERP system works for 90% of our operations, so it's an investment that's paying off. The management of the data isn't the meat and potatoes of the data that fit the ERP. This includes metadata not necessary associated with orders/invoice/shipping/AP, process queues, and workflow management. Actually, the cloud tools I was referring to would allow us to re-use our empty data centers with a private/public cloud hybrid. These aren't buzzwords that I've learned but tools I've actually implemented and used. The buzzwords just make it easier for people to disseminate what I'm trying to say without having a summary a mile long. Finally, I don't report to the CIO, I report to the accountants that have to pay. One of the things that make my role unique is that I can speak tech (to a certain degree) and finance (my actual career).

Thanks for the advice.

1) This isn't about getting my way, this is about evaluating and presenting the best solutions.
2) Working in HVAC is no different than any other company. An income statement is the same at every company.
3) Which is why I'm evaluating all of the alternatives.
4) No, speaking about the data center room helps answer the question before it's asked: "Do you have the capacity to support these apps (servers, redundant power, load balancing, etc.)." It also keeps the conversations on-topic (see the acronym complaint above).
5) I know where our pain points are, I'm speaking about concepts and technological approaches.
6) I'm being paid to evaluate these options, so...yes.

We already have OBIEE that we're training people to use. By managing data, I'm referring to work queues, metadata, and workflow functions.

Thanks for the advice but this is more lower level than what's needed right now. Effectively, the shared library becomes the applications' API instead of directly with the ERP system. Same result but too technical for the people my recommendations are going to.

I was reading a Dilbert comic when writing the post.

We already have a data warehouse and BI tools that I'm slowly training people to use and is where I'm finding these home-grown applications.

You've hit the nail on the head. These spreadsheets are being used to manage the data that ultimately ends up back in the ERP. It's like human ETLs once you think about it. Thanks for your suggestions.

Unfortunately, we're not considering going to an ERP, we're already there; designed it, deployed it, now final tweaking it.

ERP overall strategy. For most of our business, the ERP strategy has worked and processes were changed to match those best practices; however, some processes can't be changed due to customer/partner reluctance, prior contract support, or simply the ERP not fitting (workbenches come to mind here).

Thanks for the feedback.

Going to /. will give me a wide range of answers from experienced IT professionals and code monkeys just starting their career. When you're looking to brainstorm, it's good to get like minded people together that cross generations. I can get new ideas from the youth and hand swatting from the old that can tell the youth their idea will fail because they attempted it x number of years ago with the result of Y. That actual synergy you get will be lost once a ton of baby boomers retire and the youth start re-inventing wheels, something I fear for my generation.

Thanks for your feedback.