Here's the transcript from the launchpad.

Robot #2: "Uh oh, he froze up again."
Robot #3: "Try control, alt, delete!"
Robot #4: "Jiggle the cord!"
Robot #5: "Turn him off and on!"
Robot #6: "Clean the gunk out of the mouse!"
Fry: "Call technical support!"
Robot #2: "Ok, ok, he's back online."

Two cases like that actually. First is Midway Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc. and the second is Williams Electronics, Inc. v. Artic International, Inc., 685 F.2d 870 (3d Cir. 1982). Artic was selling Defender like ROMs with extremely similar code (we're talking pixels here) on them so others could make bootleg copies. Their argument was that the code or presentation was not copyrightable. The visible element or attract screen, Artic said, was not "fixed." The court, in both cases, held that it was fixed because the code was in the chips from which it can be perceived using the other game components.

Those cases, at least Williams, is still taught in law school today.

Gary Johnson is likely to be the Libertarian candidate this year. I can't say if he meets your criteria or not so here's the address:
http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/issues

I'm not sure he gets what net neutrality really is, but he's old. So, you know how that is.

Turns out I was wrong. I made myself sad. Here's the technology that might actually transform space flight.

http://www.adastrarocket.com/aarc/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_Specific_Impulse_Magnetoplasma_Rocket

The guy who invented it is an ex-Astronaut and VASIMR (or its tech underpinnings) was his PhD thesis at MIT for Applied Plasma Physics. I guess what I'm saying is he isn't a crank.

Probably. I left in 2006, but at that time there was talk a microwave was going to be installed. I don't know if they did or not.

Then I would've had to carry it around with me everywhere. Anything other than your A-3 bags (life support stuff in case you were shot down or went to a different environment) you had to carry with you. There was a chance you wouldn't be coming back to that location so we had to carry all our stuff with us every time we flew. Bringing a microwave sounds like a good idea (as does bringing an inflatable mattress) until you have to drag it around.

Why would the pilots be wearing flight gloves all the time? I don't remember seeing any of them wear their gloves much at all. The buttons and dials are so small a glove wouldn't be wise to use. I know I took mine off when I did the flight deck pre-flight.

It wasn't a Toughbook. It was some super expensive one-of-a-kind piece-of-shit whiz bang crappy touch screen. It only had one job, fill in Form F, and was super slow and annoying. Almost as annoying as the thermal printer. Hopefully this iPad stuff works out and they replace that monster with an iPad for the load station.

The C-17 has plenty of standard outlets on-board. There are two at the Load station and outlets every couple of feet above the sidewall seats. Plenty of outlets to be had.

I know, because I was a C-17 Load.

You know what it didn't have? A fucking microwave. Had a convection oven but no microwave.

Dr. Spengler: I'm worried, Arlet. It's getting crowded in there and all my data points point to something big on the horizon.

Winston: What do you mean, big?

Dr. Spengler: Well, let's say this hot dog represents the normal amount of pork for NASA. Based on this morning's test, it would be a hot dog. . . thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds.

Winston: That's a big hot dog.

I don't know how law works in Australia, so take this as an answer to your question that is applicable in the US but maybe not AUS. First, there is no "innocent until proven guilty" well anywhere except TV and armchair attorneys. It's "burden of going forward" and "burden of persuasion." But it's irrelevant here anyway. There is no "guilty" in civil court. It's liable not liable. Second, an injunction is not relief. An injunction is merely to maintain the status quo to prevent any irreparable harm while the court sorts out the case. Here, if Samsung could sell the tablet then what's the point of the case? If it gets released then even if an infringement ruling came down the damage is already done. You can't take back the Tabs. So the judge granted the injunction (which is not indicative of future rulings) to keep the status quo which was no Galaxy Tab in AUS.

HTH.

It doesn't apply to "cases which aren't frivolous?" Awesome, who decides what's frivolous and what's not? I thought I knew frivolous cases from reading newspapers. Then I went to law school and actually read the cases. Give me an example of what you consider a frivolous case.

And court fees are always the domain of the court. I do 8th amendment/1983 actions which allow fee shifting but doesn't require it. What you really want is universal fee shifting. And that's OK, my Advanced Civil Procedure Professor wanted it as well. I just disagreed with the results of such a measure. The UK does have it if you want to see it in practice.

Here's my professor's Amazon page for his books:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Robert%20Hardaway
No, he couldn't remember anyone's name, but he knows everything about law. Even if he's wrong about universal fee shifting.

The court can always charge a side with legal fees if the lawsuit is without merit. What you actually want is universal fee shifting. Sounds great until you consider every company will pay their attorneys 1,000 dollars an hour. No suits will be brought.

As an attorney I think you're on to something and should push this as hard as possible. However, be aware that your idea give companies even greater power. Right now it's everyone pays their own fees with fee shifting in certain statutory situations and meritless cases. But if you had your way I could work 100 hours a year and make 100,000 dollars since companies would just use my fee as a intimidation tactic. Fine with me, but bad for you.

I guess if you don't care I don't.

The ruling would constitute persuasive authority in other circuits not precedent. I'm in the 10th circuit, so if I had a case like this I would say something along the lines of "Although this issue is one of first impression in the 10th Circuit, the 1st Circuit recently examined this very issue. In CASE X it was held that . . .." It just tells the court that this circuit hasn't seen the issue, yet, and the other circuit[s] that have held a certain way. It doesn't mean they have to follow it.

The problem is that an inalienable is not non waiverable. You can waive your 4th Amendment right but you still have the option to revoke that waiver. The issue with disallowing a waiver of 4th Amendment rights is that you'd need an attorney and the court system for everything. It's also a personal freedom issue. Shouldn't a rationale American citizen be allowed to waiver their rights if they want to? I don't know. It's a balance of virtues issue. On one hand the restriction such a rule would place on government authority would be huge, but then the additional legal requirements could backfire on the gains.

You can't consent to an unreasonable search now. That's where I think a lot of people go wrong. They really just want TSA searches to be unreasonable and therefore illegal. Except, unreasonable is a legal term of art that uses an objective standard. To claim it's an unreasonable search you'd have to differentiate it from DUI checkpoints. A checkpoint must not be roving, and cannot be for general law enforcement. TSA checkpoints don't move and they are searching for impermissible items not for general law enforcement. DUI checkpoints are constitutional so you'd have to prove to the court why the two differ. That goes back to the fundamental right argument. Driving is not a fundamental right so if air travel was the two checkpoints would be different and DUI checkpoint constitutionality couldn't be used to shield TSA checkpoints. Without the fundamental right status then TSA searches are as reasonable as DUI checkpoint searches or parole officer searches or police searches. So with TSA you are consenting to a reasonable search not an unreasonable one.

And thank you for being civil. I'm more interested in the workings of law than I am TSA specifically. It's like being a coder that reverse engineers software because they want to see how it works. I like being called a "dictatorship apologist" as much as a coder likes being called "hacker," "cracker," or "thief" by software companies just because you want to understand how something works.