And this makes the case all the more intriguing. As the court pointed out, the feature in question (Quick Search Box) is a part of Android, not something provided specifically by Samsung, and it has existed for several years longer than this particular phone.

Which is exactly what the court said, wondering "...whether the patentee seeks to leverage its patent for competitive gain beyond that which the inventive contribution and value of the patent warrant."

Perhaps more interesting was the court's commentary on Apple's practice of using the courts to completely block competitors from the market, saying that it is necessary to determine if the claims of harm are relevant or "...whether the patentee seeks to leverage its patent for competitive gain beyond that which the inventive contribution and value of the patent warrant." In other words, you may still be entitled to damages but you are not allowed to use one minor feature to completely eliminate your competition.

One of the big reasons for tilapia's popularity is that they thrive on completely vegetarian diets. They do not require fishmeal and have very little risk of heavy metal build-ups. However, this does not mean that dumping fresh pig shit in the pond is the appropriate next step. There's a reasonable middle ground where the fish are fed actual plant-based foods.

I agree completely. However, it is worth consideration that pigs regularly excrete salmonella and it can live without a host for days or weeks, which means the fish will be living in a salmonella bath. I have no faith in the cleanliness of US processing facilities so I am certain that the Chinese ones will be less than sterile. Salmonella isn't killed by freezing so it is likely that these frozen fillets will show up in our food chain coated in salmonella.

I am neither a bacteriologist nor an ichthyologist. However, it is my understanding that tilapia is so popular for food for a few reasons - they grow rapidly, tolerate heavy stocking, tolerate less-than-perfect water conditions, and will thrive on purely vegetarian diets. This last point is important because it makes them cheaper to grow and less likely to have heavy metal contamination. They're popular with consumers because the commonly used hybrids have a pleasing white flesh, nice size fillets, a very mild flavor, and low costs. They are sometimes raised in polycultures where the tilapia clean up the messes and the other species help keep the tilapia population in check but that is not the common scenario for commercial fish farming.

I am doubtful that salmonella in the water will actually contaminate the fish living there. However, I imagine the fish themselves will be covered with infected water that then gets on the fillets in their less-than-sterile processing environment. Freezing doesn't kill salmonella. So, yes, a frozen tilapia fillet could be coated in salmonella-laden ice that then gets spread around the kitchen or directly into your gut if the fish isn't sufficiently cooked (at least 10 or 15 minutes at 140 F).

I suggest a donkey

The need to test that stuff isn't so big when you use it every day. AT&T has rooms with a thousand or so batteries in each. All power, whether grid or generator passes through line sensing and smoothing equipment and the batteries before it hits the raised floor.

Around here all the power lines are on poles except for shopping centers and new residential subdivisions. Regardless, our data center was recently out of power for several days due to a large storm that knocked out power to a few million customers on the east cost of the US. Our natural gas generator kept things running like a champ.

My in-laws just installed a 20kW Generac that likewise automatically cycles itself every week.

On a related note, I just visited an AT&T international data center a few weeks ago and their backup systems are pretty phenomenal. They opt for once a month, instead of once a week, to exercise their generators. And when they do, it is a full test with no grid power. However, they rarely have to schedule a monthly test because they usually end up dropping off the grid at least once a month at the request or recommendation of the local electric utility.

Yes and no. Natural gas lines rely on compressor stations to maintain the pressure. Some of these actually run on natural gas themselves but others are powered by alternate fuels. Also, depending on the condition of the line and weather during a power outage, a freeze-off due to accumulated water is a real possibility. But, your core point is correct - natural gas service is mostly dependable regardless of grid power and a good backup option.

Replying to myself to clarify something I just confirmed. Amazon's policies are very clear on this and they do make exceptions for public domain works that bring some additional value:

While I'm sure there are exceptions, many of the various editions are something other than a simple reprinting of the public domain materials. Just looking at Frankenstein, you see editions tailored for all sorts of uses. There are study editions that include definitions of words and other commentary. There are simplified versions for younger readers. There are illustrated ones and another that went to Shelley's notes and manuscripts to retell the story as they believe she originally intended. Regardless, I'm sure you're correct (and I said as much in my initial response) that there probably are unnecessary junk versions of the public domain stuff. If Amazon cares about their ecosystem, as they should, this crap should get trimmed away from the active store eventually. That some junk got in before doesn't make it wrong to clamp down on new junk.

That said, the Amazon response is a bit curious given that the free public domain books include this disclaimer right on the Amazon page: "This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web."

Yes, I've "bought" all of those books on Kindle. Of course, you failed to mention that they are available for $0.00. (Frankenstein, Alice in Wonderland) To be fair, I would wager you can find non-free versions of these from others but Amazon must be exercising some control or there would thousands of versions of these public domain books in the store. The real issue is not the fact that it can be gotten for free elsewhere - the problem is that Dusty is not obviously the author or copyright owner of the material. Perhaps this case is perfectly innocent and there is no problem with him publishing the material under his name, but if Amazon cares about the quality of their marketplace, they ought to be careful about letting any random person scrape a community-created document from the internet and publish it as an ebook.

This thread actually brings up another point that I've wondered about recently. With the recent reports of ebook sells now outstripping printed books, I have to imagine that the huge number of free ebooks contribute significantly to these "sales" numbers. If I download a free book from Amazon, it is treated like a purchased item. Google does the same on their Play store. I've purchased about 40 Kindle books and spent less than $10.00 because most were free. I would love to see the ebook vs printed book numbers if you exclude all the free ebooks.

I was in the DC metro area recently and took a screenshot of a speedtest because I couldn't believe it. A Samsung SIII on AT&T registered 45M down. Unfortunately, we can't touch that at home because there is no AT&T LTE coverage anywhere in our state.