fail is a great word. the parent's fail is missing the "!" in front of the tag word "irrelevant". i'm pretty sure that means "not" ... but what do i know, i'm just a programmer. : P

thanks i think ... but again i was aiming for something a little different. you got about 20% points for effort though :P my HOPE is that someday we won't have to wait on patent regulations for ideas to become publicly accessible and usable so that innovation can continue unhindered. i don't know the future, maybe that is in store for nano-whatever already ... however, based on many events in the past i kind of doubt it and so that is where my hopes lie. it's not about technology magically materializing. despite your sarcasm there is a hint of truth in your third definition: it doesn't matter what the subject is, someone will build it, for free, just might take a little longer than would a ridiculously funded R & D team. so to YOU it may seem magical ... to me it is unsurprising, maybe frustrating that it takes so long ... but it takes so long either way from my perspective. either we wait 50 years on a freebie solution ... or we wait 50 years for the patented-pay-out-your-ass solution to fall under public domain. so there. thank you "child" posters for making me see that i need to be much more clear in my initial posts or else i will be hounded after with, for the most part, unhelpful remarks. that's what i get for being a noob :P

hey there mister nasty ... i didn't say i'd rather not ... i just have a different definition of "win win" ... :: insert nasty name here ::

... and a win-win-win for whoever develops it first ... given the fact that whoever comes up with a practical solution first will probably patent it, i wonder if the general public's gain is in this situation is factoring in corporate greed ... i would MAYBE call this a "win-win" situation in 50 years or so!

this is no fault of technology! people are just really good at writing science fiction. the ideas are all very old, it just takes time to get to where fiction has been for decades.