These systems are going to be optimized for detecting license-platey text, and only if such text is found, doing anything further to look for violations of any sort. Asking them to know when they're looking at something that's supposed to have a license plate on it but doesn't is completely different problem. It's a completely different class of problem, one that hasn't been solved yet.

So, no, these systems won't flag when they're looking at something that doesn't have a recognizable license plate on it, like a trash can, a person, a dog... or a car with a plate that's been removed or covered in some way so it doesn't look like a plate any more.

The Law of Unintended Consequences will probably come into play here. As camera systems - especially ones mounted on cop cars - get better at reading license plates, law enforcement officers will probably come to rely on them more. I.e. they'll pay less attention to your plates. So one conclusion that might be draw from this is that if you hide/obfuscate your plates, you're more likely to get away with it.

/me grabs a handful of mud and slings it at his plates to hide the expired registration tags.

From the article: producing a supercharged electron beam that can burn through 20 feet of steel per second"

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/18/navy-breaks-world-record-futuristic-laser-getting-real/#ixzz1EPpwfpx0

I'm just stunned that the PTO's goal is to get a "first action" notice time down to within 10 months? WTF? Why isn't that goal "24 hours"?

There is clearly something fundamentally broken with the process. And that "something" is all the work required to gain patent status. What is needed is a process that doesn't require all this back-and-forth to get a patent but, rather, defers that work until there is a clear and obvious need for it to be done.

Instead of patenting ideas, why not just "register" them by filing a form that says, "So-and-so claims to have invented this-and-that on such-and-such date." This would reserve the right to pursue legal action against an infringer at some later date, but no further action is required or taken by the PTO. For example ...

- It's up to you to educate yourself on which patent ideas are defensable in a court room.
- PTO charges $100 to register your "idea". The fee is just to avoid massive spamming. You're notified immediately that it's been accepted.
- Once registered, your idea is protected for 14-20 years from the date of filing, just like today.
- If and when you ever choose to enforce your patent through legal means, you pay a "substantial" fee ($1,000? $10K? $100K?) to have the PTO provide a patent "determination". The determination pays for the PTO to evaluate the validity of your idea and provide a summary recommendation to the court as to how to proceed. In effect, the PTO acts as a "professional witness" in legal patent battles, and nothing more.
- Judgement of actual patent validity is made in the courtroom (where it's already made, in practice).

This process ...
- makes the patent system more approachable to your average lay-person.
- eliminates 99% of the workload that's currently burying the PTO
- lets the PTO focus on what they do best - analyzing patent quality - where and when those efforts are genuinly needed
- cuts the PTO action time from years down to essentially zero
- eliminates much of the abuse of patents (patent "registrations" are basically meaningless until you get into a court room).

I'm sure there are plenty of reasons for why we don't operate this way though, right? So what are they?

My $.02 worth.

You may not exercise any of the rights granted to You in Section 3 above in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation. The exchange of the Work for other copyrighted works by means of digital file-sharing or otherwise shall not be considered to be intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation, provided there is no payment of any monetary compensation in connection with the exchange of copyrighted works.

It's up for debate as to whether or not BoingBoing is receiving "monetary compensation" for "exchanging" your work. Yes, it's next to ads, which they're being paid to display. But they're not being paid to display your image. At least, not directly.

Microsoft said in an emailed statement that Google's acquisition of DocVerse acknowledges that customers want to use and collaborate with Office documents. "Furthermore, it reinforces that customers are embracing Microsoft's long-stated strategy of software plus services, which combines rich client software with cloud services."

Anyone else hearing the Titanic's dance band playing in the background?

When life gives you lemons ...

Here on slashdot? You make lemon porn of course!